#so if it feels disjointed at points that's probably why

[lumarys]

HI submitter here and i was on the fence but it turns out i have thoughts and apparently fairly strong opinions on this

anyWAY. according the poll a bunch of people are saying Heresy, which is a strong contender, BUT which i don't think is quite right. like you could say heresy because he calls himself a god, which does go against christian belief in a fairly obvious way but like...eh? it doesn't really MEAN anything, he doesn't exist in a world where christianity also exists, so imo it's not really a sin of his (especially compared to the ACTUAL shit he does), considering he is actually a god.

alternatively you could say heresy because he ousted the radiance (could work, but doesn't really fit y'know? like sure this was the real starting point for the Infection but that's not really his fault) or because he blasphemed against the void in some way (HELL yeah, actually, that's a really cool way to look at it, just not the one i originally thought of), but i don't think it's what he's going to hell for specifically.

now someone in the notes mentioned fraud because he lied to his kingdom, and while that is also a bad thing he did, i don't think it's like, the main thing. i don't think he did it enough, or that the lies were bad enough to get him sent specifically to the circle of fraud, again especially in comparison to the actual big shit.

so what is the Big Shit? what is the main thing the the pale king is getting sent to Hell for?

it's the baby pit. obviously it's the baby pit. he killed thousands of his own children by either letting them fall to their deaths or just abandoning them in the abyss. i would say that is the worst thing the pale king did (which i hope isn't too controversial) and is what i am mainly basing this analysis on. (also emotionally and psychologically scarring the hollow knight for life was. not good. but this does tie in/work with my final verdict i promise.)

now, you might be tempted to sentence him to violence or wrath for. y'know. the MURDER, but like...he isn't actually particularly violent or wrathful? he didn't sacrifice his children in an overly violent manner, and he definitely didn't do it out of wrath--he did it out of desperation, really. so i don't really think that violence or wrath fit.

so then, what circle of hell DO i think the pale king is getting sent to?

i would say treachery, where traitors and, possibly more importantly for this, kinslayers go. (like, this is where cain went.) and what did i say i think the pale king's worst sin is?

murdering all his children. (minus two (and yes i know others like the knight and lost kin survived but from HIS perspective they didn't so it counts.))

plus, remember i mentioned him emotionally and mentally scarring the hollow knight placing him here earlier? yeah it's time to expand on that a bit more.

i feel like his, y'know, shaping his own child to be a perfectly empty sacrifice is kind of a betrayal? like call me crazy here but i feel like the hollow knight placed a lot of trust in him, given that he was their father, which he really abused broke. i think that should count as a betrayal. and between this and, again, the thousands of his own children whom he straight-up killed, i feel like that more than qualifies him for a direct trip to the circle of treachery.

anyway that's my essay on why the pale king would go the circle of treachery. obviously you're free to disagree, it's just a silly internet poll, BUT i thought it would be fun to add my own thought process, especially since i submitted this one :)

(p.s.: despite everything i just said, the REAL correct answer is lust, because it's objectively the funniest. after all, all of those children had to come from somewhere!)

the pale king hollow knight?

[invinciblerodent]

This is going to be very ranty and disjointed, probably borderline incomprehensible post, but with the "return" of Dragon Age Discourse (and really, did it ever go anywhere?) and me repeatedly seeing the complaints and dismissals of DA:I as a "chosen one"-type of a narrative, I just.... I keep finding myself thinking about the relationship of truth and lies within the game.

Throughout the course of DA:I, the idea of a malleable, flexible personal identity, and a painful confrontation with an uncomfortable truth replacing a soothing falsehood, follows pretty much every character throughout their respective arcs.

There are some more obvious ones, Solas, Blackwall, The Iron Bull, their identities and deceptions (of both those around them and themselves) are clearly front and center in the stories told about them, but this theme of deception (both of the self- and the outside world) is clearly present in the stories of the others as well.

Like, for example, ones that come immediately to mind are stories like that of Cullen, who presents an image of a composed and disciplined military man, a commander- all to hide the desperate and traumatized addict that he sees himself as.

Dorian grappled with the expectations of presenting the image of the perfect heir to his father's legacy, the prideful scion of his house, his entire life (he even introduces himself as the result of "careful breeding", like one might speak about a prized horse)- all while knowing that his family would rather see him lobotomized and obedient, than anything even just resembling his vibrant and passionate self.

Cassandra calls herself a Seeker of Truth, and takes pride in that identity- only to learn that in reality, she has been made a liar, a keeper of secrets, without her knowledge or consent, and it is up to her to either uproot the entire organization and painfully cut out the abscess it is to build it back from the ground up into something respectable, or let the information she had revealed sit, and continue to fester.

And this theme continues and reframes itself in, among others, things like Sera's own inner conflict between her elven heritage and her human upbringing, or in Cole being caught in this unconscionable space in-between human and spirit, between person and concept, etc.

The Inquisitor isn't exempt from this either.

I feel like this is where the core of the many misunderstandings of this plot come from, why so many people continue to believe that Inquisition is a "chosen one" or "divinely appointed" type of story, because I think many might just... not realize, that the protagonist's identity is also malleable, and what they are told in the setup/first act of the game is not necessarily the truth.

The tale of the Inquisitor is the exact opposite of that of a "chosen one" story: it's an examination and reflection of the trope, in that it is the story of an assumption that all wrongly believe to be the truth, and thrust upon you, even if you protest. The very point is that no matter who you choose to say that you are, you will be known as the Herald of a prophet you don't even necessarily believe in, and then that belief will be proven wrong, leaving you to cope with either a devastating disappointment if you believed it, or a bitter kind of vindication if you didn't.

There's a moment just after Here Lies the Abyss (when you learn of the lie you've been fed your entire journey in the game) that I don't often see mentioned, but I think it's one of the most emotionally impactful character moments, if you are playing an Andrastian Inquisitor who had actually believed themselves chosen (which I realize is a rather unpopular pick, lol): it's when Ser Ruth, a Grey Warden, realizes what she had done and is horrified by her own deeds, and turns herself in asking to be tried for the murder of another of her order. As far as she is concerned, she had spilled blood for power, and regardless of whether she was acting of her own volition at the time, whether she had agency in the moment, is irrelevant to her: she seeks no absolution, but willingly submits to any punishment you see fit.

And only if you play as an Inquisitor who, through prior dialogue choices, had established themselves as a devout Andrastian, can you offer her forgiveness, for a deed that was objectively not her fault- not really.

You can, in Andraste's name, forgive her- even though you, at that point, know that you have no real right to do so. That you're not Andraste's Herald, that Andraste may or may not even exist, and that you can't grant anyone "divine forgiveness", because you, yourself, don't have a drop of divinity within you. You know that you were no more than an unlucky idiot who stumbled their way into meddling with forces beyond their ken.

You know you're a fraud. You know. The game forces you to realize, as it slowly drip-drip-drips the memories knocked loose by the blast back into your head, that what all have been telling you that you are up to this point, is false. And yet, you can still choose to keep up the lie, and tell this woman who stands in front of you with blood on her hands and tears in her eyes, that you, with authority you don't have, grant her forgiveness for a crime that wasn't hers to commit.

Because it's the right thing to do. Because to lie to Ser Ruth is far kinder than anything else you could possibly do to her, short of refusing to make a decision altogether.

There are any number of criticisms of this game that I can accept (I may or may not agree depending on what it is, but I'm from the school of thought that any interpretation can be equally valid as long as there's text that supports it, and no text that contradicts it), but I will always continue to uphold that the Inquisitor is absolutely not- and never was a "chosen one".

They're just as small, and sad, and lost, as all the other protagonists- the only difference is that they didn't need to fight for their mantle, because instead of a symbol of honor, it acted as a straitjacket.

[aaronsrpgs]

In Praise of Random Encounters

I'm in my "responding to frequently asked Reddit r/rpg questions" phase, so please allow me to defend the random encounter. This post is in response to everyone who goes, "Why do people use random encounters? They interrupt the flow of the story, and it doesn't make any sense to have something randomly show up and fight."

Did you know there was a Pokemon named after me?

In this post, I will argue against these strawmen, make a case for random encounters in certain games, and describe my favorite random encounter situations from my own games.

This disputation against random encounters can be broken up into three parts:

they interrupt what is already going on ("the story")

they are illogical

they're automatically a fight

I'm going to address these last to first.

Random encounters shouldn't jump right into fights. If used as intended, they come with an encounter distance, meaning sometimes you just see signs of the encounter, or you spot them from far away. And they should also come with what used to be called a reaction roll, which dictates how the encounter feels about the PCs. These were rolled on 2d6, which meant there was a bell curve that favored results in the 6-8 range, which were usually something like "wary" or "neutral."

Second, the logic of random encounters. If you're using them right, random encounters should make sense. They should only have a chance of happening in places where the encounters could be, and encounter tables ought to be chosen based on location. So you won't get a dire trout in a desert or whatever.

This last bit is the hardest one. If it feels like a random encounter would disrupt "your story," you're probably running a game whose underlying philosophies are opposed to random encounters, yes. It's probably also opposed to many other frameworks that were present in traditional/old-school rule sets. If your game has a pre-planned story or plot, if that plot requires a certain pace or order, and if the injection of outside elements would disrupt that plot, you probably shouldn't use random encounters.

(You also shouldn't use D&D or its cousins. You might also not want to have other players, since they can disrupt those plots. But that's just me being petty.)

A page of random encounter rules from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. This is a shitty example. I promise it's easier than this.

So when SHOULD you use random encounters? Use them if the game you're running is attempting to simulate a world that has its own logic and background that is not dependent on the player characters. Random encounters help show that the world is in motion at all times and that people and creatures move about of their own volition. They don't show up when it's meaningful to the plot or the other characters; they wander. They're random.

Another key component of this style of gaming is that they usually consider story as something that emerges from or comes after play. "Remember how we tried to cross the raging river full of electric eels, and you dropped your sword, and I almost died, but we made it across? That was awesome." These things didn't happen because they were important plot points predicted by the DM; they are the results of rolls at the table, rolls that are honored in their immediacy and only made sense of after the fact. Does this mean that you risk having a disjointed mess from which no pleasing story can emerge? Yes! But you also risk having a story emerge that no one could have planned, that is equally surprising and pleasing to everyone at the table.

This emergent storytelling is probably the greatest joy of the random encounter. Don't approach the encounter with, "It doesn't make sense that a goblin would be here." Instead, adopt the attitude of, "Let's figure out why this gobllin would be here." (And while you're at it, use that same attitude toward books you read and movies you see.)

A related aside: in some play cultures, the DM is considered to be someone who plans everything out and slowly reveals bits of story as rewards to the other players. As a DM, this can feel really stagnant, and it can be a lot to keep track of, and there is far less joy of surprise. Using dice at the table to introduce new elements can bring some of that fun back to the DM.

Everything I've said so far is a synthesis of dozens of rulebooks and blog posts I've read across a decade of running games, so please allow me to introduce a final element: my own experience with the joy of random tables.

In 2014, when 5E was coming out to great demand on the backs of Stranger Things, Critical Roll, and The Adventure Zone, I started running a campaign for friends and coworkers. There was no developed play culture around 5E at the time, no cottage industry of third-party developers. So in running it, I was drawing on what I had been reading for years: old-school roleplaying and story games.

So I prepped my starting town (doing way more work that I would today), including random encounter tables for the area. And when the players were out searching for some ruins and getting lost west of town, I rolled a random encounter. It was some gnomes. All the gnomes here had escaped from a gnome hell for greed, so they weren't exactly kind. And their reaction roll was just south of neutral, so they were a little surly.

A bad screenshot of my "west of the town of Wall" encounter tables.

They led the players to the ruins and waited, trying to trap them inside after they'd been run down by the undead inside. But the players overcame the trap and told the gnomes off. (They didn't want to get in another fight after going through the ruins; more emergent storytelling.) So the gnomes ran off, but they would remember this.

Flash forward to a different session. In the main mega-dungeon under the town, the players were exploring a new area. Another random encounter: the devil of gnome hell! It was a giant mole with masses of earthworms for limbs, and it was searching for its escaped prisoners. It threatened to kill the PCs unless they gave it a magical item. So Pepper the elf gave up his winged sword, which he'd found in the aforementioned ruins. He loved that sword.

And here's where it all comes together. The gnomes were trying to settle the land west of town, but the humans had a fort there. The players were going to that fort to get some information about the faerie realms. How could I show this situation in a way that would, as succinctly as possible, illustrate the tension while giving the players a choice on who to join? Well, the gnomes would be attacking the fort. This normally wouldn't be much of a battle…but the vengeful gnome from the ruins had made a deal with the gnome devil for power. And now he was wielding Pepper's sword, using it to fly over the fort walls and attack.

Pepper was pissed! He wanted his sword back! The other players were more interested in figuring out a way to stop the ongoing conflict between gnomes and humans. And the gnomes were split between wanting to peacefully settle their new land and get revenge on the players for driving them off from the ruins. Who would prevail?

I hadn't planned a story, but I had created a situation a story was likely to emerge based on the players' actions and the results of the dice.

Conclusion

This isn't me saying this is the only way to play. It's not the only way I play. In a short one-shot or a tightly paced, emotional game, I would never use random encounters. But they can be fun! And they (and their associated suite of rules) can address some of the issues that lead to DM burnout and genre predictability.

If you find me in the wilderness, I will fight you.

[spinchip]

Bloat

(Warnings: disrespectful discussion of self harm/suicide by a side character. murder. Lots of death.)

They're here about a series of murders. Nya doesn't know why they dragged the ninja out to this nothing town with its stone castle and still water lake, with its missing persons and their empty spaces. The ninja aren't detectives, even if Zane likes to pretend. With twelve people missing, Zane keeps his fedora at home and approaches this delicately. Nya wishes he'd put on that stupid hat.

She's also not sure why she keeps slipping up and saying murder when it's really just missing persons, officially. Eight men, four women, varying ages. All different kinds of backgrounds vanished without a trace.

The ocean mourned each dead fish, every shrimp swallowed alive, but it didn't interfere. Nya struggles to find the point to this. Everyone is somber and cold in the rainy afternoon fog. Jay tries and fails to speak to her several times, slinking away with his tail between his legs each time. She could have been nicer, less blunt, when she ended things. The river does not apologize to the stone it shaves to dust. Her thoughts still feel disjointed and off. The lake's surface is so serene it's mirrored, reflecting gray clouds and dark nights.

The first two victims were teenage boys who snuck out to buy cigarettes. They were supposed to meet a mutual friend but failed to show up. The living boy is distraught, a mess, consumed by guilt and grief and fear for his friends. Kai takes Nya by the upper arm and hauls her away from the group when she says something uncouth, insensitive, cruel. The ocean had no use for manners.

She dreams of drowning in a bathtub, but she doesn't struggle. She simply sinks under cold water, closes her eyes, and-

She wakes up vomiting brackish water over the edge of her bed and doesn't tell anyone.

The seventh victim is hardly considered a victim at all. She'd tried to kill herself three weeks before she went missing, and the rude cop with the badly trimmed beard scoffs at her inclusion in the list. Probably snuck off to the woods, he sneers, finished slitting up her wrists. Nothing to do with these other cases, just lumped in there to do it.

But her mother said she'd changed her mind. What is the significance in wanting to live when death will come for you regardless? She thinks about that girl the most, and hopes she found peace.

Nya feels more aligned with the blood under her skin than the rest of her body. Flow. Liquid. It rushes through her veins like whitewater rapids.

She dreams of inky blackness, encased by water. She wakes up vomiting water again, but Zane is sitting by her bedside with a bucket and paper towel. His eyes are cold despite how he tries to hide it. They're always cold, now.

Bad dream? He asks, reserved. It's a trap but she doesn't know how.

Go back to bed She says instead, rolling over and ignoring him for the rest of the night. He doesn't leave. She doesn't fall back asleep.

Cole gets her to eat even when bread and eggs taste like salt water and seaweed. She hates the taste of the water from the tap. The lake is covered by a thin layer of mist and it smells old and stagnant. Settled water, too much of it.

Charles, the older man who tends to the castle grounds, tells her it's a man-made lake. Put together by the previous lord and lady of the land, dug out by workers paid pennies. He worked on it when he was just a boy. He doesn't say much, and he doesn't do much around the castle. Old and feeble, his mind has gone spoiled. He looks at Nya like she's inhuman.

The last victim was the lord's son, Albert. He's the only one whose name they learn immediately, the police placing his file on top of all of the others and ranking him at priority number one. It's time to do something now that the lord's son is missing.

He'll have my head, Lord Vonnet will, if I don't return his son safely The lord's royal guard dabs his sweaty forehead with a damp towel.

You poor bastard, Nya says before she can think, get your affairs in order.

Lloyd is the one to drag her out of the room looking mortified. Zane follows him out and they exchange a handful of quiet words that Nya can't hear behind the raging waves crashing in her ears. Zane takes her out to the lake.

They are all dead he says simply.

Since before we even set foot in town she confirms.

They are in the lake.

She closes her eyes and sees still, black water. At the very bottom.

The wind blows a sour smell off the surface of the lake. It might have been beautiful, once. When it was fresh and the water was clear and blue. Before it was filled with rot.

I do not know who did it he confesses I keep having bad dreams.

I dream I'm drowning she offers.

I dream I am throwing bodies in the lake he gives back.

She stares at the horizon I feel nothing. Isn't that awful.

He shrugs the ocean does not care to investigate every whale fall.

Interesting choice of words. Whale fall. There are no fish in this lake, it's all man-made she looks at him with dull eyes you think something is eating

When I toss them in the lake i Am certain they will never be found

You're not bothered by this either

He shrugs again, an entirely human act for a man whose eyes are so detached, an Emperor does not care to investigate the death of every subject

She stands and ties her hair into a bun, I'll draw them up, can you make them float?

She doesn't bother waiting for an answer, sinking her awareness down down down to the bottom of the lake. She focuses on the vaguely human shaped masses in the water, cupping them and hauling them to the surface where she lets them go and returns to the bottom. She's so powerful now she doesn't need to step foot into the water to raise up the bodies. She begins to find cow and deer carcasses alongside men and women. She finds bones. She finds old jewelry and clothes.

Finally, she finds the animal.

It was given the name stronsay by the whales and sea lions up north, where these things are typically found. Giant sea serpents, rare in the ocean- non-existent in freshwater lakes. Especially never found in man-made ones like this, too barren to support life. It was juvenile, small, and had not yet shed its baby skin. It was not thriving in this fresh water, but it would have lived until it was too big to move in this thing.

Zanes frozen the bodies of the dead and dragged them ashore.

The lord's son is one of the dead, his body in a poor state. When the rest of the ninja and the police come, after they thaw out his body, they find a leather-bound journal where he talks about the pet he hatched from an egg he found in the cold waters on his last holiday. He wrote extensively about how hungry it was, and exactly how he fed it.

He couldn’t keep up with its appetite, Nya says, staring down at his wet, bloated body.

Icarus Zane mutters at her side.

What will become of the beast? The mustaches policeman asks.

We shall slaughter it! The Lady of the land wails, And stick its head on a pike!

It will be safely and humanely relocated Nya corrects her cooly, Do not allow anyone near the lake before it is moved. Unless you don't like them.

Nya Kai warns.

Later, while Lloyd oversees the beasts removal and the others are likewise occupied, Zane asks do you think we are like them?

Dead?

Changed forever. Call it rot, putrefaction, trauma- altered and, ultimately, lost He murmurs.

I would prefer to just be dead she says without thinking, a thrum of shock at the admission the first tangible emotion she's had in days. She remembers the seventh victim. She'd changed her mind.

Zane grins and it's all teeth, a baring of bone.

Where does that leave us, if we are changed? She looks away, staring out at the lake.

Alone He says simply.

We have each other, don’t we? You understand me. I understand you.

We do He looks at her and she looks at him.

The kiss tastes like saltwater and blood. She kisses him again.

[snownorites]

Some disjointed thoughts on Sua and her sister that I had yesterday cause I've seen some people on twt being really adamant that Sua was in the "loved before anakt" category and I don't think that's what the point of Heavenly Garden is personally

For one, I don’t think she's actually looking out for Sua here. (using WhataFruit's translation)

I think her intention was to make Sua feel bad about herself. The word choice is extremely deliberate: "you're so unkempt" "that is unseemly" "you're already dumb enough as it is". That last one is obvious but those first two I think are super important to understanding the kind of competitive environment "being" a doll must have fostered. She's trying to put Sua "in her place" here and make her feel like she doesn't actually deserve any of the favouritism Nigeh gives her because she's "stupid" and can't even play her part properly.

And Sua has every reason to believe what her sister tells her. Outside of her cruelty she's so nice, so gentle, she even plays with her and tickles her. Ofc Sua would assume that she has the best intentions and to me that's the point of why her sister acts that way. It's not about affection or love really, it's something closer to bullying. This way every insult, every instance of belittling however small stays with her and hurts her. Her pity of Sua may be "genuine" but it seems to be more mocking? Saying that she loved Sua to me feels a bit like buying into the performance.

The framing of the comic to me is also very interesting because the contrast between Mizi and Sua's sister is telling us that we need to consider their affects on Sua in relation with each other. Sua did not feel loved before she met Mizi.

Her saying this is supposed to show that her sister was all she ever knew in terms of human connection. "Back then" as in before meeting Mizi.

Sua thinks that her sister was actually the pitiful one all along but something really interesting is that it's not because she finally found self worth or because she knows that her sister was wrong about her being unkempt or "stupid", it goes right back to love. Her sister is pitiful because she didn't know love.

That heavenly garden, Mizi, loving and being loved. If Sua felt love before anakt I don't really see why it'd be framed like this.

And the thing is that love is a super big theme in Alien Stage. You could very well argue that this is just how her sister shows love and since we don't have her pov the way that we do Io's or Ivan's there's absolutely no way to refute that the same way there's no way to prove that. But to me including Sua in the same category as Mizi and now Till feels really disingenuous. Mizi and Till felt loved before anakt and carried forward that love in all their actions. Sua did not and her actions reflect that.

I think that Sua's feelings of self hatred are a pretty important thing to also consider when analysing anything to do with her (and I'll probably have to do a seperate post about that because this is already so fucking long lmao) People don't pay enough attention to this and how a lot of it comes from the bullying she experienced

Before Mizi, Sua was objectified by everyone around her, humans and segyein alike. And maybe her sister was different and we'll see that in another comic but to me heavenly garden's intention is to reinforce that this bullying wasn't just the very overt kind that's shown above. Like with the new Till comic, all the material we get builds onto each other, Heavenly Garden gives context to just how sinister the bullying was.

And I don't say all this to say that people are wrong about her sister potentially loving her, maybe she did, but Sua did not feel loved or experience that love. It's weird that I'm seeing more justification and rationalisation of her sister's behaviour than people actually taking Sua's narrative into consideration and trying to understand how her sister fits into it.

[izvmimi]

cw: fem!reader. halloween theme! reader doesn’t like a gold rush.

Recoiling from Satoru’s touch is not the best move if you mean to wean off your attachment to him, and does the opposite of what is intended. This, however, you don't realize immediately. You're too busy lost in your own thoughts, as though suddenly alone in the dark, mist-filled nightclub scene, and somehow you've convinced yourself that you can just as easily slip away in a moment's notice.

Satoru looks preoccupied from your vantage point. The event is a private affair and thus intimate despite the loud music and hordes of people, and Satoru works the room effortlessly anyway, all smiles and charm despite his shrouded light blue eyes. Your costumes match - you, Catwoman, in a sleek dark suit that shows off your best assets, and him, Batman, cliched yet somehow working for him - and still somehow you feel disjointed. Like a creaky hinge, there's a loud friction that sex and sweet affection has not been able to grease quiet as well recently, and you're not sure why. Perhaps it's the natural ebb and flow in the nature of your relationship, genuine moodiness, or perhaps it's the fact that he's too adept at garnering the looks of men and women in scary, sexy and/or stupid costumes, a glow around him like the miracle he's always been.

The words to describe Gojo Satoru are not few and are often positive - handsome, powerful, independent, strong-willed... handsome. All the qualities of a prince, enough so that it is easy to forget that you're a princess in your own right when you spend so much time looking at him from the same vantage point as charmed onlookers.

But you are not at that same vantage point.

Gojo does not turn to look at you immediately, letting your fingers slip through his, his better judgement outweighing his immediate wishes to pull you closer. You erroneously take this as him being too busy for you, and let yourself back away to numb your insecurities with another drink. There are too many eyes watching him, watching you always. Your friends quickly flank you, one of them scrunching her nose.

"Do you mean to let people swarm him like that? He looks like he's dripped in honey and the ants have taken note."

Your other friend stifles a laugh but you sigh.

"He'll probably find his wife in the crowd," you joke. Your friend on the right bumps you in the hip and you whisper a dramatic 'Ow'.

"His wife is standing here moping and hurting them both."

You roll your eyes and turn to lean on the bar table, but they turn to, leaning into you.

"Maybe it's foreplay," one whispers to the other, across from you, pretending that they aren't discussing you in front of you.

"Do you think he goes more rounds the madder she gets?"

"Enough," you hiss.

"Is that what you tell him after your third nut or are you able to talk by then?"

You pretend that your cheeks aren't warming, that your latex-covered thighs don't press together slightly as you tell them to stop being disgusting. One of your friend grins as she looks behind you, then says, "Sure."

"Hi, Satoru!" they both wave in unison.

Satoru is behind you now, stalking like the ghost he is, wisps of white poking outside of his mask. He grins.

"Can I take my favorite girl from you for a moment?"

"What if we say no?" one jokes. Satoru chuckles.

"I only asked to be polite."

She raises her eyebrows in feigned offense but Satoru has already swept you up in his arms, letting his forehead press against yours.

"Spiderman needs his Mary Jane," he whispers and it catches you so off guard that you find yourself giggling.

"Wrong superhero."

Satoru kisses your lips, then shrugs, a movement that shifts you slightly. "I know, but Batman and Catwoman don't have the same kind of canonical gravitas, you know?"

He has a point.

He turns with you in his arms, and you can see the eyes of the people that would rather be in your place look then look away, knowing that the few you call friends but have reservations in their hearts already have this image burned in their minds. You're chosen when it should be them. Your heart pounds.

"Satoru, put me down."

"And let you walk away from me again? Fat chance," he whispers.

He returns to the center of the room and while the girls swarm him less, there's just as much conversation to be had with your friends. Nanami has learned to not even notice Gojo's PDA at this point, talking to you as though you were standing on your own feet despite your bashfulness. You catch an eyeroll or two from a few guests, but your friends grin widely and cheer you on.

Your arms wrap around his shoulders.

This isn't exactly the worst place to be, is it?

He can sense you relax and kisses you again. The raving music and lights, and the warmth of his body against yours soon overpowers racing thoughts.

[crazypsychonerdstuff]

Alright, self-indulgent Alastor queer-platonic fluff below!

I need him in my life so badly. I don't care that he's a psychotic, cannibalistic serial killer! New comfort character alert!!!

Very random and disjointed, I haven't read through it, and I typed it straight into the drafts, so that's why it's probably really messy 😅

🎃

It would definitely take a long time for the two of you to become close, and even longer still for him to admit to you being significantly more important than anyone else to him.

You are the only person (except maybe Nifty) who is allowed to touch him, though he'd much appreciate if you asked first and not just surprised him with touching him.

In relation to that^, though he may not be too fond of hugs and cuddles, at least at first, he will allow you to lean into him on occasion without much protest. Though never in public.

On tge flip side, he's ALWAYS touching you. Whether it's patting you on the head, leaning on your shoulder, putting an arm around your shoulders/waist, holding your hand, physically moving you rather than asking you to move

Despite his... questionable eating habits, the dude's actually an excellent cook and he will often make meals for the two of you.

He likes to spend his spare time with you, the two of you listening to the radio +/ reading.

No TV. Just no.

Though if you ask nicely enough, he MIGHT join in on movie night. Though if he does, expect him to be giving a commentary throughout the whole thing (ie, him verbally pulling apart the movie and pointing out any inaccuracies that occur no matter how seemingly insignificant.)

He likes music and will happily listen to your recommendations (he might not like them all, but he's willing to listen)

I get the feeling he'd like some stuff by Aurelio Voltaire. And maybe a couple of songs by Abney Park.

Don't get me started on his ears! They are so soft and fluffy! He is really reluctant to let you near them at first, but eventually he will give in and let you pet them.

He's actually really surprised that he enjoys it too, so after that he will let you stroke his ears on occasion, usually when he's had a rough day and needs comfort.

His tail is floofy too, but he's not too keen on you touching it. He won't get mad at you as such, just give you an unamused look and move out of reach.

So yeah, don't touch the tail... on purpose.

You two have taken to hanging out in that spooky forest that's somehow attached to his room. It keeps everyone else away and face it, if you're close to Al, you probably don't mind creepy stuff!

[cartoon-buffoon]

A thing I noticed immediately when watching Finding Frankie and was an inconsistenty is the footage not used from one of the earlier trailers because THIS was the trailer I saw that got me properly excited for this game. In the official game trailer released 7 months ago (not the release date trailer which features the fall guys inspired characters dying before it switched to game footage). You can see some stuff NOT used in the final game and I wanna show them, break them down, and give my opinion on why the ending we got feels a bit... Weird? Disjointed? Yeah disjointed, let's go with that.

Okay for starters we see an sequence where we actually are in our apartment and the cereal box is poofed onto the counter, I'm assuming this was placing it on there and this entire environment was scrapped for what is now the ending cutscene where we see our apartment as Real Frankie talks to us

I'm assuming this was cut for time constraints and to get straight into the action. Who cares about a sequence where we have the player physically opening the cereal box when we ya know—can solve everything by simply showing a cutscene which gets the point across better and is a thousand times more cinematic? But ya know in the ending area we do get to walk through our apartment so they didn't COMPLETELY wanna scrap the environment so they repurposed it.

Okay second off is the character who I'll refer to as "Buddy" (like Boris in BATIM)

Now this comes RIGHT AFTER you put on the suit and we can clear as day see this was a section almost entirely cut from the game. This isn't the starting line and another contestant awaits us. I find this interesting because it leads me to believe Buddy over here was gonna be some sort of helper. During this sequence where we see Buddy during the trailer a voice line Real Frankie has goes unused but it's in this trailer, he can be curiously heard saying "The mask conceals your voice and identity to avoid cheating with other contestants!" Which is kinda an odd thing to say which leads me to believe Buddy was gonna be possibly our version of a tutorial however Buddy would still be killed because as well all know: Frankie hates cheaters. The line "the other contestants have mysteriously died... Not sure how that happened but oh well!" Meaning the idea of us being the sole survivor was always set in stone but sadly Buddy was nothing more than a corpse in the current game we got.

Third is something I wanna note because this line appears in the old trailer, went used in the game, but makes no sense? Now we all know of the whiteboard with the status of the contestants on it

We are lucky contestant number 3, yet for some reason contestant number 4 is MIA for some reason... Now the reason why this makes no sense is because the broadcast states 3 bodies were found yet only 2 are marked terminated??? This is weird because we actually only see 2 death's on screen (ehhh 1/2)

We all know of the CRUNCH Monster Frankie gives the one cheater who gets a headstart, but after he dies it's at this point the player probably gets jump scared so they don't see it but an animation plays of Monster Frankie reaching over and plucking the second contestant up like a piece of candy. Now while this is happening the fourth contestant actually WALKS BACKWARDS AND OUT

My man does a back pedal, immediately avoiding this and seemingly leaving. According to the police report though that's not the case, we never see it but it seems after Frankie munched on the first 2 he went for the fourth contestant leaving us, lucky number 3, alive. Now the reason why I find this so interesting is because despite what the police report says, Real Frankie has yet to mark contestant number 4 as dead which wouldn't make sense? If Real Frankie saw the first 2 die logically he'd also be able to witness Monster Frankie pry open the shutter the 4th contestant is hidden behind and kill him. But he doesn't? This is where my theory comes in about the very odd ending:

I don't think we were meant to survive, but rather contestant number 4 was supposed to steal our winnings?

Like the ending of us plummeting into the incinerator REALLY does make it seem like we die and this bitch comes in after hiding behind a door the entire time and goes "lemme get that 5 million" because everything is already taken care of. Consider contestant number 4 is MIA and we don't exactly know why it really does seem the intended ending was that we die and number 4 steals our cash prize. However the police report contradicts this seeming like contestant numbers 1, 2, and 4 all died by Frankie leaving us all alone and alive. My explanation?: the devs just didn't really bother recording lines or redoing cutscenes to fix any mistakes they had when scrapping this idea, it's why ya know in the ending cutscene it's made apparent we ARE the winners as contestant number 3. Like all things considering, and I'm definitely not calling them lazy, I think this was a case of not exactly caring about the lore because ultimately this game wishes to set itself apart from other horror games thus the VERY LITTLE lore and concrete explanations we get.

Idk that's all for now, just some neat stuff I thought I'd point out

[whereismymonsterlover]

This is such an unserious criticism, Yana and I just have different tastes. I do straight up find the dress ugly but I feel like I should preface with my tastes too: I'm a bit pretentious and love historical fashion, and I don't like Lolita very much so me and Yana are clashing like crazy. The pink 'robin' dress is so iconic but I have a few thoughts.

I hate Ciel's pink dress and I always have. I might redesign it because it is so unflattering and fucking PEACH PINK BLEGH like dusty pink lemonade that's been in a store cupboard for too long. It's a very childish colour which I wouldn't dare change cus that misses the whole point of it being a ploy to seduce good old uncle Druitt, unfortunately. I think I'd incorporate a dusty dark magenta in place of some of the black accents but I'd like to keep a little black to match ciel's dark blue hair. The magenta accent would definitely be satin because I am absolutely yearning for satin but I'm apprehensive since he is supposed to be "a young girl" and satin has a much more mature vibe.

Though it does make him appear taller, the fucking absence of a waistline/no separating hemline between the bodice and skirt ticks me off. The ruching blending into his bodice makes me so mad. He looks swamped in fabric which counteracts the attempt to elongate his torso. The bodice totally lacks structure.

Of all Ciel's outfits to not feature a bustle, you choose not to put a bustle on his ACTUAL DRESS?? Sure, there's a huge pink bow, but Yana actually LOSES the petticoat around the rump, it's bizarre. I hate bows so much I don't know why. The one on the front just feels so disjointed from the flow of the dress and disrupts it entirely imo. I'd probably change the texture of the bodice with a ruffle-front in place of the bow. I have no qualms with the petticoat besides there's just too much of it. The dress has a wider silhouette than typical 1880-90s evening gowns so that's an easy compromise: I'd give the bodice a more prominent waistline higher on his waist but pinch in the diameter of the skirt to maintain his illusionary height. From a large initial bump at the top of the skirt, I'd want it to fall straight down instead of the typical "ball gown" that widens towards the bottom.

Fucking black and white stripes is NOT giving evening elegance. It's giving beetlejuice (which gives me a black butler Halloween drawing idea...), or Mrs. Lovett's beach day dress in the tim burton Sweeney Todd. Despite this, I'd keep the stripes as there is so much character to them, it probably helped to entice the viscount 🤢 since they're so fucking jarring and out of place but I digress. I do think the black is incorporated really nicely in that horizontal strip on the petticoat ruffles. I HATE the vertical black strips holding the ruched pink gown - I'd probably replace this black accent with the dusty magenta. I hate the length of the ruched fabric but it wouldn't offend me so much if there was a WAISTLINE. (Again, I'm being dramatic. It's a product of 2006 Lolita-core and I can respect that. But I do detest it in places.)

I will make sketches I think which I'll add onto this post cus I LOOOOVE designing dresses. I've rambled too much.

[farklelucas]

okay so. now that ive taken some time to breathe, compose myself, and gather my thoughts, lemme lay out why the teen wolf movie was a hot holy mess (besides, you know, the obvious) as a teen wolf enthusiast and expert.

a lot of the characters were really little more than set dressing. to be specific, i think liam could have been replaced by a mailbox with a hat and the movie would have been the same (and this is coming from a major liam fan). the same can be said for mason, malia, melissa, peter, and honestly even the sheriff (which i hate bc god he was such a core of the show). i think parrish was only useful in one specific instance and even that isn't enough to warrant him being in the film. the characters i loved felt like cardboard cutouts and that wasnt fair to me, to the characters, or to the actors. i would have rather they not been there at all tbh. like just leave liam out of this if youre gonna do him like that fr

a lot of the plot points felt... disjointed and weird. saraid said it felt like three different movies in one and i have to agree. derek and eli felt like its own thing, then scott and allison, and then everything else (whatever the hell parrish and malia had going on, the lydia and jackson buddy cop comedy, liam in... japan with a ramen shop i think? and some random girlfriend that happened to be a kitsune) kind of fell to the wayside in between.

this movie was truly so flat without kira. it was hard to make a nogitsune movie without stiles, but it was almost impossible to make without her. hikari unfortunately ended up just feeling like a woman they randomly shoved into all the plot points kira was supposed to be in. because she didnt have a character besides liams girlfriend (and because liam was barely a character himself), she just couldn't compare and so kiras lack of presence was really felt. she left a huge hole in the narrative. they didnt even mention her and you knew what was missing. if you had cut khylin and dylan sprayberrys checks entirely, im sure they would have had enough to pay her as much as the rest of her white coworkers :) but that's just my opinion xxx

this was supposed to be for fans of the original series, but really just felt like jeff davis's weird rare pair fanfiction. instead of focusing on the dynamics that already existed - melissa and the sheriff, malia and peter, scott and liam, derek and. anyone really - he ended up delving into all these new dynamics with only two hours to develop them. malia and parrish (which. i really had to mentally run through the show to see if those two had interacted before and i dont think they have), liam and hikari, and derek and eli. all of which had a shot at being interesting but because there were so many different plots going on, it all just felt. awkward and confusing.

that being said, im gonna move onto derek and eli generally. i like eli! i do. i thought he was funny, i thought the actor was super charming (although the timeline made no sense because if he was born fifteen years ago And allison died fifteen years ago he would be braedens and. hate to say it folks. thats not braedens baby. make him mixed jeff davis you fucking coward). really, i liked him. ... but not at the expense of dereks character. the derek i knew was an asshole. he was mean, he was sarcastic, he was a bastard (honorifically). its not to say that people cant change, but... the derek i saw in the movie was a complete 180 from the derek we last saw in the series. honestly, the derek i saw in the series probably wouldn't have made a good parent - we saw how he was with erica, isaac, and boyd. even with scott. derek was kind of a dick. i dont even think he would have wanted kids - i think he would raise them out of duty, and i think he would if a partner wanted him to. but i dont think kids were ever in his life plan. and i think that could have been super interesting to see with him and eli. i think making him a parent could have been really interesting and it just. crumbled.

i know i mentioned the timeline in that last bit but. the timeline. it hurts my head. when was eli born. what year is it. how long has it been since scott has been in beacon hills. im so confused.

lets talk about adrian harris. shall we. i have made a list of people who i think would have been a better villain reveal are you ready: allison, peter, theo, chris argent, kate argent (resurrected), matt daehler (resurrected), victoria argent (resurrected), kira herself, danny mahealani, rafe mccall, isaac's shit dad, coach, greenberg, me with a baseball bat filled with rusty nails, jeff davis in a wig. the list goes on. you could not have picked a more random and less memorable character to reveal as your villain. i almost felt like i was being mocked. "haha! you didnt expect it to be this guy? the chemistry teacher who also died fifteen years ago? who had almost nothing to do with the plot until season 3? stupid! idiot!" i have never been so mad in my life

speaking of villain. did they forget what a nogitsune is. it needs a host. its not some guy they can stab to death. its a concept, a feeling, a parasite. its a manifestation of mental illness. but no sorry excuse me i must be wrong bc now its also a werewolf??????? im sorry. am i the crazy one. give me void allison! give me allison as the host and shes being taken over and she has those bags under her eyes and that creepy void stare and grin! give me crystal reed emmy noms! while we're on the subject, heres some more questions about the nogitsune include: why was it in a jar? why was it with LIAM of all people (who didnt even know what that was)? why did its powers completely change? HOW was it a werewolf????????? i cant stop thinking about it.

i said it once and ill say it again: jackson fucking carried this movie. he was giving all season one jackson, he was bringing comic relief, he was even bringing up ethan when no one else would! king! he carried. but he shouldn't have had to. dont get me wrong, i think crystal reed ate and left no crumbs. this was allisons movie and it should have been. but when the other two standout characters imo were jackson (who arguably did nothing) and coach (who did even less)... you simply didnt use your characters well. i think i would put deaton up there and even chris, but... scott and lydia? this should have been their movie. but scott spent nearly the whole movie ignoring his friends, and lydia was reduced to 'woman whose plot was about a man,' again. it was horrible. lydia outgrew that song and dance by season two. and scott? hasnt been to beacon hills in twelve years? hasnt seen his mom or his friends? not the scott mccall i know.

this is not about shipping discourse this post will never be about shipping discourse so i say this as a completely objective party. that being said. st/dia was so strangely shoved in there at the end. how did harris even know about lydia leaving stiles. how did he know about her dream. how did it add to the plot. like yes the nogitsune feeds of chaos and strife but i think lydia was getting enough of that watching her friends get murdered. it felt like a weird way to explain why dob wasnt there and it simply didnt work. i would have rather they not said anything about stiles at all.

anyway, this is skipping over a lot of other little things that i thought were really bad (sexualizing malia who literally had the mentality of an eight year old for most of her life AGAIN, why was mason a fucking cop, peters lack of interaction with the hale family which is what made him interesting in the first place, the absolute insanity of allison coming back to life and just being absolutely okay even though shes been dead for fifteen years, died at the hands of her friend, and almost everyone she knew including stiles, isaac, and kira are all just gone now), but boy oh boy. for a while it was funny bad. like "oh this is bad but i can still enjoy this for what it is" bad. but those last ten minutes. what is actually absolutely wrong with jeff davis. there are very few times ive felt this betrayed by tv shows i held this close to my heart, but im there. im heartbroken. i wont go on about it here, bc honestly, it would need its own post considering how much i have to say. but if the rest of the movie was bad? that was shit was traumatizing.

anyway. so sorry this post is this long, and so sorry i couldnt come back with a positive review. this show died long ago; i think we should have just let it rest - nobody asked for a reunion, and now i can see that was with good reason. so the next time jeff davis opens up an email with a header titled 'sequel idea' and he ccs tyler posey, i think we should all just agree to ler arden cho beat him to death in a dennys parking lot instead.

[itsclydebitches]

Hi. Feel free to totally ignore to ignore this ask I just needed to vent to someone. Have a great day! 

I hate little. (Or somewhat now). I hate this stupid mouse that accomplished nothing for the entire volume.

They were a terrible guide, they weren't funny, they were ugly. And they didn't help Ruby at all.(honestly I would also talk for hours on how much I hated Ruby depression arc especially her breakdown but that's not important now) Hell for the most part I forgot they were even there.

And honestly I probably wouldn't care that much if it wasn't for the fact that then they try to tug our heartstrings by having Neo stomp them.

No! I don't care! This scene was already traumatic enough you seriously didn't need that!

Then they try to connect with this theme how the smallest act can impact someone's life. Which I call bias cuz the only thing Rwby did for them was to give them cheese. They tag along on their own after being lost. Ruby wanted them to leave but they insisted and that got them killed.

And it's not like the paper pleasers who were unhappy about their lives and wanted to ascend little was rather fulfilled and happy with his life. Then wtf all that was for.

Also they shouldn't have wasted an episode of rwby beyond on them.

Please vent away! :D

Little feels like such a wasted opportunity to me (if, you know, we resign ourselves to having some version of Volume 9) because:

a) I love cute familiar-like characters b) I love the fairy tale, butterfly effect lesson of 'One small act can lead to huge results, often times in ways you'll never fully understand' c) Little is the one consistent new character the group gets this Volume and thus should, by virtue of being the first they meet/the longest to hang around, the most developed and significant to the conflict.

But they're functionally useless. Worse, they're boring and (to me) annoying. Ruby helps Little get some cheese. Cute meeting! Would love to better understand why they're trying to gather food when they clearly can't do it on their own and why their tribe is otherwise engaged in hunting Blake (she barely even looks like a cat! Her ears blend into her hair and everything else is human!). Looking back, it feels like there are seeds of Little being an outsider here (why are they gathering alone when that's clearly a multi-mouse endeavor? Is it unusual for a mouse to not have a purpose at their age?), which would have helped to explain their motivation for leaving with Ruby, but as it stands it all just feels so rushed and disjointed.

In repayment for the cheese, Little agrees to be Team RWBY's guide. Great, that's very logical and helpful! Except Little spends the whole Volume engaging in a sleeping gag and reminding the girls (the viewer) that they don't actually know anything outside of their tiny territory.

They're emotionally available to Ruby when she's at her lowest? Sort of, but beyond whether you think those scenes feel forced or not (I personally do), I question why that role isn't given to someone we already care about. You all know I've got plenty to say about the previous Volume, but at least those later episodes had the wherewithal to send Yang after Ruby on the staircase. I honestly believe that part of the reason why some people are upset with Yang's response to the depression arc is not simply what she does do (compare Ruby to Ironwood, physically imply that she's siding with Blake, seemingly ignore Ruby's VERY obvious symptoms, etc.), but what she doesn't do too. By giving Ruby this new companion and trying to make Little an emotional center of the Volume, it deprives the other characters (including Ruby's sister) with that role. Granted, it could have been compelling to double-down on those feelings of alienation, culminating in Yang witnessing Ruby's suicide and regretting the choices that lead them there... but the show decided to turn Ruby's "ascension" into this supposedly feel-good moment instead.

Their death is the tipping point that sends Ruby over the edge? I admittedly like the idea. Giving us a small animal, one that many people are afraid of/find nasty, and equating it to a 'simple soul' could have helped sell the idea that all life - ALL LIFE - is precious. Hell, I wonder if it would have been better if Little was just a mouse. No talking, no magic, nothing but an (arguably) cute animal for the audience to cheer for. I can imagine a version of the dining room scene where Ruby is haunted by the people who have died, but she's also still centered enough to argue how those deaths weren't her fault, only for Neo to senselessly kill this little mouse on top of everything else. Maybe it scurries over when Ruby is beaten and bloody, gives her a little lick, something akin to a smile, this moment where she's connecting with a soul that is literally simple, and vulnerable, and doesn't care what Ruby may or may not have done because it's just another creature she's trying to protect... and then crunch comes the boot. It's a completely unnecessary act of cruelty on Neo's fault and the audience must sit with the death of an animal (something that always tugs at the heartstrings) rather than the arguable relief of being rid of Little.

Don't even get me started on their ascension. It straight up doesn't make sense and has the same kind of 'rule' structure as wishing for Penny to get a new body.

[jadeyarts]

Ngl, I think Chloe was done dirty in the show

She should've had her own fairy godparent then share with Timmy. Plus she was introduced when the show was dying and was used as an attempt to revive it.

I want a Chloe redemption, give her what she deserves.

agree! like, her introduction was awful and actually truly failed to introduce her character sincerely or accurately it was so baffling. i watched season 10 twice, first in reverse order then in proper order and it was actually absolutely wild how absolutely nothing in her introduction episode was really that indicative of her character??? it doesn't truly capture any of chloe's quirks and complexities, or even really why she would need godparents, and barely anything in the episode actually carries into any episode beyond that besides, like, the turners being rich for the rest of the season? which is not a decision i liked, and it really only served as a half-hearted reason for the carmichaels to hate the turners inexplicably, but they really didn't need to be rich for that. the turners being rich could have been interesting if they actually brought back remy, though, since the turners literally bought the country club that remy's parents owned. whatever.

i mean, i think i understand what they were trying to do - setting timmy up as being jealous and frustrated with her and then forcing him to have to try being cordial, to force them to have to work in tandem, makes sense as a narrative and stakes. and revealing that she isn't actually as perfect as he initially believes her to be also narratively makes sense! but sadly the execution of these ideas is very disjointed and shallow. not to mention the way they tried to explicitly spell out its themes was extremely forced. it's kind of a retread of both imaginary gary (the episode) and the boy who would be queen in those aspects, but lacking cohesion. it feels like maybe a first draft that wasn't revised nearly enough, or something. maybe it was! maybe they hadn't truly figured out what they really wanted to do and by the time they did it was too late. i dunno, but whatever it was, the end result is the same: a lot of people barely make an effort to understand chloe as a character and instead parrot whatever reviewers said about her intro a decade ago. and i get it, i'm not innocent of that either, i did the same thing years ago. but then i decided i wanted to come to my own conclusions. and i ended up loving chloe's character, she would have been a great addition to the series if she just came in at a better time. she was a great foil for timmy! and their chemistry as friends was actually great!

and... to that second point... i guess i think you're objectively right, a lot of viewers would likely have an easier time accepting chloe if she had been introduced with her OWN fairies, separate from cosmo and wanda, while just coincidentally becoming friends with timmy... or even being the protagonist of a sequel would have been less controversial... but i also kind of disagree. the fact they were forced to share cosmo and wanda was actually one of the more interesting aspects of the season to me, even if the actual reasoning behind it was dog water. but i really liked the dynamic that formed as a result. this sort of allegorical stepsibling, blended family dynamic. i like the way that cosmo and wanda specifically both represented different attributes and values they needed in their lives! i like what this specific set-up added, even if i find the execution of most of its episode ideas to be um. well. season 10. i honestly think a better way to introduce chloe and incorporate these dynamics i found so interesting would have probably been to make them actual, literal stepsiblings and not just allegorical fairy god-stepsiblings. not sure who would have been into that besides me, though.

sighs loudly. maybe someday ill rewrite season 10 or something. i have a lot of story ideas for chloe.

[theregardedminecrafter]

As someone watching from q!Charlie’s/Gegg’s perspective, is definitely interesting to watch people talk about those who openly speak against working with the federation naive/idealistic when it really doesn’t feel that way. (Warning: there will be rambling and ranting and what feels like disjointed thoughts)

(I am mostly going to talk about Charlie because he is the one I watch so I understand him the best.)

The first exchange after the debate that Baghera and Charlie had was Charlie commenting that no matter who was voted in they would be doomed and her almost immediately agreeing.

I’m pretty sure Charlie is fully convinced he isn’t going to make it to voting day. For more then what felt like 90% of the stream he and Gegg were holding a totem. Even when Bad gave him extras and assured him he should only hold them in case he feels endangered. The only time he stopped holding a totem was in between the end of the debate and Bad handing him more totems in a reminder of The very fragile single life that the self aware very accident-prone Charlie has and when he was back in Eggsile, his lonely little beach.

While he is trying to stay alive, Gegg’s platform isn’t really to become the president. The point of running is to spread the message. He even admitted that not only does he think none of the people running are fit for president, including himself, but that the role of president is entirely forced onto them by The Federation. And is just another way to control them.

Being an Anarcho-Socialist, all government is sorta on Gegg’s list. Charlie did say that Gegg would definitely probably light himself on fire if he were to become president when Forever asked.

Also Charlie is very very aware of the power imbalance the federation has on them. (note: the life system he keeps stressing about) I don’t consider him the most haunted man on the server for nothing.

This man has however literally dealt with both the devil and angel Rubius toying with him and his family.

And one of the only times Charlie has dealt with Cucurucho was in a situation where Charlie was in caves deep beneath his eggsile, with his location off so noone can find him, stumbling into Cucurucho who then vagued him about his daughter(she was dead at this time but because of where he was he didn’t know that) and when Charlie got pissed and started to pressure for more open concrete answers, Cucurucho held him at gunpoint and shot around him. And Charlie made it clear that he knew Cucurucho wasn’t there to kill him and was unafraid. And after having El Mariana’s pov of Juanaflippa’s final death seemingly forced into him like a flashback.

He then tries to murder Cucurucho, got shot and then revived by it, tries to kill it again, and then swears to find a way to kill Cucurucho after it leaves. (Even though he acknowledges that it seems to know everything/is omniscient and how it took nothing from his sword)

After all, Charlie is someone who has lost everything he cared about more then twice over, he has had nothing to lose.

Which is probably why the whole openly fuck The Federation attitude he and Gegg have make sense to me. It doesn’t matter how strong they are because Charlie has always been stubborn and fighting against all the odds. He and Gegg refuse to be silenced and want the people to think and will cling at the chance to do that until either of them (in their own mind) inevitably die. The election might be rigged and there might be a target on his back, but he is very clearly aware of that and acknowledges that.

This is not an election for Charlie and Gegg, it is a stand against it and all of what The Federation stands for.

Thank you for listening.

[brofightiscancelled]

found out about the journey to the west matsu aus and discussed the casting with oomf...... transcribing the essay i wrote in their discord DMs here cuz i wrote a lot so why not lol

oso as sun wukong: this makes the most sense as the red/main guy/foolish guy who suffers from hubris. actually in second pic it looks like he's currently being subjected to his headband punishment which is really funny combined with sanzang (his master who inflicts the headband punishment) being choro

i do think oso matches sun wukong's stupidity and hubris. and combined with choro sanzang i do think this is probably the funniest option

also he just looks very cute here. he's just a little scamp. wukong has a very boyish charm (at least in the beginning) so i get the transference. i also think the idea of being able to start torturing oso at any given moment is appealing

kara as the horse dragon prince is 100% real. this is so true. it's a stupid role for him he looks dumb af in this costume and the horse prince is just a stupid motherfucker who gets the short end of the stick throughout the entire story. perfect no notes

he Would be choro's steed. this is his role. he's da horse they ride on who turns into a beautiful woman one time to try to save sanzang and fails. it's perfect for him

it also fits cuz the dragon horse is prince of the sea and he's got like the water theming too

choro as sanzang: i feel like this is a lowkey blasphemous casting given that sanzang is such a pure and noble monk and choro is just constantly consumed by his desires. but it's not like anyone else wouldve been better (Actually matsuyo wouldve been better. Put matsuyo in this role) and again keeping in mind his dynamic with wukong i do think it's the funniest option so i'll allow it. this dude would not HESITATE to cause oso physical pain when he's annoying him and would constantly berate and harp on the importance of not killing people (who are trying to kill him) to the point of redundancy and to his active detriment. and sanzang i guess is the most proper of the cast trying to keep everyone in line (Because he is a monk) so it fits dynamic-wise

ichi as bull king: bull king is a famous jttw villain, but honestly not like.... major......i feel like in my memory he is largely characterized by being the husband of the Iron Fan lady and the father to red boy. so casting any matsuno as a Guy Who's Famous For Being A Husband And Father is kind of funny and wrong to me lol. it's very weird that this is his only consistent casting to me (between this set and the merch au) because i dont think the bull king has any ichi attributes (isn't he usually interpreted as very red-colored even? lol)

he has nothing to do with cats and the wikipedia page says he's a major villain but i s2g he's in like 4 stories max. i guess they just went to find "who's the biggest villain in jttw" and slapped him on there even though i feel like the point of jttw is that there arent any like, truly central villains because it's like 9981 disjointed trials. and i guess he looks cool. idk

if it were me i'd maybe have cast him as guanyin because 1. it's funny 2. she's the one who gives sun wukong the punishment headband, and also does a lot of other lowkey sadistic things throughout the series, and is much more of a pivotal figure throughout the story since theyre always going to her for help.....

although actually if we were going to extend this then totoko would be a perfect guanyin. so i just dont know who ichi would be in that case

jyushi as pigsy is sooooo true. pigsy is just a airheaded and stupid lustful guy who likes to eat and is always causing troubles so it fits him within the dynamic. no notes

and totty as wujing is very fitting because wujing is the youngest disciple and lowkey doesnt get to do anything for most of the story he's just always talked over. i think they interpreted wujing's water attributes as kappa attributes here which is cute. ill allow it

and then my gripes with the other casting from the merch set

ok the other one. i think oso is meant to be the buddha based on the ears and outfit but the lotus is a guanyin (goddess) thing so i think they have their visuals a little confused. but ill assume he's buddha...? i think this is a really funny and unfitting choice considering the buddha's basically only role is to give them the goal and then to punish wukong for his hubris and that doesnt suit bakamatsu at all. but it's funny so i get it

kara as sanzang..... i guess i can kind of see it in the same way i see priest kara working but they share no attributes. and again the wukong dynamic doesnt work, sanzang is always berating wukong and will easil yresort to physical punishment . would karamatsu ever hurt jyushi if it came down to it? maybe it's smoke inhalation but im leaning towards kara being too big of a pussy to do that. so

choro as shajing.............. shajing is kind of the quiet serious one so i kind of get it....? and if they want to do the kappa thing i gues the green fits. so like presonality wise this one does fit for the most part. shajing is also kind of a social outcast so i suppose this fits choro better

again i dont knw owhy ichi is the bull king. why was this the only consistent one

jyushi wukong... wukong is certainly sillay and whimsical but i feel like jyushi is lacking in hubris. jyushi Knows that he's stupid but wukong's whole character is constantly being punished for his pride. i think the colors are cute though

totty pigsy... pink so true. but pigsy is explicitly like. a menace kind of womanizer not a charming one. the whole reason he's a pig is because he made a pass at a girl that he shouldnt have and it was his punishment, i dont think totty's really like that lol

[featherandferns]

JJ smut with prompt 19 plsss

19. Make me.

Hi lovely! Sorry for the delay and thank you for your patience! This is a little short but I hope you like it <3

Content warnings: sexual content

storeroom - prompt 19

“You’re such an asshole!” you seethe at JJ.

He scoffs and rolls his eyes, petty to the max. “And you aren’t?”

“Why can’t you take your job seriously?” you hiss. “They’re actually paying a decent wage and folks here are paying a lotta money for a decent meal, and you’re slacking on the job.”

“You’re not my fucking manager, okay?” JJ snarls, stalking towards you. “You don’t getta tell me what to do and what not to do. You’re a waitress, alright? So you better pucker up princess and pull the stick from out of your ass.”

“Watch your fucking mouth blondie,” you spit.

You square up to him as if you could lay him out in a second on the storeroom floor. Clearly sending the two of you to top up on supplies for the function tomorrow, after hours, wasn’t the smartest move from your supervisor.

JJ Maybank was a dickhead. He seemed to know which buttons to push with you to have you foaming at the mouth and blowing steam out your ears. He seemed to enjoy pushing them too. Did so until you were at your breaking point with him and his stupid face.

“What? You want me to stop putting you in your place?”

“I want you to stop talking full-stop, so I can get maybe a moment of peace in this Goddamn restaurant,” you bite back.

JJ smirks, cold and cruel. “Oh yeah? Make me, princess.”

You glower at his face. His stupid, handsome, gorgeous face.

You can’t say why, or when, or even how, but you and JJ are suddenly kissing. He seems taken aback, stumbling forward, pushing your back against the precariously balanced boxes of napkins and tea lights. Pulling back, eyes wide and mouth somewhat agape in shock, you and JJ regard each other a moment. Eyes flicking over features; breathing heavy and disjointed. There’s a moment where you both seem to debate whether or not this is the right thing; debate saying this out loud; then simultaneously agree on one common thought. Fuck it. You’d always thought JJ was kind of attractive. Well, more than kind of, but there was no way in hell you’d ever tell him so.

The make-out that follows is filthy and messy and confusing. JJ ends up with his back against the wall with you pressing against him. You both groan as his hard-on rocks against your crotch.

“This is a bad idea,” JJ says. His hand creeps under your shirt, messing to undo your bra.

“Definitely,” you pant. Your eyes are fixated on his lips and you can’t help but kiss him again, sinking your teeth leisurely into his lower lip for just a second.

“Fuck,” JJ groans. He yanks your shirt over your head and you shuck off your unfastened bra. Impatient, JJ palms at your breasts. The fact that both of you are on the clock, in the restaurant’s storeroom seems to be of no concern to either of you. “We should probably stop.”

“Probably,” you mumble. You unzip the fly of his work pants (they’re so fucking tight on him it’s almost criminal how good they make him look) and slip a hand hastily into his boxers. JJ stammers out a moan as you rub at his erection. Something shoots through you, be it attraction or hate. The two lay on a thin line.

“I don’t even like you,” JJ stammers.

You look up at him with that. Hooded eyes and swollen lips, he’s rosy cheeked and overtly horny. Squeezing at the head, making him moan, you can’t help but smirk.

“You sure about that, blondie?”

JJ stares down at you. His white button-up is still fastened and it’s unfair. You want to see him – all of him. Nobody should be allowed to be this attractive and this much of an asshole. The world is full of cruelties.

You continue working him with your hand, grinning malevolently when you feel him throb under your hold, already getting close. Men are so fucking simple.

JJ sighs. There’s a twitch of a grin to his lips, mirroring yours, and there’s this thrilling, terrifying thought that comes to your mind as he takes you in, like a predator observing its prey.

He’s going to wreck me.

[lerihon-posts]

Dark Urge and Grieving Gortash

This might be a bit disjointed cuz I'm typing this instead of sleeping but thinking about Durge and the aftermath of Gortash's inevitable death. Especially in endings where the party breaks the alliance and kills him. Especially a Durge that's been fairly successful in their quest lines. (Keeps Isobel from being kidnapped, saves all the Tieflings and Zevlor ECT from moonrise)

Do we think Durge even realizes at first that they are grieving? Like yeah absolutely they are aware that grief is a thing and maybe they've felt something they thought was like it about Alfira. But being aware of something is one thing and experiencing it a whole other ball game. Like thinking about it pre-amnesia they're this peak, hand designed by Bhaal Bhaalspawn right? Literally designed to deal out death in droves. Grief would be a pretty useless and largely if not near entirely unfelt emotion by Durge at this point. Grief is something they inflict not experience.

Then you get to Durgetash era, weather platonic or romantic, and it's all kinda agreed by fandom that Gortash is the first person not only to care about Durge but the first person Durge themselves actually care about. A friendship and/or romance so impactful it freaks Durge out. This is what got me thinking; if this is Durge having a crisis over feeling attached to someone and reluctant to kill them for the first time theres no likely way they would have gotten to the point of truly mourning someone before or at least not since climbing the ranks to be papa bhaal's favorite prince/princess.

Now just thinking about an end game Act three resisting Durge standing in Gortash's office with Karlach and very likely their new LI (mine was Gale), deed done and looking down at Gortash's -"no, Enver, he's Enver to us" that persistent voice a the back of their head says- body and feeling that first bit of cold numbness spreading from their heart throughout their chest. Pressure behind their eyes and nose as an Urge, not to harm but to cry, build just as slowly. If it's another character that got the killing blow in maybe unable to look them in the eye with out feeling this sense to *Scream*. A Durge recently born a new free of Bhaal but not their lingering past self, still new to being a honest to gods person and not knowing what was *wrong* with themselves??. They cast speak with dead and hear Bane from Enver's lips and suddenly their body feels like something they have to pilot remotely, their throat burns with a vague wish to be sick.

Do they go to Halsin or Shadowheart later once back at the Elfsong tavern and forcing themselves through whatever this is to comfort Karlach? Chest aching and something all together bitter they don't want to admit to churning in their gut. Do they seek a one of them quietly to ask for a magical heal for this obviously physical poison they must be suffering from only to be told nothing seems to be wrong with them? Do they go through their symptoms confused and feeling numbed and overwhelmed at the same time only for Halsin or Shadowheart to finally reach in through their tadpoles to see what Durge is feeling and then have to explain to Durge that " oak father preserve you, but yours is but a profound sadness; your grieving," Halsin says, or Shadowheart with "you suffer no mere flesh wound im afraid, but that of a much deeper experience; Loss."

Just. All those posts about the dark urge coming to grips with what Gortash actually meant to their old selves, the only people that understood and cared for each other, the only two people who mattered. But then also with the added angst of someone navigating that sadness for probably the first time with no knowledge of how to do that while surrounded by people who wouldn't be able to really understand why you felt that way about someone like Gortash and also yeah there's no real time to process this you gotta fight an elder brain in the morning.