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bingoboingobongo · 1 year

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task force 141 + hot cocoa bombs

Characters: Simon "Ghost" Riley, John "Soap" MacTavish, Kyle "Gaz" Garrick, John Price, Alejandro Vargas, Rodolfo "Rudy" Parra

Warnings: none

A/N: got kinda distracted for a bit but now we're back to the true holiday stuff (i'll get to requests soon, maybe after christmas dw)

alright so price organized this as a "team building exercise"

it's in quotes because you're pretty sure it's just a way for him to get the brass to fund a day off

he called everyone to the kitchen at like nine in the morning for a mandatory training session

but of course when everyone arrives they're met with chocolate chips, hot cocoa packets, silicon molds, and an unnecessary amount of sprinkles

gaz is the first person to figure out what's going on because he made hot cocoa bombs with his family the first time they were trending

also because gaz and christmas desserts go together like milk and cookies

ofc rudy freaks out when he learns this because he's always wanted to make hot cocoa bombs but he's never gotten around to it

soap is intrigued but mainly by the bomb part

alejandro is excited because of the hot cocoa and also because rudy's so excited

and ghost is uh

on the fence to say the least

he definitely asks if this is necessary

and price gives him a pat on the back and says obviously

price also lets them know that they each have to make their own

and then chaos ensues

simon "ghost" riley:

alright so to start simon wasn't really into the whole idea but as time went on he started warming up to it

really he's just warming up to the idea of making a better hot cocoa bomb than soap

he assumed it would be pretty easy after hearing price explain the steps but he found out the hard way that it was definitely not

he ended up having to restart multiple times but so did everyone else so it worked out in the end

the first time he didn't melt his chocolate well and it wasn't smooth at all

so he tried melting it more and promptly ended up burning it

tried another time and it went well, except when he went to take it out he immediately crushed it

tried making it thicker but then it ended up being way too thick and he couldn't get the chocolate to melt when he put the milk over it

but finally after endless teasing from soap he managed to get the perfect thickness

he used dark chocolate too because he's not really a sweets kinda guy

also chocolate has a tendency to clog up his throat and when it's sweet it makes it even worse

plus the darker color makes it look more classy in his opinion

also he was initially just gonna leave it plain but then he looked over and saw what the others were doing and decided he needed to step it up

so he took some white chocolate and made a little skull on all of his

he also took some melted chocolate and drew little skull faces on all the marshmallows he put inside

and tbh they all turned out really well

which isn't that surprising when you consider all the arts and crafts he does to make his mask

john "soap" mactavish:

alright so soap was kinda disappointed when price showed them a video of hot cocoa bombs

mainly because he assumed there would be an actual explosion involved

not just melting chocolate

but chocolate is chocolate and as long as soap gets to snack on the marshmallows and chocolate chips as he works he's more than happy to participate

he was actually able to get a good consistency and thickness the first time he did it

but then he accidentally knocked all of his bombs off the counter and they shattered

literally saw his life flash before his eyes when it happened too

also ghost definitely laughed at him for this

so then he started making a second batch when ghost made a comment about not really liking hot chocolate

so soap joked that he should put some tea in there instead

and ghost just stared at him like "what the hell did you just say"

and soap just stared at him back

and this went on for like a good minute

but then soap ended up burning his chocolate

except for some reason he figured that if he kept on cooking it it would melt again and be fine

it was not fine

his chocolate did in fact end up catching on fire

he ended up throwing the whole pot out in the snow

and now it just sits there

but like they say third time's the charm because his cocoa bombs came out well and didn't shatter or burst into flames

he made them out of white chocolate and then dyed them an army green

and he ended up decorating them like grenades

bc he's still salty that there was no explosion involved

also he definitely used a blow torch to melt it instead of hot milk

he wanted to use a flame thrower but price wouldn't let him

kyle "gaz" garrick:

bro gaz do not come out to play when it comes for holiday treats let's be fr

it's not even a competition but he was ready to be crowned cocoa bomb champion

literally the poster boy of first time best time

because he's able to get his chocolate at the perfect consistency and thickness first try

okay ig technically it's not his first try since he did it with his family but he also got it first try then too so the idea still stands

he just somehow manages to prepare really really well for these things

like he will take over an hour to just watch recipe after recipe and come up with a design

speaking of designs gaz took inspiration from his favorite film lol

that's right loyal readers gaz made a grinch hot cocoa bomb

he dyed some white chocolate green for the shell

and then used various colors of melted white chocolate to do the details

and bro gaz had no business being as good at it as he was

like he could open up a business with the quality of hot cocoa bombs he was making

also everyone kept going to gaz for help because he was the only one who knew what he was doing

and later he ended up packaging them up and saving them so he could bring some back to his family

john price:

alright so like ghost price also expected it to be easy

but the problem he faced is that price has a tendency to run hot

so the chocolate kept melting in his hands

and then his hot cocoa bombs would be all sorts of wonky shapes

at first he assumed it was just that his chocolate melted weird but he tried like three different kinds but they all kept melting

at this point he had to go sit outside for a bit and smoke a cigar in shame

ended up returning after a while

gaz offered to make one for him but he refused

this time he was determined to make one without it melting so easily

so he did everything like usual

melted the chocolate

put it in the molds

but when it came time to actually take the stuff out and touch the chocolate

price went out and got a bowl of snow from outside

and then proceeded to dunk his hands in the snow every like two minutes

by the end of it his hands were red and super numb

but it was worth it because he was able to put his hot cocoa bomb together without any help

that being said he did not have the patience to decorate it

so his was just a brown sphere

but you bet he was proud of his brown sphere

alejandro vargas:

alright so chocolate is actually alejandro's weak spot

so tbh most of his time was spent snacking on the chocolate chips

also he spent a lot of time watching rudy make his so he could learn from him

and also it gave him extra time to snack on chocolate

he was also able to learn from rudy's mistakes too

also you know that he made himself a cup of hot cocoa to drink while making his hot cocoa bomb

correction he made a cup of ibarra

he insists it's different from regular hot cocoa bc it's better

and he also uses this to fill up his hot cocoa bomb

since he was able to learn from rudy he's actually able to get it down first try

one of his was too thin and shattered though but he was smart and made multiple (rudy made multiple first and gave alejandro the idea)

he ended up filling his with ibarra and more chocolate chips

and he used milk chocolate because he likes sweet things

ended up using some food coloring and alcohol to make some edible paint

and decorated it like an ornament

he then painted a rolo silver and put it on top to really complete the look

and he was so proud of it he went around showing everyone

rudy definitely watched on like a proud mother

rodolfo "rudy" parra:

alright so rudy was sooo hyped to make the hot cocoa bombs

literally ask alejandro because rudy has been sending him videos of hot cocoa bombs daily for the past three weeks

so this has been brewing for a very long time

started off very very strong

but the immediately burnt his chocolate

he was so confused about it too because he didn't even really chocolate could burn

he asked alejandro to come taste some and he knew something was up when alejandro immediately spit it out

he tried some himself and had to immediately get a glass of water to wash it down

lord knows he was so confused too

he kept talking about it too after the fact

"geez, i can't believe it burnt."

"did you guys know chocolate could burn?"

"i didn't realize chocolate could burn."

literally the embodiment of the whole scratching your head joke but it's adorable and i love him so it's okay

once he gets over that though he starts again

this time alejandro is watching too

he keeps asking alejandro for help even though he also doesn't know what's going on

eventually tho they made it through and rudy was able to make his hot cocoa bombs

he ended up piping out some little chocolate antlers and using alejandro's edible paint to draw a reindeer face with a red nose

bc yk what rudy has an attachment to rudolph the red nosed reindeer

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soaringsearingphoenix · 1 year

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how do u prep for dnd i feel like i should be doing that before sessions

That's a great question! And it varies from GM to GM. If you're new to prep, it can be a little overwhelming - start with ONE thing you want to focus on (materials, scenery, voices, combat, lore) and play around with that; figure out your own preferences. I'll try to be comprehensive [aka i tend to ramble - I'll also try to format it so it's not just a wall of text.] If you already are confident about some of this stuff, great! But I hope some of it helps.

In my opinion, prep is as much about feeling prepared and confident as it is about having materials ready. Both are important! TL:DR; it's mostly about PRACTICE and ORGANIZATION.

I'm a person who tends to run a bit of a sandbox world, and trust that I'm prepared to improv a little when the players inevitably go 'off course'. But I have a lot of GM friends who are much further towards the "I like to have everything prepared, with a set map and a set understanding of IF you do this, THEN this will happen."

It can be a good idea to be honest with your players about what to expect - especially if you have new players, making sure they are prepared may be part of the process. Letting them know whether there will be combat, and whether there will be time in-game to prepare for it, can help a game run smoother. (I'll come back to that.)

Know how to use whatever resource you are using. If you are running a game, whether physically or digitally, figure out how you like to set up your area so that you know everything you need is within reach. If it is in person, make sure things like books and maps are all in once place ahead of time. If you are calling with Discord, you could make sure the server has a dice bot, or make sure any music bot you are using works properly. If you use roll20, google drive, or another site, you can upload maps, make sure they are aligned to the grid if they need to be, and play around with any other features it might have! There are some useful tools out there for GMs, and even just finding something to help you organize your notes can be huge. That could be a whole separate post.

If you're running a game from a module/pre-written materials, you want to spend the time reading through those materials. It's honestly a bit like studying in a class! Make sure you know some of the information, and know where to find the rest of it.

For familiarizing - whether I'm using a guide or writing it myself - I try to prioritize visual and narrative descriptions - practice narrating what your players 'see' when they enter an area, for example, so that you are prepared for any potentially unfamiliar or confusing words (I'm a pretty confident reader and I still stumble over things like "minute" [pronounced min-it] as in 60 seconds of time being spelled the same as "minute" [pronounced my-noot] as in tiny.

This goes for NPC voices too. If important plot information is being delivered via dialogue, say your line a couple times! If you are giving your characters specific voices, practice how you want their speech to sound! (I like to take notes for that too - this guy sounds "comfortable and friendly, like a dad at a barbecue". This woman sounds "like a librarian - pursed lips!" It can help to find a key phrase, gesture, or posture that helps you get into character. I really enjoy doing NPCs, so I tend to start with that, but not every campaign has a heavy focus on them.

Keywords can help you give 'character' to your environments, too. This foggy coast might be ominous, so I want to narrate it in an ominous voice. This tavern may be comforting - it's warm, so I'll narrate it in a warmer tone. Listening to your own voice ahead of time can help you set the mood you want a scene to have.

You may also want to try to anticipate player questions. This gets easier with experience. If you have a wizard who likes to look for spell components, expect "could I find a sprig of mistletoe?" when the narrative takes them to the forest. If you have a rogue who really leaned into the thief archetype, expect "is anything on the table small enough to fit in my pocket?" If they encounter a dog, no matter how menacing, expect that someone is probably going to ask if they can try to befriend it. Knowing what your players enjoy, and what their goals are, can give you a better sense of how to anticipate their responses to what you throw at them.

If there is going to be combat, puzzles, or obstacles, have stat blocks you may need available. If they are in a book/ on a web page, BOOKMARK THEM. If not, write them down!

I have found it very useful to get note cards, and write a 'cheat-sheet' with some basic stats down from my players' character sheets. My current version (for D&D - other systems have other stats) includes their max HP, AC, passive Perception, base stats, languages, and their main weapon - anything I might otherwise have to ask them about, I like to have in front of me. It's not uncommon for a GM to say "What's your AC?" when they roll an attack against a PC, but I often have newer players, and I like being able to say "You're using a short sword - that's 1d6 of damage, plus your strength is +2" right away.

Even if your players are experienced, knowing what they are capable of as their GM helps you write challenges that they are appropriately equipped to solve. If your party has a lot of spell casters, maybe give them a puzzle about solving runes to get into a locked chamber. If there are a lot of fighters and barbarians, maybe the barrier is clearing a rock slide, or scaling a wall, or fighting a guard. Give the players chances to show off the things their characters are good at!

I also make note cards for any monsters in combat, and use my note cards to keep track of initiative order in combat, by putting them in an ordered pile - that way I have the stats for whoever's turn it is right in front of me when their turn comes up. But that's just my personal preference, and many GMs I know will use an online initiative tracker (roll20 has one built in!)

Having stats ready and accessible is so helpful. For some GMs, (and some players!) being familiar with the combat they have planned IS what prep is all about! Even if you're a more narrative-focused GM, read through monster stats in advance - I've run some combats that were harder than I realized because I went "ooh, fire mephits sound cool! I could put some fire enemies in an abandoned forge" and didn't consider the fact that they also explode when they die and damage anything within 5ft of them...

and that most of my players were melee fighters.

Oops! Lesson learned. Which brings me back to working with your players and their abilities.

One of the simplest things you can do to prep is to remind your players that the game is coming up, and to make sure they've done anything they need to do. Just a "Hey, we're playing tomorrow. Do you have any questions for me?" Being approachable to your players helps you get to know them, and in turn helps you anticipate what they will respond to. Plus, asking "Would you like any help leveling up your character? If not, may I see what new things you chose when you leveled up?" when relevant gives you an opportunity to get more familiar with their character sheets.

I hope that helps! If you have any other questions, if I can elaborate on anything here, or if there is another GM-ing related topic you would like my thoughts about, let me know!

#my advice #about me #gm tips #rpgs #thanks for asking!!#long post

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davestriderascend · 5 months

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the homestuck reread, pt 5

ive apparently finished what the map is deeming "part 3", and there are starting to be. a lot of subacts. and i am having a hard time remembering them all. and the map doesnt mark the subacts. so im just going to recap up to the end of part 3 now, before the act 6 act 6 nonsense sets in in full.

heres the previous recap if you missed it (meenahbound), and heres the first one if youre new.

Act 6 Act 4

this is the subact where the alpha kids enter their session! we are introduced to their planets, given a little glimpse of what theyve been up to, and their imprisoned jack noir gives us a wonderful little tally showing us exactly how much time has passed between their entry and when their adventure next picks up (153 days, with their adventure starting 11/11, and ending 4/13, so like five months). its super short and like nothing happens. moving on

Act 6 Intermission 4

breaking slightly from the previous pattern of a6 intermissions checking up on literally everything non-alpha kid related happening, this entire intermission is devoted to caliborns brand new session as he argues with hussie, shoots gamzee a lot, and is generally a tool.

The Characters

its in this act that hussie talks to caliborn about the consequences of him killing callie. basically, in killing her, hes stunted his own growth so that he will never reach his full potential as an adult, bc he didnt dominate in the traditional way. this is probably why lord english isnt shown with wings, the way other adult cherubs are. they also talk a lot about how this has impacted caliborns session and made it unique, (and they continue to talk about this in all of caliborns intermissions,) but im not gonna get into that here. caliborn is kind of implied in this act to have some kind of learning disability? which is. hm. its not framed great im gonna be real.

hes still a tool, hes still creepy, he shoots gamzee a lot and theres a whole elevatorstuck bit in this act that made me laugh really hard, but otherwise theres nothing else to say here.

Act 6 Act 5 Act 1

this is where we start getting into the sub sub acts. this is also where 99% of the alpha kids session stuff happens. everything with the alpha kid sprites is here, the jake, dirk, and jane mess, The hal and dirk conversation, and roxy briefly getting jailed by condy and discovering the void ring. this is also where calliope is first revealed hiding in the furthest ring. a6a5a1 is actually split into two separate parts, so im just talking about the first part here (yeah, i know).

The Plot

the jake, dirk, and jane mess is infamous. its hard to believe that all of that drama literally just happens in this one fucking act. even more so, its all contained more or less in three fucking pesterlogs. fr. people have so many opinions on this shit, i am just literally going to copypaste the relevant logs, even! youre welcome!

this is the majority of the really potent stuff. the way it reads to me, jake and dirk started dating when they entered the medium, and have been dating for the past five months, until jake suddenly stopped talking to dirk and dipped. jane mentions that jake has complained about dirk to her more and more over the past few months, and asked her less and less about how she was doing, so shes basically stopped contacting him altogether. dirks role in this act is virtually nonexistent, so we dont get any idea of how hes feeling about this until his conversation with hal, wherein he blames hal for scaring jake off w hals machinations in getting them into the medium, and hal says that blaming him is just a way of dirk trying to cope with the fact that he blames himself.

the reality is the alpha kids session gets very little screentime. we have no idea what really happened during those five months, and we never get to know. but it is worth noting that these kids are extremely isolated, and this is also dirk and jakes very first relationship ever. its going to be very new, very confusing, and there is also a lot at stake if they break up and dont stay friends, especially if it ripples out to the larger friendgroup. im sure all of that has a huge impact on the way they handle things and the way it explodes at the end.

personally, i find the parallel between jake and jane to be the most interesting thing here. while jake repeatedly checks in with jane to make sure hes not driving her nuts, and dirk checks in with jake to ask if he needs space, both jake and jane, instead of communicating their problems, refuse to say anythign about them. they avoid the issue and let it fester, pulling back from the relationships until they both have a lot of resentment for the other party. in both cases, that resentment explodes- with jake going no contact with dirk, and jane blowing up at jake. theyre really bad communicators, honestly.

The Characters

when i talked about roxy in a6a2, i was pretty harsh, and i said all of that keeping in mind that iw ould be revisiting her here. in a6a5a1, roxy gets sober. and when she is sober, she is so kind, and thoughtful, and strong, with a great love for her friends and a deep fear that she isnt worthy of them. she has a close relationship with fefeta, and its through her talking about fefeta that we actually learn about fefeta, given that feferi, nepeta, and fefeta never speak from the moment of fefetas introduction. she admires her mom, and is so excited and nervous to meet her in person, and her mom is actually the reason she decides to give up alcohol! she wanted to be a person her mom could be proud of. i just. i love roxy so much she really is the best shes so kind to all of her friends and sweet w callie and shes also so fucking funny and i just. love her.

dirk continues his pattern of not being there much, mostly. his big moment in this act is his conversation with hal. apparently, he has literally not prototyped his sprite this entire fucking time bc he promised hal hed prototype him but doesnt want to and theyve been arguing about it nonstop for five months. insane shit. he had to bribe gamzee to keep gamzee from dumping random shit in, and he prototypes hal on the day that stops working. anyway, the conversation that takes place between him and hal in this act is one of my favorite moments in all of homestuck, its just so cool and theres really nothing else to say about it. if you havent seen this animation of their conversation you should bc its iconic

jake is... kind of a terrible friend, in this act. just objectively. the reality is, jake REALLY struggles with social cues and shit. hes just fucking terrible with people. he has no idea when jane is uncomfortable, no matter how obvious jane makes it, he has no balls when it comes to communicating with dirk, he makes all of his conversations with jane and erisol about himself (and kind of roxy, too??), and just. jesus christ. everything about his relationship with erisol actually is really really bad. its like what some people THINK john and davesprites relationship is like. idk thats like 99% of my takeaway from this act and i genuinely love him but this isnt a strong act for him

there are things to be said about jane, but i think ill hold off for a bit.

fefetasprite, as ive already mentioned, we pretty much exclusively hear about through roxys reencounters of who she is. she likes to gossip, and shes given roxy a ton of advice. apparently, in one on one conversations, shes a hell of a chatter box, btu seems to clam up in public for some reason. hussies always had kind of a running joke in the formsprings and whatnot about "a million worthless dead nepetas" and how, in the grand scheme of things, most of the characters introduced in hivebent arent important and will never be important, and it just kind of feels like fefeta not talking is an extension of that.

arquius is arrogant, and leans even harder into brodude type language than dirk and hal. hes casual, but full of himself and commanding, fully enthused to the max about both equius and hals interests (which have a decent amount of overlap anyway). he defers to dirk, commands dirk, and commands dirk to command him in equal and contradicting measure. hes really pumped about having a physical form, and even more pumped that that form is so RIIIIIIPPED, and believes that he is a sort of ultimate lifeform as a combination of machine and man. they experience a level of cohesion we dont see from the other doublesprites like tavris and erisol, and the only real instance where they seem to disagree is due to hals horror over equius's classism and behavior towards nepeta. arquius's name, interestingly, seems to imply that the name "hal" was in fact a joke all along, and that hal- or ar, i should say- does really consider ar to be his name. anyway, the bottom line is that arquius is fucking hilarious.

erisolsprite, like tavris, is made of two trolls that dont get along. however, eridan loves to bitch and moan, and sollux is ridiculously apathetic all the time, so hes continued to exist regardless. he hates everything, he complains almost constantly, he seems to enjoy complaining constantly, hes apathetic about jake and whatever the alpha kids are up to, but enjoys being a btich about it just enough to give jake a daily double bird. jake is a huge asshole to him and doesnt take him seriously at all, and despite that he still deigns to give jake advice sometimes?? erisol is hilarious tho and hes such a fun quirky chara and i love him a lot

Act 6 Act 5 Act 2

the trickster act. all things trickster happen right here. alllll of the things. dirk breaks up with jake, both arquius and erisol try to apologize to fefeta, and fefeta spritesplodes. they all get hella drunk and eventually crash sometime later on their sacrificial slabs.

The Plot

trickstermode is a fucking nightmare and i kind of hate it and i really hate everything its spawned in the fandom. did you know the tricksters dont have any kind of candy theme at all? i didnt. i fucking forgot. bc fandom. fucking anything seems to turn ppl trickster, also, and not just nonconsensual makeouts. jane kicks jake in the crotch. roxy gets a pumpkin smashed over her head. how did fanon fall so far

Act 6 Act 5 Act 1 Pt 2

after they crash, we return right back to act 1, swearing that well never speak of a6a5a2 again. there are a lot of big important conversations that happen here between the alpha kids. their sessions jack becomes jack english and hic becomes more aggressive in her takeover, and the insuing chaos causes the kids to go godtier, with the act ending with jane going crockertier and jade going grimbark.

The Characters

roxy talks a lot about her fears and insecurities in this act. its one of the strongest acts for her, honestly, and a lot of what makes me really love her so much.

like me, dirk also spends a lot of time in this act talking about how fucking much he loves roxy. roxy is TERRIFIED shes let him down, but all he can talk about is how much he adores and admires her, and how she means the whole world to him. he admits that he doesnt think he could ever kill her, for any reason, and looking back at previous acts we see a lot of examples of dirk risking everything to keep her safe over and over again. their relationship is so fucking important to me you dont even understand

i said id talk about jane later, and later is now. this act feels like a really good resolution for her re: jake. she and dirk FINALLY cut the shit and talk through their problems, and honestly, theyre REALLY good friends and their relationship is really sweet. unlike jake, who doesnt seem to have the balls to speak to anybody but roxy (hes dealing with a lot of self realizations rn, tbf to him), jane reaches out to roxy and dirk to talk through her problems and theirs, solidifying her friendships with both of them in a way thats really touching. jane, at her worst, can be stubborn and avoidant, choosing to let resentment fester over causing conflict or distance her friends to avoid harsh truths. but at her best, shes bold and clever, and a hard worker, willing to put in the effort to make things right.

Act 6 Intermission 5

this is where i started losing track of sub shit. intermission 5 follows the usual pattern of intermissions, with a check in on where the meteor and ship players are at as their journey comes to an end. it also follows the dreambubble players and their adventure, and what spades is up to. its during this intermission that the album cherubim is released, and act 6 officially passes act 5 in length.

however, the thing about this intermission is that its frequently interrupted by intermission intermissions featuring caliborns session, updating us on where hes at. so in keeping with that, ill summarize this intermission while also randomly interjecting with caliborns intermissions.

The Plot

the act opens on the meteor, with karkat planning an intervention for terezi with dave. while karkat is getting steadily more worried about terezi, as her mental health obviously begins to decline in tandem with her relationship with gamzee, dave is growing steadily more worried about rose, who spends a lot of her time drunk these days, which is negatively impacting her relationship with kanaya.

Act 6 Intermission 5 Intermission 1

caliborn has begun his session properly and is working on conquering planets. each planet is knocked into a black hole in order, billiards style, and after completing each other he gets a new leprechaun.

the battleship has landed on jakes planet. davesprite tries unsuccessfully to wake a sleeping john, and then monologues for a while about his experience on the battleship and how much he hates himself, before just fucking off and leaving

Act 6 Intermission 5 Intermission 2

caliborn has unlocked more planets. he thinks the leprechauns are annoying and their powers are lame.

at this part of a6i5, john meets up with vriska, meenah, and aranea, who have teamed up and put all of their plans together. right now, theyre searching for vriskas treasure, and vriskas put a little pirate crew together, which eventually includes feferi and nepeta post fefetasplosion. aranea tells a long story about calliope and caliborns parents.

Interfishin

meenah has to pee, and the pirate crew plays elevatorstuck

aranea continues her story and talks a lot about cherub biology. we see that gamzee had a role in raising the cherubs. aranea goes on to talk about caliborns dead session, and how he got to the point of conquering planets like we saw earlier, and the deal he made with his denizen. aranea talks a lot about leprechauns and charms.

meanwhile back at the ranch, dave and karkat are now talking to terezi about her relationship to gamzee, her guilt over vriska, her insecurity, and her newfound sight and regret over it. dave wins karkat tantrum bingo.

Act 6 Intermission 5 Intermission 3

caliborn and hussie discuss crowbars usefulness and caliborns eighth planet. clover hits on caliborn.

the pirate crew is almost to the treasure. john questions vriskas sanity and morality, while aranea tells a story about the rings of void and life. most of the pirate crew decide theyre sick of vriska being an asshole and dip, and vriska gives a long speech justifying her actions that has lived in my brain rent free ever since i read it for the very first time in 2015. i love her so much.

on the meteor, rose and kanaya get in a fight about roses alcoholism and the way shes continuously let the people around her down as a result.

Act 6 Intermission 5 Intermission 4

the leprechauns are all flirting with each other a lot.

meenah has a bit of a breakdown about how much she loves her friends and her life in the bubbles and how she doesnt actually really want to follow in the footsteps of hic. they find the treasure, before the story cuts suddenly to the adventures of viceroy bubbles von salamancer, which is 10/10 adorable and hilarious. the treasure is revealed to be the house symbol, and john sticks his arm in it, getting his teleporty canon fuckery powers.

Act 6 intermission 5 Intermission 5

caliborn complains about the leprechauns and hussie complains about vriska.

spades takes over the felt as their new leader, stuffs them all in an oven, and winds up in the furthest ring with a growing cast of characters (dirk, jack english, and eventually bec noir and pm). john keeps jumping around the canon and seems to love con air again

Act 6 Intermission 5 Intermission 6

caliborn is on his last planet and has come up w a plan to use his sessions jack to destroy the queen, planning to dispose of jack afterward. hussie isnt responding to his messages anymore, which pisses him off.

john flashes to caliborns location and gets punched into the present, on lomax by the landed battleship. while the kids on the meteor debate how to get off the meteor safely, grimbark jade appears and teleports them all onto lomax where john is. and thats the end!!!

The Characters

i really dont have anything to say here. ill probably talk about vriska and meenahs character development whenever they start dating. its heavily implied in this act that aranea has taught vriska the value of storytelling, while vriskas manipulative behavior has rubbed off on aranea, but ill also probably talk about that later.

The Album

cherubim is a themed album that centers around calliope and caliborn (obviously), and reminds me a little of prospit & derse in that the songs are presented in pairs, with opposing takes on the same general theme. red sucker is probably my favorite on the album, it goes hard as hell. i wasnt expecting to enjoy the album as much as i did! its great

Final Thoughts

with this so finishes "part three" whatever the fuck that even is within the vast context of homestuck. act 6 act 6, i remember well, is its own kind of monster with a gazillion subacts and shit, so i think it just makes sense to hold off on talking about that until another post. maybe my next one will be after the retcon? stuffs really picking up, and characters are getting a lot more fleshed out, so its a lot of fun to read rn. if like, so long.

EDIT: I COMPLETELY FORGOT but at SOME POINT during all of this the tumblr stoppedupdating. i dont fucking know when. anything i had to say about it i already said in the last post tho tbh. its fine. its nice. infinitely better than the formspring

edit: a6a6-the end of hs proper

#hs reread #recaps #homestuck liveblog

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warriorcatsamino · 1 year

Text

And This is Comfrey, Right?

Absolutely gorgeous piece by @quailsoup of Leafpool training Hollypaw as a medicine cat. I always found the idea of Hollypaw and Jaypaw switching jobs interesting as it doesn’t happen a-lot in Warriors. Hollyleaf is actually one of the only characters I can think of to date that trained as a medicine cat but didn’t actually pursue the position. ⚠️Spoilers for Sky⚠️ ahead: at the end of Sky, it almost seems like Frostpaw is going to give up the medicine cat position after discovering her visions might not actually be visions. If this comes into fruition, Frostpaw will be the second cat to have not pursued the medicine cat role. ⚠️Spoilers over⚠️

Much more common is cats who want to be warriors being forced in the medicine cat role, think characters like Cinderpelt, Yellowfang, Jayfeather, Spottedleaf, Alderheart, Goosefeather, etc. More often then not cats with disabilities are forced into the role, but sometimes there are other motivators at play such as powers or relationship conflict. Hollyleaf however is different from these cats. She genuinely wanted to be a medicine cat but found that healing wasn’t her calling. It almost makes me wish there were more job diversity in Warriors, different roles that cats can have other than “warrior” or “medicine cats”. The newer books started to do this with the mediator role but even that isn’t enough in my opinion as only Skyclan has a mediator and there is no official ceremony for it.

Something else concerning this role switch that the fandom has started to mention as troubling is the whole mentor situation. When Hollypaw trains as a medicine cat her mentor is her mother Leafpool as she is the only medicine cat. Jayfeather is given to Brightheart in hopes Brightheart can teach him to fight and hunt without sight as she only has one eye. However after Jayfeather becomes a medicine cat apprentice, Hollyleaf is given to Brackenfur instead of Brightheart. Why is this? Brightheart is a perfectly capable warrior who could have taught Hollyleaf just as well as Brackenfur. After Jayfeather, Brightheart didn’t get another apprentice and now she’s an elder. Is there a rule she can only teach cats missing sight? That seems kinda unfair..

Also irking is the reoccurring theme in Warriors that former medicine cats or cats who have some herb training don’t seem to use that skill. Hollyleaf never seems to display healing knowledge despite training for awhile as a medicine cat. Likewise, I personally think all warriors should have some healing training. I mean, medicine cats have picked up on warriors skills, like in POT where Leafpool teaches Jayfeather fighting moves. Warriors should maybe not learn complex healing stuff like fixing bones but general information like what comfrey is or something. That way they can be more prepared if disaster strikes. Kinda like how Leafpool sat down in the apprentices after Honeyfern was killed and explained death berries to them. Maybe medicine cats can have weekly healing sessions where anybody interested can go and learn basic herbs..

But those are just some of my thoughts about the subject of this piece. Me and the rest of the SM team would LOVE to hear what YOU think on this matter! What’s your opinion on Hollyleaf & Jayfeather switching roles? Do you think the Hunters should incorporate more failed medicine cats into the series? Do you think it’s fair so many cats were forced into the medicine cat position? Do you think there should be more job diversity or Is the mediator role enough? Should Brightheart been given another apprentice or Should she only train cats with sight issues? Should ordinary warriors learn medicine cat skills? Should medicine cats hold weekly herb sessions? And finally, Should Hollyleaf have become a medicine cat? Leave all your thoughts, opinions and feedback in the comments below.

If you liked the art style depicted here, I’d highly recommend checking on the original post on Amino and leaving a like. Directly supporting the original artist not only makes the original artist happy, it also benefits this account greatly. It motivates more creators to allow us to post their work. This gives this account more content we can post for your enjoyment! Do you want to see more Warriors based content? Join the Warriors Amino where we have a fun and active community which posts daily about the battle cats you know and love.

Original Post linked here.

Original Artist linked here.

~ 🍵🥔

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inviouswriting · 3 years

Text

Simeon n//s//f//w// alphabet

Obvious it is a smut alphabet for the angel. I finally know how to answer them~

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

Playing on the pun here, but he is an absolute angel for aftercare. Post-coital however, he tends to his lover, peppering their face either in kisses staying connected a little longer. He massages anything that is sore, he can get rambunctious during sex and sometimes it is emotional with him/ intense. Anyone under him enjoys the snacks he brings and get extra cuddles under the blankets.

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

For himself, he likes his hands more. The obvious he enjoys touch. From you on them or to you with them. He likes to hold and caress. If you think all those head pets and face rubs don't get reciprocated you are mistaken.

On his lover, he loves their face most importantly their eyes. The whole we convey our emotions through them best. He loves that aspect best, to be able to sit in a room together and he can tell how they feel just from meeting gazes. Also loves seeing how their eyes dilate after an orgasm.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

He is an angel... but one that cooks alot of sweet and healthy things. What this means is he's sweet inside and out. Good volume easy on the tongue and a little runny, but he's more embarrassed with you looking up at him with your tongue coated. Will 100% enjoy oral.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

I like to think that his top is a one piece like everyone else does. But, with a special spot to it, in there is a hole for his cock. A big secret for himself that makes it an enjoyment if his lover finds out about it.

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

I want to believe the experience he has is based more from his research in reading. He is a writer, writers accumulate knowledge of stuff even without ever doing it themselves. I want to think he thinks about it more than doing it at all. His partner if they're human will lead them down the road of pleasures.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

Sitting positions. They're intimate, lets him have complete access to your face for kisses, and depending on the way you are, it allows him to be deep. It can go sweet and romantic to hot and wild that way.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

Simeon is someone who likes to tease, he will lighten the mood if his partner is hesitant about it, he will reassure them. Laughing sex is probably one of the best things he's done with you.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

Hairless below. Prefers to be clean like that.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

He makes any sexual encounter romantic and loving. He doesn't just lay down with anyone. He chooses someone as a permanent partner, and it shows when he is with his chosen lover. He's vocal, he compliments, words of affection, he loves with his eyes and smile.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

Once he has had a taste, he does it more than he admits to. Specially after the first time he was with a love. He can't get over how they felt around him, and soon enough he has his hand squeezing himself and his other at his mouth biting down at the memory.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

Dressing up. He loves his partner in costumes, something sexy from stockings and lingerie. To suits and ties. He likes seeing them put something elaborate on only for him to pull off later. Simeon also has a food fetish.. he will gladly make his lover a human table and eat off of them.

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

Bathroom or his bedroom. The few places where he is guaranteed privacy among others around Purgatory Hall. He can easily hang a sign on his door to not bother him when he writes, same can apply when he is with his lamb. He likes the bathroom more, for the mirrors and bathtub itself. Able to relax and lazily be intimate.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

Touching his back. A light graze of nails across it, and he is shivering. Do it a few times and he is already wanting to pin you down and have his way.

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Non-consensual, bathroom stuff, pain play. He would never hurt his lover. He worries he would hurt them at all. If it belongs in a toilet I don't see him doing it at all. (I also hate writing that stuff) pain play, he may allow bdsm to a point. But if you or him causes pain it is a flat out no. He rather cause pleasure.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

He loves giving, having you at his mercy for hours just teasing you with his mouth. He loves receiving too. The underside is particularly sensitive. He actually gets shy if you manage to stare him in his eyes. Even covers his face.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

A mix of both. He will be slow and sensual with romantic times, while fast and rough when you both are feeling it. He never views sex as a sinful thing or dirty to be shamed. He finds enjoyment with his chosen lover, but he is least likely to have multiple lovers.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

Simeon loves quickies. Pulling his love aside for a fast romp where it might be the only time they see each other in the day. He looks forward to them, whether he has a hand clasped over their mouth to keep them from moaning with Lucifer in the next room. Or finding a remote spot where you two let out your sounds.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

Simeon doesn't take a whole lot of risks that jeopardizes his roles. But he is certain in his love for you. Nothing you do with him is seen as a sin in his eyes, he will burn his wings and join you as a human before he gives up now. Or patiently wait the day you join him in the celestial realm. Risks in sexual terms, he won't do anything that causes permanent damages, risks yours or his life.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

He's an angel, he has stamina to burn, also with all those dance battles pretty sure he has alot of energy. He can go rounds before he tires, you on the other hand, you might challenge yourself to wear the angel down.

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

He loves them. Things that prolong both of your pleasure, he likes using vibrators on you, and enjoys being pegged. A good trade for all the pleasure he gives you, seeing him come undone with a nice strap on, and a vibrator against his cock has him turning the bullets up on you. Also having a leash and collar on him makes intimate times more fun for pulling on it when you lose your mind. Not opposed to cock rings either.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

Simeon can have you seated on a vibrator at full speed and sit there watching you writhe. He loves to tease. He'll ask you questions about how well you like it, accompanied with a blindfold he will tease relentlessly.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

He's actually loud, it's the only time you hear him vocalize himself beyond his soft spoken tones. He is likely to moan out "ahs" Simeon is particularly loud right before he cums letting his emotions out and getting really into the feel of it.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

Simeon has a kick for partial exhibitionism. He might enjoy the idea of nearly being caught, the "what will happen." He is fond of skirts as you can sit in his lap and look innocent while his fingers or cock are buried deep.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

Simeon would be a little above average, around 8 1/2 in length, beautifully curved towards his belly. A lovely girth that makes you happy to climb in his lap alot.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

I see him as a demisexual type, won’t have alot of sexual attraction unless there is a bond created. So once he has found someone he will gladly romp around in the sheets with, his drive is high after the first few tastes. Can expect him dragging you off alot in between classes maybe, or finding excuses to have you over or visiting you frequently.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

He lasts long enough to clean up, and cuddle excessively. He does have good stamina unless the session was mind blowing then he is more than happy to fall asleep knowing how satisfied you are.

#simeon x reader #simeon smut #ob! simeon #obey me simeon #smut alphabet #accepting requests for this #angel simeon

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kirieshhhka003 · 3 years

Note

If you don’t mind, can I ask NSFW alphabet with Ghiaccio? 🧊

Note: in all NSFW alphabets I describe how this character acts during sex with different partners, NOT with someone they love

Warnings: NSFW

Ghiaccio NSFW alphabet

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

Ghiaccio mostly uses services of high-end prostitutes so he never actually frets over aftercare. Mafioso pays his partners money for sex, why would he care for partner’s well-being after the deed?

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

On partner is plump soft lips, so pretty and perfect to wrap around Ghiaccio’s dick while sucking him off neatly. Blue-haired doesn’t really has a body part he’d love on himself, due to his stand’s ability his whole body is worked-out and it’s definitely something to be proud of

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

Ghiaccio likes to show his dominance over partner in any possible way, he thinks that cumming on their face is a great way of doing so. Making partner swallow all his sperm down after fucking their throat raw really strokes blue-haired’s ego, he may even stroke their head idly if they did a good job

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Once he had tipsy sex with Melone after one especially hard and stressful mission. They two spent three days haunting their target and planning the killing itself, so at the end, when all work was done, Melone and Ghiaccio went to the nearest bar, hoping to get rid of the stress. And they succeeded. Both of them acted like nothing happened afterwards, just dressed up, fixed their hair and said “See ya soon”, coming home nonchalantly

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

I think that Ghiaccio is about 25, so it’s obvious that he’s pretty experienced (look at this man, he can’t be a virgin). Blue-haired has tried almost everything, so he definitely knows what he’s doing

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

His personal favorites are missionary and all related (so he can choke partner), doggystyle and the one where he fucks partner form behind while laying on the side

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

The only sounds blue-haired wants to hear from his partner during sex are moans, whimpers and pleadings, every other thing will be treated like misbehaving and then punished harshly

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

Ghiaccio’s pubes are very curly, but he always keeps himself clean-shaved and he prefers the same on partners, or maybe some fancy trim like heart-shaped carpet

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

Blue-haired only expects to receive some pleasure and a few orgasms from his partners, so he definitely won’t treat them like a fragile little doll. Ghiaccio is fairly harsh on himself, so being soft and caring is not about him

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

For Ghiaccio sex is one of the ways to get rid of all the rage he has bubbling within his body, this is why he jacks off often. It almost never lasts for more than 5 mins because man literally wrings orgasm out of himself with a tight fist stroking his dick on the speed of light

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

Ooooof, a huge fan of impact play, so facefucking, slapping, hair tugging, degrading and bondage is always on the list. Blue-haired also has a thing for his partner calling him a master or signore, it really just blows his brains out and Ghiaccio turns into monster in bed, fucking his partner mercilessly. Also, dry humping and clothed sex, due to his short temper mafioso sometimes doesn’t have enough patience for undressing, so he just does the deed without getting off his garments

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

He usually fucks at the hotel room he’s booked a day before, so wherever inside of apartments is fine. And, we all remember his red sport car, right? Sex there always feels special for man, so this is definitely one of his favorite places to get some quality time

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

Ghiaccio’s tantrums are the best motivation ever. Mafioso had a shitty day - he will fuck then to get rid of the stress. It’s pretty hard to make mafioso going if he’s not in the right mood, no matter how hard partner try

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Water sports and all related. Just no. Ghiaccio is up to try everything, but this is his big no-no

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

One of his main kinks is facefucking so Ghia is all for a good blowjob. But when it comes to going down on someone… well, he’s not a fan. Especially when man has sex with prostitutes, he won’t ever go down on sex worker. It’s not like he’s disgusted of them or anything, it just doesn’t feel right for him (but not with someone Ghiaccio has feelings for, he’d gladly spend hours settled between beloved’s legs)

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

Ghiaccio is kinda selfish in bed, doing whatever he wants, not caring much about partner’s feelings or preferences. Mafioso is always fast and rough, all his movements are harsh, his words are pure filth, but if partner are on some kinky stuff - Ghiaccio is a perfect option

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

A HUGE FAN OF THEM! Ghiaccio loves sex, and even a 10 min session rises his mood for a little and helps to calm down, it may be penetration, oral or dry humping. The only bad thing about quickies is if he picks the last option, blue-haired is supposed to spend the rest of the day with his pants full of cum

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

Mafioso enjoys having car sex, and it definitely means something. It’s not about public places like park or crowded beach, but semi-public places as club restroom or dressing room are always on the list

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

Ghiaccio may last for a lot of rounds, 5 or 10, it all depends on his mood, but every round doesn’t last for long - 5-8 mins in general. But he also can go for 2-3 make out sessions during a day, each of them may consist of 5 rounds

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

Ghiaccio prefers doing everything with his own hands (especially fingers hehehe), so his collection of toys starts and ends with two different-sized gags

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

He’s really into orgasm denial, but only on his partners. If they try to tease him, well, it definitely won’t end up well for them

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

Ghiaccio has really dirty mouth, so he won’t shut up, degrading and insulting his partner to no end, calling them a whore and filthy slut, so greedy for his cock inside of them. Blue-haired also lets out quiet groans and swearings, but he never moans, thinking that it’s definitely not cool and manly

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

Ghiaccio is terrified of the thought of accidentally making a baby, so at the age of 23 he got his vasectomy surgery. But he still uses condoms, mafioso cares for his health and perspective of getting HIV is definitely not that appealing

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

Blue-haired is 5,5 inches when fully hard, slightly curved, head is a little bit pinker than the shaft, more on the thinner side. Totally smooth, a single vein pokes at the bottom part of the shaft, closer to the base

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

On the calm days Ghiaccio’s sex drive is normal, low you could say, he’s just living his best life, enjoying random simple things. But on hard days (which happened to be almost every day), mafioso tries his best to suppress his urge to kill everyone, so his yearning is really high

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Blue-haired feels a little bit sleepy after cumming, but Ghiaccio is not the one for sleeping after sex. He just zips his pants back up and continues doing whatever he was, just like nothing happened

Masterlist | Smut Masterlist

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shinygoku · 3 years

Note

gordon gordon gordon gordon

Gordon Gordon Gordon Gordon!!

He's been sneaking into these asks by proxy, so it's finally time for his dedicated session, hehe~

First impression

WUAAAGH what's up with this WEIRD LONG NOT-THOMAS and his FACE?!

Impression now

His face is still pretty weird! But you know what else it is? Part of an Absolute Legend ✨

Like, man, Gordon is such a big presence and interesting character, the entire premise leans heavily on him. I'm inclined to go as far as to say that the Blue Boys of 1, 2 and 4 here are the three most important characters for the franchise (not at all to knock everyone else lmao) and they slot nicely into a Triforce of Courage, Wisdom and Power, and Gordon has Power in spades!

Gordon is The Vain One (not James!). He's legit very strong and the fastest on Sodor (which isn't just being a big fish in a small pond because that island has some crazy cool engines!) but unfortunately he lacks humility. His success seems to have been lodged in his head before the series even begins and this Pride is the source of pretty much every single conflict he's involved in.

But when it isn't his self satisfaction in his actions, it's being smug about being such a grand, magnificent Tender Engine and he is snooty as hell about it. He seems to look at smaller engines [pretty much everyone compared to him lol] as a lesser class, particularly if they're small and cheeky and Tank Engines. This may not be the case exactly, but his way of talking to them and some other things he says are very condescending.

However... as much as a gigantic jerk he is at several points, with Gordon I kinda feel like he plain ass doesn't conceive of his words being out of line. That and having to Unlearn things... he's not innately better than everyone else. He sees things in black and white. There are Useful Engines, and those who should be scrapped. There are Noble Tender Engines and Lesser Tank Engines who exist to do the tedious chores on behalf of the Superior ones. Edward doing shunting is seen as Demeaning and contradicts Gordon’s world view that Tender Engines Don't Stunt™, and he doesn't like that one bit! (Also Edward was crossing the picket line but that wasn't Awdry's concern lmao)

Related is Gordon does seem oddly dense at times, like assuming that Tenders are in of themselves a Status Symbol rather than a large lunchbox of sorts lol, or that Tender Engines like him being too heavy for Branch Lines being because something about Branch Lines are degrading. This might be all Elitist Brainwashing influence. But still, that he just takes these as The Truth means I get to affectionately call him an idiot. And there is no other way to explain how he genuinely believes Bill and Ben were going to murder him if he wasn't missing a few brain bolts in there.

Fortunately, he does eventually start to learn the important lessons.... very gradually, but the Early Gordon is a pretty different beast to Later Gordon, and it's wonderful~

Also, I gotta give credit to him for having some moments of utter brilliance and actual grasp of reality and more complex matters, like culture. (Yeah, I'm rolling with his geniune Opera Knowledge from s6 of all things. It's good!) As much as Awdry himself may have disagreed, Gordon was in the right to want a Station Pilot and the Strike was called for (not bullying Edward for it, but myeah) ...but this leads to my next point: He seems to have a mental block when it comes to Emotions.

Certainly, he's as emotional as the others are, it's not just a scale of Snooty, Arrogant, Condescending, Prideful ....well, it is, but ALSO the more mixed and varied feelings: Shame, Sadness, Fear, Ambivilance, Irritation, Anger, Passion, Amused, Delight and so on. However, Gordon is seemingly unaware of how his words may make the others feel, and even at his cruellest it doesn't look like he's aware he's twisting a knife in. To Gordon, he's being honest, but his verbose manner ends up twisting and wriggling away from any valid point like an overgrown vine that somehow links back to how [Other Engine] is disgracing him, Gordon, by association.

Examples include: Being offended by Henry's new shape (??? Gordon dude he nearly died and this is an improvement, a good thing!), saying that Edward's age and difficulty starting a heavy ass packed load of passengers is grounds to be Retired or even Scrapped, other little insulting things like calling the likes of Thomas and James Little insistently (it seems to vary if he's trying to put them down or actually be affectionate), and many more when in the hands of inept writers who have to wheel out the same Gordon Learns A Lesson Plot every other season.

Like I said in the James post, I also think he kinda poisoned the Red guy with his snooty attitude... but I maintain that I think Gordon was unaware of this. He may know he has Influence, and enjoy that, but he really truly doesn't appear to mean to mould James into a smaller, redder version of himself. He's oblivious and from his own point of view, benevolent. Which is in fact a dangerous combo indeed!

It's... a lot o7;;

Again though, if you're looking at the books and s1-s5 of TVS you can see him grow and change. He does take a while to learn the lessons, but as time goes on he moves 2 steps forward and 1 step back, then eventually less steps back entirely. It's great! And so is Gordon. A big dumb meathead with not entirely uncalled for delusions of granduer. A dramatic so-and-so who is the best engine for his job.

I love this sophisticated jock who grows more kindness~ 💙

Favourite moment

Hm! This isn't as easy to decide lol. We all like Gordon Goes Foreign... but you know what sticks in my mind more?

hOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH

Look, I’m not 100% objective, here! But Ringo’s read of this line is fantastic (and keeps making me expect him to finish saying OOOHH SHIT) and it’s also a well deserved bolt of divine retribution for how rude he was being earlier. (As long as my essay already was, he very much needed the knocking down of some pegs here!)

Idea for a story

While both my fics with him thus far have been variations of Pre-Canon, Full-Arrogance and Snobbish Gordon (and both were a lot of fun!) ...but I cannot bear the same expired horse being beaten more when the story is set waaay later but he’s still up his own ass. Please, PLEASE writers, let him hold what growth he’s managed to gain!

I think it’d be good to accept that he’s gonna be outdated sooner or later, so have him help train another High Speed Engine and take them under his wing. The Christopher Awdry books kinda have something similar with Pip and Emma, but I think a better way of having Gordon be involved would be if he was actively doing some mentoring himself, as well as being a neat parallel with Edward, whose type was once Express only but got outclassed by A1s, and so the same can happen to this big A1 -> A3 lad and he can form a healthy relationship with some bright eyed newbie (and maybe have some self awareness and try to stop their head getting too large, lol).

Unpopular opinion

I know I just said him mentoring would be a cool story idea, but in canon? He is NOT a resident Dad type!! He’s a hotshot young man but he’s also a hot mess. He’s physically large but he’s not got the Energy of someone who dispenses sage advice and a shoulder to cry on. At best, he’s a weird uncle! One who means well but you shouldn’t take his life advice to heart because he’s actually just as, if not more clueless than you!

Favourite relationship

I feel inclined to say Thomas here. Emphatically not because Gordon is ‘old’ and Thomas is ‘young’, but because they’re so damn alike and actually make an excellent, albeit unconventional type of Rivalry.

Both are self important with genuine finesse in their respective talents, both are honest to a fault, both have redeeming qualities to offset their initial abrasiveness, and the first TVS episode is centred on the both of them and sets the tone for the series as a whole. There’s more parallels, of course, but I also wanna point out they’re effectively the mascots of North Western Rail in universe too, and I absolutely love this picture:

I also have immense fondness for the Down the Mine paradigm shift! Thomas gives Gordon grief over the ditch incident and later when it emerges the Fat Controller is gonna send for Gordon to pull him out, Thomas is filled with dread. But Gordon isn’t using the chance to lord over Thomas, he’s actually so amused by Thomas’ mishap and it coming at a time where he’s been significantly humbled, they instead become Comrades and I love it. I eat it up! Paint Pots and Queens isn’t anywhere near as good but I adore the little bit where they’re appealing for the other, equals and watching each other’s back~

But yeah, as Friendly Rivals they both feel very authentic and yet, in a daft way, sweet ;3

Favourite headcanon

He still says “Hurry, hurry, hurry!” when pulling the Express. That’s a HC as I think the show phased it out, but I like it lol. I feel like my essay on him contains most of the headcanon stuff, but it’s all based on what’s shown, baybee!

#this is ttte #TTTE Gordon #ttte talk #Gordon the Big Engine #Thomas the Tank Engine #TTTE Thomas #snuck in a bit in there lol #mentioned Edward a lot as well but not in as much depth #I love me some Blue Engines #TTTE

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logically-asexual · 3 years

Note

just went back to see how they explained the asides, he said "we were attempting to make a slightly simpler sanders sides series that wasn't directly tied to the main narrative" but the word "slightly" also popped up on screen, in quotes, when he said it, and that it would help give us more content, "hopefully. we'll see"

guess we can’t say he didn’t warn us then .-. still disappointing.

… i’m going on another rant. bear with me. i think im saying something smart for once.

i genuinely don’t understand what their idea of “not directly tied to the main narrative” means.

what is the “main story” now ?

my guess is that the “main story” is Thomas figuring out who he is+getting to know himself+getting the sides to get along with each other and the rest is ? Thomas doing random stuff, making small decisions and having his Sides help.

that distinction of the two types of episode would make sense and put most episodes of Season 2 clearly in the first category and the first Asides in the second one. these categories are also independent of length of the video and of how angsty the plot is, so i guess that would help with some of my doubts of the Asides.

however

1. the second Asides isn’t just Thomas making a small, short-term decision, what happened then can’t. not affect the future of Thomas’s life, and the plot is heavily based on Thomas figuring what he wants and who he is and being honest to himself about it so?? still don’t get why it is an Asides?

and 2. i just don’t like that distinction either way and i think it’s not helpful.

it was really cool (imo) of Season 1 and up until Can Lying Be Good i think how the show was : Thomas goes through some relatable situations and solves them by exploring what each Side of himself has to say about it, and in the meantime he learns a thing or two about himself and sometimes he dedicates an entire discussion (episode) to figuring something out about a side/the relationships between them.

it’s hard to distinguish when “thomas is just discussing with his sides what he should do for christmas” ends and when “thomas uncovers new truths about his identity” begins. and that’s good. that was the charming thing about the show. it was casual and fun and you could use Thomas’ development to learn something about your own self, too.

but now you turn those heavy, previously-rare episodes that were purely/mostly about Thomas figuring one Side out into the main narrative. ?? and thats how you get stuff like Dealing with Intrusive Throughs, which was good but (in my opinion) way too on the nose. there’s nothing casual or funnily-relatable about it except the occasional jokes. the whole plot is “Logan explains everything there is to know about Intrusive Thoughts and Character Thomas’ particular relationship to them while Remus illustrates each example.”

Sanders Sides was educational about mental health in small, entertaining ways but this is way too much. Season 1 individual episodes could pass as just some comedy show and ignore the lessons but in the past episodes the entire video is the “lesson”.

there’s no story of Thomas going through his life as a normal human while he finds himself in the process because that’s? going to be left for the asides i guess? ?.

so now the “main” (main!!) episodes all become just therapy sessions at this point. which a) is exhausting, b) gets boring, c) is super unrealistic for some guy to manage on his own head by himself, and d) involves tons and tons and tons of research for Thomas & team to get only one (1) episode done, for them to make sure they nail every single detail perfectly about the thing they’re trying to address. which must be exhausting for them too and also means they take way too long to write.

so basically… this sucks.

#ts criticism #it’s midnight so nobody is going to see this #but i needed to get it out of my system #goodnight #long post

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weeb-imagines · 3 years

Note

hiiii may i have nsfw alphabets for taukishima kei pleaseee? thank you so much for taking my request 😊💕

sure thing! I have a lot of fun writing these alphabets :) Also even though I headcanon tsukki as a MASSIVE bratty sub, I’ll write for both scenarios when he’s domming or subbing.

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

Tsukki, obviously, can be kind of a jackass. He still cleans up and takes care of you, but he teases you the whole way through, no matter what role he took in sex. 100% cuddles afterwards. He maybe a jackass, but he’s a soft jackass.

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

On himself, his favorite is his arms/hands. He thinks they look so pretty wrapped around you throat, and you clearly think they look pretty tied behind his back or above his head.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

I’m sorry, but homeboy barely cums anything. It’s like,,, watery and barely anything comes out. You’ll really have to milk the dude dry if you want anything out of him, but he’d probably enjoy that.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Once whacked off while on call with yamaguchi. He was so damn impatient from all your teasing that he couldn’t wait until AFTER yamaguchi was done rambling about electronics.

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

Zero experience before you, but picks it up pretty quick. I feel like he wouldn’t have much experience past a makeout because I just don’t think that it would be on his mind until he got an exclusive, serious S/O.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

When he’s domming, missionary. He likes seeing how he makes you feel. When he’s subbing, he likes doggy, because 1. That way he can fit his long ass limbs on the bed and 2. It’s hot when you push his face into the mattress.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

He’s more serious, but will tease you. Especially if something embarrassing happens, to either of you.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

I’m pretty sure that Tsukki is the only natural blonde player that I remember right now, so yes. Trimmed, but not like, bald. Has a happy trail, I don’t make the rules.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect?)

Even with all his teasing, I think he’d wait till he knew that you were the one until he got intimate with them. I think he’d be pretty romantic and sweet, at least the first time for you two.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

Doesn’t do it very often, at least now that he has you. He’s never gotten caught, even with the incident on call with yamaguchi.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

1. Brat taming, both ways. 2. Bondage, also both ways.

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

Bed and/or couch. Besides the floor, that’s the only place he can keep his lanky ass limbs in check.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

He has a thing for lace I think. Or silk. Yeah.

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Public stuff is off limits for him. He’d rather die than be caught, and the risk is just too much for him.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

He prefers to receive, only cause he SUCKS at giving. Sorry, tsukki. He’s not tHAT bad, but you will have to teach him where you like to be touched.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

Slow the first few times,

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

He’d probably be down for quickies if he could. Homie takes FOREVER.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

He experiments, but not anything like, getting caught type risky. Wants to keep it in the bedroom.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

As many as you want. Homie can go for FOREVER it’s honestly annoying.

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

I don’t think he had any before he met you. He’ll buy some of you like the,, but he’s pretty indifferent.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

This is Tsukishima Kei we’re talking about. This fuckhead will tease you as he’s face down ass up. JAIL HIM.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

He is so quiet it feels like you’re fucking a serial killer, homie will be DEAD QUIET. as I said, JA I L.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

He once got rope burn and had to explain it to the manager of the museum he works at. Was not a fun day.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

Skinny bastard. You can see his ribs, he’ll probably nut immediately if you run your fingers over his ribs. Long skinny dick, just like him.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

Not too high, but is down if you’re down.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

He will not be sleeping at all. Or at least not for the next couple hours. Unless it was a really tiring session, sex is like a straight shot of adrenaline to him, and he won’t be able to calm down for a while.

#haikyuu x reader #haikyuu smut #tsukishima x reader #tsukishima smut #x reader smut #smut #alphabet

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leviskitten · 3 years

Text

𝑵𝑺𝑭𝑾 𝒂𝒍𝒑𝒉𝒂𝒃𝒆𝒕 ♡

Sugawara Koushi x reader(gn!)

Warnings: regular nsfw stuff, nothing dark tho

A/n: I love alphabets can’t you tell? Lmao. If there are any characters you want me to do alphabets for then lmk.

Original template Fluff version

♡彡 A = Aftercare : What are they like after sex?

• It depends really. I headcannon kou as a bottom leaning switch (ofc), so it depends on which role he took for the session.

If he was a sub, then he’d be very tired probably, and clingy. Would definitely whine when you leave to grab a wet cloth to clean him up, and would whine again when you get up to at least put a T-shirt on lmao. But besides that he’s very cuddly. Pet his head while he rests his head on your neck while calling him a good boy and not only he’d be a blushing mess but he’d also fall asleep with a little smile on his face 🥺

If he was a dom, then he’d probably treat you the same way he wants to be treated when he subs. Cleans you up as fast as he can so he can get in bed with you a cuddle a whole bunch 🥺🥺

♡彡 B = Body part : What’s their favorite body part of theirs? And yours?

• His favorite body part about himself is probably his chest. He likes how slim and soft it is, (and how it looks when you mark him up).

And yours, it’s probably your legs. He loves how they look when you wrap them around his waist while he fucks you, and how they almost suffocate him when you sit on his face. He could admire them for hours honestly.

♡彡 C = Cum : Anything to do with cum, basically

• He has an odd fixiation with his cum. There, I said it.

He likes cum play, wheter that is paiting any part of you with it, stuffing it deep inside you and watch it slip out, or when you overstimulate him and let it all pool on his stomach.

It turns him on tbh.

♡彡 D = Dirty secret : A dirty secret of theirs.

• He wants to have a foursome with the other third years. But not in the way you’d expect.

He wants to either let them all have their way with you and practically use you. Or he wants you to be controlling them and make them act like your little pets. No in between.

There’s just something about you being in charge of two large man and himself that just turns him on to no end.

♡彡 E = Experience : How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?

• I feel like maybe he’s had had a little bit of prior experience, but not really.

He technically knows what to do, and how to do it, but he’s never done it before. So it’ll be a little awkward at first, but he’s got the basics and he learns quick so it’s good don’t worry.

♡彡 F = Favorite position : self explanatory lol

• When he subs, doggy style. He likes to be spanked and to leave the sheets wet with his cum afterwards.

When he doms, mating press. He likes to able to see your expression as he fucks you senseless, and it also makes him able to really get in there y’know.

♡彡 G = Goofy : Are they more serious in the moment? Are they humorous?

• He can be both really tbh. He’ll try to take it serious most of the time, but if something funny happens he’d definitely point it out and laugh at it. It’ll probably turn into a in joke between you two afterwards.

♡彡 H = Hair : How well groomed are they? Does the carpet match the drapes?

• He’s pretty well groomed honestly. He likes the twink vibe, so he’d probably shave over there most of the time. However the carpet does match the drapes 100%, tho it’s a little bit more blondish in there for some reason.

♡彡 I = Intimacy : How are they during the moment? The romantic aspect.

• Oh he’s a hopeless romantic, so if he’s in charge he’d 100% have his little cheesy moments without a doubt (will hold your hand while you cum).

♡彡 J = Jack off : Masturbation headcannon.

• The only way he can get off without you, is with one of his dirty secrets.

However he will call you while he’s doing it so you can give him instructions, that shit really turns him on.

♡彡 K = Kink : One or more of their kinks.

• He’s a kinky bastard so I’m not gonna go into detail with all of them but here’s a little list:

— Pegging, both degradation and praise (depending the mood), choking and spanking, spit (kinda), overstimulation and edging, b r e e d i n g, cumplay, voyeurism, biting and scratching, and sensory depravation.

♡彡 L = Location : Favorite places to do the deed.

• Probably his bed, he likes to be comfortable in the meantime yknow.

♡彡 M = Motivation : What turns them on/keep them going?

• Mainly moans and just being really vocal in general. He absolutely adores when you talk him trough it.

Also, being kinda rough. It awakens something in him lmao.

♡彡 N = No : Something they wouldn’t do/turn off’s

• There aren’t many things that he wouldn’t do tbh, he’s a pretty open person and he’s probably open to do a lot of things at least once y’know. However he can’t do public humiliation, or just very public stuff in general (like fucking in a park or something). It creeps him out a little bit, and he’ll probably be too nervous to proceed.

♡彡 O = Oral : Preference on giving/receiving, skill, etc.

• He doesn’t mind either tbh, I guess it’s really depending the mood, but he doesn’t really a preference when it comes to that.

He’s pretty skilled tho, and a very fast learner so it wouldn’t take him long to figure out what you like. And once he knows, he wouldn’t mind spending hours just eating you out and swallowing your cum over and over again <3

♡彡 P = Pace : Are they fast and rough? Slow and sensual? Etc.

• He can be both to be honest, it depends on the mood and what he’s planning to do with you if u know what I mean,,,,

♡彡 Q = Quickie : Their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.

• Not a big fan of them tbh.

He’d rather spend a whole night/afternoon just going at it. However he doesn’t mind a quick blowjob or handjob (for either of you), every once in a while.

♡彡 R = Risk : Are they game to experiment? Do they take risks? Etc.

• Oh he’s willing to take a few risks lmao.

He’s a very open and experimental person when it comes to sex, so don’t be a afraid to tell him anything new that you wanna try, he’ll probably say yes to everything lol.

♡彡 S = Stamina : How many rounds can they go for? How long do they last? Etc.

• If he’s subbing, he can go for hours. It’s almost as if he’s craving it (he is lmao).

If he’s domming, then he can go for a round or two, but it’s most likely for him to take a little break to check on you or just finger you for a little while.

♡彡 T = Toys : Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?

• Oh yeah he definetly does have a couple of toys. He’s most likely to buy an entire collection with his partner tbh.

He likes to use them himself and on his partner (or his partner use them on him lmao). Again, he’s very experimental, and he actually did grow a liking for vibrators and cock rings lmao.

♡彡 U = Unfair : How much do they like to tease?

• He’s a cheeky bastard. 100% will tease you to no end while you’re busy only so you can punish him later.

♡彡 V = Volume : How loud are they? What sounds they make? Etc.

• He’s l o u d. I said before that noise turns him on, so of course he’s gonna be very vocal in general.

He pants a lot, and when he’s being overstimulated he makes the sweetest whines and high pitch moans it’s just <3

Also, expect a lot of “Hmm you like it when I do that, don’t you?” “You want it? Beg for it” “Such a lovely little slut for me aren’t you?” When he’s on top.

♡彡 W = Wild card : A random headcannon for the character.

• When he’s jerking off alone, he likes to do it sitting down in front of his full length mirror in his room. Completely naked. And he does it until he cums at least twice.

♡彡 X = X-Ray : Let’s see what’s going on under those clothes.

• HE HAS SUCH A PRETTY DICK I JUST KNOW IT.

About average size and width, but it’s so pretty and perfect omg. Slightly curved upwards, and it’s pretty pale, with the tip in a soft pink (it turns more red when overstimulated oops). Also, it’s very sensitive on the head, touch it a few times with the pads of your fingers and he might cum just with that if he’s turned on enough.

♡彡 Y = Yearning : How high is their sex drive?

• It’s pretty high not gonna lie lmao.

But he keeps it undercontrol,,,, most of the time.

♡彡 Z = Zzz : How quickly do they fall asleep afterwards?

• If it’s been a long session, then probably pretty quickly (baby boy is tired ok 🥺), though he always refuses to fall asleep unless he gets to cuddle with you while you play with his hair and whisper some reassurance cuz y’know, sometimes degradation can take the best of him :(

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tg-headcanons · 3 years

Note

Nsfw alphabet with naki?

HORNY HOURS WITH IDIOT (affectionate)

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex): he’s never quite sure what to do right when it’s over and will probably just wait for his partner to do something. He’ll follow their lead for the most part, but what he really wants is praise and cuddles. He’s one of those ghouls who really needs the post sex cuddle sessions to avoid the emotional drop

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s): on himself he likes his teeth, on his partner he doesn’t like anything in particular. He’s demisexual and when he is attracted to someone sexually he doesn’t really break down what specific things he likes into parts. He’s content to just like their body as a whole

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically): he needs his partner to be patient with him since he doesn’t come very easily. It takes him awhile to get there and he can’t finish without his kakuhou being touched, some ghouls are just built like that but he’s a little embarrassed by it

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs): though he’s more used to quick and careless rough stuff, what he really wants is to be pampered. Tell him he’s pretty, touch him gently, fuck him or ride him. Let him lay back and be taken care of, let him know that he deserves it. He’s a pillow prince at heart

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?): he has experience, but it isn’t all good. In the past he’s had partners ranging from distant and pushy to downright cruel. Some have been alright, he’s hooked up with people like Miza and Hooguro and really liked it, but others weren’t as kind. Plenty of people have slept with him without caring if he enjoys it, plenty have fucked him through his heat and left him to deal with the emotional drop alone, and Jason in particular was among the worst when it came to downright brutal sex. Naki wants people to give him affection and attention, but sadly Aogiri isn’t the best place to find safe and respectful partners. By now he thinks of sex as something that’s usually painful but can earn him some praise. His partner will need to be very gentle and soft with him at first, he needs to learn that he can set boundaries and that his pleasure is just as important as theirs

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying): if he’s bottoming he likes missionary, He’s used to being bent over things in any abandoned building or broken into house he and past partners could find and unceremoniously fucked so being able to look his partner in the eyes and kiss them is amazing. When topping he likes doggy, he hasn’t had much of a chance to be dominant before, and he really likes the feeling of control from time to time

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.): he’s not going to joke around, and if his partner is joking he probably won’t notice

H = Heat (what are heats like for them? How do they handle it?): some ghouls get lucky and have brief, mild heats, and others get very unlucky. Naki is among the ladder. They’re absolutely horrible, he was unfortunate enough to end up with a heat hormonal disorder and no way to treat it so he suffers with them. They last a whole week, he has horrible cramps, fevers, nausea, unrelenting muscle weakness and insomnia. In the past he’s handled them by trying to find a decent place to hide and wait them out, but most of the time they break him and he resorts to sleeping with anyone to relieve it. It isn’t safe and the type of ghoul who would fuck someone in heat without talking it out with them beforehand isn’t the type to be kind and respectful. His partner will need to sit him down and talk about how he wants to go about it before it happens to be sure they have a plan and don’t cross any of his boundaries, and he’ll honestly be grateful for the sense of security that comes with a safe place to get through it. Just keep him from overheating, bring some painkillers, be gentle with him and maybe ask around among rich ghoul circles for doctors who can treat heat disorders and he’ll fall in love all over again

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect): he’s very intimate. He always holds out hope that sex will be romantic and kind and even with the kind of people he’s been with in the past he hasn’t given up on that fairy tail Candlelight-And-Velvet sex he wants. Tell him how pretty he is and kiss him and he’ll be melting in your arms

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon): considering that he’s homeless, roams with a pack of people, and that it takes more for him to come than it takes others, for Naki jerking off takes more planning than you’d think. He needs to wait until he can find somewhere that he can go in private between missions, often rooms in unoccupied buildings where the White Suits are staying, and then he can relieve himself. Since he needs his kakuhou touched he rubs up against something to stimulate it. If he’s lucky he can find a living room or bedroom with pillows he can use, but if he can’t he’ll fold up his jacket. Between touching his cock and rutting his kakuhou against the pillows he’s able to get himself off every so often before slipping back into the group and hoping no one has questions about where he went

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks): blindfolds. You know how when vets treat horses and deer they cover their eyes to make them less nervous? The same thing works on Naki. He’s a little uneasy when getting started and oddly enough, if he’s blindfolded and unable to anticipate movements, that fades away. All he has to do is focus on the sensations of being touched and words of praise, and any anxiety is replaced by euphoria

L = Location (favorite places to do the do): bedroom. For most that seems normal but for him that’s a luxury. A comfy bed? A door for privacy? Lights that can be turned off? That’s living like kings right there

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going): genuine affection. Nothing gets him hard like assurance that he’s loved and wanted through the simple kindness he craves

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs): Naki has some trouble with setting boundaries, he assumes his partner will be mad and needs the assurance that there’s nothing wrong with not being comfortable with things. He’s not quite sure where to start so he’d have to say that he doesn’t like anything too rough or mean. Things like bottoming unprepared, impact play or degradation. Biting and hard grips are fine since that’s normal for ghouls to enjoy but things that are purposefully sadistic are off the table. He’s getting better at speaking up when something hurts physically or emotionally, and it feels good to be able to say no without feeling guilty about it

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.): he prefers to give. Because he’s a ghoul, Teeth Near Dick is a valid fear and one that he’d rather avoid. Though he isn’t opposed to being the one giving head

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.): he can take a lot, but prefers for his partner to be gentle and slow when he’s bottoming. Though when he’s on top, he’s pretty quick, not so much that he’s trying to be rough, rather he gets caught up in feeling good and ends up fucking like a rabbit

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.): he hates them. He knows that “quick fuck” = “not enough time for him to finish” = “not enough time for post sex cuddles” = “huge emotional drop.” He needs to have time, he needs to have the right touches, and he needs to have decent aftercare. Quickies don’t allow for that so he isn’t too keen on them

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.): he doesn’t really like to. He knows his comfort zone in regards to sex and he knows that he doesn’t do well with pushing its boundaries. He’d rather stick to doing it inside, and if there’s anything new his partner wants to bring into the bedroom it would need to be gradual

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?): he lasts a hell of a long time. He goes a round or two before being tapped out, but with how long it takes him to come those rounds can be awhile

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?): he doesn’t have any. He wouldn’t be opposed to some being used on him as long as they don’t hurt though

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease): he doesn’t like teasing and he doesn’t like to be teased, he doesn’t see the appeal

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.): I’m sure this comes as no surprise but Naki cries during sex. He does it when he’s in pain, he does it when he’s feeling amazing, he does it with any strong sensation at all so no matter what it’s just going to happen. It’s normal for him to let a few tears fall while he’s fucking, along with some pretty loud moans. What is surprising is that he’s one of those rare ghouls who purrs during sex. He doesn’t always do it because he needs to feel very safe and very good, but with the right partner he’ll be purring like a kitten

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character): he likes wearing things that his partner gives him. It’s a task that he can obey, it’s a physical reminder that they care enough about him to decorate him, it’s something that shows everyone who he belongs to. Whether it’s a collar or a suit he jumps at the opportunity to wear something that marks him as theirs

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes): 7.5 inches, life may have screwed him over but at least his meat is huge

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?): a little below average. Sex isn’t as important to him as romance, rather it’s another expression of romance, so only doing it a few times a month is enough for him. Though he’d be okay with doing it more if his partner wants to, he likes doing anything as long as it’s with them and sex can be amazing

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards): he doesn’t fall asleep after sex unless he’s sure he’s somewhere safe. He’s used to having to immediately fix his clothes and leave whenever it’s over, but if he has a partner who cares about him, a room that’s safe, and some cuddles to put him at ease, he’ll slowly drift off

#tokyo ghoul #tokyo ghoul headcanon #naki #tg naki #notsfw alphabet #notsfw

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pyrrhiccomedy · 3 years

Text

the People have requested my book report on The Library at Mt. Char so this is now a Mt Char book club.

if you have not read The Library at Mt Char there is no reason to keep reading. I hope you're having a nice day, stay safe and don't do drugs.

So Mt Char has a couple of problems, but in my opinion only one grave problem.

Not a grave problem:

Erwin doesn't need to be in this book. An astonishing amount of ink is spilled on giving us Erwin's POV and I am at a loss in regards to what that's supposed to bring to the story. I mean, it's kind of neat to see Carolyn's "trick shot" from the POV of one of the people being manipulated, but that perspective could have just been provided by Steve. Everything Erwin does of any plot significance could have been done by Steve, a character who actually matters.

Please note that I don't hate Erwin, he's perfectly fine as characters go, he just contributes nothing, and it is baffling that he and Carolyn get the last scene in the book (instead of just ending on her reunion with Michael, a scene that was emotionally affecting and felt like a natural end point to her story). We are taking no questions, Erwin needed to be cut.

Also not a grave problem in my opinion, but I am sure others feel differently and I understand why they would:

Yo, the scope of what the catalogs cover is mad vague. I mean, I get that that's the point: when you have a character whose magic powers are "anything that has to do with death or murder," that's a broad license, and I'm fine with that. These are supposed to be demi-gods. I don't require a rigorously explicated magic system.

But then like...why can't Jennifer, the healer, also heal minds? That seems weird. Or like, it's implied that she kinda can, maybe, but none of the kids talk about their therapy sessions with Jennifer: they explicitly call out that she heals their bodies. But then she talks about how Margaret and David are sick (meaning mentally) in a way she can "no longer help?" Aren't you supposed to be the God Of Healing? Why can't you help anymore? And were you actually trying to help them before - or anyone else? That's never shown. You could have just said you only healed bodies, not minds, but then it's repeatedly implied that she CAN diagnose mental and emotional problems (and therefore should probably be able to do something about them).

So that's weird.

Or like, why is there Alicia, who "sees the future," and Rachel, who "sees possible futures?" That, uh, just sounds like the author was running out of ideas. Also, if Alicia could see the future, she probably shouldn't have been in that house when the SWAT team hit, yeah?

Stuff like that. The magic the kids can do is very "they have the powers the author needs them to have when the author needs them to have them, and they can't do anything the author would find inconvenient for them to do" but that's not a deal breaker for me because overall the vibe being put off by their various magical specialties works for me. Still, there were ways of getting us where we needed to go without begging quite so many questions.

Also not a grave problem, although more of a problem than the other stuff:

You know that anime trope where a super-genius character is having an entire conversation with another super-genius character through a screen, and it's revealed that the whole conversation was a distraction and pre-recorded so that Character 2 could Complete His Scheme against Character 1? And used his super-genius brain to predict every single thing Character 1 would say? And your suspension of disbelief staggers bloodied into the alleyway and collapses because you're really trying to hang in there, Code Geass, but that's fucking stupid, you're asking for me to believe that this character's intelligence is flat-out supernatural now and you've given me no reason why that should be?

That's how I feel about Carolyn, by the time she takes over the Library. Like, okay. The kids canonically have not even been at the Library long enough for any of them to master their catalogues except for Jennifer. None of them but Jennifer are masters of even their own subject.

Carolyn has been studying in secret from multiple catalogues - which is cool! I like how she slowly reveals over the course of the latter half of the book that she has powers from other people's specialties.

...But like...

She seems close to mastering her own catalogue. She is a competent healer and can raise the dead (Jennifer's catalogue). She can block attempts to read her mind, beats David in a fight, and understands how to kill Father (David's catalogue). She speaks lion and controls the dogs that surround the Library (Michael's catalogue). She could make the mathy "Denial That Rends" thing that kicks off the whole plot, and she can make a new sun and correct orbital rotations around it (Peter's catalogue). She can predict the future with such specificity that she knows how to cause Steve to drop a clip of bullets while he's being attacked by dogs exactly where Erwin will need to pick it up later (Rachel's catalogue, also this one is stupid, she could have just given Erwin an extra clip or something, but whatever).

That's half the catalogues. Carolyn doesn't seem prodigiously more intelligent than the other kids. She's smart, sure, but they're all weird demi-gods with a genius for their specialties. The rest of them haven't even mastered their own catalogue, and I'm supposed to swallow that Carolyn has attained 'competent or better' status in six? When she has to research five of them in secret? Without falling behind in her own studies?

It would be fine if they had all been masters of their own catalogues for years and years; that would mean they would begin to stagnate, while Carolyn kept learning. But that's not the case. By the end I wasn't impressed anymore at Carolyn's resourcefulness, it just felt like she could do anything and everything, shh, don't ask questions, she's the Chosen One so she just can.

The reason this isn't a grave problem to me is because Carolyn's journey isn't about becoming more powerful: it's about her emotional journey, which isn't affected by her being stupidly OP for no reason by the end of the book. She still sucked at the things that mattered, like "feelings" and "relationships" and "not being a shitty person." But I do think it hurt the story. I should be cheering on my protagonist when her wild schemes come together, not rolling my eyes.

Anyway. All that was the aperitif. Let's talk about

THE GRAVE AND GLARING PROBLEM AT THE CENTER OF MT CHAR.

So everything that happens in the book stems from Carolyn's thoroughly justified hatred of Father (and David, but David was made that way by Father). Father treated her, and all of the other kids, with extravagant cruelty. If you haven't read the book in a while, here's a sample of the kinds of things Father did to the kids, or, if David did them, that Father did nothing to prevent:

- Cooked David alive over 2 full days in a giant bronze bull (and made the rest of the kids bring the fuel)

- Put Michael's eyes out with a hot poker every night for 2 weeks (and made the rest of the kids watch)

- Murdered Margaret every few days, often in drawn-out and painful ways

- Made Rachel repeatedly give birth, raise the babies to about 9 months, then murder them with her own hands

- Allowed David to rape all 11 of the other kids (except Jennifer, probably because she was the healer and he wanted to stay on her good side)

- Allowed David to crucify, brutalize and rape Carolyn and Peter

- Gave Carolyn a loving new family for a year when she was nine years old (those two deer), then had David murder them in front of her and blame it on her for not remembering her homework well enough, then served the two deer at a feast to 'celebrate' her returning to the family

- Whippings, skinnings, and bone-breakings as standard disciplinary actions

Whoo-ee! Okay! We are talking about mythological cruelty. I am fine with this! The story takes place on a mythological scale. As outlandish as all of that is, the cruelty feels proportionate in a story about killing and replacing god. Father is cruel, indifferent, controlling, and alien. I have no questions, Carolyn please proceed with your revenge. We seemed on track for a tale in which Carolyn defeats Father, but in doing so she runs the risk of becoming him. Will she step back from the brink and retain her humanity after all of the trauma and brutality she's endured? Let's find out!

And then

and then.

Oh boy.

And then.

...It turns out, Father is a good guy after all.

And let me be clear: THIS IS NOT, IN AND OF ITSELF, A PROBLEM.

By the time you learn that Father is actually benevolent, and loved those kids, and cares about being a responsible steward to the world, and tried to leave the universe a better place than he found it, and genuinely regretted the suffering he inflicted on them when they were growing up, it feels kind of...natural? Like, I was surprised, but also not, because there were 90 pages of book left and Carolyn had already become god. This seemed like a thematically meaningful place to take the rest of the story.

It turns out Father was training Carolyn to replace him the entire time. He had to make her hate David because it was important that she "defeat a monster" on her path to becoming god. (It's not explained why she had to defeat a monster, but sure, okay; it's the kind of mythic feat that fits with the story we're in.)

Why did he choose Carolyn to be his successor? Well, originally he chose David, but David wasn't strong enough: every time Carolyn was the monster in David's story, she defeated him, and went on to rule the universe as an unspeakable tyrant. Since Carolyn always won, Father swapped their roles. He knew he had made the right choice when he put David into the bronze bull, and heard David begging for mercy: because when Carolyn had been the fated monster, she had never begged.

...Okay, so...hang on.

Hang on.

The only rule that we've established on "how to become god" is "you have to defeat a monster," right? I'll even grant you for free that it has to be a monster who is personally meaningful to you, although that part is never stated. Overcoming a great evil which has cast you down and abused you many times before, sure, okay.

...Why the FUCK did all that other awful shit have to happen??

I did not have this question when Father was just evil! That was a good enough explanation! But now that he's not evil, you HAVE TO EXPLAIN why he treated all of the kids so brutally!

Like dude you're GOD. If you need a monster for Carolyn, I'm sure you can make that happen without TORTURING CHILDREN FOR DECADES.

There didn't even need to be any other children! You could have two kids: the languages-kid, who is the chosen one (the chosen one has to be the languages-kid so they can read the Onyx Codex or whatever it was called at the end, the one written by Original God), and the war-and-murder kid, who is the monster. They could have just been forbidden to read the other codices, if it's important to you that your chosen one still prove her resourcefulness or whatever.

Why include all of the other kids??? It wasn't to give your chosen one a sense of family: Carolyn didn't feel close to any of them except for Michael (who I liked, but whose contribution to the plot was negligible).

Or keep the kids! But then why make them, and Carolyn, hate you?? You could just say, "Hey Carolyn, I am raising you to be my successor, you have to figure it out yourself because part of proving your worthiness is this kind of abstract, big-picture thinking, but I love you and whatever you end up deciding to do, just believe in yourself." And meanwhile you're off torturing the fated monster in order to get him piping hot and ready to be served.

Was the idea that Carolyn had to endure so much horror in order to prove she was 'tough enough' to be god?? Because that's not how trauma works! Kids who have been brutally traumatized are usually not made tougher by the experience! A fact that even the book understands, because 10 of the 12 kids are completely destroyed by their upbringing (I'm giving marginal exceptions to Michael and Carolyn herself).

And like

if Father doesn't have a good reason for having treated them so badly, the whole book falls apart!

Because getting revenge for that cruelty is Carolyn's whole motivation!

We are clearly supposed to feel okay about Father going to make a new universe at the end of the book: he's going with his cool tiger friend and that little girl with the connection to the elemental plane of joy who used to be the sun, he's happy to see Carolyn embracing compassion and kindness, which means he cares about compassion and kindness. He invented light and pleasure. Carolyn does nothing to try to stop him from going. He seems like a pretty good candidate for god. And I do feel okay with him leaving! I was convinced! Father is not evil after all!

But then you have! to explain! the abuse!!

It can be a throwaway line!! "Carolyn realized that everything she and her siblings went through had to happen the way it did, because [X]," embedded in the middle of a paragraph! That would have been enough! But I need an explanation!

"They were raised the way Father was raised himself" WHY? He was raised by the Emperor, an on-the-record awful fucking dude! Father proceeded to rule the universe in a far more benevolent way than the Emperor did, why would he feel like he had to raise his kids the way the Emperor raised him?

"Carolyn needed to overcome challenges on her path to godhood" how is TRAUMATIZING HER SO BADLY SHE ALMOST BECOMES INHUMAN - SOMETHING YOU WERE OSTENSIBLY TRYING TO PREVENT, see Steve being preserved as something that could give her hope, etc - A "CHALLENGE??"

Again, none of this is a problem if Father is just evil! YOU CHOSE to make him not evil! And that's fine!! I think it's a good choice for the story actually!! But then you have to, you have to, HAVE TO explain why all of that bad shit happened!

Because all of that bad shit is the reason Carolyn made there be a story.

And it turns out it doesn't make sense.

#the library at mount char

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tundrainafrica · 4 years

Note

So I see your a LeviHan shipper!! I enjoy the ship a lot too!! But are there any specific reason that their your favorite?? Maybe you could explain that a little through a list? But anyways I hope your week has been good so far, Sav. Have a good day/night!!!! - Signed by Your Secret Santa 🎄

Hello! Thank you for asking about my week (and my ship).

I enjoy the ship a lot too!! But are there any specific reason that their your favorite?

To answer that first question...

You’re in for a long rollercoaster ride of a rant because I don’t think I’m the type of person to ship anything to the point of writing domestic fluff fics unless the I felt really really drawn to the ship.

Anyway, (slight) spoilers abound! Will keep manga spoilers subtle, mostly Levihan scenes.

Disclaimer: I do not want to start shipping wars. I specifically avoided the words like should or best because I recognize that shipping is generally based on preferences. I respect everyone’s preferences on what they want out of a ship or even a relationship and through this, I just hope to express my own preferences and maybe even gush with people who agree.

1. The ship did not move the plot. The plot moved the ship.

Attack on Titan is not a romance or a shojo, if it’s not fairly obvious from any chapter you would randomly read. As a reader, I would have expected it to fall short with pairings. Most shows which are not romance based tend to have a few pairings which just suddenly end up together towards the end of the manga because “What’s a happy ending without marriage and kids?” There is usually a trend of just pairing of the extras and sometimes, or maybe even more often than not, it just seems to come out of nowhere (ehem... Naruto.). Maybe the relationship worked off screen but I dunno. Like no shipping war here but the only pairing I had full support for was Shikatema.

In stories classified as romances, there is enough of a spotlight on the sexual tension and mutual pining of specific characters for the romance to be considered reasonable. In my opinion, some authors tend to sacrifice really good world building for a good romance. Objectively twilight for example had some crazy good world building but it just kinda focused a little too much on emo Bella and emo Edward for the world building to actually be appreciated by the casual reader. Tbh though, this is not necessarily bad because people get into stuff for reasons, sometimes, I just wanna read a good fantasy, sometimes I just wanna read a good romance.

Romances though as a main driving point for narratives, require some convenient serendipity moments and sexual tension which can be written well but as a reader, I prefer to see more natural relationships born out of necessity (Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata is a good example of what I’m talking about in a romance novel.)

Attack on Titan through its narrative actually made Levihan seem VERY VERY possible. If I had to compare the presentation of this ship in canon to at least one relationship in other anime, I would compare it to Royai from FMA.

Like, if Attack on Titan didn’t give us random subtle hints about romantic or just platonic relationships between the two or even about anyone, even if Levi and Hange did get together in the end, it would have been one of the pairings, I probably wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow at.

But they could be just friends? Which brings me to my next point.

2. Their current situation makes it so it’s only natural that at the least, they considered it.

Yes. Friends is a valid interpretation for anything. I mean, given our hook up culture, people can fuck as friends too. People probably have made out drunk as friends too. Like I have seen my fair share of this type of bullshit in high school and college and I would say, we do not need a kiss or a fucking session to recognize that something can be a good relationship or to recognize that they have probably thought about it.

A relationship requires a commitment (conscious or unconscious) to caring for the other, keeping the other safe, recognizing their flaws and thinking about them regularly (Call me scott peck or marriage counselor but like I honestly think the world would be a better place once people recognize that quality romantic relationships are worked for).

Mind you, Levi and Hange lost everything.They literally lost everything from their old life, all their friends, all their loved ones and all they have is each other and they’re forced to take care of a bunch of kids.

There are people who have said before, no one gets very close with someone without ever considering a romantic relationship with them. Or even if they never considered it romantic, they could consider at least “living with them their whole life,” or “supporting them through thick and thin.” The things is, towards the end, they were constantly together and what drove them to that situation is that both of them are aware of what the other had lost. They understood each other more than anyone else and they recognized that they were the only ones left in their own circle and I personally think that is more than enough for a relationship to naturally bloom between them.

3. The relationship and the signs are subtle and it works.

I personally probably would not have enjoyed it if canon showed a romantic relationship of the two after Erwin died. It’s a valid interpretation to consider that it could have happened, based on my explanation for number 2 but Hange is commander, Levi is captain. They have a professional relationship and they have goals and obligations which take precedence over personal desires. They are in the middle of a war and the most which probably could have happened was a secret mutual pining between the two and I think Isayama has injected the most subtle hints which are the most that could have been appropriately put into canon without seeming too OOC. Hange and Levi are not selfish people. They have promises, dreams and obligations which they respect and have committed themselves to already. It has also been shown at earlier points of the manga that they do put their survey corps duties on top of everything so acting on a romantic attraction at that point in time would have definitely been inappropriate.

I personally think, the scenes of Hange going out of her way to save Levi as commander, killing her other soldiers to save both their asses, suggesting in the forest that they live together instead of go back to the war and not leaving an injured Levi until she had no choice were more powerful than a lot of romantic scenes where people actually fuck and kiss. Kissing and fucking are easy. Leaving the duties and responsibilities they have worked for for five years to keep the person they love alive hits way harder.

Call it platonic. Call it romantic. But no one like Hange would have deserted her post as commander for a few chapters to take care of a sick comrade and kill her subordinates to save their asses if there wasn’t anything between them.

4. It gives a great example what healthy relationships can come from.

I grew up reading sweet valley and chick lits cause I was a basic bitch and I kinda grew up with a somehow unrealistic idea of where relationships come from. Call me a late bloomer but I only actually figured out where the romance and the happiness of a relationship was when I got into one with my best friend for five years.

It’s the sexual tension and the “will they wont they?” push and pull which can lead to satisfying sex or a happy ending in romance novels. I think in a way, media kinda overglorifies it which kinda gives a lot of young people the wrong idea about why they getting into a relationship is fun in the first place. Because after the satisfying sex and the kids, what’s next for the relationship?

Years of utility bills, diapers, chores, schedules, parent teacher conferences and compromises until someone gives up or dies. And what kind of relationships can actually thrive through all these?

Those that have mastered the underrated parts of relationships. These include conflict resolutions, compromises and open communication. I think we have seen enough of those two, even before season 3 that have shown that they know each other very well and they have shown to at least have a relatively equal power dynamic which is a foundation for open communication and mutual trust in relationships even beyond the fucking and marriage stage

5. They have a great foundation of character development for both parties.

As I mentioned above, they have a relatively equal power dynamic. I love Royai from FMA and I have compared Royai to this multiple times. I would say though I prefer Levihan over Royai because I felt that Royai had more unequal power dynamics? (Though I still think Royai is a top tier ship ). Also, they have shown to tell off the other when they don’t like what the other is doing. They are complete opposites but here is the magical thing. They talk everything out. They’re generally open people to each other and they know each other way too well as hinted in scenes before and opposites work as long as the others are willing to compromise. I think (especially in season 3 and season 4) that they have done enough for each other and have compromised enough for each other in the survey corps that these skills could easily be brought with them even after the war.

That open communication is just what makes them maintaining a relationship while being complete opposites very OC and realistic. Eventually, they did probably did make compromises, which most likely softened or moderated the crazy parts of their personalities which is just a really fun part of their relationship to explore.

6. It could realistically last so maybe ...

7. A good foundation for happy children?

Maybe it’s how it is written because of the actual story and why would Yams write a romantic drama in a story about genocide and war. Tbh, I would attribute it more to Levi and Hange’s personalities though because Mikasa and Eren have their fair share of drama, mostly one sided though coz Mikasa. This relationship has no drama, no misunderstandings which just further supports my point that they have a relationship that thrives on open communication and mutual trust. Drama is fun like when we’re the ones on the sidelines eating the popcorn but I have third wheeled enough people in my life to realize that I will not support a relationship where both parties are just not ready to be mature about it, in real life and in fiction.

My favorite couples, in real life and in fiction, are definitely those who keep conflict among themselves and maybe among trusted people. I think one sign of a healthy relationship is one where problems don’t become public through social media or through like 20 people. One important yet underrated part of relationships is the atmosphere of comfort and freedom which encourages both parties to be able to directly approach one another before tensions and uncertainties get out of hand.

And a life free of dramas at least in the early stages of life just kinda shows at least that both parties are ready to bring a new life to the world? Because like immature parents with shitty conflict resolution skills really fuck kids up man and I passionately believe the world would really be a better place if babies were born out of trust, mutual understanding and open communication instead of sex but yeah, make sex fun to keep our race alive.

So anyway, I guess, I just finished explaining why I love this ship so much while also disclosing my preferences for relationships.

As mentioned above...

Other pairings which I support for those curious: Shikatema, Royai, Victuuri, Percabeth etc.

Also... To answer your second question...

My week has been great, some pretty solid life developments but US elections wise, not so great... (WHY IS THE ELECTION RACE SO CLOSE?)

#levihan #levi x hange #levi x hanji #levi ackerman #hange zoe #ship #analysis

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thickenmyblood · 3 years

Note

It’s interesting because, like, Laurent being conventionally attractive is a pretty integral part of his character? Just because he’s got people fawning over him and being creepy all the time and it’s interesting to think about how it would affect his defensiveness and stuff if he was just, like… average? And tbh if he wasn’t blond and gorgeous I feel like Nik at least would like him a lot better just bc he wouldn’t be like… Damen’s making bad decisions bc he’s horny

Also in terms of Damen only respecting jocks I literally cannot get over the fact that he spends a good half of book one shitting on Ancel and the other pets for being pretty and useless and then straight up gets raped by him and then two scenes later sees him fire dancing and thinks “huh, this guy has a useful skill after all” and smiles on-screen for the first time because he’s genuinely happy the guy got the interest of the regent like seriously Damen I love you but wtf

I'm sorry. I have thoughts. Again.

I was talking to a friend yesterday about this and she told me, basically, that if Laurent wasn't pretty and/or didn't know how to fight, Capri wouldn't be Capri. It'd be a completely different story (although we all agree that it's not just Laurent's skill with a sword that draws Damen in. It's the fact that he starts to see Laurent as someone who's committed to his people, his men, etc.)

I think "being pretty but singed" is an actual trope, as in, many people enjoy writing/reading about someone who is beautiful on the outside but has dark secrets, an ugly past, whatever. Which is interesting to think about. It's also interesting how sometimes we will take a character who is explicitly described as undesirable and ugly and turn them into a hotter version of themselves. I do that with Govart, especially when I'm reading.

Sadly, I disagree a bit on the Nik part. I think Nik's character sometimes is read and interpreted as some sort of comedic relief, much like Nicaise (the fork scene in Book 1, for example). By this point, we all know there is a difference between canon and fanon, and so some characters become caricatures that can be quite the opposite of what they were meant to signify in the original text. I believe—once again, my opinion, just a way to interpret things, nothing else—that Nik's dislike for Laurent runs deeper than the fact that he thinks Damen is being a horny idiot.

Nikandros is a slave owner. He's the Kyros of Delpha, which we all know used to be Delfeur and belonged to Vere. He underestimates Laurent's abilities again and again, and when Laurent proves himself he has to do so in the Akielon way (so, fool Akielon guards, win the Okton—which I'm not even going to try and explain because I don't even get it myself. I really don't). Nikandros doesn't share Damen's journey as a slave, doesn't know what it's like to be at the mercy of another man simply by a twist of fate, doesn't know that slavery is not as fancy and nice as Damen described it in Book 1. Nikandros is Damen pre-journey, unchanged except for the grief of losing his friend. Not that I think Damen has turned into the Virgin Mary towards the end, but whatever.

My biggest issue with Nikandros as a character is that his whole development and "arch" happens in the third book, which is to me the worst book in the trilogy, full of things that make 0 sense, full of contradictions that not even fandom can "fix" without starting a headcanon war of epic proportions. All I can say is that I think Nikandros hates Veretians (dislikes them strongly? considers them militarily inferior? also, morally dubious?) and I refuse to believe after KR he was suddenly okay with slavery being abolished, became best pals with Laurent, and never had a shitty thing to say about Vere again.

Not only does Nikandros have all this prejudice against Veretians (which we can say he sort of overlooked that one time he was plotting with Laurent), but he's also the only person in the trilogy besides Jord that tells Damen things exactly how they are. I think Nikandros' concerns are very, very valid. You can't just build a cute palace on the border, get married without heirs, and unite two countries that have hated each other for many years. . . and not expect any sort of retaliation, uprising, mutiny, etc. It's simply stupid. But then, Pacat writes that that's exactly what happened. So. . . I don't even know where I was going with this.

Also, Nikandros probably doesn't give a fuck about helping Laurent get his kingdom back. Nikandros wants Kastor's head on a spike and for things to go back to how they were, so he can go back to Delpha and eat olives with bread while a hot slave fans him.

Damen only respecting jocks + the thoughts he has on pets and people, in general, are the two reasons why he's a good character when he's depicted as flawed. He has flaws. He judges people harshly and wrongly. He makes assumptions. He lies to himself. Giving him flaws isn't making him OOC. In canon, Damen is deeply flawed, just like Laurent is. I don't know when Lamen became the symbol for all that is good and pure, when really they're both. . . fucked up. Every couple in Captive Prince is fucked up. Jord and Aimeric? Jord is one creepy fuck. Aimeric is basically raping himself (at least in the very beginning, we can debate the rest). Anyone and Erasmus? Fucked. Up. Like, every version of Erasmus with someone ends horribly. Erasmus and Torveld are gross (objectively, because Erasmus is a SLAVE even though Pacat really tried to say 'Torveld is not like the rest of the slave owners, he's different'). Erasmus and Damen are gross because again, power imbalance, also Erasmus' feelings towards Prince Damianos are worthy of a good old therapy session. Erasmus and Kallias? I have thoughts but this is way too long. Erasmus and Govart? Rapey rape. I think the least fucked up couple is Berencel, BUT it can be argued that they're not part of the trilogy. We only meet Ancel in the short stories, so I don't know. Plenty of people haven't read Pet.

My final thoughts on this are that had Laurent been ugly as fuck, it would have taken Damen 400k words to fall in love with him. And if he was ugly AND not blonde. . . 650k.

#i shall................shut the fuck up already #anon #this is partially satire #partially true #i......................... wish i had enough braincells to host a capri event where we all have to like submit diverse prompts as in #diverse body types #diverse sexualities #trans characters #stuff like that #but i have been recently informed that that is homophobic LMISGJKBDSGJKBDJKNJKkjjdfjgjg sorry #will delete this later #nikandros

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dindjarindiaries · 3 years

Audio

DIN’S CHARACTER ARC: A CONVERSATION

This is just a very casual thinking session I had about some elements of Din’s character arc thus far in the show—covering two important critiques of his writing and what I think about them! Feel free to share your opinion if you listened.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, everyone! Welcome to some random thoughts with... me. [chuckling] I’m sitting in a squeaky chair so I’m sorry if it makes sounds. This is very unprofessional, this is literally just me thinking—I don’t have any of this written down and I hope it’s not terribly long or anything.

I guess I’ve just been thinking a lot about Din’s character and his arc throughout seasons one and two. I’ve seen a lot of people say—which is totally fine, we all have our own opinions (I swear!), that’s totally fine. I’m also very open to people critiquing my opinions ‘cause, you know, that’s just... debate is great, I love debate! It’s so good to hear what other people say because I’m the kind of person that can be swayed, you know, pretty easily, so I’m definitely open to hearing any kind of things that you might disagree with me [on.] But... personally, I’ve been thinking a lot about the writing decisions at the end of season two that a lot of people disagree with.

So, one of those things being when Din takes off his helmet, of course. So, a lot of people were, you know, pretty upset by that because he’s been following this Creed for so long and it’s really important to him and it helped him, you know, in the face of—after losing everything, this is what he had to hold on to. And I totally get that, too, like... it was a shock, you know, for Chapter 15—the stakes were raised, so, you know, it was different than like in Chapter 16 where he willingly takes it off in front of other people and doesn’t go in private.

But in my opinion, first of all, the problem with that is that in Chapter 16, it would’ve been really awkward for him to go in private because... you know, he—Luke’s in the way, and all these people are behind him on the bridge, so he would’ve literally had to say, “Hold on, can we just... either all of you leave, or we’re just gonna go to another part of the ship?” It just... there wasn’t a good way to get privacy and I think that’s a big reason why he didn’t get privacy.

In general, for those decisions, I think it actually is a very important part of his character that it did happen, because... the biggest—one of the biggest parts of his character as described by, you know, like Jon and other writers and contributors to the show ever since it started is that... the beskar is not just a physical armor for Din, it’s also been an emotional armor and a psychological armor, you know? So, he’s not—like, he’s hiding in his beskar not just physically, but in every way, he’s hiding in it to get away from his trauma, to get away from—you know, a lot of different things. So, for him to be able to not cling to his armor anymore and to hide within it just because of Grogu is huge growth, and I think that was a really good way of showing it, is... you know, he’s not defining himself by this status of a “Mandalorian” anymore. Like, yes, it’s still important to him that he’s a Mandalorian and that’s not something that he wants to take away from himself or that he will take away from himself, but it’s not something he has to reduce himself to. He’s not just “the Mandalorian,” he’s “Grogu’s father,” and he’s okay with that. He’s willing to not hide anymore, especially for Grogu’s sake—which is just major.

I think that’s why I don’t really have a problem with the helmet removals myself, because it’s just a very effective way of showing Mando’s growth in that way and how Grogu has helped him to realize he doesn’t need to stick to this Creed which, quite frankly, right now his whole Tribe that he was with—that he learned that custom from—they all are gone! They had to break the Creed, you know? Like, he saw their helmets. So, I think that Grogu kinda helped him to let go. And that’s what leads me into my next point about how, you know, a lot of people were upset that Grogu left.

I totally understand that because, you know, that’s heartbreaking, and it seemed like with Ahsoka rejecting Grogu for training and saying, “Well, he can choose his path,” we’re all like, “Okay, well, Grogu obviously doesn’t want to go, he’s gonna choose Din.” But it wasn’t really a matter of Grogu choosing Jedi stuff over Din, it was more like Grogu knew what he had to do to protect Din—because if he doesn’t train, if he doesn’t contain his Force powers, he won’t be able to—like, Din can’t keep him safe forever. So, now, he’s going to train because he knows that if he does, he’ll be able to keep Din safe. So, he doesn’t necessarily want to leave Din, he doesn’t want to go train, but he knows that he has to. And Din knows that he has to. That’s why Din was upset in Chapter 14 when he was talking to Grogu and he’s like, “You have to go with them, I can’t train you,” like, he knows—they both know. So, that’s why he had to go.

For Din, you know, it wasn’t just like he was like, “Oh, this has been my quest, I have to do this,” it’s like... a parent—a parental growth moment of letting go of your kid. When you think about parents who are sending their kids off to college, you know, think about it like... Mando’s quest—sorry, I’ve been switching between Mando and Din, but—the quest is very much like a parent helping their kid choose a college, right? So, they go through this whole process, they’re paying this money for applications, they’re doing college tours, they’re doing all this stuff. But then, their kid is ultimately gonna have to go. They’re gonna have to let go of their kid, like, they’ve done all this stuff for them, they’ve raised them, and they knew that it was gonna reach this point, but that doesn’t make it any easier at the end! You know? I know that my parents cried when I went to college. It’s not easy, no matter how much you prepare for it.

So, for Din, it was like yes he knew, he was fighting all these battles and he was—he risked his life to protect Grogu, but he ultimately knew he was gonna have to give him away. And when that moment came, he didn’t hold back. He didn’t hold Grogu back from what he knows he’s supposed to do. Instead, he was able to let go—which he’s not been able to do! ‘Cause we know he still holds on to his trauma from his childhood and we know that he still holds on to those grudges he had with the gang, even though he treated those better because Grogu has taught him to, you know, be a better person. [chuckles] But his whole problem is that he hasn’t been able to let go and that’s why he hides within himself. But now, he can let go—let go of the Creed, let go of Grogu (but not, you know, he doesn’t actually have to fully and forever let go of Grogu).

Anyway, those are just some random thoughts I had. I could’ve typed them out, I might type them out at some point to make this better. I might do a transcript of this too so then people who can’t listen to audio can hear it, too. And... yeah! But those are just some scrambled thoughts on Mando’s character arc in season two specifically. Feel free to let me know if you disagree with any of these opinions and why. I’m totally open for different opinions—what I say is not, like, the hard golden truth—it’s just my personal thoughts on it. So... thank you for listening!

#din djarin #the mandalorian #meta #star wars #the mandalorian season two #molly talks

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