#“yeah you might fuck this up severely but there is one way to guarantee that you don't which is to just Not Do The Thing!!!”

[casvonriegan]

I decidedly don't like how Miles Edgeworth-coded I am

[paintedonmyteeth]

GHOSTFACE! ⋆｡°✩👻🔪

Ohmygod look a Ghost. Ghostface posting ha??? How fuckin’ cool is that????? I think it’s pretty neat :)) And speaking of Ghostface I’ve gotten too fond of this man recently (besides my beloved Pyramid Head ofc), so I thought why tf not give it a whack and write something of this doofus??? And bc this is a first writing smth for Ghostface, I’ve decided go with DBD’s Ghostface, Danny Johnson because I found him pretty easy to navigate with lore-wise and much easier to invent things with this silly little man, (Stu Macher was one to come to mind but I decided no bc Danny looked more fun to write besides a Ghostface from Scream movie franchise). So yeah, anymore posts of this menace in the future is mainly going to be surrounding Danny Johnson.

OFF TOPIC NOTE BUT— recently I’ve been considering of maybe opening up requests with writing head canons and things for Pyramid Head and Ghostface for the fun of it besides mainly writing things for myself, a possibility some time in the future, but for now I’m sticking with reblogs and randomly writing things whenever an idea comes to me. Anyways moving onto my fucking shenanigans now—

It’s been some weeks then and unbeknownst to you, you had grabbed the attention of the infamous killer in Roseville.

Another few days in and you’re already noticing some peculiar shit going on. Some of your stuff’s missing, you found your lock on your door open, you got a strange call from somebody. Shit be getting pretty fuckin’ creepy and you’re not liking it one bit.

Ofc Danny wouldn’t give a shit— it’s all going so smoothly and according to plan! Sooner or later from there he’ll get to reveal himself as your stalker and the hunt officially begins once you pick up that phone.

It’s all going way too fuckin’ smooth, hell it’s smooth sailing for this man, and then he’ll cut to the chase and finally go in for the kill to immortalizing his next victim in his header for tomorrow’s papers.

BUT NO- apparently he underestimated you, fucking severely, and you ended up surviving his attack and the invasion into the personal space of your very own home. Danny was shocked overall, he’d least expect you to be shitting your pants from fear, because everybody in Roseville would know about his reputation.

Of course Danny was pretty pissed, a smart one that you are. But at the same time, after watching you countlessly and seeing you in action, he found you rather interesting in some ways.

And now he’s stalking you almost every night — for different reasons of course. He had the rule for himself to never get attached to any of victims but he couldn’t resist this magnetic pull towards you for some reason. Of course he might still try to kill you here and there, otherwise where’s the fun if he’s not keeping you on your toes???

He’s making this shit confusing for you, you don’t know if he’s either wanting to kiss you or kill you, hell, it could be both.

And you shouldn’t be surprised at all due to the fact that this mf’s going to be showing up at your house guaranteed. You might tell him to buzz off but he won’t. :)

Even though he knows your name he’s already coming at ya with the fuckin’ nicknames, like: Bunny, little mouse, brat (lovingly), babes, sweetheart, literally anything he could think of for you.

Obsessive behaviour be really fucking cooking.

Overtime you somehow got used to Ghostface’s looming presence no matter how much of a flirtatious nuisance he is and it sort of sprouted into a weird dynamic from there.

And Danny on the other hand is obviously not getting bored of you at all any time soon, it’s never going to fucking happen bae. But you still find him annoying most of the time whenever he comes swinging by. And now you have Roseville’s infamous serial killer utterly fond with you and never letting you go. Can’t have shit in fuckin’ Roseville. >:((

☠︎︎༒︎✞︎🕸𖤐

[the-100-days-of-junkan]

Day 15

Oh look! A Sequel! Don’t get used to that.

Yet another pic I colored way after it was sketched.

For context, when I showed No.14 to Val, she commented on how surprisingly normal Mikan’s reaction was in that image. And so I thought about it and was like “yeah wait that’d fry her brain.” So I drew a sequel where Mikan is so shocked and flustered by what Junko just did that she just gives up her sense of reason and logical thinking to just start making out with her. I loved doing the expressions for this one, Junko’s especially. And the kiss? I guarantee that was torturous because I was still not very used to drawing kisses at that point in time. Though for the first kiss of the event I’m pretty happy with it, especially since a later one really bothers me with how I drew it. Foreshadowing~!

Now to cover another aspect of the behind the scenes. One of my very arbitrary, very stupid rules that I imposed upon myself! This one technically was more of a unspoken rule though, so maybe not a good place to start. But fuck it, since this is the only pic that breaks that rule I might as well count it here and start yapping.

Rule 1: I’m not allowed to count sequels as separate days.

There aren’t many examples but there are a few Days of the Event that are made up of several images rather than just a single one. In fact, counting all of them together, including the (at the time of writing) unfinished No.100 and bonus images, there are actually 146 Individual images. This goes even further if you count various comic panels as separate. And there’s even stuff from the more secret surprises of the event that would boost it even more. By all means I hit my goal of 100 pics a while ago. However in my brain, if I just make every separate image it’s own day like with No.14 and No.15 it’d be both a cheap way to get through my count, and also would probably be unsatisfying for anyone who’s actually tuning into this project. Now am I actually correct in thinking that? Probably not. But hey I acknowledged the rules I forced onto myself are arbitrary and stupid, so  that means I’m absolved of my foolish brain! Right? 

Point is while there are images that definitely relate to each other, I didn’t make any direct sequels to posts that wouldn’t be included together as a single day. 

[donnerpartyofone]

jfc so i booked a telehealth visit today to get one of my scripts refilled, and i stupidly put in the notes that i'm also going to ask a really general question about what covid vaccines are on the market right now just so the doctor knows there's one other thing on the agenda that might take an extra three or four minutes. and then some admin calls me on the phone right away and first of all they read my name last-then-first as if they couldn't understand what was on their screen, and then they go "we don't have covid vaccine (sic) here." and i said yeah, i'm not making an appointment to get vaccinated, i'm just going to ask the doctor about, like, what's out there right now, generally, what she thinks about them. and the person goes "well what shot?" and i'm going that's the thing, i don't know, i'm just going to ask my doctor WHAT ARE THE LATEST VACCINES AND WHAT DOES SHE THINK ABOUT THEM. and this person just kept treating me like i was asking about something really exotic and possibly inappropriate, and then they PUT ME ON HOLD. and after a couple minutes they got back on and tersely confirmed that they would add a note to my appointment saying exactly what i just repeated several times and we hung up. and i just could not figure out...like, is this the only medical receptionist on the planet of earth who doesn't know what a covid vaccine is? their whole entire tone and demeanor didn't just say "you can't get vaccinated here", it was like they just didn't even know what i was talking about and were trying to prevent me from abusing their services with something irrelevant. and this was like, i really didn't even have to put that note on my stupid booking, i could have just rolled into my appointment and then said "hey by the way, what's the latest on the vaccines?" and absolutely nothing bad would have happened. in fact i could go do that at the pharmacy a block and a half away and i'm 100% positive they wouldn't have to go whisper to their manager in a back room before talking to me like i was trying to rob them. worst case scenario they'd probably just point me to the CDC website, but i guarantee that under no circumstance would they tell me "you have to make an appointment to even ask that question and you can't make it here." i have no fucking idea what goes on with people in this world.

[atopvisenyashill]

i swear i am not trying to be annoying, i think my ask got eaten so ill ask again and the last time as well, ask getting eaten be damned

who do you think would win in a gc between rhaenyra and aegon?

i never got any ask like this so yeah i would assume this one got eaten so sorry!!! tumblr if i catch you!!!!

that's honestly really tricky. let's break it down a bit.

clear votes for aegon ii:

House Lannister -> and they're bringing most of the Westerlands with them

House Hightower -> bringing about half of the Reach with them but not, crucially, House Tyrell nor House Tarly (currently powerful due to Lady Sam)

House Baratheon -> again, they get about half the houses here

House Tully -> probably a quarter of the Riverlands, if that

clear votes for rhaenyra:

House Arryn -> Jeyne brings with her most of the Vale as well. Very notable here that Jeyne gets the Sunderlands (generally considered Arryn opps on par with the Reynes, Yronwoods, etc) to break for Rhaenyra as well

House Stark -> the North falls in line in a huge way here

House Tully -> the thing is most of the Riverlands break for Rhaenyra so even if old Grover makes it alive to the GC, he's got Elmo agitating the fuck out of everything

House Tyrell -> I do not think the Tyrells like the political machinations of the Hightowers and are sure votes for Rhaenyra, as are several other notable houses in the reach like the Tarlys, the Beesburys, the Costaynes, and the Oakhearts

Lady Fell/Lord Buckler -> these are very minor, barely countable Stormlander houses but notable that both TG and TB are shown to have two (2) houses from the Stormlands

Crownlands -> most of the crownlands winds up breaking for Rhaenyra, with a few only going over after TB commits a few war crimes

now the thing is.......votes are likely to shift and change as a GC is called. some "swing houses" i think stand out-

House Manderly -> they're the ones with the money and the fleet

The Stormlands -> we don't get much information on them besides borros being a noxious chauvinist so I think a lot of them would count as swings

House Marbrand -> Lorent Marbrand is on Rhaenyra's Queensguard

House Tully -> for obvious reasons

House Sunderland -> they're a "trouble house" and the other Arryns might want to vote against Rhaenyra/Jeyne on spite alone!

So the thing is......and this is something I should whack her for more often but Rhaenyra imo should have been planning & pushing for a GC once her father dies in order to gain control peacefully because she has a real, genuine, nearly guaranteed shot at winning. Outside of the Reach and the Westerlands, Aegon has at best conflicted support, and if you could win a war with only the Reach and the Westerlands, well, the Lannisters and Mace wouldn't be fighting for their absolute lives in the modern day would they? Can Aegon say "fuck that noise I'm King and idc about the GC"? yes absolutely! But he looks like a supreme asshole if he does, especially if he loses and tries to coup anyway. And there's honestly not a real downside to the GC because the thing is - if Aegon wins, he has the exact same argument that Rhaenyra can make here which is "the lords picked me & I tried to do this peacefully."

I think Otto Hightower has it in him to win over more houses, especially the Tyrells if Rhaenyra can piss them off first, and probably in the Vale as well. I think he'll have a decidedly hard time in the Crownlands where Valyrian supremacy attitudes are high, and a hard time in the North who love to support women as long as they're Over There. He could win the Manderlys though and that's nothing to sneeze at!

"well it doesn't make sense that so many lords break for rhaenyra because" im sorry i think this is a stupid argument. a lot of the crownlanders support rhaenyra because she has included them on her councils, in her friendships, or are valyrian. viserys is popular with the crownlands and riverlands because he kept them out of wars. the vale goes for rhaenyra because of aemma. the north already preferred rhaenys and rhaenys is on rhaenyra's side. "oh well andal law" you are lying to yourself if you think any of these dudes actually give a shit about andal tradition. they want aegon in charge because he is a man and they're from the more religious, chauvinistic areas of westeros like the reach and the westerlands, and have also been included on aegon's councils, and in his friendships. that's what in the text. it doesn't really matter if it doesn't make sense because that's what george wrote. and for that matter it does make sense why so many would support rhaenyra when they didn't support rhaenys - she had support from the outgoing king and rhaenys didn't!

anyways i don't think it's necessarily a slam dunk for rhaenyra. daemon is still unpopular in a few places, misogyny is alive and real and rhaenyra does little to help herself combat it, the silent five thing was a misstep of epic proportions regarding the velaryon boys, and otto knows how to schmooze. but i do think the odds are stacked in her favor, if she can at least keep up this energy going into a vote.

[raven]

i get & kind of agree with your point, i guess i'm just looking at the bigger issue as a whole. i do think in a lot of cases it's super feasible to just. play something else. or to wait until you can afford to upgrade your pc, etc. but i think the trend in the gaming sphere (esp triple A titles) of not caring for optimization and expecting consumers to just keep up is a little concerning for the future of gaming. i think gaming is already something that's inaccessible to a lot of people for inescapable reasons (required internet access for most games now, having to purchase consoles or a pc isn't cheap, etc.) and with with the way optimization is becoming more scarce i think it's leading to a future where new releases will be entirely unreachable for a large portion of the community which is an issue that should not exist. if 60% of your target audience can't afford to play your game, what's the point?

yeah definitely. &i did somewhat feel this with the new dragon age, there were so many just.. pointless visual effects on the screen, most of which i couldnt turn off, and i couldnt help but think "would this game run better if it didnt have these...?" while style is important, i do think game studios should be focusing more on WHY you need a game to be in a certain visual style. why do you need certain filters etc. veilguard didnt even look good, imo, so whats the point... But also like. games are for two types of people: people with powerful computers, who care about their computers being top of the line and able to run anything, updating whenever they can and people who will buy a new console every console generation, because games are pretty much guaranteed to work on the latest consoles. and unfortunately if you are not a rich pc gamer or a slightly less rich console gamer, you might not be playing the big hits. but like, thats why you get a console, so you can play without needing to worry about an upgrade for several years. Idk. ive never had a console and i just play what i can play. but there are a lot of people out there with consoles. and it seems to be going fine for them, bc if games dont run on consoles theyre promised on, theres usually patches and more work done. I also dont really care about the AAA audience or studios and if the studios go under... Thats not my problem i dont really care if they live or die. Maybe the world would be better off without call of duty,? If gaming companies are fucking us over with optimization, theyre fucking themselves over, and if they have to shut down.. well that's on them. I have other games to play. (& like, when i say innovation in triple A games.. you know whats the kinda shit im talking about its game awards shit its not call of duty its like, god of war, red deaddedemption, death stranding (...2!), elden ring, baldurs gate 3 (not really triple a, but the reach and success can make it feel like one). (Im not personally interested in all of these, but im interested in what they have done for the medium.) of these games that have released, theyve had issues and most have been fixed. And most of them have done things worthy of discussion, even if they take up a lot of space and people like to complain about that. We can only hope interesting games arent dead on arrival because of poor optimization, but it seems most of them havent been.

[khalaris]

For the writers Ask: 5,6,9,10,11,13,15,16,23 👀 (if you want to of course)

Yooo, Kris coming in here with ALL the questions! 😆 Thank you for asking, these are a lot of fun :)

5: What is your go-to way to deal with writers block?

I wish I had some sort of guaranteed way of getting over writer's block, but really, when I'm not feeling it, I usually just do something else for a while. And when I do write, it's more bullet points of ideas or sometimes random little moments, lines or scenes that might turn into something later but most often just clutter up my file haha.

6: Do you have a motivational cycle? (As in phases in which you barely write and phases in which you write so much holy shit)

It's not a cycle as such. I feel like my writing motivation is very dependant on my general stress level. So I'm pretty motivated at the moment, since I just had 3 weeks off and managed to relax a lot and completely forget about work for that time.

Also, I'm not even going to pretend my motivation isn't heavily impacted by how readers react to my stories. That's honestly been a bit of a sticking point for me recently, because out of all the people who read my last couple of shorter stories only a handful actually liked them and I'm wondering if it's because the stories were mostly focused on secondary/minor characters or if my writing was just crap. (ok so I know one of them wasn't that good, which is why I've put it in my hidden collection for now to be reworked later) But even then, I try to just go no fuck you I can write whatever I want! and keep going. (that's directed at myself btw, not my readers :D)

Well, that's a lot of text just to say 'no' haha.

9: What genre is your favourite to write?

Gotta be Hurt/Comfort, right? I love reading that stuff and I love writing it. With straight up Fluff being a close second.

10: Do you read and write similar stuff or are there differences?

Very similar. The biggest difference is probably that I can't write all the things I read.

11: What kind of relationships do you like writing best? (Family, platonic, romantic, etc.)

I most love writing relationships that aren't easy to categorize or that blur the lines.

A relationship between two characters that is full of trust and love and intimacy, but there's no romance or sex involved. Or a developing qpr between three characters, all of whom have kind of a different view of what they are and how they work. Or the two guys, one of whom is ace and the other is straight and aro, still getting into a committed relationship. Or the former couple, who still love each other, but who are in their own way grieving their former relationship that just didn't work out.

And since I love writing about emotional self-discovery, that also often plays a large part in those relationships. Like for example, I always write Moritz as aromantic, so while at first glance it seems like his and Ernstls relationship in Die Welt... is a 'normal' romantic one, Moritz is very much confused about a lot of things that are happening and that are perhaps expected of him and he has a long way ahead of him in discovering his own feelings and what they mean.

13: How many WIPs do you have open?

Too many. Let me go look.

Errrr, it's 19. That I'm at least occasionally actively working on. That's not counting random ideas or even all my almost-finished Münster stuff. Yeah, definitely too many.

15: What is the weirdest thing you had to look up for writing?

I once spent a lot of time looking up the organizational structure of the Austrian/Viennese police in the 80s and today and all I got was the certainty that Tatort script writers don't have the slightest idea how those things work and are just making up anything they want XD

16: What is something you didn't have to look up but is still weird to know?

There was a scene in one of my Münster WIPs where I waxed poetic about headphones and tube amps and DACs and digital vs analog for several paragraphs. And then I had to edit out all of my audiophile ramblings.

23: Is there a project you want to talk about?

Hmm. I do have this Coffeeshop AU idea that I've written a few snippets for already. It features one of the relationship dynamics in question 11 (the ace guy and the straight aro guy). I love the whole set-up tbh, I think it works really well.

The backstory is basically, that Moritz used to do all sorts of odd jobs, never anything for long, but then he met Claudia and realised he wanted to give her a stable home, so he opened a coffee shop. Bibi used to be a detective, but with no Sonderermittler Moritz to help her back to her feet and no Ernstl to actually recruit her for the team, she was discharged from the police because of her drinking problem and ended up working for Moritz (whom she knew from one of his odd jobs) and basically running the coffee shop for him. Ernstl meanwhile also never went to work for the police. Instead he lawyered his way up to district attorney. He likes to spend his lunch breaks at a certain coffee shop where eventually Moritz crosses his path.

I feel like this is going to be a long story, although not as monstrously ambitious as Die Welt in unseren Händen. Unfortunately I don't have the time or mental capacity to really get into it in the forseeable future. It also still needs a lot more plot. But yeah, I'm looking forward to writing this story one day.

Writer ask game

[demonicintegrity]

Yknow with the fact that everyone my age is like “ah fuck we’re in a recession and the housing market might crash soon” and that General Air, I’ve kinda accepted it might just be a slim chance if I ever have a retirement. Part of it is the career I’m choosing, but part of it is the Everything.

Y’see a normal full time job has you put some money in for your retirement and then they put money into it. And should you be working for them for X years (and the number keeps growing) you can get the partial/full amount of it at age Y (number also fluctuates) and it seems like a lot of my parents generation has/had this. Something they will get if they don’t have it already.

But two problems are now present with the current model of retirement: one being that the money it gives you just isn’t enough to survive anymore. There was no accounting for how the cost of living and inflation would affect how far a dollar can go. So now we see people who had to come out of retirement and work a bit to make up for the difference. And two, how to build your retirement was never really taught in schools. My mother had to tell her coworkers how to maximize their plan in the current job they all have because they just didn’t know and reading legal/economic jargon is just kinda difficult for a lot of people.

Your other option for a/an additional retirement plan is working with someone who can invest your money in a portfolio. Stocks and all that stuff. But as far as I’m concerned that’s fake money earned through wizardry, I have no fuckin clue how the hell that actually does something.

So now say you’re 20/30 something and you wanna try and have a retirement. Your options is actually be able to work full time at a job that offers retirement benefits and actually stick with it for like 20+ years or invest money you don’t have in a portfolio. It’s not new that a lot of places deliberately don’t have you on for full time so they don’t have to pay those benefits. And the only two careers I know of that promise a full retirement in only about 20 years of work is the military and being a cop.

So what do you do? I think the options generally are morbid.

Wait for your parents to die, sue someone and win, or win the lottery.

For me at least, that is the only conceivable way I’ll ever get a large amount of money at once. (And even then, watch most of it go to student loans lmao)

And it’s morbid. Thinking your best bet into have a comfortable to retirement amount of money is your parents dying. And even that is coming from a place of privilege. But I’ve heard it before! Being upset that your parents are dead and it’s stressful planning the funeral but also feeling guilty because that chunk of change feels good to have. It’s morbid and rightfully taboo as shit to acknowledge but getting a significant amount of money when someone dies might actually help you outta a bind.

The second is suing. Americans in particular have a rep for being a lil trigger happy about lawsuits. And I think it’s for two reasons. 1) it’s the only way to truly guarantee someone has to be held accountable and even then it’s a hope and 2) we’ve romanticized getting a lot of money outta it. Because we need it.

Y’know that older but still prevalent joke that “hey if I get hit by a uni bus at least they’ll pay my tuition?” Yeah no they won’t. Not anymore at least. I’ve had several adults working at my college say they won’t, they’ll only cover medical costs from the incident bc it’s happened so much. Apparently you also have much better luck suing the bus company itself than the school. But it is textbook romanticizing a shitty thing because a lot of money would be nice.

Sidenote: maybe if we had a functioning healthcare system that wasn’t driven on profit we wouldn’t have to be entirely reliant on suing someone to have impossible medical debt not kill us

And it’s also because you don’t realize just how slow and expensive the legal process is until you’re in it. And how much of a difference having money to throw at a court case makes. But that’s why settlements outside of court are so so tempting. Again, it’s also a degree of privilege.

So here’s your last option: the lottery. Which is just gambling. It’s 100% gambling and hoping it works. And a 1 or 2 dollar lottery seems relatively low loss on you for a whatever billion win. Whatever that comes out after taxes is still enough to keep you alive the rest of your life provided you don’t blow through it.

(Side thought on the lottery. If the state has like, a lot of money set aside to give to a random lucky person, why not just actually divide it and give it to the people? Or put it towards the roads/a school/whatever program??

The current mega millions jackpot for 10/24 is $114,000,000. $114 million dollars. So that’s not a lot if you split it out to the population, but I still don’t understand why not put that jackpot money into the roads instead of the amount earned with people buying lottery tickets. Idk idk it just feels like the state is dangling money over you head sometimes. Heehoo look at this money that could quite literally save your life come dance for meeee)

So it would seem the only guarantees for getting enough money to live (cuz remember the minimum wage isn’t livable anymore even with full time hours) let alone retire is some combination of privilege and luck. Lucky us.

[hot-take-tournament]

sorry if my take sounds deeply incomprehensible i just kept going back on submitting it and knew if i didn’t ramble it all out in one take i was gonna chicken out again LMAO

don't worry about it at all!

i think an incoherent infodump every once in a while is good for the soul!

look, if we're being totally candid -

i have pretty severe adhd comorbid with bipolar disorder, which i do my best to mask - yeah yeah, i know you're not supposed to, but i doubt i'll ever truly shake the shame, especially given the things i've done as a result of failing to mask, both online and irl (the latter being much, much worse) - so i've resolved to do it for the rest of my life

i did talk a little bit about what i was like on my main blog here, which you might need for context:

(speaking of which, please don't actually follow or even go to my main blog just because you like this one - i'm 100% fucking serious. i'm a very different person over there to the point of being almost unrecognisable, even to myself - and i guarantee that side of myself wouldn't recognise me either; we're like two parts of a very fucked up whole. so for that reason i want to keep these two blogs separate; like i said, i'm bipolar, so that's where i let the venom out, and when i feel joyful again, i come back here. i'm more active here anyway, to the point where i basically consider this my main blog now - i mean, my bio isn't even up to date over there)

the point is although i plan to mask for the rest of my life, even i'm partial to an unprompted infodump or oversharing session every once in a while

that's the reason i want this blog to be a safe place for people to vent/infodump/just share their wildest takes anonymously, while still having a little fun by making it a tournament - it's partly to atone in a cringe kinda way, but also because this dumbass site has actually been a huge source of support in some of the darker points in my life

it's almost ironic in a weird way - i spent so much time targeting other people for their mental health problems, but when i had some of my own i came crawling back to those same people. maybe karma does exist lol

no, i didn't ever interact with any of them; but just lurking on their blogs and reading their posts helped normalise what i was going through when i felt so alone after receiving my diagnosis; though it was always in the back of my mind that maybe a year earlier i would've seen those same posts and done my level best to make them feel like shit for it just for the sake of a little dopamine hit

i'm a proud airhead, but i'm not naive - i'm not going to lie to you and say that tumblr is a safe space, partly because nowhere on the internet is safe, partly because i've read some of your takes and they terrify me, but mostly because i'm living proof of how awful this site can be

but i do want to at least create one semi-safe place on the internet after ruining so many other people's

jesus i'm fucking crying that's new lol

anyway sorry for taking your incoherent infodump and exchanging it with one of my own, that's probably more info about me than you ever wanted to know

but i hope this provides a little context for why i decided to start this blog

the point i was actually trying to make, because i'm pretty sure i never actually responded to what you were saying - never feel embarassed to submit anything! trust me, i totally get it; but i promise, even when i make jokes about some unhinged takes, it's all light-hearted, and if it ever comes across otherwise, please let me know! <3 <3 <3

i'm gonna take a quick break, i'll catch up with you all again later

[stanwixbuster]

Things That (Should) be Happening in 2023

You can also read and boost this on itch.

I've gone back and forth over making a post (or chain thereof) like this for some time, but always flaked out on some lazy excuse of "I like dropping things with no warning for the surprise factor," and "Being scared of accountability."

And, yeah, project jumpscare is fun for a while but I'm starting to feel left out of the cycle of teasing little bits of what you're working on for people to comment on. Before that felt pointless because I had no comments point blank, but now I've got a few eyes on my stuff it feels like a decent time as any to start. One game even got fanart. Wild.

I'm currently on the forth of this cycle, so I'm riding it and making a full deal of it. If it ends up I hate doing this I'll just stop and never acknowledge it again. 

Here's things that (should) be happening this year.

I'm Exhibiting at WASD Curios

Yeah I still don't believe this either, and ENGLAND ON FIRE got accepted into the WASD Live "weird" indie selection.

I'm going to be at WASD in person at the Curios booth from March 31st to April 1st. If you're going, feel free to drop by and say hi. I'll be handing out some pins if you do.

The PC Problem

As some of you may or may not be aware, I'm currently without my main PC. Most of my stuff was left with my parents when I moved down on a short let, and I am living in what feels like a closet right now and only have access to a chromebook that stutters trying to open discord. Lack of Windows aside, next to no computing power puts intensive game dev out of the question. It can barely survive bitsy once projects start getting chunky.

Fortunately, I'm completely unimpeded doing pure writing, which does work out nicely for me. The games I make spend well over 90% of their time in google docs, and only leave it to get shoved into an engine at the last minute. And for the last 10%, I'm lucky enough to work a job where I can fuck about for an hour on a stupidly powerful PC. 

The good: for the games you guys are used to seeing from me, I can make these mostly unimpeded, if not a little slower than usual. Once I get used to the new workflow, it should be business as usual. The bad: this locks me out of doing any complex projects, of which I had several I wanted to take a crack at. This is annoying, for now, but I have enough in mind to keep me occupied—

Until the PC Comes Back

I've got a series of Quinn & Flynn sequels in the works, and this will fill the gap until I get my PC back. Currently, it's looking like a series of 5 games including the first (and even as I'm writing this now, I'm looking at my notes and a tentative 6th). I'm also not making any guarantees that all of them will be released by the time my PC is back, but I will make a guarantee that the run will be finished, at some point, and probably later compiled in omnibus form.

The series is also headed into adult-only territory. There's going to be on-screen sex and no real way to dodge it that doesn't impact the narrative. My apologies if you were under 18 and wanted more Quinn content but also congratulations to the sickos who want more stories with cum.

The 2nd game is going to follow Elias' POV. What happens, you'll have to wait until it comes out.

Pun not intended. I just noticed this while proofreading.

The PC Returns

So, the PC is back, and now I can work on those bigger projects I keep mentioning. Right now, I've got two I've been rotating in my mind and getting increasingly mad I can't pull together.

The first, in full spirit of what inspired it, would be a not-quite remake, and a not-quite sequel, of one of the most popular games I've made so far. I had a whole stack of cut content I wanted to put in that I couldn't because of the jam time limit, and now I want to redo it from the ground up in a bitsy-like engine that's far more flexible. We might even see the old Spdrcstl Special and have multiple engines glued together. You'll have to wait and see what that inspires.

The second is going to be a Proper Game. As in, something with a play time well over a couple hours. It's a Narrat game and leaning hugely into the disco-like mechanics. I'm planning to have enough content to sell it for about 10 quid or so, with the obvious caveat that I don't give a shit if you steal it if you can't afford it.

You'll be a paranormal investigator, tasked to a rural town in Cheshire where, to no rational explanation, buildings have been disappearing. The big twist, however, hinges on how you approach the case. A sceptic in this town may get a completely different story to the superstitious. It's on you to see where belief takes you.

This is going to be extremely heavy, British, and Northern. CWs abound for this one.

Since we're on a wider timescale and I'm still unsure when my beloved returns to me, I have no guarantees I can make here. At the very least, I'd like the first game to be fully released, and the second to have a demo that runs to the end of day one. Keep your eyes peeled.

Other Bits

This bit's a dumping ground. These are projects that have been floating around my head or I have some notes for down already. I decided to throw these here in case one or two make you go "Hey, that sounds cool, line it up next."

These, in no particular order, are:

A wiki-style game a-la Excalibur. I'm planning one in the same universe and as compliment to No Saints Go to Heaven. The main problem is I've gone Motherfucker Unlimited on the worldbuilding of this setting, and beyond that being a task in itself is filtering it all through an in-universe lens. Happening, but a while out. And speaking of—

No Saints Go to Heaven, in a full demo form. I still want to tack bullet hell quasi-rhythm game battles onto it and see if people like it. The problem being this requires a musician and probably a dedicated programmer who knows what they're doing, so this one may be out of the question for a while, as dearly as I love it.

Something with the 12 Cannettes engine. It captivated me the instant I played it and I've been desperate to make a game. I've got something in mind already, but might wait for a jam to fully flesh it out.

Something with Decker. Need to play with this to see where the limits are but I promised myself I would try it after having to pass on Decker Jam. Pending experimentation.

A web engine. It will let you make point and click adventures in the same style as the Club Penguin PSA missions. I am deadly serious about this. Pending more web dev knowledge.

A Len'en fan game. This is literally just that sentence in turns of planning, but I'll make one as soon as an idea comes around. I am very normal about Len'en.

Something using King Gizzard's Polygondwanaland. It's CC0. Album of all time. Have to. Pending what I'm actually going to do with it.

Other Other Bits

Also known as "Stan has a back-and-forth debate over starting a kofi and/or patreon or not."

On one hand, it feels a bit iffy when I have a fulltime job. That money could be going to devs who fully need it rather than me, you know? On the other hand, people are free to spend their money how they want, and extra pizza money sounds decent.

If I do the patreon route I haven't got any ideas for it beyond it being a glorified tip jar that auto-renews. Maybe down the line when I'm working on a Proper Game that has enough meat for update posts it could be a bonus dev log. But if I were to start it up, like, tomorrow, it would be a glorified tip jar.

aight

I think that's about it, for now. I need to put a disclaimer that any and everything mentioned in this post is subject to jam inspiration, scoping, Shiny New Tool syndrome, random hyperfixations, explosions (figurative), explosions (literal), "I didn't feel like it"-itus, and other bullshit under the helpful label of Life.

With that said, Elias & Flynn is definitely happening.

Have a good one.

[procyongaaay]

As someone currently heavily pregnant (34 weeks) with a very much wanted baby... All of this.

Miscarriages are really common. I had 3 early miscarriages before this pregnancy.

It's normal to take a while to get pregnant. So much sex Ed focuses on how not to get pregnant that a lot of people think they're broken if they're trying for a baby for 6 cycles and haven't gotten pregnant yet. Yes there's chances of getting pregnant but it doesn't happen right away. On average it takes a year to successfully conceive if you're in your 20s, 2 years if you're in your 30s, and potentially longer in your 40s, though what kind of shape you're in at that point will likely have more impact than specific age at that point. That's the minimum time you've had to be trying for before they'll start looking for fertility issues most of the time.

I've suspected I've had SPD for a few months but I've had multiple drs hand wave it away as "probably just round ligament pain". Like no I have that too and I know what that feels like it's not the same. I've got a connective tissue disorder that makes things like SPD much more common... And it's not that uncommon to begin with.

And absolutely the thing about being treated like a vessel for the baby is a thing... Like I went into the ER with bad abdominal pain in upper right quadrant and a few other symptoms that were worryingly similar to preeclampsia. They checked on baby and did a urine test and said it's not baby related so you're good to go home. Might be a gall bladder issue or maybe a kidney infection, but it's not going to hurt baby so don't worry about it. Like ok??? If it's gall bladder or kidney related maybe let's look at treating that? Do some blood tests? Anything? Nope. Just sent home with Tylenol and told if it gets bad again go to someone else and get an ultrasound on my gallbladder to see if I have gall stones or the like.

And I've been bugging my dr to get an ultrasound on kiddo for weeks because I'm supposed to have one at week 32, but they didn't want to give me one for literally no reason? Like baby is showing signs he might come early, and we were told that he might be early because he's big (97th percentile at anatomy scan at 24 weeks), but when I brought that up I was told "well a lot can change in 10 weeks, he might not be that big". Ok and? You know how well know? Do the god damn ultrasound. My spouse needs to give work notice if kiddo comes early. They need minimum 2 weeks advance notice to change dates of parental leave. And if kiddo is gonna be early we need to know. So yeah I know there's no guarantee he's gonna be early. But that doesn't mean we don't need to know if he is. My family is predisposed to really big babies. I've had several blood relatives born in the 10-12lb range, and none under 8lbs. Chances are he's gonna be a big baby. Maybe big enough C section may be necessary. And if so *we need to know ahead of time* and it's rediculous that I need to fight them on this. The only reason I was able to convince them to send me in for an ultrasound this time was because I've not done my glucose challenge yet (been too sick to do it mostly) and depending on results of that it can affect baby's growth, so they finally gave in and are giving me the ultrasound. But yeah none of my reasons for wanting an ultrasound matter apparently. V frustrating... And tbh this is the much better dr. I've already switched drs once because my previous dr was a dismissive ass, and these guys are much better, and even they have some issues tbh.

But all that to say. You never realize how much everything is till you experience. Pregnancy is really fucking hard on your body. Birth even more so. But even just pregnancy is exhausting and painful. Like having a flu for 40 weeks plus having a little creature inside you that starts moving and kicking your organs halfway through, then tries to kill you on its way out. Human pregnancy is extremely parasitic even compared to the vast majority of mammals, and the arms race between very parasitic offspring and the parents body's need to survive is why we have lower fertility rates than most animals, and why we menstruate when most mammals don't. Our entire species has been shaped by how hard pregnancy is, but people still pretend it's nothing and easy and a beautiful miracle and that anyone who says otherwise is just ungrateful... It's really rediculous.

And it's still worth it. But it's not something I would ever push on someone against their will. If there's one thing that's cemented my pro-choice stances more than anything else in my life, it's the experience of being pregnant myself. I chose this. I wanted this. I can't wait to meet our son and see what kind of amazing human he's gonna be. But it's not easy. It's not fun. And i can't imagine someone being forced into this when they don't want/can't care for a baby that'd be so incredibly fucked up. I live in a country where thankfully that's not a worry but it's still so utterly fucked up to even think about.

And for the people who try to say shit like "oh well you can always put the baby up for adoption etc"... Imagine if someone was like hey so there's a chance that someone else could maybe live if you crash your car into this wall going 50kph (throw back to that moderate car crash), and oh btw, you now have no choice, you have to crash your car even if the other person is already dead because if you didn't you'd be a murderer and be charged for it. Make it make sense!

the thing is like. i get that it's scary and makes people who do desire to get pregnant uncomfortable when we talk about the brutality and violence of pregnancy and the damage that pregnancy can do to your body

but you deserve to give informed consent to that process.

the lies around pregnancy - that it's inherently safe, that it doesn't do you permanent damage, that it's only extremely rare for people to die of pregnancy complications, etc like

all of these are lies constructed so that more people will get pregnant w/o knowing all that

there needs to be more talk about the impact of miscarriages and how common they are, how different abortion processes are and how accessible they are

but also like. talking about how pregnancy fucks your body up should not be taboo

this is a process that permanently changes most people's bodies, and that's even if the pregnancy doesn't do them like. severe illness or injury

and i just think everybody should have a right to KNOW that

bc to live in a society that intentionally obscures and hides facts about a completely optional and dangerous process does so for a reason, and that reason is based in a very sinister ideology that does not value bodily autonomy or informed consent

[cyberprincehavoc]

"Spymaster" as an official position is a very silly idea in a medieval setting

You see it every now and then a guy like Varys in ASOIAF, the weirdly buff guy in Morrowind, etc. There's just some guy in the king's court who acts as spymaster, and that's his real job. People point to him and go "hey THAT'S the SPYMASTER for the king!!!" And that's just a very silly concept.

Like, anyone who wants to rebel and leave the king without a way to gather intelligence properly? They can just aim at the dude whose job description actually is called "spymaster".

Anyone wants to get rid of a possible spy network? Pay someone to kidnap the guy, throw him on a river, and there you go.

In game of thrones it's particularly silly because Varys gets to sit on the smallcouncil. Like, it could be argued that the spymaster might not be known to the noble aristocracy, but that's exactly my point: the spymaster needs to be someone with an actual job who's connected, not a guy with an office and "THE SPIDER" as an epithet. That's a surefire way of getting your spymaster killed, or even just discredited, because when everyone knows they're talking to the spymaster, then the spymaster becomes ineffective and a way to feed the king false info.

Friends of mine have argued that having a spymaster in your court may act as a deterrent, since everyone knows you keep a bloodhound, they'll get scared of covering themselves in blood. Which might be kinda true, but the king must a) be willing to be a real tyrant who'll breed a lot more rebellions, and b) have the army to back that up. Because imagine that:

You are king. As a tyrant, of course, you keep a spymaster. The spymaster somehow gets in touch with Lord X through one of his servants. Let's not question the logistics of how can a servant know how to write, get access to the lord's crows, write to the capital, and this reach the spymaster without anyone noticing (or sending a messenger, or without the spymaster going there since, y'know, people know the face of the creepy bald guy who keeps hanging onto the king). He finds out Lord X will rebel against you. You say "fuck, we have to do something about this."

If you're a strong king with more soldiers than your vassals (which isn't a given), you may want to arrest the guy for treason. How do you do that? Well you can send someone there to say "you're under arrest, come with me". The guy will say "you and what army?" and rebel anyway. OR you can invite him and his retinue to the capital and get his ass. You may give the reasons to your vassals and expose the guy as a conspirator, at cost of exposing your spymaster and his methods; or you can just get him for no reason, and be branded a tyrant going against the law. Unless laws don't exist in our world, which like... how does anything even get done.

If you're a weak king you can do the same, except that if the guy raises the flag of rebellion, you'll lose. So what good does that deterrence do? That's what we study in criminology, and it's not even a new concept. Cesare Beccaria in his book On Crimes and Punishment, published in 1764, says that the guarantee of punishment is much more effective than the severity of the punishment. In other words and back to our example, if the vassal KNOWS he'll be caught AND punished, he'll be deterred. If he knows he'll be caught but there's little to no way of being punished (or if he believes it so), then fuck it, the guy will just rebel.

How to solve this conundrum? ASOIAF already has solved it, which is why it's silly that Varys' post is still spymaster: you give the guy a job. That's it. Littlefinger is well connected, but he's also master of coin (and a noble too), so it's not like someone can just get rid of him. People will see him seated at the king's council and go "oh, right, yeah, because he's master of coin", and thus the spymaster can stay hidden and gather intelligence.

Cersei is the other side of this coin, and shows how you kinda don't need that many spies if your family is big enough. Like, if you're known as gossip that becomes a problem, but if you're just queen mother, you can visit any vassal you want and they'll be looser with their words with you than with the guy known as spymaster, because you get plausible deniability. Lie well enough and convince the guy that you oppose your husband, badda bing badda boom you find out if he is or isn't a traitor.

That's how spymasters worked in the real world before the 19th century and the rise of sturdier States. Elizabeth I had a guy who knew a guy, and then he died and the spy network died, because exposing your spymaster doesn't work for anything.

Anyway, it goes without saying that this doesn't make a show worse or anything like that, some places have actual spymasters with a good reason. The Bene Gesserit in Dune are that, and they're accordingly extremely mistrusted because that's what happens.

[honeycombstrawberry]

okay for the prompt thing??? 59 - Din, please imagining him slow dancing i’m going to pass out-

or

90 - also din, you know i’m on that din kick

away from the rest

pairing: din djarin x reader (gn pronouns)

rating: gen

word count: 1,370

prompts from this list: #59: "Can you dance with me?" - "You're not mad?" and #90: "You’ve been replaced." - "Alright, we’ll see how you feel when you need me to kill a spider in the shower."

one-sentence synopsis: you're too tired to go to the big party in the village with din tonight, so he brings a lower-key night to you.

It’s been a long, long fucking day.

You spend so much of your time helping out with the younglings alongside Luke that sometimes they run you ragged without you even realizing it. Before you know it, it’ll be the end of the day, and you’re exhausted, and you’ve got practically no recollection of the past several hours except a blur of childcare and training and just trying to keep the school within your tiny village running.

You realize just how tired you are when you’re walking back to your house. There’s supposed to be a party tonight at your friend’s house— and since she’s the one in charge of all the cooks at mealtimes in the village, a party at her place is almost always a guaranteed good meal— but you’re not sure you can manage it.

You were also supposed to be meeting with Din to go over there, and that made you reconsider canceling. Though you might be dead on your feet, you don’t want to miss an opportunity to spend more personal, intimate time with him. The two of you have been getting closer and closer, spending more and more time together. He and Grogu actually come over all the time, now; you’re rarely apart. You wonder when you became such a unit together.

By the time you reach your house, you know that you have no choice. You’re definitely too tired to go. If you did try to force yourself, you know you’d be too exhausted to even enjoy it, and probably end up agitated instead of having fun with Din like you wanted.

Resigned to calling Din so you can tell him you won’t be coming, you’re surprised to find him sitting on the bench just outside your little home. You live on the outskirts of your small village. Keeping your small garden, with its benches and little pond and the trees you’re growing yourself, is one of your few points of pride in yourself, here. Seeing Din tonight in the moonlit darkness amongst your flowers makes you love it all the more.

“Hey there,” you say, as you come within arm’s length of him. “I was actually just going to go in and call over to you.”

“Yeah?” Din asks. His voice is always slightly modulated through his helmet, and still the sound of it makes you feel comforted, a rush of warmth that consumes you all over, all at once.

“Yeah,” you say. You unlock your door and motion for him to accompany you inside. “Where’s the kid?”

“With Skywalker,” he tells you.

“Aw,” you say, making yourself smile. “But he’s my favorite.”

You can almost hear Din’s corresponding smile when he says, “I thought I was your favorite.”

Huffing a laugh, you say, “Yeah, well, you’ve been replaced.”

“Alright.” Din shifts, propped against the wall with a half-cocked lean. “We’ll see how you feel next time you need me to kill a bug that got in your shower.”

“Ha-ha,” you falsely laugh, teasing him. He dips his head slightly i nthe motion that you take to mean that he’s smiling or laughing at you. It’s only then that you actually process where he said Grogu was, and you’re confused. “Wait, he’s with Luke?” you ask. “Why?”

“Because the Jedi was going to the party tonight,” Din explains, “and Grogu wanted to go.”

You’re only more confused for hearing that, and you ask, bewildered, “Weren’t we going, too?”

You might not be able to see Din’s face, his helmet ever in place, but you can tell by the slight way he shifts that he’s— embarrassed, maybe. Feeling caught out.

“When I was talking with the Jedi, he mentioned that you were having a rough day,” Din says. In the distance, you can hear the faraway thrum of music start up. It’s fast, at first, a bass pumping some ways away, but it slows down relatively quickly. The party must be starting; you can feel your own embarrassment creeping over your face at the idea that Luke was aware of how off you were.

“I’m sorry,” you apologize. “I was just tired, he shouldn’t— We can still go if you want, don’t worry about it. I’m really good to go, I want to go with y— I want to go, it’ll be fun.”

Din doesn’t move or speak, for a moment. You wish you could see his face, even as you grow more and more adept at reading his body language in the absence of his expressions.

After a hesitant beat, he says, “I don’t want to overstep,” and then pauses again. It takes a moment before he adds, “You don’t have to do it. Not if you don’t want to.”

You exhale, exhausted. You don’t mean for it to sound like a sigh, but it does all the same. You take a seat on the overstuffed bench that serves as your sofa, dropping your head into your hands and massaging your tired eyes, your sore temples, your aching head.

“I wanted to spend time with you,” you finally admit downwards, feeling distressed when you know you’re only being honest. Your own exhaustion is painting everything in a negative light, making it all seem so much worse than it is. Frustrated with yourself, you say, “I’m sorry. I’d understand if you wanted— I’m sorry. I think I should just hang out here tonight.”

There’s another beat where Din is quiet. Then, he steps close enough that you can feel his presence. You lift your eyes, looking up to the bar of his visor, the place on his helmet where you imagine the line of his eyes to be.

Carefully, he reaches down and removes one glove from one hand. While you watch, he does the same with the other, pulling them off until his bare hands are revealed to you. He offers you one of them, palm-up. Bewildered, you look from his hand up to his helmet again, brow furrowed.

“Can you dance with me?” he asks. Your heart feels like it leaps up into your throat.

“You’re not mad?” you ask him in return. He shakes his head, the motion a little wider than it might normally be.

“No,” he says. “The opposite, actually. It’ll be nice to be alone with you for a while.”

You can’t help the heat that rushes through you, hearing that. You’re sure your face must be flaming, too, unable to suppress your instinctive response to him.

There’s really no helping it. You set your hand in his, letting him pull you back up to your feet. You’re so obviously tired, and he uses his strength to reach down and pull you up onto his feet. You drop your head against the hard armor of his shoulder, burying in where his chest should be. More than anything, you want to feel his warmth.

You’ll settle, though, for the way his warm hands are sliding to take your hand in one and the small of your back in the other. The music continues playing, so far away you can barely make out the beat and the tune, let alone the words, but he still guides you into a slow dance anyways.

It’s impossible to keep your head up, to keep yourself firm and straight against him, and so you simply let yourself melt into him. He keeps you upright, moving slowly, basically only shifting you back and forth.

“Someday,” you tell him sleepily, “I want to dance properly with you.”

His helmet knocks lightly into the side of your head. You imagine pressing your cheek to his, twisting into him to kiss him. “Someday,” he agrees. “When you’re awake.”

You huff a laugh into his armor, wrapping your arms more tightly around him, hanging onto him. He keeps up the motions of slow dancing to the distant music, not losing the distant thread of the slow, even beat of it, and you fall into him, your heart racing with the thrill of it all even in your exhaustion.

He could make even the worst day end on the highest note, you think lazily as he drifts you in another circle in your darkened living room, just holding you close.

requests are open!

[msmc-796-official]

HEY WOAH WHAT THE FUCK!

@corsair-mc-official EVERYBODY TRUCE; I GOT NEWS

// Slisphod? What's going on???

> Yes, please inform us - is Command on the line? Did something happen while we were away?

YEAH something fucking happened, someone named "Backtalker" (ostensibly affiliated with CMC? not a name I recognize) is trying to sabotage our sparring match. nosy fuckwit is calling in a balor about it and everything - the one from @ras-favourite-balor. with their mention of Hercynia I think they might be trying to steal a worldkiller, or possibly drag Fireman back into this again. either way, this is BAD. forwarding their missive to everyone present; what the fuck did we ever do to them???

// ...yikes. This is bad. "The two mercenaries companies and their endless ceaseless messaging grows tiresome." What in Union's name is that supposed to mean?

> If this person wished to cease viewing our correspondences, they simply needed to block our corresponding Omninet channels. Going to such lengths to "shut us up", as it were, seems highly unnecessary. Furthermore, if this "Backtalker" does have some affiliation with CMC (be it present or former), I fear for the security and safety of our comrades' operations.

// This is outright unacceptable. I'm gonna send a distress call back to MSMC Command and let them know there's trouble inbound; everyone else present get ready for a scrap. If this missive is legitimate, we'll have several hungry Balors on our hands and we may not have the resources to deal with them all between us six.

> Roger that, Phoenix. Commodore, this is Kennedi - requesting permission to call off our sparring match until this external threat has dissipated. We have ceased fire and will fight alongside you as allies until these interlopers have been dealt with.

you figure we oughtta put in a call to the Albatross now, and see if we can't prevent some of the fallout? or are they gonna shun us again because apparently us mercs don't deserve their help?

// Given that this is a direct threat of violence directed at us, and we didn't start it this time, it's worth a shot. I can't guarantee a friendly response, but it's better than nothing.

// @albatross-lancer This is callsign Angel of MSMC-796, calling in alongside the rest of my squadron as well as CMC Saber Squadron. We have received information suggesting there is a hostile fleet of Balors inbound towards our location, with the express purpose of "sending a message" to both MSMC and CORSAIR. We are prepared to defend ourselves if necessary, but we would appreciate some extra backup in case we are overwhelmed. Our current location is aboard the Sylvia's Requiem; exact coordinates are attached.

unbelievable, the caliber of horseshit we have to deal with. what the fuck does this "Backtalker" asshole have against us? why do we have so many enemies when we haven't done anything to anyone (sans Fireman, who absolutely had it coming)??? and right in the middle of a match, too! things were just getting interesting! >:(

> Save your rage for our enemies, Slipshod. CMC is not our enemy, nor will they ever be. Our sparring match can wait until safer conditions. For now, we must protect ourselves and our allies.

// Kennedi's right. I don't know who this "Backtalker" thinks they are, but I'm not about to give them the satisfaction of destroying two of the galaxy's premier mercenary companies in one fell swoop. This caliber of sabotage is entirely unprecedented. We fight as one.

Yours among the stars, forever and always, until legends bleed.

-- Angel, Slipshod, & Lockbreaker

I am more than happy to pay upfront now that I have garnered your attention. I am in need of a message to be sent in the fashion only Balor pilots seem to be able to pull off properly. The two mercenaries companies and their endless ceaseless messaging grows tiresome.

I want you to send a message, I want you to crash and burn their little event. I will provide whatever funding you want, but I want you while all eyes of their companies are on their titans brawling, I request you hit them where it hurts.

MSMC and CMC are both all cooped up inside the station of the Sylvia's Requiem. I can point you in the direction of the greatest valuable the CMC head holds dear to have you destroy it. For how you wish to insult MSMC I leave to your discretion.

Name your price.

//Backtalker\\

[Brigand}-Fuck me... I hope you realize that's a big ask? That's a LOT of heat to draw, even for me. If I'm caught, or people catch wind it was me that did this, it could mean another bout on a penal colony, or worse probably...

<PERSEPHONE>- DEAR I HATE TO INFORM YOU BUT WE ARE IN DESPERATE NEED OF FUNDS. UNTIL OUR BLINKSPACE DRIVE IS REPLACED WE CANNOT RELIABLY SLAUGHTER. WE CANNOT CHASE DOWN THOSE WHO WRONG US. WE CANNOT BRING RUIN TO THE RIGHTEOUS. WORSE WE CANNOT OUTFOX THE WOULD-BE HUNTERS. CANNOT DISAPPEAR INTO THE NIGHT ON BLACKENED WINGS WHEN DEPTS GROW LUNGS AND CLAWS.

WE SHOULD ACCEPT. I WILL GROW MY SWARM AND WE WILL DINE AS GODS.

[Brigand}-You know I hate it when you're right. But this could get us back on our feet. I'd have to let Pigeon and Z know that we'll have to wait though. Let the aftermath cool down... And we do have those spare Zhengs... could convert one of those into another Balor. One just for you, make sure we're not going in undergunned...

<PERSEPHONE>-PRECISELY DEAR. YOU ARE WORRIED. WE CAN BRING THE SUBALTERNS. I'VE BEEN EXPERIMENTING. THE LAB OF BATTLE CALLS. IT WILL BE GLORIOUS. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME WE GAMBLED OUR LIVES. IT HAS BEEN FAR TOO LONG.

[Brigand}-I really should fucking retire. As if I could stay retired for more than a week. Fuck it. I would love to accept, but I''ve got some conditions. we need to know full details before I decide our price. But that shouldn't be a problem, you seem quite eager. I also want your word you'll do your best to protect us from any and all fallout. In addition to payment, we require a new blinkspace drive, something fancy. I've heard SSC has a new model with all the bells and whistles.

I think I've got an idea for MSMC as well... though it'll be expensive. And require a trip to Hercynia at that...

Let's talk business, Brigand~

[dialovers-translations]

Diabolik Lovers LOST EDEN ー Ayato Maniac [05]

ー The scene starts at Kino’s manor

Clergyman A: Well then, let me not beat around the bush. Sakamaki Ayato is not cut out to be a King.

We believe that a war over the sovereignty of the Demon World could break out literally any day now.

If that were to happen, it will have severe consequences for the human world as well. Hence why we want to avoid said situation at all costs. 

Therefore, we simply have no other choice but to take action ourselves and get rid of all Demons before a war happens. 

Ruki: Hypothetically speaking. 

If a fitting ruler is put into place to reign over the Demon World...Would the Church be willing to reconsider? 

Clergyman A: Well...I cannot rule out said possibility. 

I suppose that if this is someone who can follow in Karlheinz’s footsteps and keep a nice balance at the Demon World.

As well as  guarantee that an all-out war shall be avoided without fail, then I suppose there is room for negotiation. 

Reiji: ...I see. I suppose we must take action swiftly then. 

Ruki: Our top priority is to avoid it coming to a full-on war...

We need a true King who can take that man’s place right now. We simply cannot leave it to Ayato.

Reiji: I agree.

Kino: So you’re going to kick him off the throne? Well, I do think that’s the obvious choice.

Reiji: Father should have known that this would happen as well. So why did he give his powers to Ayato...?

Ruki: That is exactly what trips me up as well. 

There might be some kind of important significance behind his decision. 

We may find ourselves in a pinch right now, but to go against that man’s decision and install a different King...

Is that something which can be forgiven, I wonder? 

Reiji: If he did have a reason for choosing Ayato as his successor...

Then it is most likely related to the Apple of Eden project, I’d assume...?

...

Ruki: ...? Is something the matter? 

Reiji: No, it’s nothing. 

Kino: Anyway, if you want to try and save this disastrous situation, then you better hurry. 

Clergyman A: ...Exactly. Well then, I suppose I will take my leave soon. Kino, I am leaving the rest up to you. 

Kino: Yeah, yeah. I know.

ー The Clergyman leaves

Kino: So, I guess the two of you get the gist of the situation now? So, what will you do? 

...Well, I guess that’s a redundant question, seeing as there’s really only one choice one can make. 

Reiji: ...

Ruki: ...

ー The scene shifts to Eden

Yui: ( I can tell Ayato-kun has calmed down a lot since then... )

( While I’m still worried about the others in the human world, I do feel somewhat relieved. )

*Pssh* 

Yui: ( Mm~ ...This tea smells lovely... )

Selection

→ I’ll make some for Ayato-kun too... (❦)

Yui: ( Tea...I wonder if Ayato-kun will have some too...? )

( I guess while I’m at it, I’ll pour him a cup as well...ーー )

→ I should quickly return to our room

Yui: ( Well then, I’ll quickly go back to our room. )

( He may have been able to keep his cool as of late, but I’m a little worried about leaving Ayato-kun by himself...ーー )

ー The scene shifts to the hallway

Yui: Huh? Ayato-kun. Are you sure you should be up? 

Ayato: Shh...Quiet.

Yui: ...?

( There’s voices coming from up ahead... )

Azusa: Ruki...What did he say in the letter...?

Kou: Yeah...Well...

*Flip*

Yuma: The Church!? The fuck’s Ruki doin’ with those guys...!? 

Kou: Shh! Yuma-kun, you’re talking way too loud!

He didn’t go into much detail, but I’m pretty sure that...

Ruki-kun wants to take those powers away from Ayato-kun and put a different King on the throne instead...

Ayato: ...!

Yui: ( No way...! )

Yuma: Oi oi...Where is this comin’ from out of the blue?

Kou: I don’t know but...He claims that there’s no time to waste...

Azusa: But...The one who chose Ayato-san is...

Yuma: I honestly can’t believe that Ruki would go ‘gainst that guy’s decision...

Ayato: ...

...Hehe. Very interestin’.

Kou: ...!

Azusa: Ayato...san...

Yui: ( Oh no...At this rate, he’ll unleash his powers again... )

Ayato: Take away my powers, he said? I’d like to see him try...

I’ll be here waiting for him. Hehe...Haha!

Yui: ( I figured he would lose his temper again like usual but... )

( Still...I have a bad feeling about this... )

Monologue

Take away Ayato-kun’s powers from him,

and install a different King (別な王). 

I wonder if Ruki-kun,

truly has such a plan in mind? 

But why exactly...?

However, what caught my attention even more,

was the way in which,

Ayato-kun reacted to all of it. 

‘I’d like to see him try’,

when I watched him smile confidently,

while speaking those words,

for some reason, my heart grew incredibly restless (ざわめいた).

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー

[mar-the-magician]

WIP Wednesday!

No guarantees on when I'm finishing this lol

Dead Man Walking by City Wolf

I made up a couple vamp OCs because I’m not confident enough to write Fred and Bright or Alexis and I needed more people on the vamps team. Also, for the purposes of this fic, Lovely will be referred to as Lo by the other characters.

Darlin/Sam

"They got eyes like a neon sign, stare you down and make you cry"

"Wow. Sam, that’s the person you’ve been raving about? They’ve got eyes like a neon sign saying 'Don't fuck with me.' I'm a vampire and I think they could stare even me down," Vincent shook his head, grinning. Sam laughed swatted Vincent’s shoulder. 

"They got the guts to back it up too,"

"An iron will and a thirst to kill, you wanna see their stuff, they gonna show ya"

Sam had known that the way Darlin would be most comfortable meeting his friends in the clan would be in a… competitive context. So he’d told them to invite their friends (mostly just people from the Shaw pack) and he’d invited his friends— they’d reserved several hours on an indoor court and now they "were gonna do their best to destroy all their friendships" as the beta of David's pack, Asher, had so comically put it. Darlin caught the ball that was hurtling at their face and chucked it halfway across the court to Christian, another wolf.

"Vincent. Werewolf hearing. And I take that as a compliment."

"Pffft— woah!" Vincent gripped the divider between the court and the seats as he watched Darlin easily dodge a blow from a twelve year old vamp, Norah. Sam chuckled behind his hand.

"You got 'em riled up, now, Vincent. You wanna see their stuff? They’re gonna show ya." 

"Ya think you’re tough, they gonna own ya"

Norah shook off her shoulders and let out something akin to a snarl.

"You’re not getting away that easily, Tanker!" She lunged at Darlin. Darlin narrowed their eyes as they stepped back out of the way. 

"You think you’re tough, Norah?" They taunted good-naturedly. Sam's mouth curled upwards. 

"Oh they are goin' to own you," he muttered under his breath. 

"You seem to like watching your wolf play, Sam," William's quiet voice at Sam's shoulder startled him. 

"They're… captivatin', when they’re focused on somethin, Will." Will nodded understandingly. Vincent leaned against the divider with the two of them. 

"All I can say is that I’m glad I decided to sit this first match out." He laughed. 

"I fell for the devil's child, I jumped in, yeah, I drank the water"

"I think you fell for devil spawn, Sam." 

"Well that's not very nice, Vincent," William scolded. Sam laughed. 

"All's fair in love and war, William. Guilty as charged. I was the one who… jumped into this with them." He settled his chin onto his hands, eyes still locked on Darlin.

"I drank the water. If the well's poisoned, well, I’m already a dead man walkin'." Vincent rolled his eyes. 

"We get it, Mr. Sam 'I don’t have a way with words I swear' Collins." They all three laughed. William smiled at Sam.

"Tell me doctor, can you fix my brain, cause everyone says I'm insane,

Tried to warn me and I should have known, there's no use talking I'm a dead man walking"

"In all seriousness Sam, if you are planning on… courting that… fiery wolf… you might be a little bit insane." 

Vincent grinned.

"Get your eyes checked you two. That's no wolf. That’s a storm with skin."

"Yes, and that's what I have to deal with every single pack meeting. That is, when they even show up at all." David's voice behind them said. Sam smiled.

"Well, you did try to warn me, sir," David chuckled lightly.

"You should have known, Sam."

"They grind you down, so ya turn to dust/ say your name and tell you lies/ I got past their knife, I cut ya down to size/ if you try to run, they gonna find ya/ Ya never see 'em comin', so leave the engine runnin' / they just a criminal / they right behind ya"

"Oh for crying out lou—“ Kaspar, a six year old vamp who worshipped the ground Vincent walked on, shouted as Darlin slammed the ball through the hoop again. 

"Game's up! Shaw pack, one, Solaire clan, zero!" Chorused Lo, Vincent’s partner, in unison with the mates of David and two others of Darlin's friends, who all four were sitting on the sidelines. Kaspar zipped up to Sam.

"Your partner is unbelievable," he panted. "Vincent, please come play with us this round? We might actually have a fighting chance, then," he pleaded. Vincent smirked and stretched.

"Alright, fine. You and your friends wanna play, Lovely?" 

"I don’t think they and I are gonna be much against shifters and vampires," David's mate said, gesturing to their other friend, also unempowered. The other one grinned and started to get up when one of the wolves shouted across the court—

"And you are not allowed to play while I’m still in the game, you hear me Sweetheart?" They laughed and plopped back onto their seat.

"Oh well," Vincent turned to Lo again. They shook their head.

"I'm still gonna sit this one out, Vince."

"Aw c'mon, why?" He pouted. They gestured him down and whispered something in his ear. He smirked.

"Oh, I see how it is… okay then," he grinned. "But you don’t have an excuse, Sam— you’re playing with us." Sam shrugged. "Why not? I was the one who suggested all this after all." Kaspar's best friend in the clan, a spunky vamp with a proclivity for athletics named Ginger bounced up with a suggestion.

"Why don’t we have team captains and have them pick their team this time around? Instead of just doing Shaw vs Solaire." 

"I’m game. Who should the team captains be?" Sam asked.

"Vincent vs Sam!" Lo shouted from the sidelines. Vincent struck a hand to his chest in mock dismay. 

"Lovely! Pitting me against my own best friend? How could you?"

Hope y'all enjoyed! I feel like Darlin's hard to write but ya know, I'm pretty good at Sam, so it all balances out in the end.