#well I guess if Memory’s the protag then someone else has to be the story’s most forgetable character lol

[illusion-reality-steve]

I completely forgot that Shadow Sabre is in Remorseful Recollections of the Forgotten Family, my own fanfic.

#well I guess if Memory’s the protag then someone else has to be the story’s most forgetable character lol #shadow sabre #tss!shadow sabre #rrff #rrff steve saga #writing rant

[ninjagirlstar5]

Protag Teruya AU - Prologue Part 1 - The Boardwalk Intro

Our queen has arrived!

Oh, and Yuri is here too, I guess. (joking)

No TWs apply to this current post.

...Although Yuri is being his usual misandrist self.

The Beach (The Beginning) |   The Mart (Part 2) | The Park (Part 3) | The Tower (Part 4) | The Cottage (Part 5) | The Beach Episode (Final)

Prologe Part 2 Beginning

Disclaimer: While Sannotori is problematic, it’s a thing in this AU/fic and the dynamic is not the same as it is in canon.

The Protag Teruya AU was inspired by @/anotherprofessional’s post! Beware of Void spoilers though!

Walking down the path led them to a pier with smaller houses on it. It looked like a place where people mainly sleep. And it didn’t take them long to find someone else in the area. Although when he saw her, he couldn’t help but do a double take. Because if she was a student, she certainly doesn’t dress like one. The hair was the least concerning part of her outfit as it was just a ponytail with long pink hair that ended in a fuschia ombre and held together with a blue bow. The rest…was a different story. Her blue dress showed a lot more skin than he was comfortable seeing, from her chest to her hips. She wore a long boa scarf, skin tight see-through stockings that had a crisscross pattern, blue heels and gold bracelets and a necklace. She hadn’t noticed their approach but he tried his best to keep his gaze at her head. It wasn’t all that hard, to be honest.

“Geez, this is annoying. What are the teachers doing…?” The girl stared off to the side, her fist on top of her chest as if she was trying to keep herself from tensing too much.

“Excuse me.” Mikado was the first to speak, grabbing her attention.

“Huh? Who are you?” She asked, her eyes wide.

“I am Mikado Sannoji, the Ultimate Wizard. Are you another student here, miss…?” The wizard introduces himself as the implied question hangs in the air. She sighs before giving them a smile.

“So you’re a freshman too. I’m Yoruko Kabuya. I hope we can get along.” Yoruko smiled at them and he gave her his best smile as well, even if it was awkward.

“Hi. Uh, I don’t have a name due to my amnesia but, uh, yeah.” He cleared his throat as Yoruko stared at him with wide eyes. He didn’t want to point it out, but this was going to bother him if he didn't ask. “I hope you don’t mind me asking this, but…why are you dressed like that…?”

“H-Hey, I had no choice, y’know? I didn’t want to wear this…We were told to - no, wait you have amnesia. Never mind.” She leaned forward as she clenched her fists, although she quickly became embarrassed upon remembering that he wouldn’t know what she was talking about due to his lack of memories. When he stares at her with confusion, she realizes something else and seems to force herself to relax, straightening her back. “Ah…Right, I haven’t told you my talent yet.” She grimaces before wrapping an arm around her waist and curling her hand near her neck. “You’ll probably take this the wrong way, but…I got in as the Ultimate Hostess.”

“...Oh, that’s not so bad. I thought your talent was something more controversial.” Mikado said, blunt as a rock like always. He still gaped at him for his blatant honesty and Yoruko looked at him like he had grown another head. The wizard tilts his head at them though. “What…? It’s none of my business as to why Ms. Kabuya entered such an age restricted job.”

“Er, yeah…I was having some problems, so I faked my age in order to work. I was sure nobody would be able to find out…” Yoruko trails off before sighing again, looking away. “Buuut I got busted. I dunno how they figured it out, but next thing I knew there was an acceptance letter at work with my name on it…” She closed her eyes, dropping her arms with resignation. “So, they gave me a choice: jail, or Hope’s Peak. So, here I am.”

“What?!” He gawked at her. This was not what he was expecting from Hope’s Peak. He didn’t think the school would go so far as to blackmail a potential student into joining their school. It made him extremely uncomfortable.

“...Well then! I always thought there was something off about that school, and now I’m wishing I didn’t accept the invitation…” Mikado raised his clenched fists, looking like he was trying to restrain himself from showing even more of his frustration. Not that it mattered as his mask had changed into a more angry expression. The sudden change surprised Yoruko enough to take a step back.

“I…I-It’s nice that you two are getting angry on my behalf. Really.” Yoruko crosses her arms. “But it’s not as if I hate the school or anything. I’ll be old enough to work legally in a few years anyway. Since going to Hope’s Peak guarantees success to their students, I figured I can gain some fame here and use that to get a better gig in the future.”

“Still, they just…blackmailed you into attending. That’s a shitty thing to do.” He clenched his fist, pressing it against his chest. Now he really didn’t want to be here.

“Not much I can do about that…I am breaking the law.” She then clenched her teeth, her blue eyes narrowing. “But seeing myself in a place like this instead is just pissing me off. At least you two aren’t trying to take a peep at me…Unless that mask of yours is hiding what you’re really looking at.” She glares at Mikado. The wizard simply stared back, dropping one of his hands as his mask shifts into his normal smile.

“...Would you believe me if I said I was looking at you respectfully, Ms. Kabuya?” Mikado said, and the hostess huffs at him.

“You better be! Honestly, dealing with perverts is nothing new for me…Just don’t take this the wrong way. My job isn’t what you think it is.” Yoruko said, mostly looking at him when she clarified that last part. When he waited for her to elaborate, she didn’t, and he felt too embarrassed to pry any further.

“Anyway…Do you have any idea on how we ended up here on this island?” He felt it was safer to change the subject than to continue talking about her talent.

“Hard not to think about it when we’re supposed to be at Hope’s Peak and yet we’re not.” The hostess puts her hand on her hips and raises her other hand, clearly annoyed. “I went to the place they told me to go to, but then I passed out. When I woke up, I was here on this island. What, were we, like, kidnapped to work as slaves or something?”

“Please no. I don’t want to be forced to work for someone else.” He shuddered at the thought. Even Mikado looked disturbed. Yoruko sighs in agreement.

“Not only that, I’ve got a bad feeling about all of this…” She looks away, concerned. “What are the teachers doing, anyway?” Yoruko drops her arms as she starts to sweat. “Even if it was some kind of event, no one gave us any contract or extra notice.”

“I’ve never been in a school environment, but that sounds about right.” Mikado said, casually dropping another piece of information about himself that left him shocked. But he kept talking before he could point it out. “Any authority figure worth their salt would at least keep us informed on what they wish to do for their pupils. I can’t help but feel like everyone is a little too relaxed about this whole thing…”

“And I can’t believe I had to stop working because of this…” Yoruko said, almost as if she was in silent agreement with the wizard next to her.

“Wow, uh…sounds like you’re hardworking, Yoruko.” He complimented, as that was the only thing he could think to do at the moment. He didn’t have any memories of school even though he still had his general knowledge without those educational experiences. So he couldn’t really give his own opinion on that in general.

“Oh, uh…thank you…” Yoruko starts but quickly trails off, as if realizing that he didn’t give her a name, so the sentence ended on an awkward note.

“Well, it’s unfortunate, but it seems you don’t know any details either, right?” Mikado sighs, almost sounding like he was exhausted. Yoruko crosses her arms again.

“Nah, I’ve been trying to look around though. I just hope nothing bad happens…”

“Same here. We’ll see you around?” He nods his head at her and she smiles a little bit.

“Yeah, it was nice to meet you…even without a name. Good luck with your amnesia.” The hostess walks away to explore elsewhere. The two of them then turned towards each other.

“Well that was enlightening…in more ways than one.” Mikado said, and he can see him crossing his arms underneath his cape. He nods slightly in agreement.

“Hope’s Peak seems to be, um…really determined to research talent.” He frowns, pressing his hand against his chest. “And the more I think about it, the more this situation just doesn’t make any sense.”

“Agreed. I fear we may be in more danger than we realize. And to think that Hope’s Peak is willing to go as far as to commit blackmail…” Mikado said, scratching the back of his head. “Hm…There’s another possibility to this, and I fear it may be one of the worst options out there.”

“Oh, what’s that?” He tilts his head at him, not really grasping Mikado’s train of thought. The wizard pauses, staring down at the ground before looking back at him.

“I’m afraid I’ll be keeping this thought to myself.” When he gaped at him, Mikado’s mask shifts into its giant smile and shrugs. “No offense, my dear. But I’d rather not cause a panic based on a guess that has no evidence to back it up.”

“…Can you at least tell me something?” He asked. He didn’t think Mikado would share his thoughts on what’s happening at the moment. He’s been open so far but it might be just because he liked talking to him or maybe he didn’t think twice about what he’s saying. But…still. “What…kind of life did you live?” The wizard stared at him, the expression of his mask not moving at all. “You seem…out of touch with what’s popular, which, you know, isn’t odd by itself. Maybe you really are the kind of person who doesn’t care about that stuff. But then you mentioned wizards getting persecuted for their magic, that you need to give up your soul to use magic, and then you said you’ve ‘never been in a school environment.’” He hesitates before staring at the mask, trying to make eye contact with his friend. “Are you…okay?”

“…I think you’re looking too deeply into this, my dear.” Mikado said, his tone almost carefully flat. He gulps, wondering if he had pried too deeply. “I was mostly joking.”

“Joking?” He stared at the wizard in disbelief. “None of that stuff sounds like a joke. And you’ve been honest with me since I’ve woken up. I…” He lifts his hand up, even though he didn’t know what to do with it. “I just wanna make sure you’re okay. Because you’re my friend.” Mikado blinks at him, which was at least some sort of reaction.

“…You seem to be able to connect the dots better than I expected. I’m almost impressed.” The wizard said, blinking at him again. “I’m fine. Really. I was mostly pulling on Ms. Nijiue’s leg about trading your soul for the use of magic, and while I’ve never been to a school before, I’ve learned everything I could on my own. As for the persecution…” Mikado tilts his head, his large smile still plastered onto his mask. “They no longer bother me.” He stared, feeling a shiver go down his spine as he tried to comprehend the implications. Mikado pauses before straightening his back and turning his gaze towards something off to the side. “Don’t look now, but it seems we have an audience.”

“Huh?” Despite what Mikado just said, he turns around dumbfounded. Apparently, someone was watching their whole conversation and drilling holes into their heads. That someone has a small but masculine frame, wearing a school uniform that had a teal blazer, gray pants, brown loafers and a black and yellow striped tie. His messy curly blonde hair that was tinged with green at the ends swayed in the wind, and he was glaring down at them with dark gray eyes, gripping onto the railing tightly. Unnerved at the hostile attention, he leaned over towards Mikado, who had moved to stand next to him. “Uh, did we do something wrong?”

“Not that I know of.” Mikado said with a shrug. “I recognize him from the Monocruise. He was trying to talk to one of the girls when I decided to leave the ship.”

“So…he’s a classmate?” He asked, and Mikado shrugged again. He frowns before bringing his attention back to their classmate, who seemed to realize that they’ve noticed him staring. Or rather, glaring. He hesitates, wondering if he should go over and introduce himself or leave so he can catch his fellow student in a better mood next time. But Mikado didn’t seem to be willing to talk about his past beyond little comments and vague details, so he decided to drop the topic and focus on his classmate. Steeling his nerves, he walks across the bridge and up the stairs. The boy’s eyes never left his, and now that he was closer, he could see that his eyes had stars in them and he was wearing a spaceship backpack. He tried to give his classmate a friendly smile. “Uh, hi! I’m your classmate, but uh, I don’t have a name at the moment. Amnesia and stuff. But hey, you can tell me yours, if you want?”

“…To think you have the audacity to approach me as a male. What a disgusting sight.” The boy said with a surprisingly deep voice, squeezing his eyes shut, clutching his chest and rubbing at his head. His own jaw dropped at the response. It’s not like he wasn’t expecting some sort of hostility from him with how he glared at both him and Mikado, but he definitely wasn’t expecting this. “What were you doing with the wonderful Lady Yoruko? Certainly nothing good with scumbags like you.”

“Huh?” If his jaw could fall to the floor, it would by now. He tried to wrap his brain around this boy’s words, his mind clinging to a certain word that stands out. “M-Male…why, uh, I don’t even…what?”

“Oh dear. It seems we have a misandrist in our midst.” Mikado said, near instantaneously appearing behind him. He jolts at his voice but immediately relaxes when he realizes it was just the wizard. The boy, on the other hand, looked like he had swallowed a lemon. “Which is ironic, considering you seem to be male yourself…unless I’m mistaken?”

“…Unfortunately, yes, I am.” The boy crosses his arms, looking off to the side. “But I am so sorry if I upset the both of you. You see, I’m a being that exists solely for women, so I consider males to be insignificant as pebbles in the street.”

“Wow….uh, okay.” He said, mostly because he had nothing else to say. This conversation hasn’t even lasted five minutes and he was already starting to get exhausted. “I’m guessing you’re not willing to talk to us about the situation we’re in, are you?”

“Hmph…” The boy still refuses to look at him directly. But to his surprise, he kept speaking. “We were told to go to a certain location and then suddenly found ourselves on a deserted island.”

“Oh, so you’re not completely clueless.” Mikado said, crossing his arms with flat eyes.

“Of course not! I’m not useless like the rest of you males.” The boy said with a scoff and any sort of appreciation he had immediately disappeared upon hearing him speak. Did he really have to tack on that last sentence? “I can’t say for sure, but I think this might be a kidnapping case or something.” His jaw dropped again, both for the possibility and how casual the boy brought it up as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

“K-Kidnapping?!” His voice rose without really meaning to and he could sense Mikado cringe behind him. He glances at him to see how the wizard was taking in the information, but he didn’t seem surprised. In fact, his mask had shifted back to its giant smile, instead of the wide eyed expression he expected. The boy smiled, still calm as he pointed to the sky.

“There’s no way the school would do something this crazy…Maybe somebody figured they could make some easy cash by ransoming off some of the most talented people in our country, so they kidnapped us.” His reasoning made a lot of sense, even if he didn’t remember his own talent. The boy huffs, pouting as he crosses his arms. “I’ve been kidnapped a lot, so I should know.”

“Hold on, shouldn’t you be more concerned if you’ve been kidnapped so many times? How are you calm?!” He asked, frantic as panic grips his heart again. But then Mikado put his hand on top of his shoulder and he jolted at the touch. The wizard didn’t let go, though, and instead squeezed his shoulder almost gently.

“Calm down. The situation we’re in is unknown but the worst that has happened is that we don’t know how we got here.” Mikado said, and the boy rolled his eyes.

“At least one of you is able to keep your head on straight, for he is right.” The boy’s pout turns into a normal frown. “Realistically-speaking, nothing bad has happened since we’ve arrived, nor are we caged or restrained in any way.” And then, for the first time since they talked to him, he smiles and pats his chest. “I’m just trying to make the best of it.”

“I, uh…I guess?” It didn’t make the situation any less worrisome now that he was aware of the possibility of a mass kidnapping.

“Just because we aren’t locked up in cages doesn’t mean the situation is any better. For all we know, if we did get kidnapped and our kidnappers are allowing us to roam freely, then they must be confident enough to think that we won’t be able to escape from their nefarious plans any time soon.” Mikado reasoned, which he pretty much agreed with. The boy, on the other hand, groaned and face palmed, squeezing his eyes shut.

“Ugghh! Being forced to talk to males gives me a headache…Neither of you even bothered to introduce yourselves!”

“…Uh, I did. I just don’t know my name and talent due to my amnesia.” He recalled, which made the boy open his eyes and pause. He stared at him for a moment before averting his gaze with a simple ‘oh.’ Mikado sighed, slumping his shoulders.

“If you give us your name and talent, I will give you mine. Then we can be done with this poor excuse of a conversation.” The wizard scratches the back of his head in exasperation and apparently that was enough encouragement for the boy to engage.

“Fine. But only because you are actually making some sense. I’m the Ultimate Spaceman, Yuri Kagarin. Do yourselves a favor and remember that.” Yuri, after what felt like hours, finally gave them his name and he never felt more relieved in his short existence of lost memories. They can now finally leave this conversation!

“Mikado Sannoji, Ultimate Wizard. Now-” Mikado grabbed a hold of him and he yelped when his feet suddenly left the ground. “Goodbye, Mr. Kagarin.” And with that, the wizard flew off at a speed that made him scream in fear, leaving Yuri in wide eyed bafflement.

#SDRA2 #Super Danganronpa Another 2 #Protag Teruya AU #Teruya Otori #Mikado Sannoji #Yoruko Kabuya #Yuri Kagarin #Sannotori but Teruya has yet to reciprocate #Terukado but Teruya has yet to reciprocate #SDRA2 Spoilers

[ace-trainer-risu]

what are your fave diana wynne jones books that aren’t howl’s moving castle??

Oh whattt a lovely and fun question which I was definitely not secretly hoping someone would ask!!!! Yay!!

Hm okay so, not specifically in order, probably my top fave Diana Wynne Jones books would be:

Deep Secret! Deep Secret is not just one of my favorite books by DWJ but one of my favorite books full stop! It’s so good. Basically, the premise is that there is an infinite series of interconnected worlds, some of which have magic and some of which don’t, at the center of which is a vast interdimensional magical empire. Magic in the multiverse is overseen by an organization of magicians called Magids and there must always be a specific number of Magids in existence. When Rupert, a young Magid living on Earth, discovers that his mentor has died (ish) he becomes unexpectedly responsible for finding and training the next Magid, which is extremely inconvenient timing for him because the aforementioned magical empire is on the brink of civil war and chaos and its his job to stop it. And also almost all of this takes place at...a science fiction convention. It’s amazing.  I have read this book minimum four (probably more) times and every time it’s absolutely delightful and hilarious. I would like to go to the sci fi convention in this novel more than anything. It’s such a good read and its one of her few novels which is specifically aimed at adults, so I would EXTREMELY recommend it. Plus the romance in it is extremely good...not exactly enemy-to-lovers but more like ‘annoys-the-shit-out-of-each-other’ to lovers.  (**One note about this one...there’s a few very briefly mentioned side characters who are gender noncomforming and even tho they are actually portrayed very positively, it’s not necessarily ideal and 100% respectful (basically the protags comment on them being very beautiful and nice but also keep trying to guess their “real” gender). Additionally there’s a different briefly mentioned side character who is fat who isn’t portrayed very nicely. Both of these are brief incidents, just wanted to provide a warning for them)

Dark Lord of Derkholm - Okay this one is weirdly hard to summarize but it’s about this magical fantasy world which has been taken overy and is being used as a tourist destination by a non-magical world (heavily implied to be Earth) for people who want to role play at being in a classic high fantasy story, including fighting and killing THE DARK LORD...who is really just a random magician pretending to be evil. The inhabitants of the fantasy world do not enjoy this and are trying desperately to stop the tours, but unfortunately according to a magical oracle, their best hope of stopping the tours is this year’s Dark Lord, a hapless farmer magician named Derk, and his, um, eccentric family consisting of his glamorous wife, seven children (of whom five are griffins and one is a bard) and a simply improbable amount of magical animals. And also there is a very good dragon.  I think Derkholm is so great as a novel b/c it’s a very funny, loving but sharp, parody of high fantasy stories...but a lot of the time parodies only function as parodies but not as good stories in their own right, you know? But this novel completely functions as a story too, and in fact the first time I read at maybe age nine or ten, the high fantasy parody went completely over my head...but I still loved it. I also really love that this novel is very accessible to all ages, I think I enjoy reading it as an adult just as much as I did as a kid, which is rare.  For anyone who has read Howl’s Moving Castle but nothing else by DWJ and isn’t sure where to start, I think this is a great place to start. (TW: There’s a brief, non-explicit scene which has implied sexual assault.) 

Fire and Hemlock - This may be the most controversial one since it features a romance with a significant age gap where the two characters meet when one is a child and the other an adult. And I fully agree that that’s :/ and normally that trope is NOT my thing but it doesn’t come off at all creepy in this story imo, and if you think you can deal with that then this is a very weird, atmospheric, cool book about storytelling and fairy tales and growing up. The short summary (this is another hard to summarize one) is that as a child, Polly encounters and strikes up a friendship and correspondence with a young man, Tom, which mainly consists of the two of them jointly making up a silly, ongoing fairy tale type story...but things get weird when parts of their story start to come true in real life.  I’ve only read this one twice but it really stuck with me and in fact just describing it here...really makes me want to read it again!

The Chrestomanci Series - So all of the above are either specifically aimed at adults or a general audience whereas the Chrestomanci series is aimed at children, mainly a middle grade type audience. And tbh I started reading them as a kid (fond memory - I bought an omnibus of the first two with my allowance money...b/c it had a cat on the cover!) so I don’t know what it would be like to first read these as an older teen or an adult. BUT. Honestly they are really good and would be a quick read so I do still recommend them. There’s seven overall, with th seventh being a collection of short stories, and they’re only semi-chronological so the reading order isn’t vital. My recommended order (b/c this the order I read them in, haha) is Charmed Life, The Lives of Christopher Chant, The Magicians of Caprona, Witch Week, The Pinhoe Egg, Conrad’s Fate, and then Mixed Magic you can read whenever you want so long as you read it after Charmed Life and The Magicians of Caprona.  So the very core premise of it is not dissimilar to Deep Secret - there’s an infinite series of worlds/universes and there’s a magician, called the Crestomanci in this case, who is responsible for making sure magic isn’t abused across the multiverse. The Chrestomanci is an extremely powerful enchanter who has nine lives, and the novels are various semi-connected stories about the adventures of Chrestomanci as an adult and child. Chrestomanci is a title so it’s not always the same person, but for the majority of the stories it is the same guy and he’s...the best/worst...He’s this extremely handsome, charismatic, powerful enchanter who is very good at his job, loves his wife a lot, wears very beautiful clothes and makes, um, questionable life choices and is very annoying to everyone. I’ve thought about this very hard and I believe that he’s what happens when you take a fundamentally chaotic good person and make him do a fundamentally lawful good job; yes, he’s going to do it and do it well, but he is going to do it in the most chaotic, ridiculous way possible, and he IS going to die at an ALARMING rate, doing things that would not normally kill a person, such as playing cricket and trying to catch stray cats. He also, as previously mentioned, frequently wears very dramatic silk dressing gowns with elaborate embroidery, which the protag of Charmed Life finds deeply alarming.  It’s very odd to me how these books don’t seem to be well known, because the Chrestomanci books were some of my absolute favorite books as a child. I still have my omnibus editions of the first four novels and they are very worn and very beloved. And it’s so WILD to me that I don’t think I have ever talked to someone who also read those as a kid! Like I’m not saying those people don’t exist, I’m sure I just haven’t met them, but that’s so weiiirddddd to me. If I bring up Tamora Pierce or Garth Nix or other authors of weird, eccentric children’s fantasy novels to other avid childhood consumers of fantasy, people usually know what I mean, but Chrestomanci and its just..crickets. Is it b/c she’s British? Anyway all of the Chrestomanci books are very degrees of good, but if I had to pick a favorite, I think, controversial choice here, it would be Conrad’s Fate. Particularly in terms of recommendations to others, Conrad’s Fate works as a standalone and, unlike the other books in the series, it’s aimed more at a YA audience, so if you wanted to read a Chrestomanci novel without getting into the whole series, that’s a good way to go. It’s about a boy, Conrad, who is told that he has a terrible, possibly fatal Fate awaiting him unless he goes to work as a servant at a wealthy, and weird, estate neighboring his town, at which place he encounters things including color changing livery, an extremely annoying teenage Chrestomanci, and the greatest liminal space house EVER. It’s like a combination of an upstairs/downstairs Downton Abbey type social drama with bizarre fantasy shenanigans. How could that not be good??

Also as Honorable Mentions - A Sudden and Wild Magic and The Time of the Ghost. A Sudden and Wild Magic is fun b/c it’s one of her few works aimed specifically at adults and it’s (gasp) a little bit NAUGHTY which I was very surprised and delighted by when I read it. (This may seem like an unfair statement considering that Deep Secret fully has an orgy in it, but Rupert is so fundamentally unnaughty of a character that he completely unnaughtifies the whole novel, whereas Sudden and Wild Magic embraces being a (little bit) naughty.)   The Time of the Ghost on the other hand is weird and haunting and creepy and atmospheric. I only read it once but it’s one of those novels you just think about periodically and go “wait what the fuck that was a weird novel” (Also known as the “Garth Nix” effect) 

#the ask and the answer #i spent...too long writing this out but i love talking about her novels soo muchhhh #that i couldn't help myself!!!!!!!! #diana wynne jones #things you didn't care to know about veronica

[albatris]

ok ok alriiiight ok so the plot of ATDAO

this post is not, like........... well, it’s not gonna be a blurb or a summary or a nice neat synopsis, this is not Professional Writeblr Business, this is, this is, uhhhh

this is like drunk house party logan rambles

works best if you imagine ur just like “hey man how’s it going” super casual and I grasp you firmly by the shoulders and look you dead in the eye and just ramble all of this without taking a single breath

could I have explained in a nice neat concise "elevator pitch" sort of way? probably. mind ur business. that’s not how we do things here at albatris.org

anyway the purpose of this post is “hey people seem to know a lot about the characters and the worldbuilding and the premise but have no clue what happens in the actual story” so I’m not going to be talking about said characters and worldbuilding and premise in depth

in terms of rambles, that stuff’s been covered! this post assumes you know what Ports are, n what the nature of the ATDAO apocalypse is, vaguely what the MCs are like as people......... though I can fetch this info for you if you like

but yeah if you are coming into this post with zero prior ATDAO knowledge........... deeply deeply from the bottom of my heart: sorry

also if this is your first time experiencing One Of These Rambles

also @safe-in-the-steep-cliffs​ and @siarven​ I am tagging you because you said you would like to be tagged and also hi and also I hope y’all knew what you were in for

anyway without further ado

(visual representation of my approach to this rant, not of how complicated my plot actually is)

(my plot is not that complicated)

ALRIGHT

there are two viewpoint characters! and two plotlines which converge near the end of the story, but honestly there’s a very real possibility I will decide these are two separate books meant as companion stories to each other because I love making things difficult for myself yeehaw

ATDAO’s co-protags are Tris and Noa, best buds four years and counting. their friendship is one of the single most important aspects of the story, n the ongoing love and trust they have for each other despite the way unfolding events force their relationship to change is integral to the themes and making the heart of the story what it is. I will now proceed to not mention this friendship for the entire remainder of this post. they’re bros. that’s all u need to know. listen. listen. I have a lot to cover

so yeah, ur first key player is Tris Greer, whose parents are dicks but whose siblings are chill. most notably of said siblings there is Jacob, older brother by thirteen years, whom Tris believes is just about the coolest person on the entire planet. this plotline kicks off when Jacob gets caught in the midst of a freak car accident that kills a dude and wrecks a street corner and also somehow causes Jacob to just kind of................. blip out of existence entirely and without a trace?

n Tris is understandably horrified and distressed by Very Much All Of This, but hey, at least there are responsible adults who can look into this obviously Port-related weird disappearance and figure this mess out, right?

INCORRECT

the relevant interdimensional authorities are brought in to suss out the situation and these authorities are kind of like “hmmmm idk about this” but are all set to take Tris at least somewhat seriously until they learn the following:

that Jacob had already been reported missing to police in his home state three days earlier

that Jacob was in the midst of several ongoing personal crises and at least one nervous breakdown

that Jacob was allegedly tangled up in some real weird shit that would more than account for a disappearance under suspicious circumstances

that Tris is schizophrenic, prone to hallucinations, confusion, memory issues and quote unquote “letting his imagination and anxiety get the better of him”, and precisely zero people can actually corroborate his story that Jacob was even there are the time of the accident to begin with

and after some back-and-forth and Looking Into The Evidence pretty much everyone in any position of authority comes to the conclusion that this is just Ordinary Regular People Crimes and whatever happened to Jacob had nothing to do with weird apocalyptic energies, and that Tris is (at best) stressed out and delusional or (at worst) lying through his teeth because he knows more than he’s letting on

so Tris is forced to hop pretty quick from “I’m sure someone will handle this” to “no one believes me but I’m sure if I can find some concrete proof they’ll listen and someone will handle it” to Well Fuck I Guess That Someone Is Me

cue bizarre reality-hopping fantasy quest, which is ten times easier said than done when most of the time Tris is terrified enough just, like, going to the supermarket

he enlists the help of his new classmate Shara, amateur paranormal investigator and professional weird-bullshit enthusiast, who agrees to help him puzzle out what the fuck happened to Jacob in exchange for his assistance in mapping out Adelaide’s interdimensional “fault lines” as part of her ongoing quest to track down the source of the apocalypse

she’s got big fuckin dreams, ok, go hard or go home

slso worth noting at this point that there HAS been an uptick in Ports and their related reality-bending strangeness in Adelaide recently which is why this is of particular interest to her currently. gotta find out What Makes The Weirdness Tick, gotta find out Why The Sudden Extra Weirdness

..........and also Kai is there

Kai has no nice neat reason to get involved with the plot, Kai just likes drama and being all up in people’s personal business. Tris brings them on board for one single afternoon like “hey I will pay you some money to come to my house and fix my fucked up phone so I can listen to an interdimensional voicemail” but forgot the apparently key addendum “and then leave”

their first three chapters of knowing each other is basically Tris being like “stop inviting yourself into my house we are not friends” and Kai being like “that’s a rude thing to say to your friend. also your sister gave me the netflix password and I used your kitchen to bake pastries feel free to help yourself”

but yeah so Tris’s story mostly focuses on his quest to figure out where Jacob got yeeted to and how to get him safely home (y’all probably know a bit about The Unreality already maybe?), whilst also dealing with rising family tensions, whatever shifty stuff Jacob was involved with prior to his disappearance, and his own creeping doubts about his perceptions of reality

n I’m also saying flat out it’s not a plot that’s going the “oh the whole thing was just a delusion all along” route because ew

his psychosis is a fairly involved part of his character but the explorations around it are more to do with, like......... the difficulties he has in trusting himself and whether he has the luxury of letting himself get swept into some Big Weird Implausible Adventure when this has extremely different implications for him than it would someone else. n eventually to how his success and survival is not ~in spite of~ but specifically because of the different way he understands and interprets the world and the skills he’s developed

THAT TANGENT WAS A PERSONAL RANT IT WAS NOT RELEVANT I just have words to say on the subject of how psychosis is treated in fiction and didn’t want people jumping to the “none of it is real” conclusion anyway ok moving on

ur SECOND key player is Noa Yun, who has rather a lot on her plate right now. she’s broke as fuck and her mum is sick and her car is making Noises and she’s not getting enough hours at her job at Not-IKEA and everyone is on her back about her failing studies as if that’s a thing she has the energy to care about. feeling rather backed into a corner by life’s bullshit and her financial situation, she blatantly lies her way into a field job at the Department of Interdimensional Instabilities, because A) surely it can’t be THAT bad, and B) what does she have to lose?

so more or less what she’s doing is the equivalent of emergency services for Port-related weirdness, it’s going out and dealing with highly unstable otherworldly energies head on, navigating Weird Phenomena and bendy patches in reality......... it is, among other things, a job that’s relatively easy to get into because no one wants to touch it with a ten foot pole unless they absolutely have to

n the DII is a whole other post, this shit has lots of different functions and levels and branches and corruption and secrets and a tendency to view workers who have to go out and deal with the brunt of the apocalypse head-on as vaguely expendable and I’ve talked about it a bit before and in more Serious Words

things kinda kick off for her when in true Noa fashion she hurls herself into a dangerous situation to help out a coworker, n enters a pretty standard issue “overlap” where the barriers between universes are a little fucky, but hey, she seems to come out of it with nary a scratch, so it’s reasonable to assume everything is fine, right?

INCORRECT AGAIN

she basically gets some whacked-out otherworldly energies latched onto her that are now following her through her everyday life, and it turns out she’s starting to bend the reality around her the way certain types of Ports do, which is! obviously not ideal! she’s not exactly a Port herself, because she’s pretty sure that’s impossible, but it’s clear capital s Something happened to her in that overlap, and she doubts it’s good news. and to make matters even more disconcerting, she’s now being dogged at every step by strange visions of a child who speaks in an unfamiliar language and who seems Real Fuckin Pissed at her

so her thing is basically “I acquired fucked up reality-bending powers against my will and they might be lowkey killing me ‘cause Ports are notoriously unstable like that and also I’m haunted for some godforsaken reason” which all somehow ended up being, like, the least interesting part of her plotline for me lmao

oh and Noa also enlists the help of Shara, Because Ghosts

anyway yeah so her search to find out what’s happening to her re: Weird Children, being a Port-adjacent something-or-other, and whether there’s a way to stop her own unravelling leads her to (rogue computer programmer? mad scientist? general shifty bastard?) Laurence Marrick Thiele, who claims to have suffered a similar affliction in the past and now does some real interesting research on the subject. n this guy. well. he’s got some fuckin stuff going on

he definitely knows more about the nature of Ports than he should. also is he actually researching what he says he’s researching? also what’s with all the weird tech? also did he just straight up murder that guy Avery? all will be revealed later, maybe, if I feel like it

but yeah at about the same time as Noa goes “actually fuck this you’re shady as hell I’m out” she stumbles into, like, The Actual Reality of what Marrick is up to re: manipulating Ports and interdimensional doorways for his own gain, and the various ways this spells bad news not only for her but potentially for the entire city and anyone unfortunate enough to get caught in the crossfire, and she shifts gear to “actually you know what I’m gonna kick your ass”

there are various reasons for this, but first and foremosterly you have to understand that Noa’s got a fuckload of pent-up rage and she will bring it in full force the moment you say some stupid shit like “some people are expendable” or “it’s inevitable for the greater good”

(there’s also a fun ongoing subplot with her work at the DII where she and her team are investigating a string of strange illnesses with bizarre symptoms that appear to be spreading via obscure radio stations so that’s. happening. I guess?)

but yeah the main story here mostly follows Noa’s attempts to undermine Marrick, bastard supreme, and find a way to fuck him up before he goes, like, Full Cartoon Supervillain, n also like........... her attempts to keep up her work at the DII despite her rising paranoia that the teammates she’s growing to care about will notice her increasingly unstable state and the fact that she’s all tangled up with the very forces they’re meant to be thwarting. n along the way discovering the reality of what happened to her in The Aforementioned Overlap Incident and about her visions and such

so that’s all that. did that make sense

n she’s got a whole arc going on about trust and learning to lean on others, like, she comes into this story as a very standoffish person with lots of paranoia, she’s spent much of her life feeling like she can only rely on herself, n she’s. well. yeah, like I said, she’s got a lot of anger at the world and at the various systems that have failed her and her loved ones, n the story puts her in a position to become even more isolated

and her plotline isn’t so much “you have no reason to be angry or afraid” or her learning to Not Be, It’s more, like........... yeah you have every fucking right to be furious and of course you’re afraid! but there are people around you who love you and who will jump at the chance to defend you and who will help you carry the weight of your anger and grief and none of this needs to be yours to bear alone which is extremely cheesy

which applies to both her Weird Supernatural Goings-On as well as her regular ordinary life goings-on

I feel like Alice and Jet deserve a mention for Noa’s plotline but also this went on and on too long already so. well. Alice and Jet exist! yep. they work with Noa at the DII. I have things to say about them. I will not be saying them today

and uhhhhhh

in general, for Tris, his plotline, you wanna think, like, fantasy/adventure vibes which veer pretty sharply into horror, and for Noa you wanna think...... kinda, sci-fi mystery conspiracy vibes with a dash of some superhero bullshit maybe except not really

and that

pretty much is it I think

also the fact that Kai just invites themself into the plot for funsies and then is dragged kicking and screaming into caring about themself and making positive changes in their life means there was no convenient place in this post to be like

"oh there's also a whole major subplot about a time loop"

but there's also a whole major subplot about a time loop

goodnight! thanks for coming to....................... whatever this was! have a nice saturday everyone

#alcohol mention #just in the first little intro bit #being concise is not my strong suit! this should be apparent perhaps #tl;dr #tris's brother jacob gets lost down the back of an interdimensional sofa and tris has gotta go get him back even though #he's terrified enough just leaving the house let alone leaving this entire reality on a stupid convoluted mystery quest #and noa has a run in with some interdimensional bullshit and acquires Powers and A Ghost neither of which she wants #and then accidentally uncovers the schemes of literal cartoon supervillain marrick and is like #''oh sick i was looking for a reason to go absolutely fuckin ballistic and fuck someone's shit up'' #And Both Of Them Make Nice Friends And Learn To Love Themselves :) #atdao #i constantly walk the very fine line between not wanting to be Too Vague about noa's plotline vs not wanting to be Too Spoilery about it #like............... the stuff about the kid and about marrick's endgame i'm never quite sure how much to delve into hahahaha #but yeah anyway #imo i only went on ONE mildly unrelated tangent which should have been cut but i decided to indulge it instead #which is the couple paragraphs about noa's character arc #character arcs not important for this post!!!!!! but also. dfkhgkdfjshg. try and stop me #(i mean i did pretty ok staying on track for the most part i think) #(still a rambly post though)

[chrismerle]

what’s up i spent way too long typing up a post about my thoughts on P5S, and it isn’t even all encompassing. i guess if you’re curious about anything i didn’t mention in this trainwreck just ask.

my spoiler-heavy thoughts/pseudo-review below the cut

THINGS I LIKED:

The characterization, broadly speaking. If you, like me, loved the Thieves in P5/P5R then you’ll be pretty happy with them here. There are a couple moments that made me roll my eyes (lookin’ at you, hot springs) but on the whole, the main cast are unchanged.

The new characters. Sophia and Zenkichi are great. Sophia is precious and Zenkichi straddles a very fine line of ‘realistically out of the loop, but gives as good as he gets.’ I don’t even care how silly their costumes were. Sophie looked like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man, though I did like her little emoticon visor, but also she had no pants. Wolf’s mask was badass but the fact that his stupid pointy hat was riveted to the top of his stupid disco high collar killed it and I wanted to see someone grab his hat and pull it back to see it fling back into place like a drinky-drinky bird. Even so, the characters were great, and when I noticed that all the attacks for Sophie’s initial pseudo-Persona had question marks after them (Kouga? Dia?), it made me laugh, and Wolf’s a good all-purpose party member because he hits like a fucking truck and nothing is immune to Almighty. Plus in some of his post-battle dialogue he calls them all ‘kiddos’ and they consistently call him Gramps.

The gameplay. I mean, yeah, it’s VERY different than P5, but you all know that. And hey! The game no longer immediately ends if Joker gets knocked out (unless he’s the only one left in the party, obviously). It ran pretty smoothly, there’s something weirdly charming about the other Thieves showing up perched on cover points, and the only consistent issue I ran into is that in segments where the camera gets forced into a certain angle, it can switch back so abruptly at the end that you accidentally go walking right off a ledge.

I’ve never really played a Dynasty Warriors-type game before, so it took me a Jail or so to get used to it, but then I was just cackling as I mowed down swarms of Jack Frosts like a weed-whacker in a flower field with a knife the size of Joker’s torso. Honestly, it took me the longest to get used to the fact that the circle button became the all-purpose ‘interact’ button than anything else.

Actually, that’s a lie. It took me the longest to get used to the fact that if I left a Jail, I wouldn’t be losing any time. I’m very used to Persona games having the calendar constantly counting down, which wasn’t the case here.

The story, broadly speaking. It had some hiccups and some issues, which I’ll get into, but for the most part, it was fun. I’m...not going to outline every detail of the story here, but it felt very P5-y and I enjoyed it.

THINGS I LIKED BUT THAT NEEDED WORK:

The writing. It was a little inconsistent, beyond just the usual weirdness that I have accepted comes along with Persona games. (//patiently clicks through numerous conversations of the gang going ‘did this super obvious thing that this memory threw in our faces happen? Let’s debate about whether the most likely answer by a huge margin is the answer’ and several conversations of ‘are we sure this person is bad? We saw them playing nice, like literally every other villain we’ve faced’) A lot was great! Like, the bit with the Okinawa locals breaking into the RV while the kids hide in the bushes? Genuinely unsettling! Akane’s Jail and the fake Thieves was fun, and seeing Zenkichi scuttle from hiding place to hiding place without Thief powers was funny, and his Shadow’s glowing eyes watching him before becoming his Persona was both badass and unsettling. The realization that EMMA was actively lying to Konoe was nice. Character interactions were great and I loved that Sophia went with Ichinose at the end. There was a lot that was good. But there were also a lot of missteps.

Like, it kind of felt like the direction for the writing changed partway through. It started out as if each member of the Phantom Thieves was going to get their own time to shine, identifying and empathizing with a Monarch. Ann realized she could have been Alice. Yusuke realized he could have been Ango and also saw redeeming him as sort of like redeeming Madarame by proxy. Mariko was a link to Haru’s childhood and her father. The ghost Jail on Okinawa lured Sophie in and by the end she realized how much she meant to her friends ryuji said fuck. Akane was Zenkichi’s literal daughter. And then it went to Konoe and then EMMA, so Ryuji, Futaba, Morgana, Makoto, and Joker didn’t get a chance to shine in that regard. The switch from ‘a Jail for everyone to identify with’ to ‘whelp here’s the decoy and the end boss’ felt like they came from two separate drafts of the script, and it’s not like they had to watch the time; I got through P5S in about a third the time it took me to get through P5R. It took me about 35 hours. Considering the game kind of relies on you having played P5, they already knew their target audience has a longer attention span than that.

Owada was talked up as kind of a big deal, but he had like two scenes on-screen and otherwise was an entirely off-screen character. There’s a lot of mid-combat dialogue that is very difficult to focus on, which was sort of annoying when some of it was actually relevant. Ichinose’s reveal as a villain is very info-dump-y.

Plus, Joker wasn’t utilized particularly well as a silent protagonist. He’s got more implied personality than basically any other Persona protag. Which means he’s actually pretty expressive throughout the game, but I can probably count his lines of dialogue outside of combat with fingers left over. No one expects Yu Narukami to actually react to anything, so it doesn’t feel odd when he doesn’t. But the combination of Joker being reasonably expressive and having a demonstrated personality means you’re perpetually EXPECTING and WANTING him to say something about the shit going on, and when he doesn’t it feels like mentally missing a stair.

THINGS THAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

The cut corners. Like, a lot of things just seem lazy. There were scenes that really should have been included that weren’t, like how the Thieves escaped from the hotel after the police showed up; it cut from Zenkichi warning them and getting arrested to them arriving at the temporary hideout, so we never even got to see how the Thieves reacted to realizing the cops were outside. Requests to bond with the other Thieves only got a couple of text boxes, when they could have shown a tiny scene of them hanging out like they had all over P5. Rather than having Sae actually on-screen for her brief scene, the camera instead very unnaturally switched to an angle as if it was from her point of view, which was literally the only time the camera did that in the entire game. All of the Sentries look the same from Jail to Jail, instead of being unique to each Jail. Igor is completely absent for the entire game, and other than a throwaway ‘my master can’t be here’ from Lavenza it’s just not really acknowledged.

The missed opportunities. Like, there is no way to look at this except to assume that Joker was a horrible friend to literally everyone in this world state. Like, I can pass off the fact that everyone has their baseline Personae as being because they haven’t had access to their powers for a while, but when you combine it with the fact that NONE of Joker’s other confidants show up or even know he’s back in Tokyo, it leaves little to assume except that in this world, no confidants got maxed out. On top of that, the Personae are all basically pointless. They could be Pokemon or Stands or Digimon or fucking YuGiOh cards, and it wouldn’t make a difference; NOTHING about the game says ‘these entities are integral to this world and important to these characters.’ Also they could have had Akane actually realize who the Thieves were and it would have been hysterical, but that’s just my personal sulk.

The Requests. I liked the Mementos missions in P5/P5R. They felt like they had a point. Requests in P5S are all basically just fetch quests. ‘Go to Location A, fight so many of Enemy B to get so many of Item C. Turn in Request.’ Hell, one of them bugged out on me, I swear. There’s a Request to teach Zenkichi how to cook a simple meal, and Haru gives you a recipe including beef. I had no beef on me at the time, because if you want SP restoratives you gotta cook a fair amount and I used it, and I could find literally no beef in the city I was in at the time so I had to abandon the Request. On top of that, outside of getting food or a few moments where another character specifically asks for Joker’s attention, character-specific Requests mostly replace the ability to bond with the other characters individually.

The restoratives. Or, more specifically, the disparity between HP restoratives and SP restoratives. There’s essentially one cookable recipe to restore SP for every four recipes to restore HP. Even if I stopped at every store and vending machine, I’m pretty sure there were a couple cities where I could find NO SP restoratives for sale, while most stores and vending machines had at least two or three HP restoratives. And while it is true that you can go in and out of a Jail whenever you please to restore SP, that doesn’t help you if you run out during a boss fight you weren’t expecting (mini-boss encounters are virtually identical to regular monster encounters) or during one of the times where you CAN’T leave the Jail for reasons XYZ.

The final boss, and not just because I died and had to start over a few times. As a concept, EMMA could be cool, but in reality she just seemed like the writers threw Yaldabaoth and Maruki in a blender and poured the results into the game. Like Yaldabaoth, she is a false god who seeks to control humanity, claiming it’s what they want. Like Maruki, she seems genuinely deluded into thinking it’s for the best and that she’s not doing anything wrong. Her Jail looked like a slightly sci-fi reskin of the Depths of Mementos. The shtick with the multiple platforms and getting to actually SEE an all-out attack at the end were nice, but for the most part the fight itself was nothing special. Ultimately, EMMA had nothing unique going for her except her name.

Plus, EMMA’s entire rationale was that the majority of humans want someone else to control their lives for them, essentially out of convenience. And she’s presented as being more or less right, but that just being one of the hurdles of being human. It seemed a little dour and far-fetched. Like, the Thieves repeatedly point out that struggling allows people to grow, and they’re right, but in my experience, I’ve never actually met anyone who, upon hitting a roadblock, decided ‘Jesus take the wheel.’ Considering the greed with which her weird tentacle arms snatched up the solidified Desires, the pettiness of the complaints she used as a “gotcha,” and the fact that she just kind of reiterates her ‘people want to be controlled’ point over and over, I think it would have felt a bit more true to life and given her more agency if, instead of presenting her as largely correct, it instead acknowledged that everyone at some time or another hits a wall and wants someone to tell them what to do and had her capitalizing on those individual brief moments to hook people in, despite her having reams of data that for most people, those moments are temporary.

#persona 5 strikers #persona 5 strikers spoilers

[dansiere]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm. tagged by: @breselin, & @citialiin; thank you for the tag! I was planning on stealing it. tagging: @rosiqe, @noirtux, @goldgliitters, @ndeavor,  @reminiscentsky, @battleshell, @ettards & whoever else wants to do this. Just steal it & tag me. -- go wild.

My muse is:   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless / complicated [loosely affiliated mainly due to the fandom’s size. I am quite open to crossovers of any kind, really even if it takes me a while to open up.]

Is your character popular in the fandom? YES / NO. [she is one of the deuteragonists; has been around since the pilot & while she has been sidelined during the epilogue, she was usually at least around with her story arc / actions having a huge impact on the overall story as such.]

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK. [I guess so? Then again, that’s an objective statement so I am just? Assuming? I personally find her general aesthetics to be quite amazing; she is a dance battler, graceful & elegant; a ballerina with a classical theme that runs through her design & attitude like a red threat. I have a weak spot for stuff like that.]

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK. [surprisingly, Pearl is considered to be the strongest non-fusion Crystal Gem according to the show (until Lapis Lazuli comes around). -- I assume prowess wise Pearl is high up next to Garnet & Rose whenever she can actually get her crap together due to having fought countless battles &, most importantly, survived the war in which she fought & shattered opponents thrice her size.]

Are they underrated?  YES / NO / IDK. [partially yes, partially no. She is controversial for sure but just as popular. At some point, the show delved deeper into her issues & actually had her mess up quite severely; the fandom’s reaction was so harsh that the showrunners had to interfere by “apologizing for making her human”. Pearl has always been a target for extreme criticism; some of it justified, some just straight down ridiculous.  -- It’s easy to forget what kind of complexity a character can offer when her resolution arc happens literally ten episodes before the show ends.]

Were they relevant for the main story?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant for the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG. [Pearl becomes Steven’s guardian / mentor after the death of his mother Rose Quartz & can later be considered his stand-in mother alongside Garnet. It is safe to say that her actions have influenced Steven the most, both negatively & positively.]

Are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO. [she earned herself the title ‘The Renegade’ during the war for being the first (& arguably only) pearl that broke out of her conditioning; she used to be a wanted criminal / traitor to her own kind for 5000 + years until her record was cleared upon the beginning of Era 3 (aka official end of the Gem War). She is still being referred to as ‘The Renegade’ now & then; while she used to be proud of the title she has grown to resent it a lot these days.]

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. [it depends on who you ask; Homeworld Soldiers? Well, they despise her; she is a defective Gem & a war criminal. She stands for all that is wrong with the rebellion; I mean a pearl who refuses to serve & calls herself an individual? a warrior? THE SCANDAL!! Some soldiers are afraid of her, call her ‘Rose Quartz’ terrifying renegade’, even. However, in her ranks aka the rebellion, she is being seen as a silent heroine. A celebrated war hero, Rose Quartz’s right hand & sole confidante (some even whisper that there is more between them).]

How strictly do you follow canon?  — uh... well. Not really but... kinda? Steven Universe’s canon is messy & occasionally QUITE inconsistent. -- while it gives you vague details, some lore can best be compared to a gaping void. Thus my reason for partial divergence isn’t lack of good character writing (because Pearl is very, very complex even on screen), but rather inconvenient lore holes & SU’s habit of leaving important facts uncommented, “unshown” or just stuck between the lines. While I don’t mind deep analysis, some of those “buried facts” fly other people’s heads which leads to terrible, terrible fanon takes. -- in order to distance myself from that, I usually take canon & expand it with my own headcanons & metas based on lore / show analysis. I often alter / cut what does not fit my narrative BUT I always root my stuff in actual canon occurrences.

     Sometimes, I just straight down change certain things that canon messed up in my pov. For example, in order to make it explicitly clear that she fell in love & rebelled on her own volition (even if it has been confirmed like ten times by now), my Pearl is around 1500 years older than the original & (in)directly served White Diamond before being handed to Pink (not the only reason for that change but well I will elude on it eventually). She was a default pearl with no customization & usually spent most of her time with organizing matters in the palace until Pink accidentally broke her customized pearl; Pearl was then 'poofed’ & handed over; she possessed a more sensible personality & a strict rule protocol that was supposed to help her “raise” Pink Diamond into the ranks of a ruler. Most other changes are rather minor but very important or essential to my portrayal (for example whenever “A Single Pale Rose” is concerned: Pearl suggesting the “sealing of the secret”, her not wearing the dress from the beginning, her not calling Pink “my diamond”, her arguing with Pink long before the fake-shattering took place, etc etc.); the epilogue series is another can of worms I will get to eventually but lemme just say I didn’t really like the way Pearl behaved / the plot-bound ooc-ness she sometimes yielded to & other stuff. 

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.  —  well, she is a lesbian space rock from a strange universe; whose body is basically a manifestation of light? She is probably the most passionate being you will ever meet. -- if you are looking for a speedrun through human history, she is your gal. If you need someone to beat up some bullies, she will gladly come & smack sense into people; if you want to learn everything about Gemkind, sit down & listen because she won’t stop talking any time soon. 

     By definition, Pearl is a good person; the extreme loyal kind, absolutely & helplessly dedicated to a cause. She wears most of her emotions on her sleeve, comes off as genuinely caring, protective & trustworthy. She is empathetic & observant, she will always be there for you in one way or another. She is smart, loves to read & indulges in the higher arts such as (romantic) poetry, singing, painting, music (violin, piano, bass) & dance (predominately classic ballet / waltz but she has grown rather fond of jazz lately). Her knowledge about Earth & all that lays beyond is vast & if you ever want to see whatever is out there, she is the type to take you on a space tour with no questions asked. She fences, has learned to wield a lance, can engineer very well, has a very peculiar but... sorta adorable kind of humour that can either be hella obnoxious or super funny. There is no in-between. Pearl loves science, baking, housekeeping, ice-& roller-skating & is more than willing to take people along whenever she visits the rink. If you ask her for advice, she will gladly give it; if you need help, she will be the first to raise her hand. Pearl is orderly, has a strong sense of justice & a fierce, dedicated kind of resolve. 

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  —  Pearl. Is. A. Mess. No questions asked. She is an introverted, nervous, neurotic, grief-- & trauma riddled mess who loves to pretend & rationalize things to death. Her self-esteem is abysmal, she is extremely jealous, obsessive & possessive [to the point where she straight up murdered men just because they dared to be around her girlfriend]. Her mind is a compartmentalized mess of repressed memories & heavy, untreated cptsd woven into it; Pearl lives too much inside her head & gets overwhelmed by her emotions far too easily; she feels too much all at once & lets her temper get the best of her. 

     She is self-centred, does not seem to understand that words & reckless actions hurt people, believes that only she deserves to grieve Rose & willingly destroyed relationships just to soak in her own misery; self-destruction is her forte & she will indulge in it no matter the consequences. She is often high-strung, judgemental, always has to be right, overachieves & overdoes whenever a chance is given. -- she can be petty, arrogant & desperate for validation. --  Needless to say, Pearl is the kind of person that pretends to be fine for years but once she cracks she reveals that she is anything but. -- she cannot move on, hates men, & just is a lot to deal with. Getting in touch with her means you run the risk to get dragged into her mess, whenever you want it or not. 

What inspired you to rp your muse?  —  first & foremost, my love for complex, purpose-driven female characters. I am a sucker for the “introvert, plagued lady” type & once parts of Pearl’s past were revealed during Season 1 I was sold. Pearl seemed relatable to me, extremely human & raw in her behaviour. While I love most of the SU cast equally, Pearl just wouldn’t let me go. Her aesthetic is amazing, her past intriguing. -- her connection to ballet & classical music, her elegant & graceful design just spoke to me. 

What keeps your inspiration going?  —  music. music. oh, and music. Poetry, long walks (I am not kidding), analysis, meta & hc writing, discussions with writing partners or my rl partner @rosiqe.

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO / I SINCERELY HOPE I DO? [ despite my emo peculiar take on the character, I do hope that people hear her voice whenever they read my replies. ]

Do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO / SORT OF? [ I wish I could post more but I am very, very slow & a perfectionist at heart. -- I try to compensate for my lack of actual hcs by rambling in my tags. Most part of the time said ramblings include personal headcanons or analyses of specific scenes that include personal takes on pivotal situations; while I gather & write them down eventually, it can take me a long time to get stuff done. -- it is easier for me to jus blabber on & on in the tags. ]

Do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO [ all my ask replies are drabbles, ngl. ]

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day? YES / NO

Are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO / SORT OF? [... a sore topic. While I love my headcanons & have gotten quite proud of my writing over time, I constantly doubt myself regarding the “ic”-ness of my responses. I like to believe that I am doing rather well, but I am not confident, no. ]

Are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO. [ it took me a long time to develop my style; while I always struggle to believe in my portrayal I am quite confident in my writing as such. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but in general? I am proud of it. ]

Are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO. / SORTA.

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?  —  Well, yes. As long as it is the constructive kind. I love receiving feedback, may it be negative or positive. I will most likely try to discuss criticism with you; aka if you (i.e) tell me that Pearl shouldn’t have (C)PTSD, I will deliver canon proof & state my reasoning for my decision to implement it in my canon, etc. What I will not do is tolerate character hate or unreasonable hate towards my writing. Be assured that I will never headcanon something that has no solid footing in canon.

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?  —  ABSOLUTELY. Send me random hc / meta asks, I beg you.

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?  —  sure. As stated above, I will probably discuss stuff with you. The chance of me dropping a headcanon however are rather low.

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?  —  Hm... it depends on what they don’t like. If it’s my writing, well, why are you following me to begin with?? If it is my take on things... well again, why are you following me? I stated in my rules what you should expect & that I will not water down specific aspects of a complex character. Disliking my portrayal is fine since I know that my kind of writing / analysis isn’t necessarily everyone’s tea but... again, why would you keep following me?

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it?  —  um. Not... well? While I will never excuse my muse’s actions, I dislike groundless bashing. In regard to Pearl... well. As stated above, I expected backlash the second I created this blog. Pearl is one of those characters the fandom either loves or hates; her canon relationship to Rose was branded toxic by a ton of people, people call her uncaring, salty, insane & straight up manic, she seemingly has no redeeming qualities, she is a bitch, too perfect (LOL) or arrogant & apparently has no character? I love it when people say stuff like that because... did we watch the same show? Is there a version of SU I don’t know? Please tell me, I wanna see it for myself! Some hot takes in this fandom are atrocious & make me want to commit a crime. 

     -- but I digress. I have spent too much time in her tag in 2014 + & I have seen quite the fights over the most ridiculous things; Pearl, in particular, got quite the flack for stuff that eventually got resolved in season 5 [which, again, was way too late but well]. In the end, clowns will be clowns, no matter what you do. I just don’t get why you would follow someone if you hate their character to begin with.

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?  —  yes, but please don’t be rude about it. I am German, English is my second language. I am currently learning Swedish / improving my Swedish so mistakes can always happen. Additionally, I am someone who posts her replies in the middle of the night & while I proofread a lot & most likely fix posts after I posted ‘em, some mistakes can still slip through. 

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?   —  ... I like to believe I am but I know that I am overly passionate & I can come off as too strong or too fierce sometimes. I can be too much, I can be too excentric (I’m a Scorpio, Karen); I have strong opinions in regard to my characters & I will not hold them back. I criticise shows mercilessly & I will plough through canon as much as I please. Stans & I usually don’t get along. HOWEVER, I am a meme. I love lame jokes, I am awkward, & sometimes very, very insecure. In the end,  I just wanna talk about my favourite characters & develop sth wonderful. I keysmash unironically, I use old memes unironically. I mean I have been writing for ten + years & I am about to smooth sail post the 24 age border aka I will turn 25 soon which renders me old according to tumblr standards. I am just here to have fun before the staff comes to lock my account down due to my status as an rp-senior. -- yeah... that is the kind of stupid ass humor I mean. I digress but... please, I am an awkward, rambling mess, just hit me up via dms & you will see what I mean. 

#[[ this took me way too long honestly but I finally did it. If you find some spelling or grammar errors keep 'em. I got tired #njfuwefhe but yeah if you need some blog data?? This is prob your best bet ]] #ooc. 𝗮 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝗻𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱.

[ladydreemurr]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; MUN & MUSE - MEME.

FILL OUT & REPOST ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm. TAGGED BY: @mrfunnybone TAGGING: @sxvethequeen @a-real-chara-cter

MY MUSE IS:   CANON / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless / complicated

Is your character popular in the fandom? YES / NO. ( She’s good, you guys. }

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom? YES / NO / IDK. { Don’t Google it. }

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK. { Mostly. You get the occasional guy that didn’t check her stats or forgot certain scenes, but it’s rare in my experience. }

Are they underrated?  YES / NO / IDK. { Guys, she’s very good. }

Were they relevant for the main story?  YES / NO { I think so, anyway! She’s the one that rescues you in the Ruins and she’s significant in many endings, among other things. }

Were they relevant for the main character? YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG. { She is your mom and she will be your mom and you are gonna like it. }

Are they widely known in their world? YES / NO. { Queen of the monsters! }

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. { She’s got a lot of good will as a fair and kind ruler, but she also ditched her job at the worst time. Aaand a rebellion starts to straight up yeet her off the throne in one ending. So...  depends? }

HOW STRICTLY DO YOU FOLLOW CANON?  — As far as writing Toriel’s character, I follow canon as closely as possible, adding things of my own when there are gaps or room for creative license ---which Undertale has a lot of. As a general rule, I'm pretty conservative about breaking from canon without “good” reasons, but I’m not bound by it, either!

SELL YOUR MUSE! AKA TRY TO LIST EVERYTHING, WHICH MAKES YOUR MUSE INTERESTING IN YOUR OPINION TO MAKE THEM SPICY FOR YOUR MUTUALS.  —  So I’m just gonna take this opportunity to wax about why I love this lady:

Toriel is the result of a long and interesting life. She’s a runaway monarch with centuries of red letter events, memories and hard decisions behind her, many of which were extremely painful for her and others. She’s suffered loss and made it worse by choosing to cope with them alone. She’s been and can still be harsh and judgmental. And yet, and yet, and yet when you first meet her, you might never guess any of that; she’s overwhelmingly a loving, passionate and downright silly woman who extends her generosity to everyone around her. She still wants to be a teacher. She still wants a family. However imperfectly she may express it, nothing she’s been through has smothered that.

Not only does her natural humor and genuine warmth make her easy to like and trust for most people, but she’s usually quick to become invested in others; she cares what they think, how they feel, and who they are. Above all, she wants to help  — and absolutely believes she can do that — whether people want her to or not. She knows what’s best, after all.

Toriel is good you guys she’s very good---

NOW THE OPPOSITE, LIST EVERYTHING WHY YOUR MUSE COULD NOT BE SO INTERESTING (EVEN IF YOU MAY NOT AGREE, WHAT DOES THE FANDOM PERHAPS THINK?).  — Weeell, as far as canon goes, Toriel is only really an active agent in the beginning and the end; you don’t see her for a while between those story beats and that means she only really gets those moments to do anything interesting.  Toriel is also less overtly “spicy” or “quirky” than some of her fellow cast members, too, so she might be outshone by them as far as raw personality goes.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RP YOUR MUSE?  —  I was between fandoms and fresh off my first Undertale playthrough when I stumbled upon the RPC community. I’d been considering joining with a Toriel blog already, but what pushed me over the edge was a Sans writer and a Papyrus writer that I loved the stories of. Their work finally got me excited enough to throw my hat in. Even though they’re long gone, I’m still excited to see what sort of stuff I can contribute to!

WHAT KEEPS YOUR INSPIRATION GOING?  —  Whenever I see people writing together, it inspires me. Whenever I get myself on a long ramble about characters, it inspires me. Poetry inspires me. Spite inspires me. Just immersing myself in the world and act of creating stuff for the sake of it inspires me, basically!

SOME MORE PERSONAL QUESTIONS FOR THE MUN.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice?  YES...? / NO / { I don’t feel like I’ve done a whole lot with Toriel yet, but I’m feeling good about what I’ve managed so far. }

Do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO / SORT OF? { I definitely come up with stuff, but I’m still a little timid about sharing my ideas. I’m workin’ on it! }

Do you sometimes write drabbles? YES / NO

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day? YES / NO

Are you confident in your portrayal? YES / NO / SORT OF?  {I have off days, but I think I’m good at her! }

Are you confident in your writing?  YES ? / NO. { I’m a recovering perfectionist, which is what slows me down more than anything else. Accepting and internalizing that RPing is innately messier than solo writing takes work! }

Are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO. / SORTA. { I guess that depends on what this refers to! Emotional stuff gets to me pretty easy (I’m a sap) and I hate seeing people being awful to each other, but as far as, say, being insulted and such, I usually don’t take what people say about me online to heart too easily. }

DO YOU ACCEPT CRITICISM WELL ABOUT YOUR PORTRAYAL?  —  Yes! We’ve all got blind spots and weaknesses somewhere; if you guys see one I don’t, I’d love to hear it.

DO YOU LIKE QUESTIONS, WHICH HELP YOU EXPLORE YOUR CHARACTER?  — Totally. It’s my jam.

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES TO A HEADCANON OF YOURS, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY?  —  I’m usually curious, but I don’t expect people to explain themselves to me or anything. I’m just really interested in the different ways the same character can be interpreted; it’s really fascinating!

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES WITH YOUR PORTRAYAL, HOW WOULD YOU TAKE IT?  — Just fine! Honestly, I think it’s a good thing that we often don’t have the same vision for a given character. I’ve disagreed with how other people write Toriel, too!

IF SOMEONE REALLY HATES YOUR CHARACTER, HOW DO YOU TAKE IT?  —  Again, just fine! It’s a normal part of engaging with media as long as there isn’t any toxic behavior attached.

ARE YOU OKAY WITH PEOPLE POINTING OUT YOUR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS?  — Yes. Guys, if you see me do things like- — and this is totally, 100% hypothetical and definitely not a thing I did— accidentally write two instances of “only” where there should very obviously be one, go right ahead and point it out to me. And ya know? I’m surprised no one’s pointed out problems with my em-dash abuse yet. Heh.

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE EASY GOING AS A MUN?   — Generally yes, though I’m trying to be more easygoing. I’d like to be more proactive in talking to people and not worry so much about whether people will dig the things I post. But, uh, you know; recovering perfectionist!

#Game Paused (ooc) #meme tag tba (meme) #{ I can easily tell you why people don't l i k e Toriel but for some reason explaining why she could be uninteresting was... a t h i n g } #{ I've never seen anybody call her boring or anything---}

[pastelbatfandoms]

O.C Character Survey

1. Your first OC ever? My WWE one Roxy,I wrote her when I was 13. I also made Naru aka Molly from Sailor Moon a Sailor Senshi named Sailor Sun. She had a yellow sailor fuku with a blue bow. 

2. Do you have a personal favourite among your OCs? I’m not sure. I will say that my easiest one’s to write are Renee from The Flash and Suzanna from TWD.

3. Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from someone else? Kinda. my Ex let me use his OC’s in stories. He has Alien Races called The Cartanians and Tarians and a Vampire Nightmare lord named Shirowen. Who is based off of the lead singer of Dimmu Borgir.

 4. A character you rarely talk about? Carrie aka The Carrion Crow just because I haven’t been interested in finishing My Gotham fic,or I have been but just never wrote anything down...

5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be? My Vampiress Levathia for My Original story. Just because then I can make all My other OC’s known by extension. 

 6. Two OCs of yours that look alike despite not being related? All the Tarians and Cartanians look like each other lol (it is a race that has all white hair and red eyes and a race that has all different shades of green hair and purple eyes)

Image Photoshopped by me of Tessa,Soven and Aahren 👇👇👇👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

Otherwise I think that the actresses I used for My Characters Esme (From Descendants) and Helena (From AHS) look alike. 

7. Are your OCs part of any story or stories? They’re part of all kinds! I guess I could list My Non Original stories lol (only going to put one Actress for each,although My Characters are played by multiple Actress’s.)

Mughead (Riverdale)-Michelle Riley

  Wells of Hearts (The Flash)-Renee West

The Carrion Crow (Gotham)-Carrie

Mischief on Wings (Marvel/Loki)-Amara 

The Alpha (Teen Wolf)-Marianna Mccall

Kings and Queen of Destruction (TWD)-Suzanna Greene

Half God Half Devil (AHS Apocalypse)-Helena

The Dream Lovers (Freddy Krueger)-Rika

Strange Days (Stranger Things)-Mandy Moorington

Gods and Pirates (The Descendants)-Meghana

The Snakes and The Raven (Harry Potter)-Rihannon Hickleberry-Black

Ash Vs Evil Dead-Ashlee

8. Do you RP as any of your OCs? If you do, introduce one of your RP OCs here! No.

 9. Would you ever be willing to give any of your OCs to someone else? Maybe.

10. Introduce an OC with a complicated design? Looks wise I assume, I’m going to go with a non Fanfic Character and say Shirowen,He still looks like a vampire with long black hair and fangs,but he also is decayed looking,like he might have the plague and is pretty terrifying really. But being the lord of Nightmares that suits him just fine. He also has a very Black Metal look to him. 

 11. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”? lol no

 12. Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lot 

13. Do you have any troublemaker OCs? I have tons lol 

 14. Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory. All of My Characters have a bit of a sad past.Mandy,Renee and Suzanna’s parents died,Marianna’s parents left her ect. But I think the saddest is probably Helena,read My AHS story to see what I mean!

 15. Do you like to talk about your OCs with other people? Yes

16. Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)? I don’t know

 17. Any OC OTPs? I mean I pair up My OC’s with my favorite character of the show usually. So I’ll just list those.  (Crackship gifs make by me)

MichellexJughead Jones

I love Renee with ALL The Wells’s but I feel like Eobard Thawne was her OTL. 

MariannaxPeter Hale

had a hard time picking between Suzanna’s Current Bou Negan,her ex The Governor or Merle. But in the end I think Merle was her ride or die,he was her first in basically all aspects and if he hadn’t died they would still be together. 

HelenaxMichael Langdon

RikaxFreddy/Robert Englund (Their basically the same person in My Fic)

Steve Harrington was Mandy’s first crush but I really think despite there ups and downs that Billy was her OTL,even though her and Steve became endgame after Billy died.

MeghanaxHadesxHarry Hook (because I can’t make up my mind!)

EsmexChad Charming

18. Any OC crackships? Already did lol

 19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why) 

20. Do any of your OCs sing? what kind of songs do they like? Only ones that sing are In My Descendants Fics. So Esme and Meghana.

 21. Your most artistic OC. I would say Michelle since she’s loosely based on me,also Renee since she went to collage for Fashion and Graphic Design. 

22. Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how? 

 23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like? I don’t really change my characters rough drafts lol if I have idr how. 

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why? I should say Helena or Carrie so...yeah them.

25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?)  Michelle,we were both Goth in HS,had a big group of friends,dated someone “misunderstood”,wrote poetry and fanfiction and like dancing. 

26. Have you ever had to change your OC’s design or something else about them against your will? Against my will?! lol no

 27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song? Not certain characters but Relationships or stories definitely.  TWD Kings and Queen of Destruction title is based off of Queen of Destruction by Lana Del Rey,Esme and Chad Charming’s song I wrote was inspired by Taylor Swift’s Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince. But yeah I have entire playlists revolving around My Fics and Characters. 

 28. Your most dangerous OC? Helena obviously. She is married to The Anti Christ,and is pretty much the queen of hell. 

 29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they’re going? Michelle,though Jughead and Betty would show up,wondering why they weren’t invited.

30. Which one of your OCs would most likely have a secret stuffed animal collection? Marianna or Mandy.

 31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really) I have a headache and don’t feel like going into that much detail. 

32. Which one of your OCs would be the most suitable horror game protagonist and why? Helena for obvious reasons.  Also My Original Story character Seezee,she’s pretty much created from a horror story since she has a split personality and killed her father. Although Ashlee would make a perfect protag. Considering she’s a part of The Evil Dead universe. 

 33. Your shyest OC? Mandy at first,until she moves to California. Amara when she’s younger. 

34. Do you have any twin characters? No

35. Any sibling characters? Yes. Marianna is Scott Mccall's Adoptive Sister and I also made Aladdin and Jasmine Daughters,as well as a son Ali. 

 36. Do you have OC pairs where the other part belongs to someone else (siblings, lovers, friends etc)? No...?

 37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human  Well Helena’s a reincarnated Witch who later becomes half demon,Amara’s a Valkyrie,Marianna is a Hybrid WereWitch,Levathia is a Vampire,Renee has Lightning powers,plus there’s all the Aliens,Gargoyles and Half Were’s running around. 

 38. Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer? Michelle

 39. Introduce any character you want 

 40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share! 

41. Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs? If yes, maybe show a picture or two here (remember sources & permissions!) 

42. Which one of your OCs would be the most interested in Greek gods? I mean Meghana obviously,seeing as she is one.

 43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? I suppose I have an affinity for Brunettes and Redheads lol 

44. Something you like about your OCs in general 

45. A character you no longer use? All My Original story Characters,i should use them more,I just never get inspired too. 

46. Has anyone ever told you that you treat your OCs badly? Nope

47. Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child? lol No

 48. OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure. Um again probably an OC I haven’t used in forever,Windy. She is half Demon/Cartanian (Alien) but is actually really sweet (unlike her Mother) and wants to become a part of The CTA (Cartanian Tarian Alliance) when she grows up. 

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes 

50. Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you want

#my ocs #survey #orginal writing #fanfiction

[muggle-writes]

do I have that book challenge

tagged by @elizabethsyson and while photos were absolutely helpful (for example, in explaining the first question) I did this mostly from memory in downtime at work so I couldn't exactly take pictures as I went, and tbh I don't trust tumblr not to eat my post if I upload a bunch of pictures at once

Do you have a book with deckled edges?

thank you so much for the picture because if that's the thing with the pages not exactly matching up, (but within a small deviation from perfectly square) yes, my copy of the first three Dragonriders of Pern books in one volume has deckled edges. also probably some other books, but I've been reading that one recently so I'm sure about it

Do you have a book with 3 or more people on the cover?.

yeah: Inverloch (Volume 1)

it's the printed version of (the first portion of) a webcomic, which I didn't know when I picked it up at a garage sale or something. I hadn't even heard of webcomics yet

and. hm. don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the premise of the story and it was never really bad... I was thrilled when I realized it was a webcomic and still online and i could read the whole thing.

but

the major plot twist, one the author had apparently planned from the very beginning, honestly had some very unfortunate implications that would haunt me if I ever attempted a reread.

Like, it was set up well enough to be a surprise but not a shock. and it enabled the happy ending. but I probably would have preferred almost any other happy or vaguely positive ending, or even a meaningful depressing ending, I was that disappointed

on the other hand the rest of it was written well enough that I cared so.... eh. it is what it is

I'm just not sure I still love it enough to recommend, but I also wouldn't stop someone from picking it up off my shelf to read, you know what I mean? Especially just that first part, which was plenty good.

Do you have a book based on another fictional story?

D&D guidebooks are totally based on Lord of the Rings, right?

lol in reality uh

the copy of Scandinavian folk tales including my favorite fairy tale ever was always my dad's, not mine, no matter how many times I read it before moving out

uh

my wife has several Halo books? like the video game. I'm not actually sure which came first and I haven't read any of those, but they are on "my" (our) shelf

I also have a lot of Harry Potter meta/derivatives, including that themed Haggadah I think I posted a picture of recently. But the phrasing of this question makes me think the intent is "fiction based on other fiction" so none of those quite count.

so yeah, Halo's the closest I've got. also there's a Star Trek book on that shelf that I didn't even know we had until I went looking for clocks on covers

Do you have a book with a title 10 letters long?

Sadly I don't have my own copy of Dragon's Kin, which kicks off an excellent subseries of Pern books, (nor Dragonsong but I didn't expect to have that one) but what I did find was

The Visitor (which is animorphs#2)

Do you have a book with a title that starts and ends with the same letter?

Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye

Do you have a Mass Market Paperback book?

does my solid half of the animorphs series all on one shelf count or is this looking for specific branding?

Do you have a book written by an author using a pen name?

(immediately thinks of Lewis Carrol) um Edwin Abbot was also a mathematician but sadly not a penname, but I do I have a copy of Flatland

Oh, but I'm pretty sure I have some of the ghostwritten animorphs books, do those count? Specifically someone mentioned recently that animorphs 25 was the first of the ghostwritten books and I definitely have that one

Do you have a book with a character’s name in the title?

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Ender's Shadow on my shelf, the rest I mostly have as ebooks. also the first Erec Rex book (mentioned above) and the entire Kirsten (American Girl) series plus the first Kit book.

Do you have a book with 2 maps in it?

the first one I found was The Malloreon Volume 1 (also has 3 characters on the cover). it's got a map of the western kingdoms before the first book and a map of Mallorea in the middle of the third book

Do you have a book that was turned into a TV show

Animorphs again

Do you have a book written by someone who is originally famous for something else?(celebrity/athlete/politician/tv personality…)

I definitely had a phase of buying books by famous people, so I have the worst bulkiest copy of Origin of Species which is printed in a terrible font (it also has deckled edges for that matter), and The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, that I could find at a quick glance. Probably something by Steven Hawking hiding somewhere

my phenomenal copy of The Elements (Euclid) doesn't quite count because he's most famous, now, for writing those so...

(Einstein's Relativity - in translation obviously because I know very little German - is deceptively short but that was my parents' book that I tried and failed to read, not my own)

Do you have a book with a clock on the cover?

Disappointingly, An Uncommon History of Common Things does not. I do have a Doctor Who coloring book with a clocklike gear pattern on the cover which is the closest I'm finding

Do you have a poetry book?

yeah someone once gave me a book of Japanese death poems, translated of course. I've been meaning to read them. for that I have to find it, and I can't right now :/ now that I remember the book I want to go read it

Do you have a book with an award stamp on it?

not that I can find? apparently Dragonflight or Dragonquest won "a Hugo or Nebula award" (bc McCaffrey was the first woman to win one of those) but wikipedia isn't telling me which award or which book, and I don't have the dust jacket for the original-trilogy-in-one-volume copy that I have so there's no telling if it "should" have an award printed on the front

Do you have a book written by an author with the same initials as you?

ooh wouldn't that be fun. I don't seem to :/

what I do have is a book written by an author with what my initials would be if I had taken my wife's last name instead of the other way around which I guess is close enough

Do you have a book of short stories?

yes, surprisingly. The Girl Who Heard Dragons and I haven't read any of them, not even the story I got it for

oh, and First Meetings, which is a bunch of short stories in the Ender universe

Do you have a book that is between 500-510 pages long?

That's... really specific. Closest I could find was 483 pages and 513 pages (Volume 2 of The Belgariad and The Malloreon, respectively) In general I have a lot of books around 300-350 pages and a fair few over 700 pages, but not many close to 500

Do you have a book that was turned into a movie?

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, for sure. I think Flatland was also made into a movie and it was as phenomenally terrible as you would expect of a story about 2d shapes. not even shapes with faces, just shapes, and one sphere.

Do you have a graphic novel?

I was going to make all sorts of qualifications of "well... if something originally published as a webcomic is now in physical book form.... (Inverloch again) but actually I have volumed 1 and 3-7 of Tomo (manga-style "preteen protag moves in with Christian family members and has both fantasy adventures and learns the benefits of being Christian" no-subtlety series that I picked up at Family Christian Stores when they were still everywhere. also I probably still have the first six Serenity "books" but I can't find them (not fantasy: rebellious "sinful" teen moves to new school and hangs out with the Christians because she wants to sleep with one of them, eventually sees the errors of all her ways, un-dyes her hair, and converts. Also no subtlety)

I had a phase when I was "too old" for veggie tales but still thought FCS was the best place ever but if that really was the best of their "teen" content it really wasn't great

Do you have a book written by 2 or more authors?

are we limiting this to novels? I have The Great Snape Debate (meta published before Deathly Hallows, with short chapters by two alternating authors, plus they got Orson Scott Card to write a chapter to draw reader attention with the big name and hey it worked, I bought it, arguing (between all of them) both sides of "will Snape turn out to be on Harry's side after all" and also The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern which as the title implies, is more of a guide than a real story.

Oh, but I do have a copy of Invasive Procedures (Card & Johnson).

Did I miss any questions? tumblr's being particularly weird today.

anyway I suppose I should tag some fellow bookworms. @knightbusofdoom @copperscales and if anyone else wants me to edit to in so you're "really" tagged, just may me know, and if you just want to do it please do and tag me back

#tag games #book scavenger hunt #this was fun but it took a lot of time for some of them #asks and answers #there's some definite themes here

[tumblunni]

Brainstorming about my yokai watch ocs: Dimmy and Gorgeous Ambassador, the most cutest family

* My Dimmy's name is Blythe and they are nonbinary. Gorgeous Ambassador is male and i dont have a name for him yet. I was thinking maybe try and make up a dub name for kageusuo (anime exclusive pre evolution) that sounds like it could have been his nickname as a human? Cos his story is that he used to be a wandering mercenary in ye olde ninja times, i feel like itd be fitting.

* Blythe is the main partner of my protagonist in my yokai watch lp, basically the jibanyan of the anime of my heart. Their personality is mostly similar to the Dimmy in the anime, but i feel like theyre maybe older and more powerful than the average Dimmy? Like a weak low evolution yokai thats stayed unevolved for centuries and is actually more skilled and world weary than you'd assume. Protag just got lucky that she bumped into this one super magikarp, lol! Also i like to draw them looking more teenage age by just taking the regular Dimmy design and making the tail extra super long. They stand roughly twice as tall as the protagonist and can wrap around her shoulders like a scarf :3 Blythe is however totally unaware of their super powerful mega skill and is very self depreciating and low confidence. But Mallory totally sees them as a cool older sibling mentor figure and is always trying to figure out ways to make their tol squiggle friend feel included and valued :3

* the way Gorgeous Ambassador comes into the picture is that he was actually the same sort of figure to Blythe! Back in the ninja era Blythe was partners with another human, but he passed away in tragic circumstances and it led to their current depressed self. However he actually reincarnated as a yokai and has been trying to find his lil sibling ever since! I feel like he was a failure samurai who tried to protect people but was so weak he never could. And he was always broke and starving and begging to do any sort of miscellaneous jobs for anyone or even let them punch him in the stomach for a few coins. And he had just as much self confidence issues as Blythe but he coped with it by becoming a compulsive liar instead, always boasting and trying to sell himself as some legendary hero to keep from facing the truth. Since Blythe was a cute lil babby yokai at the time, they always believed their human master's tall tales and looked up to him, which made him feel really guilty and try harder to work on becoming someone this kid could be genuinely proud of.

* Blythe was first born as a household spirit. Cos i was thinking about what Dimmy would be before it became a ninja, since the medallium description says it 'got a job as a ninja to put its powers to use', so like it isnt really a ninja yokai but just a yokai thats a ninja? I guess?? I figured that the idea of being an invisible shadow supporter fit with household spirits/domovoi/zakishi warishi (probably mispelled that) and the various other similar creatures in mythologies all over the world. Just the idea that theres some sort of being that protects your house and if you give it offerings and take good care of the place it will protect you and your family. So yeah its my headcanon that thats how Dimmys are born, and that theres probably many variants wearing different outfits inspired by whatever type of humans they guarded. Tho yeh ninja is a job that works really well with their abilities so it makes sense itd be the primary representative of the species in the games.

* Human-dude-who-would-become-gorgeous-ambassador first met Blythe when one of his various failed attempts to get a job happened to cross paths with the family Blythe was guarding. This family didnt believe in such old suspicions and never gave offerings to their household spirit, so it stayed small and weak and was almost fading away. Baby blythe didnt know why their humans didnt love them, even though they tried so hard to bring good luck and clean the fireplace and stuff. So they felt a sense of kinship with this poor failure samurai who was begging for food on their doorstep. The humans of the household spat in his face and turned him away empty handed, but the tiny yokai snuck some rice from the pantry and gave it to him. They were surprised that he was able to see them, and he gave them the first thank you they'd ever had!

* Addendum note: i feel like gorgeous samurai was cursed with being able to see yokai from a young age and its part of whay made him so determined to become strong enough to protect people. Perhaps his biological family was killed by an evil yokai and nobody ever believed what he saw? And he wandered japan trying to save other people and always failing and being blamed for what happened, since nobody could see the real culprit. This reputation of being a liar when he wasnt = he ended up actually lying about how he was totally fine and not sad and also great and not hating himself. Its not really something he can control anymore, its like a stress response and it keeps getting him in trouble but he cant stop. "Yes sure i can save the day, i'm awesome!" only makes things worse when he inevitably loses again, whic only makes his self confidence worse and traps him further in the lies...

* so anyway, he became friends with this lil babby yokai and kept coming back to visit them and tell more tall tales of his grand adventures. And eventually he managed to help Blythe come out of their shell a little and agree to leave this house where they were only fading away. Haunting him instead, the lil shadow soon flourished back to full health from being loved for the first time. And their new big bro would always give them the biggest share of all the food even when he was starving, and always wasted his money buying things for them, and knitted them lil scarfs and just HE WAS A GOODEST BIG BRO! They also made a great team, and he was finally able to fight evil yokai with a yokai of his own helping him out. Things were good for a few years!

* Eventually though, they faced a foe too strong for them to defeat. (Not sure yet who it is, cos it could be cool if they faced it again in the present day for a rematch?) Blythe's human friend ran into a burning building to save the people being attacked by this yokai, but because he was already gravely injured he didnt manage to make it out in time. And blythe was just a tiny bab who wasnt strong enough to carry his unconcious body to safety. So their last memories of him are of crying and begging him to wake up as the house fell apart all around them, and eventually the flames swallowed him up. the tiny yokai just ran and ran away from their shame, and never saw an ashy figure rising from the ruins and calling their name...

* eventually after years of struggling alone and lacking meaning in life, Blythe had a chance meeting with our protagonist and thus begins my yokai watch 1 lets play! At the same time their yokaified big bro is still out there searching for them, and maybe one day theyll meet again...

* also i wanna go with the pre-evo the anime added of Gorgeous Ambassador evolving from a sad depressed vampire lookin dude. Even if the whole circumstances here are vastly different! But we dont really have any info on what kageusuo's powers or stats would be, so i guess i'm free to mess around with that? I like the idea of it being vampiric just cos i feel it looks like that. But instead of drinking blood maybe its a hunger for shadows? Which is actually beneficial to humans and makes them less overshadowed aka the opposite of Dimmy's power. So if you ever feel that you're radiating charisma with perhaps a slightly lighter shadow, maybe youve been inspirited by this guy! And then the evolution into Gorgeous Ambassador doesnt actually change anything at all, except just looking more fashionable and confident (which is absolutely a lie). His power already made people more fabulous while being unable to affect himself, he just worked a bit harder on himself to try and catch up with everyone else. Self care vampire!

* oh and in this interpretation the way that kageusuo would be integrated into the gameplay is that Gorgeous Ambassador would get a new ability that lets him switch forms in battle, rather than it being a separate yokai. (Tho would still have a separate entry in the medallium just for conveinience of being able to view both character models whenever you want) Stuff that causes low confidence would make him poof between forms, and itd just be something like more attack based vs defense based, or maybe having two separate personality stats so its like his AI is slightly more versatile than the usual frustratingness of most yokai? Srsly im still so annoyed at so many yokai that have two mutually exclusive moves and the ai is stupid about using them at the wrong time to cancel each other out. Like how Dimmy can be given the AI personality to focus on attacking and thus take advantage of its auto-skill to be good at dodging aka a glass cannon. BUT also one of its skills gives that same status to an ally instead, which by definition takes it away from itself cos 'dont target this other guy' means there arent many other options. So you cpuld alternatively play dimmy as a supporter who exclusively protects others with that ability BUT the annoying part is that even when you set an AI profile to one particular move it still only makes it LIKELY to do that and not guaranteed. So every now and again your attacking dimmy will cancel its own buff to protect an enemy, or your supporting dimmy will forget to support abd instead buff itself despite not having the attack stat build to take advantage of it. Plus you cant have both and switch between modes mid battle, so thatd be REALLY useful if one yokai actually could do that, and also could change stats to fit! Im not sure how to give it a trigger condition thatd let you sorta change at will but also not be 100% easy and overpowered. I was thinking tying it to his confidence could mean missed attacks turn him into kageusuo and critical hits turn into gorgeous? But thatd be TOO uncontrollable...

* oh actually i think maybe i'll nickname him Amber! Just cos my brain just mispronounced gorgeous ambassador and It Kinda Works??? Also its a kind of name that sounds very pretty but also has connotations of gentle shyness, i think. Matches the duality of his fake boastfulness vs his true self doubt.

* Oh and i also thought of maybe having Blythe evolve into Casanono, even though you cant do that in canon. I feel like turning into a pretty humanoid would be a good way to symbolize their growing confidence ans casanono/casanuva has a big nonbinary aesthetic in my opinion. Plus of course the fact casanono is a variabt of a confident yokai thats actyally shy. Originally older brother dude was gonna be a casanuva to match, until i heard about Gorgerous Ambassador and decided it fits him better (especially with that new anime form!) So now im thinking maybe have Blythe be both casanono and casanuva at once, similar to their bro's form switching? But itd be more like casanuva is a rare super saiyan esque powerup when they experience rare moments of confidence. Im pretty much just doing this because SADLY casanono is a joke character who is literally mechanically forced to be useless in battle. Its ability makes it harder to catch yokai which ia already goddamn difficult, and it wastes a skill slot too. As opposed to Dimmy who has a similar personality of always being ignored and depressed but its abilities are actually beneficial. Itd suck to go from Blythe being my mvp to being unable to use them at all, so this would be a way to still always draw them as casanono in comics to match their actual personality, but using casanuva in battle cos.. Well.. Yeah its the functional one of the two. Level-5 if youre listening please make casanono useable in future games!! Casanuva is absolutely the worst one personality wise so it sucks that the game agrees with his ego that he's great and also punches his depressed counterpart into the bin of ignoreness DESPITE BEING SUPER SYMPATHETIC AND RELATEABLE AND ALSO CUTER COLOURSCHEME

Anyway thats all the thoughts i have so far. Except oh also itd be funny if throughout the whole story blythe keeps talking about their dead brother as if he was the super best most serious hero and then when the protagobists actually meet him he's this gaudy dork XD

#bunni plays yokai watch

[ladyloveandjustice]

Reflection on Attack on Titan: How the narrative failed its characters

I did a breakdown of how Attack on Titan failed the potential of its premise due to its commitment to being edgy fascist garbage, but I also want to talk about how it failed a bunch of characters who were brimming with potential.

(This is gonna be messy and loooong, because I have a lot of feelings. Someone on the last post noted my “rhetoric blows” and I will freely admit I’m not really trying for coherent “rhetoric” here, I’m just venting my frustration so I can get it all out of me and move on).

Yes, it wasn’t solely the premise that drew me and so many others to Attack on Titan and its potential. There were a lot of unique and exciting elements with the way this shonen manga handled its characters.

I said before that Isayama never cared about his characters, but that was a bit of a exaggeration. I think he did start out caring about some of them...it’s just he quickly got bored with them and started treating them solely as tools to serve the “plot” and the screwed message he wanted to impart.

Isayama does have one strength as a character writer- he excels at  showing characters who are messy, flawed and selfish but nevertheless sympathetic. Nobody in Attack on Titan is a classic unselfish “pure” hero, they are all deeply flawed. Isayama’s characters were compelling in the beginning because of that. He allowed his characters to exhibit cowardice, he allowed them to fail spectacularly, and that made Attack on Titan stand out. Despire the melodrama of their situations, actions and personalities, there’s a rawness to (most of) his characters that fits the horror of the setting.

Even the protag Eren, who a lot of people dislike or find easily the most boring character (honestly I found Levi the most boring though), has this ugliness to him that makes him distinct from the billion other teen boy protags in shonen. He is genuinely unstable and honestly a bit disturbing, as this collection of weird murderfaces he makes shows (behold my post popular aot post, ah memories).His obsession with killing Titans was unsettling, it was the classic determination of a shonen hero through a screwed up horror lens, this kid ain’t all right.

Historia especially resonated me because she was TRYING to be that classic pure heroine- but she was selfish like everyone else deep down. She just wanted to be SEEN as an pure-hearted martyr who sacrificed for others, when really all she was doing was giving into her suicidal urges. It was criticism of the very concept of the “immaculate woman”, and that’s pretty cool. So was the fact she was seen through by Ymir, someone who embraces selfishness in all other aspects of her life but is ultimately selfless when it comes to her love for Historia...that’s some good shit. It’s fantastic as a character concept, and Ymir and Historia’s initial character writing and backstory will stick with me because it was genuinely good in all its melodrama. 

Historia and Ymir were nuanced queer characters whose relationships were fleshed out well. I do believe Isayama put care into crafting their initial arcs and developing them.

But then we run into a problem. A problem that eventually we run into with every character in AOT. Isayama stops caring about them. After their initial big arcs or moments in the spotlight or backstory reveals, he just doesn’t know what to do with these characters anymore. So they completely disapppear from the manga or fade into the background only to matter again when he decides to kill them off for some cheap shock moment. Either that, or they just exist to further the narrative of how the military is cool and we have to exterminate all our enemies and blablabla.

 Because he ultimately cares about that narrative far, far more than he does giving these characters the full stories that resonate, make sense and are effectively paced. He's completely willing to undo all the character work he did previously if it means he can be edgy or impress his ideals on the reader.

That’s why Ymir and Historia have this dramatic parting that gets the audience pumped to see what happens to both of them and when they’ll reunite...only for Ymir to just completely disappear from the narrative, then be killed offscreen without even really re-entering the story again. That’s why Historia has this whole big arc about reclaiming her agency, resisting her abusive family and learning to live for herself...only to be intimidated into becoming Queen even though she’s not super into it, because she needs to serve the military and NOT live for herself after all, I guess? And oh, now she’s numbly accepted her duty to endlessly make babies for the sake of the nation! Turns out her real purpose is to be something for the other characters to be sad about. 

Isayama got bored with Historia’s arc and Ymir’s arc and their relationship. He may have fun coming up with characters backstories and the big dramatic moments, but once those are over? He doesn’t care enough to do the work to conclude their stories. He gets distracted by his next plot point, his next action scene. The characters are toys he discards or breaks for the sake of either some edgy ‘anyone can die!’ moment or to push forward whatever new stupid plot point he’s thought up for his fascist narrative. (Links to evidence of Isayama’s views in this post).

Even in the (dumb) sense of “oohhh doesn’t this impress life’s cruelty upon us”, Ymir’s death is a failure. When she’s been gone from the narrative so long, to have it suddenly be like “oh, she died” just makes for a reader feeling confused and cheated, not devastated. It becomes painfully clear she’s an afterthought to the author, a loose end that needed to be cut. Same with Sasha’s recent death, I saw no sign she’d been anything but background in the narrative for a long. looong time before she was killed off.

 Heck, look not further than Annie, who has now been trapped in crystal for what, 800 chapters? It’s been YEARS, both in universe and out. It’s honestly FUNNY at this point that she’s still fuckin’ in there, literally just frozen until Isayama can decide what he wants to do with her.. I hope the manga ends with everyone dead and then 1000 years later Annie emerges like “hey guys I’m back!” Then a meteor hits her or something. The intrigue surrounding her fizzled out a long time ago, yet Isayama still expects the reader to care whenever that hunk of rock shows up?

Let’s bring it around back to Eren. There were a lot of interesting directions he could have actually gone as a character, had he been forced to actually, y’know, deal with the fact he was channeling his grief in an unhealthy way or his worldview had ultimately been challenged at all. But Isayama actually agrees with Eren for the most part, he does think enemies should be exterminated without fail and genocide is cool and stuff. So Eren’s development throughout 800 chapters was just to ultimately get more and more obsessed with killing enemies, to the point where he doesn’t even enjoy seeing the ocean for long before deciding that was more important. Only his targets are definitely people now, and he doesn’t care about children or civilian casualties anymore, and yeah he’s screwed up, but doesn’t he have a point???? You can almost hear Isayama say this.

 Eren exemplifies how Isayama approaches character development. He allows his characters to get more ruthless, more calculating, more fucked up, more comfortable with killing and torture as time goes on, but they can’t develop in a positive way ever- if they start going in that direction, it’s time for them to either die or regress. Nobody’s allowed to find any sort of lasting happiness, nobody’s allowed to become softer or kinder. “Cowards” (like Armin or Sasha) can become “brave”, but they’ll eventually lose most of their softness and empathy too. But that will be excused at every turn, because that’s apparently the price, the sacrifice of being a soldier. It’s “necessary” and it’s something Isayama very obviously admires. “Bravery” trumps compassion, soldiers must be ruthless to win and in the end, any growth is meaningless.

To be clear, a lot of negative character development isn’t a bad thing and “anyone can die” narratives aren’t either (though both are very tricky to pull off without losing audience investment- if you know it’s all just gonna be suffering, why keep reading?). But even when your story has those elements, you, as an author, have to have some respect and perspective in regards to your characters and Isayama has neither. He AGREES that his characters terrible actions (like torture) are necessary, because he thinks what Japanese soldiers did to Korean civilians was A-OK too...so it all just comes off as sickening.

And in a story, even if you’re trying to impress that death is random and arbitrary, that your story’s world is dangerous for everyone, those deaths should still mean something to you. the author. Otherwise the reader can’t feel their impact. It shouldn’t be easy to kill off a character. It shouldn’t be simply because you’re bored, or don’t know what to do with them- yet Isayama has openly admitted what he does. A character ceasing to matter, and then dying, has no impact. A character must matter up until the moment they cease for their death to matter.

( And lbr, if “anyone” could really die in AOT, the four main characters wouldn’t have gotten a million miracle reprieves by now).

It’s not surprising it ended up this way, though. It’s not surprising a man who has no sympathy or compassion for victims of war crimes has no sympathy or compassion for his characters and slowly drains them of their humanity as the story goes on. His love of war and domination is more important to him than human beings, and that comes through in his narrative, where characterization takes a backseat to his love of depicting war and violence, of impressing its necessity on the reader.

The characters of Attack on Titan deserve better than to be embedded in this cynical, cheap, fascist narrative. Fortunately, there are a ton of stories out there, and you can find similar characters with authors who actually care about them and aren’t openly fascist. For instance, while thinking about Historia’s arc and how good it started out, I remembered that one of my favorite narratives has a very similar main character. If you like Historia and wish she had a better narrative, I encourage you to check out the anime or light novels for The Twelve Kingdoms.

Similar to Historia, Youko is raised in an oppressive environment and constructs this entire personality around the idea of being an ideal good girl who lives for others, even though deep down she didn’t really care much for the people she was pleasing. When she’s stranded in an unfamiliar world, she slowly finds who she really is- and she’s pretty hardcore. She comes into a royal position of power too, but needless to say, it’s handled much better than Historia’s arc in AOT. 

True, she’s not explicitly queer, but there’s no explicit love interest either (the anime does add a “crush”, but he disappears pretty quickly and she gets over him amazingly fast), and ton of strong female relationships in the story too, that don’t end with one party dying and the other becoming a baby machine. And it’s written by a woman who’s never openly supported war crimes, so. 

So yeah, there are so many better options than Attack on Titan, and so many better ways these character concepts can be used. If you’re as disappointed as I am, it’s important to remember that. These character were failed, but characters like them can still be given the narratives they deserve.

Here’s the final part of this series:

The final reflection on Attack on Titan: How the narrative failed its potential in regard to gender and queer themes.

#attack on titan for ts #meta #forced pregnancy cw

[yenneferw]

Can you please rant about jk Rowling she’s fucking awful with her queerbaiting, racism, and transphobia. Like I need someone else to validate me for not liking her

absolutely i hate her!!!!! this is a REALLY long post but she’s written so much and she’s been in the spotlight since her books got famous so like… there’s a lot to talk about i guess. anyway @ jk rowling get ready to be called out 

racism

first of all on this valid bitch of an i hate jk rowling post, the ilvermorny houses. it’s like…. Big cultural appropriation of native american ideas and stories, twisting them to fit her narrative for harry potter and completely disrespecting their history and origins. the history she creates for north american wizards is shit too, saying that native americans would “primitively” practice magic until europeans civilized them with wands (even tho…. it’s like really impressive to do magic without wands in her universe??? like sounds like the native americans were way ahead of europeans, but ofc she twists her own narrative to make the natives primitive). her whole history or north american wizardry also apparently just follows white wizards immigrating to north america and shit…… 

this video is……. a really good poem on the stereotypes and fetishization of cho chang and there’s no way i can reword what the speaker says bc she says it too good so,,, watch it

jk rowling is also really good at speaking out about racism when she wants to on twitter and yet all of her canonical poc characters in the books are background characters. i know hermione is black in the cursed child play, but that feels a bit like the dumbledore thing to me, like they never actually talk abotu it in the books? and if she wanted hermione to be black why didn’t she have any protests about emma watson being cast? if she wanted harry to be brown why didn’t she have any protests about daniel radcliffe being cast? i don’t know if she had any say in that, but i guess she had a say in insisting that the actors had to be british, so if she cared about making a main character poc, why did she not have any qualms about the cast, even in retrospect, even respectful ones like “i love daniel and emma to death but in retrospect i wrote them as characters of color”?

like she didn’t have to push dean and cho and the very small characters of color to the side but she did. she didn’t have to stereotype cho but she did. there are no poc in fbawtft, or there aren’t in the movie at least – and if she’s so happy about johnny depp and can speak out about that relentlessly, but she wanted there to be characters of color in fantastic beasts, why can’t she speak out about that? 

like the cultural appropriation is enough to see that she’s clearly a racist asshole who doesn’t care about the cultures of people who aren’t white, but it’s also clear to see in the background of her writing that she doesn’t care about research for shit if it’ll help to respect people of color in her stories, and she certainly doesn’t care to ensure that there are important characters of color for people to look up to when they read her books or watch the movies about them 

transphobia 

i guess she liked a terf’s article on twitter? like i dont’ knwo how reputable my sources on that were or if she meant to, but if she did, yikes

and from what i saw of the article it was Deep Terf Rhetoric, and tbqh i wouldn’t put it past her to have meant to have done that

i’ve seen ppl saying harry potter has transphobic aspects to it as well but i couldn’t find anything under all the times she’s “defended” trans ppl on twitter like idk i can’t take anythign she says on twitter by heart bc everything she does feels performative and fake af, and i haven’t read the books in like four years so i can’t say for sure based on my own memory 

also she wrote a trans woman in a more recent novel and she’s apparently totally impulsively violent like wow great way to conform to nasty stereotypes about trans women lmfao

like esp bc of this i wouldn’t put it past her to be a terf

homophobia & queerbaiting

saying! dumbledore! is gay! after! the fucking! book series! is not! representation!!!!!

even if she HAD make him gay during the series, he’s not good rep??? he was a manipulative asshole who let a child stay in an abusive home becuase he was too big of a dumbass to think about a way around the issue so that a little boy could live in a home full of people who treated him fairly. so uhh?? the cishets can fucking have him, i don’t WANT him in the goddamn community. 

but she thinks that she’s not homophobic bc he’s the only gay character who never even got to talk about being gay, who we never see in a relationship with a man. like throwing gay ppl scraps isn’t?? rep??? it’s queerbaiting you dumb bitch @ jk rowling…. 

she specifically said herself that werewolves are meant to represent diseases like AIDS, and characters like fenrir greyback are predatory werewolves who want tos pread around the AIDS-like disease, conforming to 1980s homophobic stereotypes against gay people for “wanting” to spread around AIDS like how can you in one breath say you want to bring light to diseases like AIDS and in the next make a character who literally models homophobic stereotypes with the same disease?? 

also, remus was supposed to be gay apparently, but he “changed and fell in love with tonks” like ok first of all bi people exist, second of all why would you write a straight person who’s supposed to basically have AIDS when that sounds a hell of a lot like “predatory gay man infects poor straight kid” like there’s SO MUCH wrong with that, and yeah you kind of have to dig into it a little bit to get there, but when you’re writing about risky topics and you literally admit to it, you need to be WELL-VERSED on what you’re writing about!! and to say you’re writing about AIDS is deeply mixed with gay history! and to say that the main character who is a werewolf was SUPPOSED to be gay and then pretend you’re NOT associating it with gay people is just… such cognitive dissonance, or maybe really ridiculous ignorance

also, dumbledore is dead. so even if he was good rep, and it was within the books, he’s fucking dead. another buried gay, fuckos! pile em up! 

and i’ve heard there’s a shit ton of queerbaiting between harry’s son and draco’s son in cursed child? which like…. may just be subtext, but there’s a huge section of the fandom who’s all about harry x draco (i have not good feelings about that ship personally but to say it’s not popular is to never have seen anything in the fandom), and she must know that? like she’s not oblivious is she? so why would she like…. put subject between their sons? ?? it feels like it’s a bone to “hey i never gave you harry x draco, so here are their sons, who i’m also never going to give you” 

also? if grindelwald WAS dumbledore’s bf at some point, what does that say about what she thinks about queer men? he’s deeply predatory and preys on credence in a very creepy way that plays on stereotypes about older gay men preying on younger gay boys, and he’s also a disgusting villain played by johnny fucking depp, an abuser (who SHE SUPPORTS) of all people. what does that say about what her mind goes to when she thinks about gay men????? 

i don’t actually know her role in those films, but she has said she loves depp, what he’s done with the character, and where the darkness of grindelwald is going in the first movie and its sequels, so even if her role is very little, she supports what is being done. 

also…. um apparently newt scamander created a werewolf registry…. a little honest to god werewolf registry in the fucking 40s….. ??????????? what r we supposed to think here, about a registry of discriminated ppl in the FORTIES…….????? and that’s the protag of fantastic beasts… cool it’s fine it’s fine

ableism

when talking about irredeemable characters like voldemort, she literally said that “whether it’s a personality disorder or illness” they’re not redeemable…. !!!?? here is a post on that subject with links to the sources of the interviews she said this in. 

i don’t know where to put this bc this could be any number of things but i just thought about this so i’ll put it here: the thing that’s created in fantastic beasts, where it’s like basically a personification of anguish from suppressing magic – that’s quite blatantly a reference to any number of minorities, like gay people suppressing their sexuality, trans people suppressing their gender, the mentally ill and disabled pushing themselves too hard or trying to ignore/hide it… and credence was vilified and killed and the protags weren’t even… really sad about it?? and the ministry of magic never really THOUGHT About that they just killed him….. and that’s okay…. that’s fine… they’re just going around killing a bunch of KIDS who are inconvenient to them and who basically symbolize a whole number of oppressed groups. cool, it’s fine

you could also make a point that werewolves also represent the mentally ill, and all the same fucked up shit basically applies here

she also said that everything that muggles can get can be cured by magic, thereby effectively giving some bullshit reason for not actually having any disabled or mentally ill characters, also assuming that it’s not totally ableist to just…. “cure” all that? she didn’t say it specifically about mental illnesses and disabilities, but it’s clear to see that with her attitude on “irredeemable” mentally ill people, she would 

fatphobia

most fat characters in harry potter are shitty people. the dursleys, pettigrew, and umbridge – all characters we’re supposed to find deeply wrong, the ones we’re supposed to hate the most other than, like, voldemort. like…..? a lot of the other fat characters are all “matronly” like molly weasley or stubborn and “lazy” like cornelius fudge who allowed voldemort to rise to power. like what’s that supposed to say about what she thinks the extent of fat people is? stubborn, evil, or motherly? 

she actually has a character grow fatter and fatter based on how shitty she acts towards harry because of a magic mishap. she also usually describes the nice fat people as “plump” and “pleasant,” while she describes dudley as “so much like a pig” that he couldn’t even be turned furhter into a pig when it was attempted, or as a “killer whale,” or vernon dursley as “having no neck”

her fascination with abusers

exhibit a: she loves johnny depp, she loves him for the part of grindelwald, she praises what he’s done for the character, she praises his casting. he’s abused his wife..................

exhibit b: she loves dumbledore. he is constantly manipulating harry and not actually helping him get out of difficult situations at home or at school, putting him and the other kids in danger multiple times, not talking about important information to keep them safe, like?? 

exhibit c: snape. a fucking nasty ass creep to lily. neville’s GREATEST FEAR. like i dont’ even need to talk about this, we all know snape, dumbledore, and johnny depp are shitty lmfao

and yet she named harry’s kids after dumbledore and snape, like they didn’t fuck harry’s life up, especially snape, who terrorized him and his friends. 

in conclusion fuckos

she’s nasty!!!!! i was going to do a section on sexism but i can’t find anything – i think she’s too much of a White Feminist to be sexist, probably. likely she cares more about researching feminist issues than she does about researching native myths before she steals them for her own gain lmfao. there is the fact that she supports an abuser like johnny depp, tho! 

she is constantly like… going against all this on twitter too lmfao, like it’s hard to find good articles on her shittiness on the first page of google bc most of it is “jk rowling defends trans people against transphobic tweet, jk rowling defends muslims against islamophobic tweet, jk rowling defends [this group or that group]” and yet she includes so much bigotry hidden in the details of her books and what she says about her books. like i know some of this isn’t quite on the surface, but ultimately when you write a book with subjects you don’t really know about, your inherent biases are going to be apparent under the surface, and since she’s such a famous author with so many books and so much spotlight on her, if you dig in a little you can make easy conclusions/clearly see what she thinsk about minorities. so it’s really fucking annoying that she’s so “good and progressive” on twitter because it’s obviously performative so she can get the progressive points required for more people to buy her shit. like that’s the best word i can think of to describe her: performative. 

#this took me two hours to compile please appreciate me hhhhhHHHH #i know i didn't source a lot but i can find sources if y'all want. most of it is me just talking about what she's said anyway #ask #anon #anti jk rowling #anyway let it be known i love harry potter as much as the next asshole of this generation but you can love hp and hate her

[ravenwolfie97]

i randomly answered ten more of those OC questions bc i just want to talk abt em so i’ll do it myself

it got long, so have a read more for your protection

Has anyone ever told you that you treat your OCs badly? - No, I don't think anyone has told me that directly. For one thing, I don't tell people that often. But they have been surprised by what I do to them sometimes.

A character you no longer use? - Oh, SO MANY. I've scrapped so many stories and left so many concepts on the sidelines that I use very few of the OCs I've created. I don't plan on reviving the characters from The Legendary Spirits, Shala Tyso being the main protag. She was a young girl who ended up in another planet/dimension, got her arm torn off by wild animals, and have to get a cyborg prosthetic with elemental powers. She was a cool character but I have no idea what the story would have really been, so she and the rest of the cast (that I've mostly lost their refs for) are benched indefinitely.

Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lot. - I'm gonna exclude my buddy Mana for this, because while I love her countless OCs, I wanna shine some light on some other people. One of my favorite artists for years has Tom Fischbach (yes, he is Markiplier's brother), and during my webcomics phase I got into his long-running comic Twokinds, which will have gone on for 15 years by this October! One of the main characters is Flora, a young tigress Keidran (humanoid animal), who is spunky and fun and smarter than she leads on. She's a joy to watch, and her loving relationship with her human boyfriend Trace is fantastic. I should really read through it again...

Your most dangerous OC? - Dangerous? Hmm... Honestly, one of my favorite villain OCs is the Doppelgaenger from Legends, and really the only one I've plotted anything for. While Satan himself is also part of this world, I still think the Doppelgaenger is more dangerous in terms of what it's capable of. The Doppelgaenger has the ability to change its form into anyone, as you might guess, BUT it can only change into the form of someone it has killed. Once the target dies, it takes its memories and mannerisms to make a perfect, indistinguishable copy. It then uses its new form to manipulate others into creating chaos or to rope someone else in as its next victim.

OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure - I don't have any in my current proejcts, really. But back when I made random stories with my stuffed animals, Tobie the Tree Kangaroo and Rascal the Raccoon were absolute cinnamon rolls. Both were rather shy, naive, and skittish, but they were also very sweet and compassionate. Rascal was much more emotional and had to own up as a protagonist, while Tobie stayed as a side character with a more mellow personality.

Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? - I can't say, since people don't talk about my own characters besides myself. I feel like people would mischaracterize a lot of the DSWD characters, mainly because I kind of did for a while too before developing them more and making them more three-dimensional.

Which one of your OCs would be the most suitable horror game protagonist and why? -Oh man... I don't know what would qualify for a horror game protagonist. I mean... I made a one-shot horror story with the main character named Jordan, so I guess... him? idk

Do you RP as any of your OCs? - I used to! Back when I used deviantArt regularly, I entered a Pokemon OC tournament and made two characters for each of the two seasons I participated in, Kaminari and Mikael. Roleplaying was a big part of it so we could develop our characters' interactions for each round and between rounds, so I RP'd with three different people: one whose character was Shane, one whose characters were Aerin and Xavier, and one whose character was Marine. All of them were great, but I spent the most time with Aerin/Xavier. I also RP'd with Sierra, my protag for Legends, with my friend Alexa and her character Ciana (I think, I deleted those notes). Also did a few TOME RPs with my friends North and Winry with my self-insert Ravenwolf as well as our OC villain Shade and his cohorts. Nowadays, I'm rusty in roleplay, but it's still pretty fun!

Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer? - I actually have an OC who is studying to be a dance instructor! Her name is Maria, and she specializes in latin dancing, particularly salsa.

Which one of your OCs would be the most interested in Greek gods? - Oooh, probably Emily from DSWD. I have a headcanon that she has a secret love for mythology in general.

aight that’s ten, i’ll probs do this again

#ask stuff #yeet

[gameposting]

(P5 spoilers ahead dudes, p3 spoilers a bit later in the post) Man like I'm too old and gay to be blabbering about shit on the internet but while I loved persona 5 a FUCKIN lot I really feel like Akechi's death was handled terribly. Well, not his actual death, but what came after. Like the player - the player is given full opportunity to be nice to him, to genuinely respond to him as if they care about him even to the bitter end. You CAN be an ass to him, but you can also react favorably to him, every time. It's implied/stated that Akechi seemed to truly want to be friends with the team, and with Joker, and Joker was allowed by the dialogue to be friendly in kind. Why would he just be forgotten after? They basically say "well that was sad and pretty much sucked" and move on. No one asks the protag if he's feeling ok about it. (Except maybe June in a short text after? I can't remember - but certainly nothing remotely substantial) No one mentions that it's fucked up how he lived and died. There's no funeral, there's no commotion from his place of work (the only mention at all is Sae basically goes "well he's still missing I guess" - they didn't even have the decency to tell Sae how her former friend died? Wtf?) - he's just up and forgotten. I know the p5 kids seem to have some major issues talking to each other about things (which I usually see as a trait that can garner character development in them I guess) but they tend to at least somewhat supportive and try to make sure each other is ok. They ask if any of the others are ok every time something about their fucked up life comes up, but like.. never ask the protag "hey, you seemed to really want to be Akechi's friend even after what he did to you, you clearly liked him to some degree, are you going to be ok?" Like this dude was a social link! A fully maxed one! And he doesn't even get a damn funeral, or any sort of attempt to damage control his disappearance/death. He was a celebrity to people, and they just never even mention him again? Barely mention that he exists? There are some anons on the website who mention him and there are some random thought bubbles but none even mention he's missing or anything. Mind you - I think I may just be upset about this because Persona 3 is one of my favorite games. And when one of the characters dies in that game - he gets a funeral. His friends mourn him. His death is legitimately important to the character development of another character, and his spirit returns to give the player a final well wishing when battling the final boss. The tone of 3 is different, yes - but I would have liked the protag of 5 to at least be able to -act- like Akechi's death had any impact on his personality or his character. Or for any of the others to have had any change because of it. I just felt it was really weird. The death was emotional, I cried a lot. But ultimately it had a very weak impact on the plot other than to stop Akechi from being a villain - which could have been achieved by adding him back to the team, having him disappear and promise to turn himself in, or for him to lose his memory or really anything. The fact the player -can't- save him just feels strange to me, strange to the theme of the game - that shitty adults have been hurting children and the world, and that these children hurt each other as a result of their abuse, but when they form a support group they can rise above that and change the world. The fact that the Phantom Thieves failed to help this suffering, angry, jaded person - someone who acted like a child and threw a tantrum out of jealousy and anger and as response to the way he'd been used - he became a victim without retribution. That he existed as a pawn of Yaldabaoth and yet the Trickster could not break him free from his chains and take him to battle the force which had enslaved them both made the ending feel a bit empty. The Trickster's fate was to defy the biased game he'd been forced into; clearly Akechi and Akira were meant to kill each other, one to be the victor, as part of the Game, and he failed to defy that fate. Something about that just feels wrong to me. Akechi is surely not innocent; but he is not mercilessly evil. He is ill and he's suffered abuse, and he has been manipulated. He cannot take back the things he had done, but what better change of heart than to transform a killer born from a twisted, abused person who exacted fear onto the masses into a teenager who had a circle of those who could support him and help him face himself and the fate he'd been so unfairly sewn? What better heart to steal and change than that of a perpetrator of terrible crimes into someone seeking to fight that fate so that no one else ever has to suffer the same way? Had he done this and died at the end to assist in the toppling of fate - or after it was all over turn himself in - or in some other way accept punishment for his actions in the end - that would have made more sense and felt more natural. "He was a twisted person whose heart changed and who was able to die to help alter the fate of humanity and to protect those he once had damned and hunted" would have been way better than "he was a twisted person whose heart changed too late and who was killed before his changed heart could battle against the fate it had been dealt". Hypotheticals, I suppose. Nothing which ever will change; what's done is done. And perhaps I simply like him too much, perhaps I shouldn't sympathize with him. But I do; I cannot ignore those characters who do terrible things and suffer as a result of emotional pain, mental illness, manipulation, and misguided action, because I like to think some part of everyone can be redeemed even if they've done terrible things. Perhaps because I can relate to that desire to redeem oneself, or the guilt and suffering characters like this endure. I guess ultimately: Goro Akechi deserved better. At the very least, he deserved a better end. He was built up and built up - only for him to be forgotten once his time came and went. And while perhaps one could argue he got his just desserts in the way he died - I feel his character, and the writing surrounding how he affected the plot and the theme of the game - fell short. Persona 5 is still an excellent game and I love it dearly. I just wish Akechi could have had some redemption, or at least... a funeral, or some final recognition of what he'd meant to the protagonist or the story. I wish his death had meant more than the way it felt like it was just the removal of a villain from the conflict at hand. But I guess I'll just have to fight the chains of fate myself and keep him alive and help him heal in my heart.

#purse owner five #long post #persona 5 #persona 5 spoilers #OOPS I MADE LONG POST ABOUT EMOTIOB

[adobe-outdesign]

"Charlie" Has Actually Been Sammy This Entire Time (Revamped with Evidence from Both TTO and TSE)

(Revamp of this post, now properly typed out and with tons of evidence.)

(Original theory concept by /u/theGavtel.)

There were many odd scenes in TSE, but there’s one scene in particular that really seems to have people confused: The ending, wherein Charlie dies via springlocks, then seems to show up at a diner later perfectly fine, only to have John declare that that “isn’t Charlie“. So… what the heck just happened here?

In order to understand this, we need a key moment from earlier in the book. When Carlie confronts William/Springtrap over the kidnapping of Sammy, he says this:

”I didn’t take him, I took you.“

According to William, Sammy is not the child he kidnapped. However, we also know that he didn’t take Charlie - after all, she remembers her dad raising her. But there’s one more key scene to help us out:

”Charlie, this girl looks like you,” he said bluntly.

”Not that much like me.”

”She could be your twin,” Clay said.

Charlie finds a dead body that looks strikingly like her. This isn’t just foreshadowing for her death at the end of the book - it’s spelling out what’s going on.

If you recall, Charlie and Sammy are fraternal twins - Sammy’s never been described, but chances are they look pretty similar. In fact, a quote from TSE directly supports the idea:

Except on formal occasions when Charlie was put into a dress—of which there seemed to be few—it was impossible to tell which baby was which.

They were similar enough that, say, their identities could be easily switched. In other words, what’s really going on here is that the “Charlie“ we’ve been following this entire time has actually been Sammy, who only thinks he’s Charlie.

“But wait!“ you may be saying. “Charlie remembers Sammy being kidnapped!“ But does she really?

If you look back over the scene, you’ll realize that at no point does anyone else confirm which kid was taken. Male pronouns are used for the other child, but that’s only because it’s Charlie’s memory. All she really remembers is her sibling being taken from her.

“But wouldn’t Clay know which kid was taken?“ Guess again:

Clay remembered when Henry had moved to town and began reconstruction of the new restaurant. Someone had told him that Henry had a kid who was abducted several years prior, but didn’t know much else.

Note the lack of gender specified. And at the end of the paragraph:

That was also when Charlie appeared; Clay hadn’t known Henry even has a daughter until that day.

Clay didn’t know Henry had a daughter before then because he didn’t.

In fact, at no point in the entire book does anyone other than Charlie herself tell us which child was taken. For example, those two graves at the end? Glossed over, no name given.

Heck, even the newspaper they look at is carefully handled to avoid giving the gender or name of the child who was taken:

The headline was small, but it was on the front page of the paper on Monday, November 1:TODDLER SNATCHED. Charlie turned away. John began to read aloud, and Charlie cut in, stopping him.

“Don’t,” she said. “Just tell me if it has anything useful.”

[…] She leaned over his shoulder. The story had continued over an entire page inside, with pictures of the restaurant, of the family all together, and of her and of Sammy, though neither of the twins was named in the article.

And check out this delicious piece of foreshadowing with with Clay and Carlton:

“He managed to convince his classmates and his teachers that he had a twin brother, at the school, for the first few weeks of class. I don’t know how on earth he managed it, but I didn’t find out until he got tired of the act and I started getting calls from school that one of my sons had gone missing.”

“But wouldn’t that mean Henry gaslighted Sammy into thinking he’s Charlie? Surely he’s not that bad of a person!“ Are you sure?

Near the back of the book, Charlie came to a Polaroid of her and Sammy together, infants bright red and squalling on their backs, wearing nothing but diapers and hospital wristbands. On the white space below the picture, someone had written: “Momma’s Boy and Daddy’s Girl.”

It’s implied that Charlie was Henry’s favorite - in fact, this may be why William chooses to grab her. In his grief, it’s entirely possibly he made Sammy think he was Charlie to fill the void. Remember how he handled the situation?

Her father never again spoke her brother’s name, and so Charlie learned not to speak it either, as though to speak it would send them back to that time and unravel them both.

[…] She was afraid to even think it, and she trained her mind to shrink from it until she truly forgot, but deep inside she knew it: Sammy.

And let’s not forget his lovely dismemberment of the frog toy in front of Charlie while she begs him not to hurt it. Something was seriously wrong with him.

This also brings the scene at the end of TSE into a new light. It always seemed kind of odd to end on Henry and Charlie laughing at birds - but in this context, it takes on a much darker done, as Henry very intentionally calls “Charlie“ by his dead sibling’s name, furthering the gaslighting.

Speaking of which, Charlotte is a feminine name, but she likes to shorten it to Charlie - possibly because she subconsciously knows “she’s” not actually a girl.

How about evidence in TTO? First off, the heads that Charlie make seem to lampshade this idea, as /u/PuppetGeist pointed out. It’s emphasized during Charlie’s dream sequence with them, as she pictures them crying for her not to leave them, then pictures matted things hanging from the ceiling - the costumes from the room her twin was taken from.

“You,” said the first. Its lips moved to shape the syllable, but never parted. They weren’t made to open.

“I,” the second replied, making the same soft, constrained movement.

“You are,” said the first.

“Am I?” said the second.

“You are Charlie.“ “I am.“ “You are.“ “Am I?“

Or how about when Charlie’s talking with John about Sammy?

“Like I have another self: someone who’s a part of me and is always with me.”

[…] “Then when I learned the truth, and those memories started coming back to me - John, I felt whole in a way I don’t even know how to describe.

That picture John says is of Charlie when she was a very little girl?

A short, chubby girl gave a toothy grin for the camera - minus one tooth. Charlie smiled back at her. “I don’t remember this.“

And, if you needed it spelled out even further, look what happens when Charlie looks into the mirror:

Her refection looked wrong somehow, off, as if it wasn’t herself she saw, but a copy. Someone else dressed as her.

This was what was happening in TTO. The hallucination-based unused pizzeria is the AU version of CBEAR, and it’s also underground - hence how no one knew where it was and why it was connected to Charlie’s house (think SL’s Breaker Room map). The door that Charlie obsesses over, that she feels a heartbeat through towards the end of the book? That’s where the real Charlie has been this entire time - hence why Charlie feels her presence stronger in the hallucination location.

Springtrap says he took the Charlie we know because he doesn’t know that isn’t the real Charlie. And after Sammy-as-Charlie dies, the actual Charlie shows up - because the door opened right before the house collapsed, given her a chance to escape. This is why John says it “isn’t Charlie“ - note how the real Charlie is wearing a dress of all things, while the Charlie we know prefers pants and jeans.

This is also why the dead doppelganger is brought up early on - it’s foreshadowing to there being more than one Charlie, with one of them being dead by the end of the book.

Finally, as I pointed out in this theory, everything in the TSE books parallels the main lore. Remember the message with the box?

Some things are best left forgotten, for now.

We seem to be playing as the Bitten Child in 4 - the noise-making hallucinogenic devices are what gives the Nightmares their appearances, which means the protag must have seen the Bite. However, each night parallels the minigames in terms of gameplay - including Night 6 and 7, the night after the Bitten Child died. Combine that with the hospital items that the Bitten Child couldn’t have seen because he was comatose, and we have to be playing as the Older Brother.

Just like Charlie, he’s repressed his memory of his dead sibling and now thinks he is that dead sibling - which comes to a climax in FNAF 4, the game paralleled by TTO.

Finally, remember how Scott said the “pieces put together“ were in the box and how the Bitten Child is described as “broken“? And how FNAF World has the pieces be the minigame hints, which you put into place to free the kid’s souls?

I have these dreams where I can feel him on the other side of something, like he’s so close to me, but he’s stuck somewhere. Like he’s in a box, or I’m in a box. I can’t tell.

[…] Charlie leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. Locked in a box, a dark and cramped box, can’t move, can’t see, can’t think. Let me out!

TL;DR: William took Charlie. The Charlie we know was actually Sammy this entire time, gaslighted into thinking he was Charlie by Henry. The actual Charlie shows up at the end of TTO after escaping from behind the door, alive and well.

#five nights at freddy's #fnaf #fnaf: the twisted ones #the twisted ones #fnaf: tto #the twisted ones spoilers #outdesign posts things #outdesign analyzes things #if you thought i wouldn't comb back through both books to find evidence you were wrong #i need to stop using this one image but i like the way it looks

[yang-in-there-girl-blog]

So. WHAT ANIME AM I WATCHING NOW?

today im watching a show called “Kokoro Connect” a story about 5 high school friends, miss traumatized, takes no shits, best girl, little fuck boi, and our knight in shining armor protag sir densealot, who out of nowhere start body switching. the first few episodes we’re introduced to their characters and how they go about the whole personality switches. after theyve gotten somewhat comfortable with it “knock knock” guess whos here! its listless god! telling them their show sucks and he wants them to be more entertaining for him, you know classic listless god.  

now on episode 3 we find out “hey, all these girls are pretty Fucked Up!” starting off with yui aka miss trauma who has androphobia. near the end of the episode, its late at night after everyone went home then general clueless and yui switch and find out that she was crying herself to sleep cause fuck boi wouldnt stop blowing up her phone. she calls him and is all like “hey dont worry about that, i wasnt crying you where crying.” so they agree to meet in a park to talk about it. we find out that her fear of men comes from being almost raped when she was younger. wow, this show took a pretty dark turn. this is when our chivalrous idiot decides to teach her a lesson of self defense and empathy and Kicks Her In The Balls! telling her this is a sure fire way to take down any man. bet your period isnt so bad now huh. they switch back while hes still in pain as a form of karma and shes fine now.

 in episode 4 we learn about the other 2 girls problems. best girl lori has a kinda personality disorder that stems from a life of trauma, fun, and this whole personality switching is really starting to fuck with her. her and taichi talk about it together cause all he wants to do is help people, but is going to end up hurting them later with doing so im sure. she says sh doesnt even know who she is anymore because all shes done for years is change her personality to fit the situation shes in. mostly to avoid getting hurt by her abusive father. taichi promises that no matter what he will always be able to recognize her.

boss ass bitch inaba cant trust anyone, especially her best friends, everyone is an enemy to her and shes always been this way, fun, and this whole personality switching is really starting to fuck with her. shes paranoid that someones going to doing something bad or commit a crime while in her body and this paranoia is making her physically sick. main shit taichi’s problem is he always wants to help everone and our strong honey inaba fucking hates it. since inaba finally opened up to him, in a way to help make her trust him he tells her his deepest most kept secret, and hoooooooo boy i did not expect him to say what he did. it is just a shock that he would ever say that to anyone, like my god, thats just not something you say to one of your best friends. ill let you watch and find out what it is on your own.         ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

ep 5 is the last one i watched and it starts with yui and resident fuck boi aoki confessing his love for her.. AGAIN. this thirsty asshole will just not give up, he knows damn welll that she has a traumatic fear of men, and has turned him down like 100 times already. but this boy just wont quit, and she turns him down again. the other 3 are watching this all go down from the bushes cause like listless god heartseed, they want some entertainment. inaba also really wanted taichi and lori to see it cause shes been trying to hook them up for 3 episodes now. but our dense hero can never take a hint. later in the club room taichi is waitin and in walks inaba who is in loris’ body. she cuts right to the chase and asks what he thinks of lori. he goes on about liking her as a friend and doesnt want to mess up what they have, and was about to say something else but gets interrupted by inaba walking in. he notices that inabas herself so that mean.. GASP... it was a prank. lori was trying to get some info outta him but starts crying and takes of running. taichi broke his promis cause he couldnt tell it was lori all along, it was a test and he failed. he chases her down to the river where they talked last episode. denounced her trauma and personality disorder as not being as bad a thing as she thinks it is. and comes out and tells her he loves her.

this is when shit takes a turn. heartseed takes over loris body cause hes getting bored with the show and wants some more action. in a way to show how powerful he is, he stands lori up on the railing and makes her fall backwards off the bridge into the river. fucking dick move heartseed, not cool. lori’s sent to the hospital and is in bad condition, the 4 are there waiting to see how shes doing. “knock knock” whos there? motha fuckin heartseed walks out and says, “hey shitlords, i dont think you know how powerful and bored i am. imma give you 30 minutes, in this time you can switch with anyone, but at the end of 30 min lori and whoevers in her body will die. see you later fuckers” so now everyones freaking out, taichi being the selfless freak he is says he’ll be the one to die, aoki says lori should die. they all fight for a while then all swap with lori to tell her about the situation and she chooses to sacrifice herself. she talks with everyone privately and gives her last farewells. taichi is the last one she talks to and lori is now in inabas body. she tells him she never got to give him a response to his confession. so she tells him she loves him and wants to have a lasting memory before she dies and kisses him. finally the kiss we’ve all been waiting for and best girl finally got some before she died. heartseed comes back and asks for their answere, lori tells him that she will die in her body and he puts them back to normal. and doctor walks out of her room and in the worst version of its just a prank ive seen in years, tells them that loris going to be just fine. heartseed pops in again to be like “hahahaha ho boy now that was some grade A television i tell you what. you shoulda seen the looks on your faces hahaha its just a prank, i fooled you shit kids, i cant believe you fell for it. but you know what i know this was a pretty dick move, but i was bored and you were getting to stale. no hard feelings right, hey to make it up to you have this cake i got as a get well soon gift. later fuckers.” so that shit happened. now theyre all back at school eating the cake, and inaba turns to taichi saying “hey! i heard you stole my first kiss! im gonna get you for this.” haha jokes and that was the end of episode 5

this is as far as ive watched so far but as im watching this show maybe ill try doing shorter episode recaps like this. we’ll see if these go anywhere. see ya next time

#my post #what anime am i watching now #need a better title