"came back wrong" what about Came Back Afraid. You used to be brave. Too brave maybe, defying the odds at every turn, a fighter, cocky, playing with fire, first to throw yourself at the enemy. Until one day it all caught up to you. You came back, somehow, but now you know all too intimately how it feels to lose, to die, to be destroyed. Now you flinch and freeze and cower at the slightest provocation. Who even are you now if you can't be brave? The grave may have let you go, but the mortal fear still grips you tighter than ever.

"I can't, I can't do this anymore."

Hey man, I saw your living weapon staring at its reflection. You might wanna get that looked at

I'm not a "will help, no questions asked" kind of friend. Because I will ask questions. I'm just not gonna question your answers. Like yeah if we're friends I can help you get rid of a body, no problem, but I still want to know who it was and what happened. Not because I don't trust that you'd kill someone who didn't need killing or would help someone you shouldn't be helping - we wouldn't be friends in the first place if I didn't know you well enough to trust your judgement. I'm just curious as hell and I want to know things.

please make sure you have your character lie down and stare at the wall for hours at a time. maybe they're physically or emotionally exhausted but can't sleep. maybe they're dissociating from overwhelming trauma. maybe they're trapped waiting for the inevitable to happen. but in any case they must also be dead behind the eyes

Do NOT put me in a situation or I WILL behave like a badly socialized anxious animal

Shout out to Characters who are shells of their former selves! You died and you’re not coming back! You don’t recognize yourself and neither does anyone else, and it’s anyone’s guess what the fuck you’re supposed to be now!

i really love when a character, calmly and completely earnestly, is like i’m not important, i’m no one really, just a blade that people use and throw away. no one remembers me for long after i leave their life. and then you look at the evidence and it turns out that every person who meets them becomes permanently obsessed with them, for better and for worse, and the character has somehow completely missed this fact

a niche character trope i like is the person who is nice, a good person and acts well adjusted, then they do something where it’s like. oh you’re secretly a little bit insane actually

Honest to god "came back wrong" is one of the sexiest tropes there are. Especially if the catch isn't "oh it's not them after all, it's just a monster wearing their shell" but instead it IS still them, just changed. Irrevocably so, perhaps in grotesque ways, but at the core of it all, past all the whispers and strange looks behind their back, past even their own self-doubt - lies a small part of the person they used to be. The very part that counts.

Yeah, get driven to near-insanity by what you lost and can't get back. Struggle with your identity, your own skin. Ask yourself every day and every night, was it really worth it?

And then, find the strength to eventually answer, yes, yes it was.

Despite everything.

It's still you.

according to my wife "sodomy doesnt exclusively mean anal sex" isn't a good topic of conversation for the first time i meet her friends. antintellectualism is a PLAGUE on our society.

being really into history is cooler than being into math or science… someone who likes math and science is called a “math nerd” or a “science geek” but someone who likes history is called a “history buff” because of their strong, sensual arms

ppl are always writing characters doing dumb shit like roasting a fresh-caught rabbit over an open flame instead of making a stew with that thing. great now you’re letting all the fat drip down into the fire as it cooks, wasting calories and flavor as well as causing the flame to flare up = inconsistent heat source,… when you could be maximizing the nutritional value of small game by making a soup or stew. Come on

revealing yourself as monstrous and inhuman and expecting me NOT to fall in love? ok….

you are so grotesque. And dreamy

getting both wet AND hard because i don't let my physical form limit my self expression

Shoutout to characters that are both genuinely deeply kind and also genuinely terrifying and willing to spill buckets worth of blood to get something done. And neither of these are an act, they're just both very true.