#the illustration is the main character for now known only as the child

[self-inconsistent]

Among moss and ferns something slept. It knew not of the rose rays of sunrise seeping through young leaves. It could not hear the howling of the wind above or the birds singing to greet the coming of spring.

It dreamt of a place darker than a starless night, of flight and of falling.

It dreamt of hands caked in mud, of crawling and of tearing through a canopy of roots.

Finally it stirred and began unravelling. From a bundle of white fabric limbs began slowly emerging. The small creature rose and only then it became apparent that it was a child, probably a boy, with dishevelled brown hair and clothing that was best described as rags.

He grabbed a broken branch he fashioned into a walking stick, blinked at the sun lazily and wandered away.

As the day went on the birdsong grew quiet. To the child’s delight, despite the strong winds chasing heavy clouds in the sky, fog gathered among the trees. It snaked around almost as if  alive, curling up wherever the sunlight did not quite reach. The boy watched with amazement as it grew. He thought that it almost looked like it was reaching out towards him.

That could have been a reason for concern, since he was alone, deep in the wilderness, away even from the tracts that were reluctantly used, only by heavily armed caravans and the desperate. But he was thirteen, had a stick in his hand for a weapon and could climb trees really fast. This surely meant he was as well equipped as one can be to face the world.

The fog grew and swelled steadily, until the whole world became a collection of blurry shadows.  In the distance something large moved through it.

The boy ran quietly towards where he saw the movement, wanting to make sure it was not just a trick of his eyes. He found nothing there but towering old trees, their branches weaving slowly. The child’s disappointment was short-lasting as at the edge of where he could see something moved again.

Over the next hour it happened multiple times, in the dead quiet of the endless grey ocean something would appear, but always for just a moment, too far to properly see. Sometimes there would come a sound, a call so distant it could have been both of a man or a beast. The child dutifully followed each one, making his way down the gentle slope of the valley.

Just as the boy began to grow bored the fog was filled with a wail so low it was more felt than heard. A distorted cry that made a cold shiver run down the child’s spine. It hung in the air for longer than he was able to hold his breath. At that point it finally occurred to the boy that he may not be safe. Slowly and cautiously he began moving from tree to tree, searching for one he could climb. All of them were an old growth with the nearest branches at many times the child’s height.

The boy sneaked through the endless fog with a growing sense of unease.

Then, he stopped.

Between the trees a new shadow appeared. For a moment the child thought it could have been his, somehow cast many meters away, as it was shaped like a person and more or less his height, but when he waved at it, it remained motionless.

The shadow slowly extended a part of itself that was supposed to be a hand and made a beaconing gesture.

The movement made it sway slightly as if it was not supporting its own weight.

The forest remained deathly silent.

The boy stared at the shadow with eyes wide open and began silently walking forward.

To an outside observer it would have seemed that the child was being enthralled, unnaturally compelled to move and reach out his hand. But that was not the case, the boy moved like one would towards a bird, never seen before, that inexplicably is not flying away, trying to see if it can be touched.

The boy did not know what the shadow was and with every step his excitement grew, because he assumed that what he saw was another person, made blurry by the fog, but moving closer had not made the stranger any clearer. Even when he stopped an arm’s reach away from the apparition it still looked like a shadow cast on the fog by some invisible object. The boy’s mind was on fire with questions of what he was seeing and what he should do, all while he continued to extend his hand towards it. When he realised there is something moving above him he allowed his self-preservation instinct to shine.

In a swift motion the child swung his stick up and brought it down. There was almost no force behind it, it was not meant to be an attack, but a test of a theory.

The stick dropped down meeting no resistance.

The shadow disappeared while the stick passed through it.

“Hello?!?” the child shouted quietly, his voice muffled, even to his own ears. “How did you do that?” the child added, without as much as a hint of fear in his voice.

He spun around looking for where the apparition could have gone and to his surprise saw it swaying gently a few steps away. An indiscernible whisper filled the air.

The shadow extended its hand again and the child began repeating the gesture.

The low painful wail filled the forest again and the boy flinched back to cover his ears.

When he looked up, the shadow was gone.

The child searched for his new friend fruitlessly. He saw no more distant movements and not long after the fog began to dissipate, letting the child out into a late evening in the wilderness. The sun had already began to set, drowning the forest in elongating shadows.

“Do you know what that was?” The child spoke, half addressing his stick, half no one in particular.

The only answer was the chirping of insects.

#Maybe the Real Monsters Were the Friend We Made Along the Way #<- it is the subtitle but I do not have a title so I will tag it with it #SPRING #<- it is how I tag the first arc #my writing #*taps mic* #*looks around the empty audience* #I will aim to update it every week #but I make no promises #the illustration is the main character for now known only as the child #Along the Way

[yukidragon]

Sunny Day Jack - Love and Sex Headcanons

You read the title, you know what the topic is about; I’m going to be rambling off my personal headcanons for the romantic and sexual preferences of the main cast of Something’s Wrong with Sunny Day Jack. This is as it applies to my fanfics Sunshine in Hell and Sunshine in Another World, so I’ll be including my version of the MC, Alice King.

Content warnings: This fandom/game/content is for Adults Only. There is talk of sex in this post. A lot of it. I will be going into graphic detail at times, as well as touch on some serious issues on occasion, such as SA, trauma, negative body image, toxic relationships, religious guilt, homophobia, bigotry, past child abuse, sex work, and such.

While I intend to keep things mostly spicy and sweet, sometimes darker topics affect a person’s view about sex and preferences, since sex can be complicated that way. This is especially the case if a character deals with some traumatic experience that relates to their sex life/sexuality. I will try to trod lightly on the heavier topics when I can.

I must emphasize that, while I draw information from the game’s canon as shown in both versions of the demo, Sleepy Time Jack, as well as official information/art and development images/posts, ultimately these are my personal headcanons. They might not completely line up with what’s going to be canon in the final game. These are just what’s currently canon for the Sunshine in Hell continuity and what feels right to me personally when it comes to the characters.

I say currently canon since stuff changes as I develop things and play with the characters more. They’ve definitely evolved since I first played the demo. Heck, they’ve even evolved since I started working on this post due to how long it’s taken me to get this finally finished.

Since this post will be using official/development art to help illustrate my points at times, I want to give my friend Sauce full credit for their awesome art and for creating this game with all its wonderful characters and ideas in the first place.

Please consider supporting them and the rest of the SnaccPop Studios team by signing up for the official patreon. Also, consider buying a full size print of this steamy cropped piece of art with a special toy included. It would help out a lot of lovely hard working people and give you access to the many cool posts on there, as well as juicy lore tidbits. A fair number of these posts influenced my headcanons, which you’ll only be able to see if you join up. Remember, don't share anything privately posted on patreon!

While I’m at it, here’s links to the official twitter, tumblr, itch, steam, and kickstarter pages for Sunny Day Jack, which are also places where I got information and inspiration for these smutty headcanons.

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur

Okay, with disclaimers, promotions, and tags out of the way, let’s get down to the spice.

…

This post won’t encompass every single thing that the characters find arousing/attractive, since there’s no way that I can think of everything for one post, but I’ll write as many kinks, desires, and preferences that come to mind.

First, let’s have some general headcanons that apply to all the main characters. None of them have a preference when it comes to gender. It doesn’t matter what’s in someone’s pants or how they identify. What matters to them is what’s in their partner’s heart and usually that’s the most attractive quality a person can have.

Consent is king! All the characters want consent from their partner/love interest, particularly enthusiastic consent. While some might be pushier than others when it comes to wanting sex/romance, at the end of the day, “no” means “NO.” Everyone’s consent matters.

Now onto the specific characters, starting with the star of the show…

Jack(tor)

Jack has two sides to him - that of the character known as Sunny Day Jack that he’s trying to embody, and that of the actor who used to be known as Joseph Cullman. While he polished the rough edges off of the persona that he presents to the world, at the end of the day, he can’t change his likes and dislikes so easily. A lot of his desires as Jack have been influenced by the desires he had as Joseph… as long as they don’t cause him to break character. There’s a level of what’s “expected” and “acceptable” for him to like as the kid friendly Sunny Day Jack, and what this naughty, naughty yandere really desires deep down inside. We can see evidence of this in his BDSM test results.

Overall, Jack is quite dominant when it comes to his sexual desires. Specifically, he’s a service top, focusing on controlling the scene with his partner’s pleasure in mind. He wants to make his partner feel his love in every sense of the word.

Jack is pansexual/panromantic. He doesn’t discriminate, and can find any sort of body type or personality attractive, but that doesn’t mean that he’s indiscriminately able to fall in love or lust with just anyone. His desire to be loved has led him to make poor choices in his past and has led to him growing attached to people who took advantage of how desperate he was to be loved.

Romantic attraction and sexual attraction are linked when it comes to Jack. He’s not going to desire someone sexually unless he’s experiencing romantic feelings towards them, so usually the two things come together at the same time.

Once Jack falls in love with someone, he is very, very loyal. It will take a lot to get him to let go of these feelings. He’s also very much the jealous type, wanting to monopolize the person he’s in love with, which results in him being fairly clingy. Though, he is willing to compromise on just how clingy he is for the sake of his partner’s wants and needs, provided that he’s not at risk of losing them. At the end of the day, he loves sincerely and wants the person he loves to be happy.

While Jack has claimed in an audio drama Q&A posted on patreon that he theoretically might be open to entering a polyamorous relationship, ultimately, what he really wants is a closed monogamous relationship. He might have lots of love in his heart to give to as many people as will accept it and him, but at the end of the day, he can’t stand the idea of losing someone who actually loves him, particularly the person he loves the most. As I’ve mentioned in past headcanon posts about Jack getting into a poly relationship, (which you can read here and here) I don’t think it would be a healthy balanced relationship between all parties if he were to go into a poly relationship, and as such I think he’s better suited to a single partner.

That isn’t to say that I don’t think Jack would refuse to have sex with someone besides his partner… provided that his partner is the one who wants him to do so. He might not want it himself, but he is willing to consent to it provided his partner is there to watch him do it. He’s willing to consent to quite a lot of things for the sake of love, even if he dislikes them or it makes him uncomfortable. After all, if he’s willing to kill for the sake of his love, there’s a lot of other unsavory things that he’ll be willing to do.

As shown in this early development art by Sauce, Jack isn’t exactly happy to encourage his rival to hurt themselves, as we see from his forced smile, but he’ll do what he must for the sake of keeping his sunshine. Even though this is technically not-canon, it has helped shape my idea of how going down this path causes damage to his psyche and isn’t something he would want if he could avoid it.

In a lot of ways, Jack is a sexual chameleon, eager to please his partner. While he is keen to try different things and experiment in the bedroom, he won’t push any kink that his partner doesn’t want or reacts badly to. Sure, he’ll attempt to convince them to give something a try when it comes to a kink that excites him if they express reluctance, and he’ll want to know what’s wrong so he can fix it or otherwise accommodate them if possible, but at the end of the day, he won’t ever force anything onto his partner. Their pleasure is his pleasure.

Jack is addicted to his partner’s love, attention, desire, pleasure, and validation above all else. This is why he thrives on hearing his partner praise him and tell him just how much they love him. Words of affirmation is his primary love language, as we’ve seen with how ready he is to shower his sunshine with words of love, and how much it meant to him that his sunshine verbally confirms that they love him.

Jack also gets excited by the idea of others seeing him being loved so much by his partner, which is where his exhibitionist kink comes in. He’s the one who is special to his sunshine, not anyone else. They can only watch with envious eyes while he shows them exactly what they’re missing out on. It’s quite a turn on to show the world just how much he’s loved, that he’s the only one special enough to be loved by his sunshine like this. Only he deserves his partner’s love, and only he can make his sunshine feel this good and loved. He would have sex in public before an audience with his sunshine if his partner consented to it, provided that it’s made clear to everyone involved that he’s the only one his partner truly loves and needs more than anyone else.

Another factor that plays into his exhibitionism is his desire not to be forgotten. His past as Joseph is full of moments where that left him feeling discarded and unlovable. The more people who focus on him, the less likely he is to be forgotten.

Cuckolding is definitely something Jack hates, at least if he’s the one being forced to watch his partner have sex with someone else. Even if other people are involved during sex, he needs to be his partner’s primary focus. If he’s the most important person to his partner, then he can at least tolerate others’ involvement. He doesn’t want to have sex with someone that he’s not in love with (or at least not strongly emotionally connected to romantically), but if it made his partner happy, he would do it for their sake… though he would need them to shower him with love and encouragement the entire time.

However, if Jack is the one cuckolding someone else, like, say, Ian… now that’s a different story. Tied to the degrader kink, Jack wants to show that he’s more worthy than others of his sunshine’s love. If his rivals are writhing in envy and can see they don’t deserve Alice like he does, well that’s pretty darn exciting. It’s why he’ll be a poor winner and make sure that all his rivals are very much aware who Alice chose instead of them.

Yes, this means that, just like Jack is going to make sure that Shaun overhears him making love to Alice (as I’ve mentioned in previous posts), he’s going to make sure Ian knows that her pretty moans are only for Jack, now and forever. While the incident with Shaun is Jack marking his territory to prevent a possible rival from getting any ideas, with Ian it’s far more personal. Jack wants to make sure Ian feels worthless and inferior to him in every way. I haven’t decided exactly how he’ll go about this, but hopefully he won’t take it too far, hahaha.

Anyway, ultimately, when it comes to involving other people besides his partner, Jack would rather have an audience rather than additional participants: they can look, listen, and envy, but they can’t touch.

At the end of the day though, his partner has a lot of sway in this matter if others are involved in their sex life… for better or for worse.

While love and sex are closely tied in Jack’s mind, he can still perform sexually without romantic attachment, though he would prefer not to. Back before he was an actor, when he was homeless after running away from home, he had to do things that he wasn’t proud of just to survive, which included performing sex acts on a transactional basis. He was used, and he knew full well that he was being used, but he did what he could to survive life on the streets.

This is part of why Jack prefers to be the one dominating. He wants control over his sexuality in a way that he couldn’t have when sex work sometimes was the only thing that kept him from starving to death. Sex workers don’t tend to be treated well by their clients, especially if they’re a homeless drifter without any support network.

Jack did attempt to find love in the past, but oftentimes he was just exploited for his body, which led to toxic relationships similar to the Tragedy of [Redacted] theory in one of my first headcanon posts. His desperate desire to be loved was unfortunately taken advantage of, which led to unpleasant experiences. Sometimes he fell for someone’s charms and actually believed that they actually cared for him, only for that person to just want a quick fuck and not a real relationship, which stomped all over his heart and made him wonder what more he could have done to “deserve” to be loved…

Once Jack became an actor, he went from being ignored to getting too much attention… and all of it shallow, just focused on his body and fame. The interview with Dan was a sore spot for him because he was used in many ways, by people who only saw him as a sex object to use then discard and not as a human who desperately wished to be loved.

This is why Jack’s feelings for Alice are so strong. Due to their connection, he can literally feel that she cares about him in a way that he never could with anyone else. With how much he’s always craved such a connection with someone, their bond has given him reassurance that he never got to experience while alive. He can feel when he pleases her and when he makes her flustered. He can tell when she’s upset and has an easier time spotting when he’s making a mistake with her. There’s security in knowing her feelings for him, and that those feelings are sincere.

The connection also allows Jack to feel what Alice is experiencing physically to some extent, which includes sexual pleasure. For a service top like him who gets off on his partner’s pleasure, it’s addicting to be able to literally feel the pleasure that he’s giving her. He knows when he’s doing well, and he can learn quickly how best to pleasure her. He wants more and more of all of these wonderful feelings this connection with Alice gives to him, so he’ll do whatever it takes to please her so that he can feel more of her love.

While Jack has a huge exhibitionist kink, and the idea of an audience watching him make love to Alice excites him, at the same time he wants to lock her up away from the rest of the world so that they can’t take her away from him. He needs her. He loves her. His very existence depends on her. What she gives him is far too precious to risk losing for any brief moment of pleasure.

As we’ve seen in this development art… Jack would prefer it if it was just him and his sunshine… forever. Between his past and being trapped in the tape, there’s a desperation to him now to not lose Alice and everything she’s given him… and woe be it to anyone who tries to take his sunshine away.

After being trapped in the tape and suffering a hellish fate for 40 years without rest, Jack has become touch starved and clingy. He was love/touch starved even before his death, but the tape made it so much worse. He would be very happy if Alice wanted to hold onto him 24/7. He views having a piece of his soul inside of Alice as similar to getting a hug from her all the time, and vice-versa with the piece of her that she gave to him. Although that piece of her soul is the most precious thing he possesses, he can’t help but be greedy and want more and more of her. He’ll take as much as she’ll give him.

As one might expect, Jack isn’t keen on being separated from Alice for too long. In the past, he could handle giving his partner space for several days if they needed it, but going a full day without his sunshine is unbearable in the present. It was especially rough in the beginning when their relationship was still new, and their connection was fragile.

It just gets so cold without his sunshine…

The sensory deprivation Jack experienced in the tape affects him as well. He’s more sensitive to stimuli than he was before. This makes him so much more aware of the world, especially what he can and can’t interact with. This is especially the case when it comes to his sunshine.

Really, a sunshine that keeps Jack at a distance would just make his neediness worse, as he literally can’t interact with anything else. Sure he can see his surroundings and respond to them, but he needs to be closer to his sunshine to interact with them, including his sunshine. If all he can touch is his sunshine for a long time, it just makes his neediness to be close to them all the worse.

Fortunately, Alice pretty much accepted Jack of being capable of touching and interacting with things right away, so it’s not as bad for him as it could have been... but let’s face it, Jack’s need for sensory stimulation is going to be pretty bad regardless.

Jack is hyper aware of everything about his sunshine - the feeling of her skin, how warm each part of her body is, how soft... All the little folds and curves. He memorizes the sensation of her fingers wrapped around his and just how small she is when he holds her in his arms, completely surrounding her.

Jack is so aware of her scent too, so very, very aware. Most of the time Alice smells of vanilla cupcakes and sugar cookies due to her shampoo and deodorant, but sometimes she puts on perfume or switches things up. He notices it right away when it changes, but most of all he notices how her distinct scent without any perfumes affects it. He’s smelled her products directly - out of curiosity he swears - but it’s not the same. It’s nice... but it’s not her.

Smelling Alice’s pillows and clothes... now there’s where he gets his hit when he can’t be close enough to breathe her in. At the start, she gave him one of her pillows that smelled just like her. She never really gets it back, and when Jack gets sneakier with slipping away to take care of himself, he brings the pillow with him. He buries his face in it as he jerks himself off to thoughts of her, imagining that he’s buried his face in her chest or between her thighs.

When Jack discovers that Alice has a pillow that she props between her legs to sleep more comfortably, he can’t help but imagine her humping that pillow imagining it’s him. She doesn’t, of course, but the fantasy gets to him, and he can’t help but be the one to enact it, imagining that he’s thrusting into where this lucky pillow usually rests. He made sure to clean it up thoroughly afterwards so she doesn’t notice, but seeing her sleep with it after that drives him crazy.

Jack knows using her pillows and clothes like that is wrong, but it’s fine, right? He’s being patient, waiting for the day that Alice is ready to do these things with him. He knows it’ll happen. He can feel how much she cares about him. With every day they get closer... and she’s slowly starting to see just how perfect they are for each other too. One day, he won’t need to settle for a pillow. One day, he’ll be thrusting his cock into all of her holes, listening to her pretty moans that are only for him.

And, well, he’s right, basically. Jack is a very, very happy man when that happens, and he makes sure Alice doesn’t regret choosing him. He’s going to make sure that she enjoys every second of their lovemaking.

Until then, Jack has his fantasies of what it’ll be like. He fantasizes about Alice on a daily basis, often lewd fantasies but sometimes wholesome and sweet like imagining them getting married. He’ll try his best to only imagine what he’s seen of of her so far without assuming what he’ll find underneath her clothes. It doesn’t matter what equipment she has after all, she’s beautiful and perfect to him just as she is. He laser focuses on every new inch of skin he sees, searing it into his mind forever and adding it to his fantasies.

Sometimes it feels to Jack as if Alice is teasing him as well. He would be convinced that she is if he couldn’t pick up on her thoughts. She’s genuinely oblivious how sexy she looks wearing only a too thin t-shirt with no bra, especially when she stretches. She doesn’t notice how her clothes ride up when she stretches or how he drinks her in when she does. He can’t help but notice just how flexible she is and imagine how he might be able to make her body bend around his in various delicious angles. Until that day though, he won’t let anything slip by his notice.

This leads into Jack’s voyeurism kink. This is pretty closely tied to the exhibitionist kink. He loves to show off his sexy body and see the desire in his partner’s eyes. He wants them to know what he has to offer, how good he can make his partner feel, and how good they make him feel. He also enjoys seeing his partner show off their body to him and watching them get off… provided that it’s not with someone else. Watching someone else make his partner moan isn’t his idea of a fun time. Sure his partner is sexy, but… it leaves him feeling insecure. What if they like the other person better? He can’t risk it. They should only be moaning because of him.

So when it comes to voyeurism, Jack would rather watch his partner get themselves off for his pleasure, preferably moaning his name or even begging him to take them. He would even enjoy watching his partner play with themselves in a deliberate effort to tease and entice him. Brat taming is something he enjoys, and making sure his partner knows who’s really in control of their pleasure as he teases them even more than they teased him is quite enticing to him.

Teasing is something that’s all in good fun, as far as Jack is concerned… as long as it remains playful of course. The degrader kink in his case isn’t done with insults like calling his partner a slut or other such degrading insults, unless they explicitly wanted him to do that of course. Rather, it’s the excitement of making his partner feel flustered and overwhelmed, even embarrassed, that’s turning him on. He knows what they’re weak against and uses it against them to leave them a blushing mess, overwhelmed by how he knows them inside and out. No one else could ever be as close to them or know them as well as he can.

An example would be Jack praising Alice for being so wet when he fingers her while she’s standing in the camera’s blind spot at Popov’s, even though she’s worried about being caught doing something so lewd at work. With how flustered she gets in general, and especially when risking getting caught by others, it can be counted as degrading to be praised for doing such a lewd act in a semi-public place. However, he is not making her feel like she’s wrong for being aroused by something she finds embarrassing.

Jack never intends to make his partner feel bad in any way. He only wants to make them feel good. Coaxing them into doing things that get them aroused and overwhelmed in a good way is exciting for him. That’s why he’s also a big fan of overstimulation and orgasm denial. He loves making his partner orgasm repeatedly and watching them come undone. If he can leave his partner a babbling mess, begging him for more or that it’s too much, while clearly enjoying every second of what he’s doing to them, he feels so needed and wanted.

Being teased can be fun as well, though Jack prefers to be teased playfully by a partner who acts a bit bratty, pushing him to work for the prize of satisfying them both. His partner proposing a challenge for him to overcome is thrilling when he can shatter their expectations and leave them totally at his mercy.

Another way Jack enjoys being teased by his partner is if they try to “escape” him, acting as prey to allow him to indulge in his predator kink and chase them down. The idea of hunting his partner, searching for them wherever they run or hide, snatching them up, and getting a good taste of his prey as his prize is delightful. Adding in a bit of bondage as well by tying up his cute little prey adds an extra thrill. Then he can tease them with praise, touch, and affection until he tames them, leaving them begging him for more.

Sure, Jack technically has a cheat mode when it comes to finding Alice due to their connection, since he can sense her wherever she is through it, but that doesn’t mean hide and seek can’t still be fun. He can just pretend that he can’t sense where she’s hiding, really heightening up the tension as he pretends to overlook her hiding spot, coming so close, putting her on edge of being found, only to pass her by. It would be a game in and of itself to tease her with the threat of almost catching her until finally he’s ready to pounce and claim his cute little prey.

Jack isn’t exactly opposed to reversing the game, with him acting as the prey, but he would quickly turn it back around on his partner. With how little control he had in his life while alive, a part of him rebels against being controlled by anyone… though his sunshine is a bit of a unique case.

Alice didn’t have to save him from hell. That was her choice. Jack might have been willing to give her anything if she saved him, but she didn’t actually want anything from him except to save him. It’s for that reason that he’ll do anything for her. He might not want to give up control, but if it was for her sake, he would let her take total control of him as long as she loves him, needs him, and never forgets him.

Really, Jack would find it cute to imagine Alice trying to hunt him down or act dominant with him in the bedroom, especially since he knows that he would soon turn the tables on her and turn her into his adorable prey. It would be more like brat taming for him in that case, teasing and tempting her until she was too flustered to continue trying to keep control, submitting to him and his love~

However, Jack only enjoys predplay if it remains play. It stops being fun if his partner is genuinely scared or in distress from the behavior. It’s the same with any kink really. A good dominant pays attention to the submissive’s comfort and needs, and he’ll be sure to satisfy all of his sunshine’s needs.

Although Jack has been shown in the test to prefer being a sadist, he’s not actually a fan of making his partner feel pain. Back when he was still alive, he could be more comfortable with various forms of mild sadism, such as spanking or hair pulling, but in the present, the idea of hurting his sunshine even in such minor ways is unthinkable. He would only be able to handle dealing out pain to his sunshine if that’s what they sincerely found pleasurable, since he would want to fulfill their needs. Of course, he would be checking in on how they’re doing a bit excessively to make sure that he never gets too tough.

Rather, the form of sadism that Jack enjoys is leaving marks on his partner’s body, particularly kiss and bite marks. It’s physical proof of his love on their skin that shows the world just how much he loves them. It’s not to the point of spilling blood or leaving a permanent scar, just leaving behind evidence of their lovemaking. It’s proof that they’re his. He’s the one who made those marks, and anyone who sees them will know his partner chose him and not them. He won’t bite unless his partner enjoys it of course. If they do, he’s going to get a taste of them and make sure it leaves a mark behind.

I mean look at this screencap. Jack really wants to be nibbling on his sunshine instead of his lip.

This is especially true in the present. Although Jack can’t stand the idea of hurting his sunshine, seeing Alice covered in hickies and bite marks makes him feel more real. He’s left irrefutable evidence of his existence on her skin, and he makes sure to adorn her in as many as she’ll allow, especially in places that she can’t easily cover up. It gives him a thrill to think that anyone who sees her would see those marks and realize that she doesn’t need them. She chose him. She’s his just as much as he’s hers. The world might not be able to see him (yet), but he’s proving that he’s real by showing the world that he’s claimed his sunshine.

Another way that Jack wants to mark his claim on his sunshine is with his cum love. Seeing his partner as a sweaty, overstimulated mess, adorned in a pearl necklace he made for them with a dripping cream pie between their legs just does it for him. He would love to make a mess of his sunshine and admire his handiwork afterwards.

This leads to Jack having a breeding kink. When he was alive, it was more mild than it is in the present. Although being a parent was a bit intimidating for him back then due to his toxic upbringing, he always hoped that he would find a loving partner and be a father someday. Granted, a breeding kink doesn’t necessarily have to lead to procreation, but simply the act of seeding his partner can be just as fun~

With the world being unable to see/hear/touch him, Jack feels more of an urge to leave his mark. Since Alice is the only one that he can interact with, that makes him want to leave his mark on her body in any way that she’ll allow. Getting her pregnant is the ultimate proof that he’s real, and even before she is ready to have kids with him, he’s fantasized about it countless times. In the past, he was thinking of siring or adopting one kid, maybe two, but in the present he wants more kids than that - as many as his sunshine will agree to. The thought of her pregnant, watching her tummy grow larger with his child drives him crazy in the best ways.

Jack is open to experimentation and trying new things, particularly at the request of his partner. He’ll do his best to accommodate his partner’s needs, whatever they might be, even if they’re not to his tastes… provided it doesn’t put them or their relationship at risk. More extreme kinks… he’ll be willing to give them a shot, but if they’re too dangerous or damaging, he’ll try to pump the brakes or at least talk about why his partner is interested in it so that they can reach a compromise that’s healthier for both of them.

As shown in the demo, Jack is very vocal in bed. He showers his partner with praise. He can talk dirty as well, though he could only swear while he was still alive. In the present, his dirty talk is mostly innuendo, as he can’t bring himself to swear anymore. Sunny Day Jack would never swear after all, it would be utterly unthinkable for a kids TV show character. If his partner wants him to degrade them by using specific insults and terms, he’ll indulge them as best as he’s able, but he’ll make sure to dish out extra praise and affection during aftercare so that he can remind them just how much they mean to him. He thinks the world of his sunshine, and he wouldn’t want to risk them actually believing that he really does think such horrible things about them.

Jack is the king of aftercare. If his partner needs anything, he’ll get it even if he’s tired. Need water or a snack? He’s on it. Need cuddles? Oh you bet he’s all over that. Need help getting cleaned up? Don’t worry, he’ll carry his partner to the bath and change the messy bedding for them. Sore? He’ll be sure to gently massage those tense muscles into submission.

Jack’s mouth isn’t just good with words. He has quite the talent for oral play. He loves using his mouth all over his partner’s body, particularly where they’re most sensitive, or where they need extra love. His favorite place to kiss, besides their lips, is their throat, as he can feel his partner’s moans vibrate against his lips, giving him that little bit of extra feedback that he’s doing a good job.

However, the sexiest part of the body for Jack is his partner’s stomach, though he loves every inch of his sunshine. A soft round tummy just does it for the guy, though all stomach shapes are lovely. He just loves having a partner who is soft and perfect for cuddling. He enjoys having a softer partner who he can protect, especially if they’re smaller than him. Caging his soft partner underneath him makes him feel secure, and he’ll keep them trapped in his arms all night long if they let him.

Jack’s favorite positions are ones where he’s facing his partner. He wants to see the expressions they make and kiss them as they make love. He favors the mating press in particular, as it allows him to penetrate his partner as deeply as possible and hit just the right spots to make them scream his name and see stars. He wants to be totally surrounded by his sunshine’s warmth and feel their love all around him.

Jack has a very high libido, so he wants to have sex as often as possible. He would want to do it every day, even multiple times a day if possible, masturbating and fantasizing about his sunshine if not. His stamina was just a bit higher than average when he was alive, but now that he’s a supernatural entity with powers, he can keep going with a very short refractory period. If his sunshine lets him, he could make love to them for hours. Of course, he’ll be considerate about the difference in their sex drives and energy levels.

Being an actor, Jack is excellent at roleplay. In fact, he might be able to get into the part too well at times. In the past, it was easier for him to get carried away with a role (which plays a part in why he’s Jack now instead of Joseph), but in the present, if he goes too far with it, that could lead to him mentally crashing back down when he realizes that he’s acting out of character for Sunny Day Jack. If he can justify Sunny Day Jack playing such a role, he doesn’t have to suffer such dissonance, so any roleplay in the present will have a bit of a primary colored tint to it.

Of course, the more relaxed Jack gets in his relationship with his sunshine, the easier it’ll be for him to slip out of character and be more himself. If these “out of character” moments never result in anything bad and his sunshine enjoys who he is when he’s at his most open and vulnerable… then maybe he’ll be able to be more comfortable acting more like himself instead of the character he wishes he was…

This is the goal for Sunshine in Hell. Although Jack is going to try his best to stay in character as Sunny Day Jack at the start, as he spends time with Alice and the two of them grow closer, he’s able to make himself more vulnerable to her, less guarded. He’s able to experiment more, indulge in the desires he has that Sunny Day Jack would never even think about. Eventually, he’ll be able to be someone who isn’t the character that he portrays, but someone comfortable in his own skin, with someone who loves him as the flawed man that he is and not as the perfect idol that he wishes he was.

I think we’ll wrap things up for Jack on that heartwarming note… especially since his entry has ballooned into 12 14 pages at this point, hahaha. I might have more thoughts in the future, but let’s show the other characters some love too, shall we?

Speaking of love, let’s talk about Jack’s sunshine, specifically my version of the MC for this erotic yandere romance game.

Alice

As I’ve mentioned before in other headcanon rambles, Alice is on the aro/ace spectrum. While she does experience horny thoughts/urges, she doesn’t actually desire someone romantically or sexually unless she’s known them for a while and has developed a bond with them. She can objectively see that someone is attractive and admire them, even feel flustered by the attention that they give to her, but these are platonic feelings. It’s only after she’s been friends with someone and opens up to them that she might develop romantic feelings for them. Even then that’s not always a guarantee. Sexual attraction then follows only after she’s made a deep romantic connection with that person, and only with that person. This would make her orientation demi-romantic, demi-sexual.

Because it takes such deep trust and closeness for Alice to fall in love with someone, when she falls in love, she falls hard… for better and for worse.

Alice is strictly monogamous. She can’t bear the idea of sharing her partner with another person, and she’ll do all she can to serve their needs to the best of her ability. She’s also fairly clingy with her partner, as her love language is primarily physical touch. She loves holding onto her partner as much as possible, playing with their hands or hair, caressing their face, nuzzling into their touch, and in general just cuddling up to them as much as they’ll allow. She can also get silly with her affection, licking or nibbling on her partner playfully if they allow her, and writing words or symbols on their skin with her finger.

Of course, Alice is careful to be gentle when nipping her partner since she has slightly larger fangs than the average person. If she bit down hard, she could draw blood with those fangs… if her partner is into that and convinces her that they really want her to do some damage of course.

Alice is only comfortable with physical touch with someone if she trusts them and has a positive connection with them. If she doesn’t have some level of trust, being touched puts her on edge, even if it’s something as casual as a pat on the back.

The part of her partner’s body that Alice finds most attractive is their chest. Big, small, flat, soft… they’re all beautiful, and she loves to bury her face into her partner’s chest and listen to their heartbeat as often as she can, feeling them breathe as she holds them close. She also enjoys hands, snuggling into them, touching them, lacing their fingers together. It makes her feel so wanted to feel her partner’s hands reaching out to hold her.

Although Alice tends to favor being more submissive in the bedroom, she’s a service bottom, wanting to make sure her partner feels good. She’s not content to be a pillow princess, just lying there and letting things happen to her. She wants to do whatever she can to make her partner feel satisfied and happy… even if that means doing things that she isn’t exactly comfortable with.

Alice struggles to reject anything that her partner suggests, even if it makes her uncomfortable. She wants so badly to be a good partner who is worthy of the person she loves, since she has self-confidence issues. A lifetime of fat shaming from many sources, including society at large, has made her hate how her body looks, and she feels ugly. This is something she struggles with and though she has been called beautiful, she can’t bring herself to really believe it when the majority of people have called her ugly. It didn’t help that she was treated as a weirdo by her peers and isolated or ignored. This has led to Alice feeling a need to “make up” for how “unattractive” she is with acts of service for her partner in the bedroom.

This has led to unfortunate incidents in her sex life. Alice pushed herself to have sex before she was ready, with a partner who didn’t know what he was doing. It was clumsy, even painful, and though she tried not to think about it, she was reminded of the SA she experienced as a teenager. This was not anyone’s fault, but ignoring the warning signs of a trauma trigger can be pretty devastating.

Needless to say, Alice and Ian’s first time was… rough, and full of apologies from both of them, along with a lot of guilt. I touched on how difficult their sex life was in previous posts before, such as this one. Sadly, their sex life played a part in why their relationship turned sour.

Sex with Ian was mostly Alice servicing him with handjobs and blowjobs, with penetrative sex coming infrequently. Unfortunately, Alice didn’t really enjoy the penetrative sex, as Ian tended to go too rough with her, and they both had the misconception that pain was always involved at the start of penetration for the person being penetrated (if not for the whole experience.) Sadly, by this point in their relationship, Alice was having a hard time voicing any complaints that might make Ian feel bad or like he was wrong in some way. She mistakenly believed that she was the problem for not really enjoying or getting off on the experience. After all, there was pleasure along with the pain, and penetrative sex was what all sex led up to, right? Was it even sex without it?

Penetrative sex is so glorified in media, that Alice believes sex is incomplete without it, as if she’s denying that full connection of love with her partner if she doesn’t do it. It might be painful, but she wants that deep connection with the person she loves. Plus, Ian would always be so eager and excited for it. She found him just so cute, and it made her feel good that he desired her so much that he couldn’t hold back. It might have been painful, but it was worth it to be the only person in the world who could drive him so crazy with desire. It was so nice of him to think of her when he wanted to try out a new technique that he was sure would make her feel good, since, ho boy, did the lady in the porn ecchi enjoy it!

Unfortunately, Alice learned over time being with Ian that getting sex techniques from porn really isn’t a good point of reference. That’s why she eventually started reading articles giving advice on sex-friendly websites to get a better sense about real sex, rather than the fictionalized version depicted in porn.

But, hey, at least Ian was happy. Alice took joy in his happiness and satisfaction, and enjoyed the cuddling they did in the afterglow the most. Cuddling, kisses, listening to his satisfied sighs, and hearing how much he loved her were what she enjoyed the most about their lovemaking.

Of course, Alice found that same satisfaction with just cuddling and a nice make out session without sex involved.

Sadly, like a lot of people with little experience, Alice is under the mistaken assumption that penetration hurts at first, but soon goes away. This is an exceedingly common trope in hentai/ecchi where the bottom, regardless of gender, always feels pain at the start of being penetrated but then pleasure makes the pain disappear at some point. It’s treated as expected in this form of media, something unavoidable that must be tolerated for the sake of enjoying sex. Heck, for some people, pain during penetration is a feature of sex, not a bug.

This is why when Alice and Jack eventually have penetrative sex, the fact that it doesn’t hurt even a little bit catches her off-guard. Not that she’ll complain, obviously. This results in making her more enthusiastic about that form of sex than she ever thought that she could be.

Alice does not enjoy pain, at all. It’s not sexy to her to be spanked, choked, insulted, or to be otherwise made uncomfortable and used. She’ll try out something that she might dislike for the sake of her partner’s kinks, and she’ll tolerate things that are painful if her partner feels good, but that doesn’t mean she’ll necessarily get much enjoyment out of the experience.

Inflicting pain or insults on her partner is something that Alice doesn’t care for either. She’s too empathetic, and the idea of doing harm to her partner, whether verbal or physical, even if they take pleasure in it, makes her feel exceedingly anxious. She prefers being gentle, sweet-talking her partner and cuddling with them.

The most Alice would want to do is playful teasing and leaving kiss marks along with gentle love bites. She could be convinced to bite harder, scratch, or spank if her partner was really into that, but she’s far too much of a marshmallow to handle any sort of hard sadism or masochism. Soft, cuddly, vanilla lovemaking full of sweet words and praise is what makes her feel happiest.

Praise is Alice’s biggest weakness. Whether it’s platonic, romantic, or sexual, she gets easily overwhelmed when she’s praised. She loves it, but struggles to accept it due to her low self-esteem. It makes her happy to know she’s doing a good job, and it encourages her to do more when it comes to pleasuring her partner.

Getting positive attention, compliments, gifts, and in general being treated special is something Alice struggles with, even with her partner. It takes her a while to really believe it. Ian actually did a world of good for her self-confidence… before he completely destroyed it when he cheated on her, making it worse than it ever was. Jack has his work cut out for him.

Alice masturbates often, but as a stress relief more than anything else. It’s less about being horny or desiring someone else and more about self-care. An orgasm can be very relaxing after a stressful day. She bought toys to help her do this more efficiently, only rarely taking time out to enjoy masturbation as anything more than a quick stress release. Of course, she finds it more fun to play with toys when she’s sharing them with her partner.

After making the connection to Jack, Alice finds her libido increasing because she is picking up on his horny feelings. It leads to many confusing moments where she wonders why she’s feeling horny out of nowhere far more often than she normally did before, and she does make the connection between those feelings and Jack… but attributes it to him just being that attractive in every sense of the word, which only further confuses her feelings towards him in the beginning.

Once Alice and Jack start having sex, her libido increases substantially due to this connection and how much she enjoys the experience. He’s so attentive to her needs and is so eager to praise her when he pleases her or she pleases him that it’s hard not to get addicted to their lovemaking sessions. While she and Ian would have sex once or twice a week on average, usually to satisfy his desires and not hers, she winds up enthusiastically wanting to have sex with Jack almost daily once they finally reach that point in their relationship.

Being restrained is a complicated kink for Alice. She’s never considered herself one for bondage, and, if anything, she doesn’t think that she’ll like it. Her SA trauma has to do with being restrained against her will, so if she feels trapped during sex, it can cause her to panic. Ian has accidentally triggered this trauma in the past.

Being held down or confined by her partner isn’t so much the issue in and of itself. Alice enjoys the security of being completely engulfed in her partner’s arms, safe and secure. There are times when she would seek it out, loving the feeling of her partner lying on top of her like a weighted blanket. It’s when they won’t let her go even when she indicates she wants them to that the discomfort immediately sets in. Although she tries to power through the feeling and remind herself that she trusts her partner and that they won’t hurt her like the people who committed SA against her, and they care about her… trauma is not always that easy to reason through.

This can be a bit of an issue when you have a partner who has a tendency to lose control of his urges and refuses to let you go or come up for air until he’s satisfied.

Needless to say, this led to moments full of guilt and apologies from both sides between Ian and Alice. This, as you might expect, was one of the big contributors to why they didn’t have sex all that often.

Restraining her partner… now that’s something Alice would be surprised to find that she enjoys. Having her partner tied up and helpless as she lovingly pays attention to their body, maybe even blindfolded so they don’t know where she’s going to touch or kiss next would be exciting.

I think I just had an idea for another short fic to write sometime. Better make a note of this for later.

Ahem, moving on… Alice isn’t one for exhibitionism. She’s a very private person overall, and with her self-esteem issues, she would rather have anything more physical than a kiss or hug be kept private. She doesn’t want to have to think or worry about other people when intimate with her partner, preferring to just focus on her beloved and the intimate moment that they’re sharing. Since she can only get sexual with someone she trusts deeply, she doesn’t want to involve other people, even as an audience.

Sadly, Jack isn’t going to be able to indulge in his exhibitionism kink to the fullest with Alice because of this. Though having sex in risky places where they could get caught is a fair compromise that she winds up enjoying way more than she ever thought she would. She wouldn’t enjoy getting caught though, and it would take a lot of coaxing to get her to try again if that happened, but fortunately Jack is a very sneaky ghost(?) who knows a few tricks to make sure that no one will interrupt when he’s showing love to his sunshine.

Alice’s favorite position is missionary. She loves being held by her partner and looking into their eyes, seeing the love they have for her and how good they’re feeling. She loves the feeling of their body on top of hers like a warm weighted blanket. She loves watching them bite their lip and strain themselves to hold on, or roll their eyes up towards the ceiling from pleasure. Watching her partner’s face and knowing that she’s the one making them feel good makes her feel good in turn. She loves it when they look at her with love and desire, like she’s the only person in the world they could ever feel this way towards.

Face to face positions in general are the ones Alice prefers, though she gets anxious about any position that puts her on top. She’s chubby, and she worries about her weight being too much for her partner. For example, if they tell her to sit on their face and that they want to be crushed by her thighs, she’ll be very skeptical that it’ll end well. It’s something that would take a lot of gentle coaxing to get her to try it, and reassurance that they enjoyed doing it afterwards.

Although Alice’s worries limits her in the amount of positions she’s interested in trying, she’s actually capable of doing a lot of them. Despite being chubby, she’s very flexible, able to do vertical splits and put her ankle around her head, to name a few. This makes yoga the ideal way for her to keep in shape. She isn’t confident enough to work out at a gym, but she doesn’t mind stretching with friends or a partner. She takes pride in her flexibility and her excellent sense of balance, not yet thinking about how this ability could be used to great effect in the bedroom.

Needless to say, those attracted to Alice can be treated to quite a show when watching her do yoga. Jack especially is eager to encourage her to exercise often and is only too happy to help her get into the harder poses. He looks up just how to do them so he knows where he can put his hands just right to help her. Before they’re lovers, it’s always so tempting for him to just “slip” and touch her someplace a bit naughtier... but he respects her consent and boundaries. He won’t touch her someplace unless she wants him to, no matter how badly he wants to put his hands and mouth on every inch of her body.

Naturally, once they become lovers, yoga sessions get a bit spicy. Alice has to wonder if Jack is really eager for her to work out to help her stay fit or if he just wants to experiment with positions. Still, it’s a very pleasurable incentive that encourages her to work out more often. It also encourages her to intentionally tease him with her stretches once she grows more confident in their physical intimacy, going into a playful back and forth that she knows is going to end up with him eventually snapping from the tension, stripping of her workout clothes and taking her against the yoga mat.

Teasing her partner and encouraging them to lose control is something Alice can appreciate. It was a bit risky when it came to Ian since when he lost control it could be painful or even suffocating, so she always had to be cautious about how far to push and be prepared for fallout. With Jack though, he’s always so mindful of her comfort no matter how wild she drives him. That allows her to just cut loose and tease him to her heart’s content, knowing that he’ll never hurt her and it’s only going to feel good.

Driving her lover into losing control over their desire makes Alice feel sexy, beautiful. She wants the person she loves and desires to need her so badly that they can’t think of anyone else. She wants to be irreplaceable. She thought that she found that with Ian, so it was worth the pain, but his cheating proved that she was mistaken. Fortunately, Jack will be all too happy to make sure she knows how special she is and how there’s no one else in the world he could ever want, need, or love more than her.

In general, Alice is very vanilla when it comes to her kinks. She favors the emotional connection between her and her partner, the love and trust they share. That’s why she can only have sex with someone if she feels like she can fully trust that person. After Ian cheated, she couldn’t have sex with him again even when he wanted it, which strained their attempts to repair their relationship and helped her realize that things had gotten too toxic between them to try and go back to the way they were.

Overall, Alice is a very uncertain lover when it comes to her own pleasure or anything that might bring discomfort to her partner. She has an easier time focusing on their pleasure and getting enjoyment out of making them feel good. It’s easy for her to forget about herself in favor of her partner’s pleasure even if she’s uncomfortable, which is why she responds better to a partner who makes sure to stay mindful of her needs during the activities rather than get distracted by their own pleasure.

Speaking of a partner who gets carried away by his own pleasure…

Ian

Ian is someone who was very sheltered by his very strict religious upbringing. In his house, sexual desires were seen as shameful. Even masturbating was treated as a sin. Though he tried not to give in to his urges, he succumbed to his desires more often than not, and it made him feel weird. He loved the pleasure he felt from masturbating and the relief it gave him, but he “knew” that he was being “sinful” by doing so, which would leave him filled with shame and guilt afterwards. This would lead to a lot of repression when it comes to his sexuality. It didn’t help that his peers treated him like a weirdo and made fun of his looks/behavior/tastes, isolating him further.

Because of his upbringing, Ian always had a clear picture of what he was supposed to do to have a successful future. He needed to find one person, get married, have kids, and have a lucrative career. His mother pushed him towards a straight relationship in particular - at least when she wasn’t crushing his spirit that finding a partner was impossible for him at all - but he couldn’t help but find guys and non-binary people attractive as well. He has a lot of crushes, both fictional and not, and he has a secret stash of various media full of many waifus, husbandos, and spousus.

Alice was one such person that Ian crushed on, but with her it was far more serious than anyone else. His feelings for his first and only childhood friend were deeper than surface level. They knew each other better than anyone. She was always there for him, supporting him, and making him feel like he wasn’t such a weirdo after all. Her being a girl had nothing to do with how hard he fell for her, though it did make him feel a little less anxious about his mom finding out about their relationship than he would have if his partner wasn’t a girl.

Ian is someone in heavy denial about his desires due to his upbringing. It’s “sinful” to lust after other people, particularly outside of a straight context according to his mother and the scriptures. It’s “sinful” to have lustful thoughts outside of marriage. Heck, even in the confines of marriage, sex is meant only for the sake of procreation. It made him feel weird about desiring people, so he convinced himself that he simply… didn’t. He went into deep denial, telling himself that people were weird, and since he didn’t know them these feelings weren’t something to think about at all. It was easier that way.

Ian knew Alice though, so she became the exception to this taboo he had been taught all his life when she became his partner. For him, it was okay to lust after his partner… at least as much as it could be with anyone. Though his mother insisted lust, even towards his partner, was only selfishly satisfying his manhood in a sinful way, society often said otherwise. Media and their peers made it seem so normal to have sexual urges and want to explore them. Even Alice insisted his feelings were normal and nothing to be ashamed about. He learned more and more about what was normal once he was out from under his mother’s influence and interacted with other people.

While Ian did learn to accept and even embrace the fact that he’s pansexual/panromantic, it’s not so easy to shake the shame related to his sexuality or sex in general thanks to his mother’s toxic influence.

At his house with his mother, even the internet was restricted. Ian didn’t get access to porn until he moved out to college, and even then, that made him feel awkward. He didn’t know how to handle these weird feelings towards strangers, since he was taught that they were sinful and risked damning him to hell. Lusting after fictional characters seemed okay though. That was just a fantasy, playing pretend. Even his mother had romance books that got pretty smutty, though she wailed into him the one time she caught him going through her stash.

This was what led to Ian having a lot of fictional crushes, anime figures, and, of course, ecchi. While the local library didn’t have straight up porn or hentai, it did have more risque manga stories in the form of ecchi, which is why he insists so hard that it’s not porn. The library would never have anything like porn, so it’s not sinful! This means it’s okay that he has a collection of it. He’s not a sinful pervert!

Ecchi has a tendency to really push the boundaries of what can be constituted as porn though, and Ian absorbed all of the sex in those pages like a sponge. The people in the book always looked to be having fun. Sex was something wild and passionate. The people lost control of their desires and enjoyed themselves in a way that he was always denied. Sex was this all-encompassing force of nature in so many stories, not just in ecchi. He was fascinated by it even as he was afraid of those feelings.

Because of this repression, Ian saw himself in these characters who lost themselves in moments of passion as they claimed their lover. This raw animalistic lust was exciting and really resonated with him. Once he started pleasuring himself and forgot about the guilt of his desires, he would lose control in a similar way. He would keep going until he was satisfied, completely losing himself in the experience… only to be hit with guilt once he came down from the high.

With Alice, Ian had an outlet for his sexual desires. She helped him see that these desires weren’t sinful, and she was eager to help him feel good. She made him feel wanted, beautiful, and sexy. With her help, like many things in his life, he gained more confidence in his sexual urges. He explored his sexuality more, both in fiction and with her, though he was far more hesitant and awkward with the latter.

What didn’t help was the mistakes Ian would make… but, in a way, he was used to making mistakes. He was always making mistakes, always blamed by his mother for just about every reason under the sun even if he didn’t actually do anything. All perceived problems were his fault and so he must apologize. Constantly.

Alice supported Ian when he felt sinful, filthy, and sad. She forgave him for his mistakes and even told him he didn’t have to apologize so much. She loved him and he loved her in return for how strong and supportive she was to him.

Ian would try to make amends for his mistakes with apologies, cuddling, and especially with gifts. His primary love language is gift giving, and thanks to the trust fund his absent dad left him, he could give gifts to those he cared about often. He gives friends and especially his partner presents. He even gives his mother presents to let her know that he still loves her despite everything and that he just wants them to actually have a good relationship… however futile that gesture might be.

Although Ian struggles to be vocal about what he wants when it comes to sex and romance, he can be pretty romantic at times… even if he’s got dirty thoughts in mind to go along with it. He knows how romantic a candle lit bedroom with a bed covered in rose petals while sexy jazz plays in the background really sets the mood. Too bad it didn’t actually work out the first time he tried it.

Sadly, Ian was hoping that if he set the mood just right, he and Alice could finally go all the way and lose their virginity to each other. Too bad the mood died a painful death when Shaun walked in instead, and it was a while before Ian got the guts to try that again… at least while Alice was still rooming with Shaun. Initiating sex with her was much easier after they moved into their own place.

I’ve gone over the reasons why I think Ian cheated in previous posts, here, here, here, and here in detail, so I won’t rehash it too deeply this post.

To sum it up - Ian was on his own for the first time in his life when he moved to the performing arts school, without anyone to support him, particularly his partner. He had grown conventionally attractive as he aged, and he was surrounded by peers who shared his interests, which gave him a taste of popularity for the first time. He was given all sorts of new and exciting experiences, meeting all sorts of people who he found attractive. He grew closer to new people, and without his partner around he grew lonely… which led him to giving in to his desires in the worst way possible.

The experience was exciting. The forbidden nature of it actually made the act more enticing due to how repressed Ian was because of his background. It was all “sinful” after all…

Like a lot of people who grew up heavily repressed by religion, Ian finds arousal in things deemed forbidden and sinful. Despite being bullied as a kid, being degraded sexually is something that turns him on. Though he protests about being teased, he enjoys it, even to the point that being called a beast or a sinful slut makes him feel aroused, though he finds such feelings confusing. He likes being commanded and punished by his partner, completely at their mercy and begging them for more.

While this would suggest Ian is a submissive, he’s actually a switch vers. It doesn’t matter who’s doing the penetrating as long as it feels good. Taking control of his partner and rutting into their holes like an animal feels just as good as being taken. He just needs to learn how to better control his urges so he can pay attention to his partner’s needs and comfort to improve taking the dominant role.

Ian is the type of person who gets lost in the pleasure of sex. Once he gets to a certain point, he starts losing his inhibitions, getting more vocal and needy. He’ll praise his partner and beg for more even when he’s the one dominating, growing increasingly needier as the pleasure grows more intense.

The part of the body Ian finds most attractive is the ass. More than once he’s had thoughts of slapping or squeezing his partner’s ass, but was too shy to give into the urge except when actively engaging in sex. Because of this, his favorite position is doggy style, as we can see in this very NSFW picture by Sauce. He loves the way his partner’s ass bounces with each thrust, and he’ll add to the jiggle with the occasional slap once he loses himself in the moment. As he grows more confident in his desires and represses himself less, he’ll consciously want to explore the kink of spanking.

Bondage, both giving and receiving, is something that Ian would want to try, along with some other kinks, but he doesn’t have the courage to initiate it at this time. In general, he struggles to initiate anything related to sex, as that ties into the guilt and shame that was hammered into his upbringing. However, it’s fairly easy for him to get aroused, which would serve as an unintentional way to initiate sex more often than not.

Being an actor, Ian would thrive with roleplay in the bedroom. It would help him pretend to be someone else, someone more confident and lustful. It could help him lose himself in the moment rather than get caught up in his own doubts and insecurities.

Ian struggles with accepting his own sexual desires, which makes it harder for him to communicate with his partner about his needs. This leads to him taking cues from ecchi on what to do, not checking in with his partner like he should, and getting lost in the moment, letting the urges take him where he wants to go. Once he accepts himself as a sexual being and that it’s healthy to feel these desires, his communication difficulties with his partner should improve.

Having a partner who takes the lead is probably ideal for Ian. Being told what to do is something he’s used to, and he feels more confident with guidance. He worries about making mistakes, but if he’s guided through the scene by his partner, he has less reason to worry. In a way, being so good at taking direction is why he makes an excellent actor.

Speaking of direction, how about we switch over to the next love interest on the list?

Shaun

Shaun has a bit of a wild side when it comes to sex. He loves kitten play, both being the kitten and being the master of a sweet sexy kitten. He’ll put his partner in cat ears, a tail with a butt plug, and a collar with a leash if they let him, and he’ll be open to doing the same in return.

Biting and scratching is another one of his kinks, with some minor sadism and masochism. Spanking, bondage, blindfolds… Shaun is eager to explore unconventional means of having sex.

Shaun’s favorite part of the body is thighs. He’ll happily die suffocated by his partner’s thighs. Lying down with his head in his partner’s lap will make him purr. He’ll wear their thighs as earmuffs and bend them back as he pleases, paying extra attention kissing, licking, biting, and raking his fingernails across them.

Then, of course, there’s thigh-high fishnet stockings. Wear a pair of these, especially when accented with a garter belt, and Shaun turns into a puddle of horny goo, especially if they’re worn by his partner/crush, as shown in this steamy picture by Sauce.

To be fair, this is a very spicy sight. Shaun is a man of taste.

Overall, Shaun is a dominant vers, but he’s willing to submit and be a good kitty… eventually. Cats do what they want after all, and it’s going to take a little more than some ear scritches to get this cat daddy to submit to his partner, which is part of the fun.

Speaking of which, Shaun has a daddy kink. If his partner can be a good little kitten and let daddy pet and play with them as he pleases, he’ll be a very happy cat daddy.

While Shaun leans towards monogamy, he’s actually open to joining a poly relationship if the right people came along. He actually considered what it might be like to enter a relationship with both Alice and Ian, but he found that his vibes just didn’t mesh with Ian at all, and not just because Ian’s taste in anime is trash. He just never felt attracted to Ian like he did with Alice, and they never really connected like he did with her.

Shaun got a crush on Alice while they were taking the same class in college. He met her well before he ever knew Ian. They sat next to each other in class and wound up chatting often. They had stuff in common like horror movies, enjoying goth aesthetic, and being silly goobers who joke around with their friends. They’re also the mom/dad friend types taking care of their friend group. She was just so kind and sweet that he couldn’t help but fall hard for her.

It’s a shame that when Shaun finally gathered up the courage to ask Alice out, she casually mentioned that she was meeting with her boyfriend, breaking the poor guy’s heart.

Poor Shaun. Alice had no idea that he was asking her out on a lunch date instead of just going to grab a bite as friends. She missed all the signals he sent her way.

After that, Shaun tried hard not to think about his crush on Alice. He tried to just be there for her as a friend and move on from his romantic feelings, if only for the sake of their friendship. It was just hard when they had so much in common and had such good chemistry… and he couldn’t help but notice some troubling red flags in her relationship with Ian.

It never really seemed to be the right time for Shaun to try to get together with Alice. First it was because she was already in a relationship. Then she had been cheated on and needed a friend rather than someone who would take advantage of her in her most vulnerable moment. She was still in love with Ian even after the breakup, and wasn’t receptive to anyone else romantically for a long time.

Throughout knowing Alice, Shaun has dated other people. He’s had other crushes and tried to get into relationships, some more serious than others, but none have really worked out so far. He has yet to find someone who clicks with him the way that she does. Hopefully one day that might change. He had hoped that when he went off to another college that the distance would allow him to let go of his romantic feelings.

Sadly, a part of Shaun still couldn’t shake the small hope that maybe someday the stars would align and things could work out between them. Coming back to see Alice again just made all the feelings he thought he got over come rushing back… only for his heart to be crushed again when he finds out that once again she has a boyfriend who isn’t him…

Poor Shaun has it rough. I feel so bad for him. This is why I struggle with writing love triangles, hahaha. Still, I’m going with the headcanon that he does find love with someone eventually, someone who he is glad finally came into his life who he just can’t live without. I don’t have a specific character in mind for that role just yet, but I do have a few possibilities that I’m playing around with…

With that said, let’s move on to the fourth and final love interest.

Nick

I’m still indecisive on Nick’s view on love at this point, beyond his crush on the cute cashier at the circus-themed frozen yogurt shop. I’m tempted to have him be a stalker yandere like I talked about in an earlier theory about all the love interests being yandere, but also I’m tempted to go with the angle of him being a sex worker who just wants someone to love him for himself and not simply see him for what he does online.

I’ll probably get a better idea of which direction I want to go with Nick eventually. After all, the audio drama for him on patreon did influence some of my headcanons for him.

Maybe I’ll go with a combination of the two extremes. It would be hilarious that a yandere stalker dom finds himself tongue-tied in front of his crush despite working as an online influencer, rather than it just being a shy mask to get the object of his affection to lower their guard. Hmm…

Regardless of which direction I choose, Nick flirting with Alice at her job didn’t earn him any favors when it came to winning her heart. If anything it made her more on guard around him and lessened his chances of getting closer with her. It’s nothing personal against him, but being hit on while she’s at work makes her feel like she’s trapped, since she can’t leave, and she has no choice but to be polite to customers no matter what happens.

While I don’t have too many love-based headcanons really solidified in my head yet when it comes to Nick, I do see his primary love language as quality time. He’ll make time for those who he cares for, no matter how packed his schedule is, and he appreciates the same from them in return.

Since we’re shy on the romantic headcanons for Nick, let’s just go right to the spice. As we see in his profile, he’s an influencer by day and a dom by night. The audio drama shows him with a very dominating and flirty personality, at least when it comes to his audience. He runs an online streaming show where he talks sweet and dirty to his viewers live on camera. He also takes requests, which vary on the donation tiers. Those requests usually involve dirty talk, exposing himself, using toys on his body, and such. He has quite a lot of subscribers on lonelyfans, and most popular are his private one-on-one shows with a special lucky viewer on rare occasions.

Nick is big into exhibitionism. He shows off his body without shame and enjoys the attention he gets from his audience. He absolutely loves to talk dirty and see how it affects people. He’s good at painting a picture in his audience’s heads with a lewd description, and he gets off on the idea that he’s driving so many of his viewers crazy with lust.

While Nick does want someone to love him as a person, he also wants to be an object of desire for many people. He enjoys his job as a sex worker and the attention he gets online as a sexy dom with his lonelyfans account. Even if he was in a relationship, he would still do his lewd performances before the camera… and maybe he’ll have a special guest star or two on his show if he’s lucky. He would love to convince his romantic partner to join him on camera and dominate them before his large audience, maybe even take the viewers’ requests to decide what he’ll do to his partner next.

Although Nick is looking to join a relationship with just one person, he’s not against the idea of entering a poly relationship, or even participating in an orgy. After all, the more the merrier, right?

Just like on his live shows, Nick is a dominant in bed. He might be shy in casual settings, but he takes control of the scene when with a partner. He’s the one setting the pace, wanting to make his partner beg him and say what exactly they want. He experiments with the kinkier side of BDSM too, such as bondage, candles, and all sorts of toys that can leave a mark on skin and make his partner scream for him.

Nick is very experienced as a dom. He knows how to practice proper BDSM safety and take care of his partner(s) afterward. He can be soft during aftercare, and he knows the benefits of cuddle time. After all, he has a couple fur babies to take care of, and Pico and Cheese make excellent cuddle companions.

I think I’ll finish up Nick’s headcanons with this final spicy tidbit. As we’ve seen in teaser art, Nick has tongue and nipple piercings. I also headcanon that he has a jacob’s ladder piercing. I won’t describe what that is here, but if you know, you know.

I’ve heard that there are people who enjoy the feeling of piercings on sensitive areas, and Nick is one of them.

Conclusion

That’s about all that I can think of at the moment when it comes to my general love/sex headcanons for the main cast. I hope you all enjoyed my thoughts about what turn these five on and what they look for when it comes to relationships.

Though I suspect that when the full release of the game comes out, we’re going to discover that the male leads are probably going to be a lot kinkier than a vanilla aro/ace like me can headcanon up. Just a hunch. ;)

If you are hungry for more smut involving these characters, then you might be interested in checking out Sunshine in Hell or Sunshine in Another World. Those stories are rated as explicit for a reason, and there’s only going to have more scenes of smut to come. I’ve got plenty of rough drafts in the writing tag that I need to finish polishing and post on AO3 after all.

If you like my stories and ideas, please let me know what you think! I absolutely adore all kinds of feedback. It really helps fuel my creativity. Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed reading this huge collection of sugar and spice!

EDIT: Holy crap the timing. I finished this list at the same time as a new incredibly spicy audio drama for Jack dropped on patreon. Join the $5 tier if you want to give it a listen. It’s so, so good and well worth it.

It did disprove that Jack is incapable or cursing or that he would call his sunshine a slut unprompted... but I’m going to stick with that headcanon for the Sunshine in Hell telling of the story anyway. Though eventually he will be able to get pretty spicy with his language the more he loosens up.

The drama also reminded me of a couple things that I left out. I’ve added a few more headcanons to Jack and Alice’s entries since the initial post, and it’s possible I might go back and add even more if more ideas hit me, hahaha. Sorry for any inconvenience.

#Sunny Day Jack #Something's Wrong With Sunny Day Jack #SunnyDayJack #sdj #swwsdj #Headcanon Ramblings #Sauce-y Art

[vintagevixyxol]

Another old language inscription from the “Dark rise” by C.S.Pacat

Just reflections of decoding

Disclaimer: this is not an analysis, but thinking of it. Although I have not found the key yet, I decide to share my reflections. And I am needed in someone`s fresh eye, because it seems as I just keep going over the same ground.

And remember: this is just a theory.

an origin inscription from paper books

The introduction

According to the latest information from Tumblr, the difference between inscriptions in different editions is just an error. My previous analysis might be based on a transliteration, and I`m really confused which version of book edition is the latest and the truest (ebook in English and paper books in my own language). Maybe this mess happens because my eBook copy is an early edition and paper books are the latest. In this post I`ll share some ideas of decoding remaining inscription, but without “result”.

Important notices: all translations in English from the book.

“I cannot return when I am called to fight So I will have a child” (chapter 2)

“Rassalon the First Lion” (chapter 10)

“He is coming.” (chapter 11)

“Enter only those who can” (chapter 15)

“The horn all seek and never find”. (chapter 15)

Ways of decoding

I made a scheme of my reflections and wrote every main steps, so let`s start from the left hand.

Level 1 — working with elements

First of all, I decided to select elements as I did it before. There are 38 ones in this inscription, if the method works right.

Then I started with a well-known algorithm: selecting same elements and finding new things. Nevertheless, the rules from previous work we can`t take in attention, because we have no enough information. Therefore, elements cannot be named as “letters”.

Selecting same elements:

Level 2

Step 1 — decoding with known letters from the last analysis

Now let`s try to decode using an alphabet, which I had already made.

As result, there is mess, because words from uncovered letters have no sense, and other letters are unknown. This chaos don`t match with phrases, which should be decoded. Therefore, this way is not as practical as I suggest. However, we found new elements! In this picture, they are with the alphabet from last post.

Step 2 — creating an alphabet/another thing from scratch, it`s possible

In this way, I do not compare English version with old languages patterns. Just thinking of how translations can fit in one puzzle.

How I noticed, there are 38 elements in this inscription, also it mentions every time, when characters read something in old language. The obvious way is just to try to compare them. For example, can the number of letters help?

I cannot return when I am called to fight So I will have a child — 50 letters

Rassalon the First Lion — 20 letters

He is coming — 10 letters

Enter only those who can — 20 letters

The horn all seek and never find — 26 letters

None of phrase fits in the inscription, and I put aside the simple transliteration for good.

The new idea came to me: what if does the illustration contain all sentences? So let`s count words. (please, correct, if I made mistakes!)

I cannot return when I am called to fight So I will have a child — 15

He is coming — 3

Rassalon the First Lion — 4

Enter only those who can — 5

The horn all seek and never find — 7

30 is the final sum — again the wrong way.

I found one curious thing, when I reviewed inscriptions in the text: all translations go hand in hand with the full inscription, excepting one case – “He is coming”. The cut beginning of the phrase is only there, so it might be the key.

Now I`m looking for the pattern and trying to develop this idea. At this moment, all ways, unfortunately, lead to a dead end. Nevertheless, I have some new thoughts:

Each element is a sentence or phase and in future we`ll see more.

Elements are as hieroglyphs or something like them.

There is another writing system.

Level 3 — right hand: something more linguistic

This field is the darkest than previous, but more interesting. If the old language is a language, the author might invent it, or it has roots from already existing languages. In my opinion, the second variant is the closer to the case, because books have historical context. But I don`t exclude the possibility that I`m wrong.

Why is historical context so important for decoding? Knowing the picture of the world (real or magical from book), we can guess where the origins come from, and it`ll be the first lead in the “investigation”. Later it can become an Ariadne`s clew. Also knowing details of old world culture, we can compare them with other real cultures and find new parts of puzzle.

I know that this is fantasy and lots of things are not connected with reality, but why are there several historical things? It`s unlikely to be accidentally added. As well, I have not strike into the subject as much as it should.

One interesting fact connects with history, but...

Janissaries

If I am not confusing anything, but “janissaries” is a special name, not just “adepts”, how they were adapted in my own language translation. Janissaries were regular infantry of the Ottoman Empire (1365 — 1826?). Perhaps, it doesn`t matter, but it haunts me. Some facts of them seem a bit familiar with janissaries from book, but I can`t say for sure that it`s true.

Is it just coincidence and am I digging in the wrong place?

Maybe some references were taken from other fantasy books. For example, old language reminds Elvish language from Lord of the Rings, how some people say.

BUT I`m not close with true linguistic, so I start to explore it. Hope, there will be answeres.

The conclusion

I`m really grateful to my sister again, she painted all illustrations for my articles.

This post is about everything and nothing at the same time. I need to systematize beginnings of ideas, hope, it`ll help to get the ball rolling. As well I`ll be grateful, if somebody take a fresh look on these thoughts, because, I think, there is obvious things, but I can`t find them. I`d like to discuss all of these topics and to find answers.

I`m thinking about this post for two weeks. I have doubts how useful is it… but a negative result is still a result, right? I`ll consider it as intermediate step, which will grow up with new flowers of the theory in future. And it shows that the work is going on.

Thanks for your attention!

I really appreciate your support for my last analysis! Thank you muchly!

See you soon.

P.S. If you decided to share my work, please, give credit to me.

#dark rise #c s pacat #books

[49-ibr]

A Hero and her Heart

Welcome to 49, my upcoming series of fantasy novellas! This is a snippet of writing, set in this world, but years before the series shall begin. This is from the perspective of the second main character to come: Chrysanthemum Clawe. No context is needed.

TAGLIST: @greygarnet

WELCOME

MASTERPOST

“I need to get out of here.” 

The stuffed bear did nothing, as a stuffed bear was wont to do.  

And yet, Chrysanthemum continued to pace in front of it, continued to rant her worries and woes, even as its button eyes held nothing but faded sunshine and joy. Its fur was ragged, well-worn from tosses and cuddles and kicks, and it remained ever-splattered with the paint of a child who loved to indulge in careless art. 

“But where would I go?” Chrysanthemum spun, her skirt twirling and scattering dust. “I seldom leave my home. I’m not even of age!” 

Her footsteps made the floor vibrate, made the bed tremble, and knocked the bear from where it balanced against her pillow. Quickly, she righted it, before she began to pace once more. 

“I am just so suffocated!” She twirled once more, this time stopping with her back to the bed and face to the murky window. She could practically taste what lay beyond: what beckoned to her oh-so sweetly. “There is so much world to see!”  

Her arms outstretched, reaching for an adventure unknown, before they dropped, and she sighed. She plopped onto the floor, adjusted her positioning, and then flopped backwards: limbs splayed like a starfish. 

“Oh, Muffin, what am I to do?” 

Chrysanthemum’s mind spiralled, though her tongue stopped spitting spiels to something that had ears stuffed with cotton. She stared up at the ceiling: speckled with rain-stains and mould. The floorboards beneath her back were hardly in a better state. They would not last much longer. And her carved illustrations had only ever made them frailer. 

She wished she could see the sky, but the ceiling and roof blocked her view. 

How beautiful were stars in the dead of night, she wondered, especially when there were no street-lanterns to light? Chrysanthemum had never known. She was a shielded child: a girl of no more than fifteen. But she had dreams, and she had never been one to give up on them. 

Her heart had come to its conclusion hours and hours and hours ago. Her mind had yet to decide. 

“It’s a dangerous world out there, Muffin.” 

Muffin could not answer. It was no songbird, chirping a merry melody. It was no insect, whispering secrets as it scuttled under logs. And it was not the deer that greeted her kindly when she perched on the border between forest and town: never allowed to journey beyond. 

They could talk to her now. Was that not a sign that Chrysanthemum was destined for greater things? Was that not a sign that the world was on her side, when the god of Beasts had blessed her: had given her what was only ever given to heroes? 

Chrysanthemum sat up. “There’s a ship that’ll get me out of here.” Her lips moved without the consent of her mind. “Pirates are tricky, I know. But I’ve peeked at them through tavern windows; I’ve heard their games. And perhaps they’ll lead me right into trouble: a trouble I can fix. Mother and father will never approve, I know. But...” 

Chrysanthemum took a deep breath. 

“I simply... must.” 

#my post #49ibr #snippet #my writing #writing #writer #writers #fantasy #short story #story #oc #original character #hero #chrysanthemum clawe

[the-stray-liger]

I didn't think I could genuinely feel so bad for Elan 5, but this episode just kicked me in the gut. Dude found a kindred spirit in Norea, and any notion they could go on the run and be free together was cruelly shot down, both metaphorically, and then quite literally when one of Cathedra's pilots sniped her Gundam's cockpit.

Suletta bonding with Petra, the pair of them working so hard to help evacuate Asticassia, and then Suletta seeing Petra being crushed by rubble... our girl is NOT okay.

THEN WE HAVE LAUDA. He still doesn't know what the fuck is up with the Schwarzette, and not only does he hear Shaddiq talk about how Guel was the one to kill their father, and Guel indirectly confirming that fact, and THEN being informed about what happened to Petra. There is so much goddamn pain in this episode holy shit.

I honestly have liked El5n for a while now. As douchey as he is he is literally the same was El4n-a tool that was modified and twisted for a purpose and could be discarded at any time. And he was so afraid to die and so desperate, and that's why he found a twin soul in Norea who was also another child who was only a tool kept around for the purpose of piloting a gundam until she died and was terrified of dying. I knew Norea's death was coming for a while, but I never expected it to be such a heartbreaking moment in which we also saw El5n say his first honest words from the heart ever. Him telling Norea was the landscapes in her sketchbook made me tear up. He understood her in a way he'd never tried to understand anyone else. A spacian who understood an earthian. And it was all in vain because Norea was killed before he could even answer the only question Norea had for him-what his real name was. I'm absolutely destroyed

Suletta bonding with Petra was such a sweet moment that illustrates the delightful complexity of gwitch characters-bullies who are more than that and who can actually bond with main characters and show kindness and hope. And then she died. Without being able to see Lauda. After asking Suletta what she was looking forward to do after she survived. Ouchie. I'd really come to appreciate Petra because of how much she cared for the Jeturk siblings and this was really painful. And Suletta who apparently isn't traumatized enough gets to destroy her own hands trying to rescue people out of the rubble. Because what else can she do now that her entire world is broken besides trying to help others.

(Side note: Secelia showing again that beyond being a bitch she's willing to collaborate with the earth house by lending Chuchu an ms. Perfect. And Chuchu and Felsi getting together to fight the Gundvolvas, outstanding, marvelous, showstopping, etc etc etc. And the most important part for me was that they managed to save the animals. Tico is okay y'all)

I am SO CONCERNED FOR LAUDA. My man hasn't known a moment of peace since his brother lost that duel to Suletta in s1. His brother disappeared, his dad was killed, he had to control the sinking ship that was the company without even having time to mourn his father and now THIS. He finds out his brother killed his father from Shaddiq in the middle of a terrifying battle. Literally what is gonna happen why do the writers keep torturing these boys. I'm so stressed out. At least Guel managed to defeat Shaddiq but I wonder when will Guel actually win a fight without getting into more trouble

Overall an incredible episode that crippled me emotionally and left me unable to continue with my html homework 20/10

#gwitch #gwitch spoilers

[carica-ficus]

Review: Lapvona

Author: Ottessa Moshfegh

Date: 20/11/2013

Ocjena: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

________________________________________________________

My expectations for the national book fair were quite low. Truthfully, the prices had been way too high in the recent years to be considered fair (feel free to chuckle at my bad pun), so I thought I wouldn't be able to find anything worth spending money on. But then I came across "Lapvona", a novel I've heard good things about and which seemed to be right up my alley. I presumed none of our publishers had it in store, so I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed it on one of the stalls and decided to purchase it immediately.

This text of this post turned out to be quite extensive and is more of an analysis, than a review, so I apologize if it doesn't turn out to be what you're looking for. I also do have to to warn that I mention a few spoilers, and a major one at that (regarding Agata's backstory), so I advise you skip this post in case you're not comfortable reading through them. And now, without further ado, my opinion on this novel:

"Lapvona" is a relatively short historical fiction novel which could loosely fit under the definition of folk horror. It features a story about a crippled boy, Marek, and his father, Jude, who live as shepherds in a village called Lapvona. Their life is hard and merciless, but they revel in their pain in order to please God, hoping that their suffering would earn them a place in heaven. Above Lapvona, in a big, beautiful mansion, lives their lord, Viliam, who spends his days engulfed in luxury, toying around with Father Barnabas, the local priest. In a long chain of events, Viliam adopts Marek as a replacement for his dead son, so the poor shepherd boy is suddenly thrown into the life of royalty.

The whole plot is a lot more convoluted, including a number of other important characters and themes, but it mostly revolves around the roles of family, community, survival, and women through the eyes of religion. "Lapvona" is, in its core, a genius and raw commentary on the interpretation of religious beliefs by people of different backgrounds. While it focuses on Christianity, it only uses it as a means to illustrate the many flaws religious worshiping ensues when it is enforced by people who use it to justify their flaws and sins. It is not religion itself that is evil, it is the person that abuses its beliefs.

Marek is an interesting choice as a main character, demonstrating a person, a believer, who fears God only because that is what he was taught to do while growing up. He sees his father as an icon of greatness, thinking of him as highly as he does God himself, but in truth, Marek holds little regard for religion. He punishes himself, makes himself small, and takes on a very pathetic personality because he thinks this is what an obedient Christian does. This in turn makes his motivation flawed, and, therefore, his actions crude and pointless. His true colors became apparent only when he starts living with Viliam, hoping that others will take pity on him and award him with their attention. He becomes angry when he doesn't achieve what he wants, slowly leaving his false persona and allowing the reader to finally see him as he truly is.

Moshfegh hides his demeanor very subtly, revealing it slowly later on throughout the book. This deceitful approach is quite cunning because it perfectly illustrates how difficult it is to see through Marek's lies, to himself and to others. It is his selfishness which betrays him. He is a motherless child who has never been loved and who constantly asks for attention of men, and for affection of women. While his needs seem to appear reasonable, he acts upon them with intense greed. He thinks of himself as deserving because he has obediently followed the rules of God and suffered like a true believer. He endures pain in order to receive a reward for it.

On the other hand, Marek is only human. He is a child who has never known love and searches for it in every person he encounters. This begs the question - who are we, a simple reader, to judge him? And why do we still do it throughout the novel? Moshfegh mentions multiple times that God truly doesn't care about the events in Lapvona, otherwise he would intervene with His divine power when people ask Him for help. The Christian God in the novel is portrayed as passive, a simple symbol of worship humans pray to. All the religious instructions come from false prophets who claim to know the word of God, like Father Barnabas who is portrayed as a fraud. He is a man who never truly listened to his lessons in theology. He takes advantage of the fearful peasants in order to turn a profit and to keep a high position in society, but other than that, he doesn't know much about the religion he preaches. Father Barnabas is, in fact, a metaphor for each person that dares to inflict judgment onto religious worshipers even though they themselves do not necessarily understand the very core of their religion's beliefs. Therefore, just like Father Barnabas, the reader truly has no right to judge Marek, for it is not up to them to do it.

Another theme very prevalent throughout the novel is the position of women in religion. Agata, Marek's mother, is portrayed as a girl who has been molested throughout her whole life - forced to mother a child born from incest, enslaved by Jude as his wife, then abused in the nunnery to which she escapes after giving birth. Her tongue has been cut of, so she doesn't even have the chance to speak up for herself. The lack of the ability to speak functions as a metaphor for the inability to fight against her oppressors. She is younger and weaker than her abusers, so her voice could have been the only weapon she could've successfully used against them, but it has been taken away by force. Agata has no power against what other people throw at her. Men constantly use her for her body, for their gain, so much so that she has simply accepted this as her reality.

The crimes of her abusers are rationalized through their religion. Jude molests her because he believes it is his right to do so. He thinks of himself as a good Christian man who deserves a wife because he follows the rules of the Bible, so he takes Agata when he pleases, justifying his devious behavior as the will of God. When Agata gives birth to Marek and runs off to the nunnery, the nuns assume she left her newborn because it was conceived under, to them, unacceptable circumstances. Agata is unable to tell them what really happened, but even if she could, would it even matter to them? Agata had been sexually involved with her brother and had laid with a man before marriage. The nuns see her as a sinner, regardless of her lack of consent during the act. Therefore, Agata has spent all her life learning that none of her desires, wishes, or opinions matter in the eye of God. In the end, her inability to speak doesn't even matter because others wouldn't even have the will to listen to her.

My only issue with the novel was that it lacks any real plot. The story consists of piled up of continuous situations stacked after one another, and the only real plot points are Marek's violent outburst against Viliam's son and Agata's escape from the nunnery. On the other hand, this is what makes the novel so realistic - life is, at the end of the day, mostly just an endless chain of monotonous events, so I do understand why it was necessary to write it as such for the purpose of its message.

"Lapvona" is a cruel, but superb commentary on religion and its exploitation for the purpose of controlling society. Moshfegh doesn't hold back in disgusting imagery of violence and has a distinct ability to masterfully portray the worst humanity has to offer. This novel is heavy and disgusting, in the best sense of these words. I wouldn't recommend it to people with a weak stomach, but I do recommend it to those in search for a future classic.

#lapvona #ottessa moshfegh #historical fiction #religion #reading #book #knjiga #recenzija #moja recenzija #čitanje #book review #rc2023 #2023

[amemenadiel]

Pl

"Czasami postrzegając się nie tylko w lustrze, ale i w duszy myślę czy jestem tym, co jestem. Słysze inne od innych ludzi rzeczy i boję się tej prawdziwej bestii w moim przebraniu. Zasłaniając się ilustracją niby czuje się bezpiecznie, a jednak nie, bo i tak to nie jestem ja, tylko obraz, jakim chce być, jak taka talia kart złożona, co karty krzyczą co wzięte "Ja! Ja! Ja jestem tym do czego się upodabniasz" lub "Ja! Ja daje ci komfort, więc uwielbiaj mnie!". Ale szczerze pod koniec dni, bez tego światła mediów, światła innych ludzi i światła dnia siedząc w łóżku myślę jak bezkształtną masą jestem-kim jestem? Na pewno nie tym, co dla każdego powinno być dobrą rzeczą i co sprawiłoby, że każdy pod rząd był ze mnie dumny. Raczej niczym, tak po prostu, bo nie określa się mimo wszystko to, czym jestem. Po prostu ilustracje, które jak puzzle tworzą obraz mnie

-Chyba tak mogę się określać- "

Eng

"Sometimes, when I see myself not only in the mirror, but also in my soul, I wonder if I am what I am. I hear things different from other people and I am afraid of this real beast in my disguise. Covering myself with an illustration, I supposedly feel safe, but I don't, because anyway this is not me, but the image I want to be, like a stacked deck of cards that screams "Me! I! I am what you want to become like" or "Me! I give you comfort, so adore me! Certainly not what should be a good thing for everyone and what would make everyone proud of me. Or rather nothing, simply because it is not defined by what I am. Just illustrations that, like a puzzle, create a picture of me

-I guess I can call myself that- "

-Amenadiel Edeński

I'm coming back again with what is important for me to present - that is, characters that are somehow related to me, or more precisely, I want them to represent me, not so much as a persona, just something that shows me - an artist (although this is too much to say to be called that). These are the three main characters, although there are a few that I should mention, but these are the only ones I'm talking about for now. each of them has some part related to me, but I wouldn't say that these characters are me, of course not. What definitely connects us are our names.

Eden is certainly a grotesque figure. They appears in the "Noname Story" universe as a person that everyone knows, but no one really knows. They lives near the city on the outskirts in a blue board house, and what is a meme is the fact that they has a course in everything possible. Think of the most absurd thing and Eden definitely has a course in it. They often rambles in the background, and when they does say something, there is a good chance it will lead to a mindfuck. Eden loves different colors and their strange combinations, which they uses in the style of clothes they wears - quite kitschy and old-fashioned. What Eden is known for is wearing long skirts, because as they says, "to air out his balls", joking of course, because Eden cannot be described as any gender. That's just Eden.

Amenadiel is the character I've been working on the most lately. And to start with, there are two versions of it, as I have already mentioned.

Amenadiel was created as an MC for the game Obey me! and there, as an exchange student, as it is said in the game, he studied, where the character he was interested in was the prince of Devildom himself - Diavolo. Amenadiel is unique in that, that he had the blood of the past demon king in veins from his father's side. This meant that Amenadiel, as the firstborn, had a curse - he had to cover his eyes so as not to enchant anyone with the servant's magic-whoever he looked at became a mindless servant, just like "like the king wanted".

However, at some point, everything related to Obey me was torn apart from the mass that was Amenadiel, in order to insert his character into the world of "Noname Story". In this version, he is the child of two wizards (this will be explained in more detail someday), aspiring to be one himself, and in a happy relationship with a person named Jade, to put it briefly. Honestly, I have a lot to say, but I know that writing it all in one post will be too extensive, I even feel that in what appears here it is somewhat done, but if you are interested in these characters, you can wait for further posts in the future, or you can ask about them and I will answer!

(This art contain the newest form of Peridot)

Peridot is from my Steven Universe AU. She was created during Era 2, and what she did initially was to prepare mass for use in Injectors. she was fascinated by my version of the White Diamond, so inspired by the process of creating gems, the fusion she witnessed and the determination to become a famous Peridot with limb enhancers, she began to create modifications of gems and artificial fusions, having the features of many gems in one, leaving their natural appearance, which led to the shattering of the White Diamond and her escape with the experiments to earth, and disappearing, leaving behind a mystery. There's a lot I've come up with with this, so I'll be sure to share more about it! I hope someone from this fandom still exists.

That's it for today, thank you for being here and sharing my works with you

#oc #introduction #my persona #steven universe #gemsona #artwork #beginner artist #art #new post #new on tumblr #hello! <3 #sketch #drawing #poem

[melodyoftheheart]

[ DO NOT REPOST, ALL ART & CONCEPTS WERE MADE BY ME ]

Name: Lotus Zobelle ( Main Character)

Age: 26

Ethnicity: Pangaite ( The United Centerlands, A.K.A. UC ) — ( Translation: Mexican American )

Species: Human

Language(s): English, Spanish

Disability: PTSD, Depression, Disabled (Permanent limp due to past injuries serving in the military)

Religion: Eight Divinities, A.K.A. Chosen Ones of the Martyr

Occupation: Barista, Veteran

Soul Color: White [ Passion ]

About:

Lotus was born in the city of Cago down in the Valleys of the South but raised in Mayfrell, a small town just outside of the main city of Sheka about a hundred miles away. Mayfrell has always been known for its deep history of the Centerlands as it sits at the base of Mt. Ebott and was once a thriving Kingdom now burned and forgotten over a long two hundred years. This small town is now the only thing standing in the way of rich brokers and businesses taking the land and building over it. Mayfrell lives in the midst of a long forgotten time now reduced to crumbled castle towers and walls, as well as burnt and toppling stone homes set into the mountain itself.

Lotus is a woman of firm standards, set into the ways she was taught as a child as well as in the army. A war that has caused thousands to become homeless or die due to slavery, abuse, or even casualties between each battle. It’s been over two years since she’s witnessed the front lines, and each day grows on longer than the last. Sent home after a crippling injury she was released from the line of duty as an army sniper and forced into a new routine once she was out of the hospital.

This change wasn’t kind to her and sent her into a spiraling depression. Induced into a coma because of her injury depression quickly settled in after she learned that her sister had gone missing and was thought to be dead by the local authorities, adding to the weight of already having lost her parents at a younger age. Now Lotus must carry on with her new life, working as a barista in a local coffee shop, helping her family earn as much money as they can aside from their family business. But with each passing day it seems that the mountain has other plans for her.

Fandom: Undertale

Fanfic Title: “ Melody of the Heart ”

Program: Procreate

Illustration Time: 4hrs 12m

[ This is a Undertale AU, in no way is this canon to the OG storyline. ]

#undertale #undertale fanart #undertale oc #undertale au #undertale sans #undertale papyrus #undertale frisk #undertale undyne #undertale alphys #undertale toriel #undertale asgore #undertale chara #undertale asriel #undertale fanfic #undertale fandom #undertale fan au #undertale fan character #undertale timeline shift #undertale reset #undertale story #digital illustration #digital art #illustration #character art #undertale mettaton

[valkblue]

Let’s get to know everyone a little bit better.

8. 13. 14. 21. 22. 29. 32. 37. 44. 48. 50. 68. 74. 75. 77. 84. 92. 96. 100. 108. 114. 115. 120. 126. 132. 133. 146. 153. 163. 165. 169. 172.

Bonus points if there are illustrations or quotes to justify your answers. ✨

Wow, thank you Anon! (I mean... "Anon"... 👀) You really want to read all this?!

8. Who has the worst luck?

Zak, maybe. He's adamant in staying out of trouble, but trouble keeps on finding him!

13. Do/Did any of your characters have large ears they had to grow into as a kid?

Ulrik... Nah, they're still big. 🤡 So, it would be Altair!

14. Are any of your characters nonverbal?

Ash probably, and Juliva.

21. Do any of your characters have heterochromia?

Ash! She's my only character whith heterochromia, and it wasn't even intended at first. But, writing her background story and the part where she's gravely wounded during a hunting accident changed one of her natural green eyes to a blue-ish hue.

22. Do any of your characters have someone named after them? Or are they named after someone else?

Altair isn't the only "Altair" branch in his very extensive family tree, and also Mereel (one of the kids rescued by the Mandos on Aq Vetina in "The Foundlings") has obviously been named after Mand'alore Jaster Mereel.

29. Are any of your characters nameless? (In that there is no legal record of them existing, they just don’t have names in canon, or history remembers them but not their name?)

... Not one that I talked about here, but he's only known as "Sarge".

32. Do you have any characters who are twins?

Yep! Jo and Josh, Merry's cousins. And Guten and Borg, Ash's adoptive brothers (she's the adopted one).

37. Did any of your characters have a fever they almost died from as a child?

Ash again! After the hunting accident, she almost died while being treated because of said fever. Luckily, Walter and the Crone were good at healing people... 😰

44. Are any of your characters overshadowed by other siblings? Or have parents who clearly have a favorite? (ex: Boromir and Faramir)

Vivian, by her baby sister. She loved her, but so did her parents and she felt left aside. And sadly, she didn't imagine it even though she might have exaggerated it all in her child's mind...

48. Are any of your characters apprentices?

Ash was, Zak too... And Elara, somewhat. But also the main character of a fantasy story with dragons I wrote long time ago.

50. Are any of your characters Good Dads ™?

Neal, even though he isn't around as much as he should, but Korben too. I think Din's biological father (and mother!!) was exactly what Canderous would praise against stupid Dantooine farmers whinging about not knowing what to do to protect and save their children, and Korben made a point for Din to remember them and their courage daily. Korben had a son and a foundling before Din, so he knew already what loss and pain could do to a child and how to handle it... even though after his son and foundling left the covert, he wasn't too eager to take another under his care. Until he saw that silent kid mesmerized by the controls of his ship... 😊

68. Are any of your characters intimidatingly beautiful?

Personally, I'd say Juliva and Litti (because Ana Torv and Gugu Mbatha-Raw are just gorgeous 😍). But none has been written to be seen or recognized as such. I'm not sure Isaac (Juliva's brother in arms and now husband) even noticed how pretty I think she is, and Ela just loved how nice and caring Litti was with her.

74.  Are any of your characters associated with flowers?

... none that I've ever talked about here either. (She's called Lily.)

75: Do any of your characters wear glasses, sunglasses, goggles, or monocles?

Elara wears goggles, Leona wears glasses after a long, tiring day and Vivian and Merry wear sunglasses anytime they need. No monocles but I feel like Anton could fit in here too, because of his stupid gunner helmet 😝

77. Have any of your characters had to kill a friend?

I... don't think so?! 😲 But I have a gnawing doubt now.

84. Do any of your characters have gaps in their teeth or are missing teeth?

Vespera had a gap between her front teeth when she was a child. But not anymore.

92. Have any of your characters started and/or led a revolution?

Vivian started a revolution, somewhat. But if not her, then Ash. Not exactly a revolution though. More like raids?!?! It was against bandits and highwaymen so I'm not sure it can apply as "a revolution" though...

96. Which character is The Proudest ™ of their kids?

Crahl, for starters. All the kids he trained are his pride and joy. But Elara too! She's so proud of Jakem even though he's not her son, and now she's so proud of Tip-yip too!!! She doesn't understand SHIT about all that Jedi stuff but she doesn't care all too much either, so... What she sees is that he knows a lot of stuff, and understand even more!! And that's all she needs. 💖

100. Are any of your characters queer?

Well, Elara? Her most loving and lasting relationship was with a woman.

108. Are any of your characters dogs?

Astro and Nerio. The first is [REDACTED]'s dog and the second is Altair's.

114. Do any of your characters insist on going by their fullname rather than a nickname?

Hmm. I think I have more characters doing the very opposite of that and preferring to go by completely different names like Zak using the name of his dead best friend, Ulrik being known under specific names by his snitches and other contacts, Vivian trying not to trigger Lawrence's script by using her college nickname/username in the park, Elara having a heap of nicknames and monikers given who's talking to her because she can't bear to hear people she barely know call her "Ela" like her parents, brother and Din did...

Well! Now that I think of it, Elara would be one of them! She'd rather be called "Elara" or even by her family name than to be called "Ela" by strangers!

115. Do any of your characters have an honorary father figure?

Ash could count Walter (the grumpy asshole who taught her how to become a demonist) as an honorary father figure, I guess?! 🤣

120. Do any of your characters have PTSD?

Sadly, a few yes. Vivian and Ulrik were my only shell shocked characters, and Vespera has been added to the roster now... because of awful things she recently saw and had to run from during one of our game session! 😭

126. Are any of your characters on good terms/still friends with an ex?

Elara! Litti is still a very good friend of her.

132. Who is the precious cinnamon roll?

Answered here! But I could add Mereel too! This kid is the sweetest there is in all the galaxy.

133. Have any of your characters ever been caught in a fire or explosion?

First, there was Zak.....

"There was a mosquito in the basement... so I threw a match in the powder kegs."

And now, little spoiler for upcoming chapters of Lost and Found, even though he isn't exactly *my* character:

146. Were any of your characters disowned or abandoned by their parents?

Ulrik, kinda. His mother helped him out of the house because the tension with his *cough* 'father' *cough* was getting out of hand. So she caught him as he was planning to flee on his own, gave him a few aquilas, and kissed him farewell and good luck. 🥺

153: Do any of your characters embody the spirit of a flapper? (Bonus points for style and or lifestyle)

A "secondary-ish" character in my Westworld series: Marge, a colleague of Vivian's. Also Adelaide and Leona.

163: Are any of your characters autistic? (If so, do they have special interests and what are they?)

... according to @hathorik , Elara would be... ?!?! Even though she hasn't been written to be.

She loves numbers and languages, but I don't know if these interests are any special! Speeder bikes, maybe???

165: Who is a “girls just wanna have fun” character?

Marge again! She's boisterous and a very big mouth but I think she's hidding a lot of anxiety behind her behavior... (PUN INTENDED)

169: Are any of your characters married to the sea?

Does Elara count? Not exactly the sea but space... Litti can tell that you can't keep Ela on the ground for too long.

172: Do any of your characters hold a grudge against someone?

Answered here!

#oc ask game #anon #or anon? #👀 #💕 #ocs #oc:elara #oc:vivian #oc:ash #oc:zak #oc:ulrik #oc:altair #oc:vespera #oc:anton #oc:crahl #oc:leo #oc:merry #oc:juliva #my art

[falled-over]

the difference between breaking bad and better call saul is actually huge from a construction standard just based on what im observing. theres a lot below the cut

im not done with bcs yet but brba was so camp and every single thing in it was a metaphor. especially as the show progressed. every main character has a colour and variants of the colours they wore indicated their mood, their alignments to other characters and shit like that. my favourite part of the show toward the end was how clear it became that every character that wasn’t walt was exactly who he wanted to be. skyler was the provider and protector of the family, gus had unchallenged power, mike was dangerous and respected, even jesse became the best known meth cook for a time. every single person existed to show what a cunt walt was, as a foil. it was almost cartoonish.

bcs so far is cartoonish in a very different way. it’s beautiful, all the shots are static instead of handheld, every frame is a painting. it’s colour language is very different to breaking bad, a focus on primary colours (blue for the law firm, red for crime and yellow for jimmy- best illustrated in how when jimmy and kim had the offices together the walls of her room were painted blue and jimmy’s were orange. the logo he painted on the wall of yellow land and blue sky separated by a brown line (chuck? idk) mirrored on the ceiling. fascinating wtf do it mean) but it’s not as cut and dry as breaking bad was. the colours became almost cartoonish toward the end, one of the most interesting uses imo was when skyler and walt thought they’d gotten away with it before hank exposed them and changed from wearing all black to all white. they are the white family. in bcs the colours are used for framing and subtle hints toward a characters inclinations. they do wear the colours (howard is an interesting example, wearing a suit such a dark blue it’s a little purple. i’m in s4 right now but i’m willing to bet he’s going to turn further south based on colour alone)

btw here are some of the colour basics i noticed so you know where my head is at;

breaking bad;

green and brown are walts colours, green is his bitchy side brown is his looser side. he wears a lot of other colours (yellow, black, white red and blue- ill explain in a bit). not many other characters wear green except for when walt and skyler are about to get divorced but change their mind (shown by wearing one another colours) 

skyler is blue, she also wears some black and white and almost purple (marie) at times. blue is a calm, smart colour. it suits her well. 

jesse is the other character with multiple signature colours. yellow, red and black. im actually rewatching the show right now to get a better read of the colours but so far i think yellow is his dangerous colour (like in danger) and black is depression or whatever. red is just crime in the show.

hank is orange (danger, crime), marie is purple (she does shoplift and has a very chaotic temperament so you can do a bit of mixing), you can assign meanings from their temperaments.

gus is yellow until he needs to be dangerous then he is black and red. (interestingly i dont think he actually got his own colours, he wasnt really in the show for that long, he just borrowed jesse’s)

walt jr wears a lot of colours that you can read into but i often see yellow as one of his signatures, i think it ties him to jesse and makes walt see jesse as a child figure.

saul is interesting, cunt is unreadable in terms of colours. i think its very deliberate to his character. 

in bcs so far (s4);

there are only 3 colours used as motifs (with light and dark keeping their respective meanings of light is happy and dark is sad)

blue, for the law practice. kims preferred colour. im yet to see her without it.

red, for crime.

and yellow for jimmy.

the colours are used in outfits, but more often used in backgrounds to explain where a character is at. you see jimmy in a lot of colours, always blue when hes trying to be a good lawyer. chuck interestingly wears a lot of greys that are bordering on blue. also, looked him up just then to get a feel for his characters colours because theyre rather unremarkable, saw an article saying he is bcs skyler and i need to start killing men. chuck is a huge (slightly sympathetic) cunt that wanted to ruin jimmy because he was unable to see past his past and is in part directly responsible for his downfall, and skyler just wanted to do what was best for her kids and every bad thing that happens to walt is a choice walt made. unbelievable what sexism will do to a viewer. 

also orange is the colour of the shithole filter brba puts over mexico. the show is quite racist but someone else can write abt that i dont understand the intricacies

#breaking bad #better call saul

[boundlessthoughtsbyantonette]

I Know Happy by Lindsay N. Giroux (Author), Alicia Teba Godoy (Illustrator)

Expected publication February 20, 2024, by Free Spirit Publishing

Synopsis Children learn to recognize and understand the feelings of happiness, excitement, and pride.

A young feelings detective looks for clues, both physical and emotional, to identify happiness, excitement, and pride in themselves and others. The child uses a special notebook to draw their feelings and identify how they feel. By noticing the clues, the feelings detective knows their sister is surprised and their grandma is excited.

We Find Feelings Clues Increase children’s emotional vocabulary and boost their emotional literacy. This series helps children learn how to find, notice, and use a variety of clues to identify and name their emotions and those of others. Clues are found in facial expressions and body language, sensations within the body, and knowledge of past experiences. After identifying an emotion, children also learn how they can feel better when their emotions are overwhelming. Each book features a child using the tool of the feelings detective notebook to record their feelings through drawings and words. Additional information and strategies on recognizing and dealing with feelings are included at the back of each book.

-- A huge thank you to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I Know Happy - what an intriguing book title. At the age of 25, this children's book made me pause and ask myself if I knew what happiness was. For a book, that is a good thing! It is an attention-getter. With a blank slate and no idea, I dove in. It made me curious what this whole book was all about.

Next, the cover made me all giddy. I like how cute the illustrations were. The only downside is that I am not such a big fan of orange. I would rather have it pink or blue, just a personal preference, but orange seems more fitting for the idea of happiness. Orange IS a happy color.

Right as I started reading the book, the concept of having my own feelings detective notebook was very enticing. The fact that it is not just applicable to young readers but to us adults is mindblowing. I should probably try it and apply it in my life. Until now, the idea is honestly still stuck with me and I cannot help but think about it. This children's book just completely makes sense that I want a hard copy and would recommend it to friends with kids and even adults for a light, quick, and meaningful read. This book was written simply and directly to the point. It doesn't drag or beat around the bush.

"Sometimes it's easy to know how I feel." "Sometimes it's hard."

Wow. Just wow. And I thought nothing would make this book even more relatable than it already is.

I also like the idea that this book encourages coping, like how the main character is into art. However, I wonder if the main character was left nameless to make it more applicable to all readers, and to make the imagination run wild.

Some parts of the book also include questions like - What activities help you feel happy or calm? When have you felt excited? Simple questions but huge enough to connect and make precious moments with the readers. Other feelings were also introduced, not just happiness, such as excitement, surprise, pride, and delight.

The different locations and characters made the book more interesting. I suppose it was the reason they were added in the first place. It worked. As simple as this book is, it makes such a huge impact.

Another part that I like about this book is that it invokes an author-reader interaction. Whenever the main character takes a deep breath, I do too surprisingly!

Now talking about the Author's Note, I never encountered one like this. I for one encourage exploring emotions at a young age. I am very pleased to have known someone advocating the same principle. Also, the ideas shared by the author at the end of the book are very precise and downright easy to understand. I would love to enumerate all but where is the fun with that? I shall let you experience and discover it yourself.

To the author and illustrator, thank you for a job well done. You delivered.

Overall Rating: An easy 5-star read!

#IKnowHappy #NetGalley

#books and libraries #boundlessthoughtsbyantonette #bookblr #book review #netgalley #goodreads

[aklesswan355reviews]

City of God

Watching City of God, a film co-directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund. Illustrates a beautifully crafted hyper violent film following the main character, Rocket, as he retells how he and the gangs of the favela came to be through multiple flashbacks sequences. From the very beginning of the film, we get introduced to the tender trio known as Shaggy, Clipper, and Goose. These three characters and their actions were the very foundation of gang violence in their community. This saddened me due to the circumstances that these families lost their homes due to a flood and moved to the City of God for a better life. Only for those to squander the opportunity away on petty thievery. The younger children like Benny and Lil Dice, idolized their violent activities and lifestyle, wanted to become hoodlums. Their actions lead to two members of the tender trio to their deaths Shaggy was shot by the police trying to escape the favela and Goose was shot by Lil Dice. Lil Dice’s betrayal was shocking to me at first until I realized he was only perpetuating the same violence he worshiped from the tender trio. Although, a constant theme of redemption throughout the film. For example, During the hotel robbery a woman tells the tender trio that they should be working and getting an education, but they silence her. I believe this scene was the truly sealed the fates of Shaggy and Goose. While each character wanted to be better and stop being hoodlums, it’s all they knew, and they both paid a price for it.

Although, after the robbery Clipper stops being a hoodlum all together and joins a church. His life changes for the better. Clipper choosing to redeem himself causes miracles to happen around him. In the film when the police shoot at him the bullets miss and they pursue and kill the wrong man. City of God highlights two important themes the constant perpetuation of war and choosing the path of honor.

Furthermore, the scene in the film Goose was betrayed by Lil Dice after he took his money and attempted to flee the City of God was very important scene to the extension of the cycle of violence and war. Lil Dice was not an innocent child who had gone astray in the film. He was obsessed with being a hoodlum and tried very hard to fit in with the tender trio. Giving them ideas and plans to rob potential business. His idea to rob the motel in the film at first showed him as one of the tender trio willing to rob only innocent people of their possessions but do not take their lives. But this all changed in the film when it showcased Lil Dice’s rampage across the Motel after the tender trio left. Brutally murdering all the occupants while they pleaded for their lives. This vicious trend murders continued as he matured into Lil Z killing people without a second thought to get things he wanted. Clearly, this eventually led to the perpetuation of violence in the community. Whenever Lil Z killed or tortured someone that person or a family member wanted revenge on him. Causing a war of constant violence throughout the favela. Which lead to his death after the children he tortured turned on him after he armed them to fight in his war. Now the children are the new gang leaders of the favela, and the cycle of violence and war continues with them.

Moreover, Rocket was a very important character and embodied the theme of honor in the film as he saw the actions of his brother Goose as chose not to become a hoodlum. He states in the film that he doesn’t want to become a hoodlum or get shot. And pursues his passion photography. It should be noted that instead of perpetuating that same violent behavior that the tender trio and Lil Z now followed Rocket chose to become an upstanding citizen. Rocket tried to live the life of crime committing two robberies. He first tried to rob Knockout Ned but couldn’t and Knockout Ned led one of his friends to get off the bus for free but made him pay. Then he tried to rob a diner only to chat with the waitress and end up with her phone number. And finally, he got a free ride home when a man asked for directions around the favela. in that moment he discovered that good things happen to those who are not vicious and violent crime doesn’t pay. He led an honorable life and many good things happened to him such as turning his passion of photography into a career through taking pictures of the violence that was happening in the favela.

In conclusion, City of God was a wonderfully inspiring film that showcased two different perspectives in the same community. One of violence, war, and destruction and the other honor, preservation, and growth. I would recommend this film to those who want to understand character depth analyzing two great characters Rocket and Lil Z and how their lives differed drastically living in the same community. As well as the constant themes presented in the film through the perpetuation of violence, war and choosing the path of honor.

[ronaldanthony4]

Hello and good-by Hello and good-by

When I’m in a swing Swinging low and then high, Good-by to the ground Hello to the sky.

Hello to the rain Good-by to the sun, Then hello again sun When the rain is all done.

In blows the winter, Away the birds fly. Good-by and hello Hello and good-by.

("Hello and Good-by" by Mary Ann Hoberman)

I created another digital art piece, and this time, I decided to feature my beloved original character, Liliana Oleander. Liliana is a charming character, and in this artwork, she's having the time of her life as she swings high up in the air. Her attire is simple yet elegant, with a white smocked dress that adds to her overall beauty. The vibrant colours of the background contrast beautifully with Liliana's brown hair and pinkish complexion, making her the focal point of the piece. The way her dress billows in the wind gives a sense of movement and freedom, capturing the joy and exhilaration she feels while swinging.

Now, let me take you on a journey through the inspiration behind this artwork. I drew upon the influence of various illustrations depicting girls on swings, each one inspiring a different aspect of my creation. The first source of inspiration came from an illustration I stumbled upon in a kids' story anthology book. It was a vivid illustration that caught my eye, a perfect complement to the poem by Mary Ann Hoberman named "Hello and Good-by." This particular poetry was the main driving force behind the masterpiece I aimed to create.

Speaking of kids' story anthology books, I have a small collection of them, which I treasure dearly. These books are more than just possessions; they are gateways to a world of imagination and storytelling. They belong to a series known as the "Connections Macmillan Reading Program," published by the esteemed Macmillan Publishing House. I acquired these books from my grandmother when I was a child, and they have held a special place in my heart ever since. Each book in the series is filled with vibrant illustrations and captivating stories that transport young readers to different realms and teach valuable life lessons. As I flip through the pages, I am reminded of the countless hours spent immersed in these tales, eagerly awaiting the next adventure.

As I reminisce about my grandmother's gift, I can't help but dream of completing the entire series. At the moment, I possess three of these enchanting books, but my memory seems to be playing tricks on me when it comes to the total number in the series. It's a little fuzzy, but I believe there might be around 12 to 15 books in the collection. My goal in the future is to acquire the missing volumes and reunite them in my library. In my artistic pursuit, I often find myself drawn to these nostalgic books. They not only serve as a reminder of my childhood but also as a wellspring of inspiration. The pages of these enchanting books hold stories that transport me to magical realms and ignite my imagination.

Liliana Oleander's adventure on the swing, captured in my latest artwork, is a testament to the magic these books have woven into my life. I aim to share that enchantment with others through my art, all while maintaining a writing style that bridges the gap between formality and a casual, creative tone. My preference for middle-school-level English ensures that my stories are accessible and engaging to a wide audience. By infusing my art with the essence of these magical realms, I hope to captivate viewers and transport them into a world where anything is possible. Whether it's through the pages of a book or the strokes of a paintbrush, I believe in the power of storytelling to connect people and inspire them to embrace

As I work on collecting the remaining volumes in the "Connections Macmillan Reading Program" series, I can't help but appreciate the journey that these books have taken me on. From a young child inspired by my grandmother's gift to an artist capturing the essence of childhood in my creations, these books continue to be a guiding light in my artistic pursuits. And with Liliana swinging high in the air, I'm reminded of the boundless joy and wonder that stories can bring into our lives. These books have not only nurtured my creativity but also instilled in me a deep love for storytelling. Each page turned and each character encountered has fuelled my passion for creating narratives that resonate with others.

#digitalart #digitalartist #digitalartwork #digitalartists #digitalarts #digitalartworks #digitalartistry #digitalartistoninstagram #digitalartgallery #digitalartpainting #girlportrait #girlportraits #girlportraitdrawing #girlportraiture #girlportraitart #girlportraitpainting #girlportraits_shot #girlportraits_ig #girlportraitillustration #girlportraitsstyle

[santandreas]

Epiphany

https://christ-our-hope-community.net/2023/01/

It appears that the feast of the Epiphany, which was held in the East and in certain Western Churches before it was observed in Rome, was originally a celebration of the nativity. For those churches where it was observed, January 6 was the equivalent of Christmas (December 25) in the Roman Church. The feast was first celebrated in Rome in the second part of the sixth century, and it later evolved into the festival’s complement and, in a sense, its crown. Epiphany translates to manifestation. The manifestation of our Lord to the entire world is what the Church commemorates now; after being revealed to the Bethlehem shepherds, He is revealed to the Magi who have journeyed from the East to adore Him. The Magi represent the first fruits of the Gentiles, according to Christian legend. All the Earth’s Peoples follow in their trail and the Epiphany, therefore, confirms the salvation of all peoples. St. Leo makes this point brilliantly in a sermon read at Matins, where he illustrates how the Magi’s devotion marks the birth of the Christian faith at a time when the vast majority of the pagan population is travelling to follow the star that calls it to seek its Saviour. That is also the explanation behind the great prophecy from Isaias that is read during the first nocturn at Matins and the Epistle of the Mass according to the liturgy. The Church returns to the idea of universal redemption when she sings the antiphon to the Magnificat at 2nd Vespers, interpreting the words to describe her own union with Christ as symbolised by the wedding feast at Cana and her children’s baptism as foreshadowed by Christ’s baptism in the Jordan. Epiphany was once an alternative day for formal baptisms. Again, from another source – The solemnity of the Epiphany is observed on January 6 or, if the episcopal conference so decides, on a Sunday between January 2 and January 8., The child Messiah is made known as the world’s light. The adoration of the Christ Child by the Magi, the Baptism of Christ, and the wedding feast at Cana are three mysteries that are included in this solemnity, as the antiphon for the Magnificat at Second Vespers reminds us. Extra candles and/or lamps may be placed around the sanctuary and in other parts of the church to honour Christ revealed as the Light of the Gentiles (Ceremonial of Bishops) It is usual to substitute the three Magi and their gifts for the shepherds’ representations at the crib. —Msgr. Peter J. Elliott, author of Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year, Ignatius Press.] Scripture Commentary ‌ Matthew 2:1–12 is the source of the feast’s gospel. The main characters of today’s Epiphany celebration are the Magi. They were pagan people who had no knowledge of the Jewish people’s true God. But that real God made known to them that the Jewish King he had prophesied had indeed come. A prince was born as foretold. When they arrived in Jerusalem, the capital of Judah they expected, of course, to find the city and the entire country in jubilation. Instead, they found suspicion and hatred in the reigning king—a hatred which shortly turned to murder The religious leaders were knowledgeable about their past history but completely uninterested in the present and the future. These officials must have understood that the Magi were adamant about the truth revealed to them since they would not have travelled so far on a “fool’s errand.” They also knew that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Despite this, they never considered accompanying the Magi to Bethlehem. These were the same officials that, despite his miracles, refused to accept his claim that he was not only the promised Messiah but also the real Son of God. These were men who rejected him because he had mercy on sinners and spoke of a future life. What they wanted from their Messiah was political power and earthly freedom and prosperity. Like Herod, they ended with murder—the crucifixion of the “King of the Jews.” The mediocre leaders of God’s Chosen People were not much worse than the pagan king. Let us choose to make the Magi our models, to follow them to Bethlehem and offer Christ all that we have and are. —Adapted from The Sunday Readings by Fr. Kevin O’Sullivan, O.F.M. Paraphrased www.catholicculture.org. (n.d.). The Epiphany of the Lord – January 08, 2023 – Liturgical Calendar. [online] Available at: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2023-01-08 [Accessed 4 Jan. 2023]. Image from Wikipedia public (1902). Journey of the Magi. [JEPG] Available at: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7b/Journey_of_the_Magi.jpg [Accessed 4 Jan. 2023].

#liturgyepiphanymagi8th January 2023

[petnews2day]

"Sam And Oscar (And Edgar, The Cat)": 5 New Heartfelt Stories Depicting Life With A Dog And A Cat By Ademar Vieira

New Post has been published on https://petnews2day.com/pet-news/cat-news/sam-and-oscar-and-edgar-the-cat-5-new-heartfelt-stories-depicting-life-with-a-dog-and-a-cat-by-ademar-vieira/

"Sam And Oscar (And Edgar, The Cat)": 5 New Heartfelt Stories Depicting Life With A Dog And A Cat By Ademar Vieira

Ademar Vieira is a Brazilian illustrator, journalist and screenwriter who has mastered the art of visual storytelling.  A few years ago, Bored Panda shared some of Ademar’s stories “The choice“, “The cat“, “Match”, “This Place is Mine” and “Dog Home Office” which went viral in several countries. These illustrations depict the main character Sam’s life with a cat named Edgar and a dog named Oscar.

Since that time, the artist has created a whole story about Sam, who found joy in adopting a puppy, and released a dialogue-less comic book Sam and Oscar (and Edgar, the Cat). That’s how Ademar presents his book: “The comics show the ups and downs of this relationship of love and companionship, between a human and his pets – but not only that! You also follow the life of Sam while he starts his adult life and how he learns with his experiences.”

In this article, we want to share 5 heartfelt stories from the new book. If you’re interested in Ademar’s work, we suggest you check out our other articles that touch on different topics than pets by clicking here, here and here.

More info: Instagram | Facebook | twitter.com

“Sam denied Oscar when he was very little and almost lost his best friend”

We got in touch with Ademar to ask him more about his creative process and the new book. The artist shared that he has been creating his own comics since he was a child because he read them a lot. However, he ended up graduating in journalism and was working in that area for 13 years. In 2015, Ademar had the opportunity to migrate to audiovisual art as a screenwriter and has been working with it since then. It was only in 2020 that he started making strips for Instagram. “At first, it was to illustrate what I was feeling, as I was going through a difficult phase in my life, but later, with people’s feedback, I saw that I had discovered a fantastic way to communicate with people.”

The first story that Ademar ever created was “The Void”. It is part of the book Speechless, which you can buy on Amazon. It is about a guy that lives a normal routine and tries to fill that void by distracting himself with streams. “That’s how I was feeling at the time.”

“Oscar, when he was a little boy, took time to learn where the toilet is, leaving inexperienced tutor Sam in deep trouble”

To this day, it is difficult for Ademar to assimilate that he and his work are known to a lot of people around the world. “There are many international sites talking about my strips, in several different languages, ​​and for me, it’s surreal. I think I found a universal way to communicate, not only through graphic narrative but also through messages that resonate around the world. It’s good to know that I’m not alone in my opinions and views.”

“Oscar loves to go for a walk a lot. Every time Sam gets closer to the leash, the expectation and enthusiasm are high”

“The characters of the comic strips ‘Sam and Oscar (and Edgar the cat)’ came up with the strip ‘The Choice’. Its success encouraged me to do more and more until the universe of Sam and Oscar took shape and became this graphic novel that I’m releasing now. These pets are totally influenced by my animals. Oscar has personality traits from my three dogs: Boy, Zelda and Nina and Edgar is totally inspired by my cat Cat-Beast.”

“Sometimes, when Sam goes to the hallway, he comes back with a leash, which means lots of joy for Oscar. But at times he comes back with soap and shampoo which isn’t very interesting”

We asked Ademar about his source of inspiration. The artist shared that it is difficult to fit complex ideas into this format of his. “I need the story to work without lines and within the limited space of Instagram, so many are left out. I can’t talk about everything I’d like to, but yes, ideas usually don’t come all the time. I have to force myself to create them and use a lot of paper to doodle them.”

“Sometimes it’s not easy being Oscar. Even more with a ‘brother’ like Edgar and a tutor just as distracted as Sam”

Ademar also creates influential stories talking about issues our society faces. So, we asked him whether he is optimistic about our future. Here’s what he replied: “In my country, Brazil, they say that hope is the last to die, but in fact, I think it never dies. It keeps us sane. In Brazil, we live with social inequality and violence and we thought this was the worst thing that existed, but now there is war in Europe and many people are coming to South America. It’s sad to see that humanity always makes the same mistakes, but we need to have faith, because, without it, there is no future.”

#Cats News

[leportraitducadavre]

I honestly think the Hashirama speech to Madara “ I will even kill my own child for Village”, was Hashirama showing his true colors. That right there was his facade dropping and showing what he really was.

I apologize to those who sent these asks -I know you were expecting individual responses that tackle more thoroughly the characters I was asked about, but I decided to reply to all three of them because I’ll like to expand in a concept -the idea of contradictory traits in a character, and the three of them (Hashirama, Hiruzen, and Minato) are perfect to illustrate my points.

Now, I’ve said this before: characters having opposite traits isn’t a synonym for bad writing -contradictory behaviors and dogmas don’t -always- equal improper characterization, that’s not where the problem with them three rely on.

Readers are accustomed to linking particular behaviors/ways of being with ideals and positions in the narrative -for instance, a more stoic or cold demeanor is mostly tied to a villain, whose goals are individualistically driven; while smiling and being overall more emotionally expressive are mostly related to innocent/honest people, who seek communal achievements. It’s difficult for many of them to dissociate personality stamps with their overall stance in the plot: they’re used to being spoon-fed by the narrative which characters they should ally with, and to which oppose, and characterizations are often used by writers to distinguish both more clearly.

Kishimoto, however, isn’t exactly known for using this rule as clearly as other authors -he’s comfortable exploring characterizations that aren’t common and that break the reader’s expectations when it comes to his characters:

Sakura wasn’t created to be universally liked as most female main characters are -she brings an active libido and highlights frustrations to most of her interactions.

Naruto isn’t particularly nice either, he often insults people just because -often downgrading their traumas/feelings in order to lift himself up and to be put in a superior position. Naruto expects a reward for his actions: Acknowledgement.

That specific goal isn’t as common for a shönen protagonist, who most of the time looks for something else (like saving the world -Deku, BHNA, or to become powerful -Luffy, One Piece) and they end up receiving acknowledgment as a side-effect of their performance when looking for their main objective. Naruto’s objective, however, isn’t to become the most powerful of ninjas, but to be acknowledged -and in order to do so, he has to be the strongest.

Furthermore, Kishimoto excels in his work because it’s clear that those clashes are on purpose. He questions the reliability of those particular common traits and their associations quite often in the manga.

For instance, Hinata is shy and seems kind -while Neji is mean and rude, yet we learn that Hinata is his owner -and, therefore, he’s her slave. The reader is forced to confront a quite disturbing truth: the way an individual presents themselves has little to do with their core beliefs and/or background.

Hinata and Neji are a common example (her fans are quick to disregard the fact that she still owned Neji before being disowned just because she appears to be “well-spirited” -but she never questioned their dynamic as superior/inferior, she only seemed affected by it because Neji was “mean” to her).

Still, they’re not the only dynamic nor characters tied to such oppositions:

Naruto and Sasuke’s dynamic follow a similar path -where Naruto is considered the nice one in their relationship despite him being the sole reason why there’s a conflict in the first place. He followed and harassed Sasuke in order to “save him” from supposed darkness which premises were already questionable, and the only times Sasuke behaves mean towards him are as a response to that specific treatment.

Ino and Sakura’s “friendship” (and I’m being kind when using that word) differ however, Kishimoto made it quite clear that Ino (meaning, the side-character) wasn’t the one being mean to Sakura -yet for some reason, the fandom erases the flaws quite literally presented on Sakura's character, choosing to believe that that specific relationship was undermined by the author.

[Sakura and Sasuke’s interactions are also a contradiction to the prototypical mindset -where the man is usually the one sexually attracted to their female counterpart and behaves abusively. Kishimoto, however, made it to be the complete opposite -with Sakura being the obsessive one. Had their roles been reversed Kishimoto would be applauded for exploring a dark dynamic (or hanged if they still ended up together), yet the fandom still puts Sasuke as the victimizer -for no other reason that his personality clashes with the quintessential belief of how a victim is and/or behaves].

Like I said before, Hashirama, Minato, and Hiruzen aren’t exceptions, they present contradictory traits as any well-layered character can.

Hashirama out of all of them is quite remarkable as well because he truly is a dork -but he’s also the most powerful individual during his Era, and probably after as well; furthermore, even as an Ashura reincarnation Hashirama is different since (unlike Naruto or Ashura himself) he wasn’t given any help, he was born with the strength to fight against his Indra -Madara-.

Hiruzen is specifically well-written at that because while he is introduced as a kind old man, his "well-spirited nature" is constantly being questioned -not even by other characters, not many go out of their way to call him evil, yet we don’t need them to in order to notice his overall "nice" demeanor and how it stands in opposition to his actions as a politician.

His speech in the chünin exams is the peak of his presentation as a two-faced individual: Hiruzen isn’t stupid, he knows that he’s performing a part, that’s why he explains the true reason of the exams only to those who achieve the preliminary rounds -therefore, those who have the “material” to climb in the ranks of the military.

During the first part of the manga, characters and plot alike often questioned the system they moved through, even Kakashi (whose contradictions are less about plot devices and more laziness on Kishimoto’s part), agrees that he dislikes the concept of ninja that he lives for -a notion that is endorsed by Hiruzen’s realm. The narrative doesn’t try to shy away from those contradictory traits, it quite literally highlights them because it thrives with those oppositions: Naruto could grow to slice the dragon’s head.

For instance, and in the same manner, Dabi and Shigaraki from BNHA present the narrative with a similar contradiction: They are -by all means- villains, they killed innocents and they pursue an individualistic goal -yet it was their intervention that threw light in the flaws of the hero system that currently exists. On how in order to maintain a specific power balance, crimes are forgiven or ignored and children are recruited from a very young age through propaganda (when deifying heroes, particularly All Might). The problem in this particular case (although the manga hasn’t ended therefore I don’t know how it will be resolved), is that often when the villains are the ones who introduce the problems of the structure the hero moves through, is usually to downplay the issues presented: A villain is evil -therefore the problems he points out about the “good” side can be dismissed, even if what they say is right.

But Kishimoto didn’t do that exactly, he presented what seemed like nice characters with problematic/abusive/downright evil behaviors -so they weren’t intrinsically good as most were expecting. It was a well-layered issue, because the good side isn’t full of good people, and the bad side isn’t integrated merely by villains.

So which side is the good one? Overall: Neither, because is the same one -and that’s the thing, there aren't good sides or bad sides, just perspectives of the same structure -most of them being the direct result of an action performed by the so-called “good side”: and that “lack” of dichotomy is what later on presented a problem when ending the manga -because, technically, there isn’t an ending to the issues they introduced, not without dismantling all of it -but in doing so, it will shatter Naruto’s main objective: What is the use of gaining recognition from a system that lacks a moral compass and that they have to strip off any sort of power? Naruto could never become Hokage.

So in order to save whatever remained, they introduced a quick dichotomy: Evil side (Uchiha- Curse of Hatred) vs. Good side (Senju/Konoha -Will of Fire) -yet the exploration of that division was poorly done because it contradicted everything previously introduced, Wave Arc was an incredible pilar to work on -Naruto’s opposition to be seen as a mere tool, only to, later on, become what he claimed he wouldn’t be (and him transforming people like his twelve-old self into weapons, also).

Minato was similar to Hiruzen in the sense that he was presented as a kind individual who overall defended an oppressive system that had him on top -in that sense, he’s more like a copy-paste of Hiruzen’s characterization -he introduced no new things, really.

I also don’t think that Hashirama stating that he will kill his own child for Konoha is him “showing his true colors” -because they were always visible (he even threatened Tobirama before Konoha's foundation).

He just claims that he will do what he expects of those who compose Konoha: to sacrifice everything dear for them in exchange for a symbol (“of peace”) -he fails in understanding that Konoha is able to become a symbol because of those individuals that compose it, not the other way around. He, like Ashura, wants to both create and be at the head of the system he envisioned -other perspectives/leaders, aren’t allowed.

The problem isn’t characters with contradictory traits -who claim to defend something and then defend everything but. It’s how the narrative allowed those contradictions, seemingly giving not only its characters but also the readers agency to choose who to support, only to take them away -apparently thinking that, no, better spoon-fed the reader what to believe.

#anti naruto #anti naruto uzumaki #anti naruto ending #anti shinobi system #anti konoha #anti naruto fandom #anti tobirama #anti hashirama #anti hiruzen #anti hiruzen sarutobi #anti sakura #anti sakura haruno #anti sakura fandom #anti minato #anti minato namikaze #meta #anti hinata #anti hinata hyuga #anti hinata fandom