#hell I might even like it more than warrior cats

[warrior-cats-junk]

Guys I just finished twd comics and I’m crying I- PLEASE CHECK THEM OUT I JUST- AUGH-

#i finally did it #i finished it #twd books #twd comic #twd comics #I’m crying #I fucking love this series #it’s my interest with warrior cats #hell I might even like it more than warrior cats #it’s just Wc has a better fandom (not really but you get it) #and I feel more connected to that #but twd has a special place in my heart #with 20.2 pounds of books #and 4340 pages #i love this series so much #it’s near and dear to me #Ty to everyone who helped make this awesome series #and to those in the note at the end of the last comic #Ty for listening to me ramble about twd in the tags #Ty

[louisapennyfeather2021]

My sibling and I thought of a hilarious sub-plot for Season 2/possible main plot for future seasons of Hazbin Hotel:

First and foremost, it would require the introduction of Archangel Michael, voiced by the one and only Andrew Rannells. We just wanted him to be a part of the cast, but introducing Michael would be really interesting for a few reasons.

For starters, we know there will be discussions between Lucifer and Heaven. 1) He intervened in the Extermination(even though a Hellborn was harmed and Heaven broke their end of the deal). Heaven won't just let that go, especially since Adam is dead(now a sinner???) 2) Pentious was redeemed, so if Lucifer and/or Charlie find our, that would mean they have a LOT more conversations with Heaven.

Let's say druing one of these conversations Lucifer is at his whits end with Sera and the rest of the Heavenly Council. Maybe he makes a demand to bring the Big-Boss-Man into this. Well, you see, God doesn't get involved much unless it's really a big deal, so who better to send in his place than his Gold-Star Son, Michael???

(For the sake of this post, let's run with the idea that Lucifer and Michael are genuinely brothers. Just for the fun of it, we could even say that they're twins and neither can agree on who was "born" first)

And ohhhhh, how Lucifer immediately regrets it, not because Michael is necessarily a threat to Lucifer. No, no, no, Michael is essentially harmless right now. But Michael is Lucifer's "perfect" brother. The golden boy who stood by their father's side while his wayward brother Fell.

And boy, is Michael very well aware of the fact that he's the favorite. Lucifer mostly can't stand him because he's rather smug and entitled. He also 100% refers to himself in the 3rd Person and it makes Lucifer's eye twitch.

Michael isn't really an antagonist, more so an obstacle similar to Sera. He's like a weird mix of Adam and Sera. He's not vulgar like Adam, but he's not exactly the epitome of Heavenly Grace like Sera. Think of the most stereotypical entitled Cinderella step-sister or Sharpay Evans from High School Musical.

Michael has power, that goes unsaid. He's an archangel, of course he has power. However, when he initially defeated Lucifer, it was with the help of God. By all technicalities, Lucifer and Michael are on the same grounds for power. Maybe in the future, if we get an all out war with Heaven, it could come down to a fight between brothers/families. Lucifer might taunt Michael similarly to how he taunted Adam, but Michael is also one of the warriors of Heaven, stronger than everyone except God. This would be a fair fight between the two.

And imagine Charlie trying to process the fact that she has family in Heaven, but they had no interest in even thinking about her. Charlie's ideas of Heaven have already been tainted and she's aware of how Heaven hurt Lucifer, but to really process it and feel it first hand when Michael dismisses her like they aren't direct family? It could help drastically change Charlie's outlook on redeeming sinners into Heaven. Maybe it could push her to have a more radical opinion on Heaven and how it functions. That doesn't even take into account how she'll feel when she finds out where Lilith has been while Hell suffers Extermination after Extermination.

But all angst aside, can we just take a minute to imagine how hilarious it would be to watch Jeremy Jordan and Andrew Rannells banter on screen? It was great to watch Lucifer and Alastor play verbal badminton, but Lucifer and Michael?? Hell, maybe Lucifer and Alastor might finally agree on something and it would be their mutual disliking of Michael.

I also think it'd be really funny for Michael to call Lucifer "Lucy", but in a really condescending way that had Lucifer ready to launch into the most epic Sibling Cat Fight of all time. I also personal think Michael refuses to use forks because a certain Fallen Angel spent at least 200 years antagonizing his dearest brother with one.

This post started as "silly haha, Jeremy and Andrew being silly" and then I got distracted.

The big take away is that I really want Andrew to make an appearance in the show in the future and I think him doing that through Archangel Michael would be brilliant.

Kudos to @anymal28 for helping me with initial idea

#hazbin hotel #hazbin lucifer #hazbin hotel headcanon #hazbin hotel fancast #hazbin hotel fandom #hazbin hotel jeremy jordan #jeremy jordan #andrew rannells #charlie morningstar #hazbin charlie #archangel michael #sam's thoughts #sam says stuff #sam's ranting #sam says shit #sam's club #sam's life #sam's gas can #hazbin hotel theory #hazbin alastor #hazbin hotel lucifer #hazbin hotel charlie #hazbin hotel alastor #hazbin hotel lilith #hazbin lilith #hazbin adam #hazbin hotel adam #hazbin sera #hazbin hotel sera #IT'S JUST A THEORY

[hazshit-hotel-hater]

What are your opinions on each of the songs? (you can answer with as much or as little detail as you'd like)

Big shocker that the songs from the 2 good episodes are in S and the only one that isn’t is still B tier/sar

The first 2 songs in S made me either tear up/shake violently or cry, and therefore they deserve to be up there IMO. Out for love is also just genuinely catchy and had actual build up to it. Also God “Ready for This” just. OOUGGGHHH IT SCRATCHES MY BRAIN SO GOOD LIKE A WARRIOR CATS MAP. I like it a lot. You cant have multiple characters sing about working together and expect me to NOT cry.

“Stayed Gone” isn’t one I listen to often but it’s so peppy and fast and full of hatred I can’t help but enjoy it. Also everytime the song starts my brain does this

I dont know anything about Welcome Home

I have. Issues. With “Loser, Baby” but aside from those the song holds a lot more weight to it than I usually give it credit for. And for as cheesy as the start if it is, the line before of Angel talking about self destructing resonates with me a lot. Also Husk lays down in a puddle of vomit and no one talks about that ever.

I think the first song in B is “Happy Day in Hell” and I’m adding it there 1. Because it is the first song 2. It gets a reprise thing 3. Charlie almost gets hit by a truck. Other than that it’s not really my favourite but I respect the impact it has.

“Hell is Forever” just fucks. End of story. Alex Brightman killed it.

“Respectless” is good I love Velvette’s VA, but the sudden start of the song and the ending are so out of left field the first time me and my friends watched this show we had to pause cause we lost our fucking minds. Could’ve been better but I’d listen to it again, yeah.

“Hell’s Greatest Dad” is silly and funny and maybe I’m biased as a violin player and jazz enjoyer but a lot of the instrumental tickles my brain so nicely. I will say though it confuses me so much because why does Alastor care about being seen as a father figure?? My mom said it could just be him wanting to show up Lucifer and that’s it but I dunno.

“More than Anything (Reprise)” AKA “Charlie and Veggie Kiss Scene - Hazbin Hotel”

This song sounds like it’s straight out of Barbie & Th Diamond Castle and I’m honestly pissed the girls in the movie didn’t kiss so I’m coping with this. ALSO THE FACT ITS A REPRISED SONG ABOUT LOVE MAKES ME A BIT CRAZY. I never noticed this was the same song Lucifer sang to Charlie SOMEHOW but that’s actually really cute.

“It Starts With Sorry” Has a big part in Sir Pentious’s character growth and just his character in general. I’ve been working on this in my Pentious rant but I never see people mention how much this song probably meant to him. Yeah it’s super corny, but he was fully expecting to be killed and had just been told to kill himself. This was definitely huge for him and I’m not gonna be convinced otherwise.

“You Didn’t Know” is really good but Lute’s part is by far the best and I pray to GOD she gets her own song in S2 her voice actor can SING. GODDAMN! I am very interested in Lute’s character development and I love seeing what people do with close-minded characters like that and hopefully Vivzie doesn’t condemn her to Vivziepop Woman Syndrome. If she isn’t important in S2 I’m going to be pissed but I dunno maybe S3 if we get one.

“More Than Anything” Wish my dad was like this! This song is incredibly sweet and I appreciate it a lot. Honestly might go way higher on the list if I keep thinking about it.

“Whatever It Takes” Sorry you will never be Imagine Dragons. Vaggie doesn’t sound anything like herself cause her VA is making her voice so much more gruff for her character, which is fine! I like her voice (the voice direction is not very good but I digress) it’s just her voice is so high in this I can’t even tell it’s Vaggie.

“Welcome to Heaven” is boring, but we got a Molly cameo!

“Poison”. Read this and this and this. -10/10. I’d rather make out violently with Elon Musk.

#hazbin hotel #hazbin critical #hazbin hotel criticism #hazbin hotel critical #raimble #hazbin hotel song #hazbin songs #hazbin spoilers #hazbin hotel spoilers

[separatist-apologist]

Lying In Between The Memories

You could call it paradise but it looks just like hell to me

Summary: Following the blood rite, Gwyneth Berdara can't shake the memories of a life long-gone.

The shadowsinger can't seem to move on after five centuries of loving the same woman.

Together, they'll have to carve a new path forward.

Read on AO3 | Previous Chapter

[ongoing TW for Sexual Assault]

“No,” Azriel moaned, thrashing beside her. Gwyn blinked, eyes adjusting to the inky darkness swirling around her. “Don’t touch me.”

“Az?” she whispered, rolling to her back. It took her a moment to truly see him, but there he was, prone and covered in a thin sheen of sweat. This, she realized, was a nightmare. “Az, wake up.”

He didn’t, mumbling something unintelligible. His shadows swarmed around him, lethal and vicious as they blotted out any light that might have slipped from the open window. 

Reaching carefully through that fog, Gwyn didn’t hesitate. They wouldn’t hurt her, of that she was certain. Azriel, on the other hand? Well, the moment her hand touched his bare chest, he had her on her back again, wrists pinned over her head.

She blew him back, calling up magic before she could truly think about what she was doing. The momentary panic of being restrained was overridden by the knowledge that no one could ever hurt her again. Azriel groaned, slamming through the closed door in a shower of splinters. 

“Fuck,” she heard him mumble. Gwyn swallowed, sitting up in bed as Azriel clambered over the ruined wood to stare her down. He looked like a demon in the dark, eyes glowing gold in the moonlight. Shadows swarmed over his shoulders and though Azriel wore nothing but a pair of sleep shorts, his weapon closer to her reach than his own, Gwyn thought even battle hardened warriors would have cowered beneath that stare.

She met his gaze. “Don’t put your hands on me,” she whispered, hoping she sounded just as lethal as he looked. 

“Did it feel good?” he questioned, cocking his head like a curious cat. “Knowing you could best me?”

Gwyn nearly groaned in irritation. Of course he’d circle right back to training. All he’d seen was that she could take him, which meant he’d been twice as punishing the next time they were on that little island. 

“Answer me,” he ordered, the words laced with some twisting, pulse of magic.

“Yes,” she breathed through clenched teeth. Azriel’s smile was lethal as he prowled back to the bed, ignoring the scent of blood coming from somewhere on his skin. The coppery, salty tang in the air was doing something to her, though. Arousal bolted through her like a lance, rich and warm until Gwyn thought she might have licked it from him if she could have found the source. Instead, she pressed her thighs together, determined to keep him from realizing what was happening to her. 

“I’m far more powerful than most males,” he reminded her, determined to turn everything into a lesson. 

“Yes, Azriel,” she agreed, yanking the blanket back over her body. Maybe she should have gone back to her bed—it was too late for it, now. Azriel had her back pinned to his chest, nose back in her hair. If she was lucky, he’d fall right back into sleep without noticing a thing. “Go to bed.”

“I want to kiss you,” he whispered and she knew he smelled it, then. Gwyn wanted it, too, just as much as she knew letting him lose himself this way wasn’t helpful to either of them. She wouldn’t be the salve to this wound just as he refused to be the same for her.

Gwyn rolled onto her back and when he tried to kiss her, she turned her head. “Tell me about the dream, Az.”

“Gwyn,” he breathed, pain lacing her name. 

“I think I deserve to know. After…after everything we’ve been through,” she added, hating how her voice warbled. She was starting to care about him and in that moment, she wondered if maybe it was just one sided. Unreciprocated. If she’d just become another job to him, duty bound to help because that was the role he’d assigned himself. 

She wasn’t going to beg him. Stomach churning with anxiety, skin suddenly cold, Gwyn swore she’d walk away if he denied her. There would be distance between them again. Polite, but firm. No more kissing, or touching, or the emotional vulnerability she’d been pouring into him.

But in her mind, she pleaded with him all the same. Please.

“In the first war, Rhys’s father separated us,” Azriel said after an agonizing wait. Rolling onto his stomach, he tucked his wings tight against him, his tell for when he was preparing for a fight.

“Rhys led a regiment and Cassian was relegated as a mere footsoldier on the front lines. And I…I became his spy. He never cared much about the freedom of humanity—his interests lay in protecting his home and the commerce coming in and out of Night. He made a lot of decisions that wiped whole human settlements off the face of the map and he did it without concern or care. They were animals to him, but freeing himself of Hybern would enrich him, and he had long stopped utilizing slaves. They were too hard to trust.”

Gwyn didn’t say a word, didn’t dare to even touch him.

“Rhys doesn’t know, but I was spying on him back then, too. Sometimes I think…I think his father half hoped Rhys might die. He wanted Cassian to, too. He saw how powerful we were together and it was a threat to him. And when Rhys was captured, I…I was told to ignore it. He directed troops elsewhere.”

“Az…”

“I knew Tamlin’s father was preparing an attack against the High Lord. I’d learned of it months before. Rhys had taught me to guard my mind against his kind and so when the High Lord would pull into my thoughts, I’d push everything else to the forefront but I guarded that secret like a lifeline. I didn’t know what they planned, exactly. Only that a trap had been sprung, and that Tamlin was integral to it.”

Gwyn wasn’t breathing at all, listening to this confession in the dark,

“I didn’t know Rhys had told Tamlin where the Lady and princess were going. That he was meeting them. And when I found out—”

Azriel sucked in a jagged breath. “It was too late, then. I got what I wanted. Tamlin slaughtered Rhys’s father, and Rhys, Cassian, and I were reunited. And I’ve never told him that I could have stopped it if I wanted to. That I…that I let his mother and sister die because I wanted to escape his father.”

“Az—”

“Don’t you dare try and make this right—”

“Shut up,” she hissed, grabbing his hand before he could stop her. “Don’t you tell me what to say. You didn’t do anything. That lies on the men who killed two innocent females in the middle of a war. You can’t…gods, Azriel, you can’t blame yourself for what other people did.”

“But if I had told him—”

“What if? What if you had? You still wouldn’t have known Rhys told Tamlin about his mother, and you wouldn’t have been able to stop them from killing her. You can’t…it’s not your fault.”

“I dream about them all the time. She was like my own mother. She took me in. And Rhys’s sister was so little. A girl. She had wings—not like Rhys’s, but actual Illyrian wings and we might have had an Illyrian princess on the throne. I think, sometimes, what she might have done if she’d lived. How she could have changed things and I took that from everyone and they must hate me so much for it—”

Gwyn reached for him, sitting up just enough that he could bury his face in her lap. He didn’t cry, though his breath came in great, gulping pants. “You should hate me.”

“I couldn’t hate you if I wanted to,” she admitted, running her fingers through his hair. “And neither would Rhys. Or his mother, for that matter. No one would, Azriel. You were in an impossible situation, but killing the ladies of the seven courts is a war crime that doesn’t belong on your shoulders. You were his prisoner.” 

“I dream about them all the time. Bloodied and alone. Afraid. I wish I could have changed it. I would have served him a thousand years to prevent that.”

Gwyn leaned forward, kissing his scalp. “Their deaths are not on you. You don’t get to claim them, Az. That burden belongs to another High Lord, who is long dead and can’t atone, but that doesn’t mean you have to. Look at me. Az, please. Look at me.”

He looked up, eyes glowing gold in the dark. They were suspiciously wet and glassy, but no tears. She almost wished he would give himself permission to wholly feel everything rumbling through him. 

“Tell me that you know that.”

He pressed his lips together and Gwyn fought back the urge to laugh at him. “Stubborn,” she chided, brushing her fingers over his soft mouth. “But I know what you would say if I was in your lap, blaming myself for things I couldn’t control.”

“What would I say?” he asked hoarsely, his expression a mix of yearning and desperation.

“To forgive myself,” she murmured, wishing now that she’d let him kiss her. Next time she swore she wouldn’t deny him. “That I wasn’t to blame for other people's cruelty.”

“That’s different. You’re so…and I’m…”

“We’re the same,” she insisted, holding his face gently in her palm. “You see it so clearly when its me, just as I’m starting to think I see it so much better when it's you. And maybe…maybe it was the Mother who brought us here. Maybe she’s tired of seeing you suffer, Azriel. It’s been five hundred years of torment. And I think, as her avatar on this plane, that I speak for her when I say that she’d like to see you smile again. Really smile.”

His eyes were so big, so filled with unguarded hope that Gwyn felt her heart break a little. “Yeah?”

In truth, Gwyn hadn’t tried to speak to the Mother in years. Not since Catrin died. It seemed almost like betrayal to agree to it now, and yet she thought she would for Azriel. That she had to. Something soft thrummed in her chest, humming with approval. That was the goddess then, clearly delighted that Gwyn would try again. 

It's not devotion to you, Gwyn thought quickly, as if it mattered.

Because the truth was far more terrifying. 

It was devotion to him.

AZRIEL:

“Are you busy?”

Gwyn looked up from her book, scribbling notes in the margins with ink stained fingers. She’d tied her hair off her face messily, the ribbon coming loose. Her dress was rumpled from sitting in the same position for too long and Azriel was fairly certain she’d never looked lovelier. 

He ached to touch her. Had been thinking of a million different excuses to sweep her up in her arms and take her flying far from this palace. Time was ticking down. A week, and then he’d take her back to Velaris and an uncertain future that terrified him. He still didn’t know entirely where they stood or what she even wanted from him.

And he was half certain she was going to realize she could do better and that he was just as broken as he kept trying to tell her he was, and she’d go running. 

Right then, though, Gwyn’s eyes snapped to his face. “I could take a break,” she admitted, stretching her neck. 

“C’mon,” he said, offering her his hand. Any excuse to touch her. To pull her close. To take them far away from this miserable, fetid palace that grated against his senses. Kai still hadn’t returned and if Azriel was lucky, he never would. He enjoyed not having competition for Gwyn’s time and attention, and none of the courtiers paid them any mind anymore.

All he was waiting on was a report from the shadow he’d sent to Koschei’s lake to give to Rhys and then he was free, too. Montessere was strange, but whatever was going on here wasn’t his problem. 

Gwyn followed him out to the balcony, squealing quietly when he swept her up into his arms without warning or preamble and kicked off the ground. It felt good to stretch his wings, to be airborne with the sun on his face and his mate clinging to his neck.

“Dramatic,” he teased, lips against her temple.

“You did that on purpose,” she accused.

“Are you suggesting I didn’t warn you so a beautiful female would press herself against me?” he joked in return, letting her see him smile. Gwyn’s expression softened, though he knew better than to try it twice in a row. He was certain she had a knife hidden somewhere on her person, besides. 

“Flirt,” she retorted. No one had ever said that to him. Azriel huffed out a laugh. Everything was just easy with her. It was easy to let his guard down, to tell her the truth. And after the night they’d shared, where he’d admitted one of the things that haunted him and she’d been so understanding, he wanted more. Wanted all of her. Every little piece. Every smile, every laugh, every scowl. He wanted an eternity of her sass, of her pretty, dark hair and those jewel bright eyes.

Even if he didn’t yet believe he deserved it, he still wanted it. He thought he could spend a lifetime proving to Gwyn and the Mother that he deserved her, too. He could earn his mate by taking care of her…which, he had begun to suspect, meant taking care of himself, too. They were broken and carefully piecing the other back together. 

The words he wanted to say burned in his throat, trying so hard to claw their way out. I love you, I love you, I love you—

He swallowed the impulse. Not yet. Not now. Not until he was certain that wasn’t just the mating bond talking, and definitely not before he knew where they stood. 

“Where are you taking me?”

“Away,” he said, soaring over the open sea until the palace was merely a pinprick in the distance. Wind kissed his wings, the world melting away until he thought they were the last two people in it. 

“Don’t you get tired?” she questioned, peering around him to look down at the sparkling water below. 

“No,” he scoffed, though he did let himself drop just a little so Gwyn would scramble again and wrap her legs around his torso.

“Prick!” she accused, swatting at his chest while Azriel howled with laughter. 

“I told you I was trying to get close to a beautiful female,” he managed through gasps, wiping the tears streaming from his eyes on his shoulder. “It’s not my fault you’re too busy ogling me to listen to me talk.”

“What has gotten into you today?” she asked, a smile spreading over her face. 

He only shrugged. Azriel felt light today. Easy. He said, “I’m happy.”

Gwyn looked at him, eyes bouncing back forth between his own as if looking for some hint of dishonesty. “It looks good on you, shadowsinger.”

“It’s your doing,” he admitted, pressing his mouth against her own. He’d imagined this moment before—holding her against his body, wings spread wide with nothing but the open air around them. He wondered, briefly, if this was the kind of simple joy his brothers had found. There was nothing like flying in the entire world. It was, at times, the only freedom he’d ever had. But flying with his mate wrapped around him, kissing her with no one but the gods themselves as a witness, well. That was bliss. 

And he was happy. Happy in a way he’d never been in his entire life. Azriel was starting to believe that he could have her and it wouldn’t need to be complicated or end in disaster. He was also starting to think that she could love him too and he would be worthy of it. 

Azriel deepened the kiss, swallowing the urge to moan when she sighed softly against his lips. She was sweet, fingers digging against his shoulders. Azriel left his hands drift down her spine until he cupped her ass, pressing her firmly against him so she could feel his erection. There was, probably, some mechanics to having her in flight that his people knew but was a mystery to him, even if the thought thrilled him.

That didn’t stop him from kissing her, drifting lazily in the sky so he could have this moment with her. In the back of his mind, he was well aware he was taking them back to the palace and that what he wanted was to rip that dress off her and bury himself so deep inside her that she felt nothing but him.

Azriel wanted her to feel their shared soul, and couldn’t figure out another way to bring it to her awareness. Gwyn was, of course, blissfully unaware of this. She arched her neck for him when he trailed his mouth down her throat, eyes open so he could see her hair streaming behind her, face glowing in the sunlight. She was so absurdly beautiful he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. 

She was his just as surely as he was hers. Did she even realize? Azriel wanted to lay himself at her feet, to swear himself into her service and hers alone. Gods, but Azriel needed to tell her everything. Was he a male who prided himself on keeping secrets?

Not this one, he thought. It was killing him to keep it to himself. Even as he buried his face between her breasts, hands kneading her ass until she began rubbing herself against him, Azriel was convincing himself to just tell her everything. Lay it all out there, remove this final secret between them.

No more lies. 

Only the truth.

Azriel’s feet collided with the balcony. “Gwyn, I need—”

“I know,” she breathed, sliding down his body only to rise up on her tiptoes, fingers pulling at the laces of his tunic. “So do I.” What?

Azriel’s mind emptied of all thoughts the moment heard her say those words, unable to process, let alone comprehend. All he knew was her tongue in his mouth, her fingers pulling until she had his shirt on the ground, palms rubbing up and down his torso. Those same fingers slipped into the band of his pants and Azriel didn’t do a damn thing to stop her.

She wanted him.

It could wait, he decided, pushing the two of them into their shared room. Fuck, but it could wait until he finished. And maybe he’d get lucky and she’d feel it too, she’d tell him and he could pretend he was just now learning. A small deception in the scheme of things, one they’d laugh about in a century when everything was well established between them.

Or, she’d at least accepted the bond. 

“I want you,” he whispered, teeth sinking against her bottom lip as. Gwyn moaned, hand gripping the base of his cock. “I want you so fucking bad, I—”

“Well isn’t this cute,” an all too familiar voice sneered from another part of the room.  Azriel and Gwyn froze, heads whipping to the side. Hot fury burned through Azriel, made all the worse by the threat to his mate. 

Though he never needed a reason to want to rip apart Eris fucking Vanserra.

The Autumn Court male strolled into full view, hands in his pockets and a smirk on his exceptionally punchable face. 

“Who knew Night Court politics were so sensual? Rhysand certainly undersold what you two were doing here.”

“Get out,” Azriel whispered, swallowing the urge to remove Eris’s head from his body. They weren’t in Prythian. He didn’t need to abide by their laws. If Eris died here, well…whoops. 

“Come now,” Eris crooned, eyes sliding to Gwyn. Azriel’s wings flared, wanting to hide her from view. He caught the shifting look on Eris’s face, nostrils flared and then the delight as he realized what Gwyn hadn’t yet. 

No.

Gwyn didn’t say a word, eyes never leaving the male before them. Eris had Azriel captive now and he must have known it.

“We have a lot to catch up on. Meet me in the dining hall in ten minutes.”

He turned, having given his order, and left without another word or glance backward. Azriel couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak. 

He knew right then and there that he was so utterly and absolutely fucked.

#one day this fic will be all pleasure no pain #but until then #gwynriel

[bonefall]

Better Bones Profile: Houndleap

"The horrifying eldritch fallen angel likes ME best because I'm hot"

[ID: The Better Bones AU version of Houndleap from Warrior Cats. He is a black-and-white tom with ginger flecks in his black parts, and a fluffy white tail tuft. His ears are burned away, and he has orange, swirly keloid scars. He also has a heart-shaped paw pad.]

Here by popular request! Holy MOLY you all jumped on the offhanded manwhore comment lmao.

Houndleap's a great example of cats who are in the Dark Forest for breaking non-violent commandments. The only thing he's killing is the gene pool, with his 6 known mates and the 16 kittens between them all. No, he wasn't in love with them all either, he just liked to play the game.

He is as close to the ideal Clan cat as one can get, and he knows it, and flaunts it. Tri-colored with beautiful ginger flecks, he fell victim to a terrible moor fire and came out with severe burns. His surviving was already a great mark of strength, but then he became even luckier when his shiny scars raised, and slightly spread from the initial injury.

Clan cats didn't have a word for keloids, they only knew it was gorgeous. As if StarClan had given him a scar that dances and shimmers.

Houndleap "abused" this gift, seeing as many cats as possible and cheating on his 'official' mate back home. In the modern era, he might have just been a very popular Honor Sire, but this was before the Queen's Rights and the Aftergathering. He was eventually caught, and after his death, he was banished to the Dark Forest for violating the Law of Loyalty on more than 5 counts.

Yes. More than 5 counts. StarClan was able to see that he had even more than 5 halfclan mates (and they're not even counting the wife he cheated on) but only 5 got pregnant.

Alignment: Dark Forest, ex-WindClan

Time Period: Skyfall Era

Relations: Too fucking many

Houndleap's addition to the Dark Forest is Lover's Beck, a twisted, romantic version of a spot in the Gorge where he used to meet with his secret lovers. It's his worst memory because he planned poorly and two of them showed up at the same time and that's how he got caught.

More trivia below!

Canon said he's solid-colored and I said no. Pretty boy.

There are several minor features in his design that will be seen in modern family lines. I won't point them out but there's 3 total (so far.)

I decided to use him as an example of nearly ideal beauty standards in BB, since I famously overhauled them from canon. He is brightly colored with complicated patterns, slightly chunky, and has a HUGE scar on the face.

Personality is slut. He just wants to flirt, man. Theme song is Mambo #5 he's just like that.

He works with Tigerstar in OotS mostly because it's not like there's anything better to do. Plus some of the trainees are hot, "hellooooo Ratscar"

When Antpelt dies, Houndleap is one of the cats who needs the most convincing to come back into the alliance. It's one thing when it's funny haha Attack And Dethrone God or whatever, but PERMAdeath??

Thankfully, Hawkfrost is a fantastic diplomat.

Generally, Houndleap is motivated by whatever's fun. He was one of the first to fall in line under Ashfur and will do basically anything if he's bored.

"We're teaching people how to kill? sure lmao. Oh we're attacking the living? Ok cool. Guard the prisoners? Not like I had plans anyway. Anyway wanna get evil dinner later, handsome <3 ?"

Likes drama, tea, stories, games, anything that brings him a little excitement really.

He can usually be counted on to join whatever silly project the group's up to this time, like catching Shrewpaw's Pheasant.

I cannot stress enough how much of a normal Crummy Dude he is. He's just some standard jerkwad guy. The Dark Forest in Better Bones contains several people like him, who might be sleazeballs or jackasses, but we would generally agree don't deserve Hell.

When canon comes up with a Houndleap backstory, I'll consider what to do with it. But for now we only know that Hound came from WindClan, which I've included.

#Better Bones AU #Better Bones character profile #BB!Houndleap #BB!Dark Forest

[angrylesbianstereotype]

I know a lot of people think that the problem w Hollyleaf’s characterization was that they redeemed her at all but respectfully I literally couldn’t disagree more… first off I think part of the appeal of her character in a series that has been biting itself in the ass for 20 years by refusing to deviate from the good and evil binary- even (especially?) when doing so would make the story more interesting- is her moral ambiguity, like I think making her all-out evil would make her just as uninteresting to me as if they’d depicted her as always being in the right. Second of all I think it’s important to acknowledge that Hollyleaf’s more reprehensible actions are a direct result of her believing that she is always in the right. She has main character syndrome and she is making it everyone else’s problem!! She doesn’t do evil shit to be evil, she always does what she thinks is the right thing to do because she always has to be right. And while this is definitely more out of pride than genuine altruism, I don’t think it necessarily started out that way. With what we’ve been presented I think it’s safe to say that, while Holly has always been ambitious and self-centered to some degree, she is also fundamentally principled with a strong sense of justice and unwavering loyalty to her clan. She might have let her worst traits win out due to stubbornness and being allergic to admittance of wrongdoing, but actually turning on her clan? Committing conscious acts of evil against innocent cats (who haven’t committed any perceived offense against the warrior code)? Hollyleaf could never justify that to herself, and so it wouldn’t make sense for her character. I just hate the way that they went ab her redemption… like I liked the parallels between the fox cub turning on her and the way she treated Leafpool, but other than that, wtf was she supposed to have learned from dicking around underground for however many moons? How did that advance her character growth? I think they should have killed her in the tunnel collapse and sent her to the Dark Forest, bc being sent to cat hell might be the only thing that would ever make Holly admit she was in the wrong tbh. And then!! Bc she realized she fucked up and is still loyal to her principles and her clan, she could have acted as a sort of DF deprogrammer from the inside, warning the cats training in the DF ab what they were getting into and eventually fighting against the DF in the Great Battle. Then we could finally get a DF cat being admitted to Starclan after their redemption instead of this weird reverential treatment of punitive justice that the series seems determined to push on their child audience

#in conclusion she’s so me fr #also i know getting mad ab wc is cringe but it’s like this series goes out of its way to squander character potential #i wanted cult deprogrammer hollyleaf do you hear me #hollyleaf #warrior cats #dark forest

[miss-tc-nova]

Bear Hugging WoL - Scions

I very much approve of this @melodymeddler​. Thank you for asking :3

~~~~~

Scions with a WoL who Gives Bear Hugs

Alisaie

Alisaie will gripe, groan, and maybe even resist when she sees you’ve returned. She’d rather die than admit she enjoys your hugs. But when she’s there, there’s no fighting; she just leans in as she grumbles.

“For Twelve’s sake! No! Noooooo! Get away from me! N-Stop! Ugh! Fine!”

 Alphinaud

Little Alphy is the most bashful when it comes to hugs. He gets all blushy and tries circumventing them with a handshake or “welcome back.” Never works. But even he knows that once you’ve got your arms around him, there’s no use resisting.

“Welcome back. How was your adventure? Oh, no. I’m fine, really. Wait. Hold on—nope. We’re doing this. Aha. Welcome back. I’m glad you’re safe.”

 Estinien

Actually, this guy is the most bashful when it comes to hugs. He will straight up curse when he sees you walk in. Might even draw his lance to keep you at bay. But if you catch him and manage to hold on for a few seconds, he’ll give. He won’t hug back, but his will to escape will die partially because he actually loves it but take that secret to his grave.

“Oh hells. No! Stay back! I’m warning you! I won’t—No! Get off! Uuuuuuugh!”

 G’raha

G’raha is wholeheartedly excited when you return. He wastes no time in setting his work aside to greet you. He revels in the tight embrace, happily rubbing a cheek against you and his tail swaying happily you know, like a cat. He’d probably purr if he could.

“You’re here! Welcome back! Ahaha! Aye, it’s good to see you again.”

 Krile

Sweet Krile enjoys your returns. She’s simply accepted that you’re a hugger and will return the gesture happily. No muss no fuss here.

“Welcome back. How was your trip? Did you enjoy it? I’d love to hear about it.”

 Lyse

Lyse gets herself all riled up when she notices you return. The girl will actively stand and run at you, unless inappropriate in which case she will power walk to greet you. She absolutely loves your hugs.

“There you are! Our grand Warrior of Light! Bring it in! There we go!”

 Tataru

Another casual enjoyer of hugs. She’ll excuse herself from her conversation and head towards you with a little pep in her step. Once she reaches you, she’ll hold out her arms, expecting her hug.

“Excuse me just a moment. There you are. Did you enjoy your trip? You’ll have to tell me all about it. But first, my hug!”

 Thancred

Thancred enjoys a hearty hug. He’ll try not to show his eagerness and patiently wait for you to come to him, but once that happens, it’s arms out and hug time. Will still mock you over it though.

“You’re back? Oh very well. What a needy person you are. Ah, wait, no. Come back here. Give me my hug, dammit.”

 Urianger

This man is probably the most difficult to get a hug on. The instant he has an inkling that a hug is coming, he mysteriously slips away. However, poor Urianger is only graceful enough to pull this off about 15% of the time. The rest the time, he actually manages to draw more attention to himself. And once caught, he suffers the consequences of his ineptitude.

“Ah, w-well met, friend. Aye, ‘tis good to see you as well. Your travels were well then? Please unhand me.”

 Y’shtola

The prickly mage heaves a great sigh whenever you return. While she may long to continue her studies or the tasks at hand, she knows if she doesn’t put them down willingly to embrace you, you will get in her way and may even disturb her work. Would also purr if she could.

*Sigh* “Very well. Come. Let us get this over with. Excuse me? Get over here. I will not have you sulking over a simple hug. There. Welcome back, Warrior.”

 ~Overall~

Overall, your hugs really aren’t a bad thing to the Scions. They all enjoy them in varying amounts, whether or not they admit it. In fact, it’s become such a staple in their lives that at least once or twice, they’ve thought back to your embrace in times they’ve struggled. It’s a motivator—to keep pressing on until they see you again and suffer your hug once more.

#scions of the seventh dawn #novas ffxiv headcanons #alisaie leveilleur #alphinaud leveilleur #Graha Tia #estinien varlineau #tataru taru #krile mayer baldesion #thancred waters #Urianger Augurelt #yshtola rhul #lyse hext

[stormiclown]

I know I might get bashed like hell for this but I don't care: Chat Noir and Ladybug are realistically the weakest Cat and Ladybug miraculous holders of their respective legacies.

And it's not just them. Every single Parisian hero of the current generation, from Rena Rouge to Viperion, are significantly weaker in terms of skill and power than their predecessors.

This isn't their fault entirely, as Ladybug and co have more disadvantages than the heroes that have come before them and there are those who don't take the job seriously [Chat Noir and Queen Bee].

They're Very Young

The first most glaring issue is the fact that they are still minors. The most consistent rule of the show is that a miraculous being used by a child is like the free trial version of a streaming service. Five minutes after using their special power, they will de-transform and will need to feed their kwami to resume their transformation. Unlike Hawkmoth and Mayura who can keep up their transformation even after using an akuma/amok, Ladybug and Chat Noir have to proceed with caution because they aren't grownups which limits their ability to fight all out. This is especially the case with Chat Noir and Ladybug as they are the main superheroes and characters used to emphasize this rule.

If the wiki is to be believed, then previous Ladybugs like La Déesse Coccinelle, Piao Chong, Tentomushi, Jeanne d'Arc (in the mlb universe), and Mudangbeolle were all adults according to their respective time periods and didn't have the same restrictions that the current Ladybug has. The same could be said about previous foxes, bees, turtles, snakes etc.

They Lack the Necessary Training

The second drawback that Marinette and Adrien have are their backgrounds. More specifically, their comfortable lifestyles. Marinette in particular, went from a clumsy girl who lived a normal life to a beloved superheroine in just one day. Not that there's anything wrong with that on a character level, but on a logical level it makes sense for her to be ill prepared for the duties of a hero at first. She was thrusted into it suddenly with no training [something I see is regularly addressed in crossover fanfictions with Batman and the DCU] or any background in combat, the latter she had to learn on her own. Though it's hinted at that Sabine is an exceptional fighter, it's pretty clear that she taught none of it to Marinette.

Adrien at least has some combat training in the form of fencing which is evident in the way he uses his staff like a fencing saber. But as someone who has been fencing since I was seven and been up against many talented opponents, Adrien strikes me as mediocre at best. He beats Kagami in Riposte sure, but by real fencing standards Adrien would be slaughtered by someone who had been trained their entire life to be an Olympic worthy fencer [Kagami].

I'm bringing this up because literally every past Ladybug, Black, and others have experience in combat, were vigilantes in armies, were warriors before using their miraculous, or fought in actual wars therefore becoming hardened veterans. In this category Adrien [again, even though he's mediocre] and Kagami are the only heroes of the current generation who have previous training in the form of a combat-oriented sport. Though, in my opinion, Kagami as Ryuko is the only hero that can hold a candle to her predecessors.

Alya, Nino, and Chloe are also very weak in this regard due to the aforementioned reasons above. They all have comfortable lifestyles and were thrusted into the world of heroes without any training or focus. Chloe nearly ran into a wall because she wasn't paying attention and Alya needed to be guilt tripped into giving the miraculous to Ladybug by Trixx. You can make the argument that the miraculous costumes make up for their lack of actual experience, which is 100% valid, but I can also argue that having battle training or any sort of athleticism can make a hero even more effective. I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion, but Kagami will always be the most effective and skilled temporary hero as evidenced by her being able to piece together her transformation phase, her attention to detail, her impressive battle awareness and her ability to right her mistakes [jumping into the fight without listening to Ladybug's plan in Ikari Gozen] with her quick thinking. Say what you will about her, but Kagami is objectively the best candidate to be a permanent hero, especially since Chat Noir has been demoted to sidekick/temporary hero status.

[Kim is also an athletic person, but his skill is in swimming, which isn't helpful unless he has an aqua form, which he doesn't so ehh]

They Have Little to No Knowledge of Their Own Powers

The third thing that the heroes have going against them is their lack of knowledge about their powers. By this point in the series, the heroes are just going with the flow and figuring things out for themselves as they go along.

As we know, these are the first heroes since the Order of the Guardians was destroyed. This context is important because in Feast, we learn that countless grimoires and Miracle Boxes burned away or eaten.

The miraculous date back to Ancient Times so there had to have been thousands of years of documented information about the miraculous of the Chinese Miracle Box. I'm not even going to say it's an assumption. It has to be a fact that there were secrets about each miraculous including how to train each Guardian that would have been extremely helpful to Ladybug and the others if they had access to it. Master Fu is responsible for tens of thousands of years' worth of knowledge being snuffed out in just one night.

This puts the heroes who wielded a miraculous after the Order was destroyed at a significant, almost sad disadvantage to those who were heroes before the Order fell. It's highly likely that after gaining their miraculous, previous heroes had access to the archive in which they could learn to utilize their powers to their absolute fullest potential. Whereas with the current heroes, it feels like they can only use a fraction of their miraculous's abilities.

Another problem with their lack of knowledge is the time separating Ladybug and Chat Noir from their predecessors. Bo Rua and an unnamed Vietnamese Black Cat were the last LadyCat duo before Feast swallowed the Order, with Adrien and Marinette being their immediate successors. However, Master Fu was confirmed to be in his 180s when he relinquished the Miracle Box to Marinette and Austruc confirmed Bo Rua and her partner to be in their early twenties, meaning that Bo Rua and LadyNoir have over 200 years separating them, confirming that their knowledge was lost over time after they died and can only be recovered by speaking to their spirits like in Reunion [which I have several complaints about]. Master Fu is obviously lacking knowledge about the miraculous to a severe degree, so it makes sense for Chat Noir and Ladybug to as well.

I'm not bashing Adrien and Marinette and co for being objectively weak because it makes so much sense. They lack proper training, they're kids with set limits on their powers, and they don't have access to crucial information that would've probably led them to defeat Hawkmoth by now. Sure, the two of them [more so Marinette] are the strongest heroes of their generation but if you put them up against their forebearers, they would be massacred with no difficulty whatsoever.

The show would be 100 times more interesting if this was acknowledged, which would lead to the introduction of the previous holders in a more natural and useful way.

[If I missed anything, any reblogs with your personal opinions on the matter will be very appreciated]

#ml salt #ml writers salt #miraculous ladybug #cat noir #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #adrien salt #it's very minor but still #Youtube

[nanistar]

Any advice on how to draw backgrounds? Gotten to the point in my art where im semi confident in drawing poses and expressions but backgrounds?? girl help i can only somewhat draw a tree

oh hell yeah i love backgrounds, ive been working on more interiors lately (when not overburdened by sbc work lol) but im assuming you're asking about nature so that's how im going to answer it as okay so: -first of all find yourself a good TEXTURED blending/smudging brush because it will save your life. i use these rock texture brushes from This Studio Ghibli pack, it's $6 and i HIGHLY recommend the whole pack because it's the main one i use for most of my bg foliage/grass ect and i love it dearly

-find references either in irl photos or other artist's work. if using another artist's work watch their speedpaints or look at what you like about their art style and techniques and steal it. im serious. obviously don't trace it and pass it off as something of your own but look at how they do the aspects you struggle with, and try to incorporate that

for me, that struggle is forest foliage because i have a hard time filling out the spaces without everything looking like same colored blobs, so i looked at how my buddy hannah mudshadow does bgs because she's really good at filling out a scene and making it look natural, and i noticed she uses a lot of abstract shapes instead of trying to render every leaf, so rather than doing my base work for bushes/trees with a leaf brush, i use a chunky scatter brush now and it looks really good, and then i can go and add some leaf brushes on top of that for more definition in areas that might catch light ect so that will give it the thick, bushy .. bush look without looking crowded or too shaped

-nature is messy as hell and things are never going to be perfectly shaped and toned unless you're drawing perfectly managed hedges or something. got some dirt brown on your green bush? those are dead leaves now. accidental weird texture on your tree? the bark is gone there, something ate it. bushes and trees have dead branches that just hang out there in them, grass grows long and sometimes a deer or whatever doesn't eat the whole patch so there's long uneven sprigs sticking up. petals fall off flowers. trees have huge webs of branches

-don't try to detail everything. make things further away more abstract and messy to give the illusion of detail. throw a gradient over it for some slight tone variation or something so it;s not completely flat but ppl are going to look at your subject and see the rest of it with the corner of their eyes, so you don;t need to fully render every flower in the field. here's some examples of that

the cactuses in the far BG are just V and Y shapes, the joshua tree in the middle distance is dark with some light blobs right on the edge where the needles would catch light.

this is from 2021 so be nice to me but as the flowers go back in the distance, i stop rendering their petals and start doing blue dots with white dots, and then even further away i just sorta blend blue and green together to give the illusion of a field of flowers.

-i dont know what your style is, but i personally hate using a ton of layers and tend to merge them as i go, but for the most part i draw every panel of SBC bg on the same 1 layer, going back to front (start with sky, mountain, bg grass, foreground grass and cactus, then go back and scatter foliage as necessary) and it keeps my stuff loser and i tend to get less precious about making things look perfect. i also work very fast because i am unironically really lazy at art and am desperate for shortcuts.

-oh yeah one more thing. assuming you draw cats, cats are SOOOOOO small in comparison to literally everything. as warrior artists i think our perspective gets a but confused sometimes (i am certainly guilty of this too!) and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this because sometimes that's just how you have to build your scenes, but it really makes me laugh when i see scenes of like, rusty jumping off his fence to go into the woods, but the fence is only a bit taller than him. so try to remember things are huge and cats are small as hell

na'ni's a huge cat, all things considered but look at her compared to my small aloe plant

or the cedar tree in my front yard.

absolutely microscopic. don't look at my slippers.

so yeah. i hope this helps, it's not so much a tutorial because i don't think i'm the best person for tutorials because honestly i dont know much and this is all stuff i've picked up on, like i dont know shit about composition or values or color theory but this is important stuff to keep in mind about the environments themselves. don't worry too hard about colors at first because you can always change it by adjusting your curves n stuff. or slap a filter on that bad boy. or dont. also pay attention to your horizon line because it helps angle the rest of your piece. but look up tutorials for that because i only started learning about it like a week ago

#mine #art advice #idk man #ppl feel free to add on to this #nani irl

[menacetomany]

deeply tired of fandom mischaracterizing frecklewish

Disclaimer before i start this post: I do not hate frecklewish. She is my favorite character in MV alongside Maple herself. She had every right to be mad at Mapleshade for lying (yes, omission is still a lie), she did not wrong Maple herself in any way, shape, or form, she could not have realistically done jack shit at the river, and she didn’t deserve to die, and she DEFINITELY didn’t deserve *hell* (although it’s kinda funny).

However.

For the love of StarClan stop flattening her character into a one-dimensional uwu sadgirl. She’s grieving, yes, but she’s *angry* in that grief! She’s messy and flawed and xenophobic and may or may not want to kill cats she unfairly blames for her brother’s death (they would both maul me if i said this but maple and freckle are foils and nobody realizes it) and I love her for it! People are allowed to be ugly abt their trauma!

A lot of people act like Frecklewish was crying 24/7 before briefly slipping up and calling children a slur before continually crying until she got murdered, and that’s a complete disservice to her character. There are people, and warrior cats, who grieve like that. Frecklewish is not one of them. 

People act like she just had a burst of anger during Mapleshade’s exile calling the kits a name, but even pre-lie she exhibits concerning behavior:

To be clear, Appledusk did not murder Birch. This is ThunderClan’s perception of the events because it’s easier to blame a cat from the other clans, a cat who is by their metrics inherently Worse and Deceitful and Scheming, then to think critically about why they were fighting so fiercely above a raging river over rocks they could easily share in the first place :p

(a note: the code about not killing people is treated much more leniently than the codes about having babies with the wrong people. It’s even worded softer--”An honorable warrior need not kill to win their battles.” Almost like a strong suggestion. Warriors culture idolizes violence and revenge as outlets for grief. Boy I Sure Hope That Prevalent Ingrained Societal Attitude Doesn’t Horribly Backfire Anytime Soon!)

And. The exile.

Freckle kicking Maple’s ass was funny and deserved. But.

To be clear, Frecklewish’s misdeeds in this scene cannot be simplified to ‘calling the kits a bad name in a moment of anger’. She is the very first cat to call for the kits’ exile. Oakstar was her *father*. If she’d appealed for the kits she claimed to love, or even just said “Mapleshade gtfo”, things might’ve gone much different.

Calling for three children who’ve barely started weaning to be exiled into the wilds is disgusting, and far worse than Mapleshade’s lie. Even if Maple hadn’t panicked and tried to cross the stepping-stones, all of her other options had a non-zero chance of the kits dying.

(Something to keep in mind is that Mapleshade is a Clan cat from birth. She is not like a loner who is used to fending for herself, and needing to suddenly balance hunting for herself and her kittens and keeping them safe from predators would be very difficult. Kittens are kept in camps for a reason.]

*Mapleshade could not have waited for a patrol. She had a time limit to get out before she and her kittens were attacked and possibly killed by ThunderClan.

*The bridge is further away, and on windclan territory. It’s at the base of the falls, not the top, and has flooded before. Wet rocks or slippery wood-pick your poison.

*There was a fox near Fourtrees at the time, and it’s doubtful Mapleshade could’ve fought it off alone. (The time for scents to go stale seems to be several hours-one day, and this was roughly a day after her exile.)

*ShadowClan and WindClan have even less reason to take her in than RiverClan, especially considering she’s an exile. She might be attacked like Riverclan would’ve had the kits not died: 

leaving her even worse off than before, and vulnerable to predators.

*Going to Twolegplace was worse than the river. Oakstar attacking kittypets was a one-time thing iirc, but she does meet hostile kittypets later--and even setting that aside there’s dogs, foxes, CARS, and of course twolegs. tired kittens trying to cross a thunderpath would not end well.

*go to the barn: windclan + thunderpath.

*go to Other barn: river’s still there only this time she doesn’t even have a camp at the end.

There was no way this was gonna end well, honestly.

To be clear, ultimately it was still Oakstar’s decision. He bears the brunt of responsibility. If anyone other than Maple deserved to go to hell, it was *him*, not Freckle. Common warriors story team L.

Frecklewish never shows regret for her part in the exile, only that they died. Said regret doesn’t last long before she tries to kill Mapleshade.

poor little tragic racist meow meow, doomed by her own rage. theres something deeply ironic about that.

A final note: frecklereed is almost as hilarious as maplereed when frecklewish was willing to exile the kits for being related to appledusk and reedshine is his number one apologist. they’d be dueling to the death bruh

#mapleshade #frecklewish #frecklewish tc #mapleshade's vengeance #warriors #warrior cats #warriors fandom #i have so many thoughts about THEM...

[squirrelno2]

Assuming that you play Swtor... Who are your main 8 Ocs and what's your favorite class/romance?

muahahaha so you have in fact met at least one of them via my sideblog, @relevant-url-incoming, because you asked about Kit there, but I always welcome the chance to ramble/infodump/annoy the shit out of people who are following me for not-even-star-wars-adjacent things SO:

(disclaimer: this may get spoilery. it's all very out of context spoilers, but if anyone reading this cares about swtor spoilers. be warned.)

Ven is a name some people following me here will remember, specifically as a four year old Nautolan who adopts Dogma, the clone. She also, in the grand scheme of my silly little swtor nonsense, is a time traveller who grows up to fuck shit up in the distant past. As one does. She's my trooper and my Alliance Commander and my precious baby girl mary sue beloved. She's also committed a few war crimes in her youth but what is a war crime to the star wars galaxy anyway? nobody knows. it's fine.

Nalyan is her brother, newly introduced in the same fic series i allude to above, and my smuggler. He is... grumpy. and an asshole. and also overall much more likely to save an enemy than most of my ocs, but that always surprises people due to the grumpiness. I ship him very hard with Corso and Risha who I do not ship with each other, which makes for a delightful dynamic in my head. sometimes besties just have sex with the same man it's whatever.

Kitiver is my Jedi Knight whose anxiety made him fall big-time, and he is full of self-loathing and self-doubt. He's overall kind of neutral in how the game sets up morality but when I write him it's the inwardly directed anger and the way that splashes out onto others that keeps him dark, even though all he wants is to be a good person. He doesn't really believe he's capable of that, anymore. oops.

Kaojacol is my Consular who went from a kind of coldhearted closed off person to the biggest softie who just wants to be a good friend and wife and mom. She's... a good friend? to be fair to her the wife and mom thing kind of got out of control with the whole zakuul thing. Sorry Felix and also the kid I made up for them.

Exchei is my Sith Inquisitor and she's so nice, for someone who'll shock you with Force lightning if you piss her off. Her backstory is always kind of fresh in her mind, and she really really wants to reform the Empire and stop slavery. also if you give her something nice and expensive and don't betray her she'll love you forever, which is how Andronikos sold her on the whole romance thing when she still wasn't sure if she could trust him.

Ri'gastio is a fucking asshole and also my bounty hunter. He's just. He's the guy who does every mean thing and kills everyone he can kill and makes everyone pay for everything he does for them because he figures if the world screwed him over there's no point in him being nice. He might as well do the same. I want to smack him so badly.

Tavansa is my Sith Warrior, she is my pathetic wet cat lesbian who just wants Vette to love her in spite of her many murderous tendencies and the fact that she's kind of unbearable to be around. A real attack dog kind of person, if an attack dog was also always calculating how people might perceive her behaviour so she can make sure the people (Vette) she cares about see her in the best light possible.

Sarrant is my Agent and he's... very hard to explain honestly? Like he starts out super loyal and that gets burned to hell and back, and he falls for fucking Kaliyo of all people even though he likes to let people live and help them out and generally enjoys being nice, and he also will just cut a bitch for looking at him wrong - man has issues. He's made lighter choices than his sister Tavansa but he is equally fucked.

As for my favourite class and romance uhhhh... story-wise it probably is Jedi Knight because that shit is juicy, though i think in terms of juiciness Agent is also up there. But if we're talking straight-up soft spots I really like the trooper storyline. I like that I got to force Ven to solve the trolley problem like twenty times. That was great. She names her kid after Jaxo, that's how bad that hurt her.

I also really like romancing Jorgan, possibly also because of Ven, but especially for Timothy Omundson's little voice crack when you reunite with him. Like damn. how can i resist that. I haven't romanced Elara in-game yet but the version of her that lives in my head and is married to Ven and Jorgan is great. kind of terrified to find out if the actual romance lives up to that but I adore her so if it doesn't I shall simply rewrite it.

#I refuse to put this under a cut you shall all see my infodump and SUFFER #but yeah this and more is all on that sideblog I think except maybe my favourites #but thank youuuuuu i cannot express the giddiness i feel upon recieving such questions. my little fucked up children #anyway sideblogs are fun it's like i accidentally have two identities. or five really. shh #swtor #Ven (oc) #Nalyan (oc) #not gonna tag all of them because they live elsewhere but i do have ven and nalyan stuff on this blog so. tag! #still don't have an ask tag

[snotsloth]

There's this really great writing advice post:

Basically it's about how if you have a major defining trait of a character, you should subvert that trait at some point. For example, "if you write a confident genius, make them be wrong, or get stumped once in a while." Characters, like people in real life, should have a certain amount of inconsistency.

But more than that, it's important to show a character reach a point where their normal skills and behaviors are not enough to get them through it. This is often a turning point, a scraping of the bottom of the barrel, a revelation, a fuck it might as well moment. A character falling to pieces is an opportunity to build themselves back into something new.

Of course, I immediately started thinking about Baldur's Gate 3 because the worm has eaten my brain. But this is one of the reasons the writing in BG3 is so good. Every character is their own foil. They're all inconsistent, multi-dimensional, and messy. And it's in the mess we see who they really are. Not only are all the companions this way (maybe minus Minsc) but so are many of the side characters also have this level of complexity.

Here's just some examples from the top of my head:

Astarion, the seductive flirt is actually viscerally averse to physical touch

Shadowheart, the emotionally distant bitchy character who keeps more secrets than Tav keeps loot is actually so compassionate and loving that her goddess has to keep wiping her mind to keep her in line

Gale is the most gifted wizard in generations, and he knows it and will talk about it brazenly but he has spent the past handful of years as a complete shut-in with only a winged cat for company.

Wyll is the brave folk hero, full of bravado and braggadocio, but he agonizes over every major decision and frequently doubts his own judgement on things.

Karlach is a giant, super strong warrior who can literally set herself on fucking fire, but she has a heart of glass and just wants someone to be gentle to her.

Lae'zel is a true believer who has to come to terms with the fact that her goddess is a conwoman.

Halsin is set up as this wise, powerful leader who has been arch druid for over a century but once you get to know him he confesses that the role was kind of forced upon him and he's felt trapped the whole time.

Jaheira similarly is a wise, clever and experienced older adventurer but dislikes reminiscing on the past and prefers to only look forward.

The Emperor claims to be on your side, that your fights are the same fight, but if you refuse to do what it wants, eventually it will abandon you because the Emperor's top priority is its own survival. But on the other hand! It also demonstrates the capacity for sentimentality and regret over the companions it has lost to fate or its own decisions over the centuries.

Even Zevlor! In act one, he comes across as a hyper-competent leader who has kept the core of his community together and alive through literal hell. But at the end of act two you can find out that he ultimately failed when The Absolute promised to restore his former paladin powers to him if only he swore himself to her, AND HE DID! Like he quickly comes to regret that decision but he still fucked it up when it mattered most. And the game doesn't show this as necessarily "he was a shit leader all along" it's more like "everyone is capable of terrible things under the right circumstances."

Okay enough rambling. This game is really fucking good y'all and the character work is fantastic and I probably will not shut up about it for at least a few months.

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #bg3 spoilers #writing

[thewingedbaron]

ACt 1: First Night by the Fire

TAV: Tiefling Ranger

MINOR SPOILERS FOR ACT 1

Shoutout to @magical-leek for the idea of a first night. Check their original post here. It's great, and I knew I had to do my own. Story continues below :)

Tav didn’t know how long she had been staring into the flames. Despite the dower mood in camp, the little fire cracked merrily, consuming leaf, branch, and log like the tadpole behind her eye might consume brain matter. She struggled to banish the thought as the gods damned thing writhed painfully, as if feeling her thoughts. 

Part of her was still angry at herself. Had she stayed on the hunt for but a day longer, she would have never been in this mess. She wouldn’t have returned to Baldur’s Gate when the nataloid passed overhead, snatching up bodies by the dozens. Just a day longer on the trail and she would have never been aboard that ship, thrust into a personal hell as the little tadpole ate away at her gray matter, turning her into gods knew what. 

Tav shook herself. No one could have expected that. A few hours, days maybe?, she hadn’t even heard of a mindflayer. No, no one except for perhaps Lae’zel, her new githyanki companion, could have been expected to see something like that coming. But, Tav has been captured regardless of her ignorance. She had been infected. But she had not yet turned. There was still time to do something about that. 

As the thought spun through her head, Tav glanced over at her new gith friend. Lae’zel had initially tried to kill her on the ship, thinking her another of the illithid’s thralls. Now, she claimed to possess a cure for the infection. It awaited them at a gith creche. Lae’zel seemed confident that there was one nearby, especially after one of the tiefling refugees mentioned seeing one of her kin sniffing around the paths at the foot of the mountains. However, given Lae’zel’s attitude toward outsiders, Tav found herself skeptical on how willing the gith would be to assist the other members in their party in losing their tadpoles. 

“We should have made for the creche immediately. We have no reason to burden ourselves with the affairs of druids and goblins.” Lae’zel spoke, as if reading her thoughts. Though, with the assistance of the tadpoles, that wasn’t impossible, Tav thought. 

“The Archdruid Halsin might be able to help us. Even if he can only slow the transformation, I’d give us a much higher chance of reaching your creche than if we just left now.” Alyss replied evenly. “Besides, I’m not leaving Kagha to feed my people to the goblins.” 

“Ishtik, your empathy will be the death of us all.” Lae’zel dragged the wetstone down the blade of her stolen sword with a bit more vigor. 

“You’re welcome to try and make it on your own, Lae’zel.” Shadowheart chimed in. Alyss side eyed the half-elven cleric, sensing the insult to come. The pair of them had been at each other's throats since Alyss had chosen to rescue her from her pod on the ship. Though Lae’zel refused to admit it, Shadowheart had been instrumental in their escape. “I doubt you would make it as far as the mountains.” 

“I would certainly make it far enough to cut that pretty face, ishtik.” 

“Enough, both of you.” Tav said. “Halsin offers the closest solution, so Halsin we shall seek. Without his help, we might turn long before we even get close to your creche.” 

“Your closer solution lies in the center of a goblin camp. Need I remind you that we barely survived their scouts this morning? How do you expect us to survive an entire encampment?” Lae’zel demanded. “Had I a squadron of gith warriors, we would cut through the camp with ease. But with our current company…” She glanced meaningfully at Shadowheart. 

“I, for one, hate to agree with the gith, but your druid circle did promise us healing and hand us poison.” Astarion chimed from where he lounged by the fire. The pale elf reminded Tav of a cat, stretched out and relaxed, but eyes gleaming with a dangerous light. 

“Hardly.” Tav argued. “They offered us a last resort. Halsin is still the best option available to us.” 

“I will not abandon the glade nor its people to the goblins. They are in need of our help, and they shall receive it.” Wyll stood, the flames casting long shadows across his face. “You all may move on, but the Blade of the Frontier will not.” With that, Wyll stomped away from the fire, disappearing into the shadows of the night. 

“Yes, yes, the Blade of Whatever will do the terribly noble thing.” Astarion glared after the disappearing figure. “If only heroics could remove this tadpole from our heads. Without that, the Blade won’t be helping anyone for much longer.” The pale elf stood, and followed Wyll into the night. After a few moments, Tav found herself sitting alone next to the flames. 

With a heavy sigh, she lowered her head into her hands, rubbing the base of her horns to ward off the coming headache. Not for the first time that day, Tav considered slipping away into the night. She could rely on her own skills to survive, as she had done many times before. But without Halsin… She banished the thought from her mind. 

“Oh, where did everyone…” 

Tav glanced up with a start. Gale was still sitting across from her, looking up from his books for the first time that night. Tav’s headache deepened a tick. 

“Goodnight, Gale.” Tav sighed, hauling herself to her feet. She left him sitting by the fire, confused as to what he had missed.

#bg3 #bg3 tav #tav x shadowheart #lae'zel #shadowheart #wyll ravengard #wyll bg3 #gale #karlach #minthara #halsin #bg3 fanfiction #bg3 spoilers #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #baldur's gate oc #baldur's gate spoilers

[smultronviol]

Initial thoughts abt the atla liveaction: bit of a mixed bag, rough in some areas but does bring up some interesting aspects and ideas, i think its worth the watch

The first episode is... pretty bad, the acting is rough as hell and there's a fuckton of infodumping

The acting generally gets better in the later episodes, but the gaang can still be kinda clunky sometimes. Most of the actors are pretty young though, so i can kinda forgive it?

Most of the middle episodes don't follow the original plot exactly, instead they combine different plot threads from different episodes and weave their own plot with it. This is def where the live action show is at its STRONGEST imo. I think they did a good job at combining these different threads and stakes into a strong narrative and it made for some fun twists. A series of 8 1hr episodes was always gonna be a lot different than 20 20min episodes, you need to do a lot of structural reworking to manage that, and i think their approach of recombining plot threads was def the best way to do that

Controversial opinion but: now i totally get why they removed sokkas sexism arc. Kyoshi island is episode TWO, thats not enough time to make it feel like an actual character arc, sokka learning feminism wouldve just come off as rushed and forced. I really liked the sokka+suki dynamic they had instead, it was very funny

I also think they did a p good job at establishing sokkas and kataras different viewpoints and the conflict it leads to. I think in general they were p good at establishing stakes and motivations for each character, even though sometimes maybe they were a bit too on the nose with it

Katara seemed a bit underdeveloped though. She didnt have any of her anger, the pakku plotline really fell flat for me? I was a bit disapointed in how they handled her

Zuko is def the best actor out of the gaang, really enjoyed most of his scenes. Big wet cat energy

I was pretty worried they were gonna butcher sokka, but i think they did him pretty well? A lot of focus is put on his insecurities abt not being a warrior, not understanding that his engineering and intelligence is actually worth something, dissapointing his father, etc. In the last few episodes it honestly gets a biit too much, but in the middle episodes i think its pretty interesting. They also kept his personality pretty well

Really enjoyed the spirit shenanigans too, I love Koh

The fight scenes are p mixed, some are pretty bad. They really didnt really incorporate the martial arts elements enough

In most action scenes, characters have a tendency to just... stand around and wait for their turn? This isn't turned based combat?? This is a problem even in some non-action scenes. Some of it might be due to inexperienced actors (its most noticeable with katara, she tends to just stand around and look), but i think the directors shouldve done something about it

Really liked the looks at azula and ozai, and how you really get to see the way he plays azula and zuko against each other. Its not just "ozai is evil for the sake of being a bad father", you get to see how he's very intentionally using them against each other and how he really might be seriously thinking that he's helping them "get stronger".

Aang pretty much only gets to hold monologues/speeches and stuff, i wish they let him have more natural dialogue and be a kid

Really appreciated june. Also sukis mom. In general all middle-aged women were superb

The set design is pretty great, i really liked omashu

In general i think the middle episodes are the best. There are definitely issues with the show, but i really liked the way they reworked the strongest episode threads into a new interesting narrative, i think they have some cool ideas, and i def think its worth watching

#atla #avatar the last airbender #live action #netflix avatar #netflix

[bonefall]

Just curious, is Russetfur still Raggedstar’s half sister in this universe or are they completely unrelated now? Also do you have anything on Boulder? He was always one of my favorite background cats

If they are half-sibs, it's not relevant! They won't know or care.

Chelford cats are matriarchal. Sires don't inherently play a role in the lives of their children, and seeking that sort of company is something a parent keeps discreet. Uncles and brothers fill the role of "father" in raising the kittens, with cats tracking their lineages through mothers

So Russet has no idea who her father is and doesn't care. Ngl, I also just... don't care about Hal lmaooo

(Imagine writing a super edition about one of your most popular characters, with a story that people have been begging to hear in detail for years, and then dedicating the entire opening to her shitty husband's daddy issues. Couldn't be me.)

Instead, Russetfur is related to the leader of BloodClan at that time. Brick is her sister. I might make Hal her uncle or older brother.

The conflict that occurs between BloodClan and ShadowClan at this time will cause the leader to be killed suddenly, triggering the Frenzy, the period of time during which a new leader is chosen. Pinestar is already having issues over in ThunderClan, and starts seriously thinking about leaving to go help out.

(Though it's certainly not his last straw.)

In any case... if Russetfur and her buddy Boulder had been having second thoughts about Clan life, getting the BloodClan Leader killed and burned the hell out of THAT bridge.

Anyway.

Russetfur and Boulder are in danger during TigerClan. Serious danger. They were loyal to Brokenstar and were safe as long as they were good warriors, but Tigerstar had his eye on them.

So, I feel they may have supported Deerfoot's Rebels, but deniably. I want Blackstar picking Russetfur to be heavily based on her participation, but I also need her to stay safe.

(Might end up having her escape and take refuge with Mistyfoot...)

Boulder is a lot more passive. I like him a LOT and want to expand his role a bit, just because... I Like Him. Literally just blorbo lmao. It's funny how the fandom consensus is just, "this guy's cool!"

I go back and forth on when Boulder's kids are born, and who they are. But he WILL be having kids

I'm set on Whitethroat being one of them, and leaning towards Wetfoot being another.

If Wetfoot is one of Boulder's kids, Firestar knows Boulder as a concerned dad. Wetfoot is going to get a bigger role as a friend in ShadowClan and Deerfoot Rebel.

In my head, Boulder likes the community of Clan life more than the violence, but because he's huge and served under tyrannical leaders he gets forced into battles he doesn't enjoy.

He massively regrets following Russetfur, honestly. He doesn't want to leave and go rebuild his reputation in BloodClan... but he also wishes he never came here.

In my heart, TPB is like the WORST period in this poor guy's life. Background character going through an absolute WRINGER

He's anxious for himself, anxious for his friends, anxious for his kids. Loses Whitethroat. Might lose Wetfoot to the Plague. Serves under TigerClan, terrified that if he isn't a perfect warrior he will get killed.

(And he's right. His fear is warranted. If Russetfur does something, like if I go with her being a refugee in ThunderClan, HE is going to get punished.)

And, of course, he is eventually used by Tigerstar to open up talks with BloodClan.

Even though he has Sasha, Nightwhisper, and Jaggedtooth to serve the same purpose... Tigerstar chooses Boulder.

He doesn't trust Jaggedtooth after he "fails" to contain the prisoners that escape to ThunderClan. He "proved" his loyalty by following his order to execute Deerfoot, but Jaggedtooth is now at the bottom of the pecking order.

Sasha is being reduced to a mate Tigerstar can control, even though she served as one of his mercenaries. He doesn't give her ANY agency.

Nightwhisper is a stupid tool, in Tigerstar's eyes. He does not respect his intelligence, just his eagerness.

So Boulder is chosen. He's smart enough to translate properly, fearful enough to do what Tigerstar says, has lived long enough as a Clan cat... and if he HAS any remaining kids, there is the implicit threat that if Boulder tries something funny, his child is who will pay for it.

After TigerClan ends, I feel like Boulder is desperate to retire early, but also feels like he can't ask for it. He's only survived this long because of his usefulness. It would be hard to trust that he can just... not serve, anymore.

If I can scrounge up more kits for ShadowClan (IT'S SO SMALL), I also would like him to end up having another litter mid-Po3.

Hopefully one of the kids of his first survived, so I can play around with the harrowing dynamic of, "Our dad is so much happier while raising you... I envy my younger sibling's childhood."

And on a final note, Boulder is probably going to get a Warrior Name during TPB. It doesn't really make sense that he just keeps his old one, unfortunately, when Clan Culture is at its most xenophobic and he's in active danger. He'll get Boulder back as a request between TPB and TNP.

#Better Bones Au #BB!Boulder #BB!BloodClan #BB!Russetfur #BB!TPB #Maybe ill bust out the Bright surrogates for him... let him have Amber and Snow or Dew. I know I want Amber in Shadow for some reason #Also idk his warrior name yet. Maybe Cold-something. Ill probably have Broken force one on him. #So it's going to end up sounding edgy #Broken's names are edgy #Lmao his name is like. Sharpstrike or Edgeclaw or something #Just something wild and super unfitting for him #Leave him alone he just wants to be a dad #Born to grill cursed to murder #(SOBBING) i judt watn to grill pela ae i waant ro gri ll... #I made runny evil in BB so I needed SOMEONE to be the Saddest Fucking Thing in shadow

[bloobluebloo]

Ganondorf Crack Roulette : Pet Edition

Gut/First impressions of how shit might go down if, as a pet, Gan had:

Wolf!Link

Long Furby

Ace [circa Batman Beyond]

Parakeets

Meowth [Alolan]

Nina & Alexander

Murder of four crows

Protagonist [Stray]

Blupee

Toph's Meteorite

Well this is a unique one. Let's see...

He'd be wrestling with him all the time. His wrestling buddy. Hell he can even wrestle with him in his beast form which is a plus.

He wears long furby around his neck for warmth against the desert cold and to make Hylian Kings feel unsettled.

He'd have a warrior's bond with Ace. He knows Ace would follow any command he'd give him but he prefers to keep him close while he relaxes and *gasp* cuddles him.

He'd enjoy their chatter to break the silence he usually finds himself in. A lot more amusing than human chatter. He teaches them words like "DIE" and "COWARD" and takes them out when foreign delegations visit and just smirks when his colorful little chaotic birds continue to squack words that make people he doesn't like squirm.

He would keep a close eye on Alolan Meowth. That cat has too much sass. A respectable rival.

He would be so protective of this poor chimera. "Too bad, that I was robbed of the opportunity of killing the man who dared to call himself your father".

He'd love crows are you kidding me? They're so smart and crafty they're just like him. He'd have a special place where he would house them in his palace.

You know those fanworks of Ganondorf smiling softly while petting a cat? Yeah that.

He'd be fascinated by blupees. Maybe he tracks them for fun and keeps the rupees they drop in a special blupee pouch as a way to keep track of how many he's run into. A childhood hobby that persists in adulthood. He knows he has no chance of keeping them as pets and so he respects that.

Ganondorf: "Is this what you people call a pet rock"

Anyways I think Ganondorf loves wildlife and animals and monsters in general 👀

#ganonthots #bloothots