#whether it's because they're focusing on whatever is THEIR interests. or because they're not in a good place rn.

[gatheredfates]

I thought I might start using this graphic for the updates, too! At least until I get bored of it and end up creating another. 🌊 We love eye-catching visuals in this house.

Anyway, sorry for the delay with this update! Last weekend was insane, putting it lightly, and I only really feel like I have started to return to capacity now. I appreciate your patience!

As of 04/27, I have added the following resources (in no particular order) to Sea's Community Compendium for FFXIV Creatives:

LARGE SCALE

XIV TODO — honestly, huge thanks to whoever submitted this resource because I didn't know it existed! This is another set of tools and tailored checklists for XIV that help you track encounters, content completion, dailies and more! It's also extremely alt-friendly for those of us who have more characters than sense.

FREE COMPANY / COMMUNITY FOCUSED

THE VIERAN MAFIA — do you like suave Noir-themed bars framed by mystery and intrigue? How about a bit of organised crime? This Free Company is for you! (They're also hiring, if you're interested. Get in touch with @fjotla-vithir!)

MISC

FFXIV BUFF AND DEBUFF MAKER — if you have ever thought a screenshot of yours would be made funnier by a buff/debuff but you don't have access to photo editing software, @fortunafavore has you covered with this simple tool!

XKIT REWRITTEN — The most up-to-date iteration of the original XKit tool, XKit Rewritten provides a series of enhancement tools for Tumblr's web-based interface including accessibility tools, anti-capitalism bocks and recommendation tweaks.

Want to submit? You can either fill out the google form here, send me an ask with the relevant information contained on the Compendium, or join my Discord at SEAFLOOR (21+ only)!

As a reminder, the answer to the question of "Is my resource/community applicable to the Compendium?" is almost always a resounding yes. I want to know what's out there. I want to feature your project!

However, for the sake of clarity, I'll pop the FAQ from this post below in a read more for you to check out if you're worried. ✨

I want to put my community on the compendium but we have an application process. Is this okay?

Yes! Just note somewhere in your application that's a requirement. The only thing that is mandatory for the Compendium is that you must be open to new members or have a public-facing/accessible facet. There's no point advertising a community if no one can join it in some way!

I want to put my community on the compendium but I only have x number of members —

Also totally okay! People don't start with large communities. Activity is a must but, whether your server has two or two thousand members, if you're looking for new people to join, I'd love to help you find people.

I want to put my community on the compendium but I worry its too niche?

Okay, and? If your Eorzean Fishing Alliance has four members but you roleplay every second weekend, I still want to know about it.

What resources/communities can I add if I'm not the owner of them?

Mutual consent is extremely important to me, so anything that isn't a large-scale community OR a publicly accessible resource must be endorsed by the owner/admin/moderators in order to be added to the compendium. I operate under the assumption that a resource posted to a public space (tumblr, googledocs, youtube, etc) is open to all. A large-scale community is one with a significant member count or openly advertises itself as being accessible to everyone for whatever purpose it serves. If in doubt, please get in touch with me. I'm happy to contact your community owners for you!

How active does a community need to be?

If you find a community has not been active in about two/three months, send me a message and I'll take a look at it. Communities have ebbs and flows, especially event spaces that may take hiatuses depending on member interest/life events. I'm not strict in my implementation provided a space isn't dead. If a link or anything is broken, absolutely contact me about that.

I have [insert a question not stated here]?

No drama! Send me an ask or use the #Compendium channel in my Discord!

#final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #crystal rp #crystal roleplay #｡･ﾟﾟ･ — sea's community compendium #ok DONE now i don't feel guilty for letting this lapse #also me: knows full well irl happens #me again: and??? get on with it #SDKJGHSDF

[iloveyouitisruiningmylife]

my sister called me and kept asking excitedly that what's happening in my life and

#like life as in. i can't say love life but like you know what's happening with the guys and the girls #girl #and i was so tired #am so tired #i just made up an excuse that im too physically tired too talk to cut the call and told her id call her back but i won't #i want to okay i really do I want to hear about her life what's going on but she's not that type of person jinke saamne #i can just divert the topic from myself avoid talking about me she's determined and caring like that😭 #just. kya batau main #i spent the whole day working but really if i stopped doing anything for like 2 minutes all the last convos i had with everyone i #liked loved whatever started replaying in my head constantly making me feel all down and sad in public yk that empty heaviness inside chest #i mean. what is there to say. i feel truly pathetic #everyone just keeps leaving me. they decide one day that oh nope she's not for me not interesting anymore doesn't understand is too much #draining and destroys my peace and then they leave #it doesn't even matter the weight of the relationship #whether it's been a year of being in love or two weeks of talking till 5 am or a week of wishing me good morning and good night #every day. it doesn't matter they leave and they leave and they leave and they don't look back and im left to pick up the pieces go on #pretend to be okay and normal and fucking focused on like. studying accounts as if my heart isn't breaking #into a million tiny pieces everytime #i don't know how to tell her. the sister you love so much the sister you can't live without imagine life without. the #sister who you thought about holding on for because you couldn't do that to her leave her alone when you had suicidal thoughts. she's #she's actually deeply unlovable undateable unfuckable and like truly lonely and easy to let go of #i know she loves me and i know my bestfriend loves me and she would fall apart if i wasn't there for her #but it's not enough. i really wish it was. but it's okay it's enough for now it's enough to keep me going it's enough to make me not wanna #die yk? like i don't love myself enough to live for myself get better for myself but they need me so i need to be okay be happy because i #need them to be happy. and they're happy when im happy #does that make sense #okay bye i should really start writing a diary

[theysherobinbuckley]

a little something I started but probably won't ever finish - alternate first meeting steddie! post s3, pre s4

(context: in an effort to cheer up his perpetually grumpy new neighbor, Eddie broke out his old skateboard and immediately ate shit for it. Cue Red calling none other than Steve Harrington to solve the problem...)

Red was barely in the door when Harringron turned on him, jaw clenched and fingers twitching. Having those dark eyes focused so entirely on him nearly made Eddie dizzy.

His lips were moving and- oh shit. Eddie was totally supposed to be listening.

"Uh, what?"

"What are you doing hanging around Max?"

Eddie frowned. "We're neighbors?"

"So?"

"So I'm being… neighborly? Is that illegal?"

"Neighborly is getting someone's mail while they're out of town. Not a super senior hanging around with a girl who's not even in high school yet."

"You better be fucking careful what you're accusing me of, Harrington, because to be honest, you don't look any better. Don't think I haven't heard your beemer pull up at all hours of the night. What the fuck is that about, huh? King Steve likes 'em young?"

Eddie's back hit the trailer before the last word even left his mouth. All the breath rushed out of him at once as Harrington pinned him with one arm across his shoulders.

"Don’t fucking say that," he seethed. "She's like my sister. I'm not- I wouldn't hurt her."

Eddie reached up to pat Harrington's arm placatingly, sending him as sweet a smile as he could muster.

"Hey, I believe you, man. I'm a little lost, sure, but I believe you." He sent a look to the trailer to his right. "Now can you let me down before Muriel sends Axel out to break your arm?"

Harrington followed his gaze and, upon seeing Muriel frowning from behind her curtains, dropped Eddie faster than if he'd told him he had the plague.

"We're in my kingdom now, Harrington," he said, grinning and waving in Muriel's direction. "These are my people. We take care of each other here. And Red's one of us, whether you like it or not."

Steve frowned, opened his mouth to respond, maybe even protest, but Eddie cut him off.

"I was just trying to make the kid smile, okay? So I got out my old skateboard, did a few tricks, busted my shit." He held up the ice pack he'd stolen from Red's fridge. "She called you 'cause she said you'd know what to do."

Harrington was quiet. Noticeably, he did not apologize for jostling Eddie's extremely sore wrist, but whatever.

"Did she?"

"Yeah, man, I tried to talk her out of it, but she seemed pretty confident you'd pick up. And here you are, so…"

"No, I mean- did she have fun?"

Eddie shrugged. "I mean, she didn't look as miserable as usual. Laughed a couple times when I fucked up a dismount. What's up with that, by the way? The constant dispair?"

Harrington's whole body tensed, and Eddie was almost scared he was gearing up to punch him just for asking.

"You remember Billy Hargrove?" he replied, his voice tight.

Eddie couldn't help but sneer at the mention of that piece of shit. Wayne had always taught him not to speak ill of the dead, but that didn't mean he couldn't think some choice things about him. Like the fact that he was pretty sure the guy was rotting in hell for all the things he'd said to Jeff in the school halls.

"Unfortunately. What about him?"

"He was Max's older brother. Step-brother."

"That's..."

"Fucked?" Harrington supplied. Eddie nodded. "Yeah. So I just- I need to make sure another Hargrove doesn't come around. Sorry I got all... you know. I've been told I can be kind of intense."

"No shit," Eddie laughed. "No hard feelings, I guess. Since it's in Red's best interest."

"No hard feelings," Harrington echoed. "Thanks for looking out for her."

Then, something Eddie had never even dreamed of: Harrington stuck his hand out, clearly expecting a handshake.

Huh.

It was over in a second, but Eddie's hand burned where Steve's had been.

"No problem. I'm kind of the park babysitter," Eddie replied. "Part of the job description."

Harrington lit up at that.

"I babysit too! Max and a few of her friends. 'S why I'm always around. I'm usually playing chauffeur for one of the other gremlins."

"That makes more sense than you having a torrid love affair with Susan."

"Yeah, she's not really my type," Harrington said with a smirk.

Eddie watched in shock as Harrington's eyes slowly, deliberately dipped up and down his form.

Talk about fucking whiplash. Eddie could still feel Harrington's strong arm against his chest, the brush of Harrington's nose against his own, the heat of Harrington's breath on his face. And now the king was checking him out?

"I see. Not into MILFs?"

Eddie was in the middle of making plans to staple his big stupid mouth shut when Harrington laughed.

"I'm more into brunettes."

And boy, didn't that seem pointed.

#steve harrington #stranger things #eddie munson #steddie #max mayfield #steddie fic #steddie fanfiction #ej writes #ej posts #ok to rb

[jennamoran]

The Far Roofs: Systems

Hi!

Today I’m going to talk a little bit more about my forthcoming RPG, the Far Roofs. More specifically, I want to give a general overview of its game mechanics!

So the idea that first started the Far Roofs on the road to being its own game came out of me thinking a lot about what large projects feel like.

I was in one of those moods where I felt like the important thing in an RPG system was the parallel between that system and real-world experience. Where I felt like the key to art was always thinking about the end goal, or at least a local goal, as one did the work; and, the key to design was symmetry between the goals and methods, the means and ends.

I don't always feel that way, but it's how I work when I'm feeling both ambitious and technical.

So what I wanted to do was come up with an RPG mechanic that was really like the thing it was simulating:

Finding answers. Solving problems. Doing big things.

And it struck me that what that felt like, really, was a bit like ...

You get pieces over time. You wiggle them around. You try to fit them together. Sometimes, they fit together into larger pieces and then eventually a whole. Sometimes you just collect them and wiggle them around until suddenly there's an insight, an oh!, and you now know everything works.

The ideal thing to do here would probably be having a bag of widgets that can fit together in different ways---not as universally as Legos or whatever, but, like, gears and connectors and springs and motors and whatever. If I were going to be building a computer game I would probably think along those lines, anyway. You'd go to your screen of bits and bobs and move them around with your mouse until it hooked together into something that you liked.

... that's not really feasible for a tabletop RPG, though, at least, not with my typical financial resources. I could probably swing making that kind of thing, finding a 3d printing or woodworking partner or something to make the pieces, for the final kickstarter, but I don't have the resources to make a bunch of different physical object sets over time while I'm playtesting.

So the way I decided that I could implement this was by drawing letter tiles.

That I could do a system where you'd draw letter tiles ... not constantly, not specifically when you were working, but over time; in the moments, most of all, that could give you insight or progress.

Then, at some point, you'd have enough of them.

You'd see a word.

That word'd be your answer.

... not necessarily the word itself, but, like, what the word means to you and what the answer means to you, those would be the same.

The word would be a symbol for the answer that you've found, as a player and a character.

(The leftover letters would then stick around in your hand, bits of thought and experience that didn't directly lead to a solution there, but might help with something else later on.)

Anyway, I figured that this basic idea was feasible because, like, lots of people own Scrabble sets. Even if you don't, they're easier to find than sets of dice!

For a short indie game focused on just that this would probably have been enough of a mechanic all on its own. For a large release, though, the game needed more.

After thinking about it I decided that what it wanted was two more core resolution systems:

One, for stuff like, say ... kickstarter results ... where you're more interested in "how well did this do?" or "how good of an answer is this?" than in whether those results better fit AXLOTL or TEXTUAL. For this, I added cards, which you draw like letter tiles and combine into poker hands. A face card is probably enough for a baseline success, a pair of Kings would make the results rather exciting, and a royal flush result would smash records.

The other core system was for like ... everyday stuff. For starting a campfire or jumping a gap. That, by established RPG tradition, would use dice.

...

I guess technically it didn't have to; I mean, like, most of my games have been diceless, and in fact we've gotten to a point in the hobby where that's just "sort of unusual" instead of actually rare.

But, like, I like dice. I do. If I don't use them often, it's because I don't like the empty page of where to start in the first place building a bespoke diced system when I have so many good diceless systems right there.

... this time, though, I decided to just go for it.

--

The Dice System

So a long, long time ago I was working on a game called the Weapons of the Gods RPG. Eos Press had brought me in to do the setting, and somewhere in the middle of that endeavor, the game lost its system.

I only ever heard Eos' side of this, and these days I tend to take Eos' claims with a grain of salt ... but, my best guess is that all this stuff did happen, just, with a little more context that I don't and might not ever know?

Anyway, as best as I remember, the first writer they had doing their system quit midway through development. So they brought in a newer team to do the system, and halfway through that the team decided they'd have more fun using the system for their own game, and instead wrote up a quick alternate system for Weapons of the Gods to use.

This would have been fine if the alternate system were any good, but it was ... pretty obviously a quick kludge. It was ...

I think the best word for it would be "bad."

I don't even like the system they took away to be their own game, but at least I could believe that it was constructed with love. It was janky but like in a heartfelt way.

The replacement system was more the kind of thing where if you stepped in it you'd need a new pair of shoes.

It upset me.

It upset me, and so, full wroth, I decided to write a system to use for the game.

Now, I'd never done a diced system before at that point. My only solo game had been Nobilis. So I took a bunch of dice and started rolling them, to see ... like ... what the most fun way of reading them was.

Where I landed, ultimately, was looking for matches.

The core system for Weapons of the Gods was basically, roll some number of d10s, and if you got 3 4s, that was a 34. If you got 2 9s, that was a 29. If your best die was a 7 and you had no pairs at all, you got 1 7. 17.

It didn't have any really amazing statistical properties, but the act of rolling was fun. It was rhythmic, you know, you'd see 3 4s and putting them together into 34 was a tiny tiny dopamine shot at the cost of basically zero brain effort. It was pattern recognition, which the brain tends to enjoy.

I mean, obviously, it would pall in a few minutes if you just sat there rolling the dice for no reason ... but, as far as dice rolling goes, it was fun.

So when I went to do an optional diced system for the Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG, years later, to post here on tumblr ... I already knew what would make that roll fun. That is, rolling a handful of dice and looking for matches.

What about making it even more fun?

... well, critical results are fun, so what about adding them and aiming to have a lot of them, though still like rare enough to surprise?

It made sense to me to call no matches at all a critical failure, and a triple a critical success. So I started fiddling with dice pool size to get the numbers where I wanted them.

I'm reconstructing a bit at this point, but I imagine that I hit 6d10 and was like: "these are roughly the right odds, but this is one too many dice to look at quickly on the table, and I don't like that critical failure would be a bit more common than crit success."

So after some wrestling with things I wound up with a dice pool of 5d6, which is the dice pool I'm still using today.

If you roll 5d6, you'll probably get a pair. But now and then, you'll get a triple (or more!) My combinatorics is rusty, so I might have missed a case, but, like ... 17% of the time, triples, quadruples, or quintuples? And around 9% chance, for no matches at all?

I think I was probably looking for 15% and 10%, that those were likely my optimum, but ... well, 5d6 comes pretty close. Roughly 25% total was about as far as I thought I could push critical results while still having them feel kind or rare. Like ...

If I'm rolling a d20 in a D&D-like system, and if I'm going to succeed on an 18+, that's around when success is exciting, right? Maybe 17+, though that's pushing it? So we want to fall in the 15-20% range for a "special good roll." And people have been playing for a very long time now with the 5% chance of a "1" as a "special bad roll," and that seemed fine, so, like, 20-25% chance total is good.

And like ...

People talk a lot about Rolemaster crit fail tables in my vicinity, and complain about the whiff fests you see in some games where you keep rolling and rolling and nothing good or bad actually happens, and so I was naturally drawn to pushing crit failure odds a bit higher than you see in a d20-type game.

Now, one way people in indie circles tend to address "whiff fests" is by rethinking the whole dice-rolling ... paradigm ... so you never whiff; setting things up, in short, so that every roll means something, and every success and failure mean something too.

It's a leaner, richer way of doing things than you see in, say, D&D.

... I just didn't feel like it, here, because the whole point of things was to make dice rolling fun. I wanted people coming out of traditional games to be able to just pick up the dice and say "I'm rolling for this!" because the roll would be fun. Because consulting the dice oracle here, would be fun.

So in the end, that was the heart of it:

A 5d6 roll, focusing on the ease of counting matches and the high but not exorbitant frequency of special results.

But at the same time ...

I'm indie enough that I do really like rolls where, you know, every outcome is meaningful. Where you roll, and there's never a "whiff," just a set of possible meaningful outcomes.

A lot of the time, where I'm leaning into "rolls are fun, go ahead and roll," what it means to succeed, to fail, to crit, all that's up to the group, and sometimes it'll be unsatisfying. Other times, you'll crit succeed or crit fail and the GM will give you basically the exact same result as you'd have gotten on a regular success or failure, just, you know, jazzing up the description a bit with more narrative weight.

But I did manage to pull out about a third of the rolls you'll wind up actually making and assign strong mechanical and narrative weight to each outcome. Where what you were doing was well enough defined in the system that I could add some real meat to those crits, and even regular success and regular failure.

... though that's a story, I think, to be told some other time. ^_^

#the far roofs #jenna moran #rpgs

[fuxuannie]

I need to know that if you had done sampo and danheng's voice line hdc🤔 cause damn those are my daily dose

╭₊˚ ๑︰voicelines about their lover

:★: relationship : (seperate) sampo koski & dan heng x g-neutral reader

:★: warnings : none, fluff!

:★: a/n : huuhuu we BACK on the hsr grind ♡♡ i missed my faves from this franchisee ๑´ ³`)ﾉ

SAMPO

— About his Lover

☆☆ "My lover and I have been engaged for a while! Since day one, I would have never imagined that I would've fallen inlove for a customer of mine!"

— About Lover : History

☆☆ "Actually, (name) used to be a customer of mine from my old fake businesses! I.. chuckle admittedly betrayed them for the sake of money.. which wasn't exactly the smartest option, considering they were an undercover Silvermane guard.. but my charms were obviously irresistable hehe."

— Sampo's Troubles

☆☆ "I'm obviously greatful for everything (name) does for me, but I can tell that they're worried about losing their job if they keep bailing me out of jail.. I want to try a better lifestyle for them, you know?"

— Something To Share

☆☆ "(name) takes their job as a Silvermane guard very seriously, and my favorite thing is to flirt with them on duty and watch them melt. The best part is watching them try to hold themselves together with such a flustered expression."

— Interesting Things : Dates

☆☆ "Dates with (name) are very rare. Mostly because of our public statuses, and I can't really take them to a restaurant.. but one day I'll take them to the best restaurant in Belabog! I've been saving the funds for it since our first week of dating."

— Against his Lover

☆☆ "Hey! You haven't paid extra to betray you! I may be a scammer but not for you.."

DAN HENG

— About his Lover

☆☆ "(name) is so.. gentle with me. I don't think I'm ever going to be able to thank them for that. Many people think I hate being spoken to or even acknowledged, but they always have their full attention on me whenever I'm in the room.. it's admittedly very flustering.

— About Lover : Clingy

☆☆ "This is very embarassing to admit, but I really love whenever (name) clings onto me. Whether on my hand or just in general, I like it when they're around. It provides a sense of comfort that I can't seem to find with anyone else."

— Dan Heng's Troubles

☆☆ "I've been.. worried.. about our next trip to Xianzhou. I don't know why I'm so uneasy about (name) going with you guys but.. just.. take care of them, okay? Call me if anything happens."

— Something To Share

☆☆ "I have no idea how I ended up in a relationship in all honesty. One day I was on a mission with the new recruit, next I woke up next to the most amazing person in the galaxy. laugh I really am the luckiest man ever.."

— Interesting Things :

☆☆ "(name) usually does my eyeliner for me. It's always fun to chuckle at their focused expression as they sit on my lap and do whatever they do with those makeup supplies in hand. They're so cute.."

— Against his Lover

☆☆ "I put my spear down, and I refuse to dare harm the person I love with my whole heart.

#˚₊· ͟͟͞➳❥ bailu's candy stash #honkai star rail x reader #hsr x reader #honkai star rail #dan heng hsr x reader #dan heng x reader #sampo koski x reader #sampo hsr x reader #sampo x reader

[theforsakenprince]

okay okay before I lose my train of thought. The way Destiny uses the dichotomy between Light and Darkness is so fucking interesting to me and way more complex than just "light good, dark bad" (and just for clarification, I'm talking about the Traveler vs. The Witness here, not the actual light and dark abilities themselves. that's a different post.)

The Traveler and Witness represent several different things, but the things that are most focused on are 1. simplicity vs. complexity and 2. choices and the lack of choices. These two go hand in hand because more choices make things more complex inherently and less choice makes things more simple. The Traveler obviously represents choice, and The Witness wants to take it away; to make the universe more simple.

The sword and bomb analogy demonstrates this pretty well. A sword is made with very few materials and has a single edge for one purpose: to slice and cut and stab. A bomb, however, has many more moving parts, with each individual part having some sort of function. It's more complex and probably does a lot more damage, but it won't work if even one part malfunctions. More choice offers complexity, but with the caveat that more things can go wrong. Less choice makes things simple, puts everything in neat boxes that serve a single purpose.

The Witness wants things to be simple. It wants an answer to every question and wants things to act in a predictable way. That's why it tries to convince us that the Darkness is the only way to salvation. Why the worms forced the osmium siblings to follow only their nature; Oryx can only seek more knowledge, Xivu Arath can only be war, and Savathun must deceive to keep their immortality.

The Traveler gives the Lightbearers the exact opposite. It wipes their memories clean and gives them a fresh start, to make their own choices whether they be good or bad ones. It gave them a second chance, to be better than they were in their previous lives without the burden of those memories. And of course, some chose to be awful people, but that’s sort of inevitable when giving so many people so much power. Most Lightbearers did decide to be better as shown with the Guardians today, and they decided that by their own free will.

Which brings me to the reason I wrote this whole thing, Savathun. She, frankly, doesn't give a shit about either Darkness or Light, she just sides with whatever will give her what she wants with the least amount of strings attached, which is immortality. So she gets rid of her worm and gets a Ghost to revive her. And what’s the first thing she does? Get her memories back. The second? Go right back to being her old self, and doesn't even stop to consider her history of genocide and lies. She remains the same. She's still the same person she was billions of years ago when she first became Savathun, which goes against the entire philosophy of the Traveler. Savathun doesn't want to change, and you can't force someone to change if they're completely set in their ways.

It's just interesting to me how Savathun rejects the Darkness and embraces the Light now without understanding (or, more likely, caring) about why the Traveler created the Ghosts and the Lightbearers.

#if this makes no sense/has mistakes it's because it's just one entire stream of consciousness #destiny 2 #destiny #destiny the game #savathun #the witness #the traveler #destiny analysis #? I guess

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

If I may for the full HCs : with a MC who knows how to make their own perfume and make-up (maybe other cosmetics too). The M6's reaction when MC presents them their whole new line of cosmetics, inspired by them 💄🧴 please! 😄

The Arcana HCs: When MC makes cosmetics for the M6

~ @saemi-the-dreamer this is such a cute idea, oh my goodness I love it! Hope you like these! - brainrot ~

Julian

It's not necessarily his field of interest, but he's fascinated by the chemistry behind the stuff you make and its various uses (fake wounds for theatre? tell him more!)

Not to mention how willing he is to feel your hands on his face whenever you want to test out a new product or mixture

But when you present him with a themed line of products, which he inspired, and which is all in shades of edgy red and black?

Oh, he's learning to do his own makeup today

His permanent eye bags reach a whole new level of drama when he tests out the eye pencil you made him with some shaky success

He develops a good eye for noticing who around him is wearing makeup and then trying to decide how closely the products they're wearing can be compared to yours

Depending on how favorable his impression is of said person, it's quite possible that he'll recommend your products to them

Insists on paying you for everything you give him somehow

Asra

They love it. They're not always sure how the process works, but they could spend hours letting their eyes wander from your hands, to the colors you're making, to your face, to more of the colors, back to you ...

He has quite a few suggestions for ways to make your creations really pop, whether that be glowing glitter or a potion with a holographic effect mixed in

They're surprised and delighted when you give them their own collection of bright and unusual colors and they make full use of it

Might start leaving notes with multi hued lip prints around the shop for you to find while he's out

You have a brief panic moment when they decide to let Faust in on all of the fun and paint her with the rainbow too

If you'd known that it was going to be used on pets, you would have been sure to double check that it was safe at least!

Faust isn't bothered in the slightest. She looks fantastic and she will advertise your products to anyone who looks

Nadia

So happy to share a common interest with you, especially when it comes to her adventures in fashion and styling

Loves to come up with outfits based off of certain products she's seen you make, or to invite you to do the makeup for one of her favorite original designs. She always likes what you come up with

It truly never occurs to her that you would see her as inspiration

Her styles, perhaps, or some of her fashion preferences, but never her personally. When you present her with your creation she's surprised and very, very flattered

She is going to spoil you in return, no room for argument

Puts so much thought into exactly how she's going to use each item in tandem with what specific outfit because your work deserves the greatest appreciation she can show it

Will insist that you wear some of it too, because she likes matching you and seeing you in something so personal to her makes her heart do funny things in her chest

Muriel

His interest goes as far as whatever natural remedies you include in your work. He's not as familiar with the cosmetic properties of the different herbs around the forest

That, and he does enjoy observing you while you're focused on something you're passionate about. (He'll never admit it)

Unsurprised, but a little taken aback when you give him his gift. He's not a cosmetics or perfume kind of guy

He doesn't realize it's a plot to lure him into the delights of self care

First it's letting you apply chapstick to his lips with the pads of your fingers, then it's letting you put moisturizer on his work-roughened hands, and then it's testing out a bath product together ...

At one point, when you gently point out a balm that helps with scar tissue, Muriel gets a little choked up and vulnerable about it

But he doesn't mind it as much if it's your hands smoothing it along his chest and back and arms

Speaking of, you should be wearing some chapstick too ...

Portia

She knows her way around cosmetics (she was Nadia's maid servant for quite some time, after all) but she doesn't generally put that much concern into her appearance beyond cleanliness

Her routine is effective, efficient, and second nature enough for her to multitask with whatever else needs doing that morning

That doesn't stop her from helping you out, though! She's always got helpful suggestions for which ingredients to include and how to apply certain products

So when you gift her a line completely tailored to her needs and preferences, she feels so pampered and seen that she smothers you with hugs and kisses and whisks you to the bathroom to try it all out

She likes it so much and wears it so well that most of her friends notice and ask after the change (and Portia has a lot of friends)

She shamelessly advertises your stuff to anyone and everyone

Don't worry if the amount of new orders gets overwhelming, she's here to help!

Lucio

One of his first requests as a ghost when he found out that you made cosmetics was to give him a better face of makeup. The painter didn't do his eyeliner justice and he wants it fixed please

Constantly volunteering to be your fabulous guinea pig, because he's the best and he loves you! (and he's curious)

Turns into an overexcited magpie when you show him his gift

You put gold in it! He loves gold! You put red in it!! He loves red!!!

Cancels the rest of his plans for the day and tests out each product one by one, showing off each result so you can shower him in the appropriate compliments

Incorporates everything you gave him into his daily routine and brings it up in every conversation he has for the next month

As much as he's still learning to sweet talk potential customers, his enthusiasm is infectious and you do see a bump in requests

Makes sure to tell everyone that he inspired those cosmetics

#ask arcana brainrot #the arcana #the arcana headcanons #the arcana hc #asra the arcana #julian the arcana #nadia the arcana #muriel the arcana #portia the arcana #lucio the arcana #the arcana game #the arcana fluff #asra alnazar #julian devorak #nadia satrinava #muriel of the kokhuri #portia devorak #lucio morgasson

[hopeymchope]

Hope's Peak and... Whatever is Going on with the "Talents" They Study

Hope's Peak Academy! Where only the greatest talents are invited to focus on the areas in which they excel (and to be studied by the staff).

The people working at Hope's Peak Academy in Danganronpa (whether staff, scientists, or Steering Committee) are pretty consistently presented as being dedicated to researching and understanding the nature of talent. They talk like talent is this hazy concept that only certain people somehow possess, so they're out to crack the code of its mysterious origins.

We have top men working on the origins of talent right now. .... TOP. MEN.

Now, I know we all eventually learn just how much of a shitshow HPA was and how corrupt its primary operators were. But the evidence of their crimes is mostly focused on how they take their interest in "Talent" much too far. So long as it furthered the study of "talent," human experimentation, endangering the lives of students, and much, MUCH more were totally on the table as far as HPA's Steering Committee was concerned. Which is very bad, yes.

However! I think the issues with HPA's intentions ran even deeper. The people in charge weren't just corrupt; they were also stupid. And this is evidenced by many of the "talents" they identified and researched.

See, Hope's Peak makes no real distinction between the types of talent they identify and accept into their walls. Even though there's a MASSIVE DIFFERENCE between the talent of someone like Junko Enoshima vs. that of someone like Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu. Y'know?

(I strongly doubt I'm the first to observe how bullshit some of these "talents" are. But since I can't find any other conversations about this on Tumblr, I'm going to move forward with making my own commentary. Sorry?)

BTW, consider this: If Komaeda were somehow born earlier and was an adult by the time the 77th Class entered HPA? He could've easily been one of the staff members putting Hajime into that metal coffin.

In descending order of "I can see why they were interested" to "WTF is this," here are the four core types of Super High School-Level "Talents" that Hope's Peak Academy welcomes within its hallowed halls:

(DISCLAIMER: I include V3 students as some of the examples cited below. YES, I know they don't attend Hope's Peak in their game's main storyline. However, they attend Hope's Peak in both UTDP and DRS. That's good enough for me; you can always ignore those examples if you disagree.)

CATEGORY (A) Talents that seem to come innaately/naturally to those who have them. These are either your wunderkind types, or they otherwise gained their talent seemingly overnight. — (e.g., Yasuhiro Hagakure, Junko Enoshima, Nagito Komaeda, Miu Iruma)

My Thoughts: Okay, SURE. I get why you'd want to study how this can happen and where these kinds of skills come from. No notes.

CATEGORY (B) Talents that are developed over a lifetime of practice and/or hard work. Most Hope's Peak students we know about seem like they slot into this category. — (e.g., Nekomaru Nidai, Mikan Tsumiki, Kaede Akamatsu)

My Thoughts: My first reaction is "What is there to study/research about this?" Do the Hope's Peak staff not know that working on something for a long time can make you get way better at that thing? Y'all reminding me of Hajime in the now-classic @reddpenn comic where he is legitimately shocked to learn people can gain skills through practice. :P But HOLD UP; let's give them the benefit of the doubt here for a sec. Perhaps Hope's Peak's personnel are wondering why only some practitioners of these talents can reach such a noteworthy level of skill by the time they're teenagers? That's the most reasonable conclusion to draw about the inclusion of these students.

CATEGORY (C) Talents that are only noteworthy because these students demonstrated some above-average skill relative to their age or because they garnered attention through one specific incident. In other words: These individuals aren't nearly as exceptional as those in the previous two categories of talent, but at least they seem pretty decent at what they're being identifed for? — (e.g., Mahiru Koizumi, Shuichi Saihara, Kaito Momota)

My Thoughts: I hope I'm being clear enough about what I mean by this category. But if not, I'll try to clarify: Shuichi was supposedly recognized for his talent solely because he caught one murderer. Mahiru's photography is almost solely portrait photography and therefore not particularly noteworthy to most photographers; she's just pretty good at the one thing she happens to do. (And in truth, her mom's reputation probably played a role in her own Hope's Peak invite.) Kaito being able to pass a basic Astronaut screening exam at a younger age than is usually allowed is neat, but it's not like he's been an exceptional trainee or even gone into space; he's just the "Ultimate Astronaut" because he cheated his way into taking a test early and did surprisingly well at it. Maybe we're meant to think "Oh, Kizakura or whoever could somehow tell these students have the innate potential to be truly spectacular" or somesuch?? But that interpretation requires putting a lot of faith in this questionable-ass system (and the one HPA scout we're familiar with — a known alcoholic). Do these people REALLY demand further study? Is there ACTUALLY anything to be gained by learning about their "talents"??? I... can't see it, y'all. I don't get it.

CATEGORY (D) Talents that aren't even really a talent at all, they're just a position/title someone gained by being born. — (e.g., Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu, Sonia Nevermind, Keebo)

LIVE HINATA REACTION

My Thoughts: Okay, so MAYBE Sonia was recognized by Hope's Peak as the the absolute pinnacle of refinement and royal behavior or something? But I kind of doubt it based on her actual behavior (and weird interest in serial killers) in DR2. And there's no way in hell that Fuyuhiko is the baddest-ass Yakuza, even among teenagers. You scratch that kid slightly. and you get the babychild undernearth. And Keebo? His talent is HIS OWN EXISTENCE. His "talent" is actually just his creator's talent, FFS. He's not even "High School"-AGED in reality; he's just programmed to operate at a mental capacity of approximately teenage-level. So ultimately, I'm asking: What is there to STUDY about any of these?! These aren't even TALENTS, frankly! These have got me wondering if there's some other reason to include these particular students... like perhaps Hope's Peak wants to extend their tentacles into the power/influence afforded by Novoselic royalty/the Yakuza? Or perhaps they wish the leverage Keebo's A.I. technology in their own pursuit of creating of an "Ultimate Talent"? Point is: THESE 'TALENTS' ARE SEVERELY SUS. (I have to wonder if the larger public and Reserve Coursers ever complained about how sketchy some of this shit sounds?? SURELY they did.)

ADDENDUM/NOTE: There are also those who hover between the various categories I've cited. This includes those who might be a mixture of two categories, or those whose background is hazy enough that it's not clear whether they always had their talent (A) or developed it over time (B). But I think the above list encompasses everyone we know about, either in one or multiple categories.

CONCLUSION: Hope's Peak is so vague and weird about what they define as "talents" that it's tough to say what on Earth they believe they're studying over there. Because the methodology they were employing for identifying these talents is super loose, they're inviting over SOME fascinating subjects right alongside a bunch of teenagers who... really can't reveal much of anything about anything?

How did Junko Enoshima learn to easily analyze the patterns all around her to the point that she was able to accurately predict most outcomes? GREAT question! You may genuinely be able to unravel something about inborn skillsets and unusual brain development from such a case.

How did Mahiru Koizumi become a great photographer? Uhhh, she observed some stuff from her mom and just tried a decent amount of portraits, I suppose. But she's not even that amazing frankly, she ain't taking any award-winning pictures or using any particular artistry. She's just good at smiling portraits. That's it. You ain't gonna learn shit from this.

How did Fuyuhiko become the Ultimate Yakuza? Because YOU decided he was! And that was just because of his inherited leadership role! He has NO special talent, wtf are you idiots doing?!?!

ANYWAY, that should cover all of the Hope's Peak students we've ever me—

Oh, right. There's ONE weird half-exception to this list, which I guess I'll explain for anyone who wants to be extracirricular about this topic.

BONUS! Outlier Case: Makoto Naegi (in DR1 only)

My Thoughts: In the original Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, the player/viewer/reader is made to believe that Makoto Naegi possesses no talent at all. Instead, Naegi was merely this year's winner of the annual drawing at Hope's Peak, and THAT IS IT. He was just drawn from a proverbial hat, and his presence is just a randomized factor. And SURE, by the end of the game/manga/anime, he's declared the "Ultimate Hope," but it's not like he was brought into the school based on that talent, so that's not particularly relevant. What I'm saying is simply this: DR1-era Naegi is the only known Hope's Peak student who doesn't fit into the above four categories. ............ Though this was later retconned, of course. Stories such as Makoto Naegi's Worst Day Ever (which came out alongside the first release of DR2, a mere two years after DR1 first hit PSP) and Danganronpa 3 would state that Naegi always possessed some unpredictable form of Komaeda-style inborn "luck" even if he wasn't necessarily aware of it. Which slots him into category (A). AS SUCH, he was only an outlier for literally THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF THE SERIES. And since the first installment didn't really delve as much into the sketchy, obsessive ways the Hope's Peak scientists chose to study their roster of "talents," his outlier nature isn't really relevant anyway. I don't feel any need to justify "Makoto Naegi as portrayed in 2010-2011 continuity" for his inclusion in the class roster.

..........................but if I DID have to do that, I'd say including him among the students makes him the Control Group. :P

#danganronpa meta #danganronpa #danganronpa longreads #longreads #longread #personal essays #dr1 spoilers #dr3 spoilers #dr2 spoilers #drv3 spoilers

[betweenlands]

[ID: Two asks from my inbox. The first is from @12u3ie and reads "Drop the essay, Solar /nf". The second is from @artisticgryfess and reads "wait no tell me about joe being technos hels". /End ID]

holy shit you guys i'm not even a hermitcraft or dsmp blog rn. fair enough this is a longstanding conspiracy theory of mine, though. ok, so. Joe Is Techno's Hels, the not-an-essay (mainly because i'm not going to cite SHIT, this is PURELY in the realm of headcanon/theory except if i explicitly indicate something is supported by canon)

so, the joke theory starts like this: back when hermitcraft/dsmp crossovers were first getting popular, there were a lot of crack theories about "hels!joe is technoblade" because... well, a lot of factors. they're both loosely english majors (i know joe is a history major just humor me), both slightly strange guys who operate by their own logic, both have somewhat similar (ish?) accents, both have a very deadpan sense of humor and incredible delivery on that deadpan, and most of all both of them Cannot Be Killed In A Way That Matters.

however, i am your local Hels Analyst, no like seriously there's so much weird shit about helsknight we haven't discussed yet, and one (implied? this is a theory but i feel it holds water) thing that's always been key to me about Hels versions is... they represent bad traits present in the original individual. whether or not those bad traits are the Objectively Bad ones or the traits the original self-identifies as bad is pretty up in the air right now (welsknight come off anon i just need you to tell me if helsknight likes pineapple on pizza it is absolutely fucking critical to our understanding of hels lore) but we'll be going with the latter, for reasons i'll explain later and by later i mean right now.

so! assuming there are hels versions of more players than just welsknight (i cannot stress enough how much we technically don't know this in canon -- it can reasonably be extrapolated but we really aren't sure!), that brings up an interesting issue with techno being joe's hels.

joe is not a particularly violent person.

"well solar," you say, "what does that have to do with techno being joe's hels?"

"well, strawman i have made up to make this long-ass post more visually broken-up and less formal-feeling," i reply, "hels versions of players only exhibit traits that are present in the original person." and this is confirmed canon, by the way -- wels himself has explicitly cited specific ways he can sometimes suck that are directly visible in the way helsknight acts!

so. joe is not a particularly violent person, and... okay yes listen i know there's a lot of very good writing on how technoblade isn't entirely 100% down for violence all the time and maybe wants to peacefully retire, okay. i get it. i am not calling techno a murder machine all i'm saying is that one of them enjoys pvp enough that he helped train other people and the other one is recording as he always does from nashville tennessee. i am a variety mcyt blogger and the only dsmp essay i have ever written before now is about how the tftsmp metaplot parallels redstoner. just bear with me.

imo joe also exhibits a lot of self-awareness about his own bad qualities as a character, and none of those traits are really... present in technoblade? but here's where it gets interesting.

i am no genius and certainly no master c!technoblade analyst, but if we assume technoblade trained to become a fighter and identified certain of his traits as being Not Ideal for someone who focuses on pvp and being a strong pigman, we can. kind of see those traits in joe, even if we can assume technoblade has learned enough to stop displaying those traits:

will commit to the bit even if it's inconvenient for him

obnoxious about whatever form of literature is closest to him

will start quoting from that work of literature to fit the situation even when it totally doesn't fit the situation

zero bloodlust and an active need to avoid direct conflict; a tendency towards pacifism even

malicious compliance

perfectly timed awful timing

overwhelming amounts of Just Some Guy and also English Major energy

exceedingly stubborn and would rather go through a problem than around it; will also see a tunnel through a mountain and climb over the hill instead

and. hm! yeah that feels like a joe hills description. you could make a joe hills out of this. add to that the fact that both of them refuse to die, but technoblade never dies whereas joe conquers death by dying over and over and coming back repeatedly out of sheer spite -- yeah i'd say joe could very easily be seen as the hels of the two.

and if Hels, the dimension, is the hostile and horrible place that helsknight claims it is -- where "everyone's unyielding and everyone there rebels" -- well, only one of them has a (mostly) canonical backstory that involves struggling through a hellish landscape designed by a hostile architect who wishes to cause pain and suffering. and it's not technoblade.

#anyway! i hope this helsknight finds you before i do #i have to go feed Animals in my House now. thanks for humoring me #yt #txt #ask #orig #solar scraps #solar scrawls #12u3ie #artisticgryfess #technoblade #joe hills #joehills #hermits #dsmp #hc x dsmp

[mulderscully]

the way people talk about ten and martha's relationship is so narrow minded that it's starting to drive me insane. according to the fandom, either martha is the worst ever or the doctor is the worst ever when neither of those things are true. they're both good people who care about each other but aren't compatible for various reasons.

in season three the doctor is mourning rose. whether you like it or not he was in love with her. and in a sense, to him in that time, she JUST essentially died. i feel like people don't take into consideration how genuinely messed up he was at this time. in the runaway bride he almost killed himself, as we see in turn left: if donna hadn't stopped him he would have drowned. he was not in a good mental place.

martha meets the doctor and quickly develops a crush on him, which is understandable, and him "kissing" her doesn't help. but he is VERY clear with her that the kiss meant nothing, that it was a genetic transfer to protect her and that he was NOT interested in her - or in anyone. he knew he should not be traveling with anyone else at that point, but at the same time he needs companionship to stay sane.

i love martha, i genuinely think she is one of the best companions there is, but she is not very compassionate about the fact that the doctor has lost someone that he clearly loved very much. and ideally he should have been clearer about who rose was to him, but i feel like it's clear that it's obvious.

a lot of people give the doctor shit for "rose would know" comment and i do feel that comment was a hurtful thing to say, but he wasn't being intentionally malicious to martha here. he was just thinking about how rose would know what to say to comfort him because he was in love with her. not because martha isn't smart or capable or anything of that sort. does that make his comment okay? no! but intent matters.

he brings martha to new earth because he's missing rose and he wants to feel close to her in whatever way he can, and there is nothing inherently wrong with that since he had NO romantic intentions or feelings for martha. he made that exceedingly clear- she calls herself a rebound, but that doesn't make her one either.

did martha deserve better? of course. martha is put into many unfair situations, and there are a lot of things i think should have been done differently but the show never denies that the doctor was a dick to her. the show never denies that he hurt her by being too focused on his own grief and generally uncaring.

what makes martha's arc impactful is that it is realistic. i have been martha. a lot of us have! you love someone who doesn't love you the same way so you get hurt along the way. you convince yourself they COULD see you that way if x,y,z but they never do. at which point you have to realize you have to put yourself first and remove yourself from the situation. and that's important, that's powerful, that's part of the human experience.

martha grew as a character, she saved the world, she took her power back and became her best self because and despite what she went through in s3. by acting like she's just a helpless victim you do her character a great disservice by ignoring the person that she became.

and in turn the doctor grew and learned from that experience as well!

the doctor is allowed to be wrong, the companion is allowed to be wrong. sometimes at the same time. what a concept.

#dw

[darkkbluee]

What are your lawlight headcanons?

Oh, an ask? In my inbox? It took a while to realize there really was something in the inbox and it wasn't a bot this time. Anon, this is my first real ask, I'm so touched <3

To the topic! Lawlight headcanons! I have so many, I don't even know where to start. Some of them are AU genre specific, some are based on which arc/timeperiod it is. So many thoughts, how to summarize...

Warning: Below is a long ramble of a few headcanons and why I think that way. They're headcanons, and don't need canon or authorial proof to exist, thanks. Some of them might be AUs too, oops.

For AUs set in the early 2000s, where Light is first arc age. L realizes he's in love first. Not because L's older. Because of the circumstances Light grew up in.

Light is the eldest (and only) son of his family. He had his life figured out since childhood and never doubted he would do anything other than follow that path: Become a detective, chief, and eventually director. Get a girlfriend, buy a car and a house, marry said steady girlfriend, have two kids, the whole traditional family thing. You can even see hints of that in second arc.

When I first read the manga, I could see it in manga!Light. It seemed that way to me because it is sort of a common cultural thing between some Asian countries. Not anime!Light though, which is interesting, but not the point here.

So, Light does not realize he's in love, because he's never had the question of whether he's gay, because he never thought the reason he can't keep his eyes off L is because he's attracted to L, because 'attraction to L' is a non-existent concept in his consciousness.

Light is not dense, nor homophobic or anything. He recognizes when other men are attracted to him, he accepts that people can love whoever they want. He just never superimposes that image on himself.

It takes a whole long while for his brain to cook enough, to separate himself from the image he has in his mind. Then, he questions his sexuality and realizes he is, indeed, attracted to men as well. Or rather, one specific man. He has no sexual and romantic interest in anyone else and by that age, Light has experimented enough to know that.

Between Older Light and L, Light would be the first one to figure it out. But between 18 - 21 year old Light and L, it would L.

2. L is very specific about textures. His favorite, the one he discovers when he meets Light, is Light. Light takes very good care of himself, his face and body being as much a resource he uses as his brains.

Cue touchy L. L likes to run his fingers through Light's hair, he likes it when he can touch Light skin-to-skin, likes it when Light touches him back with his fingers.

As much as L likes watching Light (because L will freely admit he is a shallow creature and Light is very attractive to watch indeed), L loves touching Light more. He may or may not miss body language cues if he's too close to observe the full picture, but the trade off is worth it to L.

3. Light's long list of ex-girlfriends and admirers has stumped L many times. Especially when Light admits they all knew about the others. And that they don't begrudge Light for not committing 100%. And that they still happily help Light with whatever he wants them for even decades later.

Sometimes, it makes L wonder if he is just another victim of Light Yagami's charisma. Then he discards that thought because it doesn't matter. He has Light and Light is just as obsessed with him right back. L is the eventual winner and it doesn't matter who caught whom when they're both in it together.

4. They're both highly competitive. It translates over to board games as well. It's a Rule TM, posted on the fridge, notarized, signed and stamped by their friends and family, that they are never allowed to play Monopoly. And Uno. And Catan. And- [an increasing list of trade focused games].

Addendum - Twister should only be played in personal space, behind closed locked doors! — Sayu and Mello

Addendum 2 - Light is forbidden to play Jenga with Near. — L

That's all for now! If I continue, I'll never stop XD

Thanks for the ask, Anon!

#lawlight #death note #light yagami #l lawliet #asks #ask: lawlight headcanons #my first ask!

[dipplinduo]

So, I'm really looking to write a Dipplinshipping series myself and I really love the depth that you go into for S&D Dipplins (and its related spinoffs, I am very up to date).

Do you have any tips for keeping up with/writing longer works? I think my idea may take at least 10 chapters, but I've never been able to finish anything but oneshots before... I admire your consistency with the quality of your work (there has not been a single miss, not a one) and I hope to be able write like you one day.

No pressure to come up with anything if you don't know what to say. Regardless of anything, I hope this message reaches you well and that you have a fantastic day!

Omg I love writing talk asks and I'm so touched that you thought to ask me this question!

I'm gonna share stuff I found helpful to keep in mind:

- Take your time with storytelling. The advantage of having more chapters is that you can reallllyyyy enjoy your pacing. One way I do this is through gradual hints and breadcrumbs that build to the major plot points. It's a fun way to develop your story over time while keeping readers interested and theorizing. And when you're not focusing on the main plot, you can focus on other aspects of the story.

- Outlines and general note pages for your fic as a whole are your best friends. They will do the work of keeping track of different story elements for you.

- Listen to your readers. Their feedback is invaluable. If you get a lot of comments about something people seem to be enjoying, this may suggest that it's part of the voice of your fic. It can help you figure out what you'd want to emphasize more down the line - whether it be through side stories or through the main plot.

- Switch up some dynamics overtime. If you find yourself feeling stuck because you feel like you're trying to write similar kinds of moments, thoughts, or dialogues, this is a sign that it's time for you to move on and shake things up. I've done this with Kieran & Juliana in S&S D after I felt I have described Kieran seeing Juliana as a witch (who he has a hard time resisting lmao) so many times.

- Flush out the roles of supporting characters. They don't need their own character arcs, and they don't need to be focal points of the story. But they can influence some events, and it can help with the movement of your fic. (E.g. I often use Drayton to instigate moments one way or another, and this suits his character given that hes relatively chaotic neutral).

- Focus on the quality of telling your story first and foremost; you do not need the permission of certain chapter "markers" to progress. You don't need to wait for Chapter 10 or 15 or whatever to have a big moment happen. If everything is set up and ready to go, just do it. This is why a big moment of S&S D happens in Chapter 9 rather than Chapter 10; there was enough in place and I felt dragging it out would've diminished the moment. No one's really gonna care that much about how things line up to a chapter number. They're gonna be happy they got a big moment, and if anything, your ability to break this norm can keep readers on their toes.

- On the opposing ends of things, know when you have enough in a chapter to stop even if you know where you're going next. If you flushed out descriptions of someone's feelings or some scenery or whatever, and you feel you have enough? It's okay to stop writing and publish. Giving yourself more time to soak on ideas can improve the way you're going to pick up where you left off. I personally don't have a hard rule around this, but I tend to cut things off at the 15-20 page mark for a chapter of S&S D.

- If you feel like you're writing a filler chapter, think of ways it can build to your overarching story. You really don't need filler chapters if you think about it - even if you want to delay going somewhere specific. So if your work could be summed up when completed, what would you want someone to say? Think of ways you can slip in gradual storytelling from multiple angles - whether it be through plot or through some of the lighter moments (that may build to the heart of the fic like found family or dorm life or whatever). This can help breathe life into any chapter update.

- Remember that by taking your time, you're actually developing the voice of your writing and of the story. My original conception of S&S D and where it's at now are wildly different, and that's because there's no rushed time table. That goes for the storyline, the characters, the plot points - everything. LMAOOO, even the beach episode content is going to be very different because I gave myself permission to delay it until I figured out the exact roles I want Paldean Squad to play! It was a better decision that will lead to better characterization (even though I'm nonetheless very grateful for people's patience).

- Write on your timetable, not anyone else's. I occasionally put due dates on myself to get me going (e.g. by teasing a chapter update), but I never promise that I'll have chapters out on a weekly basis or whatnot for anything I write - S&S D related or not. This is deliberate. Life happens and the last thing you need is to write for the sake of writing and nothing else. I feel it's the easiest way to kill your passion if it becomes stressful for you.

- Lean into what inspires you. I find a LOT of motivation through comments, reactions, asks, fanart, etc., so I make it a point to respond to every comment on AO3 and engage continuously with the community on here and whatnot. I've also been loosely inspired by art pieces that have nothing to do with my work. This is just what works for me, though. Sometimes you might be inspired by other media, or maybe by things that you've seen or experienced in your own life. Whatever it is, draw from it.

Hmmm that's what comes to mind for now. Happy to give more later if they come up, & hope this helps! Best of luck with writing YOU GOT THISSSSS 🤗💛

#asks #writing tips #dipplinshipping #kieran x juliana pokemon #kieran pokemon #juliana x kieran pokemon #juliana pokemon #kieran x juliana #juliana x kieran

[autopilotz]

I've had this thought lingering in my head for a while, but I've struggled finding a way to articulate it...Eh, here I go nonetheless.

I think it's weird when people act like you're required to know everything about something to actually enjoy it. That if you're not expressing your particular passion at "peak performance", suddenly it couldn't be a meaningful or fruitful endeavor for you. The whole, "oh you like this band? name every song." As if simply enjoying something, whether it's one song or the entire discography, isn't enough. Another good example being: "oh you like gaming? but you only play [insert some comparatively easier game], you're not actually into gaming.", It feels...oddly competitive? Now- I could ring up a dozen other phrases to make my point, but I'm sure you already get the gist. The common theme between all those statements is that they never come from a genuine place of wanting to share information over a common interest, but rather a way to assert that they're better in something that...literally isn't a competition at all. Especially over things that exist for our enjoyment. To an extent, I get it. I say this as someone who literally finds my own fun by trying to cram every detail and interesting fact about something I like into my head. We want to share our passions with people who are likeminded to us, know the same things we do, etc. But honestly, is it really such a problem if someone simply just enjoys something in the way thats easiest for them?...Easiest. I think thats the interesting word here. I think people just find it satisfying to assert that they put more "effort" into something. This idea that you couldn't possibly share the same passion that they do because you didn't buy $500 worth of merchandise or some shit.

So, with that being said, yeah, just have fun. Not everything is a job. You play this character simply because they look cool? Awesome. You make art and don't study shit? Sounds fun! You wear a band t-shirt but only listen to one song? Fantastic. You listen to every song but have no merch? Great. You draw fanart that doesn't follow canon design? Thats literally fine & doesn't affect me at all. In the absolute best way possible... I don't care! have fun!!

TLDR; I think it’s weird to invalidate someone’s interest, hobby or whatever simply because you think they’re a “fake fan” or not “into it enough”.

Anyways, yeah. I’m not really upset or focused on a particular instance, just speaking my mind in hopes that other people resonate. Feel free to chip in your thoughts, whether you disagree or agree I’d love to hear. Or if you think you can rephrase my thoughts better 100% go for it.

#talking #long post #And just to clarify so it's not misunderstood (I am not taking any chances) when I say 'just have fun' obviously I still think you should- #be responsible with your interests and just. practice critical thought fjkjkfdk #sorry I just don't want this to inadvertently come off as me defending those engaged in truly problematic spaces. . . #bcz i know the phrase 'just let people enjoy things' is thrown around in said spaces

[traincat]

Ms. Cat, Ms. Cat! You've talked about how great the Waid and Hickman runs are before, so I wanted to ask: what are some things about these runs that you didn't like? Is there anything you would've added, dropped, and/or rewritten, if you were magically granted the ability to do so?

Ooh okay NEGATIVITY. my actual favorite. and I can do it off the top of my head! (I found the 2018 copy of my refs folder, but not the hard drive I know has a 2022 copy.)

So I have talked a lot about what those runs do right, and I think Waid especially is a really good beginner run, like, if you want to start reading Fantastic Four comics, his run is as close to a perfect modern starting point as we have. (I was talking to someone recently and the conversation segued at one point into how, for a lot of comics, there's no such thing as The Place Where You Start Reading, you kind of just have to hop in.) Hickman... is not an ideal starting point, but if you want to read an interesting, coherent Fantastic Four story that's plot heavy, the first half of his run is excellent for that. (Note I said first half. I'll come back to that.) As opposed to, say, Claremont's run, which is completely incoherent in terms of plot but has the best character work in probably any Fantastic Four run ever. Just don't pick it up if you want the story to, you know. Make sense.

Waid's run -- I would never say Waid's run is perfect, although I do think it's good, which is sort of all you can ask for a lot of the time. The beginning of it definitely falls victim to what I kind of privately call the Johnny Effect: I think a lot of writers have trouble writing Johnny at the start, whether because they don't entirely understand his character or because they're less interested in him than the other three. I literally have a rule where I'll give a new Fantastic Four run like, seven or so issues for the writer to settle into writing Johnny, because a lot of people will fall back on these very shallow perceptions of him, namely that he's irresponsible. (I also think Hickman fell victim to this a little bit at the start of his run, although like with most Johnny Effect cases I'll let it go because both Waid and Hickman wrote incredible Johnny-focused stories that absolutely nailed everything about the character. Whatever Happened to Johnny Storm? and Storm Rising are two of my top Johnny story picks, so they do both get him. It just takes some time sometimes.) Waid's not that bad about it, and he did attempt to spin what I think are traits Johnny doesn't really possess (the playboy nature, the emotional immaturity) into a character arc that does have some good payoff, but if you compare Johnny at the beginning of his run to Johnny in, say, Claremont's run, there's a big difference in terms of characterization. I also don't think Waid is anywhere near the top ten Doom writers -- he goes too hard into utterly cartoon villainy. (Waid's run is, after all, the origin of the Childhood Love Skin Armor of infamy.) His Doom lacks the nuance of Hickman's take, or even the iron willed commitment of Miller's. (I will say whatever I want about the rest of that run but Doom getting eaten by a prehistoric shark and then pulling himself back together atom by atom out of sheer spite is just so fundamentally Doom.) So his characterization can be shaky. He can also pull out really strong moments! I think his depiction of Johnny and Reed's respective grief over Ben is really powerful stuff, although I don't like, love the "journey to heaven" arc. (God is Jack Kirby is pretty funny, though.) If anything, I think it's the juxtaposition of the really strong moments that make the weaker characterization more obvious. I think the Doom characterization is probably my biggest criticism of Waid's run, overall. (I also didn't like his recent Invisible Woman miniseries like, at all. I thought it was boring! Sorry! I wanted to like it!)

Now Hickman, I'm going to complain about. So Hickman's run comes immediately after Mark Miller's run, which I never recommend for the simple reason that it's not good. It's not a good run. Miller deserves his general reputation as one of those overly bro-y comic writers who mistakes sprinkling in sexism for hard hitting realism. Do I kind of want to reread the run right now? Yeah, sort of. Despite it being Not Good, I think there's genuinely interesting stuff in it. Hickman spends the first few issues of his run utterly trampling on Miller's run, like, Godzilla on a miniature city style. It's a little amazing to watch, honestly, like I admire the spirit of spite -- that's what I want to do to both Spencer and Wells' ASM runs -- but it has some intensely negative side effects, namely when it comes to Alyssa Moy.

Alyssa Moy is a character Claremont created back in his run -- she's Reed's old college friend/sometimes flame depending on what writer you ask (they kiss in greeting in Claremont's run, but it could be viewed as a friend thing -- and she's pretty blatantly romantically interested in Ben in Claremont's run), a super genius adventurer who can intellectually hold her own against Reed. In short, she's SUPER fun. Every other writer since Claremont, save for Peter David in Before the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards, has been really fucking weird about her. Whether it's making Sue jealous of her because she's so Intellectually Compatible with Reed (this is nowhere in Claremont's introductory run, where Sue and Alyssa get along really well -- Alyssa was LIVING with the F4 for a while) or having her comment on how she and Reed would have intellectually superior kids while she's married to The Most Boring Man Ever Created, Ted Castle (Miller's run). Hickman is NOT immune to being weird about Alyssa. Where Miller's run leaves Alyssa with her Boring Fucking Husband on Planet Future or whatever (it's dumb, it's a dumb plot), Hickman's opens by saying Alyssa is now... a brain in a jar. A talking brain in a jar on robot spider legs. And then she gets murdered like five pages later. But don't worry, because her Boring Fucking Husband creates a robot version of her, and everyone is fine with this and it's cool actually and we don't have to look too closely about the problematic elements of replacing an Asian woman with a robot version of her built by her freak tech guy husband. And then they blast off to space and have not been seen again. I would SO BADLY love to retcon everything that happened with Alyssa post-Claremont because she's such a fun character and the way she's been treated since in the main book is disgraceful. That's my top pick for what I would fix if I had unlimited editorial power: Alyssa Moy solo.

(Is Hickman great about the depiction of women within the sole context of his Fantastic Four run? I think his greatest triumph with any one female character is Valeria, where he took Miller's depiction -- of a super smart toddler -- and honed that characterization into what's now very solidly Val, with all of Reed's intelligence and a lack of his emotional comprehension, with her strong emotional bond with Doom, with her pragmatism. Can I say he did equally for any other female character, again, solely with the context of his F4 run? Not really.)

I'm not gonna address the renumbering/retitling issue with Hickman's run because I don't think it's fair to put that on the writer, but I do think it's detrimental to the run overall, considering how you need a GUIDE to figure out how to read it. I will say that I think Hickman's run falls off HARD after he wraps up the Negative Zone plotline. And I LOVE the Negative Zone plotline, I think it's really a crowning moment in Fantastic Four canon, but Hickman doesn't seem to know what to do with his run after that point. And I love the roommate issue, it's given the Spideytorch community so much, but I genuinely do think we would have been better served exploring Johnny's emotional state after his two year long death and resurrection cycle, and that was mostly left for other writers to deal with after the fact. Which is kind of the flipside of Hickman's greatest strength -- Hickman is just, like, utterly great at blowing stuff the fuck up. You cannot hand that man a fictional universe he wouldn't gleefully explode and it's great, I love that, I love watching him blow stuff up. I think he really gets into the destruction of fictional realities in a wonderful way that gives you lots to think about. But in the case of his F4 run, there's this weird period between wrapping up the Negative Zone plotline in his first Fantastic Four run and his other Fantastic Four comics (his New Avengers run and Secret Wars (2015) are Fantastic Four comics) where he doesn't quite seem to know what to do, emotionally, with the fallout of everything he set up. Which is disappointing! His depiction of grief in the wake of Johnny's death is so powerful, and I love the message about LOVE (what saves the Fantastic Four and by proxy the world? LOVE) in his FF runs, but he doesn't seem to know what to do with it in the in between issues. That being said, I think the last issue of his FF run, the one with Franklin, is just a triumph. It's hard to be overly negative about the pacing problems in the wake of that, but they are there and I do think they should be addressed.

#*replies #traincat talks comics

[transpersian]

Poppy and SFW Spaces - Part 2: About that time that Poppy posted lewd furry art in a SFW channel...

The last time this came up, I didn't want to overwhelm what was already a big post, but now that this is coming up again, it's reminded me to post the follow-up conversation from the server.

Because you know that there was a follow-up conversation.

TLDR:

Two server members spoke up about how uncomfortable the post made them.

Poppy has a conversation where she disagrees in a troubling way, then steps aside to allow for a mod to handle the disagreement (to avoid conflicts of interest).

Saige, who Poppy has disclosed on-stream that she is an FP for, stepped in to essentially parrot whatever Poppy had said (to, you know, avoid conflicts of interest).

First off, I want to make it clear that Saige is in an entirely impossible situation. Please do not attack or judge her for her place in this situation. Instead, look at it my way: as proof of what nearly a year under Poppy's control will do to you.

Anyway.

I'm feeling spicy and like digging into something, so here's Poppy telling a minor that they're wrong for feeling uncomfortable over her shoving her fursona's sexually posed, barely clothed ass in their faces.

Then we're going to talk about their server rules and how the subject of minors and NSFW content is handled. I'm going to properly dig in here, so strap in [EDIT: we're at over 2100 words, so I'm serious].

The offending post and the initial response. Note how hard both of these people are trying to not piss anyone off.

~~~~~~~~~~

So... a few things.

Note the immediate defensiveness and invalidation. Describing what's clearly erotic art as "cute."

"I don't find those particularly spicy." The minors do, though

"They aren't actually showing anything so to me they are mostly just risque." IF IT'S RISQUE THEN WHY ARE YOU SHOWING IT TO MINORS

"There are even more explicit versions and I didn't post those, so that makes these fine." You can use relativity to justify anything. This is not a real argument. Pro tip: always be cautious of relativity when it's being used to argue against your feelings.

"We get into stuff that's NSFW on our streams and we don't restrict that." I'm pretty sure this isn't the own you think it is, Poppy. This is you telling on yourself.

And then...

"we expect people who come there to be mature, the same is true about the server"

I... hm.

Poppy (and Zena, #nozzerasure)...

1. Why do you expect people who come to your streams to be mature?

YOU HAVE LITERALLY NO CONTROL OVER THAT. It's a mental health political drama channel that gets suggested to people who watch similar content. If the statistics you shared a while back are still true, less than 2% of your audience is minors, but that's who marking your channel as mature is for.

Even ignoring the barely censored lewd art for now, you discuss a lot of really adult topics on your streams. These are the rules for a reason, Poppy, and you don't get to decide that they just don't apply to you. IF YOUR CHANNEL IS FOCUSED ON ADULT TOPICS YOU MARK IT AS "MATURE." FULL STOP.

You have ZERO CONTROL over who wanders into your channel. It isn't your decision as to whether your videos show up in front of minors. You are fucking wrong here.

Fix it, or leave it as more evidence of how little you actually care about protecting minors from adult content.

2. Why do you expect people who come to your server to be mature?

You explicitly position it as a place for vulnerable, traumatized, mentally ill, BPD (etc) queer people to go. You have stated that you want your community to be a safe place for the people from Lily Orchard's community to go once they're out. You know that that community contains a lot of minors, many of whom are there for content about cartoons. Why are you outright assuming that these people are mature enough to handle this content? Because if that was really a major priority for you, Poppy, I would think that the absurdly low bar of DON'T SHARE YOUR FUCKING LEWD ART IN SPACES WITH MINORS would be one you'd gladly clear to make sure that those people were entering a safe, friendly, non-sexualized space. You know, because a major problem with LO is her being unable to keep her fetishes and sexuality out of minor-inclusive spaces. I've been researching some things recently and you'd be surprised how deep the parallels go.

And on one last note about this one, I think it's really funny that Poppy tried to act like the other sections of the server are some big secret. "What separate area" come on, now. lol

~~~~~~~~~~

It's weird how she can't just wrap her head around the simple idea of not showing NSFW art in minor-inclusive spaces. This isn't a debate stream, Poppy. Where are you trying to take this conversation?

I do love how the other person calls out the problem with relativity right there. Hell yeah. Just because Hollywood's decided that that's okay to put on TV doesn't mean that I use it as a barometer to dictate what I think is appropriate. Poppy should know better than to use that as an excuse.

~~~~~~~~~~

Saige moderates!

First off, I want to reiterate and stress that Saige is in an entirely impossible situation. Note how she's basically just agreeing with Poppy. I was torn on whether to include who this mod is, but the context of her relationship with them is important to show just how much of a conflict of interest this is. Having your BPD partner, who you are an FP for, be a mod for situations like this?

What was that about conflicts of interest, Poppy? Why is Saige moderating your conflicts on the server, as a mod?

Can you imagine, as a person with BPD, being put in the position to moderate disagreements over your FP's inappropriate posts in the server that she owns?

Anyway.

Looking at these as Poppy's talking points because I don't trust that they didn't discuss this behind the scenes before Saige posted her "verdict."

1. "This isn't harmful for minors to see."

According to who?

2. "On this server, we don't shy away from difficult interactions."

This is pure, basic Foundation propaganda (Poppaganda, heh). They say this, but all you have to do is look at the receipts for my interactions with them to see just how good they are at dealing with conflict. "But that was personally in dating" yes, I know, but believe me, it goes far beyond that. It's just how they handle their personal affairs. I've seen and have extensive evidence for it, I just can't share it yet.

3. "You are responsible to some degree for managing your interactions with an environment."

This is one of those abuses of therapy-speak. Poppy and Zena have been increasingly weaponizing certain definitions, particularly the notion of "boundaries." While boundaries are by definition things that you can state will be your response to specific actions and circumstances, you only have to look at Poppy's Twitter right now to see how that works out in practice.

~~~~~~~~~~

So what kind of expectations do PZ create for this environment?

Well, what is "Safe" versus the other categories, anyway?

Okay. Not explicitly for minors, fair enough. But let's check their server rules.

Solid start. What does that link to?

Oh, okay. Let's go over these.

~~~~~~~~~~

1) No minors in NSFW areas.

Serves to assume that no NSFW content is allowed in SFW spaces. Oh wait. About that first part.

And while one can assume that the person can still be locked out of chats that are specifically NSFW, this area of the server is a space where more NSFW conversations take place, including in VCs (which they clearly are, seeing as they're actively involved in the "reply to voice" chat in the background). There's no avoiding that unless the rules of the space itself change.

Oh wait. Also. About that second part. There's plenty in my previous post, but here's another fun one from last year that someone sent me today.

Maybe they changed the header in the year since, but uh... yeah. It's still in Safe, where there are minors. To be fair, the images were spoilered, but uh... yeah. Again, this is in the "Safe," minors-present category.

Anyway.

~~~~~~~~~~

2) People 23 and older can't act inappropriately towards minors. Check age roles to see if this is okay.

This comes across as weird for number of reasons. For one, this isn't something that should just apply to minors and 23+; anyone who feels uncomfortable with an interaction should be reporting it to the mods.

For another, while it makes sense to warn people that there are minors in the server and to mind themselves accordingly, why is the age gap specified like that? Why does it make a difference if they're 23 or 20? If they're making a minor uncomfortable, it's a problem!

I could say more, but it's just... weird.

~~~~~~~~~~

As for 3...

I want to first talk about that last bit because I know she'll be offended at the very suggestion that it isn't true; I truly do believe that Poppy believes that this is true. Unfortunately, wanting to do something and believing you do something and actually doing that thing are very different things.

But let's talk about this age difference thing again.

Take a moment and think about this: whose perspective is this from?

At what point does someone start "considering the power dynamics in the age difference" when they're interacting with a 22 year old? Maybe it's something to consider if you're over 30, but I wouldn't blink at a 24 year old dating a 20 year old.

So whose perspective(s) (#nozzerasure) are the age-based categorizations of "old enough to date question mark" designed for?

~~~~~~~~~~

Their stance on TWs/CWs

One last thing that I thought was curious...

They specifically have a section of their rules that discusses trigger/content warnings. This is what it says:

Notice how the two things that are marked as things that should be spoilered are violence and actual spoilers for media.

Most servers I've seen either have NSFW stuff specifically sequestered to NSFW spaces, or they spoil NSFW stuff. Why wouldn't this server do that?

Oh. Right.

~~~~~~~~~~

So what's my point?

What's all of this ultimately mean?

Firstly, I need to stress how NONE OF THIS IS EVIDENCE OF POPPY PURSUING MINORS IN "THAT" WAY. While her behavior is certainly concerning and inappropriate, I will not abide by any p*do-jacketing. If you're making any accusations like that, you'd better be bringing evidence, or at least a testimony.

Mainly, what this points to is a troubling pattern of behavior as far as her understanding of appropriate boundaries around sexual content. This directly impacts her ability to create truly SFW safe spaces for minors, especially minors who are emotionally/psychologically vulnerable or seeking refuge from sexually charged spaces.

Some of them may like being treated like adults, but that's not the point. The point is that it's not up to them. These are the rules for a reason.

Poppy, you may not believe that the rules should be this way, but please stop being so fucking stubborn. You're endangering minors with this behavior. All people are asking of you on this front is to be more restrained with your sexual stuff (including the "risque" stuff) in spaces where there are minors present.

Just exercise a little bit of self-control for the sake of making your server the safe space that you work so hard to convince people (including minors) that it is.

~~~~~~~~~~

ADDENDUM

HOLY SHIT THEY CLARIFIED IT

"Safe is only for friendly conversations about up to PG-13 topics."

#zenaandpoppy #poppy and zena

[damianbugs]

saki i'm sorry i don't know much about DC comics, but i have been confused about something recently when seeing fan comics — are Bruce and Two-Face (Harvey?) still friends post-whatever happened to him? I think they were friends before, maybe, but some fanon has been suggesting to me they might still be, so I was wondering about that. Opinions on him, too, maybe? I know fuck all about him but he's so quirky

i wouldn't say they're... still friends exactly. let's do some background real quick.

i think the really sweet and close friendship bruce wayne and harvey dent had prior to his acid attack, that inspires a lot of fancontent — is from Batman: The Animated Show. in this iteration of their history, they're close friends who obviously mean a lot to each other, which is why the guilt batman feels for two-face is only more painful.

(of course in much earlier comics and harvey's original introduction (detective comics #66) bruce and harvey are friends too. though, it's not often referenced as his origin much anymore.)

in the comics however, the friendship starts and unfortunately ends with batman. batman, (captain) jim gordon, (DA) harvey all work together to try and solve the case in Batman: The Long Halloween.

they grow close and personally, i think bruce was really starting to form a close bond and trust with harvey throughout their partnership. this really shines through when after harvey becomes two-face (which is a long and sad story), bruce still has somewhat of a belief that harvey can still be good.

though, we know now that two-face ends up having a permanent spot in gothams rouge gallery, but i suppose it's because of this history of trust that batman continues to encourage harvey to turn his life around (a sentiment he has with a lot of his rouges, but something that is especially prominent in his relationship with two-face).

as for what their origins are in the new 52? i have no idea! moving on.

for what their relationship is like currently;

the most recent interactions i think they've had is in ram v's current Detective Comics run (which is FANTASTIC) and out of all the harvey and bruce comics i have read, it is probably my favourite. they're not even the main focused relationship, but it is such an important one for the theme of this arc.

in this run harvey is at war with himself, struggling between being 'good' and being 'bad' — but also struggling to simply have a choice at doing either. bruce is also facing a similar turmoil. so we see this really wonderful parallel in the midst of a battle where harvey is debating whether or not he wants to save bruce or leave him to die, and bruce is battling whether he wants to give in or keep going.

two-face does end up saving bruce. this is something very important to both of their characters.

it shows bruce that the man he befriended is not lost and it gives harvey a sense of autonomy that he's been stripped of for a long time. it's a short but very moving subplot about hope.

that being said, harvey isn't doing this because he wants to be friends with bruce again. or well, two-face isn't. it's complicated.

i don't think i could do the writing justice (there is also like, an insane overarching plot going on). once he drags bruces half dead body to safety, he threatens him, leaves bruce there and is currently, on the run.

so friends? not really. enemies? also not exactly. really tragic story about missing someone you once knew, wondering if you ever really knew them in the first place? ABSOLUTELY.

there is also some insanely obvious queercoding taking place in their story, but i focused on their friendship side of things.

it's one of bruce's more complicated rouge relationships, and probably the best one thematically. harvey is such an interesting character and if dc wouldn't use the same green headed dumbass as the villain in all their batman stories, two-face would definitely be the most compelling rouge for bruce.

i don't know if this actually made any sense, and also apologies for taking so long to answer this! here is probably one of the best detective comics covers ever made as an apology (it is bruce standing in the middle of a split two-face carved golden door with a batman shadow in the back. this shit is marvelous).

#bruce wayne #harvey dent #such an interesting relationship these two have #i have not done them justice with this explanation #saki comic talks