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fujoshiwarrior · 5 months

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limbus company 1 am (edit: now 2 am) ramblings (massive spoilers abound for canto v)

these are just some quick sleep deprived thoughts, and my analysis could be better, but i feel like talking about it anyway

i saw a post in the main tag talking about why the op really disliked canto v, and i don't wanna get into an argument and i don't want to vague the op in a way that makes it seem like im attacking them because im not, i just wanna talk about why i disagree with them

i don't think canto v was perfect or the best canto but i thought it was absolutely incredible (yes i did cry during the final boss fight), and i agree that starbuck and queequeg deserved way more screentime and development than they got (i also think the adaptation of queequeg from moby dick to limbus was woefully clumsy, which might have have been remedied by more time with her, though i still love limbus!queequeg)

however, i wholeheartedly disagree on ahab as a villain. i thought she was amazing. even if she doesn't really have any shades of gray to her, i think the point is that a lot of horrible, evil, selfish people genuinely believe what they are doing and their behavior is right and justified. furthermore, she was completely and utterly steeped in delusion and obsession to the detriment of herself and every single person remotely in proximity to her.

i need to say first that i've never read moby dick unfortunately, so i can't comment too much on limbus!ahab vs book!ahab. what i do know is that just like in limbus, ahab's obsession leads to the demise of every single crew member with ishmael as the sole survivor. since i haven't read moby dick, i had to consult sparknotes for a profile of book!ahab, and it describes him as much of a victim as he is an aggressor---however, i'll touch on that in a bit.

what i want to bring attention to is that both book and limbus ahab are characterized by sheer hubris, pride, and a god/savior complex. i want to bring attention to another classical literature character who is characterized by hubris and who also spends the entire novel on a ship: victor frankenstein.

this comparison might seem like it's coming from left field, but i promise i have a point. also, while i don't think limbus!ahab was overtly inspired by victor frankenstein, considering how obsessed pm is with literature i think there is a very low chance that kjh or at least one of the writers haven't read frankenstein. see also the parallels between angela and the monster/ayin and frankenstein in lobotomy corporation and library of ruina (especially library of ruina, where there is a direct connection between angela and lucifer related imagery, who the monster is also associated with). frankenstein ends with victor, after telling his, encouraging the sailors not to give up on trying to find a new passage channel in spite of the fact they will probably die doing so---victor has not learned his lesson, and now he's luring a group of sailors to their deaths.

ahab is so full of herself and so egocentric that even when she was facing the death of her very "self" (or...ego) she did not falter in her delusions, not even at the very, very end, and was happy to continue the cycle. the point i'm trying to make here is that a character being unambiguously bad and selfish doesn't necessarily make for a bad or uncomplicated character. i will concede though that op again has a point with the lack of screentime with ahab means that she didn't have the time to prove her complexities.

this brings me to canto v's ending. in the post credits scene, we saw the ahab somehow survived the collapse of the white whale (this is just speculation, but i think it has something to do with her ego awakening---judging off the cg art, i would guess the ego fused with the pallidification from the whale or nullified it entirely...or both maybe). i was initially disappointed by this.

however, we know very little about hermann's crew. as op touched on, and as i have touched on, ahab had little screentime and not a lot of character development. her now being a member of hermann's crew gives ample opportunity for further development of her character---i think we'll see why exactly she became so obsessed with the whale and why she is the way she is (the aspect of ahab as a victim, i imagine there's a deeply personal reason why the decided the whale was the source of all evil)

this leads to me another point op mentioned: ishmael sparing ahab.

op talks about this as a bad thing. i STRONGLY disagree.

the name of the game here is obsession. ishmael's new ego for this season is even named "blind obsession". from the 4.5 event, we saw that this obsession has been tearing her apart. several people theorized after that event, and during this canto, that she was for sure going to distort. the fact that she had a distortion effect behind her battle sprite made lots of people (including me) extremely confident that she would distort and be the boss of this chapter (outis said in part 1 that lcb doesn't need all 12 sinners to operate and you only use half in battle anyway).

if ishmael had killed ahab, she would have given into her obsession and may have *actually* distorted if she did. and she would have proven ahab completely and utterly right.

ishmael stealing away the opportunity to be the one to kill the pallid whale from ahab and leaving her to rot inside the collapsing whale with that knowledge is the best possible punishment ahab could have gotten.

that's why i didn't like the fact that ahab had survived, it felt like it defeated the point of ishmael's development and the canto itself. i changed my mind because the point of ishmael's character development was letting go of her obsession and being free from ahab, and ahab doesn't need to be dead for her to do that. and her involvement with hermann's group means an opportunity for a bigger and better comeuppance since she's probably going to have a new obsession soon enough.

#there was more i wanted to say about the lyrics to compass #and how it can be interpreted as a metaphor for breaking free from an abusive relationship #but finals are coming up and its now 2 am and i got class tomorrow soo #psi post!#projmoon

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torchdreemurr · 6 months

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Just beat Mother: Cognitive Dissonance for the first time (I got the Good and Severance endings), and uh... Here are my thoughts! (BIG COGDIS SPOILERS BELOW)

Holy fuck Niiue is so hot. I just want to stare at his flowing hair, his big blue eyes, his little snout, his big pink tail, all of it. AND THAT'S NOT EVEN GETTING INTO FUTURE NIIUE??? I CAN'T STOP LOOKING AT THAT ONE PIECE OF CONCEPT ART HIS HAIR IS SO LONG AND FLOWING!! I wonder what Geeg skin feels like, it's so bright, i bet it's smooth and wonderful. Look at him just swim through the air so gracefully. AND HIS VOICE!! I can't stop listening to Speak!! Every single time I hear his voice, so soft yet so gravelly and so tender, the roughness and intimacy of the song, I feel choked up every single time i hear him. I'm so glad he lived, I'm so happy he gets to be acklowledged as his own person, I think he'll be such a good dad for Giegue...

Oh yeah and the game had other stuff in it too

Cogdis' biggest flaw is probably how little the main four are characterised. Obviously Niiue is an exception to this (or maybe that's just my gay autism), but Alvinar, Col. Saturn, Larice, and Zarbol all felt like they had no characterisation whatsoever. After spending so many hours finding every single secret, I could barely tell you what they're like. When you reach the magican bosses and fight the manifestations of everybody's flaws, that's a bit of characterisation I guess, but Larice's nightmare is the only one who has their flaw be explored outside of the text that introduces the boss. So many quirky side characters and allies, and yet there isn't even a note for the core four to be one-note to.

Outside of this, though, the game was incredible. I hear that people don't really like that they didnt include the iconic rolling health but I just had fun playing it as a standard RPG. Difficulty felt good, and each character's playstyle felt distinct even if it doesn't reach the heights of individuality that other RPGs do (UNDERTALE 2 EVERY GAME MUST BE COMPARED TO UT2 THE GREATEST RPG EVER MADE).

The music is a tossup for me. On the one hand, we have some slop that barely counts as more than noise, the musical equivalent of the unpleasant colour gradient. This is usually the area themes. On the other hand... Bill Eager is a fucking genius and he fucking nails literally every single track he touches. He is an auditory god and having him grant audio to the game's greatest moments is a perfect decision. The Apple of Enlightenment would not FEEL like something actually divine if it didn't have Hymn of Dawning Light play as you collected it. Tomorrow's Fight is one of the most hypnotically groovy battle beats I've ever listened to, and somehow it's one of the LESS notable tracks Bill made?? And, of course... Speak and Ghosts In Flight. Yeah. I cannot stop fucking listening to these. Big & Hairy is literally me because I would attend literally every single Nowhere Train concert no matter what. This game's soundtrack fucks. Dare I say it? It cums.

I know this isn't a big thing, but I would like to take a moment to gush about Master Magnolia because holy shit the buildup to his fight is so perfect. You go through the whole infected mothership and you keep hearing the voices, and you assume that this is from the sole survivor of the affiar. But as you keep going it gets stranger and stranger until you finally meet MM himself and everything is simultaneously explaned perfectly and flipped on its head. God it's so good.

And, of course, this game has the most powerful anime character of all time, Fungustrosity. How could it not be peak fiction? In short, well... Cogdis is a good game and you should play it because it's fun. That's all there really is to say on the matter. I might make a full big youtube video on this one day, but until then, remember...

Love is the only thing standing between us and the great beyond.

#earthbound #mother series #mother cognitive dissonance #mother cogdis #cogdis #fangame #earthbound fangame #niiue #giegue #game review #my posts

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rhymeswithfart · 1 year

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Hello hello! Just dropping in to say that your different Sonic SATAM verses are really really cool and your art is lovely! It’s so pretty! ;u;

I’m so interested in these verses now. I was wondering, do you have a story, or a comic, or a post about the lore of them? They’re just so neat I wanna know more! It’s so interesting!

Have a great day! :)

Thanks so much!!! 💖💖💖💖 I'm so glad you like it!

(I actually forget if I made an actual lore post with all the stuff in one place rip) my lore is also pretty disorganized for most stuff, I'm just doin whatever, but here's some of the more fleshed out lore I have.

The reverse aus mostly follow similar storyline points to canon, with diversions due to the characters having different personalities. The satam one is based on that plot point where Robotnik and Snively are the sole survivors of a space colony, while the Archie one is based on the overlander-mobian war thing.

Both Satam and Archie reverse have a bloody war (which Julian served in as a medic before becoming Minister of Medical Science) that ends in The Great Peace, ushered in by Jules Hedgehog. However the "peace" is only in name, as the empire of anti-King Acorn is fraught with oppression and state violence. The lower classes starve while being crushed under Acorn's brutal rule. Julian and Johnny, along with several other revolutionaries, succeed in overthrowing the tyrant, but the kingdom is thrown into turmoil in the process. Princess Alicia, (anti-Sally), takes this opportunity to throw her father into the Zone of Silence with the help of anti-Sonic (this happens later than Robotnik's coup in the canon universe).

The Suppression Squad (anti-FF) is either staging a coup, being mercenaries for whichever forces are fighting for power, or just being general troublemakers at this point. Anti-Sonic hasn't yet become known as Scourge. Julian retires from his position as minister and sets up his clinic. Johnny manages the security and more actively fights against any would-be tyrants/terrorists. He doesn't have the same code against violence as Julian.

As the Suppression Squad gets more violent powerful, and Scourge starts his conquest of Moebius in earnest, Johnny and Julian flee into the Great Forest and create a force-field that makes their encampment invisible to unwanted guests. They take refugees and injured people in.

Here's some of my reverse StC lore. It follows the "Ovi Kintobor was transformed into Doctor Robotnik in an accident" storyline, but it has Kintobor being part of a very suppressive, fascist ideology. Robotnik is the product of Kintobor's repressed kindness and compassion, things that Kintobor would see as weakness and treachery. The badniks (goodniks?) in this au are like ai life support systems and mobility devices for disabled Moebians, as well as protection from danger. They're like mech suits that protect their little buddies.

Reverse Sonic Underground is based on some of my conjecture about the ppl from the Six is a Crowd episode. Robotnik was once the music teacher for the triplets. Anti-Aleena ruled over a society similar to the "Great Peace" I described in Satam/Archie, where the upper classes thrived and the average citizen struggled in poverty. Robotnik was part of the lower class, and suffered from an ailment which he couldn't afford to have looked at (also lived in a dirty-ass apartment with nasty water and mold probably). Despite this, he did genuinely care about the triplets, even being closer to them as a parental figure than their mother. At some point, his illness caused him to develop necrosis in his arms and legs (or something I'm still figuring it out) and he had to have them all amputated, nearly dying in the process. Aleena arranged for him to have cybernetic limbs attached, and moved him out of his deathtrap apartment and into the palace. (that's the backstory and I'm still figuring out how they got to the point in the episode)

#answers #text #lore post #sonic au lore #reverse Archie lore #reverse satam lore #long post #revetse stc lore #sonic au #moebius #reverse underground #reverse underground lore #queen aleena #reverse robotnik

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bokatan · 5 months

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OC Shipping: Reed

So you're considering playing around with my dumbass sole survivor? Here's some general info + ground rules to get started, and if you're looking to use him in a romantic or sexual context please shoot me a message beforehand so we can discuss dynamics, vibes, etc etc. He's a great chew toy and I love when people put him in situations.

Guidelines

-for starters, if it wasn’t clear enough already: NO MINORS. I’m sorry but you’re under 18 I do not want you following me and I’m not interested in interacting with you. You can come back when you’re 18, but until then- nope, bye, nothing personal but I simply post too much nsfw & questionable content to be comfortable with minors interacting. -I’m doing this during my free time and for fun, which means I’m going to take my sweet time putting out content. If this is a problem for you, please don’t suggest any OC ships. If you’re that pressed about it you’re more than welcome to commission me for art, but again: doing this in my free time for fun, so there’s not going to be a fast turnaround. -Platonic ships are cool! It doesn’t have to be anything serious- they can hang out and get into shenanigans, they can just hook up, hell I’m even down for letting them fight to the death if it sounds like a good time. -I’m not obligated to agree with every ship request, fill every ask prompt, etc etc. If I don’t think it vibes well or it’s a dynamic that I’m not comfortable getting into, I’ll let you know. Sometimes I just don’t vibe with a prompt or I can’t work out where I want to go with it- it happens, it’s not a big deal, I send them with no pressure for a response and I expect to get the same. You’re more than welcome to throw prompt ideas at me or try to give me brain worms, but if I straight up say I’m not vibing with something and you continue to push it then we’re going to have an issue.

Now on to the SFW stuff.

-Reed’s a 28 year old bisexual & polyromantic trans man. He’s open to poly relationships & queerplatonic relationships. -He has a pretty bad fear of commitment and just expects others to leave at some point, so he can and will withdraw and leave for a bit if he feels like they’re getting too serious. The majority of his relationships are very on again/off again or have some sort of toxic element or unhealthy dynamic involved. -Strong preference for casual hookups, quick flings, friends with benefits, etc; he’s never looking for anything serious regardless of how attached he gets. -He can be pretty flirty and suggestive at times, but gives it better than he takes it- it's pretty easy to make him blush. -He does have ADHD and C-PTSD which can cause some issues with relationships. He’s not the type of person that can handle being stuck in one place for a while or having a lot of downtime. -He is actively ghoulifying and isn't coping very well with it- he doesn't like people touching the scarred areas across his shoulders and back, and he prefers to not acknowledge it at all. -He’s pretty friendly and social with most people, but he does tend to use a lot of dry humor and sarcasm; he's a bit of an ass sometimes so please be aware of this if your character doesn't vibe with that type of humor. -Very casually affectionate and loves when people tolerate it. Basically acts like a cat, if he's sitting near someone they're probably going to be touching in some manner. -He’s very magpie-coded and will regularly find little gifts and trinkets to give to people he likes. He’s more perceptive than he seems and he’s pretty good at picking up on what other people like. -Loves dogs, always has at least one dog with him, and he’s generally good with most animals.

And on to the NSFW things, under the cut:

-Service switch with an oral fixation; he tends to be a bit submissive and he’s very enthusiastic with his mouth. Very eager to please and typically very obedient, but he can get a bit bratty with some partners. -Fine with gendered terms for genitals, not fine with being objectified or fetishized. He has a bit of a preference for GNC & trans people but it’s not a hard preference by any means, he’s just not interested in dealing with people that are going to be weird about his body. -Loves toys, especially loves straps but rarely gets to use them due to his impulsive nature and lack of planning. -Pretty flexible with kinks & open to new things but his hard limits are bodily fluids & age play; he’s not likely to get into more extreme kinks unless there’s a solid relationship and a lot of trust built up beforehand. -Loves being marked and scratched, loves having his hair pulled, and loves being pinned down. He’d never admit to it but he has a huge praise kink. Really into exhibitionism and risky situations, he can get really into it after life threatening situations or after fights/sparring. He has a light degradation & humiliation kink that pairs really well with his praise kink, and a bit of a size kink. He’s game for things like knife/gun play, blood play, medical play, dressing up, etc- pretty much anything that he can be praised for doing, with the right partner. -He gets really into giving body worship and just really loves focusing on his partners like that. He’s not as big of a fan when on the receiving end but it’s a very easy way to overwhelm him, especially if there’s a lot of praise involved. -He’s pretty concerned about aftercare for his partners, but doesn’t push for it for himself regardless of if he needs it or not. Will basically melt if his partner offers it though.

#reed info #reed tag #nsft ish #don't mind me just ocposting again so there's easily accessible info on here

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katsuieki · 2 years

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so I had a few people asking if they could hear how I thought the trio from Fullmetal Alchemist (Edward, Winry and Alphonse) have some similarities or parallels to Hunter, Willow and Gus. Fair warning I haven’t watch FMA in its entirety in quite some time so most of what I’ll be saying is from memory and random YouTube clips.

So since I forgot a lot about the dynamic between Ed and Alphonse in the show I won’t really go into depth with that besides just saying that in TOH they seem to be pushing for an older brother-younger brother dynamic with Hunter and Gus, as per the last scene of the season two finale and Dana’s official art where he has his arm wrapped around both Gus and Willow.

Also wanted to point out that their personalities seem to be a little similar at least to me. While Hunter may not be AS abrasive as Ed, I definitely saw the similarities in LR where Hunter told Gus to stop being foolish” and Gus was like, “yeah alright tough guy let’s keep moving” it seems similar to the way the elric brothers personalities are that way to compliment each other. With Alphonse being more compassionate, level headed and patient with a much higher maturity level than his brother who is more stubborn, strong willed, sarcastic and impatient.

Now of course that’s how Ed is on the outside, but the more you watch the show you get to see that he is extremely loyal, and has a lot of compassion. He also struggles with a guilt complex where he solely blames himself on what happened to his mother and his brother and because of that, tries to take on everything by himself and only accepting help from his brother. Over time he realizes that he doesn’t have to do that, and he has friends around him that he can rely on and share his burdens with.

Which reminds me a lot of Hunter, and how we have seen him constantly push away help from others whether it’s Luz (in Hunting Palismen & Hollow Mind), Gus (in Labyrinth Runners) or Willow (at the end of Any Sport In A Storm). But over time we see him grow and start to rely on those same people and in others despite what he’s been through with Belos and how he may have that survivors guilt.

And with Gus and Alphonse, they both have that kinda one up over their protective older brothers either in a sense of maturity or intelligence. But they are still overly kind and compassionate to the people around them, whether they had malicious intentions or not.

(Side note is that Gus and Hunter also seem to share having an imposter syndrome.)

I don’t know if I explained the similarities with those two extremely well just because I’m used to thinking these things and not actually writing them down but TLDR: they both share a sibling relationship and their individual personalities are also very similar to one another.

Now to move on to the other side that I think is very similar and that’s between Edward and Winry, and Hunter with Willow.

Now, personally Edward and Winry is probably one of the best ships on all of shounen anime just because of how well done it is.

We see them for most of the series as childhood friends and even as family, Alphonse and Ed both care about her a lot and consider her to be a sister to them and Edward even argues with her more than he does his own brother. However, their bond is different than compared with Alphonse and Winry as Ed and her are both really stubborn and always seemed to be at odds with each other.

BUT! With Winry being Ed’s automail mechanic, she’s been his support system, not only with that but emotionally as well. Edward never outright admitted that he had romantic feelings for Winry but as the series goes on you can see their dynamic change and grow (plus he always got flustered when people would ask if they were together) and by the end he ends up proposing to her by saying “I’ll give half of my life to you if you give half of yours to me”

(Not to be that person but the proposal and then Hunter and Willow having this half a witch thing in common? Dana I’m in your walls)

But with Winry we actually see her come to terms with the fact that she has been falling for Edward and even admits to herself that she’s in love with him, but it doesn’t really make their dynamic awkward after she realized it, if anything it made it stronger. (Also she never got flustered after she realized she fell in love, until he proposed so I just thought I’d mention that because a lot of people think that Willow needs to blush or be flustered in order to show that she cares and likes Hunter back when she really doesn’t.)

(Adding quickly the similar personalities with Winry and Willow not only being extremely kind and empathetic but very strong willed and passionate about the things they love. Also being the emotional support for their friends when the time calls for it.)

With the show setting up Willow being one of the first people to give Hunter a second chance and to be there for him emotionally, I’m very eager to see how they will handle their relationship in season three since we have the idea that Hunter has developed a crush on her over the time they have been talking on screen and off.

Considering that I’m pretty sure Dana likes FMA and some of the crew does as well, and this isn’t the first time there’s been similarities in TOH with FMA, I wouldn’t be surprised if this trio will be another one with the main trio from FMA.

Willow, Gus, and Hunter all care about each other in different ways, similar to Edward, Winry and Alphonse and in the end it sort of gives off that vibe of “the older brother got a girlfriend and they love the younger brother unconditionally.”

I’m pretty sure I did NOT explain this the way I wanted to but if you got the overall theme of what I was trying to say that’s all that matters, not to mention in the romantic aspect of it Winry and Edward never once kissed on screen, and their relationship was more on how they acted around each other and how they could support one another. Which I’m pretty sure is what the theme is going for with Hunter and Willow, and if the series was longer we could’ve gotten more of that development.

Anyways, I hope this helped into understanding what I meant with my last post, hopefully I didn’t make it more confusing if anything I would suggest watching clips of how all the FMA main characters act with one another on YouTube to understand a bit more on what I’m saying.

Dana if I’m right in season three, I will be coming out of your walls.

#hunter (toh)#the owl house #willow park #gus porter #emerald trio #huntlow

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chromochaotic · 1 year

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Reads of 2023 (so far)

I had fun doing my little write ups for the books I read in 2022 so I thought I'd do one for '23! update as of 4/19!

thoughts:

Book of Night

I got this book as a gift from a friend who I think really wanted someone else to talk about it with... 😂 So it was a very fun read! I've heard mixed things about this author, haha, but I do agree that she's SO GOOD at setting a scene—the same friend called her "the queen of ambiance." I think that extends to getting into her characters' heads, too, like she makes the psychology behind the characters' actions another very interesting part of the story.

I think I, personally, found the constant bad fortune raining down on the main character a little overwhelming. It does help emphasize what a survivor Charlie is, but it's interesting comparing it to something like Ninth House, where the MC is both a survivor but also someone who can put her trust in others & has moments of friendship, bonding, and protection to offset some of the doom and gloom.

Still, I was really into the emotional beats of the story... Holly Black had a few lines about longing for someone who's in front of you as if they're already gone that, like, oof. The characters really do shine in their moments (I esp. loved Balthazar and Odette, haha). Plus the prestige reveals of some of the cons that Charlie pulled off? Chef's kiss. (retroactively rating this based solely on my personal enjoyment: 3.5/5)

Ninth House

I already know I love this author's recent stuff, so it was exciting seeing how she handled a more modern setting and tone! One thing I appreciated was how she tackled themes on privilege in a way that felt more nuanced—like, the way magic in this world is just another form of power over others really came across, from a lot of different angles.

There were a few parts where it felt like the author (and editor) knew the setting and world so well, that they might have forgotten the reader is coming into this completely blind, and some of the logical leaps in mystery-solving feel sort of abrupt, haha. (Spoilers) I was also a little disappointed that the "big" mystery and "little" mystery of the story were only like, tangentially related?

But honestly, this world-building was a treat. I actively wanted to be where the characters were, exploring weird rituals and old libraries with them. I think having a main character who's an outsider the way Alex is, makes the dark academia more accessible—I would have been pretty uncomfortable if the story started out from Darlington's perspective right at the start. Also, like I said before, I appreciated the bonds that are featured in this story—Alex's scenes with Mercy and Dawes were maybe my favorite parts to read. (4/5)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters

Still working my way through these via B&N audio book credits! My thoughts are pretty much the same as the first book—cute story, lots of fun antics and adaptations of old myths for a younger crowd.

Not too much to complain about with this story, since it does what it sets out to do. I guess, there are some parts that didn't age great... There's a character who starts the story homeless and there's one tiny line about that being "good" for him, but that's me like digging for issues.

I will say, I liked how this book added some depth that we didn't get in book 1, with the idea of Hermes wanting to redeem his kid, and Clarisse getting a moment to shine. I'm probably overly-biased toward liking Clarisse, but, let her have her own book! Let her be the key to the whole story! It's what she deserves.

Working my way through Ninth House book 2 right now, and then I think the next TLT book, and maybe a lighter art book somewhere in between. 😅 Done w/ Hellbent & did two art books, one of which was especially short! lmao (3/5)

Hell Bent

On the plus side, this sequel felt like it didn't have to spend as much time on setup as the first book, and got to just dive into the juicy cliffhanger from Ninth House. The strong points are just like before—the captivating setting and shifting relationships between the characters.

Like with the first one, something about the pacing felt rushed now and then. Maybe I've forgotten how action-packed college was! I was also thinking about how like, even though I'm enjoying these stories, the cast of characters won't stick with me quite like the gang from SoC did. That's probably just an effect of SoC being a much more ensemble-based story, while Alex has to "carry" a lot more of this on her own...

So a lot rides on Alex as a character, I guess, and... it's hard to pin down if I like her, honestly! I definitely sympathize with her, and appreciate how the author explores questions around justice and... power dynamics (?) through her. I ATE UP the backstory we got of Dawes, Turner, and Tripp, though—would've loved even more of them getting to shine, instead of it seeming like they were sort of useless. Ohh, the last thing I'll say is, the imagery set up right at the end, between Alex and Darlington? MMMMM chef's KISS (3.5/5)

Chris Schweizer's Drawings & Other Art 2017 - 2021

I'm trying to piece together my thoughts on this art book, other than being intimidated out of my mind by this guy's life and knowledge and skill. Haha. I bought this last year at Dragon Con; I always like seeing what this artist has at his booth, and really love his sense of design. It was cool trying to pick out patterns in how he handles different things, like textures and facial features.

All this book was meant to be was a collection of art... But I would be super interested in something that was more of a deep-dive on a single piece he did, like seeing what references he uses, maybe notes on how he chooses what to simplify and what to render in detail. I guess that's probably on his socials...?

Anyway, I want to like, shrivel up and die with envy over every technique he's honed to perfection, but like... really I just gotta get back into practice! (he's also apparently a huge history buff, and great musician, and I'm just like........... how...... but maybe I could be that way in a decade or two, who knows) (4/5)

Naomi Vandoren's Light through the Pages

Another art book from dragon con! This one was shorter than Chris', but still a nice read. Naomi's work and little write-ups are very soothing to just page through. Since this was the 2020-based collection of art (I also bought the one for 2021, which I'll probably read soon...), it was interesting to read the page about staying inspired in the midst of the ol' Panny Devito.

Again, this book was just meant to be a selection of pieces, and did its job... I'd always like more process exploration, though, haha—I was sort of surprised at how much of this book was just finished pieces. It also kind of felt a little too advertise-y to me.

In any case, love this artist's work, especially her color palettes and way of doing backgrounds/landscapes. Oh, to have the patience to do watercolors... (3/5)

Nona the Ninth

Back at it again with the most heart-breakingly romantic necromancers alive (and dead). I think what I love most about this series and this particular installment is how well it captures that haunting, ephemeral feeling of old, old tragedies and ancient, powerful beings that are still human. I keep thinking of the moment Nona is so gratefully happy to be alive because of the magnanimous love she has for her family, while hunched in the ruins of a decaying city on a polluted, arid planet... and the slow horror of reading the John chapters.

I think my toothpick-sized bone to pick with the series is still the show-don't-tell balance—I heard NtN's simplicity (in the beginning) was possibly due to feedback that the first 2 installments were too hard to follow. I almost ended up thinking this veered too much in the other direction, until the last few chapters hit and everything goes off the rails again. I don't know, they're wild books, and in the end I've enjoyed that aspect of them... plus, there's such a perfect curl of dread whenever you spot an offhand detail that doesn't sit quite right so now you have to Think About it. But also, I'm So Tired All The Time, and when I finally have time to read, I know I'm missing things but just don't have the energy to go back and forth checking details and looking up meta analysis. There's something to be said for books that you don't have to be experienced with graduate level research to enjoy, haha.

Still, these are for sure going to end up being some of my favorite reads. I was wrong before, what I actually love most about the series are the characters. Nona is so right for finding every little mannerism of her friends endearing—I love every little no-nonsense bit of affection from Camilla and humble, brilliant quip from Palamedes, and freaky twin love hate Thing between Corona and Ianthe, and Gideon, Gideon with the "get in line, thou big slut." Queen. King. Perfection. Adoration. I'm a Gideon apologist I guess, oops. (5/5)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse

lmao after that long review... Another PJO down! The cross-country/sea travel in each of these is a delight, I'm glad that's stayed consistent. I've actually been to some of the places in this one, like the Smithsonian and Hoover Dam, although we didn't do the whole tour there and now I want to.

My only baby complaint this time is I feel like Dionysus gets done so dirty... It's a creative take, I guess, compared to the more recent trend of making him Chaotic Good Wine Uncle, but stillllllll. On the upside, Apollo in this book? I yelled at his "wait I feel a haiku coming on". King.

I'm kind of excited to see where the author goes with whether or not Percy will be able to forgive/empathize with Luke in the end. The author's done a good job making Percy just a good ol all-american teenage boy, and the jealousy he feels when it comes to Annabeth and Luke, in a normal rom-com, seems like it would just result in some epic feel-good victory for Percy... I'm hoping things go a little differently with this. Also, I was a sucker for the bit with Zoe and the constellation. (3/5)

McMullen Circle

Picked up this book from one of those "blind date with a book" shelves at a cute store in Asheville. The blurb described it as a collection of short stories, set in the late 60s, and "boarding school in the North Georgia Mountains", and I was sold. It turned out a little different than expected... I enjoyed the nature-focused writing, which was very serene and bittersweet. The variety of stories and straightforward way they handle each character's flaws was also refreshing, in a way. There're no perfect characters in this, but that's kind of the point.

I was a little disappointed the collection wasn't the romantic little mix of Appalachia and Dark Academia I was hoping for, but that's more the blind-date-blurb's fault. The only other thing that kind of skeeved me out was that sexuality only got portrayed negatively, and that happens right out of the gate in the first short story, but it only comes up briefly after that.

My favorite piece was "Twilight Song"—literally broke into tears at the final few lines. It's about an elderly lesbian couple caring for each other in their old age, and how they got through dark times to have a sweet life together. A few stories touch on other hardships, like poverty, PTSD, and racism, and always handle it in a way that feels pretty sensitive. (4/5)

Taking a break for work and fanfic for a bit now, I think.

Manywhere

Trying to come up with a good Positive-Negative-Positive sandwich... except I didn't particularly like this one. It was another short story collection, and it focused on queer characters generally in the US south, but only the first one really compelled me thematically. It examined the relationship between presentation and privacy and packed a lot dynamism in that short format.

Most of the stories just felt repetitive, though, even with all the variety in setting and character—like generally dour, mean-spirited takes on people's character, and I probably sound naive in that, but hey this is my review and I am quite unfortunately an optimist at heart. I'm not one to dismiss unpleasant stories outright, but so many of the chapters seemed to make pain and regret and rejection the whole point.

Thinking about it a little more, I guess it could lead to some interesting discussion of the desperation for acceptance that comes with being queer in the communities the book focused on. And I'll give it to the author, again, for including some well-researched, incredible variety in terms of characters and setting. Gave this book away to a friend who might have more skill at parsing meaning from it, and we'll see if that leads to a change of heart on my side. (2/5)

American Born Chinese

I first read this when I bought it back in... high school? This impulse re-read happened after seeing the trailer for a show coming out based on the story (and also, right after the EEAAO Oscars sweep). I've aged out of the target audience, haha, but I still like the balance the author strikes between complex storytelling/themes, and an appealing simplicity.

It'll be interesting to see how the story is adapted... Some of the stereotypes the book tackles were so intentionally offensive, I could totally see the satire being misunderstood if it's not handled carefully.

Anyway, nothing bad to say about this one! Like the other YA stuff I'm reading, it's stood the test of time for a reason. Plus, you can tell how personal this story is to the author, and it means a lot that he's shared it with the world in this way. (4/5, but just bc the YA simplicity keeps it from 5/5)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth

Still chugging through these... Same pros and cons as before! I do feel like, as the tone gets darker with each of these, the quirky modern twists (Dedalus using a laptop! Sphinxes giving standardized tests!) make the serious moments a little too stark, haha. Like, geez, the stuff with Pan was... sure something.

This book did some odd stuff with the romance plot(s)... It felt to me like Annabeth was done dirty for the sake of keeping Percy/the character dynamics clean. Nothing worse than other YA stories from this time, but, maybe typical of it. Also, while all the PJO books break that Pixar rule of "coincidence can get you into trouble but not out of it" (and again, for this genre it's fine), this installment felt like the worst culprit of it so far.

I did enjoy keeping tabs on my fav characters, though. I've ofc added Nico to my roster of poor little meow meow boys, balancing out Clarisse being added to my Angry Power Fantasy Daughters, and each of them got scenes I really enjoyed this time around. Also, props to these stories for pulling out mythical monsters that seem like very deep cuts—the series started with references I mostly caught, like harpies and the fates, but now we're getting to telekhinese (???) and empusai...?? Hell yeah! (3/5)

Anyway. Thought it'd be fun to note, too, that I caught up on The Lackadaisy Cats comic at this point, which has been a delight. Very tempted to buy some sort of art book or patreon tier, bc that style is to die for.

continued in a part 2 post... to be linked?

#hi my name is chromo #how did i tag the last one #book review

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crims0nfangs · 9 months

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DEMON SLAYER OC!!

Her design is a bit rough, I'll probably eventually go back and edit her kimono cloak thing to make it feel more accurate (if anyone has tips lmk, I'm very bad at designing clothes in general. I'd even do an art trade if someone can design me an accurate version with the same concept!!) But this is how she is for now.

I'll put her rough backstory down below!

She was born to a family of hunters in the mountains, near a small hunting village. This village worshiped a "Mountain god", who was said to bless them with the best game if they respected the land. Her mother and father were very dysfunctional, fighting over money and other things nearly every day. Due to this for most of her childhood Izanami spent all her time roaming the mountains, hunting and honing her skills. Besides that, she loves nature and animals and spent a lot of time caring for them, and has strong ethics around the act of hunting.

During one of her outings she comes across a Honshū wolf, thought eradicated. It was heavily wounded by hunters, and she saved it. It then became her loyal companion.

One night after an expedition, she comes back home to find it in flames, and her mother and father dead. Knowing that the mountain god betrayed them, she sought it out for revenge. Upon finding the mountain god, she was never the same.

The mountain god was actually a demon, who only killed her family after her father had set their home on fire in an attempt to kill his wife and move on. This demon, although twisted, is benevolent to the villagers as long as they respect him and his land, and shows some sympathy for this girl and sees potential in her being a demon as well. In an attempt to convince her to become a demon, he turns her wolf into a demon. This enraged Izanami and she attempts to fight the demon only to be cornered in a small rocky crevice. The demon sits outside attempting to wait her out to convince her to accept becoming a demon.

Her wolf, still loyal to her and now with demonic powers, communicates with her. The wolf offers it's life to her, and it's powers, to merge with her flesh and give her only a temporary demonic state. Izanami refuses, but the wolf doesn't want her to become a demon or die, so it cuts off its own head and tells her to consume its flesh to merge with it. Izanami, in desperation and anger, tries, but instantly throws up and states she'd rather die. In that one bite, however, the changes already began, and she blacks out.

She wakes up battered and far away, without recollection of what actually happened and without the wolf at her side, but its spirit now merged with hers.

///

Basically she has the same demon eating powers as Genya, with a little story as to how she got those powers! To my knowledge there isn't an explanation on how Genya himself got those powers, so I took the liberty of making something original. Although unlike Genya Izanami uses her own breathing form as well. The rough name for this breathing form is Dream Breathing.

Her breathing technique is very stealthy, quick, and based on killing the enemy or inflicting lots of damage before they're aware of your presence, almost like putting them to sleep. It comes off very peaceful and tranquil.

She uses a Yumi with Nichirin tipped arrows as well as a short, dagger like sword for close up combat.

Nami (for short) is very quiet, both in speech and in mannerisms. She can be a little cold, and often rejects shows of affection or attempts at gratitude. Her sole worry is eradicating the "evil gods", aka demons, to the point she is a severe insomniac and hardly ever sleeps. When she eventually has to and caves, she'll be asleep for a whole day or possibly even more, often falling asleep in a tree or somewhere hidden. She's an expert hunter and survivor on the mountains, similar to Inosuke, earning some interest and respect from him.

Her and Genya have some sort of past together, meeting during final selection. I haven't figured entirely what I want it to be yet 👀 we'll see what I cook up.

I hope someone finds her interesting, and I'm excited to develop her further!

If you have a demon slayer oc and would like to have them interact, or have her cameo in a piece or something, please feel free, just make sure to show me cuz 👀 demon slayer brainworms lol

#my art #demon slayer #kimetsu no yaiba #anime #animeoc #demon slayer oc #kimetsu no yaiba oc #human oc #werewolf #kinda?#demon oc #Izanami #digital art #oc ref #ibispaintx

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milesmentis · 1 year

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I've been gone for a long time and I feel like I've missed out on a lot of things. Give me an update on how Daren's been doing. How many different timelines and AUs do you currently have and what are they? What's his one (1!) scene/adventure that you personally love the most? What's the one ao3 Daren fic that I just absolutely need to catch up on? What's the thing that makes this character so special for you? A long answer is very welcome ❤️

Daren is doing well - still both my primary OC fixation, tool for self examination, and all around Bestest Boy. I've gotten so much more art of him and Anora kissing, its great! Going to Twitter was generally a hellish experience, but I participated in a lot of ask games and found some really cool mutuals who helped me develop him ever further so thats rad!

Oooh, only picking one scene is tough but I recently wrote some of Alistair and Daren’s escape from Fort Drakon and GODDAMN is it funny! At the start of DAO especially, Daren is really reserved and focused because of his trauma, but closer to end game his sense of humor really comes out. And neither one of them are dumb, per se, but they honestly don't have any common sense either so leaving them without Heulwen to be the brains turns any situation into pure slapstick.

For something actually published, my recommended reading is definitely "Jealous". I wrote it for ZevWarden week last year and I'm super proud of it. Features ballroom dancing, mild espionage, and Daren thinking about his feelings on marriage/romance and how badly he wants to be holding hands with his wife and his lover.

Honestly I think the thing that makes him so special to me is his resilience. In the wake of trauma and regret he still finds a way to keep pushing forward, but he doesn't let it make him cruel: even at his most vindictive or pragmatic, he does everything he does to protect others. I spend a lot of time thinking about his trauma and PTSD bc he helped me to recognize my own trauma symptoms. He is in a lot of ways the ideal of what I strive to be: not perfect, but honorable, loyal, and always trying his best to do the right thing.

As for AUs and timelines ...

The FusionVerse with @galfrey that started off as a fun little AU has definitely become his primary canon in my mind, so much so that people continue to be surprised that he isn't "technically" a Zevmancer. The actual writing is so so slow, but we've plotted out the future trajectory all the way to 9:58 (though of course DA4 is probably going to throw a wrench in all this). This is the universe where he romances Zevran and then marries Anora and Heulwen has an enemies-to-lovers-to-friends-to-partners slowburn relationship with Loghain. Post canon, Daren and Anora have twins (to their great relief) named Gareth and Eleanora and they're a pair of precocious terrors. Heulwen is the official HoF and Warden Commander so she does all the Awakening and Witch Hunt stuff while Daren is in Denerim rebuilding the country with his wife. It's basically the happiest/best possible outcome AU where nobody dies (Alistair even stays in the Wardens and gets a boyfriend: Carver Hawke)

The biggest canon change has been biting the bullet and saying that I wanted Daren to be able to recruit and then kiss Jowan. So he has two "solo canons" actually: the in game version where he was with Leliana and Magnus (my earliest OC) is the Inquisitor, and the "What if" canon where he kissed Jowan and Hallapan Lavellan is my Inquisitor.

Beyond that, there is -

- WardenQuisitor: what if Daren was the sole survivor of the Final Battle and then 10 years later had the misfortune to become Inquisitor? Basically a huge character study about trauma/PTSD and how important it is to have love and support if you hope to heal

- RomoVerse: what if he and Heulwen were star crossed lover's who were pulled apart by circumstance but never fell out of love? It's extremely sad and tender and Daisy keeps coming up with *more au's* where they can actually be together bc they're such a good couple

- ModernAU: exactly what it says on the tin. Daren is a trust fund baby, Anora is a lawyer, and Heulwen and Loghain are negotiating the very complicated power dynamics necessary to have a healthy relationship when there's a large age/social gap

- WardenThrouple: a high drama AU where Daren and Alistair dated during the Blight, Alistair married Anora, and then Heulwen romanced Daren and Loghain. Daren is the Warden Commander, Heulwen his Constable, and Loghain their right hand man. Basically an excuse for them to all kiss in one timeline and give Heulwen two children and no responsibility

- No Blight AU: what if the Blight had actually never really started? What would have happened next? A fun what-if exercise about Ferelden politics and a Second Civil War (basically Couslands and Mac Tir's vs Theirins and Guerrins). Daren is engaged to Anora, but starts falling for Heulwen who escaped from the Circle and it eventually develops into a Heulwen/Daren/Anora throuple. Also features a Jowan who was made Tranquil and an Alistair who finished his Templar training

Phew... there are actually even more, but those are the big ones and the only ones that are actually getting fic or art content are FusionVerse and WardenQuisitor ... the rest are just cool to think about!

Thanks for the ask 💖💖

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hellakuree · 1 year

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Hi!

You can call me oli (he/him) i’m an artist who decided to restart this blog as somewhere else to put my hagakure rambles, headcanons, and art pieces because i’m too lazy to make another one lol.

Some of my works include a hagakure BJD in the making (which is why there’s a warning for doll nudity in my description) and many hagakure figures both done and in the making/planning process. Also afew prints I plan on printing soon and perhaps a boobie mouse pad because I am a degenerate /hj

About me:

I am ethnically and religiously jewish (it’s Chanukah in my country right now as I write this!)

I am a transman

Hagakure has been my special interest for around 3 years now

I have OCD and autism

nothing else is interesting

There are many things you should know before you interact or try and approach me from this account, please see these next few paragraphs as some sort of a BYI;

This account is solely a hagakure account, i’m really not interested in other characters! I plan on taking doodle requests in the future but please know i’ll just ignore anything that isn’t hagakure related. (please note I will however draw hiroko hagakure, she is a hagakure to is she not? lol) I’ll probably draw anything hagakure related if it interests me, so i’m ok with whatever.

I do see myself possibly doing like friendship or ship requests (that include hagakure) but i’m really really fussy when it comes to hagakure ships. For instance, I will never ship him with any deceased members of the thh cast and any of the survivors pre-future arc, I won’t ship him with the drv3 cast either. I won’t talk about or make any content of hagakanon what-so-ever, same with asakure unless it’s part of the poly survivors ship I occasionally enjoy.

Weed jokes make me highly uncomfortable, refrain from bringing them up around me or on my account, you aren’t funny if you make these jokes you’re just ignoring his backstory and are borderline racist lolll.

DNI:

Proshippers, comshippers, anti-antis or whatever the fuck those rejects are calling themselves these days lol. it’s an immediate block if I find out you defend, are a, or associate with proshipper(s)

Hardcore kanon fans you suck and she’s got an incest fetish.

if you think “blackwashing/race washing” is real/problematic, you are wrong.

if you whitewash

basic dni criteria (no bigots, weirdos, people who don’t respect boundaries ect)

Please ask me about my headcanons, progress and opinions I freaking love talking about hagakure (please and thank you)

#yasuhiro hagakure

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mensajeroseis · 11 months

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dk if u remember the anon that used to Consistently ask abt felix and andrés, but i recently came across u again on here after being off of tumblr for Awhile and was elated. do u still work on felix n andrés' stories? if so please share bc ive thought abt them on and off for so long. / also, ur art was always amazing but ur style has gotten So Good. have a good day or night & hopefully this doesnt bother u!!

damnn i know this was sent 2 weeks ago, and IM SORRY I FORGOT TO ANSWER IT FJFJFJGHJHG so whoever u are....i hope u will one day see this.. these types of messages are never a bother !! and I always appreciate them deeply

I still work on things involving Andrés, because he's my number one boy baby. Really it's a little bit of everything, he's undeniably my Muse. In recent years I've become very fond of making him a cannibal though, not canonically but in my silly fun time. And a bit more of a dickish asshole (that's Real and True). Other than that I generally work (on and off) on a post fo3 story that's 17 years in the future, but that more so involves his kids. Occasionally I like to ponder about his time and role in fo4. Since I kill off the sole survivor and play him as suffering from transient global amnesia, and being kidnapped (unsuccessfully) by the institute (reasons involving James' scientific breakthroughs, etc. They dug up his dad's grave, and wanna poke at His DNA for cloning reasons). Overall, sometimes he's a college dropout who's been dumped by his girlfriend, and sometimes he's an anti social closet cannibal trying to resist his urges. Sometimes he is 37 years old and moving his family to Syracuse NY. Sometimes he's married to Amata and cheating on her with Butch (LOL). He can live a lot of lives, and I like it.

But I've moved on from Felix, he really hasn't been that compelling to me for years lol. I recently made a new legion courier named Ryker though, and I find him a lot of fun. And should probably work on / post about him some more.

thank u much love, mwahmwah

#this is going in the #andrés #tag lol.

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mistresspotterhead · 3 years

Text

The American Ymbryne- Chap. 1

Alma Peregrine x fem!reader

Warnings: Yelling, slamming hands on a table, being outed (kind of)

Words: 1,900 on the dot

A/N: Wow, this took a lil bit. Alma doesn’t appear until the very end of this chapter, but she’ll be in the next one a lot. Everyone has been so kind, and that has helped a lot <3. Also: Miss Saker indicates the type of bird you are, not your given name. I hope you guys like this. 😊😊😊

Tags: @itsonlydana @evil-feather @merci-bitch @multimilfs @escapetodreamworld @gay-and-sad-tm @multifandomfix @romanottsmaximoff @n0thing-is-real-exe @theaudreymere

(ask if you want to be added/removed)

In a strange way, Cairnholm reminded you of the Chicago loop you and your wards had just fled from. They were both very dreary, cold, and, from what you could tell from those on the ferry, the people would rather be anywhere else.

“M-miss Saker? I’m cold.” The bundle of talking coats shivered next to you.

“I know, Astrid. We’re almost there, though.” You sighed and looked out toward the slowly approaching coastline. Your surviving children, Elina, Alexander, Leonard, and, of course, Astrid, all huddled closer to you. You stared at Cairnholm for a while longer, until the ferryman’s voice suddenly called out.

“Alright everyone, ‘ere we are! The… lovely… Cairnholm!” He steered the small ferry over to the somehow smaller docks, and you led your children out.

“Is everyone here? Astrid, Leo, Elina, Alex?” David, Beth-Anne, Lisa, Frankie, June, Stefanie, Josef, Alice, Rosie, Reggie. You suppressed the urge to call out their names as well.

“Yes, Miss Saker,” they called in long-suffering voices- you were very adamant about attendance. It was good to see something was normal.

“All right then. Leo, can you see where the loop is? And Alex, are there any other peculiars near?” Ah yes, your diviners. It was very lucky for all of you that they were two of those that survived the wight’s invasion of your loop.

Your Chicago loop near the Art Institute was one of the last surviving loops in America maintained by an Ymbryne, along with your South Side, McKinley Park, and St. Louis loops, though the latter was run mainly by its older wards and reset once a week.

As of a fortnight ago, though, the Art Institute loop was the only one you had. McKinley Park was attacked by Wights and Hollows in December, with South Side following close in early January. Samuel, the sole survivor of McKinley Park, was what Syndrygasti call a Librarian. He could see hollows and alerted you to them when you were traveling to St. Louis for reset. The problem with this, though, was that Sammy was only five years old, and so frequently got distracted.

It wasn’t hard to understand- Illinois in 1975 was very colorful. Sammy was gone now, though, as were all most all of your children. Speaking of…

“There aren’t any other peculiars on the island, Miss Saker- at least not in this time,” Alex said, startling you out of your thoughts.

“Thank you, dear. How are you faring, Leo? Have you located the loop? I don’t like being out in the open for this long.” For emphasis, Elina gave a giant, chattering shiver that was surely exaggerated.

“Indeed, but it is on the other side of the island, and the night is fast approaching.”

You looked over and scowled at the sun; if you couldn’t get rest, then why was it allowed to?

“Well then. It looks like we’ll have to go into town.” Immediately, protests arose.

“Aw, no!”

“Come on, Miss Saker! We can make camp out here!”

“Because that sounds comfortable,” Leo deadpanned to Astrid.

“Well, it’s better than town! There probably isn’t even a hotel!”

“Actually, Astrid, that’s where you’re wrong.” Astrid looked shocked at the suggestion that she could ever be incorrect at something. “There is a hotel. It’s called the….” You took out the crumpled guidebook the ferryman had given to each tourist. “Preist Hole. What kind of hotel is called the Priest Hole?” You muttered that last part to yourself. “Anyway, off we go. Come along, single file now.”

Your ducklings dutifully arranged themselves from youngest to oldest, seven-year-old Elina closest to you and sixteen-year-old Leo at the back.

You hoped that the food was at least good.

Nope. Everything on the Preist Hole’s menu was covered with vinegar. You wondered if that was a Welsh thing or a Cairnholm thing. Maybe the owner just liked vinegar. Next to you, Elina was grimacing with every bite. On a whim, you decided to flag the bartender down.

“Hey, Kev, was it?” He grinned widely at you. You gave him a small smile in return.

“Yes, ma’am, that’s me. What can I do for you ‘n yer bunch today?”

“I was just wondering if you had some fries- sorry, chips- with less vinegar. My youngest is still picky.”

“Hmm. Well, I’ll talk to Arnie ‘n see what he can whip up fer ye. He’s the cook, ye see.”

“Thank you so much, sir.” You attempted a bigger smile, but it still felt forced.

“Naw, it ain’t a problem, really. ‘N please, call me Kev. Sir sounds like I’m fifty- ‘n I’ve still got twenty years ‘fore that,” he chuckled.

“Well then, you must call me y/n.”

“Of course, ma’am- y/n, sorry.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“It’s alright, Kev.” This time, your smile was a small bit genuine- his hesitancy was endearing.

“Yeh. Well, um, I’d better talk teh Arnie now. I’ve kinda been lingering here for a while.”

“Of course. I wouldn’t want to keep you from work, anyway.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t object if yeh did,” Kev concluded, winking before walking away.

Once he was out of earshot, Astrid started chittering.

“Ooh, was that flirting I saw, Miss Saker?” You rolled your eyes, and Alex guffawed into his water.

“Miss Saker? Flirt with a guy? I think Elina would drink an entire bottle of vinegar before that happened.” You turned your head sharply in his direction, but not before Astrid snapped back at him.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” You jerk your head toward her now.

“Well, Miss Saker isn’t really the type to, ah, dabble in the male gene pool.” It was like you were watching tennis, really, with all this head-turning.

“That doesn’t make any-”

“ENOUGH!” You stood up, placing your hands on the bar. “This is not a discussion we are having, especially not here and now. Alex, I told you that information in confidence, and I am severely disappointed that you have betrayed that. Astrid, whether or not I am flirting with someone, and really my love life in general, is none of your concern. Do you both understand?”

They nodded, Alex looking especially ashamed of himself.

“Sorry, Miss Saker. It just slipped out.”

You sighed and ignored all the stares you and your wards were getting because of your outburst.

“Alright, Alex. Just… you can’t share things that people tell you privately.”

“Yes, Miss Saker.” He was quiet after that, poking at his food.

It bothered you that he had shared that information, though it didn’t seem as if the other wards had understood. Of course, Leo was the only one you would expect to, as he was sixteen, but he had been sheltered in your loop his entire life. All of your wards had, really.

Just as you were beginning to sink into your past again, Kev came out with Elina’s new plate of fr- chips.

“Here ye are, little lady. I hope you like these better.” He smiled at Elina, tugging a small one out in return. You both watched expectantly as she took a tentative bite. And another. And another. Until the plate was almost gone, and she was rubbing her stomach in contentment.

“Well, that was fast.”

“It was good, Miss Saker. I wasn’t going to let it cool.” You laughed at the disapproving look on her face.

“Alright, alright. I suppose you have a good point.” You turned to Kev. “Thank you again, sir, for-”

“Kev.”

“...right. Thank you for doing this. How much will it cost?” You were ruffled at his interruption, but he didn’t notice. He pretended to think for a moment.

“Hmm… how much will makin’ a little girl ‘n her mam happy cost? I dunno.” He smiled at you. “It’s on the house. I can see that ye haven’t had such a good day, so….”

“Really? Are you sure? I mean, I have the money….”

“I’m completely sure. It’s good te make someone happy once in a while.”

“Well, I truly do thank you. It also seems that we’ll need a room, if that’s alright?”

“Sure. Room four was just recently vacated. It’s right up here.” He led you up the stairs, the kids trailing behind.

The room was small for five people, but it seemed like a mansion to the children, who only had their old, overcrowded loop to compare it to. There were four rickety beds, though they did seem to be clean, and a barren nightstand next to each of them.

“Ah… I forgot that this only had four beds. I can get ye another room, or-”

“No, no, this is fine. Thank you for your help, Kev.” You subtly ushered him toward the door.

“Oh- well, if ye need anythi-”

“Yes, of course. Ta, then! Have a nice day!” You shut the door, leaving him very confused.

Alex was wheezing on the floor behind you.

“That… that was absolutely amazing Miss Saker! You are an absolute icon!”

What in Abaton does that mean? You never could understand the new slang terms that the 1970s held.

Elina yawned, setting off all the other children and alerting you to their needs.

“Alright then, time for bed.” Immediately, they were completely awake.

“I’m not tired at all, Miss Saker, therefore I shan’t be able to fall asleep.”

“The fact that your accent is coming out very strongly tells me that you are indeed tired, Leo.” You crossed your arms. “Bed. now.” Your wards slouched, and grudgingly picked out a bed each.

“Miss Saker, where will you sleep tonight?” Astrid asked as you were tucking her covers in.

“On the floor, of course. Now, did you remember to take off your gloves?”

“But it won’t be comfortable! The floor is so hard and cold and dirty and-”

“Your gloves, Astrid.” She was very talkative, even late at night, though you had come to enjoy it. Sometimes.

She took off the gloves that helped control her peculiarity and was about to start chattering again when Elina suddenly spoke up from her bed in the corner.

“I could make you a nest with a spare blanket, Miss Saker?” You gave her one of your very rare genuine smiles.

“That would be lovely, Elina.”

“Wait- how did she know you were going to sleep in bird form?” Alex asked, finally catching on. You smiled again at Elina and kissed her on the forehead.

“She’s made me a little nest before when I fall asleep in my study while in bird form.”

“And that happens often?”

“Surprisingly so. Now, snuggle in and no more talking.” As the children said their goodnights, you finally transformed into your bird form; a stunning saker falcon. You jumped lightly onto Elina’s bed, careful not to hurt her with your razor-sharp talons or accidentally hit her with your wing (which had happened on more than one occasion).

Though you nestled into the warm bunch of blankets right away, you didn’t fall asleep until much later, and even then, you were restless all night.

---

Little did you know, in the old manor that you would trek to the next day, a group of peculiars and one very curious ymbryne had observed all of this. Alma LeFay Peregrine set her watch and gave the children a reassuring smile while she pondered what this meant and why her stomach had fluttered when you gave that dazzling smile.

#tw yelling #tw slamming hands down #tw being outed #alma peregrine x reader #miss peregrine x reader #alma peregrine #wow im so gay for her

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pkducklett · 2 years

Photo

So @collabwithmyself‘s Ace Attorney Warriors au has activated the “must draw cats” sleeper agent in my brain. (Idk how many of you have followed my online trail, but there are almost 10 years worth of old art on places like DeviantArt where I drew nothing but cats that entire time). So, I decided to have a go at drawing some of the cats listed in the allegiance, but weren’t actually drawn yet so they didn’t have designs.

Here we have the current nursery population of Stoneclan (defense attorneys). Overall pretty happy with how this picture turned out and how the designs look. I have a better design idea for Morningkit (Klavier), that would make him look more like his brother, but this picture was done before I got that so it’s fine for now. Also I know I said I wanted to do cats without designs but Moonkit (Athena) did have one already and I wasn’t going to change it. I hope I did her well. It wasn’t easy picking out oranges that matched from my collection of colored pencils.

Some character ideas/notes under read more if you’re interested, also the full page pic of my sketchbook I took: (Disclaimer before going in though - this isn’t my au. These are just my own ideas about theoretically what could happen. Without confirmation/a full story from the creator, these are not to be treated as though they will happen.)

Overall: Moonkit and Morningkit were the only two born into the clans. Skykit and Sunkit came later, after they were already a few moons old. By the beginning of the story, the kits are pretty close to becoming apprentices, which is a good thing because Moondance is the sole queen in the nursery and is ready to return to her normal medicine cat duties full-time again. Morningkit is undoubtedly the leader of this troop of kits, or at least he’s the more confident of the bunch. Sunkit is certainly the loudest, but also the one least likely to get caught up in mischievous antics unless it’s to scold the group by telling them how ridiculous they’re being. Moonkit is very high energy and playful, always willing to go on an adventure. Skykit is the most passive of the group, less willing to lead a charge, but just along for the ride.

Moonkit/paw/storm (Athena): Moonkit is the daughter of the Stoneclan medicine cat. I’m thinking that after the clans stopped believing in their warrior ancestors and Starclan, that they removed some of the more “problematic” or just plain dumb parts of the warrior code such as the rules about medicine cat relationships. Moondance (Metis) probably mated with like a loner so the father of her kit is very much not in the picture. The litter with Moonkit wasn’t very big (probably with only like a second kit that was stillborn), but the time and energy of being a single mother was taking a toll on her. Thankfully, her apprentice Blackpaw (Simon) and his sister/Moondance’s friend Swiftquill (Aura) have taken quite an interest in helping her care for her daughter. Blackpaw in particular has made it a point of pride to help protect his mentor’s kit and makes sure she is being well cared for.

Morningkit/paw/song (Klavier): So in this, Honeythroat (Kristoph) and Morningkit are biological full brothers, just from distinct litters. I’m thinking their father passed before Morningkit’s litter was born, and their mother passed after. Unlike Moonkit, Morningkit was part of a larger litter. I’m thinking that shortly after the litter was born, his mother got very sick with an upper respiratory infection and the whole family (mother and kits) was put into quarantine. Moondance wasn’t allowed to help their treatment because of her being pregnant/a new mother herself. Not that it would’ve helped much anyway, there wasn’t much anyone could do. Morningkit was the sole survivor of the infection, a miracle that he made it out okay and had no damage to his voice. He was still very young so was given to Moondance as a foster. Honeythroat took particular interest in the nursery kits after Morningkit’s recovery and has become a staple to see around the nursery, doting on his brother or dispensing wisdom to the others. I’m thinking that part of Honeythroat and Morningkit’s strained relationship has to do with how overprotective and overbearing his brother becomes.

Skykit/paw/spot (Clay): Skykit wasn’t born in the clans, but was the child of a loner cat who lived near to the Stoneclan territory. He was found as the survivor of his litter by a Stoneclan patrol after their mother left to find them food and didn’t come back (she was likely hit by a car). He was in dire shape when he was brought back, but bounced back pretty quickly. Moondance didn’t need to take a full-time mother role for Skykit since he was already at the age where he could eat fresh kill but he still does snuggle with her and the other kits at night.

Sunkit/paw/call (Apollo): No one knows where Sunkit came from, and he’s not willing/able to tell them. It was quite the surprise when a small kitten charged into Stoneclan camp one morning. He was old enough to eat prey, but still tiny enough that it didn’t look like his small legs should’ve carried him that far. His scent was unfamiliar to the clan cats who couldn’t recognize it more than it being from “quite far away”. He didn’t really ask, more demanded, to be allowed to stay.

Concluding notes/ideas about story: Shortly into the beginning of the story, these four are made apprentices of Stoneclan. Moonpaw is mentored by Swiftquill, Morningpaw is mentored by Bushpelt (Raymond), Skypaw is mentored by Darkpelt (Hammond) then later (because *cough* reasons) by Whiskerstep (Grossberg), and Sunpaw is mentored by Honeythroat. Something happens (not entirely sure what), early into their training that convinces Morningpaw to leave Stoneclan and join Thornclan. The other apprentices are hurt by this, especially Sunpaw who sees this as a total betrayal. Surprisingly, his brother, Honeythroat, isn’t all too worried about his little brother leaving and in fact rationalizes it as a good thing because it will help strengthen ties between the two clans. The UR-1 incident is still a thing that happens, closely to when the three remaining Stoneclan apprentices are to become warriors. Moondance is killed by a rogue cat (the Phantom) and her daughter is the one to find her mother’s body. I’m thinking that instead of putting himself on death row for the murder of Moondance, that Blackquill instead leaves Stoneclan to hunt down the Phantom himself, leaving Stoneclan without a medicine cat. Swiftquill places a lot of her grief/hurt over Moondance’s death and her brother’s absence onto her apprentice. Moonpaw doesn’t have a good time much at all. This is where a lot devolves into my own crack theory ideas of where the story could project and that involves Moonclan and Stoneclan joining into one clan by where the ending of Bridge to the Turnabout would be... And involves Sagepaw (Maya) being made into the first Starclan appointed clan leader in a long time so she’s Sagestar now. Goldenheart (Phoenix) is her deputy, and she has Iriscloud (Iris) fill in as medicine cat. This then leads into the case with Goldenheart trying to help a group of loner cats (the Gramayres) solve the death of their leader. Thornclan gets involved and young Morningpaw catches Goldenheart trying to use faulty evidence to defend one of them (Zak) and calls him out on it. It doesn’t help that other cats in this case begin disappearing as well. Goldenheart runs away into exile (disbarment), and Morningpaw is made into a warrior, Moningsong. If there was to be a story picked up about these characters, I can see it beginning at the start of what would be AA4. Sunpaw is now Suncall, and as a newly made warrior he’s trying to navigate the hardships of warrior life in this newly arranged clan as he discovers dark secrets lurking behind some of the tightest corners. And a mysterious young cat who calls herself Magicpaw (Trucy) comes to him with a request: to help protect her father.

If you made it to the bottom of this super long info-dump on an au that wasn’t even started by me... congratulations. Here’s the full sketch page pic I promised:

That’s what my blending technique looks like and it was not easy in this pic because of all the colors I tried to make look good.

#ducklett speaks #ducklett draws #ace attorney #warrior cats au #oh god I've been sitting on this picture and these ideas for nearly a month now I need to get them off my chest #I am overall happy with the picture I just wish Morningkit and Sunkit turned out better #also Morningkit partaking in his favorite hobby. bullying Sunkit. can you blame him? it's too much fun...#also Moonkit was supposed to be like playing with Morningkit's tail but everytime I drew her paw it looked terrible...#so that didn't happen #anyway. this has been long and a lot of thinking. hope you enjoy.

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weiwanyin · 3 years

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Idk if it's always been like this, but everytime I go into the Jiang Cheng tag there's always hate posts by the same people and it's annoying as hell. Idc if they want to rant on their own blogs, but at least they could leave their hate out of the tag (nevermind how mental it is that they spend every single day ranting about how much they hate a fictional character or that most of their arguments don't hold water). Anyways being a Jiang Cheng/Chengxian fan on this site sucks.

I have noticed in the last couple of years is not enough for people to just say "I don't like this character" and just move on. But what bothers my about a lot of the JC/CX hate is the double standard. I have mentioned it before with my talks with @necroprankster

1. People blaming Jiang Cheng for not supporting Wei Wuxian with the Wens and using it as a reason why WWX should never forgive him. But then have no issues with WWX not holding the Lans accountable for their role in their events, specially Lan Xichen. The Lans were part of the siege too, they happily murdered innocent Wens the same as the Jins, The Jiangs and the Nies. Even LWJ never became involved in speaking up for them. His only interest was in getting WWX out of there, it did not matter to him that others died.

Some people can argue he saved A-Yuan. But he only did this because he was the sole survivor and he knew WWX cared for him. But let's be real. While we don't have a set number its very unlikely A-Yuan was the only child in that camp. The others were just not as lucky. And while people treat LWJ as a father figure to him, they never use familiar titles between them so it is far more likely he was just raised with the other disciples with some oversight from LWJ more than LWJ being parental.

2. People constantly shitting on JC for asking WWX to abandon the Wens and calling him selfish for expecting WWX to abandon the Wens to die to go back to Yunmeng...and then f*cking turn around and romanticize the whole "come back to Gusu with me". The irony of people calling JC selfish for that in one post followed by 10 different fan arts of how romantic LWJ was for asking WWX to do the exact same thing...ok.

3. Let's be real if the story had mentioned the Lans or another clan was going around murdering demonic cultivators, a lot of people would argue that those demonic cultivators were probably not going around saving puppies. Because all canon examples we have of characters using demonic cultivation are doing it for selfish and murderous reasons. Even Mo Xuanyu, he only brought WWX back because at that point he wanted him to wipe out his family as a vengeful spirit.

As I said, I don't think the issue is just JC not being your favorite. I am just tired of the double standard or the outright rewriting of canon to excuse it.

Don't get me started on CX, funny how many "antis" of that ship went on to lose their minds over Word of Honor. Funny how Shidi f*cking is ok there. I see you all.

#jiang cheng #the untamed #mdzs

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itsjustthechems · 3 years

Text

Musings on Danse's political/moral alignments

I saw a post mentioning how a lot of the Fo4 fandom associates Danse with current American conservatives. I disagree, and just want to ramble about my feelings on the subject.

Yes, he is a meathead asshole.

I totally understand taking Danse at face value and assigning him mentally to the "bigoted bootlicker" category. That's totally valid. Unless you travel with him extensively and pay close attention to his ambient dialogue, it's understandable to figure that's just how Bethesda wrote him.

Danse's backstory

To understand Danse's moral and political standings, we have to take a look at his origin story. As far as Danse is aware, he grew up alone in the Capital Wasteland. He was an orphan that scrounged for scrap metal and other junk, which he sold to get by. He had no known family, parental figures, or mentors of any sort. He had one friend, Cutler, who was around his age. The Brotherhood of Steel, much like the real U.S. military, preyed on people like this for recruitment missions. Teenagers of low socioeconomic status - hungry, lonely, desperate, unsure of their purpose. Of course Danse and Cutler would elect to join the Brotherhood, which promised them food, protection, somewhere to sleep at night, and above all else - camaraderie. During one of his affinity dialogues, Danse admits that joining the Brotherhood seemed like the only way to escape his situation.

The Brotherhood took advantage of Danse and other soldiers' naivety and lack of experience by instilling fear and hatred of the misunderstood (synths, ghouls, mutants) and using those negative feelings to shape their training. Dare to disagree with their belief system? At best, you would be disciplined. Verbally abused by the Elder and shunned by your friends and mentors. At worst, you'd be booted out - back to the Wasteland you had been taught to fear unconditionally. Back to starvation, radiation, poverty, and isolation.

After a year of service, Cutler disappeared on a mission. Danse searched for him for three weeks, finally tracing him to a super mutant hive. Cutler had been exposed to FEV and had become a super mutant. Danse killed him. He admits that he doesn't know if it was the right thing to do, but it was what he had been trained to do.

That was the first circumstance that really gave me a glimpse into the nuance of Danse's beliefs. Like...wait, he questions his oh-so-precious-and-infallible training?

Is he still a douche to almost all non-human NPCs? Yes. However, I don't think he knows how to be anything other than a condescending, militant, Brotherhood heavy. That kind of attitude is what got him promoted so quickly. It's what got him out of his bottom-of-the-pecking-order trainee position, where he had felt singled out by his superiors. He learned that bigotry and cold-heartedness were the only methods of survival and success in the Brotherhood.

His character arc

Danse is not meant to be a one-dimensional, blatantly bigoted character. If he was, I don't think Bethesda would have made him romance-able. In fact, that's why you can't romance him until after his character arc quest: Blind Betrayal.

Spoiler alert! On this quest, you find out that Danse is a synth. He had no idea, and has a subsequent identity crisis that leaves him suicidal. This is the breaking point in the struggle between his own innate morality and his Brotherhood training. His default stance is that he should be killed to uphold the Brotherhood's code — he even offers to do the deed himself to protect the Sole Survivor from disciplinary action (a true testament to the brutality of the Brotherhood — Danse would rather die than allow Sole, his best friend, to face Maxson's wrath). However, through charisma checks, you can remind him of his own humanity and convince him not to harm himself. This breakthrough leads him to recognize that synths are truly nothing to be afraid of.

After Blind Betrayal, he will agree with most dialogue options supporting synths. According to the wiki, any leftover dislikes regarding synth-related dialogue are glitches.

There are other moments in separate quests that reference his moral confusion — for example, he likes when you help Kent, who is a ghoul, but doesn't like if you flirt with Holly, also a ghoul (maybe that's just some jealousy, lmao).

He also dislikes when you give Virgil, a mutant scientist, the serum that will help him return to his human form. My personal headcanon is that seeing Virgil cure himself forces Danse to address the fact that he might have been able to save Cutler, but killed him instead, due to his Brotherhood brainwashing.

Evidence of Danse's fiscal/economic beliefs

Danse is a COMRADE. You heard me. This man's pussy pops for socialized medicine. When you walk through Milton General Hospital, he says: "Facilities like this were funded by privately owned corporations more interested in making a profit than helping mankind."

You heard me, this man hates capitalism. Behold:

"Vault-Tec built places like this to conduct unethical experiments on human beings. Just thinking about it makes me sick."

"It was corporations like this that put the last nail in the coffin for mankind. They exploited technology for their own gains, pocketing the cash and ignoring the damage they'd done."

"Private corporations like Vault-Tec ruined mankind. All that brainpower put to waste..."

"This is disgusting. I can't believe Mass Fusion dumped these barrels here. This is the perfect example of how environmentally irresponsible the ancient corporations behaved."

"This is exactly the reason that science never belonged in the private sector."

Ugh. Really gets me goin'.

Conclusion

He has several other comments that suggest he is generally anti-war, is very pro-education, shows appreciation for the arts, loves children and animals...several things that conservatives couldn't care less about. He reacts angrily to greed, assaulting or harassing any non-hostiles (including synths, ghouls, and mutants), turning your back on beggars, harming non-hostile animals, etc. In my opinion, he's a pretty stand-up guy once he completes his character arc.

Does he still love the taste of boots? Yeah, and he probably always will. :/

Bethesda did him so dirty by not finishing his character arc. The fact that he still gushes about the Brotherhood and acts as if he's still in their ranks after Blind Betrayal is pretty clear evidence that he's a generally unfinished character. I think he had the potential to become a more accepting, radicalized, philanthropic individual after recognizing the shortcomings of the Brotherhood's ideals.

But yeah. I love this handsome dumbass, and I personally consider him a comrade, not a conservative. Kudos if you read this far into my crazed ramblings!

#paladin danse #danse #fallout 4 #fallout #fo4 #blind betrayal #spoilers #tw suicide

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