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alls-fair-in-pride-and-prejudice · 1 month

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Interlude - Friendly Advice

Part 5 of Weaving Constellations, a Gale x Tav fic, continued from here. Part 6 here

(A/N: This one is a bit longer, and Gale isn't even in this chapter! I figured that almost all the companions would clock that something is weird about Lyra dating her patron, so they're all going to be curious. Please please please ask me about the significance of what they all bring up to her/take note of it yourself! It is important and I was super proud of it. Also this was quite the exercise in writing different character voices - each character has a distinct way of speaking after all. I hope I did them all justice!)

“Well at least I know why you turned me down. Even a perfect mortal body cannot compare to the sordid delights of the fey, I hear,” Astarion needles Lyra later in the evening, “I do hope you will regale me with the dirty details. I’ve always wondered what sex with an archfey is like.”

Lyra scrunches up her face as if to fight off the rising heat in her cheeks. “I honestly cannot tell if you’re being sincere or not.” She smirks in challenge, “If you’re just trying to get a rise out of me, I could tell you some stories that might even make you speechless.”

“Me? Insincere?” Astarion puts on an exaggerated affect of astonishment. “I have no idea where you would have gotten the idea.” There’s a moment where he seems to be calculating his next words in his head. “I am wondering though… is the whole contract thing part of the kink? The possessive ‘no one can touch you but me’ sort of dynamic they write about in those cheap smut novels? I’ve never seen the appeal, personally.”

“Our romantic relationship isn’t part of the contract at all. I’m not bound to him that way.”

There’s the slightest bit of relaxation in the curve of Astarion’s mouth, which quickly turns into a sly smirk. “So you’re saying you’re available? You’ve wounded me with your rejection all over again.”

“I don’t need a contract to stay loyal to my lover,” Lyra smiles in return, sliding back into their easy banter. “You’re not nearly as tempting as you think you are.”

Astarion laughs, “I will have you know I am a consummate lover. It’s a shame you had to miss out, darling.”

Lyra laughs and shakes her head. “Keep talking like that and I won’t share the wine I snagged from that abandoned apothecary.”

“Alright alright, you have silenced my silver tongue. Give it here, and I was serious. I want all the details.”

The next day, Lyra’s magic has returned. She can feel it, but Midnight is still silent, perhaps another layer to her punishment. She focuses her energies into getting out of camp and exploring - they have just taken out some phase spiders when Wyll mentions off-handed: “You know, Lyra, your magic really does look different from mine; it stands out in the low light here. I’ve been curious how fey pacts differ from fiends. Perhaps you’d share what details you are permitted?”

That evening Lyra summons her copy of the pact with Wyll. He seems rather surprised that she has one available, and scans through it with a careful eye. “I have not had many opportunities to look over my own contract, but even I can tell the legal language is quite different. Where fiends seek to close every available loophole in strenuous detail, archfey, or yours at least, are annoyingly vague. It could serve as a boon just as easily as a hidden dagger.”

Lyra laughs. “Oh, he talks like that, too. I can never be entirely sure what he’s saying half the time. There is a comfort that he never lies, but I’ve never been able to keep up with him.”

“Is that not difficult? Perhaps I’m an old-fashioned romantic, but there has always been something about truly understanding your partner that has appealed to me. The love that blossoms from that depth of seeing each other at your best and worst.”

Lyra’s smile is strained just slightly. “There’s beauty in mystery, too. And… I cannot truly fault him when I have never been skilled at reading people. We’re very different, and that’s the beauty of it.”

Wyll purses his lips and tilts his head, as if giving Lyra that point. “Regardless, should you ever need to leave this pact, I do believe I could help.”

She shakes her head. “I appreciate it Wyll, but it’s not like that.”

He holds his hands up. “I know, I know, but I would be remiss if I did not offer my aid, just in case.”

“Hey, Twinkles, what are the Fey Wilds like?” Karlach asks as they trudge through the mud of the swamp, avoiding redcaps who seem to think they are sheep. “Much as I appreciate the change in scenery from Avernus… they’ve got to be better than this.”

“I’m sure it is. I’ve certainly read of the wonders of the fey wilds… but I’ve never actually been.” Lyra responds, hopping over a rotten log.

“What? You’re dating an archfey and you’ve never been to the fey wilds? What’s up with that?”

“Well, Midnight came to me on my plane. I’ve certainly wanted to, but it’s… never been the right time.”

“I mean, the Fey Wilds aren’t really friendly to mortals. I’d understand if you’d rather avoid it. Think your fey lover will move to the Sword Coast for you?”

Lyra scoffs. “Certainly not. He’d hate it here. Long term is… difficult to think about, what with him being immortal, but time flows differently for the fey. Hopefully he’ll bring me over before I lose my youthful good looks.”

Karlach pulls Lyra in for a sideways hug. “Come on, after this is all over, I’ll take you to see your boyfriend. I get to see the wonders of the universe, you get to have a little visit, and then I bring you back safe and sound to Sword Coast soil! Win-win!”

“We would have to find a portal first.”

“Just no deals with a hag. We’ve had enough of that lot.”

Lyra is reading at camp when a blade is tossed at her feet. “I wish to spar, ready your stance,” Lae’zel commands, standing above her.

“I’m not really the weapons type…” Lyra hedges, leaving the blade on the ground for now. Sure, she’ll use a crossbow or her staff in a pinch, but she much prefers her magic.

“That is precisely why you must train. Pick it up.”

Her tone brokers no argument, so Lyra marks her page and picks up the sword. “I’ll make a terrible sparring partner. Wouldn’t you rather go to Karlach?”

“To instruct is to sharpen one’s own knowledge. Widen your stance.”

Lyra does as asked, and Lae’zel kicks her legs to adjust her position further. “And… why me?”

“Wyll has honed his skills with a blade, despite the pact he holds, because he knows he must be able to rely on his own strength. Chk, you have left your left flank completely exposed, ready your blade at the defensive.”

“So this is because I’m a warlock,” Lyra guesses. Or perhaps because she went without her powers for a day. She hates that Lae’zel is right. She was useless until her punishment was up. “Just because I’m not athletic, it doesn’t mean I’m weak.”

Lae’zel tests Lyra’s blocking. “On the contrary, your will is strong, and your wit sharp. It is clear you possess innate power within. It is no wonder your patron seeks to keep it on a leash.” Another strike, Lyra stumbles back from the weight behind it. “You lack the musculature to beat an opponent in a strength match. Adapt and move with their attacks instead to weaken the blow.” Another one, and Lyra attempts to put the advice into practice. The blow doesn’t send the same shockwaves through her arms.

“Your body is not nearly as disciplined as your mind. Again.” Lyra stands her ground, frustrated by the exercise she very much did not ask for, then takes an opportunity to swing on the offensive. Lae’zel sends her blade flying out of her hands and into the dirt. “Perhaps I spoke too soon, and your mind lacks discipline as well.”

“What the fuck, Lae’zel? You come over here to swing a sword at me and insult me the whole time?”

“Chk. Those were not insults, ishtik. They were warnings. Your emotions cloud your judgment, your loyalty to a patron that would leave you powerless. You are not. Behave as such.”

Lae’zel decides that has been enough training apparently, and goes to sharpen her blades. Lyra sits back down, stunned and unsure if she should be angry or flattered.

“Seems like your love affair is the talk of the camp," Shadowheart remarks not long after Lae'zel’s sparring. “Even Lae'zel has taken an interest in your love life."

Now that Shadowheart mentions it, it does seem that the others have taken more interest in her pact since her confession. “I've no idea why, when Gale made love to the goddess of magic. One would think that would be more interesting to gossip about.”

“Yes but he's not anymore. Usually patrons couldn't care less for their warlocks, except for how a warlock serves them. Now we may have to contend with a very angry Archfey should you come to harm.”

“I'm sure he would understand," the false words sound hollow even to Lyra. But more importantly, she wonders if he would mourn her. Surely he would, but after what he said about mortals…

"Call me curious, but I don't really see what you get out of the arrangement.”

Lyra furrows her brow and tilts her head. "What do you mean?”

"Well obviously he gets a pretty human to bring him shiny magical trinkets, that much is clear. But…if you're so in love, if you don't need a pact to be together, why have the pact at all?”

Lyra fiddles with the hem of her blouse. “Well, he grants me magic power, but I suppose that does not count in your eyes?”

Shadowheart waves that off. "You were already studying magic, you would have had that anyway.”

"It’s… complicated.”

Shadowheart purses her lips, giving Lyra a once-over. “Yes, I suppose it is…” She turns away from Lyra to look up at the sky, a companionable silence stretching between them for a moment. “Far be it from me to pry into someone’s past, but did you even want to get into a pact with him? When you stole the artifact?”

Lyra debates for a moment if she should tell the truth. Evading the question would be answer enough, and she does not want to lie to a friend. “...no. I did not realize how fey pacts worked. Once I got that artifact for him, that was a trade, and such a thing is binding with the fey. I had to enter into one or risk losing him forever. I couldn’t let that happen. I loved him.”

“Past tense?”

“Hm?”

“You said you loved him.”

“I do. I love him. Present tense.”

Shadowheart arches a brow, as if skeptical of Lyra’s answer. “Alright. Slip of the tongue then.”

Lyra sighs and looks up to the stars with her. They have always been a comfort.

“I’ve always loved the night, as long as I can remember… which admittedly isn’t much.”

“Me too. The lights in Baldur’s Gate wash out the dark. You can really see the stars out here.”

“I cannot tell what came first, my love for Lady Shar, or my love of the night. I like to think it’s the latter, that I was always destined for her.”

“It’s how I feel about Midnight. He looks as if he was taken from a tapestry of stars themselves. My love of the stars, of the cosmos, of magic… it was always leading me to him. We were meant for each other.”

“Or perhaps we’re both a little too caught up on destiny.”

“...maybe.”

#alls fair creations #weaving constellations #oc lyra #gale x tav #bg3 tav #bg3 oc #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 fanfiction #bg3 companions

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gentil-minou · 1 year

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Hi, I'm sending an ask here since i wanna stay anonymous and safe. I saw you being harassed on Twitter today, and that makes me feel very sad. I've always appreciated your analysis posts for Adrien and Marinette and know you wouldn't support depicting them as sexualized minors (which is different from aged up), you love them so much like I do, but some just take it too far to protect their so-called "justice". I hope you take a break when needed and truly wish this wouldn't affect you too much.

With love, from a fan.

I appreciate it, really. And don't worry, I am fine! It's been a few days of just rampant harassment and accusing people of doing things they never did, but in general it's just been ridiculous out there and a reminder why I stay away from mlbtwt.

The fact is that all of the accounts they dragged that I've seen so far have 1. Stated they explicitly draw aged up characters and/or 2. have done it on special nsfw accounts that are meant to be kept away from minors and 3. The people doing the dragging and bringing all this attention are 18+. This tells me that the minors themselves are being smart here and not looking at things they want to stay away from, that is until these people started showing attention to it and turning what might have been a safe space into a hellscape.

The fact is that child pornography is a VERY VERY VERY SERIOUS THING but it is not the same as people drawing/writing fictional characters. Especially when tv shows are becoming more and more explicit about this kind of thing themselves. They've taken what is actually a major concern and essentially created smoke where there was no fire, drawing attention away from a deadly blaze in the distance.

Not to mention, they are accusing real people of something so vile and heinous with complete disregard to what those people may or may have not experienced in their own lives.

I'm a huuuge advocate for using fanfiction/fanart to express yourself and more importantly to explore something in a safe way without causing danger to yourself or others. I'm not afraid to admit that I read and looked at smutty fic and fanart when I was a kid, and that it genuinely helped me learn about myself and my sexuality when I grew up in a setting that made me feel bad about it. And yes, some of what I looked at then was of minors. It is not the same thing as looking at actual child porn and I just don't even know how to explain it anymore. It's like how watching freaking true crime or video games where you shoot someone isn't going to make you do that sort of thing, and I cannot believe we have to argue this ahhh.

What makes me the most angry here is that this is actually doing the worst for teens and minors learning about and exploring their sexuality. It's already really hard to find safe ways to learn (look at how popular euphoria or sex education is with teens) or discover something about themselves. By actively making this bs argument that all nsfw art is bad they're making those teens feel actively worse!

And I work with teens like this!!!! Teens who feel shamed for their body's reaction and what is typical curiousity!!!!! Teens who without a safe a way to learn about themselves will often find themselves in the darker places where they are actually in danger and I just I cannot emphasize how much damage these twitter people are doing to the very real people they are claiming to want to protect.

I'll be explicit here and say I'm not saying minors should look at nsfw things! I'm saying that we shouldn't shame people who do, especially when they accuse people of something they aren't even doing!!!!!!!! No one is drawing child porn like ahhhh!!!!!!!!! Like I cannot even begin to explain how awful that is, to be accused of something you arent even doing just ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways I appreciate your kind words and I am taking care of myself don't worry I've been distancing myself from this fandom for a reason and it's been going well.

I just wish these folks would remember that the lives of real people are worth more than any fictional character. Too many people forget that in this fandom.

#its just annoying at this point tbh #and crazy hypocritical the things being said #but its helping me find more people to block so thats a good thing #if anyone is confused about whats going on just know that it really isnt worth your time and the amountof misinformation is ridiculous #its stupid dogpile cancel culture bs and part of the reason this fandom is one of the worst #ml fandom salt #asked and answered

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drshebloggo · 2 years

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Since you offered your services for an ask - I would love to hear you talk about the dialogue that Greta and Carson had in the pizza parlor about wanting (and not wanting) kids. That was the scene that most neatly juxtaposed the differences between the life possibilities that I currently have as a queer person versus what would have been possible for Greta and Carson. And kids are a theme that comes up multiple times in the show, but a theme that is difficult to explore in a gifset. I know you can do it justice! Delighted to see that you’re as intrigued by this show (and Greta Gill) as I am.

Hello hello! Thank you so much for the ask, and even more for qualifying my answer as a service, bless. I fear I may have answered all AROUND your question and didn't quite address it as you had hoped... Truly, there are 17 paragraphs beyond this cut, of which fewer than half are about the thematic concept of kids, so please feel free to follow up and swat me into a better direction on the topic.

Broadly speaking, this show does such a good job communicating that ACHE of wanting something that is not possible. That's the whole point! If you have a show centered on queer women and Black women playing baseball in the 40s, then that is absolutely the context for the show: these women want things they could not easily have. The show reminds us that their triumphs and joys are meaningful because there is pain in having been denied them over and over.

The character that gets this treatment the most is Max, rightfully, and for obvious reasons. The next one is Greta, who embodies a paradox of freely embracing her identity while also completely heeding the boundaries confining her. The treatment also extends to Carson, by dint of their romance being front-and-center in the show. Carson joyously barrels down every Queer First of finding herself, and then naively slams headlong into the barriers Greta's been warning of the entirety of their relationship. There are limitations to what is possible between them.

And you're right, perhaps nowhere is this more clearly delineated than in the pizza scene - which exists in a similar paradox of freedom and confinement. They're on a date, in public, but they cannot behave as such. This is their first official date, and they’re talking about their future, and this conversation organically reveals what is possible and what isn't. The general friction in Greta and Carson's relationship is that Carson is consistently pushing towards hope and Greta is consistently withdrawing into fear and self-protection.

Carson looks hopefully toward next year; Greta deflects by joking about making it big in Hollywood, then gets all-too-serious by asking if Charlie and Carson are going to have kids. This is the paradox again, and part of why casting a comedy actor as Greta is a very smart move: Greta clowns around as a defense mechanism and flirtation device to skirt confrontation with reality. But when pressed with reality she will retreat into a very pragmatic hopelessness. Which not all comedy actors can do, but D’Arcy Carden, portrayer of a million Janets, is fantastic. Particularly in this scene. The wistful beat with the nose crinkle before she changes the subject to something less painful? I’m wailing on my couch.

But yes, with hope looming like an impossibility, Greta's the one to bring up a dose of reality over fantasy. She asks about kids because she expects that Carson, a Housewife, will fulfill this expectation, and Greta's always looking ahead for the Disappointment, to plan for the moment when she needs to cut her losses and move on. But Carson looks to her future and doesn’t see it in the life she was living before the AAGPBL.

So there’s also this underlying friction between Carson having lived a traditional white woman's life (by 1940s standards - married, settled, housewife) somewhat haplessly, and Greta purposefully performing cherry-picked aspects of white femininity to appear traditional while not actually living that way. Or WANTING to live that way, it’s important to note. She blatantly identifies that the obstacle to having kids, which she would want, is that she never wants to keep a man, part of the bargain for women in the 40s. It’s not a sacrifice she’s willing to make.

For Greta, all of these possibilities she presumes are reality for Carson exist ONLY in a completely different world for herself, and that world isn't opening up for her anytime soon. And it is PAINFUL to know, as a viewer 80 years in the future, that Greta and Carson wouldn't live long enough to have kids the way queer people can now. They are simply living in a world that isn't changing fast enough to accommodate them.

I think the ways that kids show up as a theme in the show is tethered to two things: 1) the complex mother-daughter relationships the show puts forth (Carson and her mom, Max and her mom, Clance and her mom, Greta and her mom, Lupe and her daughter) and 2) the idea that children are inextricably connected to womanhood in that time period. (Hell, even today.)

That same friction between tradition and progression comes alive in both of these avenues with kids, too. The mothers want their children to be people that their children don't want to be. In Carson's case, she doesn't want to become her mother because her mother abandoned her role as caretaker of the family. In one way or another, Greta’s mom, Clance’s mom, and Jo’s grandmother are not portrayed to have been good caretakers either. Lupe, when she became a mother, was presumed to be unfit, and took the denial of responsibility as a bid for freedom.

And then there’s Toni. Toni is the Main Mom on the show, an embodiment of Traditional Mom Caretaker, and the writers even gave HER a backstory where she would have been content without a husband, but God sent a good man her way. She is a business owner, a woman with a shrewd mind for how to survive within the boundaries that are placed around Black women.

But entangled in these explorations of mothers and children is this societal idea that intrinsic in motherhood is the necessity of sacrifice. Greta isn’t willing to sacrifice loving women in order to keep a man and have children. Lupe saw motherhood as a kind of imprisonment in a life she didn’t want at 17, and not assuming the role of a mother allowed her the freedom to escape. Maybelle can’t be a mom and a baseball player at the same time, so she leaves her kids to live her life to the fullest for a summer.

Truthfully, each of the characters has a complicated relationship with sacrifice, running parallel to maternal sacrifice, because ultimately this is a show about people who are living in a world with limits to possibility - whether due to their gender, race, or sexuality. And there are always sacrifices for those folks living in a limited world. Toni found the ways forward in a society that limits Black women and made the sacrifices she saw necessary because they were worth it to her. Because of her experience, Toni thinks sacrifices are part of life, which is why she looked ahead for Bertie and Max and started planning how (she thought) they could circumvent their inevitable obstacles, as an act of love.

But for most of the queer characters, the same sacrifices aren’t worth the cost of being denied their identity. So again, there’s the joy, and the pain, in tandem. It’s what binds the whole series together as they tell the stories of these folks who are queer and/or Black and/or Hispanic in a world that doesn’t want them. The ever-present ache of what’s possible and what isn’t, and the negotiation of living a happy future.

Carson not wanting kids is interesting, because it’s so closely connected to a) her fear of being like her mom, and b) the possibility that she views motherhood as a final nail in the coffin of a marriage that while arguably survivable is not fulfilling. One wonders if she might want kids with a different partner, or with different expectations for motherhood, or without having to physically give birth. It’s hard to say, and there are a lot of reasons any person might not want kids. On the other hand, it’s not hard to imagine that Greta would want kids partly to have the chance at being a better mother to her own child than her own mom, and Jo’s grandmother, and - absolutely, Dana’s mother. There’s also probably something about the innocent joy of childhood that Greta would want to be able to return to, even vicariously, as someone who suffered a pretty traumatic event as a teenager and hasn’t ever recovered. Another manifestation of the ache.

Circling back around to the pizza scene, I think it’s important to talk a little more about the context for that scene in the episode as a whole. It’s dancing around these possibilities and limits the entire time, and ends on Greta finally agreeing to go to the gay bar if they make it to the championships. Their relationship is now pushing, thanks to Carson, toward possibility, with Greta relenting her pull of pragmatism. The easiest explanation for Greta saying yes is her previous conversation with Jo, which planted a seed in her head that maybe the world is capable of changing. I think there’s also something to be said for the fact that the conversation about kids immediately before Carson’s proposition erodes some of Greta’s resistance, because it’s simply depressing to think about. So she opens herself up to the possibility of the joy that she can have.

Then, of course, they make the championships (joy), go to the gay bar (limitless joy), and it ends up getting raided and Jo gets arrested (limits, reality, pain). What AGONY that as soon as Carson convinces Greta to believe in hope, the entire dream comes crashing down and Greta’s fears are affirmed once more.

But that’s the show: the ache of wanting what isn’t possible, and the joy of those moments when reality can be wheedled into a dream - the five minutes, as Max and Carson later call it. And of course, this central idea is encapsulated perfectly in Episode 6 - where the pizza scene sits almost at the exact middle, a fulcrum on which the season is about to tilt, through Greta’s hopeful acquiescence - with a narrative device and a turn of phrase.

The narrative device is, of course, the use of The Wizard of Oz - a piece of media that is ostensibly intended for children, but that has captured the imagination of adults just as much, if not more. And I think it’s because The Wizard of Oz has that ache. It’s constructed in the same way as the way the show constructs the two worlds of reality and possibility - Kansas, and Oz. A troubled world of black-and-white, a world of rainbow color. The shitty world, and the queer world. (If you’re a music nerd who’d like to hear how “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” is constructed around the ache, I direct you here, a musical analysis I’ve been obsessed with for over 10 years.)

The show gets MILEAGE out of The Wizard of Oz without being too heavyhanded, from its clever incorporation of “friend of Dorothy” to its bridging of multiple main characters (love you, Clance), and its gut-punching final moments with Glinda and Dorothy repeating “There’s no place like home” as Greta and Carson numbly process being ripped back into reality and the episode cuts to black.

Home, is, of course, where the episode pivots their narrative device into a clever turn of phrase that neatly and painfully hits the show’s thesis. I don’t think I’ve ever had an episode title quite knock the wind out of me the way this one did. “Stealing Home” fits in with all the other episode titles in that it is a baseball maneuver. In baseball world, it’s a DIFFICULT maneuver. (Yes, I am one of the ALOTO fans who actually does care about the baseball.) It’s incredibly risky to do because as a runner, you are heading directly into the path of the ball where you could either score a run (joy!) or get tagged out (defeat!). It requires dire circumstances, finding a tiny window of opportunity, and taking your shot when it comes. So it’s apt, no?

But it’s also apt in its double meaning, and how it connects to The Wizard of Oz and the queer context of the show. It probably doesn’t need stating; everyone here is smart. But this is, of course, the episode where so many of the queer characters - Max, Greta, Carson, Jo, Bertie, Gracie - are able to live safely in the dream for a few brief blissful moments. The party at Bertie’s, the scene at Vi’s bar. The dream is that queer folks can find home in reality, and that Oz and Kansas are not that far apart. It’s those five minutes of joy, of possibility, of fantasy. It’s waiting for the right moment and risking everything to charge forward and seize the chance for joy because it might not come again. And it encapsulates the central thesis of the show for these characters: possibility lives out of reach most of the time. So you must find opportunities and steal them wherever you can. In the meantime, there will be an ache.

#aloto spoilers #ask box #A League of Their Own TV #why are there so many words. why @me.

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undercat-overdog · 1 year

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It seems as if the feeling of 'feeling ignored' is rampant among authors - I don't know if that's because of a downturn in engagement or if it's just always been this way and some people weather it and others don't. But it seems to be a very common feeling from many writers these days and yes, it does make me sad *and* angry when I see amazing writers or amazing stories being overlooked because they didn't have the right "pair" or whatever it is...

It's so very strange to me that fandom approaches fanfic in such a completely different fashion from published fiction. If you read an amazing book you don't go to the bookstore and try to find other amazing books that have... the same 'tropes' and hope you find another great book. You go look at the other books *that author* has written and expect to find that they are as wonderful as the one you just finished that you loved. (Does this always work? No, but that is still the most common approach!)

People will read *authors* because they have an expectation of a style and quality that they enjoyed. They'll go to meet authors because they loved their books so much. They'll listen to interviews or send them fanmail and get all excited if they get a reply.

It is so weird how people won't do the same with fanfic authors - they won't read an amazing fic and think wow this person really writes well, I might enjoy the other stuff they've written also, and then go do that. It seems they'd rather look for the same characters over and over than read the same author twice.

And maybe this isn't at all what you meant by your post - but it seems that this is a mindset that makes the author invisible in this exchange. That a person reading fanfic isn't reading *an author* - they're reading characters or tropes. The author becomes an invisible hand by which the reader gets some specific itch scratched, and the author is rendered almost irrelevant.

It's truly achingly sad to both experience and watch others experience. To see readers engage with a fic only to the degree that they hope for more rather than wanting to actually engage with the author as both a person and a fellow fan of whatever source material is being referenced.

It does exhaust the creative drive to feel rendered invisible and secondary.

As you say, no one is 'owed' interaction or engagement, no one is 'owed' readers or comments or whatever. But man, it sure is nice to be recognized as the person who wrote something a reader enjoyed. It's nice to be told "wow, I liked this". Not as a payment for a product but as a basic human interaction.

Hi anon, I really appreciate you sending this in and it means a lot to read it; I hear you and I hope you feel heard as well? I very much want to thank you for sharing your intelligent and interesting thoughts; I have some thoughts in response but I’m not particularly in a place to articulate them (mental mush!), so I’m going to post this as is so others can see and hopefully give a proper response that you deserve in a day or two. 💙🫂

I also want to add something to my original post (about the author being seen) from the perspective of the reader and the reader being seen as a person as well - I haven’t been reading much recently (very little), but I am a reader too and I know how scary it can be to reach out to talk to someone online! I think there’s something about fic as commodity (or art as commodity; I do wish I had the perspective of an artist as well here), the fic must flow or whatever, that doesn’t do justice to many who want to participate. (But to be clear, (general) you don’t need to; I don’t want to delurk anyone who’s not comfortable or who wants to stay lurking.)

(And - I do feel bad about this because so often in fandom, or at least this area, it’s always fic fic fic and I’m not sure we pay enough attention to the other creators out there, or the people who take joy in those creations: I apologize for that. But my perspective is as a writer and reader, and that’s what I can speak on.)

#ask #anonymous #i admit my original post was driven by something that tipped me over the edge #(sometimes it's not just a building of discontent but an individual event/issue/(lack of) interaction)#but the thoughts behind the post had been building for a while #anyways #i hope to answer soon #and i so appreciate you writing in #I thought it was better to share what you wrote rather than sit on it?#(my ask box is always open)#(even if it takes me a while bc mental mush - sry sauron question anon :'( it's coming i hope)

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kidcooper02 · 2 years

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Going insane I'm gonna ramble more about Young Justice and all my hopes & dreams for it (that won't be answered).

I haven't seen the leaks for the finale of season 4 but I'm assuming Wally ain't there lmao, I'm tired of it really. Grandon never gave a straight answer about him and that has dragged us out for almost 10 years. Can we just get an answer?

I'll even accept Wally being dead but hes like a force ghost that helps the team with advice wouldn't that be funny ("Get the fries Traci you'll need the energy for the coming days" "I've never even met you how are you in my head??" "Comes with being on the team")

Wally aside, my true and genuine want for season 5 is an Outsiders centric one. I know, I don't shut up about it, but I am so attached to this team with so little screen time. I hope that the fact that Targets is touching on Markovia, that can lead into their idea of a season 5 focused on the Outsiders wanting their homie back!!

Like, character growths are so needed for this team, they haven't gotten shit besides Gar. I want to see Cassie dealing with coming into her role as leader but then being assumed to give it back up to Gar, I know she'd do it but I can see her thinking it would be like giving up a hard job because it wasn't "hers". I want to see how her and gar navigate this together and form an even stronger bond.

Its too late for this but, we never saw the effects of the Reach invasion with Jaime. They literally outed him. How different was his life after that? He was a Reach puppet and the public most likely wouldn't believe him being one despite all the good he's done, they're assholes like that. Even just something exploring how Jaime coped after season 2 would be nice.

Bart. Bart bart bart bart bart, can we touch on your trauma? Maybe after season 4 he thinks "hmm maybe legit therapy would be helpful" or something. Seeing as Bart came to the present when he was 13 years old, there can be a lot of blocked memories he isn't even aware he blocked, good & bad. That'd be an interesting factoid to explore. (If you wanna link this to Wally being alive, maybe he remembers Wally in his future, so it leads to him trying to figure out if there's still a chance to keep at most that aspect the same).

The Markovia situation brings Ed and Brion in the spotlight, kids from the metahuman center are popping up in Markovia and join the army. What the fuck? Both forces can drive the plot on both sides, Ed figuring out what is Brion's intentions with Brion seeking out to aid others in his own way while working on what's truly happening in his own court.

Its a tall order, and I don't really think its plausible any of this would happen. But I think I'm running out of steam to be an avid watcher, I still love this universe and its characters and I have a blast watching the show, but it doesn't have that same hook anymore

Here's to a wonderful season 5 if we even get one!

#dc #young justice #yj #yj season 4 #say it with me guys! outsiders outsiders outsiders outsiders ou #yjtv #cassie sandsmark #brion markov #garfield logan #bart allen #jaime reyes #eduardo dorado jr #wally west #i guess

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marieanneline · 4 years

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wait wait hold up i am actually seething about the reveal

ya boi's not a dabi stan. at all. the only reason i'm remotely interested in his character is if he's actually related to shouto and how that would affect hero society in general. i remember reading the training camp arc, seeing him being one of the villains there, him saying todoroki's full name, and thinking "SIBLINGS?????" because agshdfjlk their EYES are SO SIMILAR!! i really want to give credit to horikoshi being able to portray their similarities from artstyle alone because that's talent.

(it's more apparent in the anime since you see the eye color— but appearance-wise, shouto takes after rei and dabi takes after enji the most, so this definitely isn't the best photo to prove my point...)

anyways,,,, dabi's ideals of heroics fall in line with stain's ideals and so we all already theorized how if he was the long lost big brother touya, it would be because of the fact that his father really wasn't a hero. this makes sense. and so, we're all fucking right. props to us, really, and props to horikoshi for all the foreshadowing because i had fun :)) in terms of story and plot, i think this reveal is fantastic.

alright, on to why dabi is a dick

(i'm assuming this was his choice and no one pressured him after all)

the todoroki family is on the road to recovery!!

- shouto finally visits his mother back in season 2 and visits her every chance he gets. you see the effort he makes and it's nice to see him change from season 1 to 2 (early-roki!!)

(guys he even sends her letters- look at that sparkle by his face!! he's sweet :)) and rei's smile!!!!)

- enji (whether we wanted it or not, i don't mind much personally) is trying to atone for everything he's done to his family

- natsuo, who originally wasn't fond of shouto because he had their father's attention (although he does come to the horrible realization that shouto was one of the most unfortunate) and mother's attention (because she wanted to protect shouto), has a closer relationship with his little brother now (can you believe he didn't even know shouto's favorite food was cold soba until ch. 192?? i was sobbing). he really regrets the prejudice he had against shouto and he's trying to be an actual brother to him now.

- rei's almost recovered enough to be released from the hospital!!

- fuyumi and her idyllic "happy family"– wHICH, BY THE WAY, ALMOST CAME TO FRUITION. their mother coming home, shouto connecting with his siblings, and enji being not-the-way-he-was-before is the best outcome they could have hoped for. and it was happening.

and i realize that all of that setup is for this very moment

this? this. this. this is being broadcasted. to everyone. that means the citizens know that their new #1 hero is directly related to a member of a really bad villain organization (i almost called it a terrorist group oop-).

by ruining endeavor, the citizens faith in heroes will collapse. this also affects shouto's reputation as an upcoming hero, and i am so terrified of what this could mean for him. imagine your career ending before it even started, just when you found your passion for being a hero again. all that progress he's made for himself since starting UA could be seen as pointless to him and i would hate for him to retrogress like that because it's not his fault. i would absolutely hate it if the media starts bashing shouto for being related to a villain, when he was also a victim of abuse.

seeing this look on shouto's face is making me dehydrated istg i'm fucking SOBBING— he doesn't even look angry!! in the last few chapters he was angry and worried for his friends, teachers, father maybe, other heroes... but he just looks sad. and the fact that the panel chooses to show the left side of his face is.... there's so much to unpack.

but yeah, this is being broadcasted. does fuyumi know? the cameo she had showed her working so maybe not. natsuo's cameo showed that he was at a lecture, so he also probably didn't see.

but rei did. that's like- that's the person i would want to keep this from the most.

the effects of this entire reveal genuinely scare me. how will this affect rei's mental state? she'll realize that what enji did is actually so much worse. their first child being a villain?? i'm terrified for how she'll react, she's doing much better in recent chapters after all. her kids are visiting her, shouto sends her letters to keep in touch, and enji sends her flowers and respectfully keeps his distance. i really don't want this reveal to result in a relapse. and if she does relapse, then fuyumi's ideal of a happy family is once again out of arms reach. the future of their mother finally coming back home is so far away again and it's genuinely so heart-breaking.

plus— how will fuyumi's little elementary school students react to her being related to a villain? will the school fire her because of her connection to a villain and how that might cause concerns for students and parents????

it's also hard to say exactly how this will affect shouto and natsuo. natsuo was the closest to touya when they were kids so what would his whole opinion be of what touya's become? will he have a moral crisis?

in terms of moral crisises, i guess i'm more concerned about shouto. the boy knows he wants to forgive his father, but this is just making it so much harder. and after this, will he still want to? and finding out that his own sibling is a villain... remember the stain arc? there were some parallels between midoriya's, iida's, and todoroki's positions in the last chapter and i'm worried about what that could foreshadow. from that arc alone, we know that shouto doesn't agree with stain's views at all [i forgot what he said but it was really compelling]. we know that dabi's a stain follower though, so will this disrupt shouto's sense of justice? i hope not.

but family has always been kind of a weak spot for shouto, hasn't it? i hope this doesn't affect his resolve to be a hero because i do think that there's a way to– somehow– not have a corrupt hero society and i want him to fight for that.

touya being a villain is perfectly valid though, i don't doubt that. it's just disheartening to address that while every other todoroki was working hard to become a normal family, here's their oldest brother, who's not really dead. what's going to become of that altar at their house now?

learning the extent to touya's hatred towards endeavor is truly terrifying. we know enji is or was a horrible person and his redemption arc is based on the very fact that he can't be forgiven, despite some of his family trying their best to do so or at least get over it. but the fact that touya has even thought about killing shouto? that's just. ouch. touya's definitely gone through too much abuse, and all of the todoroki family problems are because of enji's bad parenting. but this does not justify murder and especially that of his younger brother, who also got the brunt of the abuse.

needless to say, i am a fool. i don't know if anything i just said will ever be true, but the important thing to take from whatever the heck i just shat out is that all of this is/could be a result of this reveal. it's the fact that dabi seems to have no sympathy. it's the fact that he doesn't care if his blood related family crashes and burns. really, if this is solely about endeavor and what he did, there's no need to bring the rest of the family into this. rei was sent to a hospital for god's sake. shouto has a scar. it's excessive and unmoral and although questionable ethics and values are key traits of a villain, it doesn't justify how much he's hurting the todorokis.

(look at this shit eating grin he has. no remorse. he really doesn't give a shit about the others but I DO and I'M so SAD)

and assuming that the whole "endeavor's wife admitted into hospital" was swept under the rug in terms of media, will that suddenly come back to light? because it shouldn't. maybe it should be known that she's in the hospital because of marital abuse but either way rei should not be dragged back into this disaster, and neither should the rest of them. there's also a chance that the media will accuse rei of having abused her kids too, which is messed up for different reasons. they're trying so hard to have any semblance of a normal family, and if dabi's way of revealing this to the world ruins that in any way then i hATE THIS REVEAL ASDFGHJKL—

#tw: abuse #this is just a rant for myself i'm so sorry for those who have this on their dash #how the fuck do you add those ''under the cut'' things on mobile??#and this is a long ass post #i wrote too much #and i was redundant #and i wrote this at 4 in the morning #many many typos...#i needed to let this out though #bnha 290 #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #notey

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alexis-medina · 3 years

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Dissecting: Edens Zero Ch. 130-134

Kleene/Jinn

I was reading Ch. 83 and found this.

See, I don’t know if Mashima plans his story out or if he develops certain plots on the spot because everything is connecting. “Oh, I could use this later...” Brilliant. Amazing. For real though, I was like damn it’s the Mildian/Sun Jewel arc again (Xiaomei’s battles foreshadowing).

Shura vs Ziggy

It was interesting to read that Shura isn't the biological son of Nero. This leads me to think...what if Shura and Shiki are related? I mean they both have gravity ether and they both were taught by Ziggy. They both are also strong in their own right. We also have the theme from Fairy Tail of Good vs Evil (Zeref and Natsu) but in this instance it would be Shura and Shiki. We also don't know where they came from - their origins. Plus, Nero says that his power was incompatible with Shura but he was able to match with Ziggy's gravity powers.

Later, when the crew of Edens Zero find another relic (Robo Cola cap), they infer that Mother could be a place and a person. I was also thinking that because in FT: 100 years quest, Aldoron was a dragon god but his body was home to 5 cities.

So, if I'm right then, Shiki and Shura maybe are from a city on Mother...and maybe even Rebecca.

I'm noting that Shiki is younger than Shura. When Ziggy was training Shura, that was 15 years ago but, that's also the same time Ziggy found Shiki as a baby....unless Ziggy is lying and he has false memories. 👀👀👀 Is Ziggy truly good or bad? Does Shiki have additional powers like Rebecca?

What is the all-link system? Looks like Shura and Ziggy have the same idea. I think if Shura and Ziggy battle - Ziggy will win. What did you guys think?

Xenolith and the Crew of Edens Zero

I wonder why Xenolith's maintenance is lasting longer. Perhaps it may be revealed in the future. I would laugh if he moved his consciousness/personality data into a younger robot body.

Weisz stays being a perv lol with the bondage training.

Did Xenolith teach Shiki 'Black Sky?' For me, I feel like in the next arc, when Shiki is facing a really tough opponent we will get flashbacks of his training with Xenolith and him learning Black Sky. Then, he'll perform it against the enemy...which could be Ziggy. So, yes, I think Xenolith did teach him. Could be wrong but we'll have to wait and see!

Both Xenolith and Xiaomei have stated that Rebecca's power will change/save the world/universe.

- Xiaomei (Ch. 64): "She has only just begun to unlock the secrets of Leap’s real power. This power may truly save the universe one day."

- Xenolith (Ch. 132): "Her power is weak…but it is the most special. Special enough to change the world."

Witch calling Rebecca a 'Chrono Witch' is giving me Scarlet Witch vibes...

Math for Dummies lol

Stronger heart = Stronger gravity Strength + Tranquility = Strong Heart = Rise from darkness Strength - Tranquility = Weak Heart Weak heart = Weak gravity = Fall to darkness

Fan service with the bath scenes but, at least it is keeping the story going, in that, she has to train in the bath in order to get stronger. Sister makes me geek, "You better get out of those ropes before this turns x-rated." When I read that scene, it gave me Virgo vibes from FT.

I also want to see how Xenolith met Ziggy. So, I'm wishing for a flashback.

I don't know if I put this on a post before or not but, my thoughts are that Ziggy did reach Mother and found Shiki there. He erased the Four Shining Stars memories because something bad would happen if he didn't (like they would get infected the way he is now). So, he did it to save them.

UGHHHH BUT THAT CLIFFHANGER...WHYYYYY - It'll probably blow my mind when it gets revealed.

Also, WOOHOOO! Jinn and Kleene joined the crew. That cute ass smile!!! OOOMG his face when he isn't able to untie Kleene. 🥺🥺🥺

The Oceans

So cool to see the winners of the Edens Zero character competition featured as the Oceans 6! I'm a fan of all of them and don't you worry...we won't forget Shura's assistant even though she's not part of the 6. However, she might be since Shura killed off Cyca. Yikes.... RIP Cyca

Their designs are so clean!! (Sorry if the images look blurry Tumblr only allows 10 photos per post so I tried stitching them together in Illustrator but I think the file size is too big for Tumblr so that's why it may be blurry but, I hope you get the gist of their designs.)

Holy

I wonder what she means by that...I feel like this will be important later. We also don't know much about the other members of the Oración Seis Interstellar. I'm excited to see what their ether gear is...especially Eraser. 👀👀👀 Does his ether have something to do with erasing things? Are they corrupt or good guys? I guess we'll found out soon...

B-Cube

Rebecca has carved 'Edens Zero' onto her B-Cube. Did you guys notice in Ch. 134 that Rebecca's ingrained B-Cube is the same one we see in Ch. 4? That's the scene where there are two robots 20,000 years in the future who find two bodies (a man and a woman) and a B-Cube which we can now confirm is Rebecca's.

The Ships + Other Notable Mentions

LOL I feel like if I was a B-Cuber, I would be an entertainment/fashion channel....basically like Sorcerer Weekly but make it Space Weekly or a cool name like Into the Void. Maybe a play off of 'Cosmopolitan' but shorten it to 'Cosmos.' So many options.

Anyways lets get into the ships. I talked about this first ship in a recent post.

#1 Homura and Creed

I'll say it again...I SHIP IT! I am hoping for some more scenes with them together. He always looks so cute when he blushes <3 He's a Homura stan too hahah. 🥺🥺🥺

Predictions: - Creed and Homura will fight - Creed will protect Homura again - Homura will save Creed - Creed will join the Edens Zero crew

Now, I was reading on a few discord channels that people are comparing Creed to Mest (Fairy Tail). Now, I am really trying to understand this comparison because frankly, I don't see it. Creed has a crush on Homura. That's valid. Also, Creed doesn't just have pictures of just Homura, he has Weisz, Rebecca, and Shiki. He's not creepy like Mest.

Mest was a weird guy when we first met him laying in the pool or eating flowers. Their personalities are totally different IMO. We could talk ages about the age gap stuff but I'm not really gonna go into that.

Do you see the comparison?

#2 Rebecca and Shiki

Shiki escaping from his restraints to save 'Rebecca' made me happy lol. It makes me think what he would do if it was Homura or Weisz in that situation. What would Shiki do? Plus, after the simulation was over...we can see Rebecca in awe and blushing.

Then, Shiki is hugging Rebecca and they're both blushing 💕 That's a cute moment ngl.

"I'm not THAT into Shiki." - So, you don't deny that you like him 😉

#3 Hermit

I don't know if I mentioned this but I fucking love Hermit's name. It's such a cool name.

#4 Justice

Ch. 130 he was looking gooooood with his bandages. 🥵🥵🥵

Ps. Did you get a chance to view Edens Zero PV 2?!?

Did you notice the homage to Fairy Tail in Ch. 134? "Why are your ideas so Fairy Tale?"

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darthkvznblogs · 3 years

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Favorite book/fanfic/show/author/fanfic author/superhero/fictional character?

What inspired Kryptonverse? Are there other story universes out there that will crossover with this one?

Are you going to write more of the Frozen/Avengers or Young Justice/Pyrrha crossovers?

Do you ever feel like a mini celebrity because of asks and reviews?

Thoughts on Arrowverse and MCU?

Favorite hobby?

Oh gosh, this feels like a mini interview!

Favorite book: Hard to pick; gut answer is Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. I know it's a little out of left field, but it truly had everything I could've wanted out of a sci-fi epic - underdog protagonists against impossible odds, ancient civilizations haunting the present day, incredible space combat, etc. Another oddball favorite is the StarCraft Dark Templar saga, but for something a little more down to Earth, the Percy Jackson novels, and particularly The Last Olympian.

Favorite fanfic: Powers of Invisibility

Favorite show: Also hard to say; depending on the day, it could be Avatar, FMA Brotherhood, Steven Universe, She-Ra, or The Owl House. Heck, Amphibia is creeping in there, too.

Favorite author: Don't really have one. I follow Gail Simone on Twitter and she's a hoot, if that counts?

Favorite fanfic author: @zr-stein, though it's kinda cheating 'cause they're also one of my best friends hahaha (do check out their Hollow Knight x Breath of the Wild crossover though, it's super cool!)

Favorite superhero: Batman as portrayed in the DCAU/Timmverse for DC, Spider-Man as portrayed in the PS4 game for Marvel. Ben 10 or Danny Phantom for a non Marvel/DC pick.

Favorite fictional character: Gods, I don't know. Just off the top of my head, Zuko, Steven Universe, Adora, Catra, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Ben 10, Commander Shepard, Hornet, Luz Noceda, Amity Blight, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Chloé Bourgeois (my version at least haha)...the list is endless!

What inspired the Kryptonverse?: If I have to pinpoint one thing, it's Smash Bros Brawl's Subspace Emissary story mode. I'd always loved playing with toys of wildly different fictional origins as a kid, but Subspace Emissary showed me that it could be done on a much grander scale. I thought up countless headcanons for a continuation for years...and did exactly nothing with them, because I wasn't a writer at the time. I did keep that crossover bug, though, and you can see in my FFN repertoire that I eventually made several attempts at such a universe. The Kryptonverse is just the one that I felt had finally succeeded!

Are there other story universes out there that will crossover with this one?: Depends on what you mean; are there more unannounced franchises that'll join the Kryptonverse? Yeah, a few more. Am I planning on including other fanfic authors' crossover universes? No, though I could be open to small collabs. Are any of my previous attempts at massive crossover universes potentially canon to the Multiverse the Kryptonverse belongs to? Yes, but I ain't telling you which ones hahaha :P

Are you going to write more of the Frozen/Avengers or Young Justice/Pyrrha crossovers?: Not the Frozen one, but I do hope to continue Pyrrha's story on Earth-16. That's on me, btw, I just haven't had the time to continue writing it!

Do you ever feel like a mini celebrity because of asks and reviews?: Maybe when I was first writing Whispers of Darkness or the original version of The Girl Who Could Knock Out the Hulk. Those two got hundreds of thousands of views, so you can imagine I got a little vain about it. But no, nowadays, I just appreciate asks and reviews as a chance to talk with the regulars and put down on writing what I mostly just have floating around in my head about the Kryptonverse. I'm just a random person on the internet writing fanfiction, at the end of the day :P

Thoughts on Arrowverse and MCU?: I think part of me agrees with the people who are very fed up with the MCU's (and really, Disney's) monopolizing of pop culture, but at the end of the day, I'll fully admit I'm pretty easy to please, and 95% of the MCU has made me a happy camper. I also don't think it's fair to dismiss the heart and effort put in by many of the people making the MCU just because one might have superhero fatigue, or see the movies from a distance and think they're all the same. Don't get me wrong, the MCU is formulaic, but you'll never convince me that it's worthless. As for the Arrowverse, I've never been too invested in any of the plots (be they romantic, action oriented, etc.), but every show in its repertoire is carried by the charisma of its characters and the actors portraying them. I may barely pay attention to the monster of the week in Supergirl, but you bet your britches I love Kara just hanging out with her friends and family.

Favorite hobby: Playing videogames! I don't do it as much as I used to, but I'll put in a couple of Smash Bros matches or play a couple of loyalty missions in Mass Effect 2 when I get the chance. I'm actually pretty excited about playing Halo Infinite - just gonna have to hope my eleven year old gaming PC can handle it XD

Thank you for your questions! I had a fun time answering them :)

#ask box #anon ask #kryptonverse #personal

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ziracona · 4 years

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Hi! I just realised I havn't popped in in awhile. Do you have any headcanons u feel like sharing about the newer survivors?? (I love them all, they're so cool but I think imma have to say cheryl is my bby gurl. she's tired. let her rest.) also. i am. going insane. from a toothache :) - Sleepy

Hey! Hope your tooth pain clears up! I’m so sorry—that’s one of the worst. : /

Hmmm, I do, but I’m trying to think of ones I haven’t said in asks before. 😬 Unfortunately my memory of fictional characters is great, and my memory of what I said in asks is shitty. :’-]

I don’t know the newer survivors—except Nancy and Steve—as well as I do the older ones, because I’ve never written them, and I haven’t played Silent Hill. I like Zarina, Yui, and Cheryl a lot though. Poor fkn Cheryl can join Quentin in the “Please God, just one good day?” Existence. Rip to them both. 😭

Poor kid gets out of hell once, and ya throw her back in. :’-]

Let’s see—headcanon I am fairly sure I haven’t already shared. I think Yui and Min would get along really well, and Jane and Zarina would too.

Yui hates the serial killers especially, from her own personal experience, and goes to bat hard against them every time.

Ash flirts with everyone to a point it’s even more than Ace does, and for a while it becomes a competition between them to see who can flirt more and better than the other (not in a shitty way—everybody knows they have the competition going on and it’s more a ‘I can act better than you’ than a ‘I can win more hearts’ one.) Ace is declared the winner in class, Ash the winner in sheer quantity he’s able to churn out, and they agree to call it a semi-draw. It’s actually a really fun week for everyone, because they’re all constantly being complemented and flirted with in a way they know is performative and seeks 0 real actions from them in return, so essentially they are just showererd with ‘drunk girl in a bar bathroom’ levels of praise for seven days.

Felix and Nancy are the only two with significant others waiting back home, and they bond over talking about their wife/boyfriend and sharing stories and having someone around who understands that specific brand of pain and can encourage them that they’ll make it back home.

Tapp is a dad, so he gives Felix a lot of advice on stuff since he was an expecting father. Not so much “do this” advice, since his relationship with his family didn’t go so well, and he feels like he’s in absolutely no position to teach—more like “It’s okay. Women have been giving birth for thousands of years. She’s gonna make it just fine even if you’re not home yet, and you’ll get back to them. And I’m gonna teach you some of the tricks so you’ll be ready when you do. You can even surprise her by already knowing how to change a diaper and warm a formula bottle. I’ll show you how to do it,” and talking him through some of the stuff he would have been able to learn from infant care books. It’s sweet, but Tapp almost dies when Jane says its “Very heartwarming” and teases him, so they cut him some slack. Felix is really appreciative. Laurie has taken care of a ton of kids, and gives him some advice too, and so does Nancy, who had two younger siblings.

Steve is a disaster who suffers from “I like you and you are a girl, so *pigeon meme* Is this falling in love?” syndrome. Gets shot down hard by Laurie, who is ridiculously pissed at him for bringing it up during a trial when their lives are on the line, but after he gets over being super awkward around her, and she reaches out to be like, ‘Look, dumbass, why did you even like me?’ And he’s like ‘...because you’re, uh, really cool? A-and pretty? And...’ and eventually she’s like ‘Buddy, you don’t even really know me. You’re just lonely. You’re not in love with me, you just want to be, because you want to be in love with somebody, and that’s not gonna cut it, for me, or anyone. Be in love with a person—not with the concept of being in love. And for that to happen, you have to know them first.” And since Steve is good af self-improvement, he realizes she’s got a real point, and tries to find his worth outside of needing a girlfriend, and becomes both a lot happier, and one of Laurie’s closer friends. (Side note—this extends probably only to my initial Steve ideas. I had the idea batted around that in that universe, Stranger Things /is/ an existing show, but it’s based on a mix of urban legend and history from the 80s, and Nancy and Steve are the version from the actual 80s, and I think in that pitch Steve is dating Barb, who is still alive, and already worked through this specific issue, because many things happened differently for wild comedic ‘But in the show’ effect, becuase both them repeatedly going “WELL REALITY WAS A LITTLE DIFFERENT” when like, monster hunting shit from the show won’t work on the Demogorgan, and *Spit take* “THEY HAD ME HIT ON ROBIN?” “Ewwww” “YEAH ewww! She’s basically my lesbian little sister! We’ve been best friends since grade school! What the fuck :’-]” make for amazing joke potential. )

Cheryl starts having nightmares where she sees things from the Entity’s eyes she was never meant to see, and finding out dangerous amounts of information this way. The Entity decides at some point this is too big a threat, but because it’s proud, it doesn’t want to just kill her, as that would be admitting a human is a threat, so it starts having killers gun for her mercilessly to try to get her to give up, and the poor girl is in agony.

Zarina documents stuff form the realm constantly, and has a careful scrapbook collection of all notes and paraphernalia from past survivors. She also keeps conspiracy pages tacked together trying to figure out who they were becuase they deserve at least the justice of people somehow knowing how they died and what they went through. Laurie is a big help with this, and so is Claudette, who has been keeping stuff for a long time.

Yui is very no-nonsense, and protective. She gives off strong big sister vibes. She especially also loves board games/puzzles/other games like Shogi or Go and such, and Dwight and Adam create game pieces for her to play Go with when she mentions how much she used to like that kind of thing, and Yui is incredibly touched, and makes several other ones for people to play with too, and it becomes a very enjoyed pastime between trials. It’s engaging and competitive, but much more relaxed and low energy than sports or training or going for a run, so it’s a great alternative. Meg gets super into making puzzles, and all the artists do too, and take turns painting pictures on boards, cutting them into puzzle pieces with extreme painstakingly slow care, and then doing puzzles together. Jake is invaluable in the actual cutting pieces out area, but actually enjoys to do it.

Felix knows a lot more than anyone else about the Entity when he’s taken, so he spends a bunch of time with the research team trying to recall whatever he can from his childhood and sharing any information he has, then just stays on it because he wants to. He’s desperate to meet Benedict Baker someday himself, becuase that man seems to get around, and he really wants to know what happend to his father.

Everyone becomes protective as fuck of Cheryl when the Entity starts targeting her, and someone—I think Kate and or Meg—probably both together—as a one-off joke call themselves her knights at some point, becuase they’re running such dedicated protection detail, but it becomes a whole thing, and several more start to do it. They’ll like ‘fist clasped arm across chest at attention, quick bow’ when they see her, and it’s goofy as fuck, but it helps a lot making Cheryl’s reality more bearable. Plus, it’s really sweet. Nea gets in on this and comes back one day with a little daisy chain she made cause she was bored, sees Cheryl, it clicks, runs over and offers it as a ‘favor’. Zarina sees and comes back later that day from a trial and kneels and presents Cheryl with a rescued toolbox with a brand new part. This becomes increasingly common and extravagant, and Cheryl /cannot/ deal, but it’s like, genius, becuase it takes exactly this level of surreal goofy friend bullshit to distract from the hell she is living. She ends up just regularly having someone come back from a trial or trip to the woods, salute with an arm across their chest, bow, and present her with anything from a pinecone or pretty rock, to flowers or a medkit, to a salt statue or key, to a painting or hand made bracelet, to a makeshift weapon or a pillow. Everyone always tries to outdo each other, so the gifts tend to be extravagant. Zarina considers herself Cheryl’s righthand woman/personal knight by chocie, because she wanted a cause to fight for and has found one she truly loves, and she makes Cheryl her favorite gift so far, coming up to her at the end of a long day, after a very bad trial where Cheryl was mercilessly and slowly killed by the Pig, kneeling, and offering a thick shard of stained glass from the chapel, made sturdy and held in place with a few chunks of soldered and wrapped iron along the blade and down the grip, forming a razor sharp and reinforced stained glass knife.

#ask #Sleepy #headcanons #dead by daylight #dbd

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