#ask me why I stick to organic stuff lol
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Uuuh I wanna contribute to the prosthetic arm topic too!!
It takes months (almost years) of research and testing before Ankh manages to craft a decent new arm, which is totally not functional as a limb per se but it's more of an aid if she's on a mission and needs stability in combat. Also it helps her regain confidence in her skills since she has to drop bow and arrows - can't really hold a weapon she can't feel the weight of.
Emotionally speaking, archery was something fundamental in her life, a talent that took years to be perfected. She feels a sense of emptiness, as if she has lost her identity and can't contribute to the world as an individual anymore. Working on the arm along with Dagna and Three Eyes helps her to cope with such a traumatic loss but like, even if she consumes herself on this task night and day she can't help but feel like she has no reason to do so. Most days she focuses on the new task to avoid to explore her feelings, so she overworks herself to the point she can't connect properly with her surroundings.
She was sure she would die after walking through the last Eluvian at the Winter Palace, consequently sometimes she asks herself if that fate would have been better than living without what made her her.
Luckily she has a strong support system, people that really appreciate her character outside what good she can provide to the world.
Just like her new project, her mental health after Trespasser is a work in progress, basically.
Once she can grip to her resolve, she just starts to develop her ideas further. At first the arm is a regular prosthesis with two runes placed on the joints, to help her hold on objects, then it starts to become something more complex.
What she manages to do:
The arm is functional in a sense that it can be directed to move accordingly to the situation. There are buttons to push and levers to click if she wants to perform certain movements. It's like playing an instrument, using shoulder movements and the aid of her main hand to keep it in place whenever in need.
What she doesn't manage to do:
Handshakes, caresses and other gestures connected to physical touch don't seem to perform properly. Which is normal, considering a big portion of her arm is not linked to the brain.
As I mentioned above, some movements can be performed only because of a complex system of levers, buttons and body movements that can symulate a realistic arm movements but the more Ankh goes further with the development, the more she starts to put aside what's realistic and shifts to functionality. You can see her perform strange dances from time to time so she could find a good balance, or just to bend the new arm to a certain degree.
About materials:
Since plastic and silicone aren't available materials and the ones already existing are heavy to say the least, it was hard to balance the arm in relation to Ankh's body weights system. This problem was partially solved by enchanting strategic points - the elbow and the shoulder in this case - as to make the structure less overwhelming and more manoeuvrable. The only catch is that a mechanical arm is still heavier than a regular arm, even if it's something not perceivable. The weight has still an impact on her body, so she has to be super careful to prevent overexhaustion.
The part connected to the skin is composed by three different layers, one for elasticity, one for durability, and the other for comfort between skin and the hard layers. My math is terrible but I think it could be approximately 3-5 cm of thickness.
The problem here is that the lighter the materials are, the more the arm is prone to damages. The structure in itself is designed to be practical for a very agile person - it has to be lighter - consequently it tends to malfunction from time to time because of sudden hits - or an overuse during reckless parkouring, knowing her <<
I'm not convinced about the harness' design but she definitely wears one to keep the arm in place, with a sewn on sleeve to make what's left of the arm feel comfortable with all that weight on.
She tends to wear it often, and she modifies it constantly, so to be prepared always if some asses need to be beaten <3 but also it improves her overall confidence.
#long post#inquisitor lavellan#ankh#I hope my horrid notes and my horrid english are somehow readable lol#one does a concept art course at 20 and she's suddenly an engineer#ask me why I stick to organic stuff lol#I have fun thinking that when she gestures while speaking she pushes levers and buttons to make the arm and hand move#which is very frenetic to watch but also quite entertaining#*frantically pushes three buttons in a row to do the finger gun pose after telling a bad joke*
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This took me. So long. To finish. I had hoped to finish it sometime in February, but now here we are. :u
Anyways! Much like the Devil Theory headcanons post I did a long while ago, this is a headcanons post for DOT EXE! All frickin' 8 of them!! Suffice to say this is going to be incredibly long, so keep that in mind before you jump into the Read More. You have been warned!! :P
(Also much like with Devil Theory, some of this might be based on stuff in the game, but a lot of it will just be "I personally think this would be neat!!")
There are going to be very many sections here, so I'm splitting them up to keep things organized and easier to follow. :u
The Overall Crew:
First and foremost, names! Plus heights, because I finally decided on heights for the individual members now :P
2 = Twoson (172 cm / 5’ 8")
4 = Fourside (173 cm / 5’ 8")
5 = Cinco (186 cm / 6’ 1")
8 = 8-ball (192 cm / 6’ 4")
9 = Neun (182 cm / 6’)
10 = Jūrō (178 cm / 5’ 10")
14 = Quatorze (196 cm / 6’ 5")
And then the cue ball member is just… Cueball, lol. He is 190 cm / 6’ 3". I was originally going to make him more-or-less the median height of the crew, but changed my mind later.
I know the 10 and 14 members found in the code aren't "official" members, especially since they seem to be just extra palettes for a potential playable 8-ball. But you know what, I made characters out of them anyways!! :P
Starting off with DOT EXE in general:
As mentioned in the game, they’re a group of full-cyber writers and breakdancers!! They also have a bit of a reputation as hackers, though truthfully it’s only some of them, specifically 8-ball, Neun, and Cinco. They’re the ones who came up with the name too, they just wanted something computer-y. It was originally just the three of them, and the others joined over time. In order, Quatorze and Jūrō were asked by 8-ball to join, then Twoson and Fourside asked to join after they went full-cyber, and then Cueball was the last to join.
Their writer aliases/street names are of course based on the billiard number shown on their screen faces. Which person gets which number was originally based on the actual number of letters in their real given name, but that doesn’t apply to Cueball, Twoson, or Fourside.
They have a reputation of being pretentious and stuck-up assholes (though at least not violent assholes like Devil Theory). They basically look down on most other crews as noobs, about the only writers they respect are DJ Cyber, Felix, and eventually BRC in general after the end of the game.
Of the current big crews in New Amsterdam, they’ve been operating the longest (with varying number of members of course), for about 2 decades at this point! However, them being an actual “big name” crew has only really happened in the past couple of years. They mostly stick to their own territory in Millennium Mall.
On that note! They literally own the mall. All of it. They collect rent from the various stores and companies operating in the mall. They keep the rent super low for local businesses so they can afford to compete with the big brands (especially huge international ones) that set up shop here. Meanwhile, said big brands are charged like five times more in rent. Of course, they’re never actually told that’s the case! Those companies even assume it must be the same for everyone else in the mall. The way DOT EXE spin it to them is along the lines of, “C’mon, don’t you want the prestige of having a store in the one and only Millennium Mall?!” Basically I imagine the Millennium Mall is a huge deal in that way, hence why the big companies don’t suspect anything’s off. :P
So yeah, DOT EXE make money that way. Even after taking out whatever has to be used for proper maintenance of the mall itself, for the most part they end up with a lot more than any of them need (especially since, being full-cyber, they don’t have to worry about food and stuff, just electricity and occasional maintenance/repairs). A lot of the money is saved for emergencies and fun stuff (like hobbies), and then they donate the rest to local charities.
The local businesses are aware of DOT EXE being the owners of the mall, and honestly don’t mind them being writers either! DOT EXE are also more reliable than the police when it comes to asking for help with a problem. In the case of shoplifters in particular, DOT EXE don’t even really punish the thieves, they’ll pay for whatever was stolen and ask if they need additional help (like if they only stole because they didn’t have a job and need help, etc).
The crew hate that the police can intervene at the mall, especially with the helicopters and walking tanks, not to mention the police tube things. They’ve tried to complain to the local government about it, but have been shot down every time. Now they will at the least sabotage the tubes and turrets whenever they can.
The mall is so big that there’s basically a huge solar panel farm on top. Whatever electricity doesn’t get used up by the mall ends up redirected to other parts of New Amsterdam that need it.
There’s also a whole community greenhouse up there! A rather illegal one actually, with New Amsterdam (currently) having some very strict regulations on larger-scale gardens and such (given there’s only one tree in the actual game, and it’s been dug up from Old Amsterdam). DOT EXE do not give a fuck about that clearly, and keep it operational. Especially since it’s a great source of food for a lot of people! DOT EXE managed to hack the local government offices to give the mall’s greenhouse an “official exception”, so the police have to (very begrudgingly) leave it be. Half the crew like the greenhouse since it’s such a great benefit for others, and the other half like it because they know it annoys the cops.
Their hideout is a small part of the mall that’s been sort of sectioned off just for them. Basically behind some pulled-down grates, a bunch of the stores behind said grates have been converted into rooms for them, and is collectively their hideout! There is an actual part of the mall in the game that looks like this, see below:
The rooms of the hideout are as follows: a main meeting/living room area (which also has a disused kitchen, since they don’t need to eat), a main rec area with a ton of custom arcade cabinets and hacked game consoles, a storage room, and then 4 personal rooms for the members, shared between a few of them. One for Cinco and Neun, another for Twoson and Fourside, another for Jūrō and Quatorze, and the last for 8-ball and Cueball. Though since 8-ball was killed, it’s been Cueball’s room by himself.
So yeah, they all live there, whereas pretty much every other crew has their hideout but then individual members (usually) live elsewhere.
They actually aren’t all the same age as the Oldheads, it’s just a cover so people don’t try and figure out any personal info about them. Specific ages/age ranges will be mentioned in individual sections, but really only 8-ball, Neun, and Cinco are around the Oldheads’ ages. Quatorze and Jūrō are actually a good chunk older than them, while Cueball, Twoson, and Fourside are all much younger.
Cueball in particular will always hide his real age, since part of it is related to how he went full-cyber. He will lie to most people and saying he's around the same age as 8-ball, Neun, and Cinco. He hates the pity he gets from people otherwise (more on this later!!).
Twoson and Foruside don't lie about their ages when asked, but would just say they were inspired by 8-ball, Neun, and Cinco to go full-cyber to keep being good dancers and writers. Meanwhile, Quatorze and Jūrō are pretty honest about why they actually did it (again, more on this later!!).
Their voice, outfits, and billiard screens are also covers for their identities!
For the voice, the idea is that there's a "default" voice all the DOT EXE folks use in public, but they still have their own voices based on how they sound from before going full-cyber (Twoson and Fourside are technically exceptions to this, but yeah, more on that later). Their actual voices are only used when they’re going around as “civilians” rather than writers, or otherwise in private at their hideout.
The tracksuits are basically just their costumes, similar to the costumes the other crews wear. So they do wear clothes besides the tracksuits. Sure, they don't really need to, but they like to! Especially when they're not out doing writer stuff, makes it easier for the cops to not suspect something. Each of them has their own personal style, which will be noted in the individual sections!
The screen face can be changed to different images. When they're out and about as "civilians", they tend to change their screens to sort of robotic faces, kinda similar to what non-screen cyberheads have. Those specific faces will be shown in the individual characters’ sections, with their "DOT EXE face" on the left and their individual faces on the right.
Combined with the difference in clothing and voices, it does a good job of actually hiding who they are from the cops!
Note that Cueball is an exception on the voice and screen thing, but I’ll get into that more in his section!
They are all gamers to some degree, otherwise why else would they have a rec room with so many games? They each have their own favorite genres, but overall play a wide variety of them. They’ll play by themselves or with each other depending on the game. The whole crew can get pretty competitive about high scores too, especially on the arcade cabinets!
They also each have their own hobbies outside of gaming, but again, another thing to mention in their own sections.
They all have the capability to communicate wirelessly like computers and phones, i.e. send messages directly to one another instead of to their phones. However, they don’t do that anymore. Mainly because the one time they tried to use it more often, Twoson, Fourside, and Cueball spammed so many memes to Neun that it caused him to crash. Hence why they still rely on text and calls like full-flesh writers, though some of them still do direct wireless messages to one another sometimes. Basically equivalent to whispering to someone so other people don’t hear them.
As full-cyber people, they all have sensors all over their bodies which can act the same as nerves. Detecting damage/pain, temperature, pressure/being touched, and even textures to a degree. The only difference is that these can be turned on or off, or even set to varying “levels” of sensing in between. Usually they turn down the pain/temperature detecting part of the sensors while they’re out (especially while doing writer stuff; basically just detecting damage/temperature without causing actual pain to them). They only turn them fully back on once they’re safe at their hideout.
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8-ball, Cinco, and Neun in general:
They are basically the only ones that went full-cyber to be able to dance better for the most part, though they also did it to be able to get better as writers. None of them were particularly good at either of those before then, though they all clearly wanted to improve at it.
All three of them met and became friends via a transhumanism forum online, hence them going full-cyber together. The actual process is finished up around their 30s or 40s, and they're in their 60s by the time of the game.
Cinco is from Honduras and Neun is from Germany (or so he claims...). Meanwhile 8-ball was born and raised in New Amsterdam, though his father (who he shares with Cueball) had long since moved away to somewhere in the United States.
Both Neun and Cinco did writer stuff in their respective home cities, but 8-ball talked to them a lot about the writer scene in New Amsterdam, especially a lot of the big name writers at the time. That influenced all of them to want to get better at being writers, no matter what.
Once Neun and Cinco moved to New Amsterdam, 8-ball and them formed DOT EXE! They were all full-cyber by then, and practiced together to improve their skills, eventually becoming fairly big names like the other crews.
All three of them act (or acted in 8-ball’s case) as the IT people for the whole mall.
Them getting into hacking and computer stuff mostly started after they all went full-cyber, especially since all their augmentations made it a hell of a lot easier to do.
All three of them love rhythm games, but also have other genres they particularly like. They had rhythm game competitions between the three of them, and even with 8-ball gone, Neun and Cinco still do that from time to time.
On that note, yeah, in my ideas/AU/whatever you want to call it, 8-ball’s death is very much permanent. See this post with some further details on why that is, in particular how, just because his mind’s been digitized, doesn’t mean it’d be any easier to recover.
8-ball specifically:
8-ball refers to Cueball as his bro in the game, and I like to think they’re actual brothers and not just brothers-in-a-friend-way. For my headcanons, they’re actually half-brothers, but refer to each other as brothers anyways. 8-ball is the older of the two!
He’s a bit egotistical. Just a bit.
Kind of a daredevil too, compared to the others. He was like that before going full-cyber, but then after the conversion, being “effectively” invincible just made him more reckless. Dangerous stunts! Tagging more and more high up heaven spots! Getting heat up just to be able to fight the police! So on and so forth.
He is the one who designed the team’s graffiti in-universe, hence why their small tag is more related to him that the team overall. Like I said, bit of an ego on this guy!
He is the one who managed to get ownership of the whole mall, and then just splits the management and collected rent with the others. He actually managed to win ownership of the mall in a (very) risky game of poker. And he didn’t just made that up to sound cool, Cinco and Neun were actually there to witness it!
For his normal fashion style as a civilian, basically he just focuses on looking “cool”, in particular with cool jackets. This usually means jean jackets or leather biker jackets. Also tends to wear jean pants, and shirts with cool designs on them. Which is often stuff like sharks, wolves, dragons, volcanoes, lighting bolts, tornadoes, etc. Also cool shoes of course!
For his personal favorite video game genre, he likes playing shooters, but moreso arcade style shooters and SHMUPs instead of FPSs. Still kinda ironic, given what happened to him…
Real name Frederik Visser. He mainly got into transhumanism just because he thought it was cool, and eventually took it seriously and ended up on the forum where he met Neun and Cinco.
Cinco specifically:
From Cueball’s point of view, he’s the fun uncle!
Fluent in Spanish, speaks it with a Honduran accent. Sometimes uses Spanish words when talking casually, usually terms of endearment for others. Or insults/swears, because he finds it more satisfying to do so in Spanish, lol
Knows a ton of jokes, including puns, in several languages.
A charming guy, very outgoing and friendly with just about everyone!
Also a “he has your back when you need it” kind of pal to DOT EXE in general, but especially 8-ball and Neun. After 8-ball died, he got a bit more protective of Cueball too.
For his fashion style, he likes wearing patterned button-down shirts and sports shorts. For the shirts, of course that includes what’s called Hawaiian shirts, but really anything that has some sort of fancy/detailed patterned will catch his eye. Also tends to wear sandals/flipflops, or crocs.
He really likes racing games, also sports games in general!
Cinco was a bit of a jock type before going full-cyber on that note, playing a lot of sports back then too. He tried to get into various professional sports but never got very far. He’s good at whatever he plays, but evidently just not one of the best for it. Also doesn’t help that he never tried focusing on one particular sport at a time, to the point where he stretched himself thin after a while.
Occasionally plays basketball with the Franks, he’s actually good pals with them because of it!
Likes sports and muscle cars, though mostly driving them and not the maintenance part. He may or may not participate in drag races using stolen cars. Not that it’s hard to steal a car in New Amsterdam, there’s a lot of rich people with “smart” cars who don’t change the default passwords…
Real name César Hugo Raúl Garcia-Flores. On both sides of his family there’s histories of genetic illnesses, and after a certain point he was starting to show some early signs of them. This of course started affecting his health, and with his focus on sports and also wanting to get better as a writer/dancer, he ended up on the transhumanism forum to hopefully find a way to handle all that.
He genuinely didn’t intended to go full-cyber, just wanted to look into “less intensive” cybernetics. However, becoming friends with 8-ball and Neun and going over what they were planning themselves basically led Cinco to decide, “You know what? Might as well go all the way with this myself!”
A note on his full name, if people ask about it: he’ll say his parents couldn’t decide between the two middle names, and just gave him both. Meanwhile, neither parent was backing down about giving him one family name or the other, so they decided to just hyphenate it. But then they had an argument over the order (Garcia-Flores or Flores-Garcia), so they flipped a coin on it… that all being said, Cinco always says this like it’s another joke, so no one’s entirely sure if it’s the real story or not.
He had a boyfriend before going full-cyber. They broke up because of him hiding the fact he was planning to go full-cyber at all. Then again, them breaking up over that was inevitable anyways, because said boyfriend was the type of person to see cybernetics (especially full-cyber stuff) as something unnatural and disgusting. By the time of the game, Cinco has long since gotten over it (for the most part).
May or may not end up dating Escher, hee hee
Neun specifically:
From Cueball’s point of view, he’s basically the stern uncle lol
Has a bit of a “neutral” accent when speaking in his actual voice. It’s clear he’s hiding whatever his “real” accent is supposed to be, but no one knows what he naturally sounds like, not even 8-ball and Cinco. His voice gets shockingly deep when he’s angry, which is very rare.
Fluent in German and Spanish, having grown up speaking both languages. Claims to be from Germany. Though, he’s only ever spoken Spanish with Cinco in private “for some reason”...
… The reason being that he’s actually Argentinian (of German descent, hence him learning that language) and very much has the accent when speaking Spanish. Cinco clocked him as such when listening to him speak Spanish one time. Neun doesn’t want people to know that about him, so he’s sworn Cinco to never speak of it to anyone, even 8-ball. More on why later...
When in public, he basically puts up a front and acts the same kind of “dudebro” kind of way the rest of the members act. Outside of that, overall he’s a very serious and kinda cold guy, but he does genuinely care about his friends (and eventually the rest of the crew, though it took him a while to get there).
Between him, 8-ball, and Cinco, Neun is basically the “friend in charge of the one collective brain cell” kind of guy. It’s also why he’s second-in-command of DOT EXE, becoming the leader once 8-ball is killed.
Also the crew’s accountant, mostly in charge of sorting out collecting rent from the businesses in the mall. He gives a lot of leeway for local businesses if they’re late on rent, but gives no such mercy to the bigger brands in the mall.
Likes to stay organized. He will pick up after the others if they leave a mess, but will also complain and berate them while doing so.
Not exactly a fan of jokes or pranks. He dislikes puns in particular and finds them genuinely annoying (not in a “Damn it, I wish I thought of that myself!!” kind of way). He makes an exception for Cinco’s jokes, but mostly out of politeness as a friend. And even then it’s not like Neun will laugh, he’ll just politely stay quiet and shake his head.
For his normal fashion outside of the tracksuits, well, Neun can be described as looking like a stereotypical nerd. This means collar shirts and khaki pants, lol
Neun likes playing RPGs and strategy games, though he’s very old school and picky about what he plays. If it doesn’t have some sort of hard mode, at the very least a hard mode that can be modded in, he won’t bother with it. Just as an example, he likes playing Pokemon games but only with modded super hard modes and with Smogon-style strategies and team builds.
Claims his real name is Sebastian Jäger. He was originally just on the transhumanism forum out of curiosity, not really taking it seriously. However, at one point he had a mid-life crisis related to mortality, especially after having to deal with a string of family deaths around the same time. With him wanting to be a better writer and breakdancer, at that point he felt like he had limited time to even live at all, let alone enough time to improve at either of those.
Hence why he started being more active on the forum and looking into full-cyber conversion in particular, and that eventually led to him becoming friends with 8-ball and Cinco. He’ll never admit to this though.
He’ll also never admit that he accidentally crossed the wrong people on his journey to both go full-cyber and move to New Amsterdam. He’s convinced they’re still looking for him, even if the chances are incredibly slim. Thus why he’s hiding at least part of his origins...
His actual real name is Sebastián Montero, but again, he’s basically in hiding right now. "Jäger" was apparently the family name of an ancestor of his.
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Quatorze and Jūrō in general:
Quatorze is French, and Jūrō is of Japanese descent, both born and raised in France. Both can of course speak French, with their real speaking voices having a Parisian French accent. Jūrō is also fluent in Japanese.
They were both big time writers in their youth, with stories about them being what inspired 8-ball to become a writer in the first place! Then him talking about them to Cinco and Neun is what collectively pushed all three of them to want to get better at being writers.
They are a married couple and still consider themselves married as wife and husband, even after going full-cyber together (technically they are considered legally dead and thus no longer married, but screw the laws man).
On that note, surprise, Quatorze is actually a woman! Thanks to the default voice for the crew and the tracksuits, everyone just assumes she’s a man without hearing her real voice. That’s intentional, I’ll get into it a bit more in her specific section.
They are very, very loving to each other. Think Gomez and Morticia Addams, just without a morbid humor angle. Jūrō basically praises and is encouraging of everything Quatorze does, and Quatorze love to compliment him for anything he does too. Though sometimes it does get on her nerves, and he apologizes when she asks him to dial it back a bit. But also they have the mushiest pet names for each other.
They are both willing to kill and be killed for the sake of their spouse, but of course each of them would prefer that the other not going that far.
They see 8-ball, Cinco, and Neun as their peers. Meanwhile, both of them dote on Cueball, Twoson, and Fourside like their actual kids/grandkids. Cueball finds it annoying but secretly likes it, meanwhile Twoson and Fourside outright call them Granny and Granpy respectively.
Real names Marie-Madeleine Lucille Perrault, and Maximilien Théodore Perrault, respectively. Their backstory of how they went full-cyber is connected, so I’ll just go over it here: Tragically, in their 70s, Quatorze got cancer at some point, a kind that was unfortunately very hard to treat. She had the option to go full-cyber instead of continuing risky treatment just to potentially die due to being weakened by said treatment. And her husband Jūrō also went full-cyber to be able to stay with her!
Unfortunately, their kids were not happy with that. For some of them, there was confusion about how inheritance would work (eventually finding out that Quatorze and Jūrō would be considered legally dead anyways, so it was “fine”). For others, it’s moreso that they had already accepted that their mom will die, only for her to choose to keep living in the most “selfish” and “unnatural” way possible.
Suffice to say, Quatorze and Jūrō have not spoken to their kids since then, and they haven’t seen their grandkids since then either. They’re more torn up about not seeing their grandkids (they weren’t exactly happy with their kids fighting over inheritance and criticizing their parents’ decision on how to keep living). For the most part they’ve come to accept they’ll never see them again, but Jūrō is secretly holding onto hope they might see their grandkids again someday…
After the two of them went full-cyber, sometime later 8-ball reached out to them, having heard about what happened to them. He was basically like, "Hey you guys were big inspirations to us as writers! Wanna join our new full-cyber crew??" (at that point it was just him, Cinco, and Neun). They responded, "Well, we're not sure how to spend our retirement now, so sure! :)" So by the time of the game’s events, they’re in their 80s.
Quatorze specifically:
She’s basically the team mom! Very caring towards everyone in the crew, but also more than willing to put her foot down to get them to behave when needed.
Before going full-cyber, she was an actress. Her pretending to be a man when out and about as a writer is mainly to hide her identity. She was fairly famous at her peak, so even with her being “legally” dead, she doesn’t want people to find and bother her, especially not any overzealous fans. She does look back on her past work with fondness though, some of her favorite roles was getting to play as hammy, over-the-top villains in cartoons, animated movies, and live action movies.
Though as an actress, her pretending to be a man while in public as DOT EXE (including using the default voice the same as the others) is also just another role for her. She finds it a lot of fun!
She knits, as well as crocheting, weaving, and other crafts involving threads and such. She will knit you a sweater/scarf/hat if you ask politely!
For her civilian fashion, she likes wearing sweaters and long skirts. Sometimes she wears sundresses with a nice sunhat during the summer months, even if it’s not really necessary as a full-cyber person. She has fancier dresses she wears for date nights with Jūrō.
Her favorite kinds of video games are puzzle games and ‘slow’ platformers, mainly things along the lines of Klonoa, Kirby, Mario, and Banjo-Kazooie.
Jūrō specifically:
He’s basically the team dad! Very supportive of his crew mates. He leaves being the “stern parent” to Quatorze though, especially since Jūrō tends to be too soft on someone if they messed up or started issues with the rest of the crew. It was the same when they were full-flesh with their kids and grandkids, he’s mainly just afraid of seeming too “mean”.
Unfortunately he can’t do dad jokes, but at least Cinco has that covered, lol
He worked as an accountant, but didn’t like the work very much. He was able to be a stay-at-home dad once Quartorze’s acting career really took off!
He likes to garden, and he’s the one that works the most on the mall’s greenhouse.
For his civilian fashion, usually wears nice pants (like the kind for suits) + long button-down shirts. Also wears sweater vests that his wife makes for him! He has full suits and waistcoats for date nights with Quatorze.
His favorite kinds of video games are life sim games, such as Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley (“If only growing plants were this easy in real life!”). He also likes idle games, especially ones that don’t demand his attention too much.
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Twoson and Fourside in general:
Yes, their names are references to the Earthbound towns of the same name. They picked out their own billiard numbers to specifically make that reference, lol
Twoson is agender (they/he) and Fourside is nonbinary (also they/he). Note that they were like this long before going full-cyber, since some people may assume it happened because of the transition.
For their voices, they actually only use their real voices when they’re alone together in private, and no one else knows what they “really” sound like. When out as civilians or in private with their crewmates, they use different synthesized voices from the one used for DOT EXE. Their specific synthesized voices will be noted in their individual sections.
For their civilian screen faces, these two will actually change them to express certain emotions, usually with very anime-esque stuff (eye shines, exaggerated evil grins, etc). Other members will just keep their faces static and express themselves through their voice and hand/body movement.
They are both pranksters, they love to cause mischief and mayhem! Not even their own crewmates are safe.
They get along with Cueball in a sort of sibling way. Sometimes getting along great, other times being at each others’ throats (i.e. Cueball vs. Twoson and Fourside, the two of them are deep friends and have never really fought each other).
Jūrō has taught both of them Japanese. He insisted on it after hearing them talk (or rather, trying to talk) in Japanese once, they were really horrible at it before his lessons. They both also know a bit of Spanish from Cinco.
Between the two of them, they have a huge anime and manga collection! I will mention some of their individual favorite genres for that in their respective sections.
They make video games! Just as a hobby, so all the games they make are free. Said games are mostly in the form of super hard ROM Hacks, or weird/eccentric/trippy games (think along the lines of Yume Nikki, OFF, Hylics, Space Funeral, Goblet Grotto, LSD Dream Emulator, etc.). Neither of them can code very well, so they usually convince/force Cueball into helping them with their various projects. What they provide for said projects themselves is mostly the ideas (both of them), music (Twoson specifically), and art assets (Fourside specifically).
Suffice to say, the games they make are not ones that any of the other DOT EXE members normally play. Neun has played some of the ROM hacks they’ve made for RPGs though, mostly because of the ridiculous challenges they put in.
They both have similar tastes in music, usually stuff that is fairly “eccentric” compared to mainstream music. Basically along the lines of Caravan Palace, Will Wood, Lemon Demon, Jack Stauber, GHOST and Pals, Vane, and R.I.P.. Also enjoy a lot of Vocaloid and Synthysizer V songs, especially the more creepy and macabre stuff.
On that note, they’ve definitely hijacked the mall’s sound systems to play their favorite songs as pranks on people more than once.
They both really like horror games. With poorly made ones, they only play them to riff on them and make fun of their game design. They may or may not have a YouTube channel dedicated to this. They may or may not also do streams as vTubers on that note…
Honestly they like horror content in general. Movies, novels, games, anime, manga, comics, TV shows, art… they’d probably get along great with Daishō!
Real names are Beau Driessen and Robin Zaal respectively. Like with Quatorze and Jūrō, Twoson and Fourside’s backstories are connected. Twoson was severely injured in what was ruled an “accident”, to the point of only having two options: go full-cyber, or just stay bedridden for the rest of their life. Meanwhile, Fourside went full-cyber in order to bury their old identity, after having taken care of the people who caused the “accident”. Both of them going full-cyber happened in their late 20s, they're both about 35 now.
They were both writers before going full-cyber, and the “accident” was caused by some rivals they had to deal with. After the conversion, they heard about DOT EXE as a full-cyber crew, and decided to join up with them.
They are very protective of one another. Fourside in particular will get very vicious against anyone who tries to hurt Twoson, even if it’s another DOT EXE member.
They’re also the type to use insults to show affection to each other, “You nerd!”, “You’re such a dork!”, etc. Towards anyone else, it’s genuine insults.
Twoson specifically:
The voice they use when going around as a civilian is an androgynous synthesized voice that’s a bit on the higher side.
Twoson is the nicer of the two, for what it’s worth, but still tends to be obnoxious at times. They also like to be fakely sweet sometimes, especially when trying to get a favor out of someone else.
For fashion, Twoson likes wearing a jean vest covered in a ton of buttons. They also like to wear skirts over cargo capris, tie-dye shirts, chokers/collars, and headbands which have been modified to fit over their head.
They like to do craft stuff sometimes, like origami, needle felting, papercraft, and clay sculptures. They also make the buttons and tie-dye shirts that both themself and Fourside wear.
They make music! The best way to describe it is very weird and also sometimes creepy. Basically ranging from quirky digital/midi music, to dreamy but still unnerving drones and tones, to Silent Hill 1 industrial scary noises.
Besides horror video games, they really like dating sims and visual novels. They have a whole menagerie of what they call their fictional spouses.
Twoson likes the magical girl genre in particular for anime and manga. They actually really hate shows like Puella Magi Madoka Magica that try to subvert the genre or otherwise do an intentionally “edgy” take on it. A lot of magical girl series already have dark themes anyways!
Fourside specifically:
The voice they use when going around as a civilian is an androgynous synthesized voice that’s a bit on the lower side.
Fourside is the meaner of the two, for what it’s worth. They’re more quick to genuinely insult people and use a lot of sarcasm. However, they will be respectful when it counts, usually only for other DOT EXE members.
For fashion, Fourside also likes wearing a jean vest with tons of buttons and tie-dye shirts, like Twoson does. They also wear a skirt over skinny jeans, lots of bracelets, and beanies that Quatorze has made for them.
On that note, Quatorze made some of the thread/string bracelets that Fourside wears, and she showed them how to make bracelets on their own too. So the rest are the ones Fourside made! You can tell which ones were from when they first started out, and which ones are more recent and thus better quality. They’ve also made some of the collars/chokers that Twoson wears.
Fourside does digital art in the form of 3D models and complex MS Paint stuff. They mainly do this just to make weird stuff and put it out their for people to enjoy. A lot of it is very abstract and weird, with a sort of “old-school Internet” vibe a la ENA/Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong-Nou/Disillusion ST/Hylics/etc.
Besides horror video games, they really love beat ‘em ups and fighting games! Do not challenge them to some of the big ones (Street Fighter, Tekken, Smash Bros, etc.) unless you want to lose.
Fourside has no particular favorite genre for anime/manga, but tends to like series that end up categorized as shōnen. Also really enjoys superhero tokusatsu shows and movies (i.e. stuff like Super Sentai/Power Rangers, Kamen Rider, Ultraman, etc).
Cueball
He’s the lovable goofball basically. Lots of joking around and teasing people, especially his friends! That’s basically how he shows affection a lot of the time.
Though he’s also fiercely loyal to his friends and crew. Mostly because despite being friendly and outgoing, he doesn’t exactly have a lot of friends outside of DOT EXE. Eventually that changes once he joins BRC, but he still cares about and hangs out with his old crewmates.
He’s from the United States, and 8-ball helped him with moving to New Amsterdam.
He loves cats! Before he went full-cyber, he was very allergic to cats and wasn’t allowed to have any because of that. After going full-cyber, he eventually realized he didn’t have to worry about allergies anymore. And so he set out to adopt ALL the cats, lol. It got bad enough to be a hoarding situation, and the rest of DOT EXE at the time (8-ball, Cinco, and Neun, this being before any of the other and Cueball himself joining) had to step in for an intervention. They got the cats rehomed or put in adoption centers/cat shelters, and Cueball decided to just volunteer at those shelters to help out. A much better situation for everyone involved, especially the cats!
Cueball owns a ton of blankets and pillows, and likes to make his own pillow forts and stuff in his room for Extra Comfort. Also sometimes throws them in a clothes dryer to make them warm. With the thing about body sensors for full-cyber people I mentioned earlier, Cueball is of course the one that takes full advantage of the sensors whenever he can!
Quatorze has made whole blankets for Cueball. He doesn’t like to admit it, but he does appreciate those blankets, they’re very comfy.
His favorite kinds of video games are action, action-adventure, and search action (a.k.a “Metroidvania”).
Cueball hates his real voice for the most part, and he’s the only one who will keep using the default DOT EXE voice even when alone with the rest of the crew. They do know what he sounded like before he used that default voice (he only started using it all the time after he joined DOT EXE), but it’s been so long that most of them have forgotten it by now.
When it comes to fashion, Cueball’s “style” is more about comfort than anything else. Hoodies! Sweatpants! Sweaters! Oversized t-shirts! Comfy socks! Super comfy sneakers! Sometimes various winter hats if he can find any that will fit over his head lol. He has a ton of stuff that Quartoze has made for him, though he feels embarrassed to actually wear them outside of the hideout.
As mentioned previously, he doesn’t bother changing his screen face to a different one from his billiards face. Though he will change the red triangle in the middle to different emojis or reaction images/gifs for expressions. Or otherwise to mess with people.
So Cueball is the only one who doesn't bother with the voice changing nor face changing. The only thing different is his clothes. If a cop suspects he's the same Cueball from DOT EXE, he basically goes, "Oh? You think I look like a criminal just because I'm full-cyber too? Prejudice much?!" and that actually gets them to back down most of the time lol
He used to do programming and other computer related tasks (including messing with servers and hardware) as a job after going full-cyber and before eventually joining DOT EXE. He’s still good at those things too! But at least now he keeps up with those more as a hobby, which he honestly prefers. He thus tends to refuse to help with the IT stuff for the mall, he’s sick of doing that kind of thing for work.
He wanted in on the crew mostly because he was sick of feeling “left behind” by everyone else whenever they’d go out to do writer stuff. By the time he joined, Quatorze, Jūrō, Twoson, and Fourside had already become part of the crew.
He’s the only DOT EXE member with no prior experience as a writer (especially before going full-cyber), and so he’s had to put in a lot of practice with the rest of the crew. Due to his lack of skills, he was only really allowed to join because his older brother 8-ball let him join, and even then only after Cueball begged him about it a lot.
On that note, and as mentioned in 8-ball’s section, Cueball and 8-ball are specifically half-brothers. They cared about each other, and 8-ball very much tried to help out his little brother whenever he could. Back when the two of them were still full-flesh, they weren’t too close, but at least kept in touch via email and sometimes actual postcards despite the age difference between them. Mostly 8-ball wanted to be sure Cueball had another adult he could turn to if he was in trouble, because he knows how their dad is.
After moving to New Amsterdam, they did get a little closer as brothers. Cueball has a lot of admiration for his older brother because of his writer activities, though sometimes Cueball would be annoyed or even hate 8-ball for (in his eyes) “babying” him when 8-ball was just trying to keep him safe. Eventually, sometime after 8-ball died, Cueball mostly just regrets not really knowing 8-ball that well in the end.
Cueball starts trying to get into rhythm games after 8-ball’s death, and he even tries to join in on the rhythm game competitions with Cinco and Neun. He’s getting pretty good at it!
He does a lot of pranks with Twoson and Fourside. Also prank wars between the three of them! Neun makes a point to have plans outside of New Amsterdam for the weeks surrounding April Fools Day, while the rest of the crew just roll with it.
Besides Twoson and Fourside, Cueball gets along fairly well with Cinco, Jūrō, and Quatorze. For the last one, he has accidentally called her mom once, and he had her swear to never tell anyone else what happened.
He’s dating Bō! Cueball is really big on physical touch as a show of affection. He is thus incredibly cuddly and big on handholding and hugs! He also cuts back on the jokes and teasing just for Bō (for the most part).
He used to do a lot of cooking and baking before he went full-cyber. Once he started dating Bō, he actually go back into cooking to be able to cook stuff for his boyfriend! He still remembers all of the recipes he tried out, plus reads up on new ones to try. Unfortunately, due to of course having no sense of taste now, he has to either use recipes that don’t need tasting in between steps, stick with recipes that he already knows Bō likes, or otherwise make sure Bō is around for taste-testing.
Bō is the only one who knows what Cueball’s real voice sounds like, and even then Cueball only uses it when they’re alone together in private.
Real name Ernesto Alberto Visser. Cueball got Covid when he was about 15. The resulting long Covid was bad enough that, in his early 20s, he decided to just go full-cyber instead of continuing to suffer. His older brother 8-ball helped him out with that. At first it was just helping him move to New Amsterdam to get better medical treatment (and to get away from their dad and Cueball’s mom for that matter) once Cueball turned 18. Eventually that lead to helping Cueball with going full-cyber once the treatments proved ineffective. He did so sometime after 8-ball, Neun, and Cinco went full-cyber themselves. Cueball is about 43 during the time of the game.
Cueball originally had plans to become a chef or at least a baker, but when he got sick, part of the problems from his Covid infection was that his sense of taste got completely messed up. He was originally going to do programming as a hobby thing. But once he went full-cyber, he did programming as a full time job since he didn’t have anything else going for him, until eventually joining DOT EXE many years later.
Because of why he went full-cyber, he is distrustful of doctors (due to both the quack doctors his parents forced him to see to pretend that his Covid symptoms “weren’t that bad”, and the actual doctors later on who knew how serious his condition was but couldn’t do much for him anyways). He insists on accompanying his full-flesh friends to their doctor appointments to make sure they’re safe!!
#bomb rush cyberfunk#bomb rush cyberfunk headcanons#brc headcanons#brc dot exe#dot exe OCs#they might as well be OCs at this rate yeesh!!#kinda like what happened with Devil Theory :u#fan art
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Weird question, please bear with me.
So I was in the turtle group chat talking about different methods of turtle shell repair, as one does, and then I remembered Donnie's Terrible, Rotten, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and his metal shell.
Seeing as a turtle's shell IS their spine and a significant portion of their ribcage, does Donnie now also have a prosthetic metal spine and ribs? and all the Important Stuff that's in the spinal column - the nerves and the fluids and the like... I'm not really asking for you to explain the Deep Biology of mutant turtle skeletal structures, but I AM asking what is up with their spines - are the fused, separate, some secret third thing? inquiring minds want to know.
I think about this same thing every so often, haha. Most artists (even Peter and Kevin back in the day) draw the Turtles with a flexible plastron unlike real turtles, which you can either chalk up to artistic license and cartooning, or you can take it more literally to mean that the Turtles have a more human-type skeleton and their plastron and shell are more spongy sort of armor plating rather than bone like real-life turtles. If I was the only one working on TMNT I'd probably delve more into the biology of it and have it at the outset that the carapace is part of their skeleton and is rigid like real turtles, but it's impossible to set that kind of thing up in a series with a ton of people working on it and expect it to remain the same across the board, so I usually just don't worry about it. I'm also kind of boxed in a bit by Donatello losing his shell and, thanks to the ooze, somehow receiving a new one that Fugitoid I guess just sticks onto Don's back and he's good to go. There's a panel in that particular issue (I forget which one it was) where Don is about to be operated on and he's lying on his back on the medical bed, but I always wondered what's under his shell, then? If he has no shell I'm guessing it was a huge exposed wound, and if so why is he lying ON the giant gaping wound?! Haha. And then it's like if the Turtles' carapace is flexible in IDW TMNT, that must mean it's NOT part of their skeletal system and in that case why would Don even need a new shell? Clearly thinking too deeply about it, haha.
In any case, since I took over as writer, I've tried to go by those rules that Tom set up as much as I can, like when I had Don's old broken shell (which Tom never accounted for, where did it go after Fugitoid removed it??? So I decided to draw the old shell having been tossed into a dumpster, lol) be attached to Venus, like if the surgeon has a healing agent like ooze or the Dragon scales the way Fugitoid and Dr. Barlow did, it seems like they can just graft components (whether organic or inorganic) onto anyone however they like regardless of what the internal mutant biology is. In Venus's flashback in my Alliance #4 issue, I did draw her spinal column visible when the shell is being grafted on though, sort of as a nod to the skeletal system thing but not explicitly solidifying the biology of it.
Another way I think about it is that mutants haven't undergone any sort of evolution as a species, their biology doesn't have to "make sense" or be useful in a natural selection evolutionary way. The mutagen kinda removes all the specialized traits from an animal, so the Turtles' carapaces have lost whatever traits gave rise to regular turtles' shells over millions of years. Mutants are outside the evolutionary process, so the Turtles' shells don't have to be biologically useful or advantageous or even really have anything in common with normal turtles. The mutagen reconfigures an animal into humanoid form and it'll recode their DNA to any extent to acheive that end result, so maybe it built the Turtles' a new skeletal system and their shells are purely vestigial.
I feel like I'm getting way too deep here and it only makes it more confusing, lol. So to answer your question, if I had to pick one of the options you listed, I would pick "secret third thing." ;)
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Answer the questions and tag five fanfiction authors you know!
tagged by @sarahowritesostucky, thank you lovely!! 💖💖 no pressure tagging: @late-to-the-party-81 @sparkagrace @bittersweet-in-boston @otpcutie @apple-writes
🍓 How did you get into writing fanfiction?
I feel like that's asking "how did you join Tumblr" it just happened 😂
🍇How many fandoms have you written in?
One, technically, which is nothing compared to others but I enjoy exploring my ideas with the MCU and its characters. I'm not sure I'd get the same feeling with other fandoms, like say, supernatural.
🍈How many years have you been writing fanfiction?
It'll be four this summer. Again, not long, but considering I denied myself as being a writer for several years? That's progress and growth.
🍎Do you read or write more fanfiction?
It depends on the muse and all sorts of other things. Sometimes I'm punching out oneshot after oneshot, while other times I'll be focused on a longfic and will read in between and stuff. Like currently!
🍌What is one way you've improved as a writer?
Writing more. Reading more. Writing more again. But also letting go of sticking to a strict outline. I'm a planster. I'll plan the major things, but everything else is made up as I go.
🍑Do you have any bad habits as a writer?
I'll often start or continue writing a scene and will find myself stuck, thinking it's the end of the world, and then realize my whole issue is a few lines above what I'm trying to make work. Happens so often you'd like I would be used to it by now.
🍍 What's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?
I don't know about weird, but I've been doing a ton of medical research for my future doctor/patient AU. I've searched around for all sorts of things lol even for a sentence that I'll likely not end up using.
🍉What's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?
Keyboard smashes. Long detailed comments about the plot/relationship/pining/etc. Comments that mention a tiny detail I included, those are the best when people notice them. But also, any comment.
🍐What's the most fringe trope/topic you write about?
Crack fics? I don't think I write a lot of outlandish stuff, at least I wouldn't consider them to be 😂
🥭What is the hardest type of story for you to write?
Uhhh... *stares blankly at my open doc* Ones with big plot. I love it, it makes the story even more fun to write, but MAN plot can be tricky. Catch me saying "Did everyone see that? Because I will not be doing it again" like Captain Jack Sparrow when I finish a longfic, and then immediately start planning another one to write.
🍏What is the easiest type?
Short oneshots with hardly any plot. Which isn't often because almost everything I write ends up being longer than I anticipated.
🍑Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?
Docs. I used to use Smartedit Writer and organize by chapters, but ehhhh I just throw ideas onto a separate doc and go from there. Why plan extensively when my characters will do a 180 on me all the time? And almost always at night, sometimes during the day when time/the muse allows me.
🍋What is something you've been too nervous/intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?
I was just thinking about this recently. I have never written a post TWS recovery fic. It's on my 'to write' bucket list, so I hope to tackle a lengthy canon fic one of these days. I love reading canon fics where they're on missions and the plot is centered around HYDRA or some other big bad, I feel like those are trickier to write than AUs. But everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and I know coming up with detailed worlds/world building isn't a walk in the park for some.
🍇 what made you choose your username?
I didn't know what to name my Marvel sideblog when I was making it so... I just decided Bucky + metal arm + aw crap that name is taken = Metalbvcky 🤣
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For the meme!!! 21 - 22 - 23
We love a sequential number sequence :D
21. Could you ever quit writing? Do you ever wish you could? Why or why not?
I mean, yeah, maybe one day! I don't want to quit writing, I certainly don't wish I could. I love this job! It's been my favourite ever job! It's also been the hardest fucking job I've ever done!!! But I still love it :'D
I don't want to say 'I'm never going to quit' - I don't know what the future might bring. The arthritis in my hands is pretty bad, maybe one day I'll be in too much agony to justify it. Maybe one day I'll just stop enjoying it. I don't believe in sticking something out forever based on how I feel about it now!
I can say with all confidence that I don't want to quit. The biggest flaw in this version of my job is that it doesn't pay super great for the amount of work that goes into it. BUT, it definitely pays better than working as a professional artist did, and there is growth, and amazing people do support the Patreon, so it's like...that flaw becomes less of a flaw over time.
I love this job. It wasn't one I would have picked for myself, but it's introduced me to the best people, it's something I feel I'm actually pretty good at (maybe I'm not, but this is a nice feeling to have), and it's kind of unique. I get to be my own boss (I'm a mean boss, but I'm getting better), and I get to work from home, and I can accommodate my chronic illnesses. I get to spend time in amazing worlds, with amazing characters, and then I get to reply to amazing comments and asks made by amazing people.
Like, when this job is going well, I feel like one of the luckiest people. When this job is hard I just groan a lot and take painkillers for editing headaches. But like, the good parts of this job are very good!!
22. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?
I'm pretty organised.
So, all of my chapters are written in Microsoft Word and saved directly into Dropbox (with offline storage as well). All of my folders are also very well organised. I have a naming system for each chapter, and everything is chained together pretty well.
On top of that I now use Obsidian for worldbuilding (it's free! Though you can pay and they deserve money for their awesome service). I used to use World Anvil but found it too clunky for my personal needs. I have about 4 Obsidian vaults now (i.e. different worlds) and they look like this:
You can see a chained folder system on the left, and the graph view on the right.
And the information in the individual files is set up like a Wiki page:
Not all of my worlds get this treatment, but Underline the Rainbow, Vexteria, Mallory & Mount and something else I've forgotten about all have vaults. Fae Tales doesn't, because I didn't know Obsidian existed when I started worldbuilding for that, lol, so all of that is in Word.
And then I will on occasion just write in notepads and in Paperblanks journals when I need to brainstorm stuff. This part of the process is especially useful when plotting, brainstorming names or titles, or figuring out the end of a story.
I don't use Google Docs (don't actually like it), Scrivener (hate it, sorry Scrivener fans), or anything else. Word has its issues, but it does well enough for me. I actually formatted Perth Shifters in Word.
23. Describe the physical environment in which you write. Be as detailed as possible. Tell me what’s around you as you work. Paint me a picture.
I write in a study dedicated to art/writing, because those have been my jobs for over 15 years. I sit at a large desk, and have a desktop computer with one monitor (I've wanted two monitors for such a long time), a decent speaker system, and a good RGB hard-drive.
It's a mess, lol.
Hang on let me show you:
I have stickers on the desktop by the immaculate WhiskeyRabbit. I have a bunch of art supplies, and art in various stages of completion (the raven is finished, Augus behind the raven is not). There's meds and supplements everywhere. I have my Metformin (diabetes meds) in front of me because I often eat where I work, lol. I have some Sank collectible toys on the subwoofer because I find Sank very inspiring. And lots of art behind me like I'm some 18 year old instead of the 41 year old I actually am.
Oh and like, some half-finished chocolate blocks, lmao. And some fingerless gloves, a tea-towel, notepads for my writing, a calculator for my wordcount, a little spiky massage ball for the muscle/fascia issues in my wrists from writing so much, and much, much more.
It's a very ADHD desk. I do not notice the mess, lmao.
To my left is my writing whiteboard which tracks my writing and the chapters I've completed for the year, and my yearly wordcount to date. It also has some pinned up fanart and gifts from readers to keep me going when things get hard! :D
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From the Weird Writing Questions meme!
#asks and answers#memey goodness#pia on writing#going through a chocolate phase at the moment#usually the only food on my desk is the almonds you can see under my monitor#my work desk is like#my home#i spend more time here than i think i actually spend in bed lmao
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actually yeah a lot has happened in the 6 months since this blog was active so let me give some life updates
- became involved in the activism scene in my city, have organized two events this year (brianna ghey vigil + trans resilience rally) both of which went FANTASTIC .
- literally did so fucking good at cadets i got two public speaking awards, a medal of excellence from the canadian legion, became the parade commander, got the promotion i've spent SIX YEARS working toward, and way more stuff . on our annual parade (BIG thing in june) i led my unit which has been my dream since i was 12 and i joined lol <3
- i got really good at poetry actually ?? took writers craft second semester and it changed my life and i wrote some really beautiful pieces (might share on tumblr but im also looking into Big Options such as self publishing, submitting to literary mags, and entering some national contests) . wrote a poetry collection in may/june that i think is truly the best thing i've ever created (if anyone wants 2 hear me ramble abt my poetry send me an ask or dm literally wherever i love to talk abt writing)
- girl guides has become a huge thing in my life ? i've been involved for a year now but it's become SO important to me and gives me Something to care a lot about . these kids are a big part of why i stick around (and im becoming an official adult leader soon WOOHOO)
- GRADUATED HIGHSCHOOL ?? never thought i'd do that lol . i'm taking a fifth year (really common where i live) but i do officially have my hs diploma . i got two music awards at grad as well (and $250 for them) !!
- i have also just grown a LOT as a person over the last year i think i am a different human being than i was this time last year and that is a VERY good thing . no hate to 17 year old sunny bc they got me here but the growth is good . i have so so so many close friends who i genuinely love and who genuinely care about me and i have a job i love and i love my school and i mostly like who i am . life is Different
#(a lot of bad things happened too like . i found out i have bipolar/got rejected from all my uni applications/had some rlly bad times but .#overall my life has changed in a good way .)#ANYWAY thats my life updates its a lot lol
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I read the first chapter or two of the unofficial translation and the acupuncture stuff just kinda put me off, that's too close to quackery for me to take it seriously, so I was wondering about your thoughts on it
oh. oh buddy. listen if you care about medical accuracy like,, at all,, this is definitely not the novel for you lmao
personally acupuncture is not for me, i have a strong fear of needles so the thought of anyone sticking needles into my body is terrifying, but i also feel that way about any kind of shot so i am probably not the best person to ask. as for whether it is quackery,,, maybe it's just that i'm not a native english speaker but that sounds like a loaded word lmao. i think it has to have some benefits, but definitely not to the level some attribute it. i would group it along with chiropractic (which by the way rakiel also does). useful for some people if done correctly but only if accompanied by actual medical advice lol.
plus. i think most people forget how recent most modern medicine is. for a long ass time herbal remedies, acupuncture, moxibustion, things we now consider as outdated or primitive or outright barbaric,,, well they were all that were available at the time. it was the best they could do. it wasn't that doctors and healers of that time didn't want to do better, they literally couldn't. and some of this stuff is still deeply tied to some cultures, is still respected as traditional methods of treatment. to call it quackery feels just,,,, a little icky.
now rakiel is from the modern era, but still, he's not someone who tries to scam people by offering fake miracle treatments with acupuncture or whatever. he's just offering whatever help he can with what he knows to do.
and really this is a fantasy novel. massive spoilers ahead but like. rakiel talks with his goddamn organs. he can get a diagnosis by taking people's pulse. he cured fucking covid with the help of a dragon. his own bone dragon takes x-rays by sneezing. damian uses his excess glucose to make mana blasts. medical accuracy is well behind us.
so like. i get why you could be put off by the treatments he uses, they're not very accurate and are definitely being exaggerated for the sake of the plot, but. they're not much more outlandish that everything lloyd is doing in tged lol. i think it's just that most of us are less familiar with civil engineering that we are with medicine and, uh, basic human anatomy, so we can more easily call bullshit on some of the wild plot devices ajksdka
i am very interested in your thoughts tho! please tell me if you read further and what you think of it!
#hey i got an ask#Anonymous#watching period kdramas has desensitized me to a lot of unfamiliar medical treatments#i really recommend watching 'live up to your name' for some context on the way acupuncture is treated in korean culture#it doesn't go very in depth but i think it's worth watching anyway!#plus reading about the way medicine was before modern times. it gives you a new appreciation for living in the present lol.#everything that went on before a reliable and safe method of knocking people out for treatment.... harrowing stuff ajshdkja#i dunno#i'm mexican so i'm always a little wary when someone calls traditional medicine by any derogatory word.#feels too close to colonizer propaganda alsjdlkada#not that i'm saying you said anything wrong nonnie i'm just talking about my own biases!#crown prince sells medicine#cpsm
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Okay, time to go nuts on ‘The Deep Dive Caper.’
OH MY GOSH I JUST LOVE THIS EPISODE!!!!!!
I didn’t think this show could pull of anything that would leave me reeling as hard as the S1 finale (because oh wow, that was serious ‘stop the show, I need to process’ stuff), but ohhhhhhh my goshhhhhh.
Way too many thoughts after the break! And special thanks to @csweekly for organizing this!
- First off, the opening scene on the boat back to VILE Island. Fantastic scene setting, from the storm to the Carmen’s dead-set determination to Player’s audible worry as he (desperately) tries to convince her to try any other way to find out the truth or at least have backup. He knows it could become a suicide mission at any point, she knows it too, but this is just too important. (and she’s right about ACME; sneaky they are not).
- Then BAM! No Island! (quick aside: lol, poor Chase, he just missed them! So close! 😂) And can I just say how absolutely devious the motive behind tipping Carmen off to the true nature of Shadowsan’s Argentinian mission was? Like, they know how to hit her where it’ll hurt the most and will. And worse: it works.
- I just love how you can actually recognize the different parts of the Academy as Carmen swims past them, like the oni (I think???) from Shadowsan’s classroom (so significant, considering how his trustworthiness that’s on Carmen’s mind) and the elevator leading to the server room. Fun little details!
- CHASE DEVINEAUX, CASTAWAY FIRE KING!!! I laughed ridiculously the first time I saw this montage and every time after. The way he struggles at castaway life, then slowly gets the hang of it was so good, especially since the ‘Fire King’ then proceeded to inadvertently set fire to his hut. 😅
- “You’re fired. Have a nice life.” 🤣🤣🤣
- That whole scene with Player relaying what he learned from the files....oof. Carmen’s confusion as she tries to puzzle out why VILE ordered a hit on her dad; the way she slowly tumbles further and further down a stygian slope as she realizes that maybe...no, not maybe definitely was everything she never wanted to be (feared to be), and the look of shock and horror when she learns he was Faculty; gut punch. But nothing compared to-
- “Your silence is like thunder.” I will never be able to shut up about Shadowsan’s whole narrative about how she came to VILE, so I’ll just stick to my two fave bits:
----- The montage showing The Wolfe in action. Truly, a sort of black mirror to Carmen. You can *see* her in him: the self-assuredness, the cocksure confidence, the finesse, the skill, the smoothness and style that flows along every move, right down to the flashy exit. She is his daughter, there is no mistake.
------Then Wolfe’s death scene. Wow. I am no expert nor industry professional, but the boarding in that is, to me, arguably one of the most amazingly done pieces I’ve seen. Especially how it cuts, for one sharp blink, to black when the bullet rips through the night, then opens back on a Shadowsan’s widening eyes before showing Wolfe’s shadow falling limp to the ground. Whoever is responsible for this, I hope, is super proud of their work because it is simply masterful.
- Also, the way you can hear, at different points, both Carmen’s and Shadowsan’s voices break? 😢😢😢
- The coffee shop scene!!! Carmen’s cool, downright frosty demeanor as she casually (almost menacingly) clicks the lock and turns the sign is perfect, (like, no wonder Chief doesn’t know what to make of her), as is her oh so subtle questioning to get a possible password. Like, I realized the second Chief did what she was getting at with asking about her cat, and it was so good!!!
-As were Ivy and Zach’s barista antics (lol, Chief and Carmen playing it cool while chaos and latte foam is erupting in the background! 🤣🤣🤣)
- Me, when Carmen says she’s not gonna trust any ACME obituary: Well, gee, I don’t think you have a choice. I mean, what else are you gonna do, go and dig up- ohhhhhhh my goshhhhhhhh 😱😱😱😱😱 (lol, I really got into this ep)
- And Carmen’s face when Shadowsan’s about to open the casket! You can just see that little flash of terror that maybe, just maybe, she’s wrong. And then when her hunch is confirmed! She just looks so...at peace, envisioning what her father had planned and realizing that she still has a mom out there somewhere (props for using 90′s Carmen’s outfit for her, btw)
- “Are you with me?” “To the end of the line.” Okay, we all have our lines from this show that we just go on about forever and try to work into as many fics as we can. For me, that’s Shadowsan’s ‘end of the line’ quote. EEEEEEEEEE!!!!! A simple, sparse line that bows under the sheer weight of what it promises: to stand with her, not forsake her, and be there no matter where her path leads, a line that means all the more considering how dark that path gets in S4 (I’m not ready to face that again!!!). Going into this show, I had no idea what they had in store for Carmen and Shadowsan’s relationship, and to see it unfold the way it did, see what it became, is just one of my favorite things about this show I just love it so much!!!
So yeah. This episode is one of my all-time favorites, for ‘Carmen Sandiego’ or probably any other show. I have gotten so much brain rot from it, so much fanfic mileage, and will CONTINUE TO DO SO! I love it, eleven out of ten stars. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
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What inspires your character story and design? Is there influence besides just liking how they look? Are you striving to tell a complete story or just tales (short story blurbs about their lives)? I struggle with wanting to add more when I haven't finished the stuff I have.
Also! Do you think you've advanced in your writing from say 5 years ago to now? Do you think you've improved?
I always wonder if I'm improving. I certainly wouldn't be writing what I do if not for positive (and not so positive) feedback from simblr and having a writing friend who shares my passion and vision for story writing.
Sorry if that's too many questions. Just curious to hear how others process. Thanks!
Oh, don't worry, you're not asking too much at all! :D
I'm gonna put it under the cut bc it's gonna be long, lol
So!
I don't think I was particularly inspired by anything other than the fact that John and Brian were from a previous, abandoned story. It was based on the game Organ Trail (think Oregon Trail but with zombies and other stuff, lol). They are very different from what they used to be; they weren't together for one thing (they were both straight!) and they were edgy. Brian especially, he was more of a doomsday prepper. John having long hair is a hold over from the story; he grew it out to cover his eye (severely damaged from a grenade blast), y'know that sort of thing. I dropped the story after a while because I lost interest in it. That and everyone involved died...
There's not really a big influence on how they look either. I kinda come up with what's good but also what's unique. I guess I'm not one of the ones who struggle making male sims. For a future story, I had to make some (like 7??) and I went to town on the random button until I found what I liked and shaped them from there.
As for stories? Over the years, I've went from being very long form to shorter stories. I guess tales is a better description. They do have some continuity like with John and The Werewolf, the dealings with Brian's aunt, John and Brian getting engaged. I know Bare Knuckle, a story where John fights a literal demon, sticks out like a sore thumb because of how bonkers it is, but I made the story because I thought it would be cool; it also pushed my pose making skills at the time. (It's clear that I made that for myself really... ^^;)
I'd get an idea and go "can I put either of these two in this situation? and how would they go about getting out of it? or make it worse? better?" etc. Would this be "canonical" or would it be an AU? It's fun for me to think like that. A lot of the time, I make it bc I wanna see it for myself, what kind of a take I have on certain tropes and plots and maybe someone else would too?
I feel like I've improved in the past 5 years. It's pretty evident in my earlier stories it was strictly dialogue and nothing else and thus, empty. It used to be so stiff, it's kind of embarrassing, but there's a reason why I left it as is and never went back to redo them. (That's key, I think). That and I can the progress of how I use to take screens versus now, how everything's laid out, the expressions, etc.
I've had my ups and downs writing -- I feel I'm kind of a tough sell with most of my stories for simblr. They're not serial (I do not have the attention span or energy to do this), not a really big cast... I could go on, but it'll come off as complaints and maybe whinging on my part more than anything else.
That and the content itself; John and The Werewolf in particular because those stories deals with things I don't really see too often. and y'know, the blood, torture, violence. it's just so messy. In fact, I don't really get too much of any feedback of any kind so I'm kind of out here doing my thing. I don't know who's actually reading what I put out or if it's even thought of at all. I just hope that they're a little entertained by it. (tho it wouldn't hurt for a recommend)
but I'm also extremely stubborn! I'll complain, but I'm gonna keep doing it. I have ideas and they're gonna exist and I love to see how things play out. Sometimes the boys surprise me and I surprise myself. :)
#ennie answers#sparkiekong#good lord that's a lot of words @_@#thank you for the ask! :D#a text post#non sims
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pressed send too fast. doc, sanford and dei headcanons? not a lot, just like four or five or really anything!
Hello part two! Just as before, most, if not all of my headcanons are a joint effort between @temporalcrow and I. They do their best to make sure I make sense cause I can assure you, my ideas often don't make sense lol
anywho!
Doc
1. For starters, the man's a mad scientist. Maybe not officially, but do you see the things he does? You know this guy has a freezer full of bodies somewhere in his lab. You learn through experimentation, you have to study and observe. A stockpile of bodies helps. How do you think he knows how to stitch Hank back together?
2. I've mentioned before that in our rps, Doc is the medic, though not a licensed Doctor. Everyone in the SQ knows first aid and can handle their own on missions, Doc is just the one who can do the big stuff like surgery. He may not have a license, but he has experience and that's all you can ask for in Nevada.
3. Professional is a good word to describe Doc. Things must be clean and orderly, you must keep up appearances. Neatly iron pants and a nice dress shirt are a must. Of course there are exceptions based on what you're doing. But you gotta look good, you have a reputation to uphold.
4. Medicine is not the only thing Doc is good at. You want a gourmet meal in Nevada? Well if you can convince him to cook for you, you will get gourmet. This dude has the culinary skills of the SQ. 10/10 you will not be disappointed.
- - - - -
Sanford - aka the one I have zero thought put into
1. Sanford runs hot, body temperature wise. This is why he tends to run around shirtless. I've learned personally that being overheated all the time is hell, thank you heart condition that I randomly got a couple years back that makes me now too run hot. This is not the kind of relatable headcanon I was looking for, but okay. Do note though, this was not decided because it's relatable, it's coincidence that Temporalcrow had this idea. I'm not going to project something so obvious onto a character.
2. Sanford is a very good cook, not Doc levels, but he can make you a very comfortable and fulfilling meal. He is the one who usually cooks for the team, Hank is too impatient to cook and Deimos lacks any interest in it, as well as Doc is often too busy to use his skills in the kitchen. Maybe not a 5 star experience, but maybe a 4 star.
- - - - -
Deimos
1. Because he has died once, he is now following the path of Hank towards slow lobotomization. A single death barely has any impact on you, but the damage has started. Like Hank, my iteration of Deimos has his rock mutations hidden thanks to Doc. They are not truly gone, if he so desired, he could bring them back and regain access to his rock powers, but then he would have to go through the agonizing process of getting them hidden again. In my drawings of Deimos you can see the scarring that the rocks left behind. Though now that I think about it, I do not think my drawings of him are even posted to show that. I'll need to redraw him soon.
incoming rant/tangent
2. Deimos is smart, smarter than people seem to understand. It's why I have ranted in past about my distaste towards the fandom depictions of him. Everyone makes him a dirty, useless, and idiotic detriment to the SQ when evidence points otherwise.
For starters, Deimos is ex-aahw, this means he has a lot of strict rules that he has been conditioned to follow. Of course once he dissented he would likely try to toss those out the window for a taste of freedom, but you don't toss aside years of conditioning at the drop of the hat. Those habits stick to you like glue, not following them cause you severe distress. This is basic psychology, Deimos would be clean and organized, he would do things on a schedule, especially early on in his dissenting. It would takes weeks or months or even years to break all of those habits, and some he wouldn't even try to break because they benefit him. He would not be some greasy dirt bag unless he was physically incapable of cleaning himself, and his team sure as hell wouldn't let him be a greasy dirt bag either.
He's also very smart!!! The man can fly a helicopter, something that is extremely difficult! You don't just jump in the cockpit and brute force your way into flying one of those. You can do that with a plane, not a helicopter. Yes he is reckless, he is shown to goof off and not take situations seriously, but that doesn't make him stupid, and he clearly shows that he can be serious when the situation requires it. You can't even say he died because of his recklessness because he didn't. His death wasn't his fault in any regard. Had he and Sanford not been separated he likely would have survived, but that was not something that could have been foreseen and thus prevented.
In regards to his intelligence, he is also a hacker, something that isn't nearly as simple as banging your fists on a keyboard and saying "i'm in", he understands a wide assortment of weaponry, it's clear he has knowledge of mechanics to some level. I headcanon that he is quite the engineer because of this. The man's a genius in many ways! I get so irked when the fandom makes him out to be this useless child...
I may not write or rp Deimos anymore, but god am I still passionate about this man.
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What are isfj and 9w1?
Would you tell me about those?
Ello Antman! Welcome to my inbox lol
Be very careful asking me about typology lol I barely know what I'm talking about and it's so complicated and I will ramble about it and not make sense for hours.
I'm also going on memory from the last time I hyperfixated on this stuff so anyone feel free to correct stuff I completely forgot
So the enneagram can be explained a lot more easily and you have the option of just not getting as deep into it whereas mbti the only "simple" version of it is taking a test and I test would absolutely never give me ISFJ because I dont fit the stereotypes.
So we'll start with enneagram. It's a personality typing system with 9 numbered types. I'm an enneagram 9, commonly known as the peacemaker or as I refer to us the chameleons. I'll send you the sleeping at last enneagram songs later, they're really good and help you get a grasp on the types. 9 is a gut type (along with 8 and 1) and the struggle emotion of gut types is anger. The way the 9 reacts to anger is by hiding and suppressing it. You can get a lot more in depth with that, with growth and how it works unhealthily, tritypes, etc, but the only more complicated thing I'll explain is my wing since it's also in my bio. Wings are the two types on either side of your main type, so in the instance of 9, they're 8 and 1. A lot of the time you'll display your main type with your dominant wing that is more prominent, which in my case is 1, often refered to as the perfectionist or the reformer.
Mbti I will explain as simple as I can for you lol. I'll tell you more in our messages if you want. So every mbti type has 4 functions (there are 8 total). ISFJ is Si-Fe-Ti-Ne (the order is important).
My dominant function, Si is introverted sensing, which is incredibly difficult for me to explain lol. But basically the sensing functions are based on concrete information, which is taken in by your senses, and it's introverted so you're using it subjectively and comparing it with the information you already know. Which probably makes no sense. But it's a stereotypically close minded super organized responsible function. Which immediately makes sense why I would never get it as my dom function on a test lol. But that's because I have ADHD override. Si wants to be organized and it loves the familiar and routines and concrete things that we already know and sticking to them. All of which I love despite sucking at them lol.
My auxiliary function, Fe, is extraverted feeling. The feeling functions are all about your morals and values and it's extraverted so it comes from the environment and people around you, meaning Fe gets it's morals and values from the people and environment around it. Si-Fe is a really interesting dom-aux pair in my opinion because where Si is generally seen as closed minded, Fe basically counteracts it depending on who you're around. It's often associated with being very empathetic but once again it depends on people and environment more than anything else. Fe can be selfish because that's what the people around them are and Fe often adapts to that. It also means that you don't really have a lot of intrinsic values that come from *you* (which would be Fi).
My tertiary function, Ti, is introverted thinking. The thinking functions are all about logic and that sort of stuff and its introverted so it likes the familiar and subjective things you already think you know. Your tertiary function is often more underdeveloped but you have a lot of fun using it. So often hobbies and things will gravitate toward it. Ti often loves logic puzzles and sudoku and overanalyzing things and you know. Psychoanalyzing people and typology lol. I suck at these things but have fun with them anyways. And you'll see me build the same exact prison on prison architect or play lots of games from the beginning but almost the exact same way everytime because of my Si-Ti combo just wanting the familiar.
My inferior function (aka the Annoying one that sucks but I require it for so many things), Ne, is extraverted intuition. This is the exact opposite of Si, its actually the stereotypical ADHD function, it's all about abstract ideas from the outside world since its extraverted. Ne is where lots of new abstract ideas come from, it's incredibly important for writing, and mine hates me lol (it has gotten better though! It still normally takes me using it intentionally for it to cooperate). You and @chainsaw-raven seem to actually have decent Ne-in fact I think last time Etty and I talked about this we came to the conclusion that she's probably a Ne-dom, which makes yall excellent writing buddies, btw. Ne is also very impulsive and seeks lots of new experiences.
So yeah that's the overview of the ISFJ type and how it presents for me. There's so much more that I barely understand, gripping (how the functions react to stress), shadow stacks, looping (how the stacks react to trauma), etc. But that's a topic for later.
Hope you enjoyed my typology rant that made 0 sense lol.
#typology#mbti#enneagram#isfj#9w1#answering asks#help im so bad at this lol i have no clue what im talking about
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Hiatus.
Info, tags, fandoms, BYF, etc. under the cut 💖🥮
FAQ is at the bottom, for any controversial questions about my choices on Hetalia and nation/culture personifications, please read that first before sending me an ask.
🍒 fandoms: hetalia, misc cdrama, babel _(´ཀ`」 ∠) _
🍒 other: history, politics, culture, rambles, etc.
🍒 English, Chinese, (some) Japanese, OK. I am slowly learning Russian, Arabic, and Manchu ✌️
🌸 tags 🌸
Art - #tiart
Politics, history, social issues, racism and orientalism, etc - #thoughts and stuff
Manchu cultural content - #manchu tag
Hui cultural content - #hui tag
Book/reading/research tag - #library tag
Fandom thonking - #tia rambles
Random thoughts - #diary
Angry complaining - #hater tag
Fandoms are tagged as such, characters are tagged (usually), discourse and current events are tagged, there are a few other tags for organization
Content warnings are '*content that is being warned*' and I tag gore, violence, abuse, etc. lmk if there's anything else you want tagged
🍓 hetalia 🍓
I talk about East Asia and its many tendrils
i love easia and unfortunately this includes japan. Basically any intraregional ship in the east+inner asian region I enjoy. No white x asian shipping sorry
China regional/cultural OCs @sinocore
asia 💖💖💖
multishipper, I'm mainly sticking around for my history interest so I’ll ship anything funny in history
菊耀/桜燕/桜耀/菊燕 fixed dynamics. idc about the rest
Not that into yts.... sowwy guys
🍑 BYF + info 🍑
if you want anything tagged just shoot me an ask and I'll get on it
technically an art blog (lol)
My interests focus on the Japanese colonial era in East and Northeast Asia and subsequent decolonization/the ongoing modern effects of that. I don’t support Japanese imperialism.
annoyingly loud about (easian targeted) orientalism
the usual DNIs
🗿 FAQ 🗿
"Why make cultural minority and city OCs?"
The idea of the 'nation' is a fluid one, and our modern strictly bordered Westphalian Nation State is a western construct. Throughout history and cultures, movements of in vs outgroups that define 'national' identity and the ways government and scope of government interact with cultural borders are complex. I approach Hetalia's concept as one that can include groups with a shared cultural consciousness or define themselves as an in-group on a large enough level.
"What is 'Manchuria'? Why do you use 'Manchuria' for your character instead of Dongbei?"
My Manchuria OC doesn't represent the specifically bounded landmass but rather the Manchu people, who are one of but not the only indigenous group in Dongbei. I am well aware of the connotations and roots of the word 'Manchuria', however, given a) the naming conventions of Hetalia (ie Germany instead of German, China instead of Chinese) as well as b) the way 'Manchuria' is commonly accepted in English scholarship when speaking of the concept of a Manchu indigenous land, I choose to use it in place of 'Manchu'. I also have OCs representing the three provinces of Dongbei, and when speaking of the region I use Dongbei or 'Manchuria' in quotations if speaking of history before the Qing, or grouping it in with Inner Asia in some way.
I am not promoting the legitimacy of 'Manchuria' or the legacy of Japanese Imperialism that still affects my family to this day. If you are pro all of that please get off of my blog
I'm a HOI4 playing ww2 bro (half joke)
"What are your thoughts on racebending in Hetalia?"
Same as Irithnova and Peonycat's 👍 I was there when Peonycat's essay was written and we discussed it then. Idc about individualism and individual reclaimation tbqh my priority is broader structures and implications, I can't police you on what you can or can't do, but neither can you police other POC on discomfort.
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Trying to navigate the spn fandom with the Jared and Jensen hate has not been easy. I have decided just to enjoy the projects they do I'm interested in and ignore the rest. How have you managed to keep so level headed with the constant craziness and infighting amongst the various fan groups? I always appreciate your thorough replies to asks.
Thanks, anon! Although I'm not always as level-headed as I'd like to be, there are a couple of things that I try to do and remember to keep from getting too wound up about anything that goes on in the various factions.
First, I try to remember that it's just fandom and sometimes fandom is pretty fucking blinkered or just straight up dumb. Especially when we're talking about the opinion of some random blog in their own space, what does it really matter? Opinions, assholes, etc. And that's when it's even a take you can actually consider seriously. Some of the shit like complaining about the way Jensen poses for pictures or Jared sits on chairs is just so inconsequential, absurdly petty, and childish? I really do just find it more funny than anything. Like, you're so determined at that point to fixate on hating an actor you've resorted to analyzing that for something to be buttmad about? LOL, okay.
It's a lot harder to not steam over the crap that gets sent directly to the actors - like the creepy fetishistic RPF posted on the SM of Jensen and his business/projects, the suicide bait/death threats to Jared, and the attempts to slander both Js with faux social justice bullshit. Which, first, mostly come from hellers who we have years of knowing are Like That (a lot of what made the aftermath of prequelgate so hard was the seemingly sudden schism of it). For that stuff, I generally figure J2 are probably not personally regularly wading through the sewer that is their SM, so hopefully a lot of it goes unseen. I also figure that they're mature enough and have good enough support to see that fandom has some unhinged people in it who are acting out for attention and it's not really about them. Furthermore, outsiders with a working brain are going to see it for exactly what it is - butthurt, entitled fans that need to get a fucking grip. That doesn't make it not creepy, not hurtful, or remotely fucking okay, but knowing most of it probably isn't hitting its mark and won't generally move beyond the fandom does help a bit. Especially in the context of knowing that you can't actually stop it because twitter really is for trolls and assholes. They can always make more accounts.
Second, when I really can't get something out of my head, because I keep seeing it over and over again, or one thing or another just sticks in my craw for some reason? I post about it. Sitting down and organizing my thoughts "on paper" seems like it helps me feel like I've dealt with it, in a way? I can't stop bad takes, but I can make it clear that there are obvious other takes which exist and make my best case for why my take is better - or at least a reasonable alternative. That's actually what lead me to make a blog way way back in the beginning, just constant annoyance at really bad takes analyzing the show. I knew then I wasn't going to change the minds of detestiel truthers and I know now I'm not going to change the minds of hardcore J haters, but there are a lot more people in fandom than just the extremists and it can help to see that you're not alone in disagreeing with opinions that can seem overly ubiquitous.
Third, when I still can't get away from something, or even one of the petty things hits particularly hard on an already bad day? I walk away for a bit. Stay only on blogs I know don't play into the drama. Do something else that takes enough of my focus to keep me off tumblr for at least a few hours/days - read or work on fanfic, play the sims, rewatch a canon. Come back after I've had a chance to cool off and remember that it really is just fandumb.
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For the ask game… our boy toad?
Yes! Let's give him another go lol
Favorite thing
Another one for the personality aspect tbh. He's very shy most of the time, but he can be assertive when he wants to be, so lots to play with when writing him which I like. However, I will say that his appearance is what drew me in at the very start, so maybe that.
I have no excuse here, I just like stereotypical looking British guys with the long face and huge, sad eyes combo 😪
Least favorite thing
The way that he's treated in comics and most media hnnnng. He's always someone else's clown or plot device, never his own person. Like.... NEVER. I get it, someone needs to be the henchman I guess- but this is just relentless sksksksk I'd like to see him with a moment of triumph or even redemption sometime.
At his core, he's really not a bad guy, he's just so severely rejected by literally everyone else, he feels like he has no choice but to play the villain half the time
Favorite Line
This is always hard for me bc 1) I never really pay close attention to lines and 2) I haven't actually consumed much content with Toad in it bc I don't usually like how he's represented ksskssk I did like his line in the Wolverine school comic or whatever where when he's asked what he had to say in his defense for all the shit with the hellfire club attack he says "All I did, I did for love"
It sticks out to me bc it shows he has at least something of a poetic or intellectual side, aside from the fact that he's actually very caring, perhaps even empathetic towards a romantic partner. It's also extremely fucking sad bc it goes to show how he's so easily manipulated all the time, considering he'll do quite literally ANYTHING to get his targeted person(s) to like him even just a little, but yeah
brOTP
Nightcrawler, for reasons you can read on my previous ask in this game lol, but also Spiderman. I just feel like he and peter have that "smart kid outcast" vibe together
OTP
I think I'm going to have to unironically say me again for this one skskkss Literally no one in the comics can be bothered to give even a FRACTION of a legitimate fuck about him, so 😔😪
nOTP
Again, also an unironic pretty much everyone but me. See above
Random HC
This is a headcannon that I can also back up with science to make a case for why it should be canon, but: Toad's toxin is so insanely powerful that, if the proper conditions were made available, he could kill guys with the regen power of even Wolverine with it, making him actually one of the deadliest, most dangerous mutants to live. However, he either doesn't even know this about himself, or refuses to take advantage of it. Like I said, he's not ACTUALLY villain
Unpopular opinion
I'm pretty sure last time I said that I find the x-men evolution version of toad actually kind of annoying, so idk if that counts if I say it again, but yeah.
Oh, someone was upset once when I said that his NEURO-toxin is potent enough to kill wolverine, sabretooth, or deadpool for good, even tho I, again, have air tight science to back me up on it- so there's that one ig lol. Their argument was a whole bunch of stuff, but at the very start they said that "unless his poison was somehow attacking the brain first, there's no way he could kill any of these characters bc Blah blah blah"
But guess what organ a NUERO toxin attacks first tho. Go on, guess.
Song I associate
You're going to have to pry my association between Toad and Liam Gallagher from my cold, dead hands lmao. I'll never not associate an Oasis song with him primarily- Lately I'm feeling either Rockin' Chair or Fade Away both off of The Masterplan album
The former has a line like "I'm older then I wish to be, this town holds no more for me" and the latter "While we are living, the dreams we have as children fade away". Basically just giving up on happiness and being disillusioned with life, both very accurate to his sentiments as a character
Favorite Picture
Idk my dude lmao. I like how he looks in contest of champions, the days of future past movie, and how he looks in that comic arc I was talking about with his quote, but only the ones where he actually looks like a person and not a little gremlin ksksks
Most of my own art of him I like as well, but that might just be me lol
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hello!! i hope you are doing well. maybe youve talked about this before but do you have writing advices to stay inspired? and how is the process for you to organize your ideas and get to work? im very curious about that, hope its not too personal!
Hello, I'm okay thank you!
I actually don't think I have talked about how I stayed inspired, mostly because it's something of a fluke half the time lol.
But I do have some tricks that might help others so:
Make a writing playlist. No seriously, find songs that inspire you to write and put them on a playlist. I personally have one for NaruSaku and one for NSFW writing on Spotify and that can normally be relied on to get in the mood to write.
Reading stories and watching TV shows about what you're trying to write can work too. That's a bit of a double edged sword though, you don't want to copy things whole hog, but it can help to get the ball rolling.
I actually started writing at 15/16 cos I was reading fic for NaruSaku and in my teenaged hormonal arrogance was like 'god, I can do better than this!' and that's how I started lol.
And much to my shame, reading bad fic and needing to put something 'better' out there does still work for me. I don't do that quite so much anymore thankfully lol, now it's more reading good fic and going 'oh my god, that's fucking great and it gives me ideas!'
If you're in the process of writing and you lost the thread or you've suddenly gotten a little self-conscious? Find someone you trust, someone who won't mind spoilers, possibly someone who doesn't even read your work but is a friend ... and ask them to read what you've got so far, or just the latest snippett.
The reassurance of someone you trust telling you what you've got is good? Especially if they're willing to riff on the idea with you, is golden. I've recaptured flagging inspiration by doing that a lot.
I sometimes go back and reread previous chapters of my work too. Reminds me where I want to go, what I've said in previous chapters and so what I have to stick to, gives me direction.
Did that just last night actually.
Now if you've just lost inspiration? Or the drive to write at all? Stop.
If you are forcing out every word or couple of words? Stop writing right now.
You're burnt out, you need to go do something else. Sleep, eat, shower, go for a walk, play a video game, watch a TV show or movie just for fun. Talk to your friends, play with your dog/cat/rabbit whatever.
Inspiration will not come if your brain is so wired you can't think straight. The best writer in the world will tell you that nothing is better for inspiration than healthy life habits, even the ones who spent half their time coked up.
Now as for my process lol.
God, this is gonna show me for the fraud I really am lol.
Firstly I need it to be understood that this is not a good thing lol, what I'm about to tell you is not good, it's just what my brain does.
Okay? Okay.
My brain doesn't shut the fuck up. Whether that be with all the things I need to do in a day housework wise, all the stuff I have to do at work or all the ideas I have for stories.
Cos in my case? You will only ever see a handful of the ideas that my brain throws at me cos I can't keep up.
So half of the battle for me is actually picking an idea to even start writing lol. I get stunlocked so often it's actually why I've had to instigate a 'no more than three chaptered fics at a time' policy.
And honestly, I would prefer it be one at a time but my brain rebels if I'm not at least spinning three plates at a time. And then it will throw curveballs at me in the shape of oneshots.
But once I've picked the writing for the day, eventually, I just start writing, no plan but the idea that inspired me and I just go. And it's normally just whatever idea appealed to me most lol.
Chapter One of every single fic, or the opening lines of the oneshots, are always 'seat of my pants figure it out' exercises.
You can actually tell when I click into the main theme of the story pretty easily in most of my work, at least I can see it, and sometimes that's before the end of the first chapter, sometimes we're way, way in and the story is kind of all over the place until then.
But okay, chapter/story is done, first draft is done. I wrote until I hit a natural stopping point and I have a completed first draft.
Then I edit.
I do a basic spell and grammar check first. Then I read through for typos and iffy tenses. That's Draft Two.
Then I read through again, finding more typos and iffy tenses and maybe make some edits to the flow of text. That's Draft Three.
Rinse and repeat until satisfied. Picking out dodgy lines, changing scenes where necessary and correcting any typos I've still missed or punctuation errors, you get it.
Then I post and wait lol.
And normally I'll take a few days to a week off and pick up whatever I'm writing next. Normally another story but in the case of the Wedding AU that sucker was just a constant stream of writing lol. It's a miracle I didn't freeze up lol.
Which is another reason why I have three chaptered fics going at a time. Let's me swap between as I go and avoid freezing up for longer.
But yeah, hope that was interesting lol.
Thanks for asking!
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Any tips for new writers?
Tips, huh? Well, I'm not the best person at giving advice, tbh, but since you asked I will share my way of writing. I call it "fuck it all" formula and what the fuck is that you ask. Well, it's something like, you imagine, you write it down, and post it.
Is this too messy? Does this even make sense? Will people read and like this shit? That type of question doesn't matter. The only question that matters is, are YOU satisfied with what you have written? If the answer is yes then post it.
Moving on to writing stuff. I normally write down whatever comes to mind first whether that part is for the beginning, the middle, or the end. Ignore the order, you can connect them all later. Write while the ideas are still hot or you will lose the motivation or you will forget some portion of it.
No need to be fancy if you can't. Being straightforward is fine. Being simple is fine. Figure out your own stage, stay where you're comfortable and slowly climb up when you're ready.
Here is one piece of advice that stuck with me all the time since the moment I read it. I even have it copy pasted on my google docs, lol.
Don’t be afraid of using repetitive words.
Sex is a repetitive act, get that through your head before you write it. One of the most irritating things I come across while reading smut is the author’s need to use endless synonyms for ‘cock.’ Stop. Please stop. Cock is fine. You can use ‘dick’ too if you really wanna add some variation.
But anymore than that, and it’s just downright distracting. Don’t use member, penis (just…not a sexy word, at all), organ (NOT SEXY), etc - use length, prick, and erection sparingly if at all, and boner is more of a funny word than a sexy word, so keep that in mind.
I’ve also seen ‘manhood’ used and I mean… I guess??? But why would you use that when you can accomplish the same thing in 4 much better letters? C O C K. Just do it.
Alternately, when referring to parts of a cock, just stick to the basics. Shaft, head/tip/crown, balls. that’s it. Maybe talk about veins if you’re gettin real detailed. You don’t need to wax poetic about it, or about the actions within the sex itself. You’ll find yourself reusing a lot of verbs and that’s Ok!
The usuals may include (but are not limited to) - thrust, buck, shove, press, slide, glide, ride, fuck, bounce, drive (into), arch, kiss, suck, bite, stroke, smack, slap, rock, embrace, squeeze, tremble, shudder, moan, groan, whine, whimper, hiss, shout, scream, gasp, curse, beg, sob, grunt, sigh.
Of course, one tip that is helpful for others doesn't mean it will be helpful to another. But that is okay. You can do more research and ask for more tips from different people. We all start somewhere and if you're already started, keep grinding and keep growing. Good luck!
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