#bengiyo

[sunshinechay]

2, 5, 15

2. What was the Asian ql that got you to join fandom?

Like most people who’ve joined recently, it was KinnPorsche lol. I had watched the few qls that I had found on viki and then saw KP though gifsets in my dash and after I watched it I started following more and more ql blogs. :)

5. Who is the Asian ql villain you most love to hate?

Hmm that’s honestly a hard one for me. Right now? Probably Tong, because this man somehow managed to have more audacity than Ming, which is a pretty high bar to clear lol. He’s also a total fucking idiot but he’s played by Mek and I like Mek’s acting so it’s a win-win.

All time? Probably Gun from kp. The man showed up to the hostile take over of his brother’s fortress dressed like he was about to go yachting and I’ll never be over it. 1000/10 no notes perfection. 😂

15. If you could banish one story setting from Asian ql, which would it be?

I’m not sure exactly how common this answer is, but high school/university. I don’t care much if the characters are in school but I also don’t much care for qls that are set in schools. It’s just not to my taste. I don’t mind high school/uni qls occasionally but I’m starting to find more and more than I’m gravitating towards shows that are set either outside of schools or are adults in the working world.

[liyazaki]

Song recc for vp: Dawn/Sea by Dem Yuut

you are my first you are my last

you are the dawn and I am the sea somewhere we meet

I just wanna know what you did and how you did it

I just wanna feel what it feels like when you can't quit it

this is a bop, Ben- absolutely love it.

send me vp asks, song reccs (no more please), etc.

[reflectingiridescent]

For the character ask, I'd like your takes on Harry Kim.

I never ever forgot about you. I just needed to rewatch half of Voyager to make sure that I could make this happen.

Headcanon A:  realistic

Harry's 100% in a polycule with Tom and B'elanna - if not on Voyager than definitely when they get back to Earth. I think this is long-term. Also in the polycule: Seven (limited to B'elanna, for at least a little while, and Harry and Tom are very encouraging of this), Beverly Crusher (with B'elanna, and Bev's sometimes in a polycule with Troi and Riker).

I'd go as far as to say that Harry is part of Tom and B'elanna's living situation when they're in one place together

Also, and I'm not sure when exactly this is but maybe possibly after Seven and the Doctor have to share a body (because Voyager is so annoyingly straight for most of the show lol which I have to assume is because of the particular set of people on board because we know that no one cares about orientation at that point in history), Seven sort of starts trying to figure out her attraction to more than just men. But she doesn't really have the vocabulary to talk about this at first. Harry's the one who teases it out of her. And then he helps her! So the Seven/B'elanna part of the polycule is in part thanks to him!

I just like the idea of him being able to help someone else with their relationship problems. A nice flip of the script.

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

Harry gets back and gets double-promoted. This trend continues. He gets promoted so quickly and has a reputation for getting promoted so quickly. That, combined with how the Voyager crew comes back and gets legend status, means that everyone forgets about how he never got promoted on Voyager and really just is famous for being the quickest promoted after. That is how he is remembered.

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

He gets the storied and excellent Starfleet career he wants, but nothing ever really comes close to what he had on Voyager. Which was maybe the point, since his whole story is about seeing an experience beyond acolades + expanding his idea of family. But sometimes (and only sometimes, because he loves his life), he wonders if his best days are behind him. When it gets particularly bad, Tom can get him out of his funk.

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

Lots of musically talented people in Star Trek. He probably has a one-hit-wonder kind of jazz band with the Doctor and Riker. They're one-and-done, but people talk about their performance for years. He gets Seven to sing for them for that one season. She does it under the guise of "wanting to learn more songs", but she secretly likes having something to do (it takes Starfleet an annoyingly long time to figure out what to do with her when she comes back, so she wants a distraction).

Unsolicited Bonus Headcanon: Harry's always been in charge of the Lunar New Year celebration on Voyager. He has a whole system for how to celebrate it even though they're nowhere near Earth's moon. The entire ship celebrates it. There are no exceptions. It's just part of the celebration roster. No one even questions it.

Send me a character!

[petekaos]

ITSAY Part 2 postponed indefinitely....

Pain.

hiii friend! yeah... when i heard of this i was super sad :( but i’m glad that they’re taking the necessary measures to keep everyone safe! i’d rather get itsay pt 2 late than have people be in danger. 

[0ffgun]

Just dropping by to say I appreciate your gif work so much. The additional perspectives you provide on characters arcs is *kisses fingers*.

This seriously means the world to me, thank you so much! I love getting creative with my gifs so it makes me happy knowing that you like them too *sobs*

[kandrakelsier]

Hi! I'm a DM who's curious about some of the puzzles you've come up with.

Sure! I recently ran a one-shot loosely inspired by the Triforce, so three challenges: Power, Courage, Wisdom. Each test would give the party a gem, but the gem would be powered if the test was passed and dull if failed.

Power was easy; multiple rounds of combat, and all you have to do is win. A TPK at any point resulted in receiving the dull ruby, while success grants the shining ruby.

Courage involves certain death for one player, who must willingly choose to die for the rest of the party. A player becomes trapped with a sphere of annihilation slowly descending towards them, but can force another party member to swap with them. DM’s discretion as to whether whoever ends up in the trap is there willingly, but the result is either the dull or shining emerald.

The Wisdom test was hard; on my first run I had to give this one as a freebie because the puzzle didn’t work without a map. The updated version is a puzzle I borrowed from Divinity Original Sin 2; there is an inscription of a riddle, extolling the qualities of a good hero. There is a blank at the end of the puzzle, the answer to which is “Wisdom”. Around the room are 24 levers, each with a different quality; the party needs to flip six levers such that the first letter of each selected quality will spell out “Wisdom”. They get 4 chances (1 to test the mechanic and then 3 guesses), and get the shining sapphire on completion or the dull sapphire on failure.

The three gems are used to open the final door, and the reward depends on how many dull/shining gems they have. Admittedly the theming could use some work, but this was the first one shot I ran in quarantine. I did make sure that even on failure the party could continue, and I used that scaling reward system I talked about in my original post.

A few more below the cut because this got long:

I’ve also been experimenting with mirror puzzles; this is hard without meeting in real life, but I have one where the mirror reflects objects that don’t exist in real life. The solution to the puzzle requires your reflection to interact with mirror objects while you simultaneously interact with real world objects.

Chess puzzles can be interesting (A good starter is the 8 queens puzzle), and simple ciphers can be easy puzzles (Thematically, the scytale is a neat one if you want to incorporate enemies into it; give the commander a conveniently sized quarterstaff). Build puzzles from what you know; I like messing around with spatial distortion (A room that bends space but not light, requiring weird movement to proceed. I also saw a 5-D hypertesseract dungeon, but I don’t have the brainpower to run that) and mathematical patterns (Fibonacci is classic, and I’m working on something around the Collatz conjecture). If you know art, do something with color theory or sculpting; code puzzles could easily be built as long as you use building blocks of code rather than actual coding. Philosophy logic and economic arguments can also be fun, if your party is into that.

One I’m particularly proud of is like a combination of minesweeper and those tile flip puzzles. Each player in a party of n characters is assigned a value (1,2,..., n) and a grid appears. The party needs to match a given pattern by standing on the correct tiles:

Example: Each player adds their value to the tile they stand on and to all adjacent tiles. Colored tiles are where players are standing. You can represent those values with arcane symbols, and for a slight extra challenge you can make the numbers wrap (1, 2, 3, 4->1, 2, 3, ... ).

At the end of the day as long as you had fun making it and your players had fun solving it, I think it’s a successful puzzle. 

[iric416]

6 Celebrity Crushes

I was tagged by @bengiyo ,so, of course, I must oblige

1. Choi Seung-hyun. A musician, art collector from a long line of artists, wanting to promote art to the youth? Be still, my heart 😍 He's been open about "being weird" (read: artsy & introverted and not entirely accepted for it) & is slowly opening up about his own mental health. He's also not afraid of adult.topics, like many others in his showbiz tend to shy away from for the sake of their image. Rather, he tries to show his humanity. Very much appreciated around here. Always love & support to Choi Seung-hyun

2. Janelle Monae. She recently made a misstep, but owned it (afaik) & is constantly wanting to grow & be better. Yesss. 🙏 Janelle is an amazing, talented, kind, loving person and fights for so, so many people. Outspoken, trying to push change, and push for broader acceptance of all people? Instant fav. Plus..have you HEARD the scifi space operas? Because DAMN, TALENT! PLUS an executive? A woman of many hats, indeed. (Also, sorrynotsorry, she's too fucking adorable. 🥰)

3. Jung Hoseok. My phone autocorrected that to King Hoseok at first and...uh..well.. Everyone calls him sunshine for a reason, but I don't want everyone to keep missing just how hard and how long he works on his craft. He is strict BECAUSE he cares, he's a perfectionist because he KNOWS whatever he's doing can be perfected. Confidence in himself and the people around him. But, he rarely ever cries publicly (the most recent incident, when there'd been talk of his career possibly ending, was gut-wrenching to see). He gave up his chosen career path for a friend instead and forged a new one for himself in something he'd never even considered, had 0 experience in, and is now thriving. He's awfully true to himself in his sound and his style in every facet of life, even when others might joke about it. He works hard to provide for his family and those close to him. But let me pause, because he's also a beautiful person, inside and out (and honestly, I don't see how anyone ever said he wasn't handsome.. like ..I'm sorry, are we seeing the same person? I'll go faint over here, brb).

4. Naveen Andrews. Apparently not at all worried about showing affection to co-stars regardless of gender, and apparently a great parent. Hi 😅 (on the right here.)

5. Min Yunki. Producer, artist, activist, philanthropic, and just wants people to not feel so alone. He has an amazing ear for different styles, especially for matching vocalists to complementary sounds, and pays homage to musical roots with little callbacks in songs he produces 💖 (for instance, an East coast/Biggie bounce in Suran's "Wine," which he produced). His history with piano and how he feels about & relates to music, while not identical to my own, is extremely similar. Listen to his song "First Love, " and you'll know so much more about me, as well. 🙏 I could literally go on for an hour or more about how & why Min Yunki is an amazing person (like all his hand-written letters & handmade gifts in the hundreds one year), but then we'd be here a long, long time.

6. Kim Kibum (Key). Big into fashion that stands for something (yes, mostly/especially social messages in fashion/ecofashion), social commentary (one of the only Korean artists to use their public platform for Rohingya & Tibet, which could easily result in a travel/promotion ban), big on gender fluidity/gender expression and equal rights for all genders, and a long-time public supporter of lgbtqia2+ rights. Also an avid supporter of his colleagues, as recently demonstrated by his support of fellow lgtbqa2+ activist labelmate Amber when she announced she was leaving their label for better options (his comment was literally "GO AMBER GO!"We love supportive people here!) He's also apparently very sensitive and soft to many people around him, and a big fan of his mother. 💖

7. Honorary mentions: Amber Liu. She's ALSO made missteps before, but has seemingly learned from them. She is a VERY PUBLIC advocate for the lgbtqia2+ community, artist, and extremely friendly according to..well..everyone that's ever met her. Humbleness is also a positive, as well as here bright, familiar humor and fondness of jokes and lighthearted pranks (afaik, never anything serious or causing upset!)

And

Sendhil Ramamurthy. Just.. just.. sometimes it's okay to have a visual crush. Or aural crush because WOW his voice WOW

I'll tag, ummmmm.... @kidkreole @starslampshade and @ninaffogato if it's okies? And whoever else wants to do this!

[ctl-yuejie]

I particularly enjoy how Shao Fei wears his heart on his sleeves and shamelessly shares himself with others. What I'd like to see is him be more empathetic with the people around him and how his actions impact others.

thank you thank you thank you for this message! ^^ 

that’s exactly what i love about him as well! and you’re right: his straightforward behavior has jeopardized his work before and he might be in more danger in the coming episodes so I hope he learns how to take his surroundings into account more.

send me an ask about your favorite trait of a trapped character