wishing everyone a very happy holidays!! I hope the year ahead has many bright and beautiful moments in store for you 🌟

i’m in love with the kaveh disaster dad au you have and i would love to see alhaitham becoming closer with kavehs kid. like mr stoic over there having no idea where those books and supplies about that very niche thing they were talking about yesterday came from

newfound fondness.

summary. alhaitham grows a little more fond of the orphan kaveh insisted on adopting.

trigger & content warnings. no applicable warnings.

tropes, pairings, fic length, & other notes. fluff. alhaitham & child!reader. 0.9k words. they/them pronouns for reader.

author's thoughts. hello dear <3333 i really needed a shorter request to write bc all of my other requests are a bit more lengthy and i'm in just a little bit of a burnout state so i am delighted by this request. i love my adoptive dad kaveh series...... i also realize now that i don't really talk too much about alhaitham and his relationship with [name] compared to how often i talk about tighnari and kaveh's relationship with them. also cyno???? i have neglected him too??????

at first, alhaitham wasn't keen on bonding with kaveh's adopted child; a child would only disrupt the comfortable life he has both built for himself and worked so hard to maintain. of course... he ended up being wrong. terribly wrong.

all throughout [name]'s first few months of being integrated into their new family in sumeru, they don't spend much time—if any at all—in kaveh and alhaitham's shared house. most of their time is spend in gandharva ville or in sumeru city, the latter being either on the weekends with kaveh or throughout the week with tighnari (if he happens to need something from the city and decides to let them tag along). given this fact, it's not at all a surprise that they didn't really know much of alhaitham, aside from the casual mentions of him from their other sumeru family members.

later on, as kaveh slowly grows into the vacant father role in their life, filling the empty space, they start spending weekends at his house... which is really the scribe's house, but at the time, that detail meant nothing to them. alhaitham never bothers to correct them, either. it doesn't really matter.

sometimes kaveh has to run errands and doesn't want to take them out in the glaring midday sun; they didn't grow up in sumeru, and they're already having a hard time adjusting to the heat (not that he's any better at handling it), so he doesn't want to risk exposing them to the sun at the peak of the day. sometimes he has to go meet one of his clients for a consultation and can't take them with him. who knows? either way, kaveh always makes these trips as quick as possible. his weekends belong to no-one but his kid. his clients find his doting behavior very cute, thankfully, so he hardly ever takes long.

alhaitham is always home during these occurrences (kaveh forbids him from leaving, since he wouldn't so much as dream of leaving his child home alone at such a young and vulnerable age—not that the scribe would leave them home alone, but still). naturally, this led to unavoidable meetings.

alhaitham quickly picked up on the many odd behavioral patterns kaveh's child displayed.

they were quiet—with him, at least. they were happy and expressive like most other children their age with kaveh or tighnari or collei, but with him? they never said a word, only speaking when spoken to, quietly shuffling around the house without so much as a peep... but more importantly, he sure as hell noticed the way they'd peek around the wall and shyly watch him as he read. they never got closer than that, though, and they'd run off if they realized he had seen them. based on this, he simply came to the conclusion that they were shy.

...or anxious, he supposes, but there is a vast difference between anxiety and shyness, and what he sees in them is not necessarily anxiety.

eventually, he does get sick of it. it's not like he worried about coming off as intimidating, no. it's just that if [name] maintains a poor image of him, it would eventually be an inconvenience for him. yes, yes, that was all. he just needed to kill a potentially dangerous rumor at its source before it got vastly out of hand. that's all.

"come here."

the way he sounds when he beckons them over is admittedly a little harsher than what he meant to be, so he's very much glad that they still do come over to him, timidly fidgeting with their sleeves.

"since you seem so interested... sit down, i'll read to you."

"h— huh? really?"

"hurry up before i change my mind."

as alhaitham reads to them, he points out words they may not understand and explains what they mean, also going as far as to help them pronounce some words that they mentioned having trouble with back at gandharva ville.

"oh... tighnari showed me that word, but i can't get it right."

they also can't pronounce tighnari's name correctly, which makes alhaitham's lips quirk upwards ever so slightly.

"here... i'll show you. which word is it that you're having trouble with?"

though it is something of a tutoring session, alhaitham finds that there's something... calming about it. he doesn't bother moving them away as they gradually get closer, only adjusting to accommodate them.

he also doesn't say anything when their weight falls a little heavier on his chest.

...did they really feel safe enough to fall asleep, just like that? the thought makes a fond warmth spread in his chest. he has no intention of telling kaveh or anyone else, though.

kaveh comes home later to see his child curled up asleep in the scribe's arms.

(the second he points it out, which of course he does, alhaitham's cheeks flush a slight pink and he coughs, telling kaveh to come get his kid and claiming that they wouldn't leave him alone.

the architect has never rolled his eyes harder than he did at that.

alhaitham's newfound fondness is obvious, but kaveh decides to leave it alone for now.)

from then on, they are just as excited and bubbly when they see alhaitham as they are when they see any of their other family. he's even gotten accustomed to hoisting them up, balancing them on his hip, and just... carrying them around.

oh, and alhaitham has no idea where those hobby supplies came from. he's got no clue where those books on a hyper-specific topic that they mentioned offhandedly the other day came from. he has no clue. none in the slightest.

...

maybe alhaitham is a little soft for them. just a little.

please consider reblogging, it helps me out quite a lot!

HI I WAS THE FIRST ANON AND YOURE SO FUCKING RIGHT. GOD.

I just think that Daan has this kinda like. Need to be towered over? I think thats why he interacts with the people who are kinda cold/uncaring/powerful most. I mean. He's found himself almost in every aspect of his life in a position where someone was constantly telling him what to do, and I feel like strong characters (like O'saa or karin) kinda fill that niche of "I need someone to boss me around and tell me what to do because I've lived my life at others whims and while I can hold my own for a good bit after a while I'm not sure what to do but asking for help would be too vulnerable so having someone be a higher up towards me gives me a sense of security but i will also kinda be a little shit about it so it doesnt seem so vulnerable" and with O'saa he's super blunt. Very much "I will do things my way wether you like it or not and you will follow my lead or get out my way." and I mean, hell he was a leader! He very much outwardly has control and leadership tendencies, even if inside he doesn't feel like he can ever truly fit the bill. Which is what Daan is looking for yknow? And O'saa, i just kinda think for O'saa its one of those things of he cant for the life of him figure out why he likes him so much, but then Daan starts talking to him about scholarly topics and they have discussions of religion, medicine, science, war, and other things and theres this draw of Daan's Intellegence paired with this strange need of "i want to see him happy, because his whole life hes been miserable and part of it reminds me of me and if i cant be happy then perhaps i can make someone else happy to fill the void" (touching on the whole joking between the two) but being as O'saa has an enlightened soul, i feel like he would be incredibly interested in what Daan has to say. If the two ever got the chance i feel theyd definitely debate between eachother. Imagine that one reaction meme image of the two scholars talking to eachother. Thats them i think. I feel like the two compliment eachother but in a way of like. They fill a niche the other is searching for. Neither are good with words, much less pda, but alone? I feel like if there ever was time alone in a different time in a different place their intimacy would be intense, passionate, and wordless. Nothing would really need to be said, just intimacy, a smoke on the balcony, and dinner in a perfect world. Other people may find their relationship seemingly loveless, but they just couldn't understand the wordless display of trust, of closeness, and of tenderness. How could they? The two have only ever really been truly vulnerable with the other, and I feel if conflict was to arise, they may argue, take a heated break, and then come back with a wordless apology and cook for eachother. Acts of service, cooking, and gift giving i feel would be something that again, if given the chance, the two would indulge in regularly. I feel if O'saa was being particularly sappy he'd maybe get Daan some expensive alcohol he'd been eyeing. As for Daan, I feel he'd get O'saa a nice clothing piece the other had been admiring. But that's in a life they'd never get, I suppose... sorry for rambling in your inbox, I care for them dearly PFT

Anon rn:

BUT FR LIKE IM SOSO GLAD TO RECIEVE THIS RESPONSE BC YOU EXPLAINED SO WELL WHAT I WAS THINKING

I put my thoughts down there i hope i was able to cover everything

Im going to start off in a daan analysis tangent real quick

Daan has been neglected by his cultist parents ever since he was a baby. He probably never got the proper feeling of security or personal growth as a child because he was always living to survive. Which worsened even more after the death of his parents, and was doomed to child labour very young. Im sure he never got to properly play or express himself as a kid until he got closer to Elise. But The only thing about himself he found worth talking about were his insane cultist parents. His life at the Baron’s mansion was everything he had, as were his studies of modern medicine. That's why he feels attracted to powerful and determined people like O'saa and Karin (and Marcoh too, I believe), who seem to know exactly what their own goals are and think they still have control over what is happening. Despite trying to do things on his own, he still craves company. He also wants to protect the younger ones, like Levi and Marina, because his ass is projecting! But the sad thing is that Daan can't be too dependent on these people and doesn't want to share too much of his past with them because it's very traumatic for him.

If the discussion had taken place, I think O’saa would have been very interested in Daan and his upbringing. Daan never followed the religions and cults of Europa and is aware of their danger. He prays to Sylvian not as an act of worship but to help those who are sick. He also ran away from Pocketcat his whole life and never wanted to give himself to him until depression hit him harder than before. This makes Daan rational, smart, and inquisitive. Which seem to be attractive traits for someone who possesses an enlightened soul.

TOTALLY AGREE ALSO ABOUT THESE TWO HAVING BIG BRAINED DISCUSSIONS O'saa proves himself to be a good listener to others feelings in the booth; Daan can be a very open-minded person; and they both have similar views about the use of magic. I agree that the way they show affection is when they’re both very intimate with each other. O’saa does not trust people lightly because, in his case, his greatest fear is manipulation due to the fact that his country is being invaded and controlled by Europa's religions, wars, and cults. So he only ever relied on himself, which is why he chose to be a yellow mage. I imagine it might take a great deal of time and trust for him to share his vulnerability and feelings with Daan. But they seem to both crave social interaction since they're both lonely at heart, so there might be a chance (we’re winning, girlies!). Either way, I agree with sappy O'saa, that's such an adorable concept and somehow fitting since he finds his own jokes funny. I hc that he’s very genuine when he talks about his emotions, and no matter how embarrassing they are, he always says them with a straight face. But Daan is so sappy too. They would write each other love letters; you cannot tell me otherwise.

Also, I thought of an ending for these two surviving the festival: Daan confessing to O’saa that he doesn’t have anything that waits for him and O’saa noticing the true meaning of those words. He feels a tinge of sympathy because Daan has lost everything to war and religion, and he can't bear to see him give up after surviving the gruesome festival. So O’saa proposes to make a deal to be his personal doctor because he plans to travel dangerously, defy the authority in his country to establish his own teachings, and rise to the top. Since Daan doesn’t have anything to lose, he agrees to it. I think that it is during those travels that they will slowly fall for each other. They might also find some closure on their pasts during those trips.

I have an absolute grail doll that is currently in development by the company and won't release til early next year.... but I've already got so many ideas for her now, and I'm also realizing that I don't actually need all the dolls I have right now? Like when I get my grail (and I will get her unless unexpected money issues occur, I'm forgoing other big purchases to be sure I can get her), I think she will be enough. I'm a little sad though, because my current dolls are being neglected due to focusing on plans for the new girl, I really have next to no interest in them anymore, and I feel bad for almost seeing them as obsolete because my tastes have changed. I hope I can find good homes for them, I don't feel right just leaving them in storage to collect dust. But I also feel a little guilty over ditching them for the "upgraded version".

It's weird knowing that I really only need one doll to be happy. I thought I'd keep feeling like I must keep acquiring new dolls to the point where I neglected all my current dolls for the next Big Thing, but this new doll I'm getting is going to fill a niche in a way my 10+ current dolls just don't. It may be time to downsize.

~Anonymous

Look, it's late and I don't know what it is I can say or if I should say anything at all, but it's one of those nights where I feel like there's a lot swimming in my head and mucking up the whole show so...

I want to say thank you. For accepting me as I am, warts and all.

(Woe, lengthy rambling on my history to follow)

Look, I'm not part of some like- magical old internet old guard. I haven't been doing- or rather- sharing- art for that long. I really only started out a couple years ago, and before that all I really did were doodles, class assignments before I stopped doing any sort of art for a few years when I lost a close family member. Before I really started... getting into the furry scene, being open with who I was and who I am, I was a confused, scared little people-pleaser who would bend over backwards to please folks, to feel like I was part of something not by my own merits, but by virtue of having people to fill the silence- no matter who they were.

Can't tell you how often that hurt me- not a way of living I'd recommend anyone.

Anywho. On a whim, I started doing art again a couple years back, when I first started posting to twitter, and it was through that I started to become a part of the community, as it were- I wrote, then I drew, and I kept drawing. Kink stuff, mostly, because well, that was what I wanted to draw. But I found a community, friends, people who liked me not just because I gave them something, but because I was being myself, a person who, yeah, was a niche member of a niche group in the wide world of internet subcultures, but these were folks who saw me, the unvarnished, not-putting-on-an-act-for-once me and they... liked them.

This was also around the time I really started to address some ooooold traumas through therapy, so needless to say, it was a hell of a time. Anyways.

I can't really describe how much... just, learning I did these last few years. Learning who I was, learning what made me tick. Coming to terms with being ace and that being acceptable, then with being nonbinary, what definition of "me" felt comfortable, felt right when for so long I had neglected even... having a sense of self, hating the idea of thinking about "me" and not my characters or my stories. And all through it, I had friends who were there for me, who didn't simply tolerate, but encouraged through thick and through thin- through them, I learned that the best possible me I can really present to the world is just... me as I am. All my strange contradictions, all my weird little quirks, all my arcane trivia and hungry world-building and little fantasies and dreams and just... all of it.

Goodness knows I'm not perfect. I'm someone who frequently speaks without thinking, acts without speaking, who only sorta grasps decorum and how to at least present a... veneer? of neurotypicality (is that a word? I think it's a word?)- I'm sometimes blunt to a fault, sarcastic to a greater one, and I have a pretty low tolerance for things that emotionally exhaust me- I also don't know or really care to organize a blog so, y'know, my bad there.

But I hope y'all understand that I present myself as I am, as a person who spouts frequent 1 am non sequiturs, a person often hyper-focused on weird little niches, as a kink artist who frequently isn't, simply because... that's the only way I know how to present myself anymore. This is my truth, and to live any other way is just... baffling to me. I know people will do things in some ways, will cut the more... saucy...? elements out of their main account to spirit away on some sideblog, but I present everything as part of one big, messy whole not because I'm trying to deviously foist my interests on others, or... I dunno, deceive people- but because I don't want to live with a mask, pretend I'm something I'm not.

I tag art that isn't to everyone's tastes as best I can, try to respect folks' own comforts and not... muddy the waters(?) so to speak, because I'm fully aware that not everything I do is for a general audience. Hell, it's a big part of why I don't take requests or anything like that, and only depict my own OCs- I know what it's like to be forced into uncomfortable positions by someone not respecting my boundaries, and I think I'd be mortified if I did that!

And sure, part of me wants to justify how I interact with kink art- that I feel it's an avenue to explore my own wants, my own body goals, my own comfort, that, as someone not really... comfortable with a lot of physical affection it's a pretty personal exploration at that, but... at the same time I feel like- well, I leave people alone, why would I need to justify what I choose to share on my own blog? Hell, if you're looking for saucy, I'm sorry to say my art ain't it! I wouldn't know "sexually charged" if it hit me with a fish!

But I think that's broadly beside the point. I guess all this is to say... I'm acutely aware and frequently self-conscious about where I sit in the wider world, that someone out there might get the wrong idea, that I'm interested in anything but continuing to explore my own, odd little brain as I've been doing these past few years with the encouragement of some amazing friends, but broadly speaking, Tumblr and the community here have been awfully welcoming and kind, and I'm just... grateful for that.

I know the internet as a whole can be a really ugly place, an increasingly-corporate algorithmic hellhole, so when there's small bits of good in it, genuinely kind people out there, I feel like I gotta point to it and go "oh hell yes, more of this please!"

So... I'm gonna do that. Thank you all for being the strange, wonderful community you are <3

re: blam and star wars, it could be either! would love to see both the essay and the fic (but only if you're so inclined of course)

oh anon, i'd be happy to. leave the fic with me; i have an idea.

as for my blam + star wars general thoughts ok, ok, so this is a wider point i want to make that's a little wishy washy and unestablished but pretty much comes down to the use of pop culture within glee and the impact that has on character dynamics so, uh, buckle up.

so

ok, the thing is, when you watch glee you can't for a single moment forget it's written by forty year old man. you just can't. every pop culture reference feels either too late or meant for the wrong generation, and i get that making a show that's trying to keep up with trends when you film so far in advance that they'll be long over when the episode airs can't be easy, but it also means the characters frequently feel like they're trapped in a bubble the audience can't really relate to.

the pop culture categories that actual work are:

musical theatre

everything blam has going on

and that's it. musical theatre kids knowing about musical theatre in a show designed around musical theatre kids is about as straight up safe as you can get. of course rachel would know about shows that haven't been staged in over a decade. of course kurt's references would be niche. of course they'd sing songs that first came out in the 1950s and not think twice about it. it's musical theatre, baby! knowing tony award winners and who's collabed with who and every word to every song barbra streisand's ever even contemplated singing is par for the course.

(this is why my most hated line of the show is in the new rachel when tina utters the cursed words "what rachel would sing, the song of the summer, call me maybe" and my soul immediately leaves my body never to return because who the fuck wrote that who thought that was okay did they just walk off the street with no prior knowledge of the show please god someone explain.

call me maybe is a jam.

in no literal universe would rachel choose that song what the fuck what the fuck what the fuc--)

every other pop culture reference the characters in this show make is...less convincing, like, a lot less. the sort of less that really hammers home the point that ryan murphy just woke up one morning and decided to write about teenagers and his only research was listening to the radio on his way to work.

it's better earlier in the show, but they run out of ideas/stop even trying by, like, late season two.

then there's blam. and, okay, blaine still absolutely falls into this trap alone/with other characters, but combined with sam - who's own references are actually normally pretty spot on - we can forgive it.

instead of media meant specifically for, like, three people born before 1975, sam and blaine talk about comics and nickelodeon shows and star wars and artists actually on the radio! they dress up as superheroes and play video games and read fanfiction!

all this lets us fill in the gaps, too. it tells us 'hey, these are two teenagers doing teenage things'. it's not a leap to guess they have sleepovers and spend the weekends hanging out. we know they spend time together outside of school, that their ambition isn't the thing that ties them together, and that they're both involved in extracurriculars that aren't glee. blaine's a cheerio, sam's on the (synchronised) swim team, they run the superhero club, and they're student body vice/president.

they're friends.

and i can't believe i'm saying this, but it took until season four to actually see that between characters.

sure, the others fall in and out of friendships between dramas and ambitions and/or the neglect of the writers (kurt and mercedes just stopping interacting was a particular sore spot) but for the most part we're never actually shown solid friendships between them that aren't the last five minutes of an episode in which they sing something emotional together to show the audience 'hey, look how close they are! see! this totally makes up for continuity and development!'

hell, we had two whole seasons of kurt, rachel, and santana living together in new york and i'm still convinced they all despised each other.

when the only things tying you together are talent and ambition ("gave me a chance to shiiiiiine") then, uh...i'm not sure that's actually friendship, whatever the show kept trying to hammer home.

if they'd just thrown in hints every few episodes that rachel and kurt were going to see shows together regularly and dissecting them afterwards, or that finn and puck had things in common that weren't just their terrible past of bullying, then i probably wouldn't have found the sam/blaine friendship so revolutionary.

(this is when everyone comes at me and says that kurt and rachel were best friends and, like. lol. ok. sure. season one kurt and mercedes, i'll give you. otherwise we have literally no proof that any of these kids even interacted outside of school and/or romantic relationships. even some of those were distinctly 'school hours only' let's be real, artie i'm looking at you. sam lived with kurt's family and kurt still openly dislikes him by season five. and new york was a shit show, let's not pretend otherwise.)

and i realise i haven't said a single thing about star wars yet so like ok

most of what we see of sam and blaine's friendship is in season four. sam mentioning that blaine reads him star wars fanfiction to help him fall asleep was a vital reminder in season five of their dynamic. that what we see on screen isn't all there is. that the two of them still spend large portions of time just being nerdy, loving friends. that they're still teenagers.

i'm sorry but teenagers nerding out over star wars together and reading fic and going on wiki spirals ("hey, i just read a website all about ewoks and how they're polygamists!") and treating the fact that they're sharing a room in the city like one everlasting sleepover is just about the most realistic thing glee's ever done, fight me.

that their friendship's forged over pop culture feels right and real and lasting.

so, idk. i guess star wars feels like a perfect representation of glee getting it right (for once).

it's also a throwaway line that tells us a dozen other lovely little things about their friendship that maybe we hadn't seen in a while.

so yeah. glee is 90% outdated references, 8% borderline relevant ones, and 2% blam being the saving grace of the later seasons.

(and on a headcanony note, pals, pals, blaine anderson would have crushed the ever living hell on of both han solo and obi-wan kenobi, and sam evans will one day look at a picture of hayden christensen and natalie portman and realise why he wore out his copy of revenge of the sith as a kid, i don't make the rules.)

...............it's half past midnight what the fuck is wrong with me.

Hello Lisbet! A small idea for skullface murderblorbo that had popped up in our head, a long time after I sent you the ask, "What job/occupation would Mr. Riley have?"

Perhaps in the comics, we can take it into consideration that Simon chose to be a butcher's apprentice as a teenager, maybe to earn a bit on the side and help his family keep afloat and to learn new skills. But it doesn't really sit with us right that Mr. Riley terrorized Simon by bringing dangerous animals at home, because that brings up many questions. Like where did he even get those animals?

Then our wife brought something up. Animals, you say?

Maybe Simon was influenced to become a butcher because of his father, and it could be that his father worked as a trapper, or a taxidermist. After all, it would be believable that maybe Simon thought the taxidermied animals were real, due to being a child and perhaps his father was a bit entertained in watching his child be afraid of the dead animals he worked with. (Simon got over his fear when he was around eight, when his father let him touch the antlers of a deer.)

Generally speaking, I think that Simon's father was portrayed as an unpleasant, neglectful man in the comics, though as an Avid Ghost Comic Heretic, we think that a one-sided, abusive father is just lazy writing, and there is so much potential on portraying the complications that come with writing about a difficult and sensitive subject.

Maybe Simon was raised in a family where both his parents worked with animals. He was frequently brought to museums, where his father would excitedly show the lifelike animals behind the glass screen, and he would take the time to read the information on the plate--and his mother would be immersed in piles of documents she procured, perhaps working for the British Pest Control Association.

Because of this, a deep fascination about animals stirred in him ever since a young age, and now that he was sixteen, he could become a proper apprentice of a local butcher (who ran a farm and was good friends with his mommy and daddy) and learn some useful skills while he was there. His mother and father bonded over their shared taste for rock music, though both were respected and revered by their colleagues.

This is the good ending of the Ghost comics, where Simon is Not traumatized and doesn't sign up for the army to run away from his family's problems, as we think that even if the comics were a cheap cash grab by Activision, it's effort in showing that Simon is a uniquely ambitious lad who went back to his family and tried to help them with their problems, leading to his brother Thomas going into rehab for his drug addiction and comforting his mother--though as we all know, tragic backstory no.9678, his family is dead and he has a spiteful argument with his father in the hospital and he's a badass motherfucker who got revenge on Manuel Roba and now has anxiety (and probable depression + C-PTSD on the side with a dose of anger issues.)

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this! Thank you for taking the time to read it!

Much as I'm also not crazy about the Ghost comics, I do also agree with you that there are some nice themes and points that I do think can continue to be of value in creating a background for the character.

I definitely like keeping the apprentice butcher thing, because Hereford is definitely known for high quality food and farming, and whilst I do see Ghost as having predominantly an urban upbringing, I like to think that where he worked was somewhere that valued their craft and that's something he carries with him now that he's living in a rural area with access to farm-fresh produce.

Taxidermy is a craft thing, so I guess if you see his Dad as being someone who has artistic talent, then that might be a good choice to have animals in the house, and a weird studio area filled with partially completed pieces? Working as a gamekeeper is a really niche occupation here, and we'd be talking about a seriously rural upbringing attached to a landed estate, so personally, because I see Ghost as having an urban upbringing (as that fits with East London voice acting) that doesn't appeal to me.

I like the idea of Ghost not coming from a tragic background, but equally, working as I do in an area with high levels of social deprivation that brings me into contact with people who have suffered from parents who have been neglectful or abusive, seeing how hard their lives have been as a result and how challenging it has been to move forward from that trauma, I'm wary of discounting that background as being too clichéd to be of value as a whole as a whole given that I think it does reflect reality in some of its themes. I know the comics do deal with those issues in a very superficial way, and I can also agree with just removing those themes wholesale to do something completely different, because that is also interesting to theorise other ways for Ghost to end up as he is.

The whole Manual Roba thing can, in my opinion, get in the bin. I am torture-brainwashed weary at this point.

ok i know this ask game is from Þe Olden Times but.

everything except 1, 2, 7, 8, 30 and 31. covering all the bases

“Homestuck Isn’t Dead” Tag

jesus a full faq here

Well I'm incredibly vain and love talking about myself so here goes

3. Do you call your s/o a matesprit? 4. Do you call your best friend your moirail?

S/O, no. Best friend, sometimes.

5. Are you “kin” with any characters or commonly called a character?

I've never taken kinning seriously and never will, but I strongly related to Dave and Karkat thanks to that "born wrong + childhood neglect" flavour. But my friends (SIDE-EYES YOUR URL) have holed me into Jake English, so, y'know, whatever. Not everyone can be davekat, I get it

6. God Tier?

Knight of Light!

9. Do you roleplay homestuck? where and how often?

I haven't been able to do it often thanks to the circumstances. I'm too scared to use dreambubbles.xyz. But if you're interested, my discord is boolean2390 and while I main alphabeta boys (i.e. Dave, John, Jake, Dirk), I have RPed Dave and Karkat before in actual, concrete examples I can show you.

10. Do you cosplay homestuck characters? Who and where?

I was gonna cosplay Karkat before Omegle shut down.

11. Are you apart of ask blogs?

I am not and I have actively avoided this! I'm gonna be real here, I'll never top the current set of kid ask blogs, so I'll just watch from afar. Plus, it's quite a bit of work when my faves are so popular, and therefore will not fill any real niches. (a jake english would be kinda funny even if it already exists tho)

12. Are you in any homestuck groups?

Hoesslut server on Discord

13. Favorite character?

you can make a tri venn diagram of all my faves with the headings "waifu", "literally me" and "actually good/interesting character" with some mild overlap

that said

objective best is jade and personal fav is karkat

aradia is super based also. best part of act 5 but utterly forgettable afterwards. served cunt, died, served cunt, revived

14. Least favorite character?

tri venn diagram of "obsessive hatred", "boring" and "annoying"

most of my "least favs" disappoint me from lack of potential being utilised effectively

idfk doc scratch??

15. OTP? 16. NOTP? 17. BROTP?

JANEROXY 4EVER!!!! that's the only consistent one. i can like any ship if given some good enough motivation (even if it's my dick).

that being said i scour johndave and johnkat most often. however i am THE blackrom vantas and johnkat/davekat must be spades ONLY. spades johndave is fun but no one writes it. dude i just love spades

18. Do you want homestuck to just die already?

No, I just got here!

19. Are you following up with hiveswap? Do you play? Watch YT videos?

I don't, and I don't care.

20. Tell us how homestuck has affected you in real life?

Locked myself in my room and did nothing but read Homestuck for about 2 weeks to a month. I finished it during this time

Got so high I tripped balls thought I killed my best friend and got stuck on Prospit while Homestuck music was playing in the background. Last summer!

Started laughing uncontrollably in the middle of a psychotherapy appointment since I was being so Davecore

My karkalicious x wannabe remix is on my friend's playlist bc she genuinely enjoys it. This remix also haunted me during an important art project I was doing and singlehandedly cursed the entire thing

Wore sunglasses IRL for a bit. (It does help.) Would keep doing it if I didn't lose my clip-ons

My sister thinks I sell Karkat foot fetish art now. She follows me here

21. Have you met anyone through homestuck?

IRL? No. Online? Duh

22. Have you left the fandom before?

No, I'm a total newfag

23. How many times have you read through it?

TOTAL newfag. Only once

24. Did you ever skip intermissions/dialog/animations?

I'd scan over them, but not totally skip. I also read act summaries in full when they were there because I am a baby with goldfish memory

25. Opinions on the fandom?

Depends... I think it's gotten a lot better from my observations, but of course, Twitter is still a cesspit full of retarded babies that shit their diapers. But that could be said about any fandom that's majority kids. Also any stridercester that thinks theyre oppressed for liking shota boy twincest should btfo and jerk off in peace. Which in fairness, most of them do! But to the ones that don't, GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY NOTES FAGGOT

Besides those, I think it's great, but I also main Tumblr, so...

26. Opinions on the comic?

Personally I enjoyed it a lot, but I'll get a more rounded impression once I re-read it. All plot shenanigans aside, Homestuck's main selling point has always been its characters, and its method of introducing and developing them is one of my favourites. Also its humour

27. Do you favor the trolls, humans, or carapaces?

Humans, because I'm a boring fucknut who reads sci-fi for the humans and will put them in an office building and say "imagine if they did IT"

28. Favorite moment of all of homestuck?

29. Least favorite moment of all of homestuck?

beginning of act 6 felt like i nodded off on dope and woke up in the hospital. retcon was kinda mid

Mid-season thoughts on Fresh Pretty Cure!:

This is the season with the most cohesive writing so far. The characters are consistent and the episodes flow almost seamlessly into each other, which is a breath of fresh air after my experience watching Yes! 5.

The cures are great! Love specifically is fascinating to me, with her borderline unhealthy selflessness and tendency to neglect her own needs; she could swap places with Steven Universe and the two would pretty much fill each others niches seamlessly. I am also thoroughly enjoying Setsuna so far, because she is very angsty and I am very predictable. I do feel that Inori and Miki get the side character treatment, but that was also an issue in Yes! 5 (specifically with Komachi), so I'm chalking it up to the writers having to juggle a bigger cast than the first two seasons.

The villains are super interesting! Labyrinth is a surprisingly dark depiction of a pseudofascist world (I can't really call it fascism because while it presents the authoritarianism, the obsession with the one figure in power, and the severe restriction of freedom, it mostly lacks the extreme nationalist obsession that keeps a fascist regimen together and I think that's a deliberate choice but that's a conversation i don't want to have). The fact that the powers that be can just say "yeah we have no use for you, you're done living" and end a person's life with a word is bone-chilling. And the fact that they chose computer imagery to depict such a society? A full 13 years before the virtual hell we're seeing today? The vision. The genius.

(Actually now that I think about it, Steven Universe shares quite a bit with this season. I think people who like one might enjoy the other.)

I'm... still not used to the animation style. It's a bit too inconsistent for me, not just in terms of still proportions but also in the quality of the animation itself; it would be one thing if it was either simple and economic throughout or if they saved the budget just for the action sequences, but there are also random straightforward scenes like the girls just talking which are animated a bit too well for no discernible reason, and that was kind of distracting. Hopefully I'll grow comfortable with it soon.

In conclusion: someone find Love a therapist before she has a mental breakdown so severe it turns her into a pink Godzilla clone

Usually when I think about my ex it's because of something sadistic that he specifically engineered to try to ruin my life, but sometimes it's like...wait, what the hell was THAT all about? On one occasion he decided to reactivate his neglected Facebook account, but he got stuck trying to figure out how to fill out his profile. Suddenly he turned his frustration on me and sneered, "What am I even supposed to put down? People are such assholes, what do they want to see? ...like YOU, YOU'RE an asshole. heheheheh. What do YOU like? Like you read William Burroughs? Yeah, that's what ASSHOLES read...you like WERNER HERZOG? You listen to TOM WAITS? heheheh yeah, all that stuff is what ASSHOLES are into...now ASSHOLES will think I'm cool..." He just kept like emitting this theatrically ironic giggle and calling me an asshole, as he methodically entered every single one of my interests, at that time in my 20s, as his own. He didn't even change it later, it wasn't a joke. He just had no idea what to say for himself, at all. Thinking back, outside of comic books, he didn't really have any interests that weren't directly fed to him by Wes Anderson movies. He used to obsess over his SAT score and his class rank and other erstwhile signs of intellect, but in the years we were together I don't think he ever picked up a new book, or got excited about a new director or an artist or anything. After the early phase of him trying to impress me, it felt like we never even watched anything together unless people were making fun of it on Fark, or HuffPo published some obnoxious hot take on it, or something else like that, that he thought he had to keep up with. He spent a ton of energy buying new DVDs and toys and shit that he didn't even enjoy, after looking at them once he'd try to flip them on ebay and he'd always become ferociously angry when he failed to turn a profit, which of course he couldn't do because it was always just whatever was weighing down the shelves at Best Buy at that exact moment. If you saw his apartment you could think he was a passionate hobbyist devoted to niche interests, but if you had to spend any significant amount of time with him, you found out he didn't really care about anything besides other people's impressions of him. At a certain point he suddenly developed this cluster of alternative career ambitions that never lasted for more than an hour and that were almost always inspired by whatever he had just seen on TV: stand-up comic, chef, entrepreneur, whatever. It wasn't fun at the time but I still have to laugh when I remember going for drinks after seeing THE SOCIAL NETWORK, when he suddenly decided that his new job was inventing a brilliant new tech start-up that no one ever thought of before. As we sat there, he scribbled a couple general ideas that I came up with on a cocktail napkin, and when he couldn't come up with anything on his own, he just started shouting in my face, "THINK! THINK!!!" One night after an episode of Hell's Kitchen, he started prancing around, speaking in this bad British accent and talking to me as if I were a game show contestant. I thought it was a joke, but when I reflected that, he got really angry and told me how rude I was like 50 times and wouldn't stop until I apologized for treating him so poorly. Apparently I wasn't supposed to NOTICE that he was pretending to be Gordon Ramsey, just like nobody who looked at his Facebook page was supposed to notice that it was full of "interests" that he didnt know the first thing about.

Here's a fairly recent one for that fandom meme:

Oban Star

blorbo: Eva Wei. She's a great protagonist with great motivation, being able to keep her identity under wraps, race in these death-defying contests, deal with her teammates and rivals, yet still manages to be a nice, compassionate person.

skrunkly: Cheating here but Eva has the cutest design. Will use this word-that-reminds-me-of-wrinkles space to mention that wise old alien, Satis. Him hiding more than he appeared to be while still being a benevolent character was a nice change, normally they turn out to be bad guys. Also appreciate that while he was a kooky old man character, he didn't overstay his welcome/become obnoxious.

scrimblo bimblo: Rush. Always a fan of big guy characters that happen to be big friendly guys too. First racer that we meet after Aikka that's not only benevolent but racing for a selfless reason, trying to restore his world. Absolutely devastated he didn't come to Oban as well, at least for moral support. Also really wanted him to punch one of the two Crog racers just because they needed taking down a peg or two, just once.

glup shitto: Muir. Much like Rush, he turns out to be one of the more benevolent racers, albeit not at first encounter or glance. Also fills Rush's niche of big guy but instead of big friendly, he's big monster. Trying to resurrect his lost mate is a cool, but sad parallel to Eva's own quest to bring back her mother and the fact that this sad spider crab leaves the Oban races before the final by overhearing that the Avatar cannot grant his wish, is a real heart-breaker. Glad he managed to survive the finale though.

honourable glup shittos: The two or three Crogs in the Crog senate/parliament/debating chamber who weren't all about conquest, calling for contingency plans, at least taking a break from their marching forth to conquer and the defense of their people. Having them appear in a similar scene as Xenophobic President Rhinox, contrasting against his "I had to do it you see! Aliens, you can't trust them!" speech later on, really help to make the Crogs appear as a race of people, rather than cardboard cutout villains.

poor little meow meow: Don Wei. Having a nuanced, flawed parental figure is one thing, but I wasn't expecting to get so invested into how much he screwed up when it came to how he treated his daughter. I was hanging on every confrontation where it looked like Eva would tell him or he would figure it out, so when the dam finally burst, it was incredibly rewarding to see all the pain and melancholy that came about as a result come straight to the surface. Especially as Eva was allowed to really call him out for it, on his attitude and neglect, which I'd imagine at least let them work towards their happier ending later on.

Horse Plinko: Jordan C. Wilde. Sorry, buddy, I just didn't mesh with you at all! From your constant "grr aliens" (against the Crogs and Aikka, who seemed to be an ally to them rather than a press-ganged prince, it was a little understandable, against every other alien was a little hmm) in a universe where Earth DOES have alien allies and friends, to your late-game hitting on Eva when you rarely listened to her or actively contributed to screwing up her racing strategies, Jordan just wasn't the support character I think Eva needed. Appreciate your sacrifice and hope becoming the Avatar makes you a better person, because just watching the show alone didn't give me much to care about ya.

eeby-deeby: Sul. Godlike power, godlike arrogance, flat character. Racing because he could and would land with himself with even more power, yet none of the will to use it. Despite having already great power, he doesn't do anything with it that I'm aware of, never making any difference to the universe other than bolstering his own ego. I think he'd have made a better villain than simply another racer. Somehow, he even made the Super Hell Chozo Canaletto look good, considering that he, of all characters, wasn't even half as condescending to Eva despite manipulating her entire life and her like a puppet.

honourable lord of eeby-deeby: Canaletto, rightfully on his throne in super hell because, quite frankly, he's a magnificent example of a baddie and should probably be in the bad place to begin with. Who knows, with all the talk of Oban getting a second season revival, maybe death is but a doorway, time to the Timeless One is but a window and he'll be back.

This is gonna be so long and irrelevant i'm putting it under a read more because I will not be accused of making people read a multiple paragraph, self-reflective unpacking of my niche interests without their explicit consent. Don't say I never did anything for you.

So yeah in case you somehow haven't noticed I'm going through an ace attorney thing right now. I played the great ace attorney chronicles when it came out and really liked it, and it made me remember how much fun I had playing the original games on my crappy laptop emulator when i was in my first year of college (so like 2015 i think). I had just moved to a new city where i didn't know anybody, and was sort of in the process of completely divorcing myself from everything about my hometown so I had a lot of very solitary time on my hands, so on my breaks between classes I would sit in an empty studio and play these games that ended up being incredibly comforting to me. The story lines were fun and compelling, I liked that it always gave you enough info to try and think through the mystery, but not so much that it couldn't surprise you with a twist. I also love media that just hands you a bunch of fun characters with unique looks and personalities and shows you how they think and talk and move and how they interact with each other. It was like ace attorney was made specifically to appeal to me. So when i finished great ace attorney I wanted to go back and play every single main series games again, partly because I have an incredibly bad memory and by this time all I really remembered about them was "I enjoyed this when i was 19".

And for some reason I fell back into it hard. I don't know if it was due to the current state of the world and just needing that escapism so badly, or the fact that I realized there was still an active fandom, or even that I'm simply more self aware than I was before and found slightly new interpretations of things, but regardless I was fixated. It was honestly weird for me to begin with. I'm not used to being obsessed with things to this degree. I have my hyperfixations but they seem to come in waves, I get my 1-2 months of enjoyment out of something and then it fizzles out and I move on to something else. I am now 5 months in to my reignited ace attorney obsession and it is not slowing down. I am seeking out content at breakneck speed. I am reading fanfiction unironically for the first time in 26 years (AA has a cool habit of offhandedly mentioning something happened and then never elaborating on it and there are a lot of very talented canon-compliant writers filling in those gaps). I like to joke that I will never get a tattoo because there isn't anything I like enough to warrant getting it permanently on my body... I have now 80% convinced myself to get an ace attorney tattoo. So this is serious.

I think one thing that's changed between 2015 and now is that I've undergone a ton of personal growth and accumulated years of therapy (not to mention gotten an entire degree in overthinking), so now instead of just pointing vaguely at a gay lawyer in a blue suit and going "I like that :)" I actually understand what it is about these characters that I find so compelling. When you think about it (and both I and others have spent too much of our free time thinking about it) ace attorney deals a lot with themes of found family, trauma, and dealing with loss. Every character has their own struggles and hangups and I end up recognizing myself in a lot of them.

Like, its the way Phoenix Wright is self sacrificing to a fault. He takes on seemingly impossible tasks that no one else is willing to do and neglects his own wellbeing for the sake of people he cares about. He held his mentor as her body went cold in his arms and immediately took in her little sister, his best friend has left his life with no warning not once but twice, he's been assaulted, framed, nearly poisoned by someone he thought loved him, and he shoved all of that down to take care of everyone around him. Then after he gets disbarred its like it all catches up to him. He doesn't have the outlet of his job, and he just has to sit with everything for 7 years and now its his daughter that is the only reason he's still managing to hold the pieces of his life together.

And it's Miles Edgeworth and Franziska von Karma who are so interesting and have all these parallels and places where they diverge. Edgeworth had a loving father he looked up to until he was 9, and then it was all taken so suddenly, he feels personally responsible for it and has nightmares and flashbacks and panic attacks. Then after Manfred von Karma takes him in he doesn't see compassion again for 15 years, he is molded into the image of a perfect son and again we have the theme of pushing your own feelings down and not dealing with your trauma, but instead of sacrificing your own wellbeing for others its to appear strong and build up an emotional wall so no one knows that inside he's so deeply fucked up. He's scared of fucking everyone else up so he just pushes away any attempt to help him because this guilt that eats him makes him think he doesn't deserve the love that he desperately wants.

And Franziska is similar but even harder to reach because she didn't have those 9 years of a normal family. Emotional neglect and impossibly high standards are literally all she knows. When von Karma adopts Edgeworth he is immediately pitted against her and she devotes her life to being better than him. She calls herself perfect because thats what she's expected to be but she's violent and angry at everything around her and its because she's acting out these feelings she has towards her father and herself. Even after developing some tenuous relationships with the other characters she doesn't come as far as Edgeworth does because she doesn't know how. She doesn't know love or friendship or vulnerability and it will probably take a lifetime to undo the damage thats been done to her. I feel a lot for Franziska obviously.

I've already gone on so long, and thats not even beginning to mention the tragedy that is the Fey family, abandonment by Misty, betrayal by Morgan, the death of Mia, how Pearl's story is essentially her escaping from a cult. Then there's Diego Armando who makes me so fucking sad when I picture the void he must have lived in when he left the hospital and realized that not only was his girlfriend dead but he couldn't even get back at anyone for it because it had been tied up a long time ago so he's just left with this sadness and directionless anger towards nobody, but mostly towards himself. I'm not even going to touch the things i feel about Apollo Justice and Klavier Gavin because AA4 is really good and I could probably just make a whole post this length about that.

I don't really know what I was saying with all this but to sum up, trauma makes you weird and sometimes you just have to accept that your family isn't what you need and go out and find a new one.

I have this really good friend who is really strongly against porn (religious reasons) and man... I know she doesn't realize how much the stuff she says about how awful people who look at porn are makes me feel like shit because I don't think she really realizes I'm one of them. I mean... I try to do the right think with like consuming drawn stuff rather than stuff from big live action because it's way easier to know the drawing's not being abused but... you know how it is, just as bad in a lot of people's minds

Plus I have done pretty deviant tastes, and even though I can break it down and point to the root of stuff (for example if I like something drawn where like a young boy is doing something with someone older... I fucking know that's, you know, me putting myself in the role of the little boy and thinking about getting affection I never hit because I was straight up neglected according to professionals) and that I know fiction from reality... like I said, none of that matters

Like this is a really good friend, great person, very supportive. Just doesn't know this and kind of tanks my already non existant opinion of myself and makes me feel even more like a mistake that ought to get on erasing myself

Anyway, sorry about using your anon like a confessional box but... this has weighed on me for years, just want to get it out

You're a good person, you clearly mean well, I'd be following if I didn't avoid discourse. Anytime I see you on my dash though you're always trying to do the right thing (even the times I disagree, you clearly are trying to do the right thing)

Hope you're doing alright

Again, sorry about the weird long fucking ask here, take care

(Boy I hope I'm not somehow sending this to the wrong person, just noticed I can't check while in the ask screen)

the thing with many anti-porn people is that they’re more against the porn than they are the ethical treatment of people. They often use the abuse of real people and victims of trafficking to justify it because if you disagree, you’re going to look like a jackass. They use that to basically keep people from disagreeing or pushing people into a corner. It’s kinda like how peta uses being anti-animal abuse but then takes issue with video games like their anti-pokemon game and the #blathersisoverparty bullshit they did. Or how people who are against gun violence say call of duty makes you violent or a school shooter and then try to use it to get rid of a medium rather than trying to address the root cause of an issue. Or like how antis will cite scentific studies completely incorectly and misrepresented to say certain ships/content are gross and bad.

Its less about protecting people and more about morals. Otherwise, they’d have no issue with drawn and written porn which has existed as long as, if not longer than RL porn. It’s also why many centers for sexual abuse, trafficking, etc. focus more on the root cause of issues within society like different cultures and have a nuanced view of it as opposed to people that are just anti-porn. Just because you do something good, doesn’t mean that you did it exclusively for them. Sometimes it can just be that helping someone bettered your own morals and goals.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have an issue with something that is written, drawn, or animated. It basically fills the niche but without any risk of abuse. Yet, for some reason, they’re even against that being drawn and consumed even though its a far less evil with far less risk than RL porn. I’m into some pretty deviant stuff myself like werewolves, fantacy creatures, tentacles, etc... you aren’t finding that anywhere beyond a written or animated story. Hell, my personal preference is hentai over most anything else for fap material. 

And sometimes, someone can be a good person but not a good friend for *you*. I had to deal with this a lot where good person =/= being a healthy person or relationship. Some people ik on facebook are good people but still post things that make me feel like shit as a person. Because of that, I don’t really hang around or limit my contact with them.