ink-flavored

[ink-flavored]

🌷💙💛

Annika thank youuu! it's Madsy time

from this ask game

🌷 In what ways would your OC alter their body if they could? How would they do it using mundane means (hair dye, surgery, make-up?). What is their ideal look for themself?

Madrigal would consider bottom surgery and mayyybe FFS but has complicated feelings about both and doesn't really think it's worth all the time/hassle/recovery. she's not interested in taking hormones, either. but she's pretty lanky and doesn't really like that, she would love to gain some extra mass but has a hard time keeping weight on haha.

anything more surface level/cosmetic she doesn't put too much thought into, honestly. she's comfortable enough with the way she looks now. she's actually pretty pleased to see herself getting a few wrinkles and the occasional gray hair, there was a time in her life she didn't think she'd survive long enough to see them.

💙 What did your OC want to be when they grew up and why? Did they have any lifelong dreams or ambitions they never got to work on or are they currently working to achieve this dream? Has their life taken a very unexpected turn and put all these plans on hold for a while or have they given up on any dreams?

her whole life, she knew she would never go far from the sea. when she was very young, she probably wanted to be a pirate captain. into her teens and when she enrolled for college, she wanted to be a marine geologist. but she had to drop out for...... Reasons and wound up, eventually, in overseas shipping, and she's pretty much given up on any dreams/ambitions from her early life.

💛 In general, how in control of their emotions is your OC? Do they have a good hold on them or do their emotions control them, not the other way around? What do you think is the reason behind this and is your OC ever concerned about their lack of or good control?

she thinks she has excellent control of her emotions lol. she is very good at disguising how she's feeling and can be very hard to read most of the time, but that's because Madrigal is the type to bottle up everything until it all explodes over absolutely nothing one day. she's only concerned about it if she feels like she's made herself vulnerable to someone she doesn't trust (which is pretty much everyone except like, two people).

#other writers #i will give her a pirate ship!!! to sail the seven seas!!!

[ink-flavored]

love to wake up and open google docs and then just stare at my wip a little like. yup. still there 👍

[ink-flavored]

ive been meaning to write a book my whole life. very passionate ajout this book ill write that ive been not writing since i was twelve. in my heart i think i shouldnt let myself not write it and die not having written it

[ink-flavored]

it’s easy to forget, so I’ll remind y’all: you can make fantasy versions of anything. yes even things you might not think about. like soil types. I am thinking of fantasy soil types right now

[ink-flavored]

I tried to write a novel. Not once. Not twice. But about 12 times. Here's how that would play out: 1. I sit down and knock out 10 pages 2. I share it with someone 3. They say "It's goooood" like it's not good 4. I ask for critical feedback 5. They say, "Well....the plot just moves so quickly. So much happens in the first few pages it doesn't feel natural." So I'd write more drafts. I'd try to stretch out the story. I would add dialogue that I tried to make interesting but thought was boring. I would try including environment and character descriptions that felt unnecessary, (why not just let people imagine what they want?) Anyways, I gave up trying to write because in my mind, I wasn't a fiction writer. Maybe I could write a phonebook or something. But then I made a fiction podcast, and I waited for the same feedback about the fast moving plot, but guess what??? Podcasts aren't novels. The thing that made my novels suck became one of the things that made Desert Skies work. I've received some criticism since the show started, but one thing I don't receive regular complaints about is being overly-descriptive or longwinded. In fact, the opposite. It moves fast enough that it keeps peoples attention. I always felt I had a knack for telling stories but spent years beating myself up because I couldn't put those stories into novel form. The problem wasn't me. The problem was the tool I was trying to use. All that to say: If, in your innermost parts you may know that you're a storyteller but you just can't write a book, don't give up right away. You can always do things to get better and there's a lot of good resources. But if you do that for a while and novel writing just isn't your thing, try making a podcast, or creating a comic, or a poem, or a play, or a tv script. You might know you're an artist but suck at painting. Try making a glass mosaic, or miniatures, or try charcoal portraits, or embroider or collage. You might know you're a singer, but opera just isn't working out. Why not yodel? I could keep listing out examples, but the point is this. Trust your intuitions when it comes to your creative abilities, but don't inhibit yourself by becoming dogmatic about which medium you can use to express that creativity. Don't be afraid to try something new. Don't be afraid to make something new. You might just find the art form that fits the gift you knew you always had, and what it is might surprise you

#writing advice

[ink-flavored]

Obsession Prompts

because I didn't find any when I was originally looking so...here:

"Do you know how long I've watched you? You're perfect."

"It doesn't matter what you think. You're mine. You always have been."

"Did you not like the gifts? I bought them off of your wish list."

"If they touch you, I'll kill them. It's that simple."

"Don't act like this means nothing to you! You're the same as me!"

"You need someone to take care of you."

"You really think they're going to keep me from you?"

"...what have you done?" "What I needed to. Now come. I'm taking you home."

"Try all you want, princess. You're not leaving."

"We belong together. Don't you see that? Don't you know how perfect we are?"

"Now you want mercy? After running from me? It's too late."

"I saved you. Don't you think you should be grateful?" "Grateful? For this?" "Everything I'm doing is to keep you safe!"

"Step away from the window. Come back to sleep. Don't make me have to come get you."

"It's not your fault, it's theirs. They're the ones trying to keep us apart. You see that, right?"

"We're meant to be. You'll see."

"Sooner or later, you'll understand. I had to do this. This is for your own good, okay? Let me take care of you."

"Let me in! Trust me, sweetheart, it'll be easier if you do. Don't run from me. You won't like what happens when I catch you."

"This was the last time, okay? I got you. I'm here. I'm not leaving anymore."

"Nothing can keep us apart. I'll burn the world down if they try."

#writing ideas

[ink-flavored]

K.M. Weiland:

Johne Cook and I met on an online writing forum over 15 years ago, and he remains one of my favorite people to have entered my life in this journey. I have long admired his pragmatism, his insight, and his general cool in the face of the Internet’s insanity. To this day, I will often ask myself, “What would Johne do here?”

He has always been open about his experience as a writer with ADHD—both the challenges and his solutions for overcoming them. Today, I’m excited to have the opportunity to let him share his experience, tips, and resources with you. Enjoy this treasure trove of insight!

Discovery

I wish I knew then what I know now.

For my first 45 years, I thought I was broken: I was a daydreamer, I couldn’t focus on things everyone else thought were important, I fidgeted when I should have been focusing, and I focused intently on the wrong things when people wanted my attention elsewhere.

[...]

#writing advice

[ink-flavored]

Leave me and my weird names in peace

[ink-flavored]

I think some people forget that some literature and some media is meant to be deeply uncomfortable and unsettling. It's meant to make you have a very visceral reaction to it. If you genuinely can't handle these stories then you are under no obligation to consume them but acting as if they have no purpose or as if people don't have a right to tell these stories, stories that often relate to the darkest or most disturbing parts of life, then you should do some introspection.

[ink-flavored]

The Seal and the Ravens

OC INTRODUCTION - Dala

“Let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity.  My wife saw your forsythia from the window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she had not got some to eat.” Then the enchantress allowed her anger to be softened, and said to him, “If the case be as you say, I will allow you to take away with you as much forsythia as you will, only I make one condition, you must give me the child which your wife will bring into the world.  It shall be well treated, and I will care for it like a mother.”

(Above is altered from the original tale and not written by me)

Dala is an enchantress, beautiful and mysterious, somewhat cruel. Above all else, lonely. She ventures between her enchanted garden, tending to her visitors and watching them grow, and the tower where her daughter, Thia, lives. She's been known to reward those who send hapless travellers to her garden with magical artefacts, such as magic mirrors.

See more about The Seal and the Ravens here! Leave a comment or send an ask to be added to the taglist.

#other writers

[ink-flavored]

65 Question OC Polycule Ask Game

Do you have a bunch of OCs in a polycule? Do you have the burning desire to answer questions about them? Look no further for an excuse to talk about it!   There are footnotes under the cut to explain some potentially unfamiliar terminology. Remember to send an ask to the person you reblog it from to make sure everyone gets to play!

How many members are in the polycule? How are they related to each other? Feel free to draw a flow chart.

Did the relationship start polyamorous, or was it a monogamous relationship that eventually opened?

If it started monogamous, how did the process of opening the relationship go?

Are there any mono-poly1 relationships in the polycule?

What “shape” is the polycule? A triad, a “V”, a straight line of metamours2, or incomprehensible?

Where do each of the members land on the “solo poly” to “entwined” spectrum?3

Where do each of the members land on the “free agent” to “community oriented” spectrum?4

How did each member realize they were polyamorous? Did they always know, or was there some sort of epiphany?

Do any of the current members practice hierarchical polyamory5? Who are the primary partners?

If the polycule is hierarchical, what differs in the boundaries set for primary vs secondary partners? Tertiary partners?

Have any of the members been in a hierarchical polycule before?

Have any of the members been in a non-hierarchical polycule before?

Do any of the members have a preference between hierarchical and non-hierarchical polyamory?

What’s the craziest polycule drama they’ve experienced so far?

Have any of the members been the unicorn6 of a relationship?

Have any of the members been unicorn hunters7 in the past? Were they successful?

How does each member like to engage with their metamours? Do they want to meet every potential addition, or do they not care at all?

What are their “vetoes” for potential metamours? Do they have any at all?

Which of the members want to live with their partner(s), and which prefer to live alone?

How do each of the members deal with jealousy? How intense is the feeling?

How intense does each member feel compersion8 toward their partners and metamours?

Who has the strongest communication skills in the group? Who has the weakest?

Who does the most scheduling out of all the members?

How do they deal with feelings of loneliness if their partner(s) are spending time with their other partner(s)?

Does the polycule ever have get-togethers or dates where everyone is present? What are they like?

Of the members who live together, what are the household dynamics like? How do they split chores, manage finances, etc.?

Of the members who live together, do they all sleep in one bed too? All separate bedrooms? Something in-between?

What are their sexual dynamics like? Is group sex frequent, or is it purely one-on-one?

Do boundaries shift depending on which partners are involved in sex or romance?

What kind of boundaries exist outside of a romantic dynamic? Are friends-with-benefits considered metamours? Hook-ups?

Are any of the polycule members aromantic? How does that influence their relationship boundaries and their relationship to polyamory in general?

Are any of the polycule members asexual? How does that influence their relationship boundaries and their relationship to polyamory in general?

Do any of the polycule members consider their relationship(s) to be queerplatonic? How does that influence their relationship boundaries and their relationship to polyamory in general?

How have their members’ respective family relationships influenced their polyamorous dynamics?

Were any of the members raised in a polyamorous family?

Are any of the polycule members parents? How many kids do they have?

If there aren’t any kids yet, will there ever be?

How would the polycule deal with one member wanting kids, but another member never wanting kids?

If the relationship opened up after children were already in the picture, how was the change explained to them? Was it explained at all?

Do all members of the polycule raise children together, or are there designated “parent” members?

How does being in a polyamorous relationship influence how boundaries are taught to their kids?

How do the kids feel about their parent(s) being polyamorous? Are they supportive, indifferent, or actively opposed?

Have cultural dynamics played a part in how the polycule operates?

Are any of the members keeping their polyamory a secret? Why?

For mono-poly relationships, how does the monogamous partner see and experience their relationship with a polyamorous person? Their relationships with their metamours?

How did any monogamous partners deal with the idea of opening up a previously closed relationship? Was it a difficult change?

Did any monogamous partners discover they were polyamorous after the relationship opened up? How did they find out?

Do any monogamous partners still struggle to cope with polyamory? What gets them through the hard times?

Were any monogamous partners completely fine with polyamory from the beginning?

How do the polyamorous halves of the mono-poly relationships feel about dating a monogamous person? Is it a unique struggle or smooth sailing?

Do the mono-poly relationships have different boundaries than the poly-poly-poly-poly-etc. relationships?

How well do the metamours get along? Do they even know each other?

Do any of the metamours dislike each other? How does that impact their shared partner(s)?

Do any of the metamours hang out when their shared partner(s) aren’t around?

Do any of the metamours have specific dynamics and/or boundaries with each other? Why?

How do the members feel about marriage? Do they live in a society that recognizes polyamorous marriage at all? If marriage isn’t an option, what about legal protections?

What do any monogamous members think about their polyamorous partner potentially marrying someone else (either in addition to or instead of them)?

How does the polycule celebrate anniversaries?

How does the polycule celebrate birthdays?

If one of the members gets sick, who takes care of them? Is there a rotation of caretakers lining up, or designated partner(s)?

Has anyone experienced a particularly messy break-up while in the polycule? How did everyone handle it?

Which of the members, if any, would be happy in a monogamous relationship if having a polycule wasn’t possible? Would any rather be single than monogamous?

How insecure was each member when starting their polyamorous journey? In what ways?

How did each member overcome their insecurities about relationships? Have they at all?

Wild card! Ask anything you can imagine!

[1] Mono-poly: a relationship that contains both a monogamous and polyamorous person; the monogamous person is only dating one polyamorous partner, but that partner might have other partners in addition to their monogamous partner.

[2] Metamour: the members of a polycule who are dating the same person or people, but aren’t dating each other.

[3] Solo: presents to the world as single at first glance; may not want to live with any partner, or if they do, they may not choose to share finances or property.

Entwined: prefers relationships that are more entwined practically, financially, or both; values sharing living space, spending time in close proximity, sharing financial or household obligations, etc.; may see themselves as part of a unit, a single family that shares responsibilities together and approaches life together.

Definitions taken from “More Than Two” by Franklin Veaux and Eve Rickert

[4] Free Agent: values personal autonomy highly, places importance on the ability to make their own decisions, and presents to the world as able to act without requiring permission from others; places responsibility for decision-making, and for bearing the consequences, on each person individually.

Community Oriented: focuses on the interconnectedness of their relationships and their community; decisions are made with an eye toward how they might fit with the others.

Definitions taken from “More Than Two” by Franklin Veaux and Eve Rickert

[5] Hierarchical Polyamory: a kind of polyamory in which the members of the polycule are split into “primary” partners, “secondary” partners, “tertiary” partners, and so on. The higher “ranked” members are given more priority when it comes to spending time together, living arrangements, major life decisions, and overall have more control over the state of the polycule than the lower ranked members. This is in contrast to non-hierarchical polyamory, in which there is no ranking system, all relationships are treated with equal weight, and decisions are made as a group. There is no one proper way to practice polyamory, and both methods can be fulfilling for people who have different needs for their relationships.

[6] Unicorn: stereotypically, a young bisexual woman that is equally attracted to both primary members of a hierarchical polycule or a recently opened monogamous relationship, agrees to give both members equal attention, and agrees to have no additional partners. Referred to as “unicorns” because these strict requirements for a dynamic are basically impossible to find.

[7] Unicorn Hunter(s): stereotypically, the primary members of a hierarchical polycule or a recently opened monogamous relationship who relentlessly search for a “unicorn” to perfect their ideal polyamorous dynamic. Often have very strict requirements of their unicorn, which is why they’re constantly hunting for someone who can fulfill them.

[8] Compersion: the opposite of jealousy; the feeling of joy experienced when seeing your partner happy with their other partner(s).

[ink-flavored]

65 Question OC Polycule Ask Game

Do you have a bunch of OCs in a polycule? Do you have the burning desire to answer questions about them? Look no further for an excuse to talk about it!   There are footnotes under the cut to explain some potentially unfamiliar terminology. Remember to send an ask to the person you reblog it from to make sure everyone gets to play!

How many members are in the polycule? How are they related to each other? Feel free to draw a flow chart.

Did the relationship start polyamorous, or was it a monogamous relationship that eventually opened?

If it started monogamous, how did the process of opening the relationship go?

Are there any mono-poly1 relationships in the polycule?

What “shape” is the polycule? A triad, a “V”, a straight line of metamours2, or incomprehensible?

Where do each of the members land on the “solo poly” to “entwined” spectrum?3

Where do each of the members land on the “free agent” to “community oriented” spectrum?4

How did each member realize they were polyamorous? Did they always know, or was there some sort of epiphany?

Do any of the current members practice hierarchical polyamory5? Who are the primary partners?

If the polycule is hierarchical, what differs in the boundaries set for primary vs secondary partners? Tertiary partners?

Have any of the members been in a hierarchical polycule before?

Have any of the members been in a non-hierarchical polycule before?

Do any of the members have a preference between hierarchical and non-hierarchical polyamory?

What’s the craziest polycule drama they’ve experienced so far?

Have any of the members been the unicorn6 of a relationship?

Have any of the members been unicorn hunters7 in the past? Were they successful?

How does each member like to engage with their metamours? Do they want to meet every potential addition, or do they not care at all?

What are their “vetoes” for potential metamours? Do they have any at all?

Which of the members want to live with their partner(s), and which prefer to live alone?

How do each of the members deal with jealousy? How intense is the feeling?

How intense does each member feel compersion8 toward their partners and metamours?

Who has the strongest communication skills in the group? Who has the weakest?

Who does the most scheduling out of all the members?

How do they deal with feelings of loneliness if their partner(s) are spending time with their other partner(s)?

Does the polycule ever have get-togethers or dates where everyone is present? What are they like?

Of the members who live together, what are the household dynamics like? How do they split chores, manage finances, etc.?

Of the members who live together, do they all sleep in one bed too? All separate bedrooms? Something in-between?

What are their sexual dynamics like? Is group sex frequent, or is it purely one-on-one?

Do boundaries shift depending on which partners are involved in sex or romance?

What kind of boundaries exist outside of a romantic dynamic? Are friends-with-benefits considered metamours? Hook-ups?

Are any of the polycule members aromantic? How does that influence their relationship boundaries and their relationship to polyamory in general?

Are any of the polycule members asexual? How does that influence their relationship boundaries and their relationship to polyamory in general?

Do any of the polycule members consider their relationship(s) to be queerplatonic? How does that influence their relationship boundaries and their relationship to polyamory in general?

How have their members’ respective family relationships influenced their polyamorous dynamics?

Were any of the members raised in a polyamorous family?

Are any of the polycule members parents? How many kids do they have?

If there aren’t any kids yet, will there ever be?

How would the polycule deal with one member wanting kids, but another member never wanting kids?

If the relationship opened up after children were already in the picture, how was the change explained to them? Was it explained at all?

Do all members of the polycule raise children together, or are there designated “parent” members?

How does being in a polyamorous relationship influence how boundaries are taught to their kids?

How do the kids feel about their parent(s) being polyamorous? Are they supportive, indifferent, or actively opposed?

Have cultural dynamics played a part in how the polycule operates?

Are any of the members keeping their polyamory a secret? Why?

For mono-poly relationships, how does the monogamous partner see and experience their relationship with a polyamorous person? Their relationships with their metamours?

How did any monogamous partners deal with the idea of opening up a previously closed relationship? Was it a difficult change?

Did any monogamous partners discover they were polyamorous after the relationship opened up? How did they find out?

Do any monogamous partners still struggle to cope with polyamory? What gets them through the hard times?

Were any monogamous partners completely fine with polyamory from the beginning?

How do the polyamorous halves of the mono-poly relationships feel about dating a monogamous person? Is it a unique struggle or smooth sailing?

Do the mono-poly relationships have different boundaries than the poly-poly-poly-poly-etc. relationships?

How well do the metamours get along? Do they even know each other?

Do any of the metamours dislike each other? How does that impact their shared partner(s)?

Do any of the metamours hang out when their shared partner(s) aren’t around?

Do any of the metamours have specific dynamics and/or boundaries with each other? Why?

How do the members feel about marriage? Do they live in a society that recognizes polyamorous marriage at all? If marriage isn’t an option, what about legal protections?

What do any monogamous members think about their polyamorous partner potentially marrying someone else (either in addition to or instead of them)?

How does the polycule celebrate anniversaries?

How does the polycule celebrate birthdays?

If one of the members gets sick, who takes care of them? Is there a rotation of caretakers lining up, or designated partner(s)?

Has anyone experienced a particularly messy break-up while in the polycule? How did everyone handle it?

Which of the members, if any, would be happy in a monogamous relationship if having a polycule wasn’t possible? Would any rather be single than monogamous?

How insecure was each member when starting their polyamorous journey? In what ways?

How did each member overcome their insecurities about relationships? Have they at all?

Wild card! Ask anything you can imagine!

[1] Mono-poly: a relationship that contains both a monogamous and polyamorous person; the monogamous person is only dating one polyamorous partner, but that partner might have other partners in addition to their monogamous partner.

[2] Metamour: the members of a polycule who are dating the same person or people, but aren’t dating each other.

[3] Solo: presents to the world as single at first glance; may not want to live with any partner, or if they do, they may not choose to share finances or property.

Entwined: prefers relationships that are more entwined practically, financially, or both; values sharing living space, spending time in close proximity, sharing financial or household obligations, etc.; may see themselves as part of a unit, a single family that shares responsibilities together and approaches life together.

Definitions taken from “More Than Two” by Franklin Veaux and Eve Rickert

[4] Free Agent: values personal autonomy highly, places importance on the ability to make their own decisions, and presents to the world as able to act without requiring permission from others; places responsibility for decision-making, and for bearing the consequences, on each person individually.

Community Oriented: focuses on the interconnectedness of their relationships and their community; decisions are made with an eye toward how they might fit with the others.

Definitions taken from “More Than Two” by Franklin Veaux and Eve Rickert

[5] Hierarchical Polyamory: a kind of polyamory in which the members of the polycule are split into “primary” partners, “secondary” partners, “tertiary” partners, and so on. The higher “ranked” members are given more priority when it comes to spending time together, living arrangements, major life decisions, and overall have more control over the state of the polycule than the lower ranked members. This is in contrast to non-hierarchical polyamory, in which there is no ranking system, all relationships are treated with equal weight, and decisions are made as a group. There is no one proper way to practice polyamory, and both methods can be fulfilling for people who have different needs for their relationships.

[6] Unicorn: stereotypically, a young bisexual woman that is equally attracted to both primary members of a hierarchical polycule or a recently opened monogamous relationship, agrees to give both members equal attention, and agrees to have no additional partners. Referred to as “unicorns” because these strict requirements for a dynamic are basically impossible to find.

[7] Unicorn Hunter(s): stereotypically, the primary members of a hierarchical polycule or a recently opened monogamous relationship who relentlessly search for a “unicorn” to perfect their ideal polyamorous dynamic. Often have very strict requirements of their unicorn, which is why they’re constantly hunting for someone who can fulfill them.

[8] Compersion: the opposite of jealousy; the feeling of joy experienced when seeing your partner happy with their other partner(s).

[ink-flavored]

everything under preferences & emotions for the jumbo ask game? :3

woagh a beeg one

so my heart always wants to talk about Pride and Justice, literally all the time, for any reason. but i also want to shove Harlan and Yvonne in everyone's faces, as the new kids on the block. so to satisfy my extremely indulgent urges, i'm going to split this list in half and answer 5 for each couple.

Pride & Justice

🔥 Give us a list of general likes and dislikes, such as colors, textures, music, weather and other stuff!

Okay for Justice this is easy. He likes books and analyzing books (especially romance, especially in his book club), basically any animal (including humans), bright colors (yellow, light green, soft blues, lotta pastels in his wardrobe), soft textures, fruity scents (like in lotion and shampoo and stuff), his favorite season is spring, he likes overcast skies, and he'll listen to just about any music but has an affinity for classical and Lo-Fi Hip-Hop Beats To Study/Relax To.

On the other hand, Pride is so repressed that he does not allow himself to enjoy things for a hot minute because he's afraid of looking Weak and Vulnerable for Experiencing Joy. He'll admit to enjoying weed, alcohol, shoplifting, and inciting violence, but that's about it. Eventually, he comes to enjoy the punk scenes Ollie frequents and trips and falls into emo stuff (he also listens to pop-y club music when he's not at the club, but won't admit it), he can tortuously admit his favorite color is maroon, he obsesses over telenovelas with Sofia, he loves watching bad movies on purpose to make fun of them, he likes rain and snow, and his favorite texture is "Justice's clothes."

🍊 What is your OC’s favorite meal? Snack? Dessert? Drink? Any reasons behind this besides liking how it tastes? What is your OC’s most hated food? Stuff they can’t stand to eat or drink?

Justice is partial to breakfast food in general, but simply cannot resist the opportunity to eat French toast when it's available. It's the first thing he perfected while learning to cook for the first time, so it's special in that way too.

Pride doesn't cook much (or rather, doesn't cook anything recognizable as human food), so his favorite things are made by other people or store bought. In general, he likes tart, sweet-and-sour flavors because it reminds him what his sin tastes like, and Ollie's weed brownies for exactly the reason you're thinking.

I haven't thought too much about what either of them dislike, so I'm pulling these out of my ass. Pride thinks yogurt is the weirdest, grossest food in the world, and Justice really doesn't understand the appeal of avocados.

�� Where is your OC’s favorite place to relax or calm down? Recount a story of their time spent in this place! What makes it so special to them? Is there anywhere your OC hates to go to? Anywhere that stresses them out or have negative memories of?

For a while, Purgatory was Pride's escape. Nobody cares about Purgatory, nobody would ever look for him there, so it's where he went to cool off after another fight with Lust or to escape someone he pissed off. Relatedly, Hell is his least favorite place (shock, gasp).

On Earth, he kinda just goes to his room and curls up in his blanket nest when upset. Sometimes he will accompany this with extremely loud sadboy music. If he's just chilling though, he'll sit in the most space-taking position on the couch possible and watch Epic Fail compilations or something. Bonus points if Justice is there and he can invite himself into his lap.

Justice likes to sit on the balcony and be quiet, either with a book or nothing. It's his Thinking Spot, where he goes to brain it all out. It's important to him because he never really... had a place for that in Heaven. Everything he did was strictly regulated and controlled, so all his "relaxing" had to be done during his designated "relax" time, which he """shockingly"""" didn't get a ton of.

He hasn't been on Earth long enough to have negative associations with any particular place, but his memories of Heaven have been quite tainted by his recent rejection. He both wants to go back desperately, and hates that he wants to at all.

🧡 Who is your OC’s favorite person? Why is this person the top of their list and have they actually met them (an idol or role model or celeb can be someone’s favorite after all!). Who does your OC absolutely hate, the one person who they’d sell to Satan for one corn chip? Why do they loathe this person so?

Pride's favorite person is HIM!

In seriousness, Pride has himself on a pedestal because literally nobody gave a shit about him up until the events of the story happened. It was/is a coping mechanism, a survival technique, a way to rationalize all his actions away as Correct, because if he was ever wrong then that meant that everyone who had ever hurt him was right. As he grows, he begins to unlearn this way of thinking, but he never really lets go of that core idea. Pride is the most important person in the world to Pride, because he has to be. When nobody else is around, he has to truly, genuinely, earnestly love himself, not just to cope, but to like... be happy. But since he's not alone, and does have people who love him, Justice is his favorite non-him person for both character development reasons and extremely gay reasons.

As for his least favorite people, that could honestly fill a book. He is so bitter. God for obvious reasons, Lust for being abusive, Lucifer for lying about being better than God, but his hatred for Envy is I think the most interesting. In real life, the emotions of envy and (unhealthy) pride are very closely linked - people who have an unhealthy relationship with their pride are often envious of other people. Pride hates Envy because she's the concept of everything he can't admit to himself (he's envious of angels and humans who are happy, loved, and have God's affection), and Envy hates him right back for flaunting his confidence/dismissal of her sin as a concept at her and showing what she thinks she needs to be happy (and no longer envious). They're catty as fuck.

Justice loves Pride (for gay reasons and character reasons), but it's an extremely close race, maybe even a tie, for his sister Kindness. She's the reason for a lot of who he is, they intentionally modeled their human bodies so they would look related. Kindness really helped shape his understanding of how God's justice and God's kindness work together to create the Perfect Wholesome World of Heaven and is a big reason he believes what he does. Obviously when Heaven turned out to not be so wonderful and wholesome, he still took those ideals with him to Earth. One of his core philosophies is that justice should be guided by kindness, not the other way around, and she helped teach him that.

His personal antagonist in the book is Honesty, and he loathes her for extremely good reasons. She was his direct superior in Heaven, and made his life very difficult once he started suggesting that maybe Purgatory isn't the best way to do things. He has been under her thumb for ages, and him leaving Heaven was basically the excuse she was looking for to brand him a traitor. Justice does not wish death on anyone, but he's very close saying some very mean words about Honesty.

📙 What kind of subjects (of conversation, of discussion, in school or whatever) does your OC find interesting or engaging or that they can talk for hours about? What kind of stuff do they just find fun? What things bore your OC to tears and they couldn’t care less about? Why?

Justice LOOOOVES Blorbo From His Books. Pick up any book in his collection, he'll have hours of conversation at the ready. Even the trashy pulpy ones - ESPECIALLY the pulpy ones tbh. He's also a rules lawyer by definition of embodying God's justice, so he also enjoys having a friendly argument of semantics and creating the most busted TTRPG characters you've ever seen based on nothing but technicalities.

What Justice does not like talking about is... arguments for the sake of arguing? I guess? He doesn't like getting into fights, he just likes talking about rules, so anyone coming at him with like... real Stakes in the topic at hand with Furious Rebuttals immediately turns him off. He's just playing toys. Why are you so mad.

As previously mentioned, Pride doesn't really allow himself to enjoy things for a while, and even when he does, he doesn't like the idea of talking for hours about stuff. When he gets into art and starts painting, he doesn't really talk about it as much as he just... does it all the time, here's a picture. He'd rather show, not tell, and let the art speak for itself. Even with his bad movies and telenovelas, he doesn't have much to say other than "they're so fuckin hilarious, this one's my favorite, we should watch it Right Now, No Take Backs."

Pride finds SO many things boring actually. Don't talk about sports, don't talk about anything with numbers, don't bring up PROBLEMS in the NEWS??? It better be FUNNY or SEXY or VIOLENT or he is not listening to you.

Harlan & Yvonne

😊 What can make your OC smile even when they’re feeling down? What cheers them up and makes everything feel better for them? Is your OC generally a happy person and do they enjoy making others smile? What about your OC makes others happy?

Harlan is definitely a happy guy by default, especially after starting magic HRT. He lives a very party-heavy college lifestyle around a lot of other party people, so he's very rarely in a situation where thinking about his problems is in the forefront of his mind.

Music pretty reliably makes him happy, and just being in a situation where there are lots of people having a good time also makes him want to have a good time, which is where the parties come in. The infectious energy and the drinking games and whatever party potions everyone is passing around, all that is where he wants to be, with the people he wants to be with.

Harlan is also very good at being your personal hype man? He will simply not let his friends get away with self-depreciation, and give you compliments until you agree that they're true.

Yvonne is a more subdued kind of happy. She's consistently homesick for her herd, but does her best to keep in touch and explore her big city lifestyle in Athendrolyn and make a new "herd" for herself.

When she's particularly homesick, she'll either go on a long walk/trot along the beach or the forest trails, or if the weather's bad, curl up with a warm drink and a blanket and watch nostalgic movies from her foalhood.

Her social battery for people she hasn't integrated into her "new herd" is drained quite quickly, but if she's mentally made you part of that group, you're basically family to her. She'll drop anything for her herd, no matter the situation, and is all around a very compassionate and loyal friend.

⭐ What is your OC afraid of? Any crippling phobias or some such? How do they act when scared and what helps them calm down? Does anyone ever find your OC scary? Why?

Yvonne is a centaur, so she has crippling horse anxiety. Which is to say, she's afraid of most things! When she was living with her herd, it was mitigated by being in a herd and having a community and a leader to follow, but when she moved away for access to magic HRT, it got worse. She's particularly afraid of unexpected loud noises, sudden movements, and can get pretty overwhelmed in flashy environments like parties or concerts. She definitely leans on the "flight" half of fight or flight, and will look for any escape route possible. Depending on what's causing the episode, just being in a quiet room with someone she trusts for a few minutes can be enormously helpful, but the most reliable way for her to not be anxious is for people to announce when they're coming into a room, explain whatever that noise just was, and not go to parties.

As for being scary, Yvonne is a Clydesdale, so I wouldn't put it past people to find her intimidating, but usually once she opens her mouth all that is put to rest. She's very friendly!

Harlan isn't a particularly anxious person, but does avoid the ocean whenever possible. He's terrified of the sea and most deep water in general. He can swim, he just doesn't like doing it, and it's pretty easy for him to be calm by not going near deep water👍ever 👍

He's not scary either, nor would he ever want to seem scary.

🍋 Does your OC act petty and jealous easily? What sort of things make them feel like this and do they experience guilt for getting so worked up? How do they deal with these emotions when they get them? If your OC doesn’t feel like this often, why not?

Harlan is definitely very petty. One thing that happens in the short story is that his friends tease him about making up Yvonne (because they'd never met her/seen a picture of her), and once she shows up he takes EVERY OPPORTUNITY to rub their noses in the fact that HHHIISSS girlfriend is here, and his REALLY AWESOME GIRLFRIEND is right there, and wow did he mention they're DATINGGGGG??????

He really hates being underestimated, or being made a fool of, which is why he reacts so strongly to things like that. He doesn't like feeling like he's second best, so if he feels like that's happening (even if it isn't), he asserts his "authority" basically with any straw he can grasp. Sometimes this is easy, like when Yvonne turns out to be real and not fake, but other times it's just... unrelated or insulting or made up. He's not good at impulse control, so usually he has to be told to knock it off.

Yvonne is not very petty or jealous because in general very calm and not very confrontational. She can be a little insecure, too, so in instances where she is feeling jealous, it's more internal, and she doesn't act on it.

When she does feel it bad enough, she can shut down and be kind of closed off. Usually someone can help talk her back out of it, and Harlan is especially good at this because he likes to hype her up at every opportunity.

📀 How easy is it to shock your OC? To confuse them? To lie to them, to manipulate them? How are they with feelings of trust? Can your OC be trusted?

Yvonne grew up pretty sheltered in a rural area with only other centaurs, so she's pretty out of her depth when she moves to Athendrolyn with its dozens of different creatures and customs and traditions. The culture shock made her pretty susceptible to being tricked, both in non-serious ways and worse ways, but she's definitely more vigilant now. She's very trusting, even after those unfortunate incidents, and will generally give people the benefit of the doubt.

Harlan is much quicker to call bullshit, but also quicker to go "yooooo no wayyyyy," about something that personally piques his interest, whether or not it's true. He tends to trust people unless they have a known history of being untrustworthy, and his fraternity (or whatever I'm calling it in this fictional world) can definitely spread news, true or false, faster than anyone can possibly outrun it, so if he's trusting someone he knows he can trust, but they got their info from someone else who got it from someone else etc... yeah.

On his end, Harlan is a pretty straightforward guy, but he does fib a liiiittle bit on occasion to seem cooler. It's why his friends jumped to "your girlfriend isn't even real" in the first place. It's more dramatic than the things he's done in the past, but it's also not not something he would do.

💛 In general, how in control of their emotions is your OC? Do they have a good hold on them or do their emotions control them, not the other way around? What do you think is the reason behind this and is your OC ever concerned about their lack of or good control?

As previously mentioned, Harlan doesn't have the greatest impulse control, and will act on how he feels before he thinks through what he's actually doing. He really feels the need to prove himself among his peers and seem cool and interesting, and the party lifestyle that encourages impulsive actions ddddoesn't help? much?

He knows he has this problem, and does try to catch himself, but it's a process after acting impulsively for so long. Yvonne being a stable, calm presence in his life has tremendously helped him.

Yvonne isn't impulsive at all, kind of the opposite. She has a lot of anxiety, and that prevents basically any impulsive action, which can cause her feelings to rule her life in a different way. She can be closed off and wary of things that aren't already in her comfort zone, especially growing up so sheltered.

She actually didn't realize how closed off she'd gotten until she met and started hanging out with Harlan, and has been slowly trying to increase her tolerance of out-of-comfort-zone experience since.

[send me something from the jumbo ask game]

[ink-flavored]

You know what I want, I want the glasses trope but swapped

you know how movies will do the thing where they take the nerdy character and make them look beautiful without their glasses

we’ll have it swapped where you take your love interest, someone who doesn’t normally where glasses and then show the main character catch them when they’re by themselves and they’re using reading glasses, or wears contacts normally when they’re out in public and wears glasses at home and have them get attracted to that

not only will be a nice way to turn a trope on its head but it could also be a physical representation of characters B getting more comfortable with Character A where they show a more personal side of themselves

#things that i do on purpose because i hate the original trope so much #<- glasses wearer

[ink-flavored]

65 Question OC Polycule Ask Game

Do you have a bunch of OCs in a polycule? Do you have the burning desire to answer questions about them? Look no further for an excuse to talk about it!   There are footnotes under the cut to explain some potentially unfamiliar terminology. Remember to send an ask to the person you reblog it from to make sure everyone gets to play!

How many members are in the polycule? How are they related to each other? Feel free to draw a flow chart.

Did the relationship start polyamorous, or was it a monogamous relationship that eventually opened?

If it started monogamous, how did the process of opening the relationship go?

Are there any mono-poly1 relationships in the polycule?

What “shape” is the polycule? A triad, a “V”, a straight line of metamours2, or incomprehensible?

Where do each of the members land on the “solo poly” to “entwined” spectrum?3

Where do each of the members land on the “free agent” to “community oriented” spectrum?4

How did each member realize they were polyamorous? Did they always know, or was there some sort of epiphany?

Do any of the current members practice hierarchical polyamory5? Who are the primary partners?

If the polycule is hierarchical, what differs in the boundaries set for primary vs secondary partners? Tertiary partners?

Have any of the members been in a hierarchical polycule before?

Have any of the members been in a non-hierarchical polycule before?

Do any of the members have a preference between hierarchical and non-hierarchical polyamory?

What’s the craziest polycule drama they’ve experienced so far?

Have any of the members been the unicorn6 of a relationship?

Have any of the members been unicorn hunters7 in the past? Were they successful?

How does each member like to engage with their metamours? Do they want to meet every potential addition, or do they not care at all?

What are their “vetoes” for potential metamours? Do they have any at all?

Which of the members want to live with their partner(s), and which prefer to live alone?

How do each of the members deal with jealousy? How intense is the feeling?

How intense does each member feel compersion8 toward their partners and metamours?

Who has the strongest communication skills in the group? Who has the weakest?

Who does the most scheduling out of all the members?

How do they deal with feelings of loneliness if their partner(s) are spending time with their other partner(s)?

Does the polycule ever have get-togethers or dates where everyone is present? What are they like?

Of the members who live together, what are the household dynamics like? How do they split chores, manage finances, etc.?

Of the members who live together, do they all sleep in one bed too? All separate bedrooms? Something in-between?

What are their sexual dynamics like? Is group sex frequent, or is it purely one-on-one?

Do boundaries shift depending on which partners are involved in sex or romance?

What kind of boundaries exist outside of a romantic dynamic? Are friends-with-benefits considered metamours? Hook-ups?

Are any of the polycule members aromantic? How does that influence their relationship boundaries and their relationship to polyamory in general?

Are any of the polycule members asexual? How does that influence their relationship boundaries and their relationship to polyamory in general?

Do any of the polycule members consider their relationship(s) to be queerplatonic? How does that influence their relationship boundaries and their relationship to polyamory in general?

How have their members’ respective family relationships influenced their polyamorous dynamics?

Were any of the members raised in a polyamorous family?

Are any of the polycule members parents? How many kids do they have?

If there aren’t any kids yet, will there ever be?

How would the polycule deal with one member wanting kids, but another member never wanting kids?

If the relationship opened up after children were already in the picture, how was the change explained to them? Was it explained at all?

Do all members of the polycule raise children together, or are there designated “parent” members?

How does being in a polyamorous relationship influence how boundaries are taught to their kids?

How do the kids feel about their parent(s) being polyamorous? Are they supportive, indifferent, or actively opposed?

Have cultural dynamics played a part in how the polycule operates?

Are any of the members keeping their polyamory a secret? Why?

For mono-poly relationships, how does the monogamous partner see and experience their relationship with a polyamorous person? Their relationships with their metamours?

How did any monogamous partners deal with the idea of opening up a previously closed relationship? Was it a difficult change?

Did any monogamous partners discover they were polyamorous after the relationship opened up? How did they find out?

Do any monogamous partners still struggle to cope with polyamory? What gets them through the hard times?

Were any monogamous partners completely fine with polyamory from the beginning?

How do the polyamorous halves of the mono-poly relationships feel about dating a monogamous person? Is it a unique struggle or smooth sailing?

Do the mono-poly relationships have different boundaries than the poly-poly-poly-poly-etc. relationships?

How well do the metamours get along? Do they even know each other?

Do any of the metamours dislike each other? How does that impact their shared partner(s)?

Do any of the metamours hang out when their shared partner(s) aren’t around?

Do any of the metamours have specific dynamics and/or boundaries with each other? Why?

How do the members feel about marriage? Do they live in a society that recognizes polyamorous marriage at all? If marriage isn’t an option, what about legal protections?

What do any monogamous members think about their polyamorous partner potentially marrying someone else (either in addition to or instead of them)?

How does the polycule celebrate anniversaries?

How does the polycule celebrate birthdays?

If one of the members gets sick, who takes care of them? Is there a rotation of caretakers lining up, or designated partner(s)?

Has anyone experienced a particularly messy break-up while in the polycule? How did everyone handle it?

Which of the members, if any, would be happy in a monogamous relationship if having a polycule wasn’t possible? Would any rather be single than monogamous?

How insecure was each member when starting their polyamorous journey? In what ways?

How did each member overcome their insecurities about relationships? Have they at all?

Wild card! Ask anything you can imagine!

[1] Mono-poly: a relationship that contains both a monogamous and polyamorous person; the monogamous person is only dating one polyamorous partner, but that partner might have other partners in addition to their monogamous partner.

[2] Metamour: the members of a polycule who are dating the same person or people, but aren’t dating each other.

[3] Solo: presents to the world as single at first glance; may not want to live with any partner, or if they do, they may not choose to share finances or property.

Entwined: prefers relationships that are more entwined practically, financially, or both; values sharing living space, spending time in close proximity, sharing financial or household obligations, etc.; may see themselves as part of a unit, a single family that shares responsibilities together and approaches life together.

Definitions taken from “More Than Two” by Franklin Veaux and Eve Rickert

[4] Free Agent: values personal autonomy highly, places importance on the ability to make their own decisions, and presents to the world as able to act without requiring permission from others; places responsibility for decision-making, and for bearing the consequences, on each person individually.

Community Oriented: focuses on the interconnectedness of their relationships and their community; decisions are made with an eye toward how they might fit with the others.

Definitions taken from “More Than Two” by Franklin Veaux and Eve Rickert

[5] Hierarchical Polyamory: a kind of polyamory in which the members of the polycule are split into “primary” partners, “secondary” partners, “tertiary” partners, and so on. The higher “ranked” members are given more priority when it comes to spending time together, living arrangements, major life decisions, and overall have more control over the state of the polycule than the lower ranked members. This is in contrast to non-hierarchical polyamory, in which there is no ranking system, all relationships are treated with equal weight, and decisions are made as a group. There is no one proper way to practice polyamory, and both methods can be fulfilling for people who have different needs for their relationships.

[6] Unicorn: stereotypically, a young bisexual woman that is equally attracted to both primary members of a hierarchical polycule or a recently opened monogamous relationship, agrees to give both members equal attention, and agrees to have no additional partners. Referred to as “unicorns” because these strict requirements for a dynamic are basically impossible to find.

[7] Unicorn Hunter(s): stereotypically, the primary members of a hierarchical polycule or a recently opened monogamous relationship who relentlessly search for a “unicorn” to perfect their ideal polyamorous dynamic. Often have very strict requirements of their unicorn, which is why they’re constantly hunting for someone who can fulfill them.

[8] Compersion: the opposite of jealousy; the feeling of joy experienced when seeing your partner happy with their other partner(s).

[ink-flavored]

i want 60 thousand votes by next thursday

[ink-flavored]

everything under preferences & emotions for the jumbo ask game? :3

woagh a beeg one

so my heart always wants to talk about Pride and Justice, literally all the time, for any reason. but i also want to shove Harlan and Yvonne in everyone's faces, as the new kids on the block. so to satisfy my extremely indulgent urges, i'm going to split this list in half and answer 5 for each couple.

Pride & Justice

🔥 Give us a list of general likes and dislikes, such as colors, textures, music, weather and other stuff!

Okay for Justice this is easy. He likes books and analyzing books (especially romance, especially in his book club), basically any animal (including humans), bright colors (yellow, light green, soft blues, lotta pastels in his wardrobe), soft textures, fruity scents (like in lotion and shampoo and stuff), his favorite season is spring, he likes overcast skies, and he'll listen to just about any music but has an affinity for classical and Lo-Fi Hip-Hop Beats To Study/Relax To.

On the other hand, Pride is so repressed that he does not allow himself to enjoy things for a hot minute because he's afraid of looking Weak and Vulnerable for Experiencing Joy. He'll admit to enjoying weed, alcohol, shoplifting, and inciting violence, but that's about it. Eventually, he comes to enjoy the punk scenes Ollie frequents and trips and falls into emo stuff (he also listens to pop-y club music when he's not at the club, but won't admit it), he can tortuously admit his favorite color is maroon, he obsesses over telenovelas with Sofia, he loves watching bad movies on purpose to make fun of them, he likes rain and snow, and his favorite texture is "Justice's clothes."

🍊 What is your OC’s favorite meal? Snack? Dessert? Drink? Any reasons behind this besides liking how it tastes? What is your OC’s most hated food? Stuff they can’t stand to eat or drink?

Justice is partial to breakfast food in general, but simply cannot resist the opportunity to eat French toast when it's available. It's the first thing he perfected while learning to cook for the first time, so it's special in that way too.

Pride doesn't cook much (or rather, doesn't cook anything recognizable as human food), so his favorite things are made by other people or store bought. In general, he likes tart, sweet-and-sour flavors because it reminds him what his sin tastes like, and Ollie's weed brownies for exactly the reason you're thinking.

I haven't thought too much about what either of them dislike, so I'm pulling these out of my ass. Pride thinks yogurt is the weirdest, grossest food in the world, and Justice really doesn't understand the appeal of avocados.

🍑 Where is your OC’s favorite place to relax or calm down? Recount a story of their time spent in this place! What makes it so special to them? Is there anywhere your OC hates to go to? Anywhere that stresses them out or have negative memories of?

For a while, Purgatory was Pride's escape. Nobody cares about Purgatory, nobody would ever look for him there, so it's where he went to cool off after another fight with Lust or to escape someone he pissed off. Relatedly, Hell is his least favorite place (shock, gasp).

On Earth, he kinda just goes to his room and curls up in his blanket nest when upset. Sometimes he will accompany this with extremely loud sadboy music. If he's just chilling though, he'll sit in the most space-taking position on the couch possible and watch Epic Fail compilations or something. Bonus points if Justice is there and he can invite himself into his lap.

Justice likes to sit on the balcony and be quiet, either with a book or nothing. It's his Thinking Spot, where he goes to brain it all out. It's important to him because he never really... had a place for that in Heaven. Everything he did was strictly regulated and controlled, so all his "relaxing" had to be done during his designated "relax" time, which he """shockingly"""" didn't get a ton of.

He hasn't been on Earth long enough to have negative associations with any particular place, but his memories of Heaven have been quite tainted by his recent rejection. He both wants to go back desperately, and hates that he wants to at all.

🧡 Who is your OC’s favorite person? Why is this person the top of their list and have they actually met them (an idol or role model or celeb can be someone’s favorite after all!). Who does your OC absolutely hate, the one person who they’d sell to Satan for one corn chip? Why do they loathe this person so?

Pride's favorite person is HIM!

In seriousness, Pride has himself on a pedestal because literally nobody gave a shit about him up until the events of the story happened. It was/is a coping mechanism, a survival technique, a way to rationalize all his actions away as Correct, because if he was ever wrong then that meant that everyone who had ever hurt him was right. As he grows, he begins to unlearn this way of thinking, but he never really lets go of that core idea. Pride is the most important person in the world to Pride, because he has to be. When nobody else is around, he has to truly, genuinely, earnestly love himself, not just to cope, but to like... be happy. But since he's not alone, and does have people who love him, Justice is his favorite non-him person for both character development reasons and extremely gay reasons.

As for his least favorite people, that could honestly fill a book. He is so bitter. God for obvious reasons, Lust for being abusive, Lucifer for lying about being better than God, but his hatred for Envy is I think the most interesting. In real life, the emotions of envy and (unhealthy) pride are very closely linked - people who have an unhealthy relationship with their pride are often envious of other people. Pride hates Envy because she's the concept of everything he can't admit to himself (he's envious of angels and humans who are happy, loved, and have God's affection), and Envy hates him right back for flaunting his confidence/dismissal of her sin as a concept at her and showing what she thinks she needs to be happy (and no longer envious). They're catty as fuck.

Justice loves Pride (for gay reasons and character reasons), but it's an extremely close race, maybe even a tie, for his sister Kindness. She's the reason for a lot of who he is, they intentionally modeled their human bodies so they would look related. Kindness really helped shape his understanding of how God's justice and God's kindness work together to create the Perfect Wholesome World of Heaven and is a big reason he believes what he does. Obviously when Heaven turned out to not be so wonderful and wholesome, he still took those ideals with him to Earth. One of his core philosophies is that justice should be guided by kindness, not the other way around, and she helped teach him that.

His personal antagonist in the book is Honesty, and he loathes her for extremely good reasons. She was his direct superior in Heaven, and made his life very difficult once he started suggesting that maybe Purgatory isn't the best way to do things. He has been under her thumb for ages, and him leaving Heaven was basically the excuse she was looking for to brand him a traitor. Justice does not wish death on anyone, but he's very close saying some very mean words about Honesty.

📙 What kind of subjects (of conversation, of discussion, in school or whatever) does your OC find interesting or engaging or that they can talk for hours about? What kind of stuff do they just find fun? What things bore your OC to tears and they couldn’t care less about? Why?

Justice LOOOOVES Blorbo From His Books. Pick up any book in his collection, he'll have hours of conversation at the ready. Even the trashy pulpy ones - ESPECIALLY the pulpy ones tbh. He's also a rules lawyer by definition of embodying God's justice, so he also enjoys having a friendly argument of semantics and creating the most busted TTRPG characters you've ever seen based on nothing but technicalities.

What Justice does not like talking about is... arguments for the sake of arguing? I guess? He doesn't like getting into fights, he just likes talking about rules, so anyone coming at him with like... real Stakes in the topic at hand with Furious Rebuttals immediately turns him off. He's just playing toys. Why are you so mad.

As previously mentioned, Pride doesn't really allow himself to enjoy things for a while, and even when he does, he doesn't like the idea of talking for hours about stuff. When he gets into art and starts painting, he doesn't really talk about it as much as he just... does it all the time, here's a picture. He'd rather show, not tell, and let the art speak for itself. Even with his bad movies and telenovelas, he doesn't have much to say other than "they're so fuckin hilarious, this one's my favorite, we should watch it Right Now, No Take Backs."

Pride finds SO many things boring actually. Don't talk about sports, don't talk about anything with numbers, don't bring up PROBLEMS in the NEWS??? It better be FUNNY or SEXY or VIOLENT or he is not listening to you.

Harlan & Yvonne

😊 What can make your OC smile even when they’re feeling down? What cheers them up and makes everything feel better for them? Is your OC generally a happy person and do they enjoy making others smile? What about your OC makes others happy?

Harlan is definitely a happy guy by default, especially after starting magic HRT. He lives a very party-heavy college lifestyle around a lot of other party people, so he's very rarely in a situation where thinking about his problems is in the forefront of his mind.

Music pretty reliably makes him happy, and just being in a situation where there are lots of people having a good time also makes him want to have a good time, which is where the parties come in. The infectious energy and the drinking games and whatever party potions everyone is passing around, all that is where he wants to be, with the people he wants to be with.

Harlan is also very good at being your personal hype man? He will simply not let his friends get away with self-depreciation, and give you compliments until you agree that they're true.

Yvonne is a more subdued kind of happy. She's consistently homesick for her herd, but does her best to keep in touch and explore her big city lifestyle in Athendrolyn and make a new "herd" for herself.

When she's particularly homesick, she'll either go on a long walk/trot along the beach or the forest trails, or if the weather's bad, curl up with a warm drink and a blanket and watch nostalgic movies from her foalhood.

Her social battery for people she hasn't integrated into her "new herd" is drained quite quickly, but if she's mentally made you part of that group, you're basically family to her. She'll drop anything for her herd, no matter the situation, and is all around a very compassionate and loyal friend.

⭐ What is your OC afraid of? Any crippling phobias or some such? How do they act when scared and what helps them calm down? Does anyone ever find your OC scary? Why?

Yvonne is a centaur, so she has crippling horse anxiety. Which is to say, she's afraid of most things! When she was living with her herd, it was mitigated by being in a herd and having a community and a leader to follow, but when she moved away for access to magic HRT, it got worse. She's particularly afraid of unexpected loud noises, sudden movements, and can get pretty overwhelmed in flashy environments like parties or concerts. She definitely leans on the "flight" half of fight or flight, and will look for any escape route possible. Depending on what's causing the episode, just being in a quiet room with someone she trusts for a few minutes can be enormously helpful, but the most reliable way for her to not be anxious is for people to announce when they're coming into a room, explain whatever that noise just was, and not go to parties.

As for being scary, Yvonne is a Clydesdale, so I wouldn't put it past people to find her intimidating, but usually once she opens her mouth all that is put to rest. She's very friendly!

Harlan isn't a particularly anxious person, but does avoid the ocean whenever possible. He's terrified of the sea and most deep water in general. He can swim, he just doesn't like doing it, and it's pretty easy for him to be calm by not going near deep water👍ever 👍

He's not scary either, nor would he ever want to seem scary.

🍋 Does your OC act petty and jealous easily? What sort of things make them feel like this and do they experience guilt for getting so worked up? How do they deal with these emotions when they get them? If your OC doesn’t feel like this often, why not?

Harlan is definitely very petty. One thing that happens in the short story is that his friends tease him about making up Yvonne (because they'd never met her/seen a picture of her), and once she shows up he takes EVERY OPPORTUNITY to rub their noses in the fact that HHHIISSS girlfriend is here, and his REALLY AWESOME GIRLFRIEND is right there, and wow did he mention they're DATINGGGGG??????

He really hates being underestimated, or being made a fool of, which is why he reacts so strongly to things like that. He doesn't like feeling like he's second best, so if he feels like that's happening (even if it isn't), he asserts his "authority" basically with any straw he can grasp. Sometimes this is easy, like when Yvonne turns out to be real and not fake, but other times it's just... unrelated or insulting or made up. He's not good at impulse control, so usually he has to be told to knock it off.

Yvonne is not very petty or jealous because in general very calm and not very confrontational. She can be a little insecure, too, so in instances where she is feeling jealous, it's more internal, and she doesn't act on it.

When she does feel it bad enough, she can shut down and be kind of closed off. Usually someone can help talk her back out of it, and Harlan is especially good at this because he likes to hype her up at every opportunity.

📀 How easy is it to shock your OC? To confuse them? To lie to them, to manipulate them? How are they with feelings of trust? Can your OC be trusted?

Yvonne grew up pretty sheltered in a rural area with only other centaurs, so she's pretty out of her depth when she moves to Athendrolyn with its dozens of different creatures and customs and traditions. The culture shock made her pretty susceptible to being tricked, both in non-serious ways and worse ways, but she's definitely more vigilant now. She's very trusting, even after those unfortunate incidents, and will generally give people the benefit of the doubt.

Harlan is much quicker to call bullshit, but also quicker to go "yooooo no wayyyyy," about something that personally piques his interest, whether or not it's true. He tends to trust people unless they have a known history of being untrustworthy, and his fraternity (or whatever I'm calling it in this fictional world) can definitely spread news, true or false, faster than anyone can possibly outrun it, so if he's trusting someone he knows he can trust, but they got their info from someone else who got it from someone else etc... yeah.

On his end, Harlan is a pretty straightforward guy, but he does fib a liiiittle bit on occasion to seem cooler. It's why his friends jumped to "your girlfriend isn't even real" in the first place. It's more dramatic than the things he's done in the past, but it's also not not something he would do.

💛 In general, how in control of their emotions is your OC? Do they have a good hold on them or do their emotions control them, not the other way around? What do you think is the reason behind this and is your OC ever concerned about their lack of or good control?

As previously mentioned, Harlan doesn't have the greatest impulse control, and will act on how he feels before he thinks through what he's actually doing. He really feels the need to prove himself among his peers and seem cool and interesting, and the party lifestyle that encourages impulsive actions ddddoesn't help? much?

He knows he has this problem, and does try to catch himself, but it's a process after acting impulsively for so long. Yvonne being a stable, calm presence in his life has tremendously helped him.

Yvonne isn't impulsive at all, kind of the opposite. She has a lot of anxiety, and that prevents basically any impulsive action, which can cause her feelings to rule her life in a different way. She can be closed off and wary of things that aren't already in her comfort zone, especially growing up so sheltered.

She actually didn't realize how closed off she'd gotten until she met and started hanging out with Harlan, and has been slowly trying to increase her tolerance of out-of-comfort-zone experience since.

[send me something from the jumbo ask game]