#there is a lot more detail to their backstory but it's a tiny little bit late (4:30am) so I should sleep goodnight mwah | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mauesartetc · 5 months

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A while back I got a comment that demonstrated a misconception as to what the character design process actually entails, and I thought it had real "teachable moment" potential. So let me make this perfectly clear:

Drawing a character is NOT the same as designing one.

Let's say I wanted to draw a guy. No backstory, no defined personality traits or preferences, no details about his current life, just doodling some random, generic guy who popped into my head.

That's just a drawing.

But what if I decided to flesh him out more? What if I wanted his appearance to reflect his lifestyle and inner life as well? Here's where the note-taking comes in.

And now for the visual research:

I thought the bodybuilding angle would provide a fun contrast with this guy's profession. The mental image of a huge, burly dude working on a clock or watch with tiny, precise movements just makes me smile. Perhaps I could give him small, nimble hands that would suit his line of work.

Now that I have a better idea of how Mikhail's face and body will look, it's time to establish a pose.

Of course, I never expected to employ all the personality traits I started out with inside this single pose; those were just a jumping-off point. No one drawing will ever be able to encapsulate every single facet of a character, unless they're extraordinarily flat and generic (see also: random guy I doodled at the start of this post). If I wanted to write a story with this guy, I'd have to figure out how all the traits play off each other and how they'd cause him to react to different situations. There would be a lot more note-taking and development involved, but for the sake of keeping this post (somewhat) brief, let's just focus on visuals for now.

On to color!

I decided to give Mikhail a carnation in his pocket (for its round shape), specifically a red one, which represents deep love and an aching heart. Thus, the flower needed to maintain its red color for the symbolism to come through.

For some reason I initially pictured this guy wearing a pink shirt (perhaps as an offshoot of the "romantic" angle), but I wanted to try some different colors inspired by the 70s catalog pages I found. I ended up really liking the contrast of the cool blue shirt with the warm red pants, and that option made it into my top three as a result. I lined them up next to each other to compare them, and in the end, blue won out over pink. I think it also reflects the "colder", more cerebral, less-emotional parts of his personality well (namely "systematic", "stern", and "callous"- one from each column!). Just goes to show that you shouldn't get too attached to your first draft, as better ideas are just around the corner.

I then lightened the blue of the shirt so it wouldn't compete so much with the rest of the outfit, and wouldn't be quite as loud and "in your face". Mikhail strikes me as a bit of an introvert, so the calmer, quieter blue is a better fit. I added a darker belt and watchband and de-saturated the flower just a bit to make the values feel more balanced, and I think we've got it!

Let's see the final result!

Y'all, I was not expecting this process to make me emotional, but there's something special about fully realizing a little guy you've spent hours working on. All of a sudden you look at him and go, "Oh my god, there he is. That's him." This man wasn't even a twinkle in my eye a couple weeks ago and now I'd protect him with my life.

And the thing is, the only reason I'm calling this design "done" for now is that I basically just brought it into existence to make a point. But if this dude were attached to a larger story, he'd be nowhere near finished. I'd have to make a ton more iterations and go a lot more in depth with my research than I did (especially with the Armenian cultural stuff). Overall, though, I hope this quick project properly highlighted the difference between a single drawing and a more fleshed-out character.

Later!

#character design #art tips #art advice #art help #concept art #long post

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sunshine-zenith · 8 months

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Actually yeah I’m jumping back on my bullshit and doing another ramble about small details in Nimona

Specifically the fact that, in the movie, little Ballister already has his eye scar

In the comic, he gets the scar at the same time he loses the arm, but how he loses it in the book and the movie are different — in the comic he’s basically hit by a tiny missile, so it makes sense he would take a lot more damage overall, while in the movie it’s lost in a sword chop, so unless Ambrosius’s impulsive “disarming” also involves additional face stabbing, it wouldn’t make sense in the movie canon for him to give Bal the face scar here. But Ballister bleeds a bit from the head after the Gloradome collapses, and while him walking away with just one face scar instead of several might seem like a stretch, they could’ve played it off. They already had to make a new character model for him with the prosthetic arm, they could’ve also added the face scar to the second model

Instead, they “backdated” the scar all the way to his childhood without giving a backstory for it, and it implies so much about how his life was before he joined the knights

This concept art by Crystal Kung sure doesn’t show a happy and well cared for kid. We know he was homeless/impoverished (the visible patches on clothes, the “street kid/charity case” comments, zero signs of parents when his “commoner” bloodline is emphasized). He could’ve gotten the scar running from someone in the streets, or by getting into a fight since he was a pretty impulsive/bold (see what I did there) kid — jumping a fence and interrupting a knight training session. I can’t help but wonder though…

It’s implied that he’s an orphan, given the fact that all of zero parents are brought up when discussing his “commoner blood,” but it’s never outright stated. ND Stevenson stated that in the comic Ballister’s father gave up custody of his son to pay off his debts, and while the knights are no longer exploited orphans/the Queen doesn’t seem like the type of person to ask for that kind of transaction, it does make me wonder what movie Ballister’s parents were like

Look at those blotches on his face. Sure, they might just be dirt, since it doesn’t look like they bothered to give this poor kid a bath before throwing a media circus in his honor, but compare them to how bruising shows up on his adult self’s face. And if they are bruises, it’s possible that a couple of them are from the whole Tackled By Like Three Fully Grown Adults In Armor thing, but If you look closely, it looks like he already has a blotch before he’s tackled

Granted, his body language doesn’t really change when he sees the knights coming towards him (no flinches or attempts to cover his head, and while he doesn’t move it doesn’t look like he’s freezing) so him being abused might be a stretch, But think about how he holds Ambrosius back from confronting Todd, how he just quietly accepts the verbal harassment and rough treatment. He doesn’t think confronting Todd is worth it — Todd’s bullying was clearly never shut down or addressed over the years, and it’s likely that any attempts at retaliation from Ambrosius or Ballister got them in trouble instead. Bal is just… used to it

Listen. This vulnerable kid was hurt physically by something before he joined the knights. Maybe he had abusive parents, maybe he had an abusive foster family, maybe he was attacked by someone who caught him trying to steal food or something to survive, maybe he was attacked just for being homeless, maybe this wasn’t his first tango with knights. We have no clue. But he got that scar at a very young age and he got it from somewhere

#child abuse cw #ballister boldheart #queen valerin #nimona #nimona movie #cy meta #long post #broke 100

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completeoveranalysis · 4 months

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[2]

NEW FAVOURITE COVER?

NEW FAVOURITE COVER!

Chapitre 201 - The Truth from within the Ruins

Oh this is just beyond gorgeous. Who can stand against the pure concentrated adorable that is Tsubasa Babies Family Photo? Now with all four of them!

I’m in love with all the tiny details that they clearly spent so long on - all the lovely folds of Sakura’s dress, the intricate detailing on Fai’s robe and staff. Lava Lamp is in his ceremonial garb, and tiny Kurogane IN HIS FANCY LITTLE OUTFIT. (AND HIS POSTURE? GET OUT. Incredible)

Kurogane doesn’t have Ginryuu yet (since this is Happy Childhood AU, so his father will still have it. Still has the moon though!) but Lava Lamp has the Syaoran Family Sword all ready to go. His outfit would be incomplete without it - they’re all wearing clothing from their home worlds, or maybe their families? I’m technically not sure which world Lava Lamp comes from, but his outfit is Family Legacy all the way down. I’m dying to know if Fai’s outfit is in the style of Seresu or Valeria - I don’t think they’re all that different, but I think I would put my money on Valeria based on the position of the fur and the curl motif. In which case it’s fun for me that his Happy Family AU is in Valeria instead of with Ashura. (sorry not sorry Ashura get fucked)

I suppose in this version he never had reason to leave Valeria in the first place, so it’s a very nice touch that the outfit doesn’t immediately resemble the clothing he wore in his backstory, since that’s all so closely linked to the death of his twin, who would be alive here. Very nice visual choices all around, especially with each of them in their own unique colour pallette. Oh, and even with the colour differences they all have bits of yellow somewhere on them, showing their connection.

The left/right split between them is really fun too - sword wielders on one side, phenomenally powerful magic users on the other, cats vs dogs, unique child/parent pairings, etc. It’s very funny to me that they found a super fancy chair for Sakura and a cushion for Kurogane, but nothing for the other two. But Fai draping himself over the chair is such an incredible piece of character flair, which I am in love with, but also, the TOUCH? The little touch of tiny hands? Sakura reaching back to put her hand on the back of Fai’s? Tiny Lava Lamp’s little grip on Kurogane’s arm? OH it’s so touching.

And behind them all? THAT WINDOW. Such a clear symbol positioned directly in the centre frame. At first I thought it might be an eye, but this is Happy Family AU so there should be no Evil Wolverine to spy on them. What I’m voting on instead is CLAMP playing with Tarot symbols again and this being the Wheel of Fortune, or a similar idea of a wheel of destiny. They use the latter idea a lot in their earlier works (RG Veda and X/1999 say hi), but I think the tarot symbol in particular really shines through with the ideas they’re playing with in Tsubasa/xxxHolic, and has a very strong parallel to the idea of hitsuzen.

After some much safer googling it looks like the “Wheel of Fortune” in Tarot can mean change or cycles or inevitable fate, but on the flipside could also be lacking control. I think the reversed meaning of the card really speaks to me the most about their situation in general, as it describes bad luck and misfortunes thrust upon you from external forces, that you are fighting to take control back from an unwinnable situation. That fighting it is impossible, that continuing to fight it can only bring more suffering, and that the only option is to let it go. To stop blaming yourself for the thing you did wrong, or the thing that you think was your fault. To forgive yourself, to accept it all, to let yourself move on, to accept that change is inevitable, and to finally be able to move forward and just let everything happen.

Because if that’s not exactly the whole situation we are in I don’t know what is. It’s a mirror for the things that Fai and Kurogane have already been through, and for what Lava Lamp Guy is still currently fighting, and CLAMP love to do drop these symbols all the time.

And this is a bit of a tangent but who’s gonna stop me? Clamp LOVE their tragic destiny pairs, especially in their early works - the couples deeply love but also cursed by fate, like Kendappa and Souma, Ashura and Yasha (flavoured differently in RG Veda, but still fitting this cycle again in Tsubasa), Subaru and Seishirou, Sorata and Arashi (unfinished), Kamui and Fuuma, etc. The characters who are so different from each other, so diametrically opposed, but in love still, and it burns so strong that they either have to kill each other or let the world burn around them - or both! They’re always fighting destiny, just like the reversed wheel of fortune, and they fight it to the point of obliteration.

AND THEN we have Tsubasa, and I think it’s so endlessly interesting that they took the same pattern and turned it around. Syaoran and Sakura definitely fit the theme (and wild that they took the Cardcaptor Sakura happy couple deliberately to make the most universe shattering tragedy out of it, but I still haven’t seen how their story ends, whether one will have to tragically die to save everything or whether they’ll get out somehow). But what I mostly want to talk about (surprise surprise) Kurogane and Fai, who fit the pattern exactly. Complete opposites, diametrically opposed, set up as antagonists and destined to kill each other but fall in love instead. That they both fight against the tragic pasts that defined them and eventually change their mind. Eventually, slowly, they accept love again and realise that they can actually live with themselves and each other if they let it all go.

And I think what really gets me is that if this was an earlier Clamp work they absolutely would have tragically died - they would have killed each other in the climax of Seresu and it would have been beautiful and terrible and no-one ever would have ever emotionally recovered from the complete and utter devastation.

BUT THEY DIDN’T.

CLAMP spend all of Tsubasa revisiting all their old works, taking us through a parade of the various tragedies they’ve sung across the years, all leading up to them ultimately breaking their own pattern and letting Fai and Kurogane save each other from the same Clamp fate that claimed every tragic pair before them. They choose each other and get out alive. They stop blaming themselves for the unchangeable parts of destiny and finally forgive themselves. And it’s just very emotional to me that it’s these two that make it, these two that get to recover and choose each other and live their lives inseparable from this point on. The two that had arguably the most tragic backstories also get to face their trauma, survive, and live.

And it’s just so beautiful to see how the CLAMP storytelling method has changed over the years, and to find out that after all these years, the big destiny story they really wanted to tell in their longest and most detailed work was about the two men who fell in love, against all odds and saved each other. Despite absolutely everything saying that it should be impossible, it’s Kurogane and Fai that finally flip the tarot card back around and live.

And I’m extremely interested in what this means for Lava Lamp and Not!Sakura.

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nitpickrider · 6 months

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a bit silly, but if you had to fill an Avengers roster, who would you pick?

Wooof, oh me oh my. Let's lay down some ground rules before I do this. 1). Only people who have been Avengers at some previous point in time. Doesn't narrow it down a LOT but this list would be a jigsaw of my favorite Z-Listers otherwise 2). Limiting it to seven people. That's the magic number with superhero teams and it gives me a reason to stop

Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America: Sometimes you just cannot beat a classic and when it comes to Avengers line ups there is no one that I think is more integral than Captain America. The pathos that he brings to the table no matter what character he is interacting with is palpable and reading through his first big volume has given me a deep respect and love for the character. He's our leader for sure, the axis of solid, steady service I can hang my weirder picks on.

Dr. Walter Newell AKA Stingray: You all saw this coming and don't act like you didn't. One of my favorite if not my FAVORITE Marvel Characters of all time. He's a doctor with an interesting specialization. His "I'm only a part time superhero" hangup is even funnier and more interesting if forced into the limelight on THE hero team. Not to mention he comes with his own swanky Hydrobase we can use for an HQ and with his wife and four kids running around underfoot we have the kind of domestic adorability I think any good team needs.

Miguel Santos AKA Living Lightning: The first time I can ever remember reading about a comic book hero being gay, as just like, part of who they are. A tiny detail in their rich inner life. Not to mention the less respect a character gets the more I want to lift them up on my shoulders. He could be the sweetheart with a little chip on his shoulder from not getting the respect his objectively awesome powers objectively deserve.

Angelica Jones AKA Firestar: Something you may not know about me. The first piece of media that really opened my eyes as to the potential and depth and scope of the Marvel Universe was Spiderman and His Amazing Friends. It was cheesy, it was cheap and yet Angelica was the first character that I felt SPECIAL for knowing and caring about. She's happy, she's passionate, her simple classic costume kicks ass and the New Warriors need their goddamn respect. 'Nuff said.

Sersi, Just Sersi: What little I have seen of this character fucking FASCINATES me. This woman is chaos incarnate. It's like she is actively making on the fly decisions with everyone she meets whether she's going to kill them, screw them, turn them into a small mammal or some combination of the three. She's *Instant Plot Complication Just Add Water* because she saw a butterfly and that somehow translates to her blowing the entire team's cover.

Dane Whitman AKA The Black Knight: I love everything about him. I love his vibe, I love the fact that his backstory is built partially around recontextualizing the lore of a mostly forgotten Atlas fantasy comic. I love that he has a wickedly evil cursed blade that comes with the side effect of basically holding him hostage to a heroic moral code. And on top of that he's a dorky intellectual who can't see a social cue if it's blaring at him from oncoming traffic.

Jennifer Walters AKA She-Hulk: ...I do not feel the need to explain or justify this choice. YOU know Jen is awesome. *I* know Jen is awesome. She-Hulk does not need justification. She shows up in stories and makes them better by existing. Also yes this is the bodytype I'd use. Yes, I have an addiction. No, I don't feel the need to explain that either. RESERVISTS: Characters I really like but either don't know enough about or don't think they make good Avengers

Marc Spector and System AKA Moon Knight: One of my favorite dudes but does NOT play well with others. Was interesting for about 10 seconds as a member of the West Coast team but I'd prefer he never touch the ranks again.

Flint Marko AKA Sandman: Marvel did Sandman fucking dirty by never letting him fully reform and be the good guy. I want Sandman to be the good guy dammit

Maria de Guadalupe Santiago AKA Silverclaw: I know literally nothing about her outside of reference books but her powers are dope and I dig her vibe.

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vxnillsstuff · 7 months

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To follow up on my last ask. Yes! I would love to have some general dating headcanons with Prismo and if possible a gender-neutral reader. I'm just scraping by the content provided for Prismo. He deserves the world.

Dating Prismo headcanons! - Prismo (Fiona and Cake) x GN!Reader

——��——

BACKSTORY (in order)

I like to think you two met through like something silly. You finally got to tell him your wish after a long journey, but in the end, you really didn’t know what you wanted. You just wanted a purpose.

He was a bit overwhelmed at first because he had never seen anyone like… not know what they want other than that one time someone couldn’t focus because of him ignoring his responsibilities, causing the loud beeping on his remote but that’s a story for another time ^_−☆.

He just sat there and shared a drink with you, talking about how wishes are hard and stuff.

After some time, you found yourself slowly warming up to Prismo. He wasn’t as scary as all the myths you had heard said.

Over the months, you would come visit him, even though the journey was pretty rough. You pushed though, want to see your new… friend.

You would always jokingly scold him for drinking too much or if his beard was getting long.

He would always blow off your worries but by the next time you would come visit him, you could see that he had freshened up his small scruff and his box-ish-home would have looked a little bit cleaner.

One day, you had caught him in his small box-ish-home, looking sad.

He had explained that he had wished for something silly for himself and that it didn’t work. He knew it wouldn’t work.

You asked him what it was and he said that he wished he could have you.

You were slightly stunned by his “wish” but, you two sat and talked about it for a bit.

You found that he had feelings for you and you had felt some of those same feelings.

You two spent a few more months getting to know each other and you had started visiting him more often.

Eventually, you two started dating and it was super cute! He was all nervous, explaining that he hasn’t dated anyone in a while.

WHAT ITS LIKE DATING HIM (no specific order)

He always did small things for you. For example, if he was out doing something while you visited, he would put out tiny things of food or flowers for you. You would never mention these small gestures but you really did like them.

He would always wrap his “arms” around you and talk about how different things would be if he wasn’t the wish-maker.

You would explain that you liked him no matter what form or job he had and he would thank you for that.

LOTS of teasing. He thought you were just so cute and had to point out every gesture and action that you did.

He also needed a LOT of reassurance when you guys first started dating because he didn’t want to get hurt or anything. You would reassure him and tell him how much you cared and yada yada.

It took him a while to open up about his actual job and how much stress it brings him at times and you helped him through those feelings and stuff.

He would talk about how he hated seeing you leave and how he wished you could just stay there forever.

It hurt you to explain how you couldn’t and how you had a life back down on Ooo that you couldn’t just disappear from your life.

He would always talk about his favorite universes and he would spill ever little detail about them, like a teenage girl. ✨Gossip✨.

You two rarely fight but every now and then you would get in tense disagreements about your conflicting lives. In the end, he would apologize and you guys would make up.

Note: if this does good I’ll probably make a part 2 later! Sorry if these seem sloppy, I’m typing on my phone since I’m on a roadtrip. ε-(´∀｀; )

#prismo #fiona and cake #adventure time #x reader #fanfics #fanfic #headcanons #prismo fionna and cake #fionna and cake

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begginmonty · 2 years

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best friends nick miller, winston schmidt and winston bishop

idk if this fandom is alive anymore but i love these boys and i want to live with them so here's some really detailed headcanons - sorry its long lol. (nsfw mentions, mental health issues & fem!reader, lowercase intended btw) i also made a playlist here

brief backstory - you move into the loft after jess offers you her old room as she's moving in with cece, you’ve known jess for a while as she comes into the coffee shop you work at everyday and has done for the past like three years. you take up the offer and that’s where the best part of your life starts.

let me emphasise that these boys love you so much and as much as they like jess, they like you a tiny bit more but will never say it.

these boys will defend and protect you till the day you die and they would do the same beyond death too - anyone bad mouths you and these boys are like who said it whos ass are we fighting (although none of them would actually beat anybody up, we all know what they’re like)

nick always asks if you’ve eaten or taken your meds and when you say no this man glares at you until you move from your spot and go do so whilst you stare at him with a little scared

had a long day and just wanna lie down face first on the sofa? you can literally lay on top of these men and they're not bothered in the slightest

if your head is on either winston or schmidt’s lap (and your hair is long enough) these boys will braid your hair subconsciously and sometimes schmidt does a really good job (not surprised tho)

(ignore if you don't smoke) you and nick have a guilty pleasure like every few nights going to the roof, dead in the night and sitting in lawn chairs sharing a cigarette together. it’s a bad habit but it’s something you two enjoy together.

going to parties and bars altogether and whilst everyone is making out with people or going home to sleep with people, you and winston are singing your hearts out, like you guys are brilliant at karaoke and you whip out all the old songs, any song.

and then one of the rare times winston is actually making out with someone, you’re normally sitting at a table like : (

listen we all make mistakes right well, just if you’re heartbroken don't be sitting alone with schmidt because somehow you will kiss him and sleep with him and yeah. that happens one night.

and you wake up the next morning and schmidt is actually kinda cute cuddled up next to you and it does feel nice to be cuddled so you just kinda go back to sleep for a bit.

and i'm going to say this now, you do kiss all the guys at some point and/or sleep with them too.

one of them needs a fake girlfriend? you’re down.

there’s one time you are Winston's fake girlfriend for when his family visits and at the end of the day you’re like, “that was fun, any girl would be lucky to have you as their boyfriend” and you give him one big kiss before going off to bed and he’s stood there dumbfounded.

you know in that episode where they all admit they’ve thought about jess whilst getting off once? yeah well it’s the same for you. if not a little more. there’s no point denying it.

dont u deny that you haven't thought of them too.

there’s a period where you��re very much suffering with your funky brain and you’re laying in bed a lot or laying on the floor of your bedroom staring at your ceiling with so many yet no thoughts.

and bless these boys my god, especially nick as he knows what it’s like. they’ll each come sit with you and talk about anything to distract you or just sit with you to keep you company.

nick finds you sitting on the floor, back against your bed, head in your arms with your knees pulled up, sniffling away and he doesn’t say anything but sits next to you and wraps an arm around your shoulders. he pulls you close and just kinda crumble in his chest and this man does not judge you one tiny bit. he knows what it's like. so he doesn’t say anything but rubs your shoulders and gives you head kisses. you stay like that for a good hour.

later that night you finally emerge from your room and they’re all sitting on the sofa. it’s obvious you’ve been upset but no one says anything. you dont say anything as you make your way over and sit between winston and schmidt, and winston puts his arm around your shoulders, not in like an obvious comfort way but more in a platonic way?? (idk hopefully you understand)

for your birthday nick is broke and gives you a badly handmade card but dear god you get very emotional about it and he’s like, are you crying?? why?? what did i do i'm so sorry omg??

need someone to come to the doctors or the dentist with you and hold your hand? nick will. but don't squeeze his hand that hard cause he will scream.

these guys support whatever you do. wanna game all night long? they dont care if you’re screaming at a 12 year old for killing you. play any instruments or sing? give them a concert (if you’re comfy). love art? they’ll commission you art (if you give them a friends and family discount). they’re very supportive, okay <3

give them hugs. they might not act like they want hugs but from what i know about boys, they always want a big squeezy hug. so please give them hugs.

thing about schmidt tho is that if he finds you crying he’s not the best at dealing with it, “y/n have you seen- oh, oh no. NICK?? WINSTON?? HELP”

you guys of course fight and have silly arguments but sometimes they dont really have a filter and will say something unintentionally mean to you and then when they see your face fall they’re like oh god oh no i didnt mean i swear

you always forgive them though, it’s hard to stay mad at them <3

they love you as much as you love them <3

sorry it’s really long and detailed but there’s more if you want it and if you guys wanna send in headcanon requests im totally down to write them! < 3

#nick miller x reader #winston schmidt x reader #winston bishop x reader #new girl imagine #new girl imagines #new girl #nick miller #winston schmidt #winston bishop

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enhashoutout · 4 months

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Cobra and Fujio are basically the same person

A rant post on why I personally think these two characters are basically the same person in different bodies

Random background on me as a person: I’ve always been a strong believer that the media we consume can affect/leave an impact on us and how we act, go about life, perceive the world, etc. I’ve done this my whole life, on top of being a fangirl I OVERTHINK about the plot, the characters, the ships, everything. Adding to that, when I hyper fixate on a piece of media I get so invested I pay attention to all the tiny details and micro-analyze characters and their backstories and tie it back to how they act in the story.

Last semester I got to do this in class because I enrolled in a storytelling course and basically the whole time my professor gave us stories to read or movies to watch and then we had to relate it back to real life and analyze the characters behaviors, how they interacted with others, the story themes, etc. Hopefully my professor is proud I continue to use what I learned in their class to apply to my hyper fixation on other fictional characters outside of the course😂

If you look at Cobra and Fujio’s characters on the surface, they might not seem similar. Fujio has a very golden retriever like energy to himself. He’s very extroverted, loud, friendly, bright, and overall very playful and doesn’t take anything too seriously unless the situation calls for it. In contrast, Cobra is more somber and serious. Cobra is more quiet, reserved, very serious, and had a relatively calm demeanor. Well, S.W.O.R.D. Era Cobra is super serious, whereas Mugen Era Cobra isn’t.

Personality wise, Mugen Era Cobra and Fujio are the same. They’re a little bit closer in age, and Cobra is definitely more upbeat during this time period. Maybe even a little less mature in a sense.

Obviously when we meet Cobra we see that he’s gone through a lot to become the person we know him as. Noboru got arrested and couldn’t continue school, Tatsuya was killed, Kohaku disappeared. Eventually Cobra has to take charge and be Sannoh’s leader, deal with Kuryu’s stinky asses, hits a rough patch with some Sannoh members leaving, losing Smoky, you get the point. All this loss and grief causes him to lose his playful demeanor and it’s understandable. Honestly if H&L The Worst X was as serious as any of the first three movies where characters died and Tsukasa died instead of only ending up in the hospital after Amagai dropped his ass from the gym balcony, that shit would’ve sent Fujio into his depresso espresso era also 100%

But yeah, it might not seem like Fujio and Cobra are alike at first until you dive in a little deeper. Let’s start with something small first.

1) Cobra and Fujio’s styling

Something small I noticed was that both characters are styled with a black bandanna in their right pocket. We see this when Cobra interrupts Ranmaru and Rocky’s fight in the second movie and hands Rocky the bandanna after telling him he looked a mess😂 This might also just be Cobra’s way of remembering or holding onto his memories of Mugen because I’m pretty sure all the Mugen members had bandannas on their person but once we enter S.W.O.R.D. Era no one else not even Yamato have a bandanna on them anymore so I think my point stands.

Fujio is the only character I see during The Worst era who has a bandanna tucked into the right pocket of his pants.

2) Both are leaders/have leader mentality

This one is kind of obvious also but let me explain.

Cobra goes on to establish Sannoh and is the leader as well. I admire the way Cobra leads his members. He’s very understanding even if the opinions are different. We see this showcased with Noboru during Road to High&Low when Cobra acknowledges that he knows Noboru is trying to act in the best interest of his friends he’s just going about it in the wrong way. We also see this when Dan, Tettsu, Chiharu, and a few other members walk out of the fight with Doubt. Cobra acknowledges that friends sometimes are not on the same side and that it’s okay when that happens.

Fujio right off the bat has a goal in mind to unite all of Oya, this plays into his leadership style we see throughout both Worst movies. Fujio is a very charismatic person. Right as he enters Oya, he’s able to get many followers without asserting strength or dominance over all of Oya (something Todoroki has been trying to do but can’t achieve. Fight me if you want on this but I don’t think Todoroki would be a good leader lol. That’s a post for another time). We see this when Nakagoshi and Nakaoka agree to follow Fujio in the gym. Yes, Fujio fought with YasuKiyo faction but other than that he doesn’t get into another fight with the other factions. When Yasushi is hospitalized, Fujio at this point isn’t officially Oya’s leader yet but everyone looks to him to see what happens from here. With the mentality of bringing everyone together, Fujio makes it clear that what happened to Yasushi isn’t just a YasuKiyo problem but an Oya problem which prompts the Oya boys to work together to fight with Housen.

So how does this tie the two together?

Both characters have strong leadership skills. Granted they differ slightly but the overall style and tone they take on is that no one gets left behind and that even when the crisis doesn’t directly impact them in anyway, both characters are still willing to jump in to help others.

3) Both see the importance of friendship and the strength of a true alliance

I really do think that friendship kept Cobra going in life. Sometimes it felt like that man was one more crisis away from completely swirling into self destructive behavior but his friendships pulled him out of that. An example of this is how he holds onto Kohaku’s words and teachings to help in certain situations such as the one involving Noboru and Kohaku himself when they are begging him to leave Kuryu and come back to himself.

Fujio being a school aged character we’re obviously gonna see more of his friendships because at that age that’s one of the bigger focuses in life. We see how friendship kept him from being sad and lonely as a kid because his mother was working a lot that’s why he spent time with Seiji, Madoka, and all of them. As a teenager now, his friendship with them is still strong considering this boy literally jumps into a crack farm to pull Arata out of the shit he got himself into. During The Worst X this boy literally becomes friends with the strongest person canonically in the series and then spends the second half of the movie fighting to get his best friend back from being captured.

Both characters directly state the alliance part in their movies.

While Cobra fights Jesse, he tells him something along the lines of “you guys are just a bunch of strays, are you prepared as he is?” Referring to how he knows Rocky has been prepared for this fight from the get go. On top of that, Cobra was the S.W.O.R.D. Leader who suggested the alliance in the first place knowing that they would be stronger together against Kuryu. End of Sky doesn’t focus as much on Kuryu as it does Doubt but it leads into Kuryu so I think this is fitting. Cobra knows that the Prison Gang, Mighty, and Doubt working together would never actually work because they don’t have a bond to fight together they’re just getting a job done. Hyuga even points out that he can’t trust Ranmaru because he throws his men away like they’re trash.

I think this applies to the first movie as well. Cobra knows that Kuryu, Jansung, Mighty Warriors, and Kohaku would not work because it wasn’t a true alliance it was simply made to get a job done. This leads him to suggesting the alliance in the second film.

When H&L The Worst X comes around, we know that Fujio is seen as the leader of Oya and he values his friends a lot. He doesn’t usually refer to the Oya students as troops or comrades unless the situation warrants it, he refers to everyone as friends and also mentions how everyone became friends through fighting. On the rooftop when Todoroki asks if Fujio going against what he thinks is best means that Fujio no longer needs him, but Fujio is quick to tell him that’s not what is going on at all; rather that he has a solution and is willing to set his pride aside for his friends. He then proceeds to tell the remaining Oya guys that the other schools created an alliance but “let’s show them what a real alliance looks like”. This is because Fujio’s thoughts are the same as Cobra’s. Senomon, Kamasaka, and Ebara may have created an alliance but there is no friendship or bond in it, therefore this alliance wouldn’t work or last long. We even see this when Ebara drop out of the alliance. Had Shoji, Fujin, or Raijin been friends with any of the guys from the other schools they probably wouldn’t agree to the rules Todoroki set for their fight. But it’s the fact that they are friends and care for each other that Shoji agrees to Todoroki’s terms. Shoji knows that the other schools are shady so he’s gonna take the opportunity to get the people he actually cares about out of that alliance.

Fujio’s monologue at the end of his fight with Suzaki even highlights the importance of friendship. We see in the first Worst movie that Fujio wants to become the best and be at the top. In The Worst X cross after he reads Sachio’s letter, Jamuo catches him staring at the clouds and tells him he won’t be able to do much with his head in the clouds. To which Fujio proceeds to tell him “being born a man I always felt I needed to be the greatest, but maybe being at the top doesn’t make me a great man.” When Suzaki loses the fight and says that from now on Senomon would be tools for Oya to use, Fujio is quick to shut that mentality down; telling Suzaki that it’s just one fight he lost, and that it doesn’t mean anything. His monologue goes into how it doesn’t matter who’s at the top and who isn’t because look at all the friends around you who are willing to fight for and with you (granted Suzaki and Amagai have no real friends besides each other but I digress pop off inspirational Fujio).

You’ve made it to the end! I know this is just a long rant post and the thoughts aren’t super organized and might not be well explained but it made sense to me so here we are😂

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments or on a reblog as well! If you want to disagree with me that’s cool but please do it nicely I’m scared of people on the internet 😂

I have a 3 part H&L series based off the song Hate You by Jungkook in the works, it’s just taking a while to write because there are so many characters to write for.

I also have a story for Hiroto and one for Ice in the works. I genuinely didn’t think I would be writing anything for Mighty because I have a love hate relationship with those characters but I have a plot I consistently think about and think that Ice works best with it so that story will be out eventually also.

#high&low #high&low x reader #oya high #hanaoka fujio #high and low #high&low the worst x #high&low cobra #sannoh hoodlum squad #sannoh rengokai #high&low the worst #oya kou #the rampage from exile tribe #kawamura kazuma #iwata takanori #jsb3

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lover-of-skellies · 9 months

Note

cant believe no ones asked about cross's smoochability yet

Well guys, it looks like we’ve got our first perfect score! Cross got a rating of 12 out 12, so he’s the perfect candidate to be smooched

1) Is Cross’s mouth dangerous at all? From what I know, he has these tiny little fangs, as opposed to the standard flat teeth that most Sanses seem to have. His fangs could poke your lips, but not enough to do seriously injure you or draw blood, so that being said, his mouth is safe. 2 points for mouth safety

2) Would he bite? Not intentionally. I could see him maybe nipping a little on accident if the kiss is done in more of a clumsy sort of way, but he doesn’t seem like someone who’d purposely bite super hard with the intention of causing pain. Is he aggressive? He can be if the situation calls for it, since he’s not afraid to put his foot down. Most of the time and in casual settings though, no, I don’t see him as being an aggressive person. That being said, he gets 2 points for being nice and exercising self control

3) Are there any health hazards to the smoocher? That we know of, no there’s not. He’s clean and he keeps up with his hygiene, he’s not leaking gross fluids everywhere, and while he does carry weapons, he’s a former guard, so I’d assume he knows how to be safe about how he carries and handles them, to avoid accidentally hurting anyone. X!Gaster manipulating him in Underverse aside, I don’t see any health hazards about him, so there’s 2 more

4) Does he have a sympathetic backstory? From what I know about him and his whole story, he has a very fragmented relationship with his brother, because he wanted his own identity outside of being a Sans, and Paps didn’t really seem to fully grasp that. I could be missing details about their relationship, but I just know they don’t get along. Then there’s the issue with X!Gaster being a horrible father who was never there for either of his sons. He was emotionally absent, and he seemed entirely unconcerned about them (just from what I’ve seen and what I know). So right there, Cross has this horrible family structure; he’s got both sibling issues and daddy issues. Then from the little information I can recall right now, he got into it with Error and nearly died somehow, and then he was manipulated into working for Nightmare. Which… as much as I like Nightmare, he’s not a nice person. Cross went from a very shaky home environment, to a very shaky work environment, where he couldn’t really count on anyone. His only friend for a while was Ink, but we see how well that went over in Underverse. Things started to turn around for him when he left Nightmare and started working with Dream instead, but there’s no doubt that he probably still has a lot of residual trauma from everything. So for points, I think he deserves 2. His upbringing and backstory in general was super rough and there were areas that were very tragic for him, no doubt

5) Does he deserve a smooch? In short,, yes, absolutely. He had a very rough upbringing and it probably took a bit for him to actually open up to anyone, but rather than letting that consume him and turning completely bad and evil because of it, he made the choice to be better than that. He still had anxiety and probably some other issues too, but he chose to walk away from the toxic environment that was working for Nightmare. He walked away, and he went with Dream, who made him feel like more of an equal, and less of a subordinate. Cross walked away and made the choice to be better than his former boss and teammates, which paved the way for a somewhat brighter future. He made the right choices and he has my respect for that, so he gets 2 points

6) Is Cross cute or cool? He can be a cutie from time to time, and I do like his design, since the monochrome look is unique to him, I think. There are probably other Sanses that are monochrome too, but of them all, I think he’s the most well known. His strength and skills in combat, his laidback personality, and his look (despite being a bit rough around the edges) earn him a full 2 points for coolness

In total, Cross gets a rating of 12. He gets a perfect score! He’s awkward and may not have a lot of kissing experience, but he’s very careful about pretty much everything he does. I feel like if he was smooched, he’d get embarrassed, start blushing, and probably trip over his words for a moment before simply asking why you suddenly smooched him. If you already knew him really well when you chose to plant a kiss on him, he might even awkwardly thank you for it while trying to avoid eye contact, because he’s a bit of a tsundere from time to time like that

#anon #asks #cross sans #smoochability rating

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starstriix · 2 months

Text

Big post explaining every little detail of the ROTI pony designs because I put thought into it okay

*You can find the pony designs here and here!!

Starting off with the Mutant Maggots:

Cameron! I decided to make him a unicorn since they tend to be more academic and yeah that’s mainly it lmao. I can imagine him not being allowed to properly use his magic which makes him weaker since he isn’t trained enough in that aspect. His cutie mark is a magnifying glass to represent his curious and analytical nature, and the glass part looks like a bubble because he’s a bubble boy!! Magnifying glasses are also close in shape to bubble wands. Idk i thought that was a neat detail that combined two aspects of his character into one.

For Zoey, I just really felt like she’d be a pegasus. It makes her commando zoey side work really well, too. Her cutie mark was quite difficult to think of, but I view her as kind and emotional so it’s a heart to represent that (and she values her romantic relationships a lot). It’s also red and blue to kinda represent her and mike tbh since a LOT of her character was related to mike anyways, with a stitch pattern since she does sewing and it tied the design together.

Jo is a pegasus for obvious reasons. I’ve seen takes on her just being a really strong earth pony but one of her biggest strengths is actually her speed (if anything, I think eva would be a really strong earth pony). Since she does track and field, I’d consider that to be equivalent to flying in the mlp world. Also she’s basically a twisted version of rainbow dash like cmon. Since I’m a big jo fan (if you didn’t know already) I put a lot of thought into her cutie mark. It’s a gold medal to represent her competitive drive, with a spiky trail to allude to her speed and aggression. The medal itself is cracked which can mean 1) Her harmful “take-no-prisoners” methods to reach her goals and 2) Her insecurities that seep through sometimes.

With Mike, I honestly just thought an earth pony would fit him best. I don’t know how to put the reason into words. I’ve already answered why I made him a blank flank before (I use the #revenge is magic tag on the posts where i talk about this au). Originally it was because i couldn’t find anything for mike himself and I didn’t want it to relate to his disorder, but now it has proper backstory reasons since it made sense the more I thought about it!

I made Anne Maria a unicorn since she’s pretty beauty oriented and I can imagine her using magic to carry her spray bottle around. With magic, she can stay lazy lmao. I kinda wish I went for a different approach with her cutie mark to show her flashiness and “class”, but the spray bottle seemed pretty specific to her anyways. And I just liked how I drew the cutie mark.

Brick, the athletic earth pony of the cast!! I consider him pretty built and physical strength-focused, so I thought an earth pony would fit really well with him. Plus Jo can tease him for not being able to fly and catch up with her. His cutie mark has a neat little detail: It’s a star symbol with army colours to represent him being a cadet (obviously), with a ribbon that looks decorative but actually alludes to his love of fashion. I actually designed this cutie mark a while ago, I just changed it up a tiny bit.

And now for the Toxic Rats:

Lightning’s design is super straight forward. He’s a pegasus since he’s a super jock and his name also happens to follow the pegasus naming conventions (being named after sky related things). I can’t NOT make him a pegasus. His cutie mark is pretty simple too: It’s a football with a lightning bolt trail since he’s a star football player and he has a lightning motif.

Scott is an earth pony because he literally grew up on a dirt farm. How can I not make him an earth pony?? His cutie mark is one of my favourite concepts tbh (thanks @brookiidookiii ) because it’s deceptive in itself. Because it’s a pitchfork, he plays it off as him having a talent for farming, but it really hints to his devious and scheming nature. Since pitchforks are usually symbolic of the devil and yeah. I might redesign the pitchfork a bit idk but I still really like the idea itself

I’ve already explained why I made Sam a pegasus in the design posts, plus a friend said he’d have the wing equivalent of his gamer thumb and i thought that’d be really funny. His cutie mark is super straight forward as well, it’s just a video game controller because…he’s a gamer!! Wow!!

Dawn is so unicorn to me, she has a connection with nature and literal powers in canon. And she also follows unicorn naming conventions!! (Being related to astronomy such as twilight, sunset, starlight, luna etc). Her cutie mark is an eye to represent her ability to see people’s auras, with a crescent moon inside because she’s spiritual and a moonchild and all that. With some sparkles for good measure.

B!!! He’s inspired by that scrapped inventor twilight concept. I thought an earth pony inventor would be really fun since he wouldn’t have magic to make things easier for himself, but he’s super smart and finds ways around that. That’s what engineering is, really (lmao). His cutie mark is also straight forward: a wrench and a cog to represent his engineering abilities, as well as his cognitive thinking and smarts!

Dakota is a unicorn since they’re usually represented to be a high class and she’s a literal rich celebrity! Also tall unicorns yay! I’ve stated this before but her cutie mark was originally meant to be a camera but I just really didn’t like how it looked on her. I made it a star because well, she IS a star, with an added lipstick mark because that’s so her.

Staciiii, staci could’ve also fit as a unicorn in my mind but idk I made her an earth pony since she felt like one. I had a hard time designing her cutie mark in paticular, I considered it making it sorta tree-like as a reference to her family tree, or I could’ve made it about lying since she does that a lot. Except she’s not that great at lying but she DOES speak a lot, so I made a speech bubble her cutie mark! The bumpy cloud pattern thing is a leftover from when i tried to make it more treelike (and i guess it does look like a stylized tree) or you can interpret it as her lies clouding her words idk.

Extra note:

The cast is super balanced in species!! There are two unicorns, two pegasi and two earth ponies on each team (If I don’t count staci since she was just made to be a first boot) and I thought that was a fair way to split the teams in universe. For things like the rock climbing challenge, the use of wings or magic would obviously not be permitted.

#revenge is magic #tdroti #total drama #td zoey #td brick #td mike #td jo #td dawn #td scott #td lightning #td B #td dakota #td sam #td cameron #td anne maria #td staci

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hermannsthumb · 5 months

Note

omg could we see #62 from the winter prompts list?

62. you’re my college roommate’s sibling/best friend and you’ve come to visit for a week since you’re done school but unlike some people, I have three more finals to study for so kindly fuck off

from winter writing prompts here

stuck on some of my other wips so i'm digging back through my old unfilled winter prompts!! from. well. 2018. can you believe i've been writing fic this long. insane.

enjoy some dumb (sort of?) college boys newmann! I decided to cheat with the prompt a little (a lot) so I could work it to be conceivably not an AU but instead set pre-canon, though I realize it techhhhnically screws around with the newt/herm penpal backstory just a tiny little bit....

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To be honest Newt’s probably paying more for year-round university housing then he would be in rent at an actual apartment at this point, but details like that get a little screwy when you start college significantly before your eighteenth birthday and grow up on campus. His dorm holds more sentimental value than his childhood home at this point. I mean, it technically is his childhood home. Newt did try the spring of his twenty-first birthday to finally move out, but he spent exactly two minutes poking through a Cambridge housing group on Facebook before it made him want to die and he gave up. At least this way he doesn't have to buy new furniture.

He has enough good will left with administration despite all the shit he's pulled to leverage certain things like that in his favor, and he struck a deal to keep his dorm in exchange for letting campus housing utilize it as an actual dorm from time to time. (Which is to say, Newt is kind of broke and needs to save money from his stipend every now and then for, you know, groceries, so he can grit his teeth and deal with a roommate when the time comes.)

His roommate at the moment is a German exchange student (maybe one or two years younger than Newt) who’s currently enrolled in a year-long study abroad program to mess around with electrical engineering—interesting enough guy with just enough neuroses and weird family issues to make Newt feel like the most well-adjusted twentysomething in the world. It's a great ego boost.

Anyway, it’s convenient. There are like three Dunks of varying quality to choose from at any given moment, and Newt only has to walk ten minutes max to any lecture hall to give class. This is especially nice on stupidly cold and snowy days like today where even a ten minute walk feels like too much.

The door to Newt’s dorm is slightly ajar when he finally gets home. In normal circumstances this would make Newt pause and think for a few seconds before stomping inside—rules of horror movies or whatever—because if his roommate is anything, it’s particular with things like that. Shoes off at the door, dishes left in the sink on a firm one-day-max limit, doors very much locked when they leave to protect all their super important possessions from being stolen, like the refurbished Playstation 2 Newt got off eBay or the Brita filter Newt also got off eBay. Very luxurious stuff.

But Newt’s cold and hungry, so he stomps inside anyway. He does kick his boots off, though—just because some people decided to stop following the dorm rules doesn’t mean Newt will—and makes sure to click the door shut behind him carefully. “Hey, dude, you home?” he calls down the hallway. Nothing. His roommate, Bastien, is usually in class at this time of the day, but finals have turned their schedules upside down, so who knows. He wiggles out of his winter coat and hangs it next to an unfamiliar green parka on the wall hooks (maybe Bastien went on a shopping spree?) and tries a second time. “Uh, you know you left the door open?”

Newt's glasses are splattered with melted snow, and he dries them on the hem of his sweater as he fumbles with the door to their room—and is more than a little surprised when he sees the blurry shape of Bastien sitting primly on the edge of his bed, smoothing out his clothing like he’s just woken up from a nap. His bed as in Newt’s bed. Newt startles backwards. “Oh,” he says. “Um. Hey?” Has he fucked up? Are they having a roommate talk about something? …Preceded by Bastien inexplicably taking a nap in his bed?

He pushes his glasses back on. The dark-haired blur on his bed comes into focus, and though the sharp angles, bad haircut, and vaguely sickly pale flush are reminiscent of Newt’s roommate, everything else about him is different, from the brown eyes to the wide frown. It’s a Gottlieb, no question, but which one Newt’s not sure. He knows there are at least three more of them, a concept which has always struck fear into Newt’s heart each time Bastien alludes to having siblings. “Hello,” the guy on Newt’s bed says. He nods. Very proper. “You’re Newton.”

“…Yeah?” Newt says.

The mysterious Gottlieb is kind of hot, which is the worst part. The whole stern professor look he’s rocking—big glasses, knit sweatervest, slightly too-big loafers—is doing him plenty of favors. Normal circumstances, Newt thinks again, coming home to a hot nerd lounging in your bed? It might almost make him believe in a higher power. It’s taking a significant amount of effort to not start flirting. Then again, he is in Newt's bed, and has been clearly been sleeping in Newt's bed, which feels like a flirtation in and of itself.

“Hermann Gottlieb,” the professor-dude says. He gets to his feet with the aid of a cane, which he’d hooked on one of Newt’s bedposts and offers a hand out to Newt like they’re both eighty years old. Mildly bewildered, Newt takes it. He's treated to a firm handshake. “I assume my brother told you to expect me? I let myself in. I hope that’s not too rude of me, but it was rather cold out.”

“Uh,” Newt says again. He’s a lot more…British than Newt expected. Very posh BBC-miniseries about posh English people with large country estates. Especially compared to Bastien, whose first language is clearly German and is very much not British—it’s just not exactly what Newt was expecting. “I mean—he didn’t totally tell me you were coming. Or, at all.” Hermann drops his hand. “I guess he could’ve mentioned it and I just forgot.” This is probably what happened. Newt’s been a little busy lately.

He decides to address the elephant in the room next, the bed thing, and determine if it was a deliberate choice or not. Maybe Bastien has made Newt out to be so irresistible in whatever he’s reported back to the Gottlieb family that Hermann decided to try his luck. This is definitely not the case, but Newt can pretend. “You’re on my bed,” he continues, and points across the room. “Bastien’s is that one.”

“Oh,” Hermann says. He looks mortified in a properly stiff-lipped way and almost trips over himself to cross the tiny dorm room, and for a split second Newt sees a different Hermann behind the dress shoes and exaggerated formalities: an awkward twentysomething probably barely older than Newt playing dress-up to be taken seriously. The belt he’s cinched to the last notch around the oversized waist of his tweed pants is stiff and cracked in places. Bastien mentioned once that one of his brothers is a math whiz who’s followed an accelerated academic path not entirely unlike Newt’s, and Newt suddenly has a strong hunch he’s looking right at him. “I’m—I’m very sorry. I didn’t realize. My flight only just got in, and the time zones—I was a bit tired.”

“No worries, man,” Newt says. He tosses his tote bag onto the Hermann-sized indentation in his bedspread and kicks his docs off one at a time, while across the room Hermann twists the handle of his cane between his hands. “You want some coffee or something? Bastien is usually out until late on Thursdays, so it might just be us for a while, sorry.” He pulls the sweatshirt he’d slung on his desk chair that morning down over his head and straightens out his glasses.

The offer for coffee is a somewhat-pitying lifeline Newt is decent enough to throw out, which he has a feeling both of them understand. Hermann seizes it desperately. “Coffee would be nice,” he says.

He trails after Newt into the kitchen. Apartment-style or not, it’s still a campus dorm, and the kitchen space is cozy at best and cramped at worst. Hermann plasters himself against a row of cabinets in a heroic effort to stay out of Newt’s way as Newt dumps some coffee grounds and water into his cheap pot and digs two mugs out of the cupboard. They avoid making eye contact at all costs while it percolates. “We have, like,” Newt gestures vaguely at the doorway, “a couch? If you wanted to sit? And not stand here?”

“I don’t mind,” Hermann says.

Newt kind of minds, but whatever, he can deal. He pours soy milk into one mug in preparation and offers some to Hermann, who shakes his head. The coffee drips slowly into the pot. Newt thinks about the stack of ungraded finals tucked into a binder in his tote bag, the other stack waiting on his desk, and the final final he still has to proofread and send off to Copytech for, like, seventy copies by tomorrow. “So, Hermann,” Newt says, and tries to think of a polite way to ask why exactly are you in my apartment during finals week? Does the guy not also have finals in England or wherever? “Are you just visiting your bro for fun, or…?”

Hermann’s face twists with a sour expression. “For a week,” he says. “Not all that willingly. I’m in town for a conference and I won’t have my hotel room until tomorrow morning. Bastien offered to let me use his couch for the night.” He adds hesitantly, “I’m due to give a presentation on Tuesday.”

A lecture: almost definitely the math whiz, then, unless overachieving is a family trait. Newt will circle back to that later. He’s not exactly a math expert, but you kinda can’t really pick up that many STEM doctorates without having at least a basic (or, you know, decently advanced) understanding of, uh, everything about math, and he’s keen to hear what Hermann plans to lecture on. “I’ll try to stay out of your hair,” Hermann adds quickly. “I know you’re busy with final exams and whatnot.”

“Ugh, no kidding,” Newt says. The coffee finally finishes with a few rattling huffs, and Newt carefully pours it into their mugs and shoves the less-chipped one over to Hermann. “I still have another left to go,” he continues. “I got stuck with three whole sections this semester, it sucks. I think they just wanted to get back at me for—well, um, I caused a minor fire in the lab last year and they had to evacuate a few buildings, and I put it out right away because I'm the king of lab safety, but whatever, everyone lost their shit anyway. It’s going to take me forever to grade everything.”

Hermann frowns at him, and Newt wonders exactly how much Bastien has shared about his American roommate—or in this case how little. “Not a student,” he explains. “Dr. Geiszler, technically, but do not call me that. I managed to convince the biology department head to convince student life to let me keep living on campus after I—well, I guess I technically graduated undergrad a while ago. After I wrapped up my first PhD?”

“Ah,” Hermann says, and the edges of his sharp cheekbones going the faintest shade of pink. “I’d assumed—Bastien didn’t mention that, is all.” His eyes flick over Newt twice, scrutinizing him and lingering on his oversized hoodie, a DIY screen-print job bearing the latest logo for Newt’s band that he tried valiantly to sell at their last show. “First PhD? Exactly how old are you?”

“Twenty-two,” Newt says. “I skipped a grade. Or ten. Would not recommend it. Anyway, Hermann, you’re some sort of super-genius, right? You were doing calculus in your crib or something?”

If Newt’s right about which brother Hermann is, that means—compared to the rest of his family—Bastien has alluded to Hermann’s existence in all but name three whole times. By familial standards Newt can only assume that means they’re practically BFFs and probably send each other birthday cards every year. If possible Hermann might be even more reserved than Bastien, though, and it’s making Newt want very badly to prod him a little more just to see what happens. Get him to poke his head out of his shell or something. “That’s pretty impressive, you know,” he adds.

Hermann flushes pink for real this time, obviously pleased with the compliment, and Newt’s equally pleased to see him hold his head a little higher. They’re getting somewhere. “It’s not precisely that dramatic,” Hermann says. “But, yes, er—I started university at a rather young age. Comparatively. Before that, my father sent me abroad when I was eight for my schooling. I’d shown a knack, I suppose, for mathematics, and…”

Abroad—Newt guesses that explains the different accent. Not unlike Newt himself. He wonders if Hermann’s family ribs him for the lapses in his German the way Newt’s family does (America is rotting your brain, Newt!), though maybe somewhat less gently. “And?”

“I’ll finish my doctorate in the spring,” Hermann finishes, with a small smile.

“Dr. Gottlieb,” Newt says. “Nice. I like the sound of that.”

Hermann suddenly spills a large amount of coffee down the front of his sweater. He doesn’t seem to notice, though his ears (which stick out just a little) do go red, so Newt doesn’t say anything.

It’s unfortunate how cute Hermann is. Newt briefly debates the ethics of hitting on your roommate’s hot British brother and whether or not it breaches some sort of sacred roommate code. On the one hand, Hermann is only here for a week, so it’s not like they can get up to too much, and Bastien himself will be packing everything back up for Germany in like, six months tops when his study abroad program ends in the spring anyway. And besides, it’s not like Newt and Bastien are tight or anything like that. On the other hand—I mean, that would be weird, right? You can’t just hit on your roommate’s hot British brother, especially not when he's sleeping on your couch for the night.

Newt has over a hundred final exams to grade, and a suitcase to pack for his own trip (albeit one that’s a maybe-thirty minute ride on the commuter rail) out to his dad’s for the break. He kinda wants to hit on Hermann.

He’s going to hit on Hermann.

“Sooooo,” he begins, “you got any plans, or—?”

And it’s then that Hermann’s cell phone begins to buzz in his pocket. “Ah,” Hermann says. “One moment—apologies.” He pulls out a battered flip phone that looks like it’s been passed down from at least two other people and squints at the screen. “My brother,” he explains, “at last. He’s finishing up at the library and wants to meet for dinner.”

“Oh, right,” Newt says. “Of course. Duh.”

Hermann closes his phone slowly and hazards a small, but considering, glance at Newt, and Newt has a fleeting suspicion he’s not the only one weighing the pros and cons of risky flirting. He might just be flattering himself, though. “…Would you like to join us?” Hermann says. “I’m sure Bastien wouldn’t mind. It might be…” He works his jaw a few times. It’s incredibly cute. He’s clean-shaven in a way Newt hasn’t managed to be since he turned seventeen (the Geiszlerian curse of thick facial hair whether you want it or not), and it makes him look even more like a weird kid trying very hard to be an adult. “Fun.”

It's a bad idea. Hermann’s only here for a week, and he’ll clearly be busy with his conference and his big talk and all that, and then they’ll be back on opposite sides of the Atlantic probably forever—Newt would just be setting himself up for heartbreak. And six months of awkwardly dodging his roommate, which is possibly worse. Ugh. Being responsible sucks. “I shouldn’t,” he finally sighs. “I have to finish—”

“—your finals. Of course,” Hermann says. “Yes, of course, I’m sorry. I forgot. I’ll let you be.” He sets his mug on the counter by the sink. “Thank you for the coffee.”

“Sure, dude,” Newt says.

Hermann works his jaw again, chewing at his lower lip, and then says so quickly Newt almost misses it “If you’re around next Tuesday, perhaps you would like to see my talk?”

Newt tries very hard to be chill. “Yeah, totally,” he says. “That would be awesome. I think I can make it.”

Hermann nods solemnly. “Excellent. I’ll ask Bastien to give you the details later.”

He finally begins to dot at the coffee stain on his sweater with a handkerchief he pulls from a different pocket, and Newt squeezes past him to rinse their mugs out. (No dishes in the sink overnight.) His elbow brushes against Hermann’s as he dries them with a dishtowel. Hermann makes no effort to move away from him, and this close he smells like stale cigarette smoke. Newt can imagine him standing out in the rain in a dreary English landscape somewhere, maybe in the oversized coat he saw hanging by the door, scowling and crushing cigarette filters beneath his cane.

There’s something strangely magnetic about Hermann.

“Hey, listen,” Newt says. He dries his hands off on his pants. Hermann looks at him, abandoning his efforts to clean himself up. “You wanna swap emails or anything…? Maybe we could talk. Collaborate on, uh, something.” He has absolutely zero idea of Hermann’s subfield so he doesn’t know exactly what they’ll collaborate on just yet, but he’ll think of something. Make some notes during the Tuesday lecture. Newt has three PhDs and counting, he can come up with an excuse to talk to a cute boy, okay, he’s not twelve. He’d ask for Hermann’s number like a normal human being if he could dream of affording the international texting rate.

Hermann gives him another stiff nod and the shadow of a smile, which Newt hopes means an enthusiastic yes, Newt, I’d love to be your penpal!, so Newt fishes a pad of paper and a pencil out from the kitchen junk drawer and they take turns printing their emails out as neatly as possible. Hermann folds the slip of paper with Newt’s in half and slips it into his top pocket. “It was very good to meet you, Dr. Geiszler,” Hermann says, and he offers Newt a parting handshake.

What the hell, Newt thinks, and takes it.

It takes ten months and a split in reality at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean for Hermann to get around to emailing Newt. Newt expects they’ll have a lot to collaborate on in the near future.

#newmann #maria's fanfiction tag

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howtosingit · 9 months

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Some good/bad/ugly (but not super ugly, I'm not a dick about it) thoughts on RWRB. Obvious spoilers.

The Good:

The cake. Different from the book in a few ways but so damn good and a really strong beginning for the film. Also, watch through the credits for a tiny post-credit cake moment.

Alex and Henry messaging back and forth and talking on the phone at the beginning. A perfect way to translate that to the screen, taking advantage of the visual medium. I laughed out loud multiple times during the segment and just really enjoyed watching it.

Zahra. All of her scenes. So good. Dare I say her relationship with Alex was the most developed in the film? Maybe. It was certainly my favorite.

The polo match was a lot of fun, too. Though brief, it was very much in-line with what was on the page and that was satisfying to watch.

The King. He's a very different character than Queen Mary and by casting Stephen Fry and refocusing the moment, it became layered and interesting. An implied foil for Henry. Probably one of the better changes from the book.

The Bad:

Nora and Bea don't have a lot to do. Nora certainly gets a little lost after the first part of the film, though she’s around. Bea doesn't really mean anything until the last half of the film. Neither of them really have any of the depth that their book counterparts had, which is a shame since they're so great on the page.

Percy (because I'm pretty sure he is never referred to as Pez in the film) is an absolutely nothing character. Surprised he wasn't cut, but they clearly wanted Henry to have a counterpart to match Alex's Nora. But he actually gets nothing at all to do.

Alex and Henry's Christmas phone call is gone, and they only really have one big moment of vulnerability before New Year's (the hospital closet), which kind of makes the big kiss feel unearned. They're definitely friendly by New Year's, so that's something.

We're told a lot about the cages that Alex and Henry find themselves in, but they're never clearly defined in the film (it's very tell, don't show), which makes the stakes of them breaking out to be together feel lower, at least to me. I wish we saw a little bit more of the world that they inhabit so that we could understand the risks, but instead it's all summarized in TV segments.

For me, Alex and Henry never really feel fully-realized, especially Henry, who doesn't get his big moments until the later half of the film. It's a shame, but none of their moments of sincerity felt truly earned. I don't know, there was some kind of barrier between me and them for the entire film, I struggled to feel for them outside of "oh that's cute" or "oh that's sad" or "oh how nice."

The Ugly (or, more accurately, things that still don't sit right with me 15 hours later):

Miguel. Oh, boy. I really, really don't understand the choice to include this original character. From the very beginning it's just very... what? And why? All of the leak and antagonism of the leak, instead of being contributed to the white conservative Republican was instead placed on a queer Latiné man with no depth and I'm just... so very very confused by this choice. Obviously it was to streamline a lot of the backstory and details of how the leak came to happen, but my god... I really don't even know. I don't know if Matthew will ever talk about his choices for this character, but I'd really like to hear them. Also, he's not Liam or Rafael Luna, not even close. A pity that comparison was even made at any point during promo because it's 100% not true.

We get maybe 3 mentions of Arthur, no sight of Catherine. In fact, while Catherine is an absent mother, it's not attributed to her grief at all, but more just that she'd rather be anywhere else than by her children? And Henry and Bea are both very resentful of that fact. And I was like... why are we doing that to Catherine? She doesn't deserve that writing.

So after the leak, we get the communications lockdown which makes it impossible for Alex and Henry to speak to each other. But the film decided to have Alex make his big public speech during that time, without having Henry by his side or without him even talking to Henry about it first, and I found that really really upsetting. That was one of my favorite parts of the book, that Alex got to Henry as quickly as he could and then they walked through the whole situation together, side-by-side, as a team, both consenting to the everything after their consent was ripped away from them because of the leak. The film didn't give them that and I really didn't like it at all.

I mean, there were other things, too (the big sex scene was in Paris and happened way too early in my opinion - not because of the sex itself, just how it was framed), but I'm really not interested in picking the film apart. It's an okay film. It's not a terrible way to spend 2 hours. All in all, it feels like a solid summary of the book with glimpses at a lot of the book moments that we love. That doesn't make it a bad film, just a straightforward, simple one. It was made to be palatable for a general audience and that's fine. There's a deeper and more complex story here, which we know from the book, but this film wasn't the place to tell it. It tells a version of it, and it does an okay job at it.

(But, like, I'll take a 5-6 episode mini-series one day so that we can get the fully complex Henry backstory and screen time that he deserves to have.)

Also, Taylor Zakhar Perez's bare ass is a 10 out of 10, would recommend. There will be plenty of gifs of that in the next day or two, and no one will be complaining about it.

Oh, the opening credits were cute too and had an early-2000s rom-com vibe, which was great!

#just some thoughts... not all positive #but certainly not hate either #no one lose their heads here #sometimes you just have to word vomit #rwrb #red white and royal blue #rwrb movie #rwrb spoilers #spoilers #red white and royal blue spoilers

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torchickentacos · 2 months

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3, 6, & 21 for Drew, our beloved

THANK YOU ANON! Love the usage of 'our' here. We all have joint custody of this weirdo.

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

OOOOOOH. Okay. This is going to sound like an early April Fool's joke coming from me specifically, but STAY WITH ME. My least favorite thing is that he literally only ever talks to May. Which, okay, kind of my favorite thing too, but he just has such INTERESTING interactions with others when pokeani lets him, but they just never really do. On one hand, I seriously love the tunnel-vision. He literally will ignore a room full of people if she's in it. Like. Canonically. It's all he ever does. But when he DOES interact with others, it's FUN! We get so much about him from those interactions but they just happen so rarely.

Anyways, incomplete list of characters that Drew should TOTALLY have gotten to interact with: Gary. Tracey. Misty. Brock (Brock has HILARIOUS one-sided beef with Drew by the way lmao, calls him nails on a chalkboard). Paul. I know Paul came after Drew but IMAGINE. What would that even look like?????

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

Honestly, not much. At all. I'm extroverted, heart-on-my-sleeve, nonconfrontational, spontaneous, unorganized, forgetful- things he is absolutely not. But I am a hopeless romantic who will get stuck pining for years on end, so that's something lol??? But honestly, veeeery little lol.

Rest under cut bc this is getting long.

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

this is also under cut because I'm incredibly touchy/quiet about my fic stuff here, but anyone who actually wants to read this and clicks the read more is someone who I'm fine with reading this answer lol. Mostly just don't want non-mutuals skimming my fic thoughts. I wish there were tumblr circles like twitter had- it would stir some bullshit, yeah, but there's... kind of a lot of you guys here and only a select few are pokeani, lol, and it's intimidating. I wish I could post for a smaller audience but alas. If you're bothering to read this then you're probably fine. I've had bad experiences with judgmental people, so fic stuff is something I only talk about to a really tiny group, but I think I can answer this. Feeling brave.

Okay. Something I like to do is lean into his overthinking. So, technically we have no idea if he overthinks or not in canon, but it seems to be a pretty unanimous fandom decision that he's someone who gets stuck in his own head a bit. He thinks too much for his own good, and I try to play into that. Not that most of it ever leaves google docs, but lol. So it goes. I think, in stark contrast to specific other characters lol, he's someone who has the next ten steps planned if he can help it, and that's fun to mess with.

Something I dislike doing... hmm. I usually leave his backstory pretty up to interpretation. I'll add details where I see fit, but overall I just leave it blank. It's not that I don't have headcanons! But I really can't settle on just one, so I never write much of any at all. I love reading other people's ideas so much! I just can't commit to my own and I leave it as-is, pretty barebones. I also don't really lean into his arrogance as hard as other writers. Not that I dislike it! I just think, for me, I tend to enjoy writing other aspects of his personality more. Him being kind of a jackass is an undeniable part of him kjdfhskdjfhbdkj but there's different ways to go about it and I leave the brunt of it to people who can write it better than I can.

#thank god tumblr's actually letting me post this one lmao. sorry other taylor. will get to yours soon ksfjhskdfhjg #alternately. sorry that tumblr's letting me post this one lmao #/j i was mostly normal and hinged here. for better or worse.#taylor's tag #taylor talks

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theduckofindeed · 5 months

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I'm Working on a Sun and Moon (FNAF) Fanfic

Hey again, I just wrote a rather lengthy rant concerning the changes they made to Sun’s personality in Help Wanted 2. So no need for me to address that again. Anyway, this game’s release has given me a renewed motivation to stop procrastinating and work on my fan fic. Yes, folks, I’ve been writing a story about our dear Daycare Attendant for the last several months now. It follows Sun starting from his earliest days in the Daycare, all the way to the events of Ruin. Plus some backstory before the events of Security Breach.

While I wasn’t super fond of certain new traits they gave to my dear ball of sunshine, I will admit that it’s a little frightening that a lot of Sun’s new personality actually matches my own headcanon for him. Minus the meanness. While I definitely prefer Sun as a sweet and kindhearted character, that doesn’t mean that I view him as some perfect little angel incapable of harming a fly. (Although, he is incapable of harming a spider because he finds it tiny and cute and sees no reason to squish it just because the kids tell him to.)

Going slightly off topic for a moment, I remember reading lots of comments on Youtube in the past where people were curious about how Sun would feel if they wanted to play in the Daycare as an adult. As much as I, too, would love to just spend the day with Sun (because he’s so darn adorable), I always had this feeling that he would not be particularly happy to see an adult encroaching in his Daycare. And, well, it seems pretty clear from his interaction with the player in HW2 that my suspicions were correct. Sun would NOT be happy to play with an adult. Or a teen, I think. Then you likely would get the full brunt of his impressive sass until you got the hint and left. Somehow, he’d probably think this would be the most polite way of getting you to go away. (Moon, on the other hand, would probably just look you dead in the eyes, then proceed to blatantly ignore your existence.)

Anyway, the Sun in my story is still sweet and innocent and a bit oblivious, but he definitely does things wrong. In fact, I have plans that he’ll be forced to make some very morally questionable decisions later on. And even before then, he won’t be above the occasional naughty act or lying. I see him as the type to be against lying, but he’s not above twisting the truth so that it’s still technically the truth, but also still technically dishonest. He’s also moody and bossy and controlling, something that will certainly tick Moon off on occasion.

I also feel like it’s a common interpretation that Moon is the smart one and Sun’s a bit dumber. I prefer to believe that Sun just comes across as less intelligent due to his silly behavior, but he’s actually much smarter than people give him credit for. Even in Security Breach, he seems to be the only robot aware of the virus, and the dismantled staff bots imply he might even be looking for a solution. His comment at the start of the carousel level in HW2 actually fits this, too. He states that, given the training and resources, he could have easily fixed the carousel himself. And I can’t help but believe him. He’s probably skilled in fixing himself because he and Moon are likely neglected by staff. I bet his meticulous nature and attention to detail would make him quite skilled in repairing hardware issues. This is yet another aspect to him that will be explored much later in the story.

As for Moon, I'm among those who like to believe that Moon was good-natured before the virus, but only to Sun and the kids. Sure, he's more gruff and mischievous, but he's still good to the few people he cares about. But he also dislikes adults even more than Sun, and he has zero interest in the other robots. I'm not sure yet if he's necessarily shy or just couldn't care less.

Heck, he probably just prefers being a recluse.

I definitely like Sun and Moon developing a close relationship (albeit a rather codependent one), which is a very important part of the story, of course. Though that will take some time, as they aren't inherently able to communicate right away. I have no idea how the two feel about each other canonically. I mean, after the virus, Sun clearly fears Moon and Moon hates Sun. But what about before? I mean, the two share a body, so I'd hope they'd normally be close, or that would be a serious issue. Plus, someone is collecting plushies, including ones of themselves. I'd imagine you wouldn't keep a plushie of someone you hate.

Plus, I just love a good platonic relationship, whether it be friends or siblings.

The story also focuses on darker issues like abuse and more existential types of concerns (similar to Freddy's reaction to being brought down into that one room in Parts and Services). I just imagine that Sun and Moon are not treated well by staff and certain kids, who see them as an object to be used rather than a person with feelings. Plus, they aren't seen as nearly as popular as the Glamrocks and would likely be neglected as a result. Just look at how shiny Freddy and the gang are when SB starts and how dusty and grimy our poor Daycare Attendant is! Give this poor baby a good scrubbing! Heck, let me in the Daycare, and I’ll do it myself!

Ahem, not to mention the fact that their situation is rather horrifying when you think about it. They were created for a job they never chose, and they aren't allowed to do a bad job or take a day off. If they prove to be inadequate, they risk being decommissioned, which is basically death for robots. Heck, even being reprogrammed could be bad as they could completely lose who they used to be. And even if they do an excellent job, they're still at risk of being destroyed eventually. It's only a matter of time, really. If Bonnie and Foxy could be replaced, Sun and Moon have no reason to feel safe and secure. I mean, if the Pizzaplex hadn’t closed, who knew how many years they had left anyway?

I mean, imagine having a job where you'll be executed if you choose to quit, didn't perform well, or were arbitrarily replaced regardless of your own actions. Even if you enjoyed the work, that would be a lot of pressure!

Anyway, I hope to have some chapters ready…eventually. Knowing me, I often start stories and inevitably leave them unfinished. This time, I've focused on writing whatever part that interests me at the moment, and as a result, I have substantial work finished in various sections of the story. And more recently, now that I largely know where it's going, I've been focusing more on the beginning.

Chapter 1 is more or less done, minus final edits. Seeing as everything up until this point was written before HW2, some details won't be totally accurate. I'll fix this when I can. Unless I don’t feel like it. Chapter 2 is coming along nicely, but I'd like to make a good start into the first chunk of the story before anything is published, to avoid the risk of changing my mind and adjusting details people have already read.

Oh, Cassie appears fairly early on and gets a decent role in the story. So yay for her! I remember reading a comment recently that Sun seems like he’d play favorites. Well, guess who his favorite is. Not much Gregory, though. Never was a big fan of that child. Me and Roxy have a similar opinion of him…

When (if) this story ever gets published, I really hope people enjoy my interpretation of Sun and Moon. I've been very careful to make them well-rounded characters, meaning Sun is definitely not a perfect angel and Moon is not just an aggressive monster. Not sure how much longer it'll be before I can share this story with the world, though. Like Sun, I'm a perfectionist and don't want to publish it before it's ready, plus I've been struggling to find the time and motivation. This story is very important to me, just as Sun and Moon are important to me. They've been helping me through a tough time in my life. So…that's all for now!

#five nights at freddy's #fnaf #fnaf security breach #fnaf sun #fnaf moon #fnaf daycare attendant #fan fiction

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panzershrike-pretz · 5 months

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HYDRA SCARLET-IBIS

Source: x x x | x x x | x x x -> song: Dream

I was a little girl alone in my little world Who dreamed of a little home for me I played pretend between the trees And fed my house guests bark and leaves And laughed in my pretty bed of green I had a dream That I could fly from the highest swing I had a dream Long walks in the dark through woods grown behind the park I asked God who I'm supposed to be The stars smiled down on me God answered in silent reverie I said a prayer and fell asleep I had a dream That I could fly from the highest tree I had a dream Now I'm old and feeling gray I don't know what's left to say about this life I'm willing to leave I lived it full and I lived it well There's many tales I've lived to tell I'm ready now, I'm ready now I'm ready now to fly from the highest swing I had a dream

- About;

- Hydra Scarlet-Ibis Serpens - she/her

Hydra's name came, first and foremost, from the Constellation of the same name, which is one of, if not the biggest of the modern constellations. At first her name was an accident, but I learned that it actually fits her. The biggest star in the constellation, Alpha Hydrae, is a giant orange and it plays it's part in Hydra's actual colloration.

The Scarlet-Ibis bit is because of the bird, who can be seen in the aesthetic board. Her name was actually "Hydra Guará" for a bit, which is the Brazilian name for the bird, but I decided to change it to thess english version and use Guará as a nickname.

Finally, Serpens, which is the surname of the family she comes from, derived from the constellation of the same name.

- Potion maker and nurse

Hydra's role aboard of Blithe is, more or less, the eole of mother and guardian to all it's crew - but besides that, she is also in charge of potion making, cook helperand nurse, working alongside Pangey.

Hydra grew up in a very rich family and learned, since she was young, how to take care of people; it actually spilled into her pirate life after she left her husband to join the crew. Hydra had a rough past and made it her mission so her friends would not go through half of what she did.

- Goddess of Family, of Childhood, of Justice and of Fire

She is one of the most important Gods in the Pantheon of Fantasia, being the first one with who every child has contact as soon as they're born. Hydra is considered a protector os children and of relationships.

Her powers include fire manipulation and fire breathing, which are actually considered good during fights and attacks; she's able to make her whole body catch on fire at will, tho it drains too much energy and requires total cincentration.

Besides that, being and Ymbryne such as Athena, she's able to create time-loops for protection; the lack of training in this area makes them very susceptible to colapsing, so she usually refrains from creating them, unless exztremelly necessary.

Finally, the ability to turn into a Scarlet-Ibis and understand birds. This is useful in its own right - although Hydra's bird form is a bright red, it still can be somewhat good in soying missions or swift getaways.

- Personality

Hydra tries to be the most responsible persin on the ship; she's usually the smarter one, to whom everyone goes to if they have any questions.

Her usually calm and kind demeanor make her the official Terapist(tm) of the crew; it's not her job but she never refuses to help.

Even tho she's always there to help, insecurities and trauma that have build up all her life still inhabit her mind and she usually is caught in some serious self-doubt and the paranoia that she's not good enough pr worthy of anything she has.

- Funfact: Hydra is probably the one that went through the most appearance changes, but her backstory mostly stayed the same since her creation, apart from some extremely tiny details.

- Relationship: -----

Her hair is made of feathers. I love it. A lot :]

#pretz oc #🥨🪶

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storiesbyjes2g · 1 year

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Keep it in the family game

A recent conversation came to mind this morning, so I thought I'd share with you my thought process. You may remember me saying The Piersons and Friends is a dramatic interpretation of what happens in my game. I do play in this save, though it happens less and less the more complicated this story gets. Despite how complicated it gets, I still consider it to be a gameplay-based story. More like gameplay assisted lol. But I am a writer. I've been writing stories since I was six years old. I think in stories. I even use stories at work! The temptation to let my imagination go wild and make this story even more cinematic, dramatic, and messy is always lurking around the corner. But there is one thing I do that helps me keep it straight, and that is I keep everything within the realm of the game.

You say, "But, Jess! What's wrong with pulling out all the stops??" Nothing! But in order for me to keep the flame lit and stay in love with this family, I need for it to remain fun. The moment I decide to take this story out of the realm of the game and turn it into the next big Netflix series starts the countdown clock to burnout and frustration. Writing realistic stories with The Sims is SUPER fun. But they are a LOT of work—especially mentally. It's basically like writing AND illustrating a novel. I will write a novel one day, but don't want to continue using my fun time that way anymore.

(details about my process under the cut)

So what does that mean, keeping everything within the realm of the game? Exactly that! If it can't happen in the game (my modded game, that is), it doesn't go in the story...mostly. The Piersons and Friends is more real than aDOLTing, so I let myself have a little more fun there and add non-game things in sometimes (i.e. Yvonne's colorism, the Pierson's marriage counseling, etc.). But the aDOLTing sims are 100% simmish, and there are zero real-life elements in that story; this is why I don't restrict their travel. If you see anything realistic in this story, it comes from mods. Here are a few ways I keep my stories rooted in gameplay.

Personalities

My sims personalities are heavily based on their traits, aspirations, character values, and preferences. I allow myself to be a tiny bit more creative with sims not born in game, but I still stay close. I might expand their histories to the entire Sims franchise for more options, like how Ali's parents are from Monte Vista. But I guess now that we have Tartosa, they could be from there. I don't always do this 100%, especially when I'm making characters with specific backstories, but the game information is definitely at the heart of their personality.

Careers

Their employment is based on the game's mechanisms for making money. For careers, they follow the game's progression. I may expand on their actual roles to make them more interesting (i.e. Emmy & Nadia's jobs). I use the chance cards a LOT for that. I think it's boring to type what they say word for word; I'm writing a story not telling the news. I take a moment to think about how it would play out cinematically and write it into the story vs. it being a random piece of information that does nothing to move the plot along. I don't always put a screenshot of the chance card because either it's a very common one you'd recognized by the way I've worded it. Honestly, the only reason I ever include them in The Piersons and Friends is to remind you this story is still steeped in gameplay. I feel like, because I write this story dramatically and present it cinematically, you guys sometimes have expectations about what should happen next because it's so real to you, and I love that! But the fact is, there are certain directions I have no intention of taking this story no matter how bad you guys want it. That's just how it has to be to protect my peace.

Relationships

Friendships

There is a reason I included Evie as the matron of honor. I remember commenting a long time ago she should have been Mel's childhood BFF, but she met Gabby first; she met Evie in high school. I didn't show it a lot, but they had a more meaningful relationship. Hopefully you got that from the few conversations I did show. I imagine Melany connected with her more because she was more mature than the other girls and Evie was older. In game, Melany gravitates to her more than Gabby, and Evie actually makes an effort to maintain their friendship by coming over from time to time. Gabby has NEVER showed up at Mel's house. Ever. At any point in life. But because of Mel's personality, I couldn't make her throw Gabby away...initially. I also couldn't forget her friendship with Evie although it's not shown much, so I gave her a very important role in the wedding to honor that.

I give this example to show how interactions (and lack there of) also factor into how I portray friendships and also how they factor into character's personalities.

Romance

I follow game mechanics, so unfortunately flirting with someone else is an especially heinous act and was the cause of all the drama between Melany, Nick, and Anissa back in the day. One thing about me is I like to do things the easy way, and taking whatever the game gives me is very easy. It may not make sense in our world, but it follows logic. They drank the tea and became flirty. Titus flirted with Mel, and she reciprocated. Drama ensued, and I ran with it. As long as there is some sort of logic, I'm cool. I leave the stuff that doesn't make sense out of the story because I want my story to be good lol.

I think that's all I wanted to say. For those struggling with this issue, I hope it helped. For those who had certain questions about The Piersons and Friends, I hope this cleared it up for you. If not, you know where I'm at. Drop me an ask. I love talking about my stories.

#story stuff #writer's corner

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