#letstreasurewords

[rainbowchibbit]

Happy birthday!

TYYYYYYY :D :D :D <3

[itsclydebitches]

What if you get really attached to a fan OC you made and want to put them in an original story? How would you deal with the legalities of that?

The “put them in an original story” part is where you negotiate that. Characters cannot (and should not) exist separate from their world. Their fictional world influences them in the same way they influence the world in turn, so if you change the world... you change the character along with it. Fans do this instinctively with AUs. If you have a Very Angry Protagonist due to their canonical war and then chuck them into a peaceful Coffee Shop AU, you need to come up with a new reason for why they’re so angry. Maybe they had a bad home life. Maybe there’s some oppressive system in place. Maybe they just pretend to be edgy because they think it’s cool. Whatever reason you choose, you theoretically want to maintain that anger as a core character trait because, as fanfiction, you want the character to be recognizable. Generally speaking, readers approach fic looking for some level of familiarity, so if the protagonist is no longer Very Angry they don’t feel like it’s that character anymore. So you adapt. For an original story though? Sky’s the limit! Not only can you make all the creative choices you’d make for an AU, you can make the character not angry anymore too. If your original novel is a coffee shop based romance you may decide that the OC you originally created doesn’t fit well into that world as they are. So you allow the world to change them, softening them, and in doing so create a new character. Few will look at Character B (original) and recognize that they were originally Character A (fanfic). 

Now granted, other situations are a lot more complicated. Let’s say you create a RWBY OC with a kickass semblance and that just has to stay. Their semblance is a crucial part of who they are and you like that version of the character, not the one that exists without their semblance. So then you can consider that “semblance” really just means “power.” You can give “semblance” a new name and (theoretically) be in the legal clear. “Semblance (RWBY),” “quirk (BNHA),” “mutations (X-Men),” “nen abilities (HxH),” and “devil fruit (One Piece)” are all different names for the same basic concept: a very wide variety of superpowers. But of course, you’ll notice that there are still plenty of differences among these stories. We don’t accuse One Piece of copying X-Men because one power comes from eating a special fruit while the other is a genetic ability. Then, the component “genetic ability” changes the fictional world to a staggering degree. What happens when some people are born with powers rather than choosing to obtain them? That’s one of the questions X-Men grapples with. Similarly, RWBY has a world where people can obtain power through avenues other than semblances, so not having a semblance isn’t the end of the world. In contrast, BNHA is a world where people are still just people unless they have a quirk, making quirks a huge part of the social status. As soon as you give your power a new name you have to think about the rules behind it, and once you’ve done that you can see how those rules shape your story. This leads you further and further away from where you started: another’s work. 

Now do that for every aspect of your character. If your OC is no longer living in the RWBY world, what does that world look like? If they didn’t grow up in Patch watching Atlas TV, where is their home and what did they do? If they aren’t best friends with Yang, who do they hang out with? The legal trap that fans fall into is changing the names of things and only the names. “Here’s my world of four Domains where a resource called Glitter powers almost everything. People train to become Predators, protecting the people from monsters made out of light. They can even unlock their Power. A young girl named Poppy, with incredibly rare black eyes, is set to save the world!” People are going to look at that (horrible description lol) and go, “That’s RWBY just with different terms, reversed colors, and Ruby with a new flower name.” If you put an OC into an original story, you have to make sure it is an original story, which necessitates doing that work to change the character to fit the world and the world to reflect the character. If you just try to transplant that character 100%, you’re requiring that they still exist in RWBY’s world - just with a new, deceiving coat of paint. 

This is why the Fifty Shades/Twilight is so complicated because we don’t have a firm legal foundation to determine when a story is “too much” like its inspiration. On the one hand, I can walk you through both novels and point out the glaring similarities across the cast and the basic structure of the story. On the other hand... a story about a woman falling for a BDSM obsessed billionaire in the midst of modern day drama is not the story of a teenager falling in love with a vampire in the midst of werewolf drama. The book is simultaneously too similar to and nothing like Twilight, which makes determining its difference a matter of opinion, up until there’s a court case to determine that. I’d personally argue that James didn’t allow enough of those changes to carry the story forward. Meaning, she wrote a Modern AU version of Twilight, following Twilight’s beats and characters as closely as possible within the AU, then just changed everyone’s names for an “original” novel. It’s removed enough that anyone who doesn’t know the story’s origin’s won’t notice the similarities, but others have done work to demonstrate precisely how close Fifty Shades is to its fic origins, Master of the Universe... so to say it’s murky is an understatement. 

The best way to avoid any legal issues is simply write an original story. Don’t try to re-create the world that your OC originally inhabited, use your OC as inspiration for something new. 

[seventeendeer]

Dude, you can't just say you have headcanons for Sonia and Manic without explaining further! ... Could you share them please?

absolutely! and I’ve got some for Queen Aleena too! they’re mostly, like, little tweaks that help them fit into game canon and lightly rewrite their personalities for added depth, but here you go:

- in my headcanon for his origins in the game-canon, Sonic was originally from a hidden magic kingdom that was at war with some kind of Secret Evil (I like to think that the kingdom was hidden deep under ground because ... you know ... Sonic Underground lol). soon, it was prophesied that the kingdom would fall and the queen’s children, Sonic among them, would die, ending the royal bloodline along with the country, unless Aleena separated from her children and sent them out into the world on their own. Aleena initially refused to believe in the prophecy, but in the end, a battle broke out between her people and their enemy, and as her soldiers fought a losing battle around her, Aleena was forced to realize that the prophecy had been correct. as the battle raged on, she took her children, only 4-5 years old at the time, to a secret escape route and instructed them to run away while she prevented the enemy from finding the exit.

- after fleeing their home, Sonic, Sonia and Manic were separated and wandered the world by themselves for a while, trying to find each other as well as a new home.

- Sonia was eventually taken in by a rich family and raised as one of their own children. however, she found the upper class environment and her adoptive family’s attitudes stifling and selfish, and as soon as she turned 15, she hit the road. these days, she cruises around the world on her motorcycle and helps people in need. she’s still on relatively good terms with her adoptive family and she does have a taste for the finer things in life, but she strongly prefers to get her hands dirty and make a difference instead of whatever her adoptive parents were doing. she has a distant memory of her true origins, but her family never believed her when she told them about it, so she doesn’t fully trust it herself and hasn’t tried to pursue more information about her past. she has the power of super strength. in this continuity, she’s the one who can play electric guitar.

- Manic was adopted and raised by a group of thieves, and, while poor, had a loving home and a supportive family. at a young age, he gained an interest in extreme gear and became involved in illegal championships. his heavily modded gear had a habit of exploding before he could reach the finish line, but except for that little detail, he became a master at the sport and more than a little famous in certain circles. he also made many friends because of his friendly nature. he doesn’t remember much of anything about where he originally came from, and so has decided to let it lie. unlike Sonic and Sonia, he doesn’t have any powers, but he’s the craftiest of the three and gets things done regardless.

- what happened to Sonic in between losing contact with his siblings and the series’ present time is anyone’s guess. he doesn’t like to dwell on the past and prefers to live in the moment. if he remembers anything about his mom or his siblings, he at least never talks about them. it’s possible that all his travelling around may initially have been an attempt to find his way back to them, but nothing ever came off it.

- later down the line, when the triplets are in their late teens, they will eventually find each other again and discover where they came from. together, they will locate what remains of their old kingdom and find their mother still ruling the remnants of a mostly destroyed civilization, which now lives in fear of the evil returning and wiping them out for good. Aleena has lost hope for her people, but when her children return, they’ll help her defeat their old enemy, so at the very least, the people who remain there will be safe. all three of them, being free spirits in their own ways, will be uncomfortable when they find out that they’re royalty, and reject coming home so they can go back to their own lives - but they stay in contact with their mother and visit often. a few years later, when her kingdom has stabilized, Aleena will abdicate and allow her people to rule themselves, so she can go live closer to her children and finally have a normal life under the sun.

and that’s that on that! it’s not much, but I really just wanted an excuse to import these characters to my favorite canon haha. I also did some v cute redesigns of all three of them way back in 2018 that I don’t think I ever uploaded to tumblr, so here they are! Sonia and Manic are at the age they are when Sonic first meets them (18-20-ish?), which is why they look older than he does now.

[anlgbtrelatedblog]

Hi, I'm writing a genderfluid character, and I want to know if you know of any stereotypes that I should avoid using or offensive things, whether it involves coming out, how they present themself, or how others interact with them. Thank you for your time.

Hello there!

-Bury Your Gays. This should be obvious but..... please...... just let them live....

-Remember! Not all genderfluid people are fluid between male and female! Of course, some are, but not all! 

-Going along with that, they can be fluid between more than two genders!

-Gay angst stories can be amazing when handled right, but you should be careful! 

-It is always soooo nice to read a story with a happy LGBT+ character because while the majority of LGBT+ people do go through difficulties (at the very least) with coming out to the people around them, seeing one with people around them who support them is amazing.

I can’t think of any more right now, but followers are encouraged to add on!

-Madeline

[aangvanced]

4% plot? 4%?!?! Mary Weers, you insult me!

Every original Weers module is made according to a very precise formula.

“Exploration 14%, Puzzles 7%, Investigation 10%, Story 4%, Traps 15%, Red Herrings 7%, and Combat 43% as further broken down to Low Risk 9%, At Level 14%, and High Risk 20%.”

Damien and Janine were both forced to memorize this family formula before they were allowed to join the game. And when Damien finally got to “play”, he realized it was 0% fun.

[seventeendeer]

The Sonic Underground show is a guilty pleasure of mine. His siblings are cool, and I like the wide variety of songs. I'm just mad that they've never ever done a proper resolution for the show. Not even in a comic like they promised.

honestly, you’re so valid ... I could never get into it, but I also love his siblings and I’ve got a line of personal headcanons that fit them into the games’ canon just bc they’re cute and I want them around in the universe that I like myself

though I am also secondhand frustrated that the story was never resolved, honestly! the song in the intro is such a dramatic banger, even if I never watched more than an episode and a half, I still wanna hear how the story ends, damn it!

“they made a vow, their mother will be found” OK BUT WHEN

[rainbowchibbit]

Whenever my cat, Magic, just starts meowing to the household, my grandma will sometimes answer back with "hewwo." Unironically. I don't think she's ever heard of this meme; she just does it. It's funny/insanity-inducing.

GOOD NFNGNGNFNFN I’m so glad. That’s incredible.

[itsclydebitches]

Can I just say thank you for your commentary on nonconsensual kissing? A similar event happen in my story where one girl got very flirty with a guy and close to kissing him even though the guy was clearly giving signs he was uncomfortable short of actually saying it. Their friends reacted negatively to her behavior: one left the room embarrassed, and the other was furious and slightly protective on the guy's behalf. 1/2

Thank you! (And apologies for the billions of years that pass between me getting asks and actually answering them...) Precisely though. That’s why I hate perpetuating this trope and will call it out whenever I see it. We’ve reached a point where people watch someone be completely blindsided by physical intimacy or are even outright uncomfortable with it and still presume that the automatic solution to this is to put up with the advances. Whether you’re no interested, not ready for that, not inclined towards that kind of intimacy... doesn’t matter. If your loved one wants it enough---and if the readers ship it enough---those concerns aren’t considered a priority. And I can’t tell you how often I see this translating into real interactions. People who don’t feel like they can speak up against unwanted attention, or who feel like they’ve created a situation where they “have” to say yes now, or who were uncomfortable with an act but aren’t willing to admit as much because they know precisely how others will respond: you’re overreacting. Get over it. And make no mistake, this is 100% a part of rape culture. The more we insist in our storytelling that a lack of consent is “romantic,” the more we normalize it and perpetuate interactions where people will take advantage of that supposedly blurry line (“Well, they look super uncomfortable but I’m sure that’s just nerves. I’ll go ahead and do it anyway”) as well as continually come up with excuses for why a signal wasn’t enough to stop them (“Sure they look uncomfortable but they didn’t say anything. Sure they said something but they didn’t explicitly say the word ‘no.’ Sure they said the word ‘no’ but we all know they play hard to get. Sure they tried to push me away but that’s just part of the fun...”) By undermining that consent is necessary from the get-go you allow everyone to define for themselves what consent means...and when you really want to kiss/grope/have sex with someone many will continually push that line until it ceases to exist. 

All of which isn’t to say that every romance in every story needs to be Perfectly Healthy™. That would make for a boring and limited fictional landscape. Rather, when we introduce problems it’s the author’s job to acknowledge that they are problems, either thematically (this is meant to be a messed up relationship and everyone knows that. The joy is in reading about this dysfunction) or, as you do, through the characters (someone made a mistake and they’re presumably going to learn from that. Others have acknowledged the problem here so that the reader knows where they should stand). There are a thousand ways to make consensual kisses romantic and a thousand ways to write a non-consensual kiss that acknowledges that this isn’t something to emulate. RWBY ultimately failed to do either.