#or if it’s funny enough to share with the audience idk

[sqwdkllr]

I am down bad for your designs they're amazing! May I request the Watcher with Cucurucho?

They sure have something going on,,,

Yeah,,, erm. There they are ! Absolutely only enemies nothing more to see here guys 👍 let’s be respectful now

#qsmp watcher #cucurucho #qsmp #fanart #my art #anon #ask #fun fact ! i was gonna scrap this design for cucu before tweaking it a bit to look how it does now #I like the cartoon logic of the face mask thing #glad these freaks are something you enjoy anon I have lots in the back burner that I just never post bc I don’t #really think about if someone else would like to see it? #or if it’s funny enough to share with the audience idk #I have this queued when I am at my first class so I will have forgotten I uploaded this #lets see how long it takes me to I remember I did this and have that regret settle in

[ohwell-itsme-but-danganronpa]

First shared in The Saiouma Pit discord server, parts said by other members are in quotations, unassigned bullet points are my messages

Hina: "It could go either way but... if it's Shuichi demonic royalty instead of parent, it's his uncle or Shuichi's parents and uncle being there and he's managing to perfectly play shit off to his parents while his uncle is just not buying it?"

his parents being the rulers of hell but his uncle being the one that cares to visit

Dra: "Shuichi tells Kokichi about what's going to happen, Kokichi agrees to help him find someone to marry (they are stupid) but before they can think of anyone time Runs out Shuichi's uncle appears from his silly little red demonic circle, looks at Shuichi, notices Kokichi and just "your human is rather small" And Shuichi loses it because oh fuck he didn't want to get Kokichi involved in this"

Hina: "The fact they really thought an hour was enough time to find a fiancé is just sad"

Fuwa: "we can extend it to 6 hours." And then I said: "no, an hour is perfect"

also Shuichi knew beforehand and just waited helplessly until it was last bell to do anything so he asked Kokichi for ideas

Fuwa: "they do fucking tinder, try to get a demonic looking match. They use a goddamn fake face app, to like, see who's demonic enough, and they point it towards Kokichi on accident at the very end, and it's like "perfect match". "Wow it's truly satan!!""

Hina: "WHY THE FUCK WON'T ANYONE MATCH WITH ME??? I TRIED A THIRST TRAP. I POSTED A PHOTO WITH A DOG. DO YOU NEED A FUCKING FISH??? IS THAT WHAT WE NEED??? SHOULD BE GO FISHING???"

Dra: "Does Kokichi get pros/cons of suddenly being married to demon royalty?" me: "like, what could the cons even possibly be? but yes he does"

after that dinner he stays up at night, pulls out his trusty white board

Dra: ""What if they don't have wifi in hell"", Fuwa: "Shuichi's family" (also listing cons)

Hina: "Pros: Demon Royalty, Would Protect You, Live in Castle, Rich, Cool Uncle, Husband Kinda Cute Ig Cons: The Signal Sucks, Parents are Meh, A lot of fire, Hot. Everyone Here lowkey wants to kill you"

idk about the killing part, I think Kokichi could gain respect in hell, they'd think he has what Shuichi lacks, he was always deemed too timid and soft for a heir to the throne, now this human he brought on the other hand…

Dra: "Ok but it'd actually be so funny if the other demons started going with Kokichi's lies and introduced him as the most powerful demon ruler that just happens to look like a lil dude (it's totally so he can fool sinners into thinking he's harmless) and Shuichi is just watching this go down like "huh""

I love fake dating AUs so I'll try to add a little more to this.

Neither of them has realized their feelings yet when that fated night happens, but something's been brewing through months of their living together. They're just friends that help each other in situations like needing an emergency fiancé. It's cool.

Until it's serious and they're told to pack, so they can begin preparations for the wedding and coronation in Hell as soon as possible. So things get a little tense, but they can go with the flow. It's just another adventure in the life of a supreme leader. And then the shenanigans begin.

The chambers prepared for them obviously have only one bed. They have to show off their affection to sell it to everyone. Learning new details about each other when they're made to pick out stuff for the wedding together. Some frosting on one's face while trying potential cakes. Waking up face to face after swearing to stay on far off sides of the bed the night before.

Kokichi learning things about Shuichi's childhood, Uncle shows him pictures. Shuichi watching Kokichi as he impresses demons with his act, looking at the faces he makes and being not only impressed too, but falling a little bit in love with the joy it brings Kokichi to have a receptive audience.

The realization of feelings being followed by the assumption it's unrequited and wallowing in it. The mixed feelings when trying on suits, dreading the approaching wedding day while thinking the other doesn't feel the same. Something pushing the tension past the limit and causing the confrontation. I've been thinking of maybe introducing a little magic to Hell's wedding traditions; they would each have to throw an ingredient into a huge jug of a special alcoholic drink that is prepared for weddings some days in advance and those specific ingredients have to be thrown in by the couple because the mixture will turn a pretty color when someone in love does this step.

Those idiots. These two morons. When it turns out alright they jump to the conclusion that the other is in love but with somebody else. [This could also be done with Kokichi hearing Shuichi mumble something about love in his sleep, or overhear him venting to somebody who knows their situation, probably Uncle or a friend, say "I think I'm in love" all tragically and the same misunderstanding happens]

So accusations fly, "If you're in love with someone, then why didn't you go to them with this?"

"I didn't know then. Why did you agree to this if there's someone you-?"

"I didn't know. And I expected this to be over by now. I thought that they wouldn't approve of me, or find out it's a farce and then kick me out."

"You should be with the one you love. I can open a portal for you. I can come clean to everyone, I got you into this mess-"

"No. It's not that simple" Shuichi looks at him questioningly, so he sighs and continues "... I am pretty sure it's unrequited. Doesn't matter anymore. What about you? I promised to help. Whatever that means now."

Whether they resolve it at that point or continue without talking things out [Shuichi claiming that his feelings are unrequited too, so their only option is to stay on track.] is up to you.

#danganronpa #ndrv3 #kokichi ouma #shuichi saihara #saiouma #oumasai #kokichi oma #made by me #writing prompt #if you use it I'd love to read that!

[riacte]

i never really paid attention to it but wow false and ren. they really do hover around each other huh. they r like bugs

Hiii anon thanks for the ask <3 I'll use this to talk about them and them in fanon because I have thoughts woooo (and I'm vibrating with excitement because I'm listening to the HC Grand Prix at the same time)

You said it exactly— like we all know they're buddies and stick together, but most of the times, we don't really notice it because it's just natural. Nondescript even. Like of course their pixels are next to each other in the background. Of course they're hanging out. It's not flashy or anything, they're just there.

[long and winding analysis that goes off in a Direction, will definitely not be maintagged, mentions of shipping and the fandom's worst enemy (comphet / heteronormativity)]

Pairing up

They're like those anime characters who are fully fleshed out individually, but for some reason, their screentime is tied together and they're always shown next to each other. That was actually my first impression of them back when I only watched Grian in HC6 lmao, every time Grian flew over the fantasy district he would casually go "that's False and Ren's bases" and my brain was like "hmm new names :) idk who they are but they stick together :)". Like you know when you're new to an unknown cast of people so you try to comprehend and memorise them as efficiently as possible? And so you start sorting the cast into duos / groups so it's easier to remember them? That was me trying to compartmentalize the hermits in HC6. Grian + Mumbo. Iskall + Stress. Scar + Cub. Joe + Cleo. ZIT. False + Ren.

It did not help that from Grian's POV, there was a part in the civil war arc when he collabed with False to prank Ren because they thought he'd pranked her and so my brain was like "weeewoooo I still don't know who False and Ren are but they continue stick together, and that's convenient for my internal sorting :)))". And that mutual association genuinely never stopped lmao (it only got worse).

Shared audiences?

I've talked about this on privtwt: False+Ren as a fanon duo (like duo Duo as in desert duo) is strangely niche even though they do stuff together all the time and they're both fairly popular on their own. And there is so much intermingling between their audiences— I know this is the case for all hermits' audiences, but it seems especially obvious between their audiences. I know in a stream Ren said he met up with False and they had a discussion like years ago about the two of them hosting a meet and greet with fans in a restaurant (that didn't happen) and internally I was like "yeah, that'll only work if they have a solidly integrated fanbase so no one feels left out in the restaurant WAIT. That's literally what's going on here".

Funny how when I was writing this, an anon sent an ask about Ren's chat basically being full of False emotes LOL. Integrated audience kinda real <3 like, even if you only watch one of them and don't actively watch the other, you still know and think of the other fondly.

Different styles? And sticking together

Actually outside of yayyy fun minigames, to me at least they have quite different styles + ways of presentation? Which feels slightly different from the above duos I mentioned? So I totally understand why people only main one of them and don’t watch the other (but still aware of the other obviously). In terms of taste and personal preference, I’ve been here long enough to know what loyal False mains generally like and what loyal Ren mains generally like. (Like, very verrrry generally.) Ren’s the dramatic roleplay storyteller and False is like, sneaky and shifty and has a wry sense of humour. They’re both funny and charming in different ways. I would say Iskall and Stress have similar presentations (“aha? AHA?”) even though they excel at different things. Cub and False are also similar to me— competent and cool people who are nonchalantly chaotic. And we all know Ren and Martyn’s instant chemistry and their similarities. It’s why a lot of Ren fans gravitated to Renchanting and Rendoc for their dramatics and flirting in the way some False fans gravitate to Fress and Falseren for the fun/mildly hysterical/teasing/sweet/pranking moments.

BUT

False and Ren bounce off each other well— it’s the playful tension and the sudden mutual whiny energy like “noooo don’t leave me🥺” but they start hitting each other 0.5 seconds later. And of course the mutual clinginess. I know people have made jokes about how they’re both smart and competent people individually but when they get together they suddenly become the silliest sillies and share one braincell <3 and I know people (read: mutuals in my DMs) have joked about Ren’s currently extremely obvious bias for her (it's as big as the BRR sign I swear 😭) and the usual “orbiting around each other group recordings”. Compared to other duos, they don’t get paired together bc of similar presentations / style. They get paired together because of the chemistry and they share so many moments lol.

Tldr: they make for entertaining on-screen interactions. It’s fun watching them rotate around each other and punch each other off things. And they do this so much that 1) everyone’s aware of it 2) everyone’s used to it.

Branding? (Or the lack of it)

Last I checked, their tag has 46 fics on Ao3 and 16 of those fics are from me (I love being spiders georg). As with every pair that's not the juggernaut pair, realistically the actual number of fics that actually focus on them is less than what we see. And you know how sometimes for the "niche" pairs, there's more ship fic than platonic fic? (Actually I think for most pairs, there's more ship fic than platonic fic.) That's also not it, they don't even have 20 ship fics. Like clearly, the current fanon interest in them is not ship motivated versus *gestures to whatever is happening in the general shipping chaos post 2021*.

What I concluded is that they lack the kind of branding that for example Convex possesses. I think it's kind of because... they're an ubiquitous constant throughout the years. They don't need a storyline or a named group to tie themselves together. No matter what they're doing, no matter what characters they're playing, no matter which servers they're on— they just kind of stay in each other's orbits. But they don't play it up or anything like hashtag SHIPrendoc or Renskall or whatever. They don't even have a proper fanon name ffs (outside of fairy pirate grotto or whatever in HC6).

(Although imo this is likely to avoid comphet irl shipping because God forbid a man and a woman are friends :))))) heteronormative irl shipping / truthing was an annoyance for years (pre the HC6 boom). But strangely enough, modern anti hermitshippers on Twitter rarely bring up the real problem of truthing in public comments and instead target people making Scarian fanart in a small corner or whatever. When many cases of Compulsory Heterosexuality literally exist in YouTube comments. But I digress.)

Ren and False are just there, pranking each other and basing together and playing five million minigames and being casually supportive of each other. Like, their biggest shared "storyline" that left a strong impression on fans / converted fans was probably MCC9. We all still talk about it today the way Ren and Martyn still talk about 3L Renchanting. And MCC9 was in 2020 when they'd already done a lot of stuff together prior to that (eg. literally being neighbours in HC6).

And the thing is, they do collab semi-frequently. In like every Hermitcraft season. In recent memory, we've got the Blue River Raceway of course, but we also get those pranks and minigames and random silly interactions like Ren breaking into False's eagle and False pranking him at her elytra race. It doesn't need to be big and theatrical in classic Ren fashion (I remember the Renbob / Falsewell storyline in HC6; her nonchalance and confusion was so funny in contrast to Renbob's hippie demeanor).

And I kind of like the way they've kind of (?? or not???) escaped from the intense duo-ification from the fandom. Okay, to be fair, I know I am the worst offender of the duo-ification of them (with my desperate do not separate agenda), and maybe I've had a negative effect on the fandom, so feel free to throw me off my soap box. I remember how hermitblr as a collective suddenly lost it when they split in MCC17. We took them for granted, we all got to used to them being together, we got used to seeing them in the background, and then suddenly they’re not??

So we’re all kind of aware of them. But it’s not a terribly big thing…. until it is.

It's the same on the M/CC Reddit. Everyone knows they're iconic. But nobody makes a post about how we need more False and Ren duo interactions because they already interact a lot. It's just a natural constant. They don't really need a spotlight because they're just... here doing funky cute friendship stuff.

But if they ever, for some reason, become a mainstream duo on twt in its mainstream duo way with some [insert random noun] duo name, I will be so 🫠😒🔥💥🔥💥. But I literally cannot see this happening unless they team with Grian / Grian adjacent people in Life series. But even then I think they’re kinda exempt because everyone’s so used to them lol. It’s not like a shiny new uwu duo. It’s like how Stresskall is just Stresskall. Or Jleo.

(Actually, speaking of Stresskall, the entire Stress-Iskall-Ren-False group would make for an interesting fanon discussion bc it’s essentially made out of very solid and fan favourite duos. But not now. Team FRIS my absolute beloved though.)

Also, thinking about the ensemble HC fics I've read and how they're just casually kind of chilling in the background. Ren is usually paired with Doc (both platonic / romantic) but False is usually somehow mentioned in a passing comment. Same with False who's usually with the Hermitgals in ensemble fics, but there's also passing comments about her hanging out with Ren. Again, it's just a natural part of the background. Trivia that's sprinkled in between.

And that's why I think I'm so 🥺🥺🥺🥺 because it doesn't need to be big and grand... it's all the little moments <3 they have such a fun and playful dynamic and all the love for minigames <3

I don’t know if this is comprehensible or I’m just going crazy and overthinking things no one thinks about. But writing this was fun at least <3 If at least one person gets maybe 30% of this post (whatever it is), I'll be happy haha.

Post sponsored by the three people who liked my tweet from months ago 🥹

#ask box #answered #meta #i guess??????? #this has subheadings bc i got uni coursework back and that was the feedback #ria.txt #this is 1.8k words long... could've written a oneshot lmfao #save me falseren save me #pogsupremacy

[vix-png]

I HAVE THOUGHTS TO SHARE.

THEM AND THEIR hypothetical POKEMON TEAM (i would like to hear other people's thoughts because i am unsure and i plan to post this on the subreddit eventually)

explanations under the cut (its gonna be extensive so be prepared) (this has been rotting in my brain for a while)

KYBORG

he has a secret soft spot for his pokemon, if they faint or get injured he worries really badly

he likes to bond with them during training :D he pesters the others for pokemon battles

umbreon, poochyena - i feel like they kinda just have the same 'mysterious, dark' vibes that kyborg wants to have has!! but funnily enough, they're not as scary as they seem. very affectionate!! like dogs!! kyborg loves them

riolu - okay so think with me here.. riolu/lucario can read auras and emotions and so they know that kyborg isnt a bad person and they know when he's trying to mask his emotions ??!!???? so riolu would be understanding of him n they'd be pretty close

also i'd just like to think riolu (and the rest of his pokemon) enjoy battling alongside kyborg

scorbunny/froakie - when i see these pokemon i think of athleticism and/or dexterity and i couldn't decide between the two :'3

scorbunny/froakie would go on runs / exercise with kyborg, they have a similar personality type where they're both brash, energetic, enthusiastic and they click easily like that!!

though i imagine froakie is more calculated in battles compared to scorbunny whos more impulsive

alolan vulpix - SPOILERS FOR EP 33 (?)

this vulpix, alongside hannibal (perhaps a dragonair) and gumbo (the linoone), was fighting against .. lets say abomasnow?

and during that fight lets say gum gum and kyborg interfered by sending out their pokemon and assisting in the battle n kyborg became really fond of the vulpix and decided to keep him as a per

WHY alolan vulpix? idk i think it'd be fitting since kyborg has some ties to snow and ice and also because i believe the region they were in during that arc was snowy !!1

BART

he performs little shows with his lute and his pokemon!! and he also occasionally has pokemon battles

he loves his pokemon dearly tbh and i feel like all of them appreciate music in some way :3!!

pikachu - one of the pokemon he's owned for a long time! his pikachu particularly is quite fond of his trainer and his quirks n music, it helped the crew during the time bart was on the jebediah!!

i have no explanation for this one actually but a fun thought is that pikachu would evolve into an alolan raichu (look at the little guy surf!!) and this would mean that bart would live in the alolan region so who knows honestly... LISTEN HE JUST HAS A PIKACHU

chatot - a gift from marrrge to bart, passed down because the two started to bond while on the ship. they sang together n marrrge could tell they really had potential so boom kapow wachow

ALSO ABOUT THE MIMICKI NG THING chatot can mimic voices (from what i remember) and i think it'd be funny if it mimicked kyborg like the kenkus from that one library and it annoys kyborg to no bounds

mantine - caught during his time on the ship! mantine sometimes swim near ships in little packs and i suppose this one took a liking to bart, and bart was pretty fond of it as well :D not much to say here except for the fact its a silly little water guy

tauros - bart got like.. a baby auroch or something right?? idk i forgot but either way he is (weirdly) fond of beastly bulls and i suppose a tauros is a good substitute

i also like to imagine bart likes mounting (strange wording) his pokemon since it just means he doesn't have to walk much and he likes being a bit higher up than he usually is n tauros (and maybe mantine) are good for that

would he own the notorious pokemon? that is but a thought left for the audience.

GUM GUM

he's weirdly lucky, seems to have a good chance at finding shiny pokemon and other rare things

wonder why

anyways, his pokemon r kinda just companions that he likes to hug and hang out with :) occasionally he does battle with them

floette - flower buddy!!! i'd like to think that gum gum likes to spend time in flower fields when he has the chance and the one thing he's honestly pretty knowledgeable in is flowers

so he might've met a flabebe or a floette and they became buddies! he had no idea it was a shiny until maybe one of the party members mentioned it

bulbasaur - okay so i struggled on this decision but then it came to me that bulbasaur is PERFECT idk they have the same vibes and it eventually starts growing a little flower when it evolves

i can't explain this one they just have the same vibes and energy. i think they'd go well together

tyrunt - so let's imagine that for some reason there were some fossil pokemon that kinda just escaped and that's how we explain the dinosaur encounters from rhe campaign

anyways he befriends the tyrunt in typical gum gum fashion (kyborg is SHOCKED because out of all the pokemon this one was a shiny) and they become friends! it loves hugs but it often initiated them running full speed and knocking over the victim (which is fine for gum gum, not fun for anyone else though)

yamper - SPOILERS FOR GUM GUM'S ARC

despite gum gum's bad experiences with rum rum (WHICH BY THE WAY rum rum perhaps was a rockruff that evolved into midnight lycanroc or a houndour/houndoom and that bite wouldve HURT) he's still fond of puppies n yamper helped with this slight uneasiness he's felt

idk i think gum gum deserves a silly little puppy

all his pokemon r very cuddly :)

MUDD

prefers mellow, calm pokemon since he finds it a bit tiring to keep up with high energy pokemon (unlike the other three)

his pokemon are quite well trained!! he's caught a lot of them and they're all very well taken care of

despite his pokemon being pretty strong, he doesn't find much use in pokemon battles

snivy - got the snivy during his time with his family! royal background buddies!!! snivy is a very calm pokemon (but it shares the same sass that mudd has), they're pretty close :D

linoone - GUMBO!!!!! at first, linoone wasn't too big of a fan of mudd but they gradually becamw closer! they do everything together, if you look at mudd linoone would always be on his shoulders or being carried

lycanroc - its the vibes honestly..

midday lycanroc is calm and loyal, and maybe mudd has raised it since it was a rockruff so they're also pretty well bonded!

idk i think they'd get along well

lapras, gogoat - both pokemon that remind me of mudd's personality

i cant explain this except for the fact that theyre correlated to some of the pokemon he's wild shaped into so ....

archen - i think it'd be funny if mudd just had a feral little pokemon . end quote



#vix moment #stinkydragonpod #tales from the stinky dragon #tftsd #pokemon #pokemon au #i read so many pokedex entries for this #please do mention if you feel like there should be changes #or perhaps headcanons #i have no idea if theres anyone else #whos obsessed with pokemon #THIS IS EMBARRASSING BECAUSE IVE LIKED POKEMON #FOR LITERALLY YEARS AND I STILL DONT KNOW THAT MUCH #so please be nice :3 #gum gum actually has a mythical pokemon /j #this is my current hyperfixation + my old one

[shitpostingkats]

Hi yes I need you to know that your analysis on Jaden and Yusei (June 16, 2022, idk if you’ve done multiple on them but that’s the one I’m talking about) is the realest thing I have EVER read and you’re so right and you should say it MUCH louder that is the greatest take op it’s amazing and I’m screaming /pos

Jaden is my favorite character like,,,, ever, and you have nailed him I’m going bonkers

Another thing, I love your Groupchat AU but you have made me become aware that there is???? Another???? YGO show????? I was like who on God’s Green Earth is Yudias and then Google attacked me with information. I still remember. When Vrains was new. To me Vrains is still new. It came out 6 years ago. I feel old. I am not okay. I have yet to acknowledge the existence of Sevens and will continue to do so with Go Rush. Oh I got off-topic, whoops-

Anyways, love your Groupchat AU but I saw the one part with the Eldritch language that Jaden and Yuya are both fluent in and I humbly request more of their dynamic???

I had an epiphany last night, they’re so similar I’m actually losing my mind. All I can think about is that one audio of Batman and that girl on the swings and it’s like “They got their weapon, I got cheated out of my childhood” “I know what that’s like.” “You do don’t you?” Tell me that’s not them I am dying /pos

Much love <3

Oh my gosh, thank you! <3

Jaden and Yusei, my beloved blorbit. The painfully monstrous and the painfully human. The narrative foils of all time. Jaden Yuki, the creatchur autism boi of all time. <3 I need to write about them more.

I know what you mean about the new shows. I'm still a ways off from watching them, but I still want to remember they exist but keep forgetting. What do you means vrains is six years old??? (<- was not even a yugioh fan when vrains was airing) You're telling me there's probably going to be new one after that??? That the days start coming and they don't stop coming?????

Shoutouts to the sevens and go rush fans. They are the mightiest of soldiers. I know nothing about their shows but I'm hesitantly penciling them into the groupchat au anyways because I have seen maybe three clips but I know this funny little alien guy is near and dear to my heart.

Obviously there's a bit of a shift between Vrains and the Sevens era, being made for new audiences, a little tone shifting (which we LOVE, because any franchise that stays the same forever is no bueno.) and that makes it easy to group the first six shows into one group. But I also think there's a fascinating dialogue between shows 1-3 and shows 4-6. I didn't realize it until I was a good way into Arc-V, but each of the second trilogy protagonists sorta reflects the first three.

With Yuma and Yugi, it's very purposeful, a stated "return to form" with the chipper kid and his ghost companion who lives in his special necklace. And when I was gushing over Yusei in 5Ds, I got a lot of people saying "Man, you're going to love Yusaku." They're both the rbf hacker protags who fight the government. Lots to love.

But Jaden and Yuya????? Did not imagine I would come out of Arc-V going "omg they're foils. They're the same story through a different lens. They need to TALK to eachother and bond over their shared experiences."

Even leaving out my pet theory of "Zarc Was An Incarnation Of Jaden In The Original Timeline", they're just so. *clenches fist* The childhood trauma of being a weird kids and masking with an overly bubbly personality only to learn the great anger they've been trying to hide is powerful enough to rip apart reality and they're secretly harbingers of destruction.

By the end of GX, I think Jaden has wonderfully come to term with that. By the end of Arc-V, I think Yuya hasn't.

Their dynamic in the gc AU is very much to me Yuya is still struggling with Z-arc stuff, but not saying anything about it because that'd be weird, so he just kinda frets about it until he hits a breaking point and Jaden gets to offer his advice on dealing with all this.

I am so interested in exploring this that it actually got me started writing fic again,,, which I haven't done in like a year, so wish me luck. I'll keep y'all updated :)

Angst aside, they're also just. One braincell between them. Theatre kid and guy who has never once acted natural in his entire life. Kid making a scene at a Waffle House while his friend slowly eats the entire menu and offers suggestions. Jaden is a pokemon fan and Yuya is a kingdom hearts girlie, I've decided this, and they takes turns infodumping to each other. Jaden summons duel spirits so Yuya can ride around on Hiphippo even when he's not dueling. They trade funny things they've heard their dragons say. They're eldritch and inhuman and best friends, your honor.

#I know this is long #otherwise I would have started rambling on my 'Zarc was an incarnation of Jaden' theory #but yeah. <3 I care them. #thank you so much for sending in such a lovely ask #I love hearing from people just as yugioh brainwormed as I and yall are so nice #asks #answered asks #yugioh #ygo #yugioh gx #yugioh 5ds #yugioh arc v #ygo gx #ygo arc v #jaden yuki #yusei fudo #yuya sakaki

[olreid]

'the secret good neverafter that lives in my head' lol i take it you're not enjoying the season? curious to hear why if you feel like sharing

hmm idk that i would say im not enjoying it but yeah i think for me it's just not really like. a successful horror story at least so far. under a cut for length lol

i think the first thing watching neverafter has helped me discover is that i dont think characters in a horror story can know that they are in a horror story, at least initially. OR if they do, they have to be the only person who knows it and no one else can agree with or believe them. for me at least, such a huge element of resonant horror is the split between what the world insists it is and what it actually is, between what you are promised in life and what you actually receive. you have to be being told that the world is logical, good, that there is a way for you to win at life or beat the game or escape the prison, and you have to genuinely believe that, at least at first. so i wish neverafter hadn't started with the premise of 'the world has gotten noticeably Bad and you all noticed it and everyone agrees that this is the case even if they dont know how to fix it.' i wish they had played it straight, starting in the happily ever after of fairy tales and had the characters slowly realizing that actually they're not happy even though they're supposed to be, and having to break out of prisons that don't look like prisons and fight through a world that insists it is helping them at every step even as it constrains and warps them. and i know that's partially at odds with needing to appropriately warn viewers about what they're getting into, but i still think even if they had billed this season as a horror season and started out the first episode with Everything Is Great, that would have been excellent because i would have been just WAITING in agony for the other shoe to drop.

and then i think my other issue besides the framing has more to do with the general format of d20, which i don't think lends itself to horror for several reasons, firstly the at this point predictable shape of a main cast season. again i think a lot of the power of horror comes from unpredictability; you know something bad is going to happen in a horror story, but you don't know exactly when or what shape it will be. the wind gets kind of taken out of the sails if you know that it's going to be an every-other-episode combat situation. i appreciate that brennan's trying to add some new stuff in - red tokens, one shot kills, etc - but i don't think it's enough and even the twist of the tpk alreadys feel like it's been almost fully explained in-world to the point that we now understand how combat works in this setting. again that goes along with the format -- the players have to be able to understand the game in order to play it and be able to effectively help tell the story. but it means that things are pretty predictable, and when you've watched a bunch of d20 seasons you develop an eye for what the next fight will look like and what the overall arc of a season will be. there is of course still room for me to be surprised or proven wrong here! but my hopes are not high.

the other issue is that d20 is first and foremost a comedy. and it's not that i think horror can't be funny, but i think that largely the comedy has to come from audience interpretation -- horror needs to take itself seriously to succeed, at least for me. i think of the 'it's remarkably easy to buy an ax in central london' line from tma -- timeless and hilarious but jon is completely sincere when he says it and jonny's delivery is similarly sincere; he plays it straight, and so we get both the horror of that moment -- jon having been driven to a point where he feels the need to arm himself, which seems a pitiful gesture in the face of the forces at work on him -- and the humor, which comes when we distance ourselves a bit from the text and can appreciate that line out of context. neverafter, on the other hand, as a comedy show, is full of jokes and bits which not only contrast somewhat bizarrely with the more serious horror moments but also serve to lower the stakes of the entire project, as nearly every joke creates distance between player and character, reminding us as the audience that they are just that -- characters, not real people, in a made-up world. for example, in the spider fight where lou is calling the spiders who are attacking him Ladies as he fails to fight them off, it succeeds as a joke -- it did make me laugh -- but fails as horror because if someone was truly prone glued to a spider web with spiders crawling onto their body, i highly doubt they would be joking about it, so it takes me out of the scene and makes the world less real to me. in the other direction, the fact that it's a comedy also primes the players to take what brennan says as comedy first and horror second, eg the mouse in cinderella's old house who is saying something genuinely horrifying about not being in control of his body or actions as the entire table struggles not to break because the voice is funny or whatever. and so i feel like the two main goals of the season are at cross-purposes, because nearly all of the successful comedy makes it feel like less of a horror story, and makes the characters feel less real.

and having said all that it's not that i don't think the d20 table is capable of doing horror well, because i honestly think they already have done so with a crown of candy. acoc doesn't suffer from any of the issues ive outlined above; characters were killed in roleplay episodes to the point that you felt something terrible could happen at any time; the season took itself seriously, perhaps because the premise itself is so inherently comedic that they decided that to seriously embody a character who is a loaf of bread named senator ciabatta is funnier than making a gag out of it. whatever the reason, the stakes of the world are incredibly high -- we know this was also partially because it was a low-magic, high lethality season where brennan put limits on the party's healing abilities and removed most of the plot armor that protected characters in other fantasy seasons. and crucially, the characters did not begin the story thinking that the world was terrible. they were all members of the royal house of rocks, and heavily invested in their world moving according to logical rules and patterns; so much of the horror and tragedy of the season comes with the dawning realization on the part of the characters that the rules they thought would protect them -- those of diplomacy and morality and cause and effect -- don't actually prevent harm, death, grief, or suffering.

similarly, fantasy high sophomore year succeeds at horror, largely because the horror is dream and mirror-based so there is a sense of pervasive unsafety and a feeling that characters cannot even doze off without making themselves vulnerable to possession or violation. so it's not that i think d20 couldn't ever do horror successfully, which would almost be better -- they have done it and i have watched them do it but theyre not doing it now for whatever reason and that is disappointing. i was promised horror!! i want horror!!!

hopefully i don't need to say that this is just one guy's opinion on why it hasn't gripped me -- i know it's working for others because the tag is always full of people posting about how they couldnt sleep after the episode or whatever and truly good for them. but that is not my journey

#asks #anon

[blarrghe]

Some stray thoughts

I watched the hbomberguy video despite having never heard of him, James Somerton, illuminaughtii, Filip, AVGN, OR internet historian. I'd only heard of a few of the people plagiarized -- mainly the academics. I basically don't use YouTube for anything but trailers and videos about quantum physics 🤷‍♀️

Watching the video informed me that these people talk about things I like and care about, and that they have collectively *millions* of subscribers making them lots of money. So I dont feel particularly compelled to be like "ok but I don't know who any of these people are" in that dismissive too-cool-for-it tone. It's clearly a big deal. Idk who the fuck juice world is either but he must be a big deal bc my high school students mention him like every day. Sometimes very big things lie outsude your small circle of influence.

Hbombguy made really good, well defended, entertaining points. In particular I'd love to show just the first hour breaking down what plagairism is and why it's bad to my students, bc he used a video game journalist as an example and laid out the point that this shit still matters even when it's something like YouTube channels about video games, and not just in school. I probably can't because of the swearing and humor but I do think it would resonate with exactly the audience that needs it (oh my God do teens need it) so I hope enough teens were watching.

I'd also really like to share some of the last bit about the value of creativity and the profoundly sad phenomenon of content creation for the sake of vain self fulfillment and empty moneymaking schemes. Those points hit something really key to the state of content creation and analysis right now.

Whether or not you care about ruining some guys career is irrelevant. Hbombguy even wants you to know that's not the point. He says so multiple times

The point is many people don't fully know what plagiarism means, which makes it easier for lazy assholes to exploit passionate hard working creatives and academics

And the point is that there is a good, defensible, collaborative and productive way to share, source, and build off others ideas, and that this is a skill we should all be learning to use and identify

Critical thinking skills and knowing the rules of engagement are essential in the internet information era. You are not immune to misinformation. You need to know what a reputable source looks like.

Ok that's it. Just getting real tired of the immediate response becoming "he DESTROYED his career" "yeah ok so? Idk who any of these people are"

Also it was funny.

#Good journalism practices are important and worth learning about #Particularly through the lens of pop media and YouTube content creation bc that's not typically where it's talked about #But it's important there too. People are working. People are getting paid.

[adachicuto]

last date before wedding with ptg

warning(s): food and wine mentions

↳ jinho: helping him with a cover of a song for youtube and it’d be a pretty romantic song maybe ed sheeran thinking out loud or john legend or maybe something else like eyes, nose, lips and you wouldn’t realize that he got you singing. i don't think he'd post it and just want to save it for the two of you to rewatch. it wouldn’t matter to him if you were an amazing singer or not, just being able to share that moment with you would be enough for him. so, it would probably become a tradition where you'd rewatch the cover for every wedding anniversary, and maybe you would cover more songs together each time as a little segment on his youtube channel and the members would text him and tease him about it every time lol

↳ hui: i get the feeling that he would bring you to a really nice yet underrated restaurant where smooth jazz is played and people are allowed to go onstage and perform a song. both of you would have the biggest smiles on your faces because the date would be reminiscent of your first one. you'd end the date off with really good wine and of course, hui would go onstage and sing (he'd claim it as practice for your big day) and would leave the audience stunned by his amazing vocals. on the drive home, his hand would never leave yours and he'd probably fidget with your engagement ring with a huge smile on his face.

↳ hongseok: your "date" would be so sweet and domestic because hongseok just gives me homey vibes. like, you'd both go to the grocery store to get ingredients for dinner and a dessert you both like. idk it would be the cutest thing and then you'd head back home and he'd start cooking while you worked on the dessert and you'd definitely catch him staring at you every few minutes with a goofy smile on his face and he'd wiggle his eyebrows playfully. you'd step away for a second to back-hug him and hongseok would smile to himself before he'd turn around to kiss you and he'd pull away to say something really cheesy but it would still put a smile on your face.

↳ yeo one: i think changgu would plan the cutest little picnic in the park for both of you. he'd pack some of your favorite foods and snacks and would even get you flowers or something. it would be the cutest thing and he'd take a flower and put it behind your ear and you'd do the same to him and then you'd go back and forth about who's the prettiest lol then the two of you would lie down and cloud gaze. idk i can see a really adorable dog running over to the two of you and it would really like changgu and it would be such a cute moment that would lead you to discuss the possibility of adopting a dog after the wedding. once the sun would start to settle below the horizon, you'd head home and would probably spend the rest of the day watching a show or movie.

↳ shinwon: both of you would agree on going to a spa and maybe a little shopping. i could definitely see him goofing around with you while in the sauna by making weird faces and telling you funny stories. then, he'd have you rest your head on his shoulder and he'd smile to himself. then, he'd tell you about how he was so nervous to propose to you. after a few minutes he'd realize that you weren't talking only to find you asleep. so, he'd make sure that you would be comfortable and would relax too. i think he'd love to spoil his s/o so he'd really enjoy going to the spa with you and it'd be a nice break from all of the wedding prep. on the way home, you'd both decide on ordering in bc neither of you would want to cook after being at the spa.

↳ yanan: he'd wake up extra early to get your favorite breakfast foods and coffee. when he'd make it back to your apartment he'd be met with you half asleep on the couch and would quickly put everything down to cuddle with you for a few minutes and then you'd eat breakfast together. afterward, the two of you would get ready to go and yanan wouldn't tell you but it would all make sense later. so, the two of you would go to multiple places throughout the city and you were thankful that they wouldn't be too far and at each stop, you and yanan would talk about what happened at each, like, one place was where he took you for your first date and another would be where you both said you loved each other for the first time. looking back on all of the memories would make both of your hearts feel so full.

↳ yuto: i think you'd go to an aquarium or botanical garden and it would be on a day when it wouldn't be so busy and the two of you could goof around and take funny pictures of each other imitating the animals. throughout the date, you'd both feel like little kids on a field trip again. both of you would stop every few minutes to stare at something you'd find interesting and the look on your faces at that moment would be so adorable and you'd have to capture the moments. after that, you would go get something to eat and then walk back to your apartment. on the walk, you'd both reminisce about how you met, your first date, and how he proposed to you.

↳ kino: i feel like hyunggu would go all out but it would still be a pretty laid-back date idk if that makes sense but he'd sign you up for a couples' dancing class where you'd learn how to tango and it would be so romantic and fun, even if you're not much of a dancer. after that, you'd go back home to shower and then he'd take you out to a really nice restaurant for dinner. the two of you would be so impressed with your meals but the highlight of your would be getting ice cream or your favorite dessert from your favorite place but then on your way back home it'd start raining and you'd have to wait it out inside a nearby cafe with steaming cups of tea. the whole situation would be pretty funny to both of you and it'd make for a nice moment to look back on.

↳ wooseok: being the youngest, i don't think he'd plan everything out and would just go with the flow. so, i think wooseok would also enjoy a night in with you as your date, especially if it would be a rainy day. he'd go and get your favorite snacks and drinks the day before and would surprise you with everything. the two of you would spend the day watching movies, playing video games, and just enjoying the calm before your wedding day. somehow, you'd end up talking about some of your embarrassing moments early on in your relationship and neither of you would be able to stop laughing and maybe you'd each go through your camera roll and it'd be a really cute moment for both of you.

#this was so cute to write 🥺 sorry if some of them are similar. i tried to make them as different as i could but could only do so much when i #have writer’s block #pentagon #pentagon scenarios #pentagon fluff #ptg #ptg fluff #ptg imagines #ptg scenarios #pentagon imagines #hui x reader #jinho x reader #hongseok x reader #shinwon x reader #yeo one x reader #yanan x reader #yuto x reader #kino x reader #wooseok x reader

[skinnytuna]

(i'm anon who replied to your long post about audience validation and art)

thank you for your response, it's very interesting. it's actually kinda funny because I used to be a person who never, ever shared anything I did with other people (online or in person). I wouldn't talk about the media I enjoyed or showed the drawings I made. it always felt too intimate - I was only doing it for myself and so having other people's eyes on it wouldn't add anything to my enjoyment apart from shame from not liking or creating the 'perfect' thing. if I imagined what I would do in the future, it was only from the perspective of what I would actually create, rather than the validation it would give me.

and then my world view flipped, I guess as I became increasingly exposed to online validation. I still dont share anything I make but if I (indulgently) daydream about creating something, it is rarely purely the process of creation that I think about. I cant separate the stuff I do and the response I would get like I could as a kid. this is probably partly because of watching numbers rise online. but maybe it could also just be the sad reality of transitioning into adulthood? when you are young the stuff you make is never going to get you shit. but when you are older, you are expected to view the world with a transactional slant: whatever you give, you must get back in return.

idk how into fandoms you are but I love them because they are a way to remove that dependence on transaction (both monetary and inter-personal validation) we have. obviously, fandoms mostly exist in an online world and so some people are going to be more successful at creating than others (and some people might even manage to make a tiny amount of money) but mostly they are pretty equal. most artists (fic writers/fan artists) are only creating for the sake of creation. they like something, want to improve it or want to explore a world and so they create. some fanfic writers will never get past 100 kudos on a single work, but they still write thousands and thousands of more words. this is because, for them, writing is a hobby and a way to have fun. they are literally unable to monetise it, and the possible size of a response is often limited by the tiny size of a niche fandom.

fan fiction is wholly and unapologetically amateur. it can be a great quality, but writers have the freedom to create imperfect things and learn as they go. there are no critics, book sales or best seller lists - you can just make shit and put it out there if you want.

idk if any of that made sense but yeah

it's funny you say that about adulthood because there are so many like. 13 year old rappers now who are solely in it for the money or dont understand why they are doing it and their parents are encouraging them to do it for the money so like. childhood for us was very different to what childhood currently is, right now this year.

but i personally cant remember a time when i wasn't desperate for validation like when i was playing guitar when i was 8 or 10 i still had that "i hope im good enough i want to be good enough without trying" feeling it's just the people i wanted to impress were like, authority figures. i wanted my guitar teacher to think i was cool. i wanted my moms friends to think i was funny. i'm still afraid of doing anything i haven't already learned how to do, writing is the first New thing i've attempted in maybe my entire adulthood.

it's kind of funny, when i was younger i didn't realize how bad i was at writing music and that's the only reason i stuck to it long enough to learn anything. i was like laughably bad at it in high school and no one really went out of there way to grab me by the shoulders and say "hey! you suck at this! stop!" though a bunch of people did tell me it kinda sucked. i mostly just thought they were wrong. they weren't. but now part of me doesn't believe i could ever be any good at something that isn't that. like when i write fiction i know on a cognitive level if it ends up being good it's not because i worked hard or earned it or anything it's just a complete fluke. and i don't even really believe people when they tell me it's good. even though obviously i'm only posting it so people will tell me it's good.

in a way i feel like i'm sort of shifting back to the way i was in high school... every piece of art i make im like "this is the best shit ever" and then i post it and if people tell me it sucks im like "lol. incorrect. your tastes are Unrefined" and then i keep making more whatever crap whatever. which honestly is the best way to live i think. i have some people in my life who really like, respect and admire that i make whatever the fuck i want without ever really considering whether or not i should. which is funny because i have a lot of people in my life who are like, Normal artists, who Think before they make something, and try to make Good Things and i envy them greatly because it really comes through in the work.

though obviously as an evil bastard communist i am a strong believer that "Bad" Art Is Radical and "Good" Art is Bourgeois Idealism and i find myself constantly torn between, the allure of timesinks and iteration and the mystique of hyperprolific stream of consciousness artists and i feel like i'm the worst of both worlds by not being fully one way or the other! but i guess not everyone can be Lil B and not everyone can be Frank Ocean and some of us need to sit in between those two extremes...

look at all this me talking about how i never stop and think about the art while i'm stopping and thinking about the art... i'm an Olympic level liar rn.

i've never read a fanfiction in my life (outside of like.. homestuck smut when i was fifteen. which i guess Technically Counts.) but as the form is widely derided i'm sure it has the most artistic merit of any thing. i think a lot about what a world would be like where money and art are completely unrelated. and all art exists completely separate from how much dollars it can make a corporation. would being popular even matter? would people still seek fame... complicated questions. Way if we pees form butts

#you better tell me who you are anon we better become friends

[kordeliiius]

I had an epiphany last week (long HC rambles under the cut)

(unedited artwork)

I’m starting to think that making them both aroace would further solidify the sort of relationship I have formulated in my head, as well as granting them another opportunity to learn something from one another. There’s other some basic examples of that here but somehow I don’t think they’re quite enough?? If I were gonna write this who story from the ground up with the intent of showing it to an audience, probably the two biggest things I wanna make clear are 1. they’re equals at their core who are crucial to each other’s development, and 2. the place they end up when the story ends is definitely not a romantic one yet they’ve rapidly formed a unique connection

This is the "my city now" brain talking but there’s been an idea lingering in the back of my mind that I’ve been hesitant to share; that Levity eventually started crushing on her best friends and clung to New more eventually. However New tends to interpret every advance as a friendly gesture and sometimes returns them with that intent. It's just how she naturally behaves and shows closeness with people, but they tend to take it the wrong way. Unfortunately, no one fully picks up on Levity’s intentions before she passes on, and when the realization sets in towards the end it's just *pain*.

On the flipside, Ten is hyperaware of his surroundings (more on that), so if someone were to start acting too friendly towards him it’s just anxiety anxiety anxiety especially if it's a stranger. He really shouldn’t like New at all considering how different they are, but unprecedented events™ forced them to work together, and by the end he genuinely likes her and is willing to meet her halfway.

It's possible for me to envision each of them being confronted with some kind of advance at different points in the story, or maybe being asked about their preferences, only to express "not that interested" in one way or another. Depending on the viewer, Ten upping his guard might be the more obvious response than New misinterpreting people’s behavior, considering the oblivious sapphic is a trope known far and wide (do you see why I was hesitant to talk abt Levity’s feelings being interrupted by her own death now). But what if she wasn't the oblivious sapphic after all, and was simply incapable of returning people’s feelings?

IDK you could probably make them both raging homosexuals and I probably wouldn't care, I don’t own these characters after all. They're still gay when I think it’s funny. But this recent interpretation is surely a priority one to me now.

#city of metronome #metronome ocs #the two pictured are not ocs but theres some key oc details under the readmore #headcanons #aroace #oriented aroace #aromantic #is this tag still popping off. if so pspspspspsps come say hi #kramblings

[gvftea]

i'm crying this is so funny 😭😭😭😭😭

bestie idk who you are but if you're reading this pls start a blog where you post accurate y/n fics like this it'd be hysterical, idk if it's too niche or if there's an actual audience for this but i would so read 3k of just this

----

Writing fics is way too time consuming and I don't wanna have to deal with that responsibility, but I wrote this short one for you.

----

"I can't believe this is real..."

Y/N said as she lifted her arm up, the soft skin of her palm suddenly making contact with cold steel and sending electrifying sparks of excitement up and down her spine.

Y/N had driven for days to be here-- The road crumbling under the tires of her dad's car, rubber making an screeching sound, as she crossed state lines. The vast expanse of fast food drive-ins and gas stations giving way to... More fast food drive-ins and gas stations. Clusters of other girls sitting on the warm, dirty pavement looming closer as she hightailed it into the parking lot of the venue, having dropped hundreds of dollars on tickets just so she could watch four average looking Led Zeppelin fanboys from Michigan play rock n' roll.

She had forgotten to bring her deodorant with her, so she had asked Dannythedog for some as soon as she spotted her in the crowd. Dannythedog had forgotten hers at home too. Y/N was then forced to sleep on the concrete, sharing her stretch of sidewalk with a Danny anti, a Jita hater, a Hannah defender, and Brittany Broski. A girl she only vaguely knew from tumblr had sharpied a number 7 on her wrist, and later, someone from Vape Nation sharpied a 12 right next to it. The dudes who worked at the venue had been confused, and pissed, and so had been Y/N's boss, and so had been Y/N's parents, but as they opened the gates and dozens of fangirls poured into the venue, all of it seemed unimportant.

None of it mattered.

She was determined to follow her groupie dreams. As she reapplied her golden eyeshadow for the thirtieth time, she thought, tonight is the night.

Tonight's the night I'll finally get to smell Josh's balls.

The jalls, if you will.

Warm skin against cold steel, Y/N gripped the crowd management device a little tighter and puffed out a breath.

"Barricade."

"Sammycade." Erica, the girl who had been spotted going through Sam's trash just merely hours before, corrected. She smelled like stale fries, incense and Sam's trash.

----

Y/N's legs felt weak and like they were about to give out. Her sweat felt cold against her skin. Her heart pounded so hard it was about to rupture her ribcage.

Josh made eye contact with her for two whole milliseconds.

Now, hear me out. Two milliseconds may not feel like a long time for the vast majority of people, but honestly, what do mortals know, when they're only familiar with the mundane and earthly endevours of someone who has never turned into cosmic dust, someone who has never locked eyes with their soulmate as they ascend to the stars as one?

Two milliseconds were an small eternity, more than enough to seal their faith.

They were enough to give her the strength required to put her lungs, her vocal chords, her mouth and all the oxygen in her body into producing the screechiest, loudest, most obnoxious fangirl squawk known to mankind.

And when Josh, already standing by Jake's side, turned slightly to side-eye her with a weirded out expression on his face, she knew.

She knew he had ascended too.

Y/N forcefully grabbed the nearest bodyguard by the sleeve and shoved a fireball bottle into his hand. Confused, and slightly pissed off, he reluctantly grabbed it and approached the edge of the stage.

But just as the man extended his arm up, Sam crouched down, swiftly snatching the shot out of the man's hand and drinking it in a single gulp.

"Tequila is vegan!" He screamed, and somewhere next to her, Y/N could vaguely hear pee running down Dannythedog's pants.

The opening notes of Highway Tune filled the cold night air.

Josh popped his eardrum shortly after.

----

When Y/N returned home, she discovered she was the butt of every joke on the gvftea blog.

"Her smell was FOUL you could literally catch a whiff of her funk in the whole pit area lmaoooo"

"Were those aliexpress pants, bestie?"

Y/N changed her URL, and turned her GVF blog into a Maneskin one.

----

.

#greta van fleet #josh gvf #sam gvf #gvf #jake gvf #josh kiszka #jake kiszka #danny gvf #danny wagner #sam kiskza

[sparatus]

💅and 👩‍💻?

snippet asks

💅 share a snippet showing a character embracing their lgbtqness

mmm idk what specifically this is asking for, i dont really write stories about Embracing Your Identity™️ my characters just... are, if it's relevant it'll be mentioned if it's not it won't, so have some teia and nauti being bi queens i suppose?

from A Luncheon Most Foul [read on ao3]:

Teia blinked, then pulled her mandibles in and checked her omni-tool. "Really? I didn't get any–" It buzzed just then, and a new notif dropped down from the top of the display. > sunshine: having fun? Oh, that smug bastard. Waiting until Nautilea had definitely shown up, he knew how much she liked authoritative, confident people in dress blues. He and Tibero were probably giggling over her bisexual panic right that second. "He thinks he's so funny," she huffed, dismissing the notif. Brat. "Easy, Teia, they can have their fun." Nautilea gave her a conspiratorial wink. "Let them play a bit before the ladies come home and make them sit on their hands in the corner while we party." Teia blinked, then a flush rose up her throat. Nautilea only laughed, thumping her foot on the floor and giving Teia's shoulder a playful smack. "You're too easy, Teia," she teased. "Didn't you say you used to be wild when you were young?" Teia trilled, neck only getting warmer, and tipped her chin down to hide it. "You're the worst," she huffed as she took a drink. "I don't know why I'm friends with you." "Ooh, I know, it's because I make ol' Sparkle Cleavage over there blow her cover." Nautilea cackled as Teia almost choked, and Caellia snorted into her fruit foam. "Right, we have an audience, Teia, be polite. Hullo, Caellia, how's the grandkids?"

👩‍💻 share a snippet that you worked on for a long time or struggled with

so i stalled out on this section for like. months. and finally just had to muscle my way through it so that definitely counts lol

from To Catch A Rabbit ch6 [read the first 5 chapters on ao3]:

“It doesn’t make sense.” Nihlus blinked. Saren’s mutter was more to himself than to the room at large, so quiet Nihlus almost didn’t catch it. “What’s not making sense, the hanar Spectre? Or the amount of characters who think a pink blob oozes sex appeal?” Saren’s brow plates sank slightly, and he flicked his mandibles in a vague flash of annoyance. “Not the cartoon, Nihlus,” he scolded. “The case. Cartoons run on their own unique element of the periodic table that allows them to break any known law of reality the plot needs them to, and thus there's no point in attempting to make sense of them." He said it so matter-of-factly, it took Nihlus a moment to realize what he'd said at all, and then he could only blink at him for a moment. Finally, he managed to string enough words together in his head to ask, "You asked Desolas a lot of annoying questions about the cartoons he didn't want to devote brainpower to as a kid, didn't you?" Saren paused. His eyes slid sideways to glance at him for a second, then back to the vidscreen, and he flicked a mandible as casually as if Nihlus couldn't see his throat skin growing a few tints darker. "We gave it a number on the chart and everything," he mumbled. “Desolas said our parents started using it, too.” Nihlus’s gizzard twisted. Whoops. Saren’s parents were a touchy subject; he didn’t particularly remember them very much, as he’d only been five years old when they were killed, but Desolas remembered, and baby Saren had been all too keenly aware of how much the loss had hurt his brother. Empathy was a hell of a drug. He took a deep breath. “Let’s look at what we know, then,” he said, fluttering his mandibles. Talking about Saren’s family had its time and place, and Nihlus liked to think he was a pretty good judge of when and where that was. Definitely not right when his friend was pretending he wasn’t embarrassed about an old childhood joke. He raised a hand to start counting off on his fingers. “We know Camrian was killed via stabbing by a distinctive dagger used by the salarian mafia, and he appears to have fought back and injured the killer. We know at some point, the vent cover was removed, then replaced. We know the doors and windows were locked from the inside. And we know there’s still potential witnesses to talk to and alibis to collect, so we know we don’t have the full picture of the crime yet.” The little flicker of relief at not having to talk about his long-dead family that had appeared in Saren’s eyes when Nihlus started talking fizzled and sputtered out with every additional sentence, until he finally dropped his mandibles and snorted. “So we know nothing helpful, and nothing new,” he groused. “At this point, I’m almost inclined to agree with the salarians. Taumakai did it, stop looking, move on.” Nihlus tried not to wince. He's just frustrated, he reminded himself, and who could blame him? Nothing really made any sense at all about this case. "See, I'm not so sure," he hedged. "There was a taumakai agent on Surdak when I was growing up, actually had the apartment opposite ours, but nobody knew he was until after he died and they were prepping the body for burial. And there was that one on Omega, remember? They keep it hidden. Nothing can be concretely tied back to them, only conjecture. Why would they leave their own dagger in the body?"

EDIT: it was fucking mad about the length of the indented section. i deleted one paragraph and magically it let me post. absolute fucking clown website

#press conference #teamdilf #ierian's writing #thanks j!! #see i promise i answer asks sometimes

[goingrampant]

The Boys #1 notes: pages 3-4

Page 3 introduces the main character, Hughie... No, sorry, "Wee" Hughie. Because he's Scottish? Like, I know the comics came first, but it's so intuitive that the everyman character for an American audience be an American that the shift to Scottish in the comics is jarring. He even ends up in America for most of the plot, so it's just a weird decision to make him Scottish... and good on the show for making him American.

Also, Hughie in the comics is about average height, so I'm not even sure what the "Wee" is about. It's not like he has dwarfism. It's even more inappropriate in the show because Jack Quaid towers above the other cast members, so it makes sense they dropped it there. Though, I think Frenchie calls him "Petite Hughie" at one point in a nod to the comics, apparently referencing his diminutive personality more than his actual height.

The more I think about it, "Wee" might just be bathroom humor. Like, "lololol, this guy's name has piss in it, what a loser" kind of humor. It is, sadly, not out of character for the comics, which makes it plausible in my mind.

If we're being generous, the "Hughie" part might be a nod to Huey P. Newton. Maybe? idk

So, what he does on the page is take his girlfriend Robin out for a date at the carnival. Robin demonstrates the presumed values of the reader, what the presumed white cishet male reader would see as a valuable girlfriend: a cute, busty, slightly nerdy-looking Velma type. Her skin tone is darker than Wee Hughie's, which was translated in the show into her being Hispanic, but I'm not sure she was intended in the comics to be anything other than a WASP type with a different skin tone.

The very first thing Wee Hughie does in the comic, our introduction to the character as the reader stand-in, is be homophobic. He tells Robin about going on UFO conspiracy websites and claims that aliens crashed at Roswell, that their bodies are kept in Area 51, and they're pink... because they're gay. Funny? I think we're supposed to laugh at him for being nerdy enough to go on these websites but find his squeamishness over gay people relatable.

He goes on to express fear of gay aliens abducting him and making him gay, which is just standard homophobia, seen today with "groomer" fearmongering. He then defensively claims that he's not homophobic. This... might be an intentional character flaw? But it is... played up for humorous relatability.

In the show, Hughie is an awkward straight ally who is totally fine with gay people, tries to be supportive, and stumbles a little. Thank you, Seth Rogen. (No, really. Seth Rogen has been an outspoken straight ally for years now. I credit him for all the progressive spins on comic homophobic content in the show.)

The page ends with Wee Hughie realizing Robin said that she loved him for the first time. They share a lovely romantic moment on page 4. I'm sure nothing on page 5 could possibly screw this up.

#the boys comics #the boys notes #the boys #homophobia #queue and i are one forever

[armadillo1976]

Things I had to look up in Ted Lasso S3E02

…or didn’t have to look up, as the case may be: the very moment Beard showed Ted the YouTube video, my husband and co-watcher said, ‘Ohh, so he’s Zlatan Ibrahimović,’ saving me a search. Ibrahimović is a Swedish star footballer who plays for AC Milan (so in Italy, which will come up again in a sec). Ibrahimović actually speaks about himself in the third person, is famous for his over the top behaviour, and is an impressive martial artist

In the show, Zava is said to be leaving Juventus – a club in Italy! Which Ted doesn’t know. It strains credulity a bit, even for Ted, not to know it, but serves as a springboard for Ted to come up with “Cacio later, Pepe,” a play on cacio e pepe, a deservedly popular Roman pasta dish (and now I miss Rome)

Ted starts to say “Good morning Viet-“ when he’s interrupted, which is a reference to Good Morning, Vietnam that I’m pretty sure everyone would recognize in their sleep, but I blanked on when the film was actually made so I checked quickly; it’s 1987; somehow it feels like it should be older (Vietnam War ended 1975-ish)

I had no idea but apparently 11:11 (“or 23:11 if I’m at a military base or Euro Disney”) is a wishing time, i.e. a magical/ lucky time of day. Ted and Beard and Dani sharing a superstition is very nice and cosy. Ted only ever apparently leaving the UK for Europe in order to visit Euro Disney is depressing but, hey, horses for courses I guess

“What’s it like being the boss of your own Keeley Street Band?,” Ted asks Keeley. It’s (I think?) a play on The E Street Band, Bruce Springsteen’s backing band

Ted follows it up with Clamato Clamato (said like tomayto tomahto), which I’d never heard of, but this is very funny! Clamato is a canned drink, a clam-flavoured tomato juice. Love this joke

Dani hasn’t been this nervous to play in front of someone since he was “in El Chapo’s youth league,” and I did know who El Chapo is (former Mexican drug lord) but I went to check if he ever ran a football league. Not formally, or at least not that I can find, but the cartels are massively intertwined with day-to-day life, so actually I don’t know how much of a joke it is (it’s not a joke to Dani, but to us/the audience? idk)

Fish Bowl, as the context suggests (but I had to check) is a drink/cocktail that I think it’s safe to say Roy Kent wouldn’t touch

The music in Ted Lasso is wonderful but I don’t know nearly enough to have opinions, with these two neat exceptions in this episode:

As Keeley’s photoshoot starts, the song playing in the club is Ready To Go by Republica (On the rooftop shouting / Baby I’m ready to go) – that was their only hit apparently, but what a hit it was. Interesting choice of a song here

I laughed at the soundtrack to Trent walking into the clubhouse to universal hostility: 'Cause he gets up in the morning / And he goes to work at nine / And he comes back home at five-thirty / Gets the same train every time (by the Kinks, and I knew that song, so yay me, but the Kinks are FAMOUS famous, right?). The rest of the lyrics go, for example, And he likes his own backyard / And he likes his fags the best / 'Cause he's better than the rest. Not reading too much into it, but it’s such a fun choice!

[for S3E01, my notes are here]

#ted lasso #ted lasso meta #ted lasso spoilers #ted lasso s3ep02

[nebulouscoffee]

Kira for the ask game, because I've sewn you mentioned liking her but haven't seen you talk about it much yet and would like to enable you

Yayy thank you!! (and I'm sorry I took so long to respond, it's been a very hectic week😅)

one aspect about them i love

Kira really embodies a lot of what I miss most about Star Trek tbh, which was the real desire to make the audience uncomfortable. Don't get me wrong; there is a lot about TOS, TNG and DS9 that didn't age well- but I still think an important goal they all shared was to take certain ideas and ideologies that might've seemed far-fetched to the audience of the time, and say- "why not?" Also, "Does this character's existence- and presence- make you uncomfortable? Well, maybe that's a YOU problem." And that's a goal which (imo) really faded over the years, because they grew more and more afraid of turning off the conservative audience. But not with Kira! Within minutes of her introduction, she offers a scathing shutdown of the "frontier" that Star Trek was quite literally built upon. She is literally a sympathetic "terrorist" MAIN character (rare enough), and furthermore a woman- and that too a "difficult" woman, who refuses to let herself be ignored or compromise her people's needs for the Starfleet crew's comfort (!!!), who is ANGRY and deeply religious and nationalistic and PROACTIVE and stomps around and shouts and cries and disagrees and wears her passion on her sleeve and is not at all afraid to make a nuisance of herself- and yet, still has numerous flaws and so many moments of self-doubt and raw vulnerability. What a fantastic character! This was 1993; I can think of so few TV women from that era who actively challenged the constructs (and men) around them so much. I love everything she represents

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

That her arc is more about learning to land upon nuance; not toning down her Bajoran-isms. Her patriotism and faith do occasionally steer her the wrong way, yes- but Kira's growth doesn't at all involve her renouncing either of those things! If anything, it's Sisko who ends up having to adjust to her perspectives. In general I'm always craving more nuanced discussions re DS9's postcolonial dynamics, too- Kira has such a range of interactions with Cardassians on the show, and numerous episodes ('Destiny', 'Life Support', 'Ties of Blood and Water', etc) show that she's genuinely invested in peace between their peoples; something I think often goes ignored. Yes, she's justifiably furious about everything they did to her home- but at the end of the day, what she wants is justice and reparations for Bajor and Bajorans; and if a small (understandable) part of her does want to see Cardassia crash and burn, she really doesn't act upon it

Also, she's funny! Remember when she told Dukat the baby was O'Brien's with no further explanation? Lmaoo what a troll

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

That she only received a very basic education. She does mention finger painting and playing springball as a kid, but also- Kira grew up in a refugee camp and she joined the Shakaar cell at age 12; she probably missed out on the higher education even the average Bajoran of her generation received (which itself was likely Cardassian State-controlled). Idk, this is low key important to me because so many Star Trek characters are almost like- defined by their scientific and educational smarts, if that makes sense? It's refreshing to see a Trek character who doesn't quite make sense of herself or the world around her primarily through (Western) scientific constructs

Also, Kira absolutely has unexamined caste biases; she just never really learnt to recognise them because caste played such a minimal role in the Resistance- but most Bajorans are far more aware of caste dynamics than she typically is (I just do not buy that the D'jarra system completely went away in less than 60 years)

one character i love seeing them interact with

Ben Sisko! They have SUCH a fascinating dynamic, it's so complex and sweet and often quite trying and hurtful but still kept afloat on this deep, deep underlying mutual respect. Ben's position as the Emissary makes everything so wonderfully complicated, and watching Kira's frustrations at the fact that she actually believes in him morph into reassurance as he slowly transforms from being the Starfleet Outsider to truly being Of Bajor... ahhh it's so good. That scene where he invites her to a baseball game lives in my head rent free! (Also they high key make a fascinating ship imo, I am something of a post-canon Sisko/Kira/Kasidy truther)

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

I have multiple answers to this (Julian, Worf, Garak, Keiko, Ziyal, Cretak, Jake, Ezri, etc) but I'm gonna go with someone she actually interacts with quite a bit, because I just wanted mOArrr. Jadzia!

Yes, it was the 90s, so I'm glad they were at least allowed to be friends and not like, cattily pitted against each other. But I still craved more layers to their onscreen dynamic! I mean, Jadzia, the Starfleet "Science Officer" who openly dismisses Kira's religious beliefs on more than one occasion? Kira, the child soldier who finds most of Jadzia's pastimes and preoccupations frivolous and silly? It's so interesting that they keep spending time together despite such fundamental differences, and I would've loved a bigger exploration as to why! They deserved their own 'The Wire', basically. Much like the central two characters of that episode, the answer is that they actually have a LOT more in common than is apparent at first glance (fraught senses of identity, complicated relationships with their home worlds, a sense of loss regarding family) where they outwardly seem like polar opposites. And all of this is not even getting into the nonlinearity of Bajoran religion vs the lives of Dax... gosh, there was room for so much! They deserved a whole Big Sequence full of Monologues the actors could really sink their teeth into, they deserved for one of them to fly off on a dangerous quest to save the others' life- and you know what!! They deserved a little homoerotic hand-holding too!! But, I suppose that's what fanfiction is for😂

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

She and Bashir definitely grow much closer after the show's end; whether he stays behind on DS9 or not :)

#just gonna clarify- my second point really wasn't targeted at anybody on here. not an attack I promise!! #I just feel like we erase the nuances with her a bit #like in wider trek fandom I've seen a lot of people talk about her attitude towards cardassians as if she's a bigot #which I feel is extremely reductive of her character (and dismissive of her trauma too) #meanwhile on here people (sometimes) talk about her like she walks around with a CARDASSIANS DNI banner or something #like the very suggestion of her (or any other bajoran) having to interact with a cardassian is unthinkable and offensive? #and imo this really just doesn't reflect canon at all! (or irl postcolonial dynamics. but.. I don't wanna go there lol) #recently was talking to a mutual about her dynamic with cardassians (g@rak in particular) and it made me realise #they're actually far more civil with each other in the show than even I make them out to be! and I'm like- the no1 'k1ra & g@rak' fan lmao #even in TOBAW she's actually invested in ghem0r's politics. she's enthusiastic that he represents ''hope for cardassia'' #and she REALLY doesn't have to be! yet she is. what precisely this says about her is so much more interesting to think about #also... idk. in general writing bajor as if completely and magically stripped of all cardassian influence and interaction is so weird to me #(let's just say if things really worked that way I would not be writing this in English lol) #tysm for the ask btw!! always glad to have an opportunity ramble about k!ra nerys :) #ask game

[stargarland]

hi abi!

9, 10, 17 and 46 for the ask game 🫶

k!! hi🫂

9: what is your favorite environmental season? why?

i think it’s so funny it specifically says environmental season bc i was so ready to be like xc but the fall time!! i like the vibes fall has like a little spooky a little everything is changing maybe i am too a little cross country time a little best time for picking an outfit i love it sm

10: what’s one book you’d suggest every person should read?

i had already answered this here! BUT just for u i’ll make another suggestion 😌 i’m supposed to protect you from all of this by nadja spiegelman!! it’s abt three generations of women in the same family and how their identities evolved and changed overtime!!!

17: what’s your favorite painting? and describe how it makes you feel?

i have literally so many im such an art museum goer could share for HOURS but one of my favorites is the dance lesson made by edgar degas! and it’s my fav bc one of my closest friends and i are like super into ballet like youngest people in the audience by at least 25 years every time but i had seen this painting in a museum and sent her a photo and she replied that in another life i think we met at ballet class and IDK such a lovely thing like wow we were friends in another life too?? i totally agree but wow

46: relate yourself to one movie character?

IF NO ONE GETS ME JO MARCH GETS ME‼️‼️ not strictly a movie but close enough 🫶

ask me a question!

#xc sneak anyway #SO MANY PAINTINGS THO SO SO MANY SUCH AN ART LOVER #so sorry this is so long yikes