#(they're interfacing)

[bluastro-yellow]

Kurvitz stresses that Kim doesn't actually have a character sheet hidden in Disco Elysium's code. Imagining that Lieutenant Kitsuragi has only one natural attribute point in Motorics helps the ZA/UM team to understand the depth of his character beyond what's referenced in the game's dialogue. "We just came up with this stuff for coherency," says Kurvitz. "And because we're nerds."

"I like to think Kim has a Thought Cabinet project called Revolutionary Aerostatic Brigades that he's worked on since he was a teenager," Kurvitz says. "This raises the learning caps for his Reaction Speed and Interfacing."

Kim's high Volition skill makes him impervious to prying, Kurvitz says, as the detective can find out on occasions being met with Kim's brick-wall resolve. Kim often chastises these whims of the detective's, but will occasionally play along. The Lieutenant finds his new partner funny, says Kurvitz.

Kim is naturally shit at Motorics and thinks Harry is funny source

[brainrot-jikan]

im not the biggest alhaitham/kaveh shipper (because im a rare pair ho) but it seems to me that in alhaitham/kaveh getting-together fics tend to be... unequal.

the beautiful thing about alhaitham and kaveh is that they're both equally right and equally wrong and equally dicks about it. but the writers for alhaitham/kaveh much more frequently seem to give alhaitham the burden change (the burden of the character flaw) instead of kaveh.

in any good character arc, the main character has a fatal flaw or misconception, and by the end of that arc they have addressed that flaw in some definitive way. scrooge was a scrooge and learned that being that way was detrimental; merlin from finding nemo was overprotective to a fault and had to learn that he couldn't (and shouldn't) control everything and to let go; the wolf from little red riding hood learns that you should stop while you're ahead.

stories centering around romance tend to lean heavily on character arcs, which makes sense. and since romance generally requires two individuals to be vulnerable and open and emotional with each other, it makes double sense that alhaitham/kaveh authors zoom straight into alhaitham's lack of emotional vulnerability.

this bothers me.

in society, individuals are expected to experience and present emotions in a specific way. if someone dies, you cry. if someone smiles at you, you smile back. if you're at a party, you're supposed to be having fun. if you don't do these things, you're seen as impolite at best and a inhuman freak at worst. when these behaviors are frequent it's often viewed as emotional immaturity, or a lack of ability to feel at all. the inability or lack of willingness to conform to societies emotional expectations of you is seen as a flaw and a reason for exclusion.

alhaitham is canonically disliked and avoided for being the way he is. he prefers it this way, but that doesn't mean the people perpetuating this avoidance are in the right. they are the societal pressure to conform that alhaitham blows off. alhaitham could be the way he is for a lot of reasons: avoidant attachment style, trauma, following someone else's example (eg. his grandmother), or just his base personality. it doesn't MATTER. he is the way he is. kaveh having to accept that should be part of the story.

putting the burden of the fatal flaw on alhaitham, making the way alhaitham treats kaveh and the people around him the problem, feels invalidating. it implies heavily that alhaitham's way of interfacing with the world, alhaitham's very SELF, is incorrect. my suggestion is to flip a larger portion of that burden onto kaveh. kaveh 👏 character 👏 arcs 👏

some examples/recommendations:

- make kaveh project his insecurities onto other people but especially onto alhaitham; he's overly reliant on other people for his own self worth, and he perceives alhaitham's lack of positive feedback as a direct reflection of how alhaitham feels about him. but learns along the way that alhaitham doesn't hate him, kaveh's actual struggle is with hating himself and being unable to his own self as worthy of love. maybe throw in how you are responsible for your own recovery, other people can help but you can't rely on them to carry you through self actualization.

- or, kaveh tries to make alhaitham behave more like a "normal" person, to be more pleasant and emotive and forthcoming, and then realizes he's in the wrong for trying to make alhaitham into something he's not, possibly for all the wrong reasons (not because he likes alhaitham better like that, but bc society says that's healthier and a better/more conforming way to be)

- or you could go ahead make alhaitham's issues the main problem but they're too complicated to overcome in a short period of time, so kaveh has to accept alhaitham is doing his best in his own way and not push for unrealistic and unhealthy changes. he could alter his own behavior to give alhaitham space and time and a safe place to land.

that got sappy so it's past time for me to dip out. go forth and ship things; but maybe consider letting alhaitham be a rude stone-faced bastard if he wants to be.

[neighboringheart]

valvedom Perceptor my beloved...him and Brainstorm working together in the lab and Brainstorm getting horny and bugging him until Perceptor pops his panels and lets him have some fun under one condition: no overloading until he finishes his calculations

Brainstorm pressing in slowly so he doesn't disturb the desk Percy aways gets mad when he jostles it and grinding so carefully feeling every single inch of his valve pressing in until the tip just kisses the entrance to his forge his frame shaking from the overwhelming pleasure mixed with Perceptor's complete indifference not even reacting when Brainstorm grinds against his ceiling node

the most Brainstorm ever gets out of him is a short "adequate" or "satisfactory" and on rare and wonderful occasions he'll get to feel Percy's valve ripple with a small shudder but that happens so rarely that sometimes he think he imagines it

him completely lost in it all fluids dripping from their connection to the floor as Brainstorm's vents heave with each steady rock of his hips he's ben on the edge for hours and Perceptor hasn't spoken a single word fully engrossed in his work like Brainstorm isn't even there but that just gets him hotter

he's practically furniture to him in those moments just another part of the room completely inconsequential with only one directive: obey

no matter how much his spike pulses with thick charge he cannot overload until he is allowed no matter how wet and pliant and delicious Perceptor's walls feel around him his internal nodes prickling with his own building overload he cannot spill until it is allowed

once his vision has nearly turned entirely to static drool leaking from the gaps in his mask barely cognizant he feels it Perceptor's hand is on his cheek

"such a good boy. you may proceed."

his optics short out entirely as his spike finally slams home spilling fervent gushes of thick transfluid directly into Perceptor's forge his walls milking every last drop out of him in a shared overload

he comes down slowly his hips still grinding of their own accord

"got it all out of your system? good. clean this up."

and he will he'll clean everything spotless using nothing but his glossa including Perceptor's swollen valve lips until he's completely satisfied just like every other time they play

[zerothejackal]

Arospec sonic but in a fun way, he holds hands with some of his friends, he was Knuckles' first kiss, sometimes it seems he and Shadow or he and Amy are a couple of sorts to bystanders.

But in reality Sonic just expresses like that he uses his body a lot to express, Knuckles or Amy want a kiss, sure why not? he doesn't understand why those things have to be ALWAYS romantic when they don't necessarily have to be, they're just his closest friends, plus he knows it probably means the world to them and may tease Knuckles about it.

But he simply doesn't feel a romantic attraction, and they all understand that, he's just like that, no one will ever force him into being in a relationship, nor take advantage of how he expresses.

On the other hand, always being unable to speak, having his body be nothing but a killing machine, Metal struggles a lot to express his love for people, he is a hopeless romantic, but he has a hard time "fitting in" with the norm of how romantic bonds work.

He was never allowed to speak, but now that he can he voices a lot how much he loves Amy/Shadow [met/amy/adow for the win], he takes every opportunity to say or put it into words, he uses as much processing power as he can to calculate new ways to say it

He is detached from his body as something that can work as more than just being a weapon of destruction, but Amy and Shadow try to help him connect physically too.

They hug him take his hand and kiss him, because he struggles to do so himself, he appreciates it, as he learns his claws can do more than slice things, that his body is more than just a death ray or engine, that despite being made for warfare, he too can love.

Metal and Sonic may have something going on however, that doesn't fit too specifically with normal conventions, is it love, friendship, perhaps something different, whatever it is, Sonic too wants to help Metal feel welcomed, despite being sworn enemies before, he's always seen something in Metal, a spark of goodness amongst the evil of Eggman.

[withoutalice]

quick overpan concept

[strixcattus]

Hey! Okay! Yeah! Okay! This is fine!

[brittlebutch]

honestly Adaine is so good at clarifying/directing Ayda socially that it begins to circle back to a dynamic of like, Ayda saying "i don't know or understand these rules" and Adaine responding "have no fear, I've been carefully studying and manually interfacing with these for years, I will explain:" in a way that to me is so autism4autism

[voidaxolotl]

Ever think about how the TARDIS is made to be  piloted by 6 people instead of just one?

[antiyourwokehomophobia2]

God, the audio editing software I've been using got fucking greedy.

[mantisgodiveblog]

You guys have no fucking clue how much we have to correct our character names here, btw. We'll be writing something and we'll think to ourself "oh yeah, the time loop guy, the guy who's in the time loop, we have a whole ass character named loop right" and then The Time Loop Guy's name is Siffrin and Loop is an entire different character that we're not even entirely sure is in the time loop, per se, as much as they're meta-aware and existing on a slightly different angle of reality to most of the people here. Their name's, like, been at least halfway reassigned to Dandelion in our brain. We swear we're gonna, like, call them Bonnie or Isabeau or some shit some loop and then not catch it in time. We've got Character Roulette Syndrome.

[mizukagami-takamagahara]

By Yuuki Kato

[crispycreambacon]

🔥🔥🔥 I HATE MACBOOKS RAHHHHH 🔥🔥🔥

[medicinemane]

"Our thing connects to an app!!!"

Ah... I hate it

[anintelligentoctopus]

Pattern!

[floralpunkbarton]

been self indulgently pondering ace4ace rodimins lately but they're both specific and contrasting flavors of ace experiences

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

[fic: double blind] If there's not too many AU questions yet, the AU from one of the previous asks lives in my head rent free - the one where somehow (magic? probably magic) extremis!Tony and cured!Tony exist at the same time and the former realizes that Peter very much prefers the latter. So if it's ok, question for that extremis!Tony:

So what are you planning to do now, how will you go about "winning Peter back", so to speak? Will you do anything about the non-extremis-enhanced version of yourself? Will you still try to continue with your plans, or will this development cancel them/put them on hold? I'm so incredibly curious xD

I will… have to try to understand him. He doesn't… see the world the same way, and… if he can't accept my plans, in the end-- he has to come first. I… none of this is worth anything without him.

I need him to-- trust me, that I want the best for him, and… if he doesn't want what I'm offering, I'll have to-- give him what he does want instead. I can do that for him. Easily. Easily.

And when I've re-earned his trust we can revisit my plans, and I can make them new with his input-- it will be better that way. It will work. I can make it work.