half considering making a side blog for my warrior of light to toss all my little half formed headcanons onto, but I barely have any of those and social interaction makes my anxiety implode

Lore Workshop

Mostly just to look at while I figure out what’s staying, getting reworked, expanded on, and so on (no the Sin Eater doesn’t have a proper name yet because the naming conventions for the Wardens was Whack)

Ascian Counterpart:

Hecate - goddess of magic and necromancy; crossroads, entrance-ways, night, light, magic, witchcraft, the Moon, knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants, graves, ghosts, necromancy, and sorcery

Worked in Elpis developing concepts before taking the seat of Azem to gain a better understanding of the world they were making things for. Gender fluid, using he/she/they though among the trio mostly went by they. Venat was one of the few able to keep up with them. A gremlin menace who would workshop their spell concepts anywhere, including around others in the city. Was notoriously bad at resting, spending every waking moment researching, developing, and bothering Hades and Hythlodaeus.

Primal Counterpart:

Merikh the Void Mourner

A voidsent-like being bent on keeping the things he treasured safe whether said things want to be kept or not.

Primal transformation triggered after they lose too many companions, overwhelmed by grief and helplessness

Collection of bottles with people and treasures strapped and tied all over him, or does he pin them into a large book? Could have the souls leaking out between the pages like little ghostie goos

Big fluffer tail(s?)

His casting staff double as a great sword for that slick black mage dark knight duality

Black sclera and pitch tears, though in phase one seems more gleefully manic than anything

Phase two has him begging the players to stop fighting before they too disappear, pleading for them to join his collection and be safe

Mechanics have him swapping between staff and sword modes

Sin Eater Counterpart:

Phase 1: Eternal Life

Mouth covered by wings, bleeding light, a shambling corpse of a heavenly knight riddled with weapons, dragging a great sword behind them, repeats “kill” over and over, jerking almost reluctant movements when he attacks, has a cracked core acting as a heart, begs for death right before phase change

Phase 2: Eternal Spirit

Puppet master guiding the heavenly knight, wings covering their eyes, many hands to pull the strings, looms above the field, body covered by sets of wings, traps the knight in their chest for the remainder of the fight, the knight will claw his way out, reaching for the players and becomes a weak spot to dish out damage to like Shinryu’s heart, calls down the heavens as attacks

The Tumblr Tags: (I spoke about this on my main blog lol)

#their Ancient counterpart was Hecate who was very genderfluid and caused so much trouble workshopping new magic around people #their shard from the void managed to latch onto them as a baby when they cast magic for the first time near a tear and later #it manifests as their Esteem/Inner Darkness #their canon jobs are Black Mage and Dark Knight but they’ve dabbled in Astrologer Reaper and Ninja #Reaper left them feeling a very Wrong connection to the void so they only resort to that power when extremely put out #Krishna uses he/they pronouns! #I’m a little put off shipping an OC with a npc for some reason #but if I had to pick canon ships for him he would have a passing fling with Aymeric whenever they both have the time #and then he’s very attached to G’raha Tia #he had strained relations with the Scions for a long time when he first started adventuring but they are more like family now #the twins are his little siblings and he will maim anyone for them #he gave himself the scar over his eye during training for Ninja and the void magic lashed out to fix it #hence the one purple eye #he can still kind of see out of it but it’s actually better for tracing void magic and detecting tears now than actual sight #he was raised by his aunt Manvah in Ul’dah but born in the forests of Gridania by Quarrymill

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wow ,  just  wow.        as  of  october  7th ,  2020  it  has  officially  been   one  year   since  i  launched  jackie’s  original  blog.  now ,  her  concept  as  a  whole  began  much ,  much  earlier.  july  23rd ,  2019  to  be  exact.  i  knew  i  wanted  to  delve  into  the  world  of  stephen  king ,  i  knew  that  i  wanted  to  do  something  different ,  i  knew  that  i  wanted  to  take  a  novel  that  i’d  always  loved  with  characters  i  always  loved ,  &  give  them  life  through  someone  else’s  story.  ariel  “ jackie ”  torrance  was  the  product  of  that.  i   did  not   ever  think  i’d  get  off  the  ground  with  her ,  as  she’s  a  female  original  character  &  the  rpc  can  be . . .  well ,  the  rpc.  but  thanks  to  some  pretty  awesome  people ,  she’s  taken  on  such  a  life  of  her  own  with  eight  original  arcs  spanning  four  decades  of  her  life.  she  has  such  a  detailed  biography  that  only  writing  out   five   of  those  has  the  word  count  at  just  over  6,000  words.

she’s  truly  my  favorite  brainchild  out  of  writing  for  twelve  years  &  i’ve  met  so  many  amazing  people  while  writing  her.  so  many  amazing  people  that  have  pushed  me  to  go  farther  when  i  was  ready  to  throw  in  the  towel  on  her.  i  don’t  know  that  she  &  this  blog  would  be  around  today  had  it  not  been  for  the  lovely  beans  i’ve  met  along  the  way  &  continue  to  express  their  admiration  for  her  character.  so  i  wanted  to  make  this  post  as  a   thank  you.   thank  you  for  listening  to  my  3  am  rambles  about  the  tiniest  headcanons.  thank  you  for  enabling  her  impulsive  &  reckless  behavior  at  times  so  that  she  has  to  be  put  in  uncomfortable  situations  to  grow.  thank  you  for  always  believing  in  me  &  my  ability  to  tell  a  story  even  when  life  has  thrown  me  the   wildest   of  curveballs  &  i  don’t  get  to  be  as  active  as  i  once  was.

i’m  going  to  give  a  couple  of  little  shoutouts  below  the  cut ,  &  then  in  no  particular  order  i’d  like  to  thank  some  of  the  people  who  have  been  by  my  side  since  jackie’s  beginning.  if  you  aren’t  listed  because  we’re  recently  mutuals  /  friends ,   please  don’t  take  offense.  i  adore  you  all  &  it’s  such  a  pleasure  to  see  you  &  write  with  you ,  but  as  a  huge  milestone  in  her  creation  &  growth ,  i’d  like  to  give  credit  to  those  who  helped  keep  jackie  around  for  you  to  meet  her.

first ,  to  the  dan  to  my  jackie ,  the  steve  to  my  bucky ,  my  loveliest  virgo  wife :   annie ,  you  have   always   been  there  to  encourage  me  to  push  boundaries  with  her ,  push  her  out  of  her  comfort  zone.  get  inventive  &  creative ,  to  develop  npcs  with  such  depth  that  could  have  lives  of  their  own  too.  when  i  told  you  about  jackie  as  a  mere  concept ,  you  didn’t  hesitate  to  make  a  blog  for  dan.  you’ve  helped  me  strengthen  the  bond  between  jackie  &  the  only  family  she  ever  needs.  you’ve  helped  me  give  her  such  fantastically  deep  flaws  within  her  torrance  genes ,  but  a  relationship  with  her  cousin  that  allows  her  to  be  seen  as  more  than  a   “ mary  sue ”   relative  oc.  your  love  of  stephen  king  reignited  my  own  burning  flame  &  i  love  you  so ,  so  much.  trust  when  traveling  is  safer ,  i’m  cashing  in  those  flight  vouchers.  we   will   go  ask  mr.  king  about  dan’s  true  timeline.  bet.      //      @neverreallyend ,  @prouddov ,  @descriptionbegins ,  @spiritsfound

next ,  someone  i’ve  known  for  going  on  four  years  now.  my  softest  bean  &  the  other  1/3  of  the  triple  virgos ,  joey :   even  when  you  weren’t  on  tumblr ,  you’d  always  love  jackie.  like ,  writing  on  discord ?  just  even  listening  to  my  rambling  about  her ?  chef  kiss.  you’ve  been  alongside  annie  where  when  i  wanted  to  give  up  on  her  or  shit  got  rough  with  anything ,  you  had  my  back.  you  supported  me  on  this  journey  &  always  encouraged  ultimate  creativity.  i  cannot  thank  you  enough  for  that  or  just  the  friendship  you’ve  honored  me  with.      //      @notdoriangray

another  person  i’ve  known  for  four  years ,  but  arguably  has  enabled  most  of  the  dumbest  shit  jackie  has  gotten  herself  into.  my  chaotic  fire  sign  partner  in  crime ,  holly :   bro.  you’re  literally  one  of  the  hardest  working  people  i’ve  ever  met ,  &  because  of  that ,  there’s  been  times  where  we  don’t  talk  as  much  or  as  often.  but  we  always  stay  in  contact  no  matter  what.  when  i  spout  off  random  ass  ideas  or  come  to  tell  you  what  dramatic  or  thotty  shit  jackie’s  gotten  herself  into  this  time ,  you  tell  me  to  spill  the  tea.  but  it’s  also  gotten  me  into  personal  peril ,  toxic  friendships  that  you  could  see  through  &  help  me  be  a  better  person  in  the  end  for.  &  you   always   build  jackie  up  when  i  feel  insecure.  if  that’s  not  a  real  one ,  idk  what  is  dudeski ,  but  i  love  you !      //      @desireforged ,  @createdestino ,  @sharpsensations

my  significant  annoyance ,  cas :   you  were  100%  jackie’s  first  ship.  well ,  isaac  was.  you  get  it.  i  didn’t  expect  anyone  to  want  to  ship  with  her ,  let  alone  develop  something  over  a  year  in  the  making.  it’s  insane  to  me  how  loyal  you  are  both  as  a  friend  &  jackie  supporter.  i  can  tell  you  the  dumbest  shit  about  her  &  all  you  do  is  acknowledge  how  dumb  it  is  but  then  also  support  her.  i  think   i  love  her [ jackie ]   has  become  your  catchphrase  at  this  point.  but  her  connections  to  isaac  &  bruce  have  helped  me  establish  her  comfort  in  romantic  relationships  so ,  so ,  so  much.  you  have  no  idea.  it  leaves  me  shooketh  how  much  i  adore  you  &  everything  you’ve  done  to  help  keep  jackie’s  muse  alive.      //      @scarfwere ,  @milletant

fellow  non – binary  taika  waititi  lovebot ,  pantu :   what  started  as  me  geeking  over  how  well  thought  out  &  conceptualized  tj  is  &  how  astounded  i  was  at  the  originality  has  turned  into  the  most  excellent  of  friendships.  you’re  so  fucking  talented  both  with  writing  &  in  general   ( elizabeth  schuyler  is  that  u ? )  &  i’m  so  thankful  to  call  you  my  friend.  along  with  friendship  re :  jackie  &  tj ,  you’ve  helped  me  establish  another  sense  of  how  jackie  might  respond  to  romantic  intimacy  with  kc.  someone  who  is  something  more  than  temporary.  &  the  plot  we  have  with  @multides  in  her  it  verse ?  you  &  ash  both  with  eddie  &  danny  have  made  me  fall  so  in  love  with  how  jackie  sees  a  child  with  shit  parents  &  instinctively  wants  to  protect  them.  wants  to  guard  them  with  her  life.  it’s  yet  another  dimension  to  her  that  i  couldn’t  have  discovered  without  you  &  ash.  thank  you ,  babes.      //      @glittervcins ,  @inmarcesiblcs

&  now  for  everyone  else  who  has  always  me  feel  so  fucking  great  on  any  of  the  blogs  i’ve  had  jackie  on.  the  ones  that  are  no  doubt  a  reason  she’s  still  here  today  &  the  ones  who  make  me  so  damn  happy  she  is.  again ,  this  is  in  no  particular  order  &  if  we’re  newly  mutuals  please  don’t  take  offense  to  not  being  on  here.  also ,  if  you  have  more  than  one  blog  i’ve  only  listed  one.

@clownwork   //   @familiartm   //   @fuckingvictus   //   @multides   //   @thunderbringer   //   @dukecrocker   //   @troubldtwn   //   @dyingbrced   //   @snowbrn   //   @lustsfcrlife   //   @scribedhorror   //   @killedminds   //   @stapcs   //   @storiescrafted   //   @agtwarren   //   @starlyht   //   @kxngslxyer

jestermauk for the question thing?

send me a ship or character and i’ll tell you

001 | send me a ship and I will tell you:

when I started shipping it if I did: honestly that’s really difficult to pinpoint? i’ve always liked their dynamic ever since i started watching, but at first i mostly liked them platonically? and then it was a combo of seeing some really nice art that probably wasn’t even meant to be shippy in the first place and also the scene where jester gets the tarot deck, and i was overwhelmed with emotions about their relationship and somewhere along the way i was like “haha but what if they kissed” and then. and then.

my thoughts: they’re so underrated and so good? i honestly think they’d have the potential to be such a dynamic duo, two chaos-loving tieflings who love life and want to spread joy and chaos in the world. they have so much in common but have their differences as well and i just think they could be so fun!!!

What makes me happy about them: the fact that theyre just so fun!!! a big reason why they’re such a comfort ship to me is that they both have very light-hearted personalities!!!

What makes me sad about them: molly’s death in 26 ksfdjdkjfhgk (and even considering certain spoilery circumstances........hoooo boy i just hope nothing happens that’ll sink the ship for good. bls mercer we’re just a teeny rowboat,,,,,,)

things done in fanfic that annoys me: i kinda wish there were more g and t rated fics of them? of course, smut is great and i do pretty much consume nearly everything (emphasis on nearly) that gets put in the tag, but sometimes i just wanna see fic of them that isn’t just sexual you know? and in the case of smut i’m not a fan of making molly the more sexually aggressive one of the duo; i think they’d be pretty equal in that regard. 

things I look for in fanfic: again i’d love to see more g and t rated fics of them! if there was a longfic of them i’d just about die of happiness. as of now since there’s so little content of them, i’ll read nearly anything with them (again, emphasis on nearly). but especially i’m mostly looking for them having that same sort of dynamic they do in canon, except with more kissing and cuddling. i also love seeing jester being the one to initiate something between the two of them! also aus, but i just love aus in general

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: for jester, i love beaujes and b/y/j a lot! caliester (aka cali/jester aka pen pal gfs) is also severely underrated. for molly, i think teacaddy could be pretty cute and interesting, and i think shadowmauk is neat. but in general i think i’m a bit more picky in terms of molly ships than jester ships

My happily ever after for them: i actually kind of have this fic idea where when other characters...i don’t think settle down is the right word, but when the other characters start to get their own places (like for instance i love the idea of caleb and essek opening an academy together), molly and jester still want to spread joy and chaos wherever they do, and why not do that together? so they set off on their own adventures, just the two of them (maybe joined once in a while by a friendly npc or guest pc, or sometimes another m9 member will drop by because they sure arent completely done yet!) spreading joy, causing mischief, and solving crime in their own chaotic way! anyway i think that would be fun and neat; i even made tiefling ocs for them to encounter even though i know i’ll never be writing this fic kdjhfdkjh

who is the big spoon/little spoon: they switch pretty often i imagine, but i’m extremely tickled by the image of jester being the big spoon because i imagine molly being a full foot taller than her and i just think it’d be so cUTE--

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: arts and crafts of course! they’re both painters and i can easily imagine both of them sewing as well; i just think they’d have a ton of fun creating art together--designing cards, clothes, and of course tattoos!

rules

   This is going to be a long post, and I apologise for that. However I do not apologise for putting my boundaries as clear as possible, and will not apologise for doing so. All of the rules below exist for a reason, and I have them for my own comfort.

It is okay if you don’t agree with them BUT IT’S NOT OKAY TO IGNORE THEM. If you think you cannot follow the posted rules, then do not follow this blog. Thank you !!

General

 These are the basics, a re-hash of rules that almost everyone has but that I like to cover anyway just in case!

Read ALL important pages: rules, disclaimer, muse list & info for the muse(s) you want to interact with

Use proper punctuation and spellings to the best of your abilities

Mark clearly whether an ask is IC or OOC

No godmodding

No maiming, killing, etc. of my muses without my permission

No choosing of thoughts or big actions of my muses without my permission

Hate, anon or otherwise, will be reported and deleted. Users will be blocked.

There may be an occasional mention that I do this if there’s some kind of repeat, but I will not place the content itself on the dash.

Asks and IMs are always welcome!!

More in the < Asks & Memes & Messaging > section

tracked tag is SOULSBREATHED and is the best chance of getting me to see a post. @’ing me will also work, but please be sure to use my url tag on top that! please also put somewhere which of my muse(s) the post is for.

Specifics

These are some of the rules that have been established over time for my own sake, and to make everyone’s time on here a lot easier!

Your age must be listed somewhere I can easily find it! I’m not comfortable writing some content with muns or muses who are under 18

If I cannot find that information I am unlikely to follow, and I will not write that content with you, as it’s safer to err on the side of caution.

It takes time for me to check through all my followers, so please don’t ask if I haven’t followed back right away or unfollow, unless I post very specifically about dumblr fucking things up.

There’s any number of reasons I may do either, but the more we happily interact and talk the more likely I am to follow or re-follow.

With rare exception, I will not interact with any blogs that contain digits in them.

Please, please, use regularly accepted punctuation within threads.

Please.

Do NOT spam-reblog from me, which is reblogging 3+ posts in rapid succession. It messes up my notifications and I lose other things.

Mark clearly between IC/OOC, and which muse or npc a message is for.

ALL PERSONALS WILL BE BLOCKED

unless I can tell with a glance that there are RP sideblogs attached to them

I love my ships and will not stop writing them for someone else’s sake. I tag all visual content, but if there’s a short tag or something to be added, give me a quick little heads-up and I’ll happily tack it on. Everyone wins!

If I cannot easily navigate a blog for information, I will not follow back

easy navigation includes:

rules page

disclaimer/ooc page of some kind

tagging system

cut posts

Formatting

this little section is for what to expect from me and my writing preferences, but it is a flexible section!

I do both regular capitalization and zero capitalization for threads, depending on partner and length of the thread

memes and asks will be done in whichever I’m feeling

I do small text ONCE for aesthetic, but will leave text regular size if asked

Headlines will be done in subtext size, again mostly for aesthetic

Parentheses and brackets will be BOLDED and italicized, on the whole

I will @ the url of the person who sent the ask or is part of the thread

thread partner urls may also have their muse’s name listed after a slash for further clarity

I occasionally use icons, but mostly for asks, dash commentary, or silly things

all icons are 100x100

I enjoy using bold, italics, and strikethrough, but that’s about the extent of my text formatting and I try not to overdo them too much

Asks & Memes & Messaging

Asks are open to everyone!

IMs are ooc and mutuals only.

If a meme is shippy or nsfw, it is mutuals only and will require previous interaction.

All others are freebies!!

for the time being I’m putting a graphic in the direct reply to an ask, adding a blockquote for tagging the sender, additional commentary, and the source meme if there is one

Any reply to an ask MUST be in a new post. Reblogged asks will be ignored.

Any messages saying ��wanna rp?’ or asking for an IM will be deleted. I’m far more receptive to being approached with ideas to work with

While not explicitly reblog karma, I am not a meme source and will talk to you if you always take memes from me but never send anything in or talk to me. Sometimes a meme doesn’t work and that’s fine, but there’s no excuse to never interact with me.

I often have a mix of platonic, general, and nsfw/shippy memes at my disposal, but feel free to improv something from the gist or edit sentences to suit our muses better!! Creative fun is why we’re here <3

OCS & Sideblogs & MuMus & Second-Gens

Information must be easy to navigate and read, same as for canons/single muse blogs!

Sideblogs, please list somewhere OBVIOUS what the main blog is called so I know what to look out for.

Mumus, I love you and your dedication, but I am most selective with you. Yes, even as a mumu myself.

The more fandoms covered and more muses included, the less likely I am to hop on board mostly because I prefer a clean dash.

If we’re close friends ooc I’ll likely be far more lenient

OCs with a main spn-canon faceclaim will not be accepted unless the muse has been around longer than the canon being cast or if they look/act markedly different than the canon ( Karen Gillan with all her hair vs as Nebula, for example ).

more in the < canons & fcs > section

Unless plotted otherwise, they will not know my muses, but they can know OF my muses

Second-Gens ( kids of the original set(s) of main canons ) make me uncomfortable for a number of reasons, and so will be interacted with on a case-by-case basis.

I am unlikely to follow unless we know each other very well ooc

Canons & FCs

Again, OCs with main spn-canon faceclaims will not be interacted with unless they meet at least one of the two criteria listed above.

However, if I pick a FC for someone related to this blog that isn’t canon, it’ll likely be shrugged off as uncanny lookalike, or we can otherwise plot around it.

Animated FCs are welcome, but I’ll admit that specifically anime blogs are unlikely to be interacted with. Sorry

If a canon has an alternate faceclaim: cool! Just have it listed somewhere obvious, please

FCs I will NOT interact with: Mark Sheppard, Selena Gomez, Mads Mikkelsen, Miley Cyrus, Justin Beiber, Sara Bareilles, Andrew Scott, Zooey Deschanel, Natalie Dormer. The list may be periodically updated; yes, it is okay to ask me about specific names and why these ones are listed.

Shipping

There will be a good deal of F/F, F/M, and M/M on this blog both in visual and text.

May ( read: probably will ) include three+somes.

Implication and mention to graphically clear are likely, and will be tagged.

Brady/Sam is not a ship I expect but Brady (the demon) is at least borderline obsessed with Sam even if he doesn’t actively seek the other out 

Wi.nce.st will very likely be present on this blog. If this is content that makes you uncomfortable please do not follow me.

By default, ALL my muses are single unless plotted otherwise.

Please don’t assume there will be a ship between your muse and mine without plotting first, positively or negatively !!

I WILL NOT be ship-exclusive with any blogs

I will have mains but it’s on unofficial terms

For all my writing partners: I will happily plot ships, and details! But I won’t have an assumed prior romantic/sexual history between our muses.

Again, I know this bit is particularly long !! But it’s very necessary for my comfort and yours as a baseline of whether we might get along or not. Thank you again for pulling through all the reading; if you’re staying, awesome !! If you’re not, I’m sorry to see you go but I hope you find the writing happiness you want <3

Any chance I can ask for a few more tips on what to look for within applications?

Even though I assume you are one of the people that already asked for my ‘what to look for in apps’ on private I’m going to restate some points just to make this post comprehensive for anyone! I’ve made the old sections in italic, and the new sections in regular font if you want to skip to those. And this only applies to plot heavy skeleton rps. I won’t pretend to know anything about any other type of rp. 

This got very very long so I’m putting it under the cut! 

The most important is that the applicant seems willing to talk to you. This could be asks, ims, or even a little note in the app! Writers who want to make it clear what their intentions/desires/goals are ooc are going to be the easiest to work with! Plus it gives you an idea of how flexible they are! Those who dig their heels in when you offer up alternative suggestions are probably not good to work with. You want to find someone who has direction, intention, and ideas but don’t treat your ideas (or anyone else’s) as lesser than their own. 

Call for humor! I’ve found that I have trouble with people who take themselves and their characters too seriously. This means that they often won’t be up for plotting since they don’t want their character to be anything less than graceful. Humor is a really good sign that a writer is fun, creative, and understands their character. And having memes associated with the character doesn’t really count for this, because although memes are fun they are not generative and specific in the way that written humor in an app can be. 

One of the aspects of an app which is easy to spot on sight is the length. I don’t disregard any app based on length but obviously if the applicant didn’t meet the minimum requirement then they can’t be accepted. However, if an applicant goes way over what was asked of them I tend to shy away from that as well. Generally, I think a good app length for a skeleton rp is between 2k and 3k words. With longer apps I do read every word and take it into consideration, but the main reason why I prefer medium sized apps will be explained next,

For plot heavy skeleton rps, the application should feel like a set up, or like the first half of a story. Sometimes applicants get so wrapped up in their character they write an app like a novel synopsis, and it gives the character an arc with a beginning, middle, and end already accomplished. That’s cool in it’s own right, but it doesn’t create a very good jumping off point for the character’s arc in the rp. Look for apps that create conflict, have unresolved issues, and seem like the character is in the first stage of their journey. That way, the rp can follow them as they get to a point of resolution. 

One of the new parts of apps that I’ve been integrating is asking the applicant to list 3 to 5 potential plots for the their character. I’ve had some people tell me that they have trouble coming up with plots for their characters in advance and tend to just let things happen, which is totally fine!  But it’s just not right for the style of rp I run which is fast paced and plot heavy. So you want to look for someone who comes in strong with an arc in mind for their character and lots of plot ideas. 

But an important caveat to this is that I find I have the most luck with applicants who are open to multiple possibilities. So they send in one plot and a similar alternate plot. (Ei. Beth becomes a mother or Beth becomes a leader of an organization and functions in a maternal figure to her employees). It’s good to know that a player has ideas but is flexible and willing to adapt. If the applicant seems like they have one journey in mind for their character and they aren’t willing to waver on it, you probably won’t have the best time trying to work them into a narrative that changes and evolves. Because in rps the entire situation can change at the drop of a hat (if an important character goes inactive or something like that) you need to find players that can go with the flow, change their vision, and work with you to find a compromise. 

One last thing on the subject of suggested plots, beware any player that comes in with a specific ship in mind. It’s one thing to say ‘I want my character to learn how to be vulnerable and fall in love over the course of the story’ and another to say ‘I want my character to end up with this other skeleton’. Because if that’s one of the first plots on the applicant’s mind and it doesn’t work out (maybe the other writer isn’t on board for the ship) the applicant might be disappointed or discouraged to a point where they leave. In summary, look for a player that suggests plots that keeps other writer’s feelings and desires into consideration. 

There’s some old rp practices that I brought back for retiredhq and actually had a lot of success with. The first one was the para sample, which I think is a great way to get insight into the applicants writing style and the vibe of the character. Headcanons can be good for background, but the para sample gives the admin a more realistic idea of what the character will actually be like in play. 

And the other old rp practice I’m bringing back in 2020 is the password in the rules! I feel like that was phased out a couple years ago and I understand why. At this point many people have been in rps long enough to know the basics: don’t godmod, don’t bubble rp, etc. But because the way I run rps tends to be fairly unconventional the rules hold a lot of essential information. And I think, when an applicant applies, it’s sort of like checking the ‘I agree to the terms and conditions box’ meaning that they have read the rules and consent to them. So I put in a password to be sure the rules have actually been read. Because I don’t want to find out two months late that the applicant didn’t actually read the rules and isn’t comfortable with the admin playing their character as an npc after their departure, or some other aspect of gameplay. 

And finally, one of the biggest red flags is someone not sticking to the skeleton! If someone blatantly disregards one or more aspects of the skeleton that is an instant strike against them. I don’t like it when people have ocs that they adapt to fit a skeleton because most of the time that means that they don’t really care about the skeleton and your ideas. However, if they contact me about changes to the skeleton in advance and ask if some edits are alright then that’s actually a really good sign! I want people to play a character that they are happy about and I’m willing to change up any skeleton. I just need to know the applicant is willing to work with me instead of against me.

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Based on this post. 

im gonna do what rebekah did and discuss the potential of oc /oc ships. However i have 10 of them on this blog and i will not be doing this 45 times so im limiting myself to active ocs only, which puts me at 16, which is still a lot but this blog is for me and im a slut for my own characters. (I tried to do it in the tags but tumblr cut me off cause its lesbophobic.) lets get crackin.

gildy/anyone: no. thats grandma. now this isn't to say that i won't ship gildy with anyone; i have before and will again; but it's got to be someone her own age which no other oc is close to (rip to that one npc who made magic ceramics in her first campaign that i was tryna date before the campaign fell apart)  Verdict: No Cradle Robbing

craving/tov: oh GOD it would go so bad . they both hate themselves so much and manifest it as a brusque aggressiveness they'd fucking attack each other within hours. even a one night stand might be pushing the limits of their patience. Verdict: Do Not Recommend

craving/ezra: i would LOVE to watch these two sit down and talk about philosophy; because they have genuinely the exact opposite takes on life. they both got dunked on and had someone important taken from them at a young age and craving said FUCK IT im gonna be mean since the world hates me and ezra said FUCK IT im gonna be nice and hope the world loves me back eventually. and it would be so fucking interesting to see them try and convince the other why they're right. however. should not date. Verdict: Bad Romantic Material

craving/nissy: this would go literally the exact same way as nissy and zier. like the ExACT same way. they'd find each other attractive at first; make it a few weeks or something; the sexiness would wear off and they'd find each other insufferable but Not want to break up because they're stubborn and also getting something out of dating the other one. (craving likes that nissy's rich and also his cool shadow guy; nissy likes that craving's all about 'fuck the system' and also maybe a teensy little bit is into the idea of getting a glasya pact too). if they were to meet nakoria in this universe they also would both fuck her and then not tell the other about it. Verdict: Hilarious But Unsustainable.

craving/ebbie: i literally can't even conceptualize this. i c. i can't. i think ebbie would be genuinely terrified of craving. Verdict: No.

craving/roona: Ohhhhhhhh YES baby. mischief squad in the fucking HOUSE. they would get along absolutely fantastically i think. No impulse control, so many crimes! neither of them would really be ones to try and make it work long term but they'd have a fucking AMAZING couple months together and part on good terms. Plus craving has a thing for short girls Verdict: Good Short Term Ship.

tov/ezra: other people would ship them because they have such similar vibes. but i dont think either of them necessarily would want to date for exactly that reason. now you might say but didnt tov fall in love with savra because they have similar backstories? yes BUT they're at very different points in their recovery. ezra and tov are too close. come back to it once both their campaigns are over and they might make a very sweet couple. Verdict: Slow Burn 250k Words

tov/nissy: i feel like tov would take one look at nissy and kind of just. leave. nissy would be into tov tho. he likes the rugged bad boy vibes. he'd think he was mysterious and handsome. and we know he seems to have a thing for sorcerers. Verdict: One Sided Crush

tov/ebbie: they'd get along Really well but it'd be more of a mentor/mentee dynamic. they both like to build things and want to find simple softness in the world but don't trust that they can have it. ebbie has a much more excited and babbly demeanor bc he's a Loud Anxious and tov is much more laid back and calmer because he’s a Quiet Anxious. tov would see him as a kid that’s probably gonna turn out ok, but i dont know if he’d really be able to tell that ebbie’s got some fucked up in there. ebbie would be way better at seeing through tov’s walls, and would follow him around almost like a lost dog bc tov like. Actually Gets Him and he wants to learn as much as he can and you know what if there’s a baby crush there, there’s a baby crush there. Verdict: I Hate To Say It But This One’s A Notice Me Senpai

tov/roona: roona would call tov a narc within 30 seconds of meeting him and any Possible feelings on his end would die instantly. Roona would be far more into teasing him than into him. It’d be a cute dynamic where they act like they can’t stand each other and insist that they’re not even friends but like when it comes down to it, they have a fairly good time together and will defend each other against anyone else trying to fuck with them. Bonus Points for them both being super gullible.  Verdict: Only I Get To Be Mean To Them

ezra/nissy: on paper, they’re both like trying to be heroic good guys and struggling a little bit, so they should get along. But like in practice. Oh my god. they couldn’t fucking STAND each other but they’d have to because they’re trying to do the same things more or less and like, Ezra is trying SO HARD to find selflessness in Nissy and Nissy is trying SO HARD to make Ezra care literally At All about himself, and anyone who interacts with them trying to adventure is kinda just like uh ...... you know i’ll just wait while you two work this out. Verdict: Buddy Cop Dynamic

ezra/ebbie: i really don’t have strong feelings about this one like, i think they’d get along fine. they’re both just kinda dudes trying to do good and they’d vibe with each other but they’re not quite as similar as ebbie and tov to have any kind of strong dynamic. it’s like when two bus drivers wave at each other while passing in the street and its like YAHOO for one second and then they’ve passed each other. Verdict: If You’re Into Bland Ships To Self Project On

ezra/roona: very good friendship dynamic here. ezra knows that there’s good in roona and is content to wait with her while it worms its way out, and roona is glad to have someone to check her and occasionally get talked into doing some stupid shit. ezra gets a new baby sister, roona gets a second vinny. Verdict: It’s Familiar But Not Too Familiar

nissy/ebbie: ajskdfjsdjfisdjfsakfdjfdsakljfisaodf sadfkdsajfasdjfasfsdfjsiof hsadfjsdfsahfsdfjsdoifhsdf Verdict: Hhsdfkjasdhiuf 

ebbie/roona: so. ebbie has had to deal with an unstable 11 year old before, and keep her out of trouble, and roona has had a vinny to pull her out of bad situations before, so they like. Half understand the dynamic between them. Ebbie’s too much of a pushover though, or Roona’s too little of one, and so instead of like being a voice of reason that actually stops the bad ideas ebbie’s more just getting dragged into situation after situation that he is NOT comfortable and having to smooth everything over when all’s said and done. and like, they still enjoy each other’s company when they’re not in deep shit. they both lean pretty heavily towards same gender rather than not, so like they probably wouldn’t be into each other, but there’s a slight chance.   Verdict: Disney Channel Original Movie Protagonist + Scared Best Friend Dynamic

nissy/roona: you’d think it’d go badly, and by all accounts it should, but it doesn’t. nissy loves how spontaneous and wild roona is and loves the freer side of him that it brings out, and roona likes nissy’s careful intelligence that can be equally well applied to proper societal actions and also stupid pranks. low wis gang gets each other’s impulsiveness and doesn’t judge when things go wrong, but they’re always by each other’s sides to help get the other out of a pickle. they both stick out like sore thumbs in a crowd and don’t mind bouncing around from place to place because home isn’t really somewhere they want to head back to, but it’s alright, because they have consistency in each other. god fucking damn it i’m actually into this.  Verdict: Bastards In Love

rules

    This is going to be a long post, and I apologise for that. However I do not apologise for putting my boundaries as clear as possible, and will not apologise for doing so. All of the rules below exist for a reason, and I have them for my own comfort. 

It is okay if you don’t agree with them but it’s not okay to ignore them. If you think you cannot follow the posted rules, then do not follow this blog. Thank you !!

General

  These are the basics, a re-hash of rules that almost everyone has but that I like to cover anyway just in case!

Read ALL important pages: rules, disclaimer, muse list & info for the muse(s) you want to interact with

Use proper punctuation and spellings to the best of your abilities

Mark clearly whether an ask is IC or OOC

No godmodding

No maiming, killing, etc. of my muses without my permission

No choosing of thoughts or big actions of my muses without my permission

Hate, anon or otherwise, will be reported and deleted. Users will be blocked. 

There may be an occasional mention that I do this if there’s some kind of repeat, but I will not place the content itself on the dash.

Asks and IMs are always welcome!!

More in the < Asks & Memes & Messaging > section

tracked tag is SHIELDEDSOULS and is the best chance of getting me to see a post. @’ing me will also work, but please be sure to use my url tag on top that! please also put somewhere which of my muse(s) the post is for.

Specifics

These are some of the rules that have been established over time for my own sake, and to make everyone’s time on here a lot easier!

Your age must be listed somewhere I can easily find it! I’m not comfortable writing some content with muns or muses who are under 18

If I cannot find that information I am unlikely to follow, and I will not write that content with you, as it’s safer to err on the side of caution.

If you are not comfortable with discussion and usage of DID ( dissociative identity disorder ) please do not follow as it ties heavily into my portrayal of Bucky Barnes and James ( the Winter Soldier ).  

It takes time for me to check through all my followers, so please don’t ask if I haven’t followed back right away or unfollow, unless I post very specifically about dumblr fucking things up.

There’s any number of reasons I may do either, but the more we happily interact and talk the more likely I am to follow or re-follow.

With rare exception, I will not interact with any blogs that contain digits in them.

Please, please, use regularly accepted punctuation within threads.

Please.

Do not spam-reblog from me, which is reblogging 3+ posts in rapid succession. It messes up my notifications and I lose other things.

Mark clearly between IC/OOC, and which muse or npc a message is for.

ALL PERSONALS WILL BE BLOCKED

unless I can tell with a glance that there are RP sideblogs attached to them

I love my ships and will not stop writing them for someone else’s sake. I tag all visual content, but if there’s a short tag or something to be added, give me a quick little heads-up and I’ll happily tack it on. Everyone wins!

If I cannot easily navigate a blog for information, I will not follow back

easy navigation includes:

rules page

disclaimer/ooc page of some kind

tagging system

cut posts

Formatting

this little section is for what to expect from me and my writing preferences, but it is a flexible section!

I do both regular capitalization and zero capitalization for threads, depending on partner and length of the thread

memes and asks will be done in whichever I’m feeling

I do small text ONCE for aesthetic, but will leave text regular size if asked

Headlines will be done in subtext size, again mostly for aesthetic

Parentheses and brackets will be bolded and italicized, on the whole

I will @ the url of the person who sent the ask or is part of the thread

thread partner urls will also have their muse’s name listed after a slash for further clarity

I occasionally use icons, but mostly for asks, dash commentary, or silly things

all icons are 100x100

I enjoy using bold, italics, and strikethrough, but that’s about the extent of my text formatting and I try not to overdo them too much

Asks & Memes & Messaging

Asks are open to everyone!

IMs are ooc and mutuals only.

If a meme is shippy or nsfw, it is mutuals only and will require previous interaction. 

All others are freebies!!

due to asks being fucked for formatting: i will tag the url of the sender on a new post, have a header to show which muse is answering, and tag the user within the post. i will also link it and privately answer the original ask where possible, to help ensure responses are seen.

for the time being I’m putting a graphic in the direct reply to an ask, adding a blockquote for tagging the sender, additional commentary, and the source meme if there is one

Any reply to an ask must be in a new post. Reblogged asks will be ignored.

Any messages saying ‘wanna rp?’ or asking for an IM will be deleted. I’m far more receptive to being approached with ideas to work with

Any messages that do no specify a muse will be deleted.

While not explicitly reblog karma, I am not a meme source and will talk to you if you always take memes from me but never send anything in or talk to me. Sometimes a meme doesn’t work and that’s fine, but there’s no excuse to never interact with me.

I often have a mix of platonic, general, and nsfw/shippy memes at my disposal, but feel free to improv something from the gist or edit sentences to suit our muses better!! Creative fun is why we’re here <3

OCS & Sideblogs & MuMus & Second-Gens

Information must be easy to navigate and read, same as for canons/single muse blogs!

Sideblogs, please list somewhere OBVIOUS what the main blog is called so I know what to look out for.

Mumus, I love you and your dedication, but I am most selective with you. Yes, even as a mumu myself.

The more fandoms covered and more muses included, the less likely I am to hop on board mostly because I prefer a clean dash.

If we’re close friends ooc I’ll likely be far more lenient

OCs with an mcu-canon faceclaim will not be accepted unless the muse has been around longer than the canon being cast or if they look markedly different than the canon ( Karen Gillan with all her hair vs as Nebula, for example ).

more in the < canons & fcs > section

Unless plotted otherwise, they will not know my muses, but they can know of my muses

Second-Gens ( kids of the original set(s) of main canons ) make me uncomfortable for a number of reasons, and so will be interacted with on a case-by-case basis.

I am unlikely to follow unless we know each other very well ooc

Canons & FCs

Again, OCs with mcu-canon faceclaims will not be interacted with unless they meet at least one of the two criteria listed above.

However, if I pick a FC for someone related to this blog that isn’t canon, it’ll likely be shrugged off as uncanny lookalike, or we can otherwise plot around it. 

Animated FCs are welcome, but I’ll admit that specifically anime blogs are unlikely to be interacted with. Sorry

If a canon has an alternate faceclaim: cool! Just have it listed somewhere obvious, please

FCs I will not interact with: Mark Sheppard, Selena Gomez, Mads Mikkelsen, Miley Cyrus, Justin Beiber, Sara Bareilles, Andrew Scott, Zooey Deschanel, Natalie Dormer. The list may be periodically updated; yes, it is okay to ask me about specific names and why these ones are listed.

Shipping

There will be a good deal of F/F, F/M, and M/M on this blog both in visual and text. 

May ( read: probably will ) include three+somes. 

Implication and mention to graphically clear are likely, and will be tagged.

By default, ALL my muses are single, with the noted exceptions of Frigga ( until Odin chooses to pass ) Dugan and Peggy if it’s circa 1952-after, and Sam who is widowed and single post-2012, unless plotted otherwise.

Please don’t assume there will be a ship between your muse and mine without plotting first, positively or negatively !!

Specific to Peggys: don’t be alarmed by my above warning, Dugan/Peg is my muses only and not something I expect to be followed. I will also not expect a ship with Steve.

specific to Steves: I will not expect a ship with Peggy, Bucky, or Sharon

However, Bucky loves Steve, bordering on obsessively. Whether it’s platonic, romantic, or completely one-sided pining is up to plotting and muse chemistry.

if we are writing stucky, Bucky is the one who will be in it first.

James is incredibly anxious about dealing with Steve for many reasons, and more anxious about the possibility of infringing on Bucky’s territory.

It is one of few ships that will require Bucky’s active participation if you want James involved, because James will refuse Steve otherwise.

if we are writing steggy, it will not be eg-canon compliant

Specific to Peppers: Tony cares ( depending on point in time, deeply ) for her, but I will not expect a ship and it must be plotted out. 

They could be exes, almosts, currently dating, platonically attached, whatever we would like! But it must be plotted.

specifically for Janes: I do not automatically lead with fosterson! My default is somewhere between slow burn infatuation or mutual, friendly separation. Thor adores her in any type of relationship though, and supports her endeavors and enthusiasms

For Bucky and James, dating one of them does not mean you have to be dating the other.

It would be marginally easier depending on time and verse tho

Specifically for Natashas: I include the generality of James being at the Red Room, but we must plot about including the affair or not. It is not my default canon.

if we are defaulting to winterwidow, James is the one most familiar with her, not Bucky. James was the fronting personality when they originally met, and Bucky’s recollection of events will be hazy if present at all.

If you want to ship Nat with Bucky, it must be plotted and must account for the prior/continuing relationship with James

For Sharon, she has no romantic interest in men ( yes including Steve ).

if she ends up with a comics-inclined verse this may change but will still require heavy plotting.

I will not be ship-exclusive with any blogs

I will have mains but it’s on unofficial terms

For all my writing partners: I will happily plot ships, and details! But I won’t have an assumed prior romantic/sexual history between our muses.

Again, I know this bit is particularly long !! But it’s very necessary for my comfort and yours as a baseline of whether we might get along or not. Thank you again for pulling through all the reading; if you’re staying, awesome !! If you’re not, I’m sorry to see you go but I hope you find the writing happiness you want <3

For fandom meme-swtor?

Send me a fandom!

This one isn’t as spicy as the Dragon Age one, but I still got Wordy.

Also there’s lots of KOTFE/KOTET/etc spoilers in here, so don’t read if you don’t want to see em. (Looking at you, Chignon.)

The character(s) I first fell in love with:

My own OCs haha.

But more seriously: It was actually Darth Malgus! I was always going to play a Star Wars MMO, let’s be real. But when they started posting promo videos and cinematics for the game, my Sith-loving ass immediately gravitated to that guy haha. And then, it turned out he had the same VA as The Architect from Dragon Age, and that was it for me.

If we’re talking about companions, then it was probably Malavai Quinn. Sith Warrior was the first class I got to 50, and Quinn was the first companion that I really got overly attached to haha.

The character(s) I never expected to love as much as I do now:

Most (not all, but most) of the “new” companions that came in with KOTFE and beyond. I was initially really sour when I realized we were losing all our class storyline companions, and they were being replaced with a new crew of Lana, Theron, Koth, my mother-in-law Senya, etc. Especially when they – at the time – said we’d eventually get our class companions back, but it would be a while. So I started KOTFE sure that I would hate the new crew because I would rather have the old one…. and ended up liking them quite a lot! Mostly, lol.

The character(s) everyone else loves that I don’t:

Doc is the main one, jesus christ. If you didn’t read my last post, I just really really really do not mesh well with overly sexual and Adult Humor-y characters who scold you with a “You’re no fun.” if your OC isn’t into it. Doc is the worst example of it that I’ve ever encountered. I always play a male JK, and the fact nearly all of his convos amount to, “Boy, you and me are going to be up to our eyeballs in vagina when this war ends, amirite?” “You don’t want that? Come on, the Jedi Code doesn’t say you can’t FUCK, live a little.” “You’re no fun. Well, more for me.” drives me NUTS. This combined with how he interacts with Kira just does me in. Shoves him out an airlock.

Dark Side Jaesa is another big one, albeit mainly for OOC reasons. I just hate the fact that she even exists, really. I get the appeal of a story where a Sith corrupts a Jedi to the Dark Side, but the way she does a total 180 into gross hedonism while Serving You always just makes me cringe. Plus there’s the fact that straight dudebro gamers are really nasty with her, and she’s the main companion I always see men put into the slave bikini outfit, and just yikes.

Also just a lot of one-off NPCs that everyone goes crazy for and ships their OCs with, but I  constantly forget who they even are lol. Attros Finn comes to mind. I don’t hate them! Just don’t get the appeal I guess.

The character(s) I love that everyone else hates:

Lord Scourge, although I’m not sure he’s really hated as much anymore. I just remember at launch, when all of the overly invested Revan stans absolutely HATED him because of what he did in the Revan novel, and then flooded the tags with vitriol over being “stuck” with him as a Knight, and having to hear about Revan in his companion convos. It was really, really tiresome! Maybe it’s because I never really cared that deeply about Revan as my personal character, but I could not understand the backlash.

Anyway, Lord Scourge is my favorite companion in the game by a long shot. I love the conversations you can have with him about the Jedi vs Sith, and I love the mutually respectful tone those conversations take. (Where other Bioware companions who disagree with you have a tendency to just go, “You’re wrong.” and shut you down.) The fact that he’s so tied in with the plot just makes me love him more, really.

The character(s) I used to love but don’t any longer:

Cytharat, Koth and Theron mostly. Although this takes a bit of explaining, and is a bit Discourse-y – because I really appreciate them as characters, but their role and Bioware’s decisions with them is what made me no longer love them.Here’s the thing: Bioware has a bad habit of introducing male characters that are bisexual, and then having them betray you, leading to situations where they either get murdered or vanish from the narrative entirely. Meanwhile, bisexual women like Lana are untouched and around forever.

I was overjoyed when I first saw Cytharat. Y'all know I’m a ho for purebloods, and the fact that he was Malgus’ apprentice was fascinating to me – and then he turned out to be a bi romance. I got very hyped for him, only to find out he dies like 5 minutes later – or if you save him, he’s never seen again. Huge letdown.

Koth was the first character I fell in love with of the new KOTFE crew – I even initiated a romance with him! – but it quickly became obvious there’s no way to play the expansion without him turning on you judgementally at some point or another. And then, hey big surprise, you can kill him or else he’s never seen again.

Theron I’ve loved since we first got to know him in the Forged Alliances content, but that whole storyline where he seemingly betrays you out of nowhere, only to later reveal he didn’t actually, idk. And then, once again, you either kill him or he disappears from the story. It felt like a weirdly shoehorned in plot for shock value, and robbed us of a second bi MOC character.

You see the trend here? I want to love these characters, but Bioware continually electing to do this shit with bi dudes is tiresome and makes me unwilling to invest any interest in the characters anymore.

The character(s) I would totally smooch:

None.

The character(s) I’d want to be like:

None really come to mind? I just want to be a Jedi, come on.

The character(s) I’d slap:

Hunter all day every day.

The pairing(s) that I love:

Haha, this question is hard, because most of the SWTOR ships I’m invested in are between my OCs and my friends’ OCs.

However.

SCOURGE / KNIGHT IS THE BIG ONE, THE ULTIMATE, THE ALL-TIME FAVORITE. It’s really hard to describe just how much I love this ship, and just how much time and energy I’ve invested into it over the past… 8 years wow……….. To the point of being almost territorial. And it’s also near impossible for me to talk about why I love it, because the version I ship is so personalized with my specific Jedi Knight, especially since it had to live exclusively in headcanon land for so long. Scourge is, more or less, my Knight’s support pillar and the thing that grounds him and keeps him humble, in a world where my Knight is surrounded by people who expect him to be a pure flawless messiah. But, I mean. How can you have a man look at your character and say, “I’ve waited 300 years to see your face.” and not immediately ship it. And then I finally got vindicated after all these years when it was made canon!

I really love Arcann / Knight for a lot of the same reasons as the above, but I just really adore his one (1) romance convo haha. Granted, yes he did a lot of fucked up things, but I was so grateful when he had like… a Zuko-esque redemption. Where he comes to your character and firmly believes he doesn’t deserve forgiveness, and especially doesn’t deserve affection, and is instead met with acceptance and a chance to grow and heal. That’s the good shit.

Others:

Lana / Warrior and Lana / Inquisitor are my particular jam. I endlessly enjoy the mutual respect between Lana and those particular PCs.

Malavai Quinn / Sith Warrior is a longtime fave, and although I DO love him with a female Warrior, I really do with he’d been an option for dudes as well. And I feel the same in reverse about Vette / Warrior – I do like her with a male Warrior, and it’s so sweet and wholesome and endearing, but man I wish she’d been an option for female Warriors.

I ship Risha with every woman – especially Vette and Sumalee – and will be salty until my grave that Risha / f!Smuggler isn’t possible, because I love Risha with the Smuggler but she gives me powerful WLW vibes.

Agent / Watcher Two is also a lowkey favorite, but I ALSO wish it could be done with a female Agent instead. Same with Agent / Raina Temple.

Agent / Vector is very sweet, but again, I will be salty until my grave that it couldn’t be done with a male Agent.

Can you guys sense a running theme here?

Finally: NGL I love Valkorion / Senya, even though that ended in pure disaster.

And people around here used to ship Keeper / Lokin, and tbh, I still kinda love it lol.

The pairing(s) that I despise:

In general terms, I fucking hate every single romance that involves the male PC romancing his padawan or underling, especially since most of them seem like very young girls. I don’t know why this is so pervasive in the game, but yikes Bioware. Consular/Nadia is the worst offender, but they’re all just cringe central for me.

But the big one is Agent / Hunter. This would have gotten me run off Tumblr back in the day, but god I hate this pairing. I mentioned in the last post that I just will never enjoy ships where the two characters actively want to murder each other, but. This just gets magnified for me with Agent/Hunter, where all the mind control and blatant abuse comes into play – and people have a tendency to write noncon rape fic of the two and present it as ~sexy rivalmance~, which is awful. Add to this the “no homo” reveal where Hunter turns out to be a woman, after getting everyone hyped about a dude flirting with their male character the whole game, and it’s just a huge No Thanks from me all around.

And for largely personal reasons I just don’t like seeing female Knights with Scourge. Listen, for YEARS  I was treated like a pariah for shipping Scourge with my male Knight, while being unable to find Scourge content that didn’t have a female Knight plastered all over him. Even though he wasn’t even a romance option one way or another, the way the fandom treated m!Knight/Scourge with disdain while ardently shipping f!Knight/Scourge was offputting as shit. And then, after years, he was made a romance option for women AND men, and all these awful people acted like they were robbed, the way people reacted when Kaidan and Jaal were made bi in Mass Effect. I’m so tired. I never want to see Scourge with a female Knight again.

Crowbar Nurse   Chapter 15 — Fanficcers Ship, That’s What They Do

Back in front of the safehouse, the three of us had begun planning our endgame strategy together.

“This would be the path to get to the truck ending.”

I drew a line on the ground with a stick of chalk. Kiryū and I came across a set of sidewalk chalk on our way home and now we were putting it to good use by drawing maps. … Originally, it was meant to evoke the image that children were playing in the streets one day and then suddenly getting attacked by zombies, but it was never shown in the actual game for ethical reasons… Oh, and if you wanted to know, the set had every color a kid could ever need.

“Go this way, then here, turn here, then like this, then… and that’s our goal. Simple, right?” “Turn this way here?” “No, no. It’s that way there.” “Oh… so, like this?” “No, not like that. Like this.” “And then that way?” “No, the other way.” “Then this way.” “No! I’m telling you, that way over there…” “Gaaah! Knock it off, you two! Neither one of you are making any sense anymore!”

Elizabeth interrupted our serious and earnest preparation session.

“What is going on?! Ever since you have returned from the firing range, you lot have been completely incoherent, mainly because you are deliberately avoiding any eye contact! What on earth happened between the two of you?!” “Umm, erm…”

Stumbling with my words, I glanced at Kiryū who immediately looked away in a fluster. Both of us must’ve been embarrassed about how I had run up and hugged him earlier.

“… N-Nothing at all! There’s nothing that you have to worry about, Elizabeth!”

I squeezed my eyes shut and shrieked back at her, but I don’t think it helped my case at all.

“… I see. So, that’s how it is,” Elizabeth responded in a low whisper. “Huh?"

I opened my eyes to see her grinning from ear to ear.

“Umm, Elizabeth?” “I see. I understand now. So, that sort of stuff happened at the firing range.” “Wha—?!”

My head was about to snap off from how hard I was shaking my head, but Elizabeth wasn’t reacting to me at all. She was dripping with fraught just a moment ago. I guess it was good that she’s got her spirit back, but where did all of this excitement come from?

“Umm, are you alright, Elizabeth? Is something the matter?” “… I apologize for the late and abrupt introduction.” “Huh?” “I am but yet another wage slave from Shinjuku. My hobbies include dating simulations, reader-inserts, and providing dating advice to the friends around me.” “Reader-inserts?”

The term seemed to have thrown Kiryū for a loop.

“What are those? I come across lots of fan labor made by women due to the nature of my work, but I’ve never heard of that one before… Any clue, Sera?” “No, not one bit.”

As I shook my head again, this time, Elizabeth responded with a chuckle.

“Not a surprise, seeing how Sera is but a normie… Reader-insert is but a small subgenre within fanfiction. It is a type of story in which the audience inserts themselves as the protagonist, paired with a canon character. Though it doesn’t get much attention, the subgenre has quite a few followers worldwide, even outside of Japan, where they’re sometimes called x readers .” “What does the x mean though?”

Elizabeth readily answered his question.

“The x denotes pairing. You would put the character name before the x to signify the work pairs the character and the reader in a relationship, usually a romantic one. Authors overseas usually write in second person, but here in Japan, we use cookies and scripts to pull the reader’s name from their account and insert it into the text. … And for your reference, I stan canon/OC pairings. That is to say, rather than using the reader, I prefer stories with OC.” “OC?”

Kiryū was thrown for loop after loop, then he looked at me.

“… Any clue, Sera?” “No, not one bit.”

Elizabeth sighed in exasperation as I shook my head for the third time.

“You truly know nothing, don’t you…? ‘OC’ is short for ‘original character’. Anyway, getting back on track and to summarize what I mean, I indulge in observing the romance between other people. Just listening to my friends and family gushing about their love interests is simply not enough. Instead, I have to reach out to dating sims and fanfiction to satiate this desire of mine. Though I don’t care much for getting directly involved. That is why I am delighted to see this unfold.” “… What exactly is unfolding here?”

My question had only pleased her more.

“Why, of course, the situation between you and Kiryū! You two are almost like grade schoolers in how you are so conscious of each other now.” “Yeah, right! What are you talking about?!” “I am so not!”

Somehow, we both picked the most childish ways to respond to her. It was likely just him panicking, but the way how Kiryū said it was exactly how a grade schooler would.

Elizabeth mockingly scoffed back, “Heh. It’s obvious, seeing how flustered you two are. So, something did indeed happen at the firing range, then? I’m not about to judge. However, with how confused you two are, you have also lost your teamwork and communication. Now, hurry up and tell you love each other and embrace already so that we can proceed with the ending with clear heads.”

She extended her hands out towards us, as if she were waiting on something to happen.

“Think about us for a moment, Elizabeth! Surely, it’s obvious that you’re asking for something totally unreasonable!” “I am?” “Yes, you are! I haven’t met Kiryū in person before, you know? There’s no way I could even consider anything romantic between us! My feelings towards Kiryū are purely and genuinely one of respect!” “Right, sure. So she said, Kiryū.”

She takes an upwards glance at him as she spoke. Kiryū simply nodded and brushed off her comments as to end this embarrassing topic for good.

Elizabeth, why did you have to go and bring that up…?

I sighed in defeat as I looked up at Kiryū, who looked just as fed up with the situation as I was. I’m sure we were both thinking the same thing as we couldn’t help but chuckle at our predicament.

“… See how in sync you two are?”

In a complete reversal, she had turned to a sage; her expression was calm and gentle and her laughter dry, but different from the teasing tone that marked her previously. … A thought randomly popped into my mind: Oh, that’s right. She’s got her teaching license, doesn’t she? Perhaps she’s taught boys and girls in her class that acted the same way. Interrupting my thoughts, Elizabeth continued,

“It’s good and well that you two are in sync but remember that our teamwork crumbles if you two are being awkward and refuse to look each other in the eyes. Cooperation is just as important in slaying zombies as it is in folk dance in PE class. Nothing will work to your favor if you are embarrassed. Don’t forget that our lives are on the line too.” “You’re… absolutely right.”

I nodded after listening to Elizabeth. She smiled back as if to say, Just as long as you understand. I have the feeling that she had messed with us only to snap us out of our emotions. She has my gratitude for that, but yet… having how bothered I had been pointed out made me feel a little sheepish.

“… I know perfectly how to get to the truck ending, so don’t worry about memorizing this.”

I punctuated my explanation with a sigh,

“But to give everyone the gist of it, our plan is to take a bit of a detour to slip past the traps ahead of us as we force our way to the enemies and bosses. After the detour, we’ll barrel down the missile-torn roads in our truck towards ‘You’… That’s the plan, at least. Should be a piece of cake.” “A piece of cake? There were exactly zero parts in your plan that sounded easy.”

Elizabeth squeezed her temples as if she had a terrible headache. Raising my head upwards, I looked into her eyes, reassuring her that we’ll be fine, and she smiled.

“Don’t worry. Let me take care of massacring the zombies. Sure, it may be a little rough ahead, but we’ve got so many toys in our arsenal, so let’s have some fun enjoying this game too. Let’s just step on the gas and see if we can’t power through it.” “I trust you, Sera.”

The man of few words picked up his crowbar.

“The path is as you marked out, right? There ain’t much time. Let’s get a move on.”

He wasn’t kidding about hurrying; he sped off, leaving Elizabeth and me to frantically catch up. Elizabeth saw the blush on my cheeks and empathetically patted my on the shoulder with a gentle smile.

“… You have fallen for Kiryū, haven’t you? Perhaps you are surprised at how sudden these feelings came?” “I-I’m telling you, I haven’t! Really!”

I desperately shook my head from side to side, but… unfortunately, I can’t seem to shake Kiryū off my mind. Still, she's mistaken. These aren’t romantic feelings… I don't think so, at least. It was easy to brush off her earlier comments as a joke, but the longer I contemplate about this, the more embarrassed I get. I hadn’t given much thought about the Kiryū in real life up until now. I mean, I understand there’s a person in there, but I was charmed by the handsome Kiryū Sōichirō. And because of that, I’d been treating him like an actual in-game NPC. I was even being smug and cavalier to him.

I don’t think I would act like that anymore. I don’t think I could. I can’t even look him properly in the eyes.

“Is that right? Well, in that case, I should best stop teasing you about it. My apologies for being insensitive. But what really happened between you two?” “Umm… He was doxed? I doxed him?” “What? How did something like that happen?” “I guess I could say… I knew someone who spoke like him?” “And you knew who he really is from just that?” “Yes? But ma-maybe not? Huh. How the heck did I figure who he is from just how he spoke? That’s weird. That’s really weird…” “… Who the hell cares?!”

Kiryū interjected, severing our conversation. It seemed like he didn’t know where he was going and had to backtrack to us for guidance.

“Let’s hurry up and finish the damn game! That’s all that we should be focusing on right now!”

He was unnaturally worked up and visibly flustered. I can understand why. I mean, his face was all over the internet… But what if he never gets over it? Poor guy. Men sure have it rough in their thirties.

And so, we set off for the truck ending in this amusing yet awkward mood surrounding us. … Or at least until we get into combat again, where Kiryū and I returned to our normal selves. Hurrah, zombie games. Praise be unto zombie games. All hail mighty zombie games.

    “—Muahaha! See you bastards in hell!”

As we progressed on the canonical route, the windows on the fifth floor of a mixed-use building smashed open, freeing a bunch of NPC’s. The moment they hit the ground, they became emotionless weapons of war, attacking all the zombies around them, and throwing them into disarray. The NPC’s jump down one by one as I laugh manically, putting off Elizabeth.

“… You know, I had expected an expert on zombie games to be… cooler than this…” “You can’t beat them if you worry too much about looking cool, Liz.” “Have you considered whether I preferred to be called ‘Elizabeth’?” “But your name is just so long. Anyway, zombie survival games are complex, you know? Sometimes, you’ve gotta do crazy things to win.”

The new soldiers rushed the infected, handily defeating them. Since they’re a low-level mob, so I’m not worried about killing too many of them. They don’t give too much experience anyway. As soon as I said it out loud, though, Kiryū wielded his crowbar and went wild at the zombies.

“Ooh, impressive. You’re really swinging for the fences.”

Before I knew it, I was already awed by Kiryū. It wasn’t just me though. Elizabeth was equally impressed.

“Kiryū is quite well-versed too, I see… Zombie games are simpler than I had thought.” “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Liz. This happens all too often. They watch a god gamer play and think they can do it themselves too. But once they try it for themselves, they get their butts handed to them. Still, for someone claiming he’s never played this kind of game before… Kiryū really is seriously good.” “Mm.” “Ah, we’ll get bombed if we head straight here, so let’s climb over the rubble to our right.”

As I was trotting to the hurdle, I looked behind my shoulder to find Kiryū hacking away at the zombies as if he were possessed.

    “—There it is! That’s the truck!”

After climbing the rubble hill, we reached a plaza where the deuce and a half was abandoned. There’s no mistaking the flat dark earth behemoth as anything but a military vehicle. As the name suggests, it was designed to haul 5,000 lb of cargo.

“Let’s ride this bad boy all the way to the end.” “… Don’t you need the key for it?”

Kiryū, late to the party, ran his fingers along the truck and wondered about how to start it. He was dripping with sweat, likely from his killing frenzy.

“Of course, we need the key. That’s why it’s in your pocket,” I say as I plucked it out of his pocket.

“… Oh, that key, the one we weren’t supposed to get until the second week. That means the truck ending shouldn’t be open until then, too.” “That’s right. This isn’t a canonical ending, but rather an Easter egg, much like the so-called UFO ending.”

I stepped onto the running board, heaved myself into the driver’s seat, and stuck the key into the ignition.

“Oh, my. An ending in which the protagonist gets abducted by aliens? How amusing. I wonder if I can find a video online once I return home.”

As she says that, sparks rained down from the sky, igniting the buildings in our vicinity.

“S-Sparks are falling down on us all of a sudden!” “This cutscene plays once the key is in the ignition. It’s proof that my plan is working, so don’t worry.” “A-Also, another copy of Nick just appeared, and he’s terribly hurt!” “And he’s so much more handsome. Yep, that’s the Nick from the cutscene.”

I jumped off the driver’s seat to inspect this New Nick. Covered with cuts and soot, New Nick scanned his surroundings and suddenly started shouting in English.

＊＊＊ＥＮＧＬＩＳＨ＊＊＊ “N-Nick began speaking in English!” “Don’t worry, Elizabeth. He’s shouting something like, ‘Like hell I’m going to stay in this shithole.’” ＊＊＊ＥＮＧＬＩＳＨ＊＊＊ “And a middle-aged man just appeared, screaming something in English too!” “Like I said, it’s all good. He’s an NPC that only appears in this cutscene. And this guy is yelling, ‘I feel you, man. Ain't like we’re gon’ find survivors no more, so let’s skedaddle on out of this nightmare of a town,’ or something to that effect.”

I explained to Elizabeth beside me, as she curiously and attentively watched the two white men speak.

“… Hey, Sera? Why do they speak so monotonously? It’s completely different than in Glee…” “Oh, did you watch Glee as well?” “Back when I was still in university, I thought it would help with my English. It didn’t take long before I was hooked.” “Wow, how diligent of you. Umm, well, this sort of thing happened a lot when Japanese video games got localized. Even though they hired proper voice talents, for some reason, they still read their lines off a script. The acting was just awful in Resident Evil and those speedy blue hedgehog games…”

Nick clapped his hands, interrupting our chit chat.

“Ah, that’s Nick saying, ‘Let’s hurry on out of here.’ Alright, Kiryū, Elizabeth. Let’s hop in too. Of course, New Nick and the random NPC are planning to leave town, so we’ll have jack the truck before that happens. That way, we’ll be able to reach ‘You’ and the ending area. After that, then we can escape…”

Before I could finish, the world fell into darkness, accompanied by an odd screeching noise.

■ ＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊ ＊＊＊　　ＥＮＧＬＩＳＨ　　＊＊＊ ＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

A reference to the cult classic Kowloon’s Gate, an adventure game from more than two decades ago. It’s not the author forgetting to fill in the English dialogue! In the original game, ＊＊＊ベトナム語＊＊＊(Vietnamese) would be displayed when a certain Vietnamese character speaks. (Yes, the voice acting was in perfect Vietnamese too.) It’s theorized that this was either simply a joke or that the developers didn’t have the resources to add a typeface with Vietnamese script support. How’s this for an obscure reference?

contents: /ch001/ /ch002/ /ch003/ /ch004/ /ch005/ /ch006/ /ch007/ /ch008/ /ch009/ /ch010/ /ch011/ /ch012/ /ch013/ /ch014/ /ch015/ /next/

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001: dc, 002: tank/jorgan, 003: hawkgirl >:3 (kendra saunders) oo4: dc/ swtor

from this ask list (link)

001

Favorite character: All time favorite is Jaime Reyes, but lately I’ve been reading mostly Damian Wayne and Cass Cain stuff

Least Favorite character:. I guess Guy Gardner, in that he’s one of the characters who, whenever he shows up, makes me think “Oh my god, not this fucker again”. Or the joker. I have similar opinions on the joker.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon):

 DickBabs (OTP)

 Anissa/Grace (OTP)

 Jaime/Traci (they’re just cute together),

honorable mention to John Stewart/Hawkgirl from DCAU since that was my OTP as a kid.

 And I can actually only think of 4, unless I count any couple I have any positive feelings towards even if they’re very minute. I’m not a huge shipper in DC verse I guess.

Character I find most attractive: Probably Grace Choi, Barbara Gordon, or Talia Al Ghul

Character I would marry: I can’t marry any of the people on my attractive list, they’re already involved in my OTPs or working with the league of assassins!

Character I would be best friends with: Jaime Reyes or Cass Cain. They would both be great friends.

a random thought: Blue Beetle is one of the power houses of DC universe fight me

An unpopular opinion: I was wondering if this opinion was too unpopular but then realized that meant it probably belonged here if so: I just find Tim Drake really uninteresting.

my canon OTP: DickBabs or Anissa/Grace I cannot pick just 1

Non-canon OTP: I actually don’t think I have one… yet

most badass character: Cass Cain or Jaime Reyes.

pairing I am not a fan of: Spitfire god its just awful.

character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): there are too many to list. Cass (retconning her out of being batgirl, dark cass  saga), Barbara (magicuring her), Damian (that weird prison thing, that ian and whitewashing thing that looks awful ), Talia (whiplash between morally grey and villain ball depending on whose writing her)

favourite friendship: Jaime/Brenda/Paco they are the best.

character I want to adopt or be adopted by: I’d adopt Damian or be adopted by Jaime’s parents (Berto and Bianca), since they are some of the most well-adjusted, reasonable good parents I’ve seen in DC

002 (tank and jorgan - jorgan being a SWTOR NPC and Tank being my SWTOR republic trooper OC)

when of if I started shipping it: Some time after Tank gets the dialogue option to gently rib Jorgan.

my thoughts: They are both obviously autistic. I mean Tank is my OC so I can make her as autistic as I want. But Jorgan is too.

What makes me happy about them: that they’re both autistic :P that you can have a dynamic where the female character is more teasing of the male character (where usually it is the opposite). That there’s a dynamic where the male character isn’t super overprotective of the female character. That they like sparring 2gether and its super charming. Many things.

What makes me sad about them: 5 years they spend apart between Rise of the Emperor and Kotfe

things done in fanfic that annoys me: I havne’t read many in a very long time so I can’t remember.

things I look for in fanfic: ditto

My kinks: I never know how to answer this part.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: IDK tbh. Tank can end up with ltos of people because she has great rapport and tension with a lot of people. I know when I ran an alternate universe bounty hunter Tank, she was in a relationship with Torian and Theron (not like… canonically at the same time none of this is canonical it was just who she was a) allowed to flirt with according to the video game and b) hit it off with) Jorgan’s harder to read. I put him as BFFs w/ Dorne, but not like… romantically involved. 

My happily ever after for them: they retire and spend rest of their days just chilling or training people but not getting shot at any more or having the responsibility of the galaxy on their heads anymore. Kids: Optional but not required

003 kendra saunders

How I feel about this character: I like her. I think she’s pretty cool but not one of the characters I go out of my way to read a ton.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: no one. Sorry carter (her canon ship at least in new earth). Haven’t really seen enough of her interactions to have the non canon ship yet

My non-romantic OTP for this character: I liked her interaction with John in Justice League so far

My unpopular opinion about this character: hopefully not unpopular but: The hawkman series 4 just is terrible writing to her. Treats her like shit. She has some strong characterization tied into one arc and then once it’s over they drop it ASAP and give her character traits that seem to be mostly just “the girlfriend”

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: they should have explored more her anger and the ND stuff They also should let her kick as much ass as hawkman.

my het ship: DNA

my fem/slash ship: DNA

my OTP: DNA

my OT3: DNA

my cross over ship: DNA

my kink: DNA

a head cannon fact: I actually headcanon hawkgirl as a slightly better fighter than hawkman - because he remembers most of the memory stuff in new earth, and she remembers the spaceship skills, I headcanon that she remembers all the skills better - including fighting

004 Oh man I have no clue. DC/SWTOR have any compatible characters?

I guess one I can see:

Elara Dorne/Cass Cain They were both raised by bad guys (Elara - the imps, Cass - Cain). They both left not because someone asked them to or because they were forced to but because they realized that what they were doing/being asked to do was wrong. They’re both obviously autistic. They both don’t socialize like everyone else - Elara is very formal and precise in most of her speech and adheres to rules and regulations because a) it helps her understand what is expected of people and b) they are used to enforce doing the right thing (remembering her saying that the sith discarded any rules any time they felt like it and killed whoever they wanted). Cass is obviously a little overprotective of her friends at time (remember when she knocked Steph out to keep her out of a dangerous fight?) and seems like some people read her as intimidating because of her past or difficulty with words (Tim said he was avoiding her because of her past at first).

Even if they weren’t romantically involved, they would get along great. I think they would both be able to appreciate chilling without pretenses or putting on social conditioning you don’t have. And they’d be able to share their hobbies w/ each other. And since Elara is a soldier, she could spar Cass! Obviously not w/ Cass’s talent in hand-2-hand but w/e

Kingdom Hearts 3 impressions

So, uh, I will ONLY be talking about stuff up until the very start of the second World, and only AFTER the break. Kingdom Hearts 1 was an incredibly important and influential piece of media when I was growing up. I was writing fic based on Smash Bros. just before KH rolled onto the scene was like, “Yo, Disney and Final Fantasy, BAM, fuckin’ random? fucking RADDDD” and I was all about it. You had FF characters remixed with OCs remixed with Disney characters, and the villains were all crossing over to form the League of Bad Cartoons, it was a great time. And then Nomura realized his gamble was a win and decided to waste the next 15 years of everyone’s time shoving in every trope he liked, every IDEA that felt “cool” together into a mish mash of whatever the hell this “narrative” has become. Suffice it to say, I’ve got beef with Kingdom Hearts as a “story.” It just occurred to me today that a big part of this is thematic/tonal.

But it’s also VERY rare, maybe even unprecedented, for a piece of media like Kingdom Hearts 3 to come around. For years, then months, then weeks, then days, I told myself, “It’s not real, that game doesn’t exist, I won’t believe it until I’m literally playing it” and just could not be bothered to be hype or interested, if only because Nomura’s “vision”, from my perspective, warped something I admired in my youth into a fucking train wreck, leaving me very little to feel emotionally invested in outside of Aqua and by proxy the two lads she is trying to protect. (also I GUESS I’m slightly invested in Axel/Xion/Roxas.../Namine? for similar reasons now that I think about it?) Well, guess what? Kingdom Hearts VERY WELL might be real, and I very well might be about three hours into it. And for all of the beef I have with the plot, I am fucking relieved that those three hours have felt/sounded good, as a video game. NOW we’re gonna talk about the first World. --

When I first heard that Olympus was gonna be the first World in KH3 I was disappointed and BAFFLED. We’re visiting that place a THIRD time? And why THAT World? Turns out, there’s actually some substantial thematic relevance and that’s actually A-OK, not to mention that starting with a familiar world after ALL OF THIS TIME is not such a bad way to kick things off. First off, structurally, I actually really enjoyed the way this world played out. Two of my biggest problems with KH as a video game series have been that worlds feel like empty, vacant, haunted houses, and that said worlds are usually small and linear with a lot of pointless backtracking. Olympus fixes all of this. There are NPCs. Actual fucking PEOPLE in this world. Sure, they’re just people in danger, calling for help, but they’re THERE for once! And they have vocies! EVERY line of dialogue (except for like one “plot” moment) has actually been voiced so far! About time. Also. This World is not as linear as most KH Worlds. In fact, it help more open and dynamic than ANY World in any KH game so far, not to mention it featured three, THREE (wtf) unique and distinct types of settings. The city, the mountain, and Olympus. Nice. ALSO also. The music. We’ve been here before. We KNOW that Olympus theme from earlier games. And as you traverse the city, up the mountain, you hear this more sweeping, movie-like version, and it’s like “oh whoa nice” aaaaand then you get TO Olympus and it KICKS in, the old song, up to modern snuff. That was great. That was a thing that really helped convey “Kingdom Hearts is back, baby.” The World was big, compared to typical KH worlds. It had multiple nooks and crannies to explore, side-paths to go down, treasure to find hidden away. There is a LOT of verticality. Running up walls and seamlessly hopping over things in the environment makes traversal more enjoyable than it ever has been. Even though a lot of the World is technically a linear path it’s not structured like a path. Going off and exploring rewards you with items and the like, and the World is big enough to actually feel like you have places to poke around in. Having said this, WHY is there no...map? Like. You literally COLLECT Maps from Chests like you used to. But near as I can tell, there’s no way to pull up an actual MAP, to seer where the main path is, to see where the side paths are. It’s boggling. Maybe the game has the option hidden away somewhere but if so, that’s just silly. And if there’s just no actual map option at ALL that’s just...baffling. There were barely any load times for how much SPACE there was to navigate, and things looked very shiny and pretty, and ran at a smooth 60 fps MOST of the time. Tech specs aren’t everything, but when your brand is built on “looking pretty” it sure af helps when you bring scale AND a smooth framerate to match. It’s weird, and a bit jarring, sometimes in a good way, to see all of this stuff rendered in modern tech. Stuff looks...a little too plasticy a lot of the time, (which actually ought to pay off when we get to Toy Story?) but the environments so far feel rich and vast and detailed all at once in a way we just have never seen the series, because we’re basically jumping from PS2-level tech to PS4. So that difference in production is more noticeable for the wait -- I just wish things looked a bit more...I guess cel-shaded? Like the original trailer. Things (specifically, characters) look a little too flat/plasticy at times, for how pretty things are. Combat seems to be as flashy as ever and I’m sure I’ll feel differently as I get further in and unlock more options but it’s still too easy, simple, and mashy for my tastes. I am HOPING we get more moments that require quick reflexes and specific tactics like the harder moments of older KH games. The amusement rides mechanic is...weird. It’s given NO context in universe. And they last a little too long/feel too overpowered for how easy they are to utilize. Similarly, there are frequently seemingly random party-member tag-team attacks that...just seem like “press triangle to win” moves. I wish they entailed more interaction, and/or felt less common/random. I like the IDEA of these kinds of moves, especially ones that change your controls/method of attack for a few seconds (like Hercules’ team attack) but the execution makes them feel too cheap and easy to abuse, with combat that’s ALREADY skewing on the “too easy” side for the genre. I like the “form change” for keyblades, and that you can swap keyblades in the middle of a fight. Really hoping this allows for some good tactical stuff later -- buuuuut that would also require the game to ASK OF ME to do more than “mash X,” which KH as a brand typically does not do... Characters SPEAK in reaction to gameplay moments, when you initiate things in the environment, etc. It’s a nice touch that makes them feel more like characters in an RPG. Donald and Goofy are ALWAYS in the party, alongside the Disney member(s). NICE. Maybe KH3 is putting its best foot forward, but overall, I was pleasantly surprised with Olympus. It single-handedly corrected MOST of the issues I’ve ever had with Kingdom Hearts level design. I only hope the momentum keeps going. Moving on, Gummi Ships. What little I played is easily the best they have every been. I love having an open world with optional places/fights to explore, while still giving me those shmup-like bursts of action. The Gummi Phone seems like a fun mechanic, and taking selfies/photos makes SENSE for this game because of how visually detailed it is -- but the pleasant surprise was how I took selfies with Donald and Goofy and they REACTED to it, starting to pose and commenting on it. On the other hand, the loading screen being nonsensical “social media” posts from KH characters...I don’t like it thanks go away. x’D I’ve spent only a few minutes in Twilight Town and INSTANTLY I am so much more enamored than I ever was in previous games. Not just due to the bump up in visual fidelity, but also because -- GASP -- NPCs??? Are you trying to tell me this is an actual TOWN that people LIVE IN?? Holy shit, Kingdom Hearts, I never knew! For all of this stuff I liked, though, KH3 is still...a KH game. Which means after you get through the intro, after you gear up to land in Olympus, the game flashes the title: “Kingdom Hearts II.9″ ...no. Just no. Fuck. Stop doing this shit. Whenever an Organization 13 member (or EX member) shows up and starts speaking all cocky in riddles like the flamboyant anime jackass they are, whenever Mickey starts dead-ass blathering about weird nonsense whenever the plot HAS to acknowledge “oh right Sora golly gawrsh ya FURRGOT this random bullshit a-FYUCK better shove this expository throwaway dialogue right in here before we go n’ furrget again!” whenever Kairi continues to be irrelevant and invisible after ALL THIS TIME whenever Rikku has to say some obligatory thing about his darkness or his copy of himself or Ansem or whatever whenever the plot informs Sorta/Dornold/Goffy about another convoluted ridiculous THING that we already know about and they MAYBE already know about because it is OBLIGATED to because this game’s entire purpose has become to “wrap things up already Nomura” I am reminded of the freshly opened scar on my heart from how much SHIT this series has dragged itself through for...what? Nothing worth all of this, IMO. Thankfully, these moments feel less and less pressing in KH3′s opening hours than they certainly could be, though I’m sure the closing hours of the game -- once they’ve tidily gotten all of that silly, inconsequential DISNEY CONTENT out of the way (even though that’s the BULK of the game environments and HALF of the series’ identity/purpose) -- those closing hours will surely be packed to the gills with all of this crazy crap. Maybe by then I might finally care enough to finally get the catharsis I’ve waited over a decade for. I dunno. I’m just relieved the game looks, plays, sounds, and feels as good as it does so far. EDIT: almost forgot to mention this since it hasn’t actually come up yet BUT I picked up a BUNCH of “ingredients”??? Like. FOR COOKING??? Which is one of my all-time favorite mechanics in a video game?? (thanks Paper Mario) So I’m at LEAST excited to see what THAT is all about.

(*°ｰ°)ﾉ -slides everything else on that Munday meme here- do it~♡

@tcpsytxrvy​

† Do you portray your muse as religious? Why or why not? How does your own religion (or lack thereof) influence this?

I do not portray Delia as religious and there are two reasons for it. The first, and the most prominent reason, is her personality and attitude in general. I just can’t see her being the type of person who’d really follow one, honestly. It has less to do with her beliefs in a god or higher power and more her free-spirited nature; she does not like being told how to live her life, especially by other people. She would not take well to being told she has to act, think, or live a certain way - she gets enough of that from her aunt as it is. 

My own tendency towards non-religion does have some part in it as, because it’s not a huge part of my life, it doesn’t seem like it would be something significant. There is also the fact that I do not trust internet sources on the matter of religion or culture ( I can’t tell you how many time I’ve read something and then had someone who is actually part of that religion or culture explain that it’s inaccurate or incorrect), and would rather not make it an aspect of my character than run the risk of misportraying it. 

☑ What is a plot idea you’re willing to play with virtually any partner? What makes that plot so special to you?

I don’t do plot ideas, per say. I mean, I have them, but any idea I would want to do stems from original works of mine that, as a result of past issues (read: people lifting stuff off my old dA account and trying to sell it on Amazon), I’d rather not put online. Let’s just say I have the worst luck when it comes to theft and I’ve gotten extremely stingy about posting original content or mentioning it to people. But I’m always up for AUs, especially anything Star Wars or Fantasy related.

✰ How did you decide your muse’s skills and talents? Do they relate to their occupation in some way?

In most cases, I look at their personality and occupation and figure out what fits best with it, but with Delia, I wanted to step outside of the norm, at least in my case. Most of Delia’s however, are learned and mostly self-taught. Like, she’s that person who gets bored and spends hours binge-watching internet tutorials on some of the most random things. One or two things may be a natural talent, such as her artistic ability, or taught, like her figure skating ability, but the rest are mostly  She sees something that sparks her interest and she just does it.

Except cooking. No matter how many times she’s tried, she just cannot grasp the concept. She can barely make toast without burning it. 

Ⅶ If you have multiple blogs and/or muses, which one is your favorite? Why?

I’ve had numerous blogs but one of my One Piece OCs will always be my favorite. I put years of work into her and her personality and general set up isn’t like most characters I normally write. She’s not my first, by far, but she’s definitely the one I’m most proud of. (I’m actually in the process of working out her BNHA verse, even if she would be Midnight 2.0…).

✎ When choosing a name for your muse, did you pick something special or meaningful in some way?

I’m a huge sucker for hidden meaning and symbolism, and in most cases, there usually is some underlying meaning in my characters’ names, but with Delia, it was less meaning and more “I like how that sounds”.  That, and finding English names that work with Japanese surnames is harder than you’d think. 

☺ If you have a faceclaim for your muse, why did you choose them? Are you satisfied with your fc, or would you rather find a different one?

The short answer is I already had icons when I used her for a previous OC. As for satisfied? I’m never satisfied, lmao. But honestly, finding an FC for a character that isn’t too expressive, but not completely stoic, that also doesn’t look twelve is a lot harder than it seems. Especially for me, considering how picky I am with art style.

♥ When it comes to shipping, what factors are absolutely necessary for a ship to develop?

This ain’t tinder, y’all. There’s none of that this ain’t working and bail with the breadsticks twenty minutes into it. Chemistry is an absolute must. I know my character and I know what types of people she does and doesn’t like and if I feel that a ship won’t work, it most likely won’t. Of course, the actual development is also important, but if that initial “spark” isn’t there, then there’s already a problem.

Communication and discussion between partners is also super important. I get very invested in my ships and, to be 100% transparent, easily discouraged if I feel my partners aren’t as interested. 

❝ ❞ Is it easy for you to write dialog for your muse? Do their speech patterns come naturally to you while writing?

Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. My main issue is keeping a couple of things in mind when writing her dialogue. Delia’s a little tricky because she’s bilingual and she’s pretty obvious about it, but her Japanese isn’t perfect. It’s basically textbook Japanese with some phrases or wordings she’s picked up over the years and she has a habit of throwing English words into the middle of her sentences (I italicize them and she does this to try and cover up the fact that she doesn’t actually know the word she’s looking for). The hardest part, as my knowledge of Japanese is limited to maybe three or four words, is knowing which words she’d mispronounce - because it’s supposed to happen a lot, especially with the ones that rely heavily on emphasis. Like, if she ever says “bridge” out of nowhere, she probably actually meant “chopsticks”.

Normally, I wouldn’t bother with that, but it is a big part of her character (she gets really defensive if someone points it out), and it makes replies a bit difficult to do at times. 

❀ What is a muse you want to play but haven’t? Why haven’t you played them yet?

I considered Shinsou at one point, but the whole canon privilege issue I talked about in an earlier ask is pretty much what stopped me from doing so.

✸ Tell us about any NPCs on your blog. Who are they to your muse? What do they contribute to your blog?

I’ll be honest with you, I don’t even know what could be considered an NPC in reference to tumblr roleplaying…

✼ When it comes to worldbuilding, what are some ideas you’d like to explore in rp?

Just about anything, really. Like, literally any scenario brings the potential for development in general and I’m always down for that.