"Friends Behavior"
Sep. 7th, 2025 04:43 pm
Cannot stress enough how integral this comic in the artbook was to understanding Isafrin for me. So many questions I had regarding Siffrin's actions/feelings towards Isabeau can be explained by "We're Friends. This Is Friends Behavior. *blushing*"
"Why does Siffrin say he doesn't know how he feels towards Isabeau, despite his internal monologue showing that he does with decent clarity?" They simply believe that it is Average Friends Behavior. Thinking about Isabeau when shown a buff man in a romantic evaluation context? Friends Behavior!
This, of course, interacts with him saying that he hates that he feels romantic attraction. They don't want to experience it. So he tells himself that anything he feels isn't romantic; it's Friends Behavior!
TL;DR: me when I'm in an "avoiding confronting my feelings" competition and my opponent is Siffrin
Pain's Localization (The Good and the Bad)
Oct. 23rd, 2025 01:28 amI am extremely cross with the MILGRAM translation team for translating "可哀想" (kawaisou) as "baby", when Muu refers to Haruka. "Kawaisou" is a word that means someone who is pitiful. You use it in order to express sympathy with someone who is in a sad situation. It does not imply age.
"Poor boy" would be a much more accurate translation. And it doesn't have the unfortunate side-effect of infantilizing an intellectually disabled character, and implying motherly feelings on Muu's end that she pointedly does not harbor. (Haruka saw her as a mother, but Muu viewed Haruka as a friend.)
I will ALSO say, though, I 100% commend the English translation team for localizing that one line as, "I won’t stop hurting you, ‘cause I’m a mean girl."
They seemed to understand the weight the phrase "mean girl" holds with English-speakers. The blonde girl, the "rich bitch". These ideas, these stereotypes internalized as facts in English-speaking audiences due to misogynistic teenage fiction, have been held against Muu from the release of her very first MV.
This is the idea that they invoke as they humanize her, show her trauma, show her love for Haruka.
"You thought I was nothing but a mean girl. That’s why you chose to punish me, even when it came at the cost of someone else's life… So I will become the villain from the PG movies of your past. I'll flatten myself into someone so 2D like that, as long as you apologize to him."
It turns the mirror back on the audience, and shines a light the misogyny Muu has been facing from the very start. I've said it many times, and I will say it again: Muu Kusunoki, they could never make me hate you!!!
"Poor boy" would be a much more accurate translation. And it doesn't have the unfortunate side-effect of infantilizing an intellectually disabled character, and implying motherly feelings on Muu's end that she pointedly does not harbor. (Haruka saw her as a mother, but Muu viewed Haruka as a friend.)
I will ALSO say, though, I 100% commend the English translation team for localizing that one line as, "I won’t stop hurting you, ‘cause I’m a mean girl."
They seemed to understand the weight the phrase "mean girl" holds with English-speakers. The blonde girl, the "rich bitch". These ideas, these stereotypes internalized as facts in English-speaking audiences due to misogynistic teenage fiction, have been held against Muu from the release of her very first MV.
This is the idea that they invoke as they humanize her, show her trauma, show her love for Haruka.
"You thought I was nothing but a mean girl. That’s why you chose to punish me, even when it came at the cost of someone else's life… So I will become the villain from the PG movies of your past. I'll flatten myself into someone so 2D like that, as long as you apologize to him."
It turns the mirror back on the audience, and shines a light the misogyny Muu has been facing from the very start. I've said it many times, and I will say it again: Muu Kusunoki, they could never make me hate you!!!
There Is No Easter Bunny, There Is No Tooth Fairy, and There Is No Reliable Narrator in MILGRAM
Aug. 23rd, 2025 04:35 am"Woaw I can’t believe that (XYZ thing that happened in the MVs) is 100% true, canon and real" So there’s thing funny thing called 'the whole concept of the MVs is that they are based off of how the prisoner feels, not facts'.
We know that the end report cards can lie, too. The thing that we can trust the most is what comes out of the prisoners' mouths, and even that comes with the caveat that they can lie, have their feelings/viewpoint manipulated by others, etc.
There is no reliable narrator in MILGRAM, and there is no 'canon' information about their crimes. At least, not yet.
We know that the end report cards can lie, too. The thing that we can trust the most is what comes out of the prisoners' mouths, and even that comes with the caveat that they can lie, have their feelings/viewpoint manipulated by others, etc.
There is no reliable narrator in MILGRAM, and there is no 'canon' information about their crimes. At least, not yet.
Another Site Falls to Internet Enshittification
Oct. 24th, 2025 01:46 pmMoved my fandom list page from Rentry. The huge-ass porn banner ads, and the un-closable “support Rentry!” banner when you have adblock, was the final straw. That said, the "URL reclaim" system having its rules be stupidly inconsistent, and, thus, causing multiple of my pastes that I thought followed the rules get deleted with no warning also didn't help. Plus, I've been seeing some people saying that, when they click on links outside of the ad, Rentry treats it as if it was a click on the ad. So if you click any link in Rentry, there's a chance it'll just straight up send you to malware or a porn site. As a treat.
I've moved this information to pastry.diy. I considered a lot of different pastebin sites, but none of them won out over Rentry, given that it is probably one of the best-known pastebin services with decent customization. Pastry.diy relatively new, so I could get all the same URLs as I did on Rentry with no problem, and it's a pastebin service that uses HTML and CSS, which means better customization, as well. My fandom list is at pastry.diy/chara now.
I've moved this information to pastry.diy. I considered a lot of different pastebin sites, but none of them won out over Rentry, given that it is probably one of the best-known pastebin services with decent customization. Pastry.diy relatively new, so I could get all the same URLs as I did on Rentry with no problem, and it's a pastebin service that uses HTML and CSS, which means better customization, as well. My fandom list is at pastry.diy/chara now.
Yuletide 2025 letter
Oct. 26th, 2025 11:30 amThank you for writing for me! All of my listed likes are simply sugesstions/ideas if you've having trouble coming up with something - as long as it has one of my requested relationships/chaarcters and avoids my DNWs, I'll enjoy it! Also, I may have more ideas for some fandoms/ships than others - I would be delighted to get fics for any of these, in fact length of prompts is usually more a function of how long I've been requesting them in exchanges/how long I've been in the fandom than anything else. (And for some of my rare fandoms/ships, I would so much like to get ANYTHING that it's hard to come up with specifics for what I would want
If you wanna write something shippy, then see my list of ships. I'll also be listing some ships involving requesting characters below. And of course, I am open to any gen!
You are also very welcome to look through past letters/requests (Dreamwidth, AutoApp) for more ideas
I am open to treats in any medium!
General DNWs:
Trans character's partner(s)/friends being transphobic (confused/not perfect allies is okay), Slavery to a greater extent than in canon, Characters describing romance as “more/greater than friendship”, or a friendship being described as “just” friends, Non canon permanent character death (OC death ok), Eye or tooth injuries/eye scream (mentions of past injuries ok), toilet humor, gore/injury described/depicted in greater detail than is typical in canon, setting change AUs in fic unless specifically requested (setting change art ok), cheating/infidelity, requested/prompted ships breaking up or being abusive (mentions of them breaking up in the past are okay; I just don’t want it to happen during the fic itself), character/ship bashing, cannibalism/flesh-eating whatevers, Hanahaki, crossover with Harry Potter, Hetalia, or Attack on Titan, utterly sad/depressing/hopeless endings. (Bittersweet or hopeful are okay, as are endings that hint at/lead into tragic events in canon. I’m also okay with endings like… “things look sad now, but based on how things turn out in canon we know the characters will turn out okay”), Mentions of adult/minor relationships, incest, beastality, are okay, but I don’t want them to be the focus of the fic unless requested/otherwise specified. (Focus on adult/minor relationships with a three years or less age gap is fine)
Smut/NSFW DNW
Canon characters being perpetrators of non/dubcon (dubcon of the "sex pollen/fuck or die/other sf/f thing" variety is okay, OC perpetrators ok), Blood/vomit (okay in a non-sexual context), knife/sword/gun/other weapon play (whips/floggers/other impact play implements okay), race play, injuries more severe than bruising/hickeys (working around pre-existing injury is okay, I just don't want it to be incurred during sex or the characters explicitly kinking on it), breath play/sexual choking, on-page sex involving characters under 15 (mentions/references are okay), pee drinking/human toilet/scat/characters peeing on/in each other, sounding/urethal insertion, stuff other than sex toys/genitalia/fingers/tongues being put into holes, Public sex (unless in a setting where this is normal/expected) (does not apply to wearing sex toys/chastity devices under clothes), Unrealistically large penises on human/oid characters, Noncon and on-purpose voyeurism (accidental and/or consensual okay), fisting
General Likes:
hurt/comfort, whump, angst w/ happy endings, illness/injury, kidfic/characters having kids, trans/non-binary characters/crossdressing/gender stuff in general, worldbuilding, cultural differences, cultural exchange/sharing culture, hand kisses, daemon AU, crack/silliness (esp. if treated seriously), dramatic irony, foreshadowing of canon events, Sedoretu, crossovers, queerplatonic relationships, episode style/casefic, meet the parents/family, revealing relationship to parents/family, telepathy, “Let me/us help”, Multiplicity/plurality/body-sharing, language/linguistics stuff, Characters dealing with bureaucracy, particularly bureaucracy tring to deal with or built around SF/fantasy stuff, or simply weird stuff that happens in canon, in-universe documents (posters, forms, articles, reviews, instructions, etc), in-universe fandom, characters with the ability to see/talk to ghosts, identity issues, Polyamory - feel free to add other chars to any of my requested ships, as long as it otherwise doesn't violate my DNWs! Also open to any background/past/mentioned ships unless I've specifically DNWed it
Art likes:
character/plot/relationship parallels and contrasts, symbolism/use of canon symbols, hand kisses, alternate outfits, pride flags/LGBT+ headcanons - I love seeing other people's interpretations/headcanons, even if they don't match up with mine! dramatic lighting/poses/coloring, limited palette/monochrome with bits of color, mimicking style of other canons, pixel art, stylization, earrings, characters w short hair and long skirts, tarot cards
Smut/NSFW likes
BDSM (icl. nonsexul/platonic), diapers/watersports/ageplay, sex toys/chastity devices, characters getting plugged up after being fucked full of cum, feminization/genderplay/etc, roleplay/characters having a hard time staying in character for the RP, consensual forced kinks - as in, characters pretend that A is forcing B into a kink, but in reality it's just a scene/they're faking it, safeword useage
Ships: Sparrow/Bianca, Sparrow/Bianca/Emma, Jany/Kara Lynn, Camellia | Timothy/The Cat
Likes/Prompts: past master(s) of canon Being(s), ways that being(s) can be used, research, meeting new people, challenging assumptions/discovering that your initial thoughts were not quite right
Sparrow/Bianca is very a very classic and fun "and they were roommates!" ship. If you go for Sparrow/Bianca/Emma, then I think that a fic about her moving in with Sparrow and Bianca could be interesting, epecially since S + B have been living together for a while
I like Jany/Kara Lynn for how it's about Jany slowly becoming more open with her sexuality. Kink could be fun to explore, or even other stuff about Jany trying to expand her horizons and trying to figure out what new things are and aren't for her. Would also be interested in Kara Lynn and Jany having a threesome with another woman (canon character, OC, or even someone from a different fandom)
As for Camellia/the Cat, I would love to see some stuff from right after they left the cult, trying to build a normal life
Ships: Iona/Woman in Black, any combination of Leif/Thorn/Kale, Violet/Kallie
General DNW exception: If you want to write a fic set in the 'verse of one of the AU strips Erin has made, go for it
General DNW clarification: I ask that Iona/WIB fics be set in the future, when Iona is an adult
Fandom Likes: Magic, friendship, diplomacy, secrets, asking for help
Prompts/Likes: Magic, friendship, diplomacy, secrets, asking for help
- During their time-travel adventures in canon, Mulberry and/or Future Thorn somehow help get Kale together with Leif & Thorn
- Futurefic with Baby Mulberry (and any other kids that the chars might have)
Ships I like: Junah/any one or more of Will, Bas, Eupha, Hulknenberg; Will/Prince
Also particuarly interested in Rell & Junah sibling stuff
Fandom DNW: Focus on Fidelio/Junah (past/background is okay!)
DNW exceptions: A greater-than-canon focus on Euchronia's slavery is okay; Would be open to a modern AU where they're all members of a political campaign or something
Fandom likes: post-canon exploration and politicking, politics in general, culture differences between tribes and cities, food/cooking, more exploration of both religions + are there any others? countries other than Euchronia, life in the Eldan village pre-canon, Prince continuing to exist alongside Will (can be bodysharing or separate bodies), Language stuff: dialect/accent differences + maybe Mustari have their own language? (or at least their dialect is more different than everyone else's), Euchronian history, how the events of the game are remembered/recorded in the future.
Ships: Magdalyne/Ester
Also, while I don't have any ships for him, I don't have any NOTPs either (aside from ones that would already be covered by my DNW), so feel free to try and sell me on your ships for him. Also a big fan of Andres & Caspar
Fandom likes: Andreas' mindscape, between-timeskip events, the future of Tassing
Fandom DNW: Spoilers for the parts of the main plotline that global hasn't gotten to yet. (Character cameos and spoilers for evens and synergies/confidants are okay!)
Ships: Nagisa/any of Motoha, Tomoko, Kiyoshi, Merope, Riko, Joker; Riko/Motoha; Merope/Naruru
Prompts/Likes: Plot/world-building speculation: the nature of Phantom Idols, when/how the P5X 'verse diverged from the main universe, what's up (if anything) with Merope and Marythm, etc. Nagisa introducing Merope to other idolas + maybe Vtubers and Vocaloid? & just introducing her to other human stuff in general. Confidants/Synergies that aren't thives finding out about the Metaverse. More crossover stuff between P5X and the other parts of the franchise - in particular I'd LOVE involving P3's female protagonist somehow, since it doesn't seem like she's going to get added in the P3R collab.
If you wanna write something shippy, then see my list of ships. I'll also be listing some ships involving requesting characters below. And of course, I am open to any gen!
You are also very welcome to look through past letters/requests (Dreamwidth, AutoApp) for more ideas
I am open to treats in any medium!
General DNWs:
Trans character's partner(s)/friends being transphobic (confused/not perfect allies is okay), Slavery to a greater extent than in canon, Characters describing romance as “more/greater than friendship”, or a friendship being described as “just” friends, Non canon permanent character death (OC death ok), Eye or tooth injuries/eye scream (mentions of past injuries ok), toilet humor, gore/injury described/depicted in greater detail than is typical in canon, setting change AUs in fic unless specifically requested (setting change art ok), cheating/infidelity, requested/prompted ships breaking up or being abusive (mentions of them breaking up in the past are okay; I just don’t want it to happen during the fic itself), character/ship bashing, cannibalism/flesh-eating whatevers, Hanahaki, crossover with Harry Potter, Hetalia, or Attack on Titan, utterly sad/depressing/hopeless endings. (Bittersweet or hopeful are okay, as are endings that hint at/lead into tragic events in canon. I’m also okay with endings like… “things look sad now, but based on how things turn out in canon we know the characters will turn out okay”), Mentions of adult/minor relationships, incest, beastality, are okay, but I don’t want them to be the focus of the fic unless requested/otherwise specified. (Focus on adult/minor relationships with a three years or less age gap is fine)
Smut/NSFW DNW
Canon characters being perpetrators of non/dubcon (dubcon of the "sex pollen/fuck or die/other sf/f thing" variety is okay, OC perpetrators ok), Blood/vomit (okay in a non-sexual context), knife/sword/gun/other weapon play (whips/floggers/other impact play implements okay), race play, injuries more severe than bruising/hickeys (working around pre-existing injury is okay, I just don't want it to be incurred during sex or the characters explicitly kinking on it), breath play/sexual choking, on-page sex involving characters under 15 (mentions/references are okay), pee drinking/human toilet/scat/characters peeing on/in each other, sounding/urethal insertion, stuff other than sex toys/genitalia/fingers/tongues being put into holes, Public sex (unless in a setting where this is normal/expected) (does not apply to wearing sex toys/chastity devices under clothes), Unrealistically large penises on human/oid characters, Noncon and on-purpose voyeurism (accidental and/or consensual okay), fisting
General Likes:
hurt/comfort, whump, angst w/ happy endings, illness/injury, kidfic/characters having kids, trans/non-binary characters/crossdressing/gender stuff in general, worldbuilding, cultural differences, cultural exchange/sharing culture, hand kisses, daemon AU, crack/silliness (esp. if treated seriously), dramatic irony, foreshadowing of canon events, Sedoretu, crossovers, queerplatonic relationships, episode style/casefic, meet the parents/family, revealing relationship to parents/family, telepathy, “Let me/us help”, Multiplicity/plurality/body-sharing, language/linguistics stuff, Characters dealing with bureaucracy, particularly bureaucracy tring to deal with or built around SF/fantasy stuff, or simply weird stuff that happens in canon, in-universe documents (posters, forms, articles, reviews, instructions, etc), in-universe fandom, characters with the ability to see/talk to ghosts, identity issues, Polyamory - feel free to add other chars to any of my requested ships, as long as it otherwise doesn't violate my DNWs! Also open to any background/past/mentioned ships unless I've specifically DNWed it
Art likes:
character/plot/relationship parallels and contrasts, symbolism/use of canon symbols, hand kisses, alternate outfits, pride flags/LGBT+ headcanons - I love seeing other people's interpretations/headcanons, even if they don't match up with mine! dramatic lighting/poses/coloring, limited palette/monochrome with bits of color, mimicking style of other canons, pixel art, stylization, earrings, characters w short hair and long skirts, tarot cards
Smut/NSFW likes
BDSM (icl. nonsexul/platonic), diapers/watersports/ageplay, sex toys/chastity devices, characters getting plugged up after being fucked full of cum, feminization/genderplay/etc, roleplay/characters having a hard time staying in character for the RP, consensual forced kinks - as in, characters pretend that A is forcing B into a kink, but in reality it's just a scene/they're faking it, safeword useage
But I'm A Cat Person
Ships: Sparrow/Bianca, Sparrow/Bianca/Emma, Jany/Kara Lynn, Camellia | Timothy/The Cat
Likes/Prompts: past master(s) of canon Being(s), ways that being(s) can be used, research, meeting new people, challenging assumptions/discovering that your initial thoughts were not quite right
Sparrow/Bianca is very a very classic and fun "and they were roommates!" ship. If you go for Sparrow/Bianca/Emma, then I think that a fic about her moving in with Sparrow and Bianca could be interesting, epecially since S + B have been living together for a while
I like Jany/Kara Lynn for how it's about Jany slowly becoming more open with her sexuality. Kink could be fun to explore, or even other stuff about Jany trying to expand her horizons and trying to figure out what new things are and aren't for her. Would also be interested in Kara Lynn and Jany having a threesome with another woman (canon character, OC, or even someone from a different fandom)
As for Camellia/the Cat, I would love to see some stuff from right after they left the cult, trying to build a normal life
Leif & Thorn
Ships: Iona/Woman in Black, any combination of Leif/Thorn/Kale, Violet/Kallie
General DNW exception: If you want to write a fic set in the 'verse of one of the AU strips Erin has made, go for it
General DNW clarification: I ask that Iona/WIB fics be set in the future, when Iona is an adult
Fandom Likes: Magic, friendship, diplomacy, secrets, asking for help
Prompts/Likes: Magic, friendship, diplomacy, secrets, asking for help
- During their time-travel adventures in canon, Mulberry and/or Future Thorn somehow help get Kale together with Leif & Thorn
- Futurefic with Baby Mulberry (and any other kids that the chars might have)
Metaphor: ReFantazio
Ships I like: Junah/any one or more of Will, Bas, Eupha, Hulknenberg; Will/Prince
Also particuarly interested in Rell & Junah sibling stuff
Fandom DNW: Focus on Fidelio/Junah (past/background is okay!)
DNW exceptions: A greater-than-canon focus on Euchronia's slavery is okay; Would be open to a modern AU where they're all members of a political campaign or something
Fandom likes: post-canon exploration and politicking, politics in general, culture differences between tribes and cities, food/cooking, more exploration of both religions + are there any others? countries other than Euchronia, life in the Eldan village pre-canon, Prince continuing to exist alongside Will (can be bodysharing or separate bodies), Language stuff: dialect/accent differences + maybe Mustari have their own language? (or at least their dialect is more different than everyone else's), Euchronian history, how the events of the game are remembered/recorded in the future.
Pentiment
Ships: Magdalyne/Ester
Also, while I don't have any ships for him, I don't have any NOTPs either (aside from ones that would already be covered by my DNW), so feel free to try and sell me on your ships for him. Also a big fan of Andres & Caspar
Fandom likes: Andreas' mindscape, between-timeskip events, the future of Tassing
Persona 5: The Phantom X
Fandom DNW: Spoilers for the parts of the main plotline that global hasn't gotten to yet. (Character cameos and spoilers for evens and synergies/confidants are okay!)
Ships: Nagisa/any of Motoha, Tomoko, Kiyoshi, Merope, Riko, Joker; Riko/Motoha; Merope/Naruru
Prompts/Likes: Plot/world-building speculation: the nature of Phantom Idols, when/how the P5X 'verse diverged from the main universe, what's up (if anything) with Merope and Marythm, etc. Nagisa introducing Merope to other idolas + maybe Vtubers and Vocaloid? & just introducing her to other human stuff in general. Confidants/Synergies that aren't thives finding out about the Metaverse. More crossover stuff between P5X and the other parts of the franchise - in particular I'd LOVE involving P3's female protagonist somehow, since it doesn't seem like she's going to get added in the P3R collab.