#I can't solve lore for shit

[prismpuffle]

Fun fact: these bottles in Kieran's dorm room sink are ramune bottles! Ramune is a kind of Japanese soda with a unique shape that's infamously tricky to open if you've never done so before. Just thought that was neat attention to detail. (He definitely needs to be eating and drinking more than chocolate and soda, though...hopefully post-epilogue his diet improves!)

[inky-goddess]

hey fnaf fandom can we stop changing...sorry "solving" CC's name every few years.

Edit: I'm also just not going to go back and correct my older fnaf posts with the name Evan. Too much work for it to inevitably happen again in a few years.

[alullinchaos]

i'll say it. the reason the kids are using "pos" to mean "positive" and not piece of shit is because piece of shit is not a phrase that should have an acronym, actually. every single time I've tried to write it as p.o.s I delete it because that's a phrase that is supposed to pack some Punch don't tuck your cuss words away if you're going to say them fuckin' SAY them yknow.

[probablybadrpgideas]

I feel like this is the right place to share the story of Post Apocalyptic Macho Man Randy Savage, the one time where my bad idea was telling a player "Hey, that might be a bad idea for this campaign"

Maybe 10 years ago I dusted off d20 modern for a Fallout-inspired post apocalyptic two-shot, a lot of what I'd DMed to that point was your typical D&D and I wanted to start trying different settings. I'd imagined this to be a pretty gun-heavy few games, so when my buddy decided that he wanted to make a grappler, I told him that I didn't think that was a great idea. My buddy took that shit personally.

Now, I was used to silliness at my table. I encouraged it, in fact! This campaign also had characters based on Squidward, Shrek and the Sanik meme (to anyone that knows Fallout lore, imagine Sonic hooked on Jet), so when my friend came to me with Macho Man Randy Savage I tutted a bit, but didn't bat an eye. What I hadn't realized was that my friend had spent the three days in between our conversation and the actual game building the perfect character to make me eat my words. The Post Apocalyptic Macho Man could grapple, he could evade and he could talk his ass off and that's it, but with these three ingredients- plus the bounty of the Dice Gods- this character derailed everything I'd had planned.

Band of raiders that have a caravan held up? Suplexed into each other before they could even get their guns. Super mutant? Nothing that can't be solved by suplexing a propane tank into the mutant (plus a well timed shot from Sanik). Mirelurk? More-a graps! Wave of bullets flying towards him? That's okay, just do the trademark Randy Savage tippy-toe walk to the nearest cover, then wait for the earliest opportunity to throw cocaine in their eyes and suplex the son of a bitch that thought they could snuff out the Madness (Oh, I forgot to mention that he spent literally all his starting money on cocaine, which he used in much the same way that Dale Gribble used sand). I really go out of my way to stop one character from becoming the capital-P Protagonist of the game, but my other players quickly figured out what was happening and they leaned into Macho Man's bullshit HARD, so they'd started setting up bad guys to get suplexed! By the end of the evening, my friend sat me down, flashed me the most shit-eating grin I'd ever seen to this day, and asked "So is the grappler still a bad idea?"

To tl;dr the rest, I furiously re-wrote the plot for the second night (again, two-shot) to make the bad guy Hulk Hogan, and the final encounter boiled down to a wrestling match between the two with the other players electing to "sit in the crowd and boo the Hulkster", before ultimately the two settled their differences and decided that the easiest way to rebuild society (and get decent blow again) was to reform the WWF and found a city called WrestleMania. Sanik was on board for the blow, Squidward was convinced to join them when he was told that the wrestlers would need entrance music and, so long as they kept away from his swamp, Shrek promised to help them find a suitable place to build Wrestlemania (though it totally ended up in his swamp). Anyway, that's how I learned to never tell a player that their idea for a grappler won't work, a grappler will work in any setting if you've got enough spite in your heart

­

[rosedpetal]

Until Death Do Us Part

Summary: Harvey and you have been on a rocky road lately, but hopefully, you can still find each other.

Pairing: Harvey Specter x Reader

Word count: 932

Warnings: stablished relationship (reader and Harvey are married), mentions of body image struggles, hints at +18 themes.

Masterlist

"No. Absolutely not." Your husband frowned when you came out from the closet wearing your 'costume'.

A huff of annoyance leaves your lips.

"What the fuck is wrong now? Did I gain weight and suddenly you can't get up or something?" Venom drips from your sarcastic remark and Harvey rubs his temples.

"Why are you like this? Jesus Christ, Y/N, it's not about some shit like that, stop trying to make me a bad guy at every given chance!" He snaps. "It's just your stupid wings, okay? You look like you came straight from a Barbie movie, when you said you'd like to roleplay being a fairy, I thought you'd use one of those Lord of the Rings-"

"Those are elves. Not fairies. They don't have wings!" You seethe, taking your plastic wings off and accidentally pressing the light button on them, turning the pink leds on, and Harvey's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"I'm sorry if my knowledge in a fictional world lore is lacking, it's because I actually have a real job."

That was cruel and uncalled for and he knew it. Harvey had a bad habit of saying the most callous things without even thinking. It didn't help that he hated the idea of roleplaying from the very beginning.

"How could I forget, it's the only thing you care about!" You raise your voice, and it breaks in the end. "Tonight was supposed to be fun!"

Harvey immediately regrets the jab he made at your wings. Well, it's not that he couldn't get himself to be motivated by you while you were wearing them... It's just that it was fucking weird because he was a grown man and he was pretty sure his kid niece wore the same pink fairy wings every Halloween.

And he could explain that to you, but you just had to make a self deprecating comment about your body and imply that he wasn't man enough to look past his partner putting on some weight.

Which was another ridiculous thing, because, seriously? He couldn't care less if you were a size 2 or 20. It didn't matter. He married you because he loved you, inside and out, and you weren't an airhead that couldn't carry on a conversation with him. He respected you. He was interested in what you had to say (most of the time, at least).

But for months now, you two have been fighting nonstop, and more than often saying some hurtful shit to each other and no longer searching for the comfort of each other's arms in the middle of the night.

He wondered if your sudden self consciousness regarding your body was because you've been stress-eating ever since the chasm between you two was created.

Harvey was selfish, harsh, arrogant and snappy, but he wasn't insensitive to how women sometimes had insecurities that ate them alive.

He sighed, following you in the closet, his chest tightening at the sigh of your angry tears while you put on sweatpants and a top (the sleepwear you wore on nights you made sure no intimacy was gonna happen).

He even agreed on going to therapy with you, which he thought was an admission of defeat, that you two weren't mature enough to solve your problems on your own.

"Honey." He called, his voice soft with regret.

He hates the 'homework' your therapist gives you every week. A dinner date, a little getaway, a road trip, sitting down and talking for an hour. He feels like his own relationship is being scripted and that you can't find common ground anymore.

"What?" You wipe your tears, unable to look at him in the eyes.

"We don't roleplay." He said in a teasing tone. "Why would I want you to pretend to be someone else when you already exist?"

He gently holds your face in both hands, wiping the remaining tears with his thumbs.

"I'm an idiot. I promise my reaction has nothing to do with whatever's been making you feel vulnerable right now. Seriously. The wings just reminded me of halloween, and halloween reminded me of children going trick-or-treating and you don't want your husband to be thinking of children in the bedroom, do you?"

You grimaced. "God, no."

"Glad we're on the same page, babe." He gently pressed his forehead against yours. "Dance with me."

"There's no music." You sniffled.

"We have a nice record player in the living room. Come on, baby."

Gently, he guided you out from the room, his fingers intertwined in yours as he put on some sappy jazz music. He sways barefoot with you on his arms, your head on his chest, and it takes you back to simpler times.

"I'm sorry. For everything." He's the first to speak, and you appreciate the sentiment, because you know how hard it is for him to apologize, specially when he's the first one to bend the knee to make peace.

"We'll get through this." You mumble, and he kisses the top of your head, and suddenly the golden ring on your finger feels lighter.

"I love you more than anything in the world, darling. Please, don't doubt that. I need you to remember that every single day, specially when I'm at my worst."

"I love you too, Harvey."

He knows there's a long way to go, but the little progress you made tonight makes his heart feel more at ease, as long as you're both on the same side, because he knew with every fiber of his being that he meant it when he said 'until death do us part'.

[waffliesinyoface]

thinking about Echoes of Wisdom again, and, I really hope that the progression in that becomes the standard for zelda games from here on out.

Like, the old standard set by Ocarina of Time, followed all the way to Skyward sword, was strictly linear. I, personally, don't have a problem with linearity, but the devs at nintendo clearly do, if their comments on BotW are anything to go by. In my mind, the downsides of a lack of player agency are more than made up for by the dungeons having a proper difficulty curve, and having a linear story.

In BotW and TotK, in a desire to put player freedom above all else, you can do the dungeons in whatever order, and you get all your abilities right out of the gate. ...Which also means that every single dungeon has to be presented as though it's the first dungeon a player might encounter (ie: explaining you need the map to activate the terminals to control the divine beast every single time) and also can't be too difficult either. And the also means that the story can't be too heavily tied to dungeons because, again, the player can do them in any order. Which leads to moments like every single one of the sages in TotK giving the exact same backstory of "Ganondorf attacked with armies of demons, we fought him with sacred stones, we almost lost but then rauru heroically sacrificed himself, and then the Sage of Time showed up and said you'd be around to fix shit in a few thousand years".

This is, uh. I'm not going to beat around the bush: fucking terrible. TotK tried to solve this a bit with the 5th sage dungeon being locked behind doing the other 4, and the run up to the castle, but it kind of fell flat. Especially because mineru, by the time you get her, really isn't very good.

Echoes of Wisdom, thankfully, fixes this! You have free roam of the map from the start - though, some areas will hand you your ass if you don't have strong enough echoes of your own - but you have to do the starter dungeons, the Gerudo and Zora, first. If you go to the areas with the later dungeons... well, you can go there, but there's no point, because the plot hasn't actually happened there yet. If you decide to go visit the deku scrubs first, they're just chilling. The only thing there is funny dialogue. (For example, if you try to climb the mountain first, Tri will pop up and go "there is nothing here for you and you WILL freeze your ass off, are you sure you want to be here...?")

This!! Is the best of both worlds. The player has freedom to do stuff in whatever order, within limits. And, unlike TotK, which just gives you the same goddamn information each time, the game goes "okay we have 3 different lore-drops we need to do, and they need to be done in [x] order, but it doesn't actually fucking matter who says them."

Granted, this is much easier to do when there's no voice acting, but. Come the fuck on, nintendo. You have like 10 scenes total with voice acting. You can make the actor say something different depending on when you do them. This isn't hard.

[genericpuff]

All That Glitters is Not Feminism - An Analysis of LO's Brand of "Feminism" and What Remains of its Fanbase (A Prologue)

So I referenced a certain article in a recent reblog/ask response and I just need to talk about it because what the actual fuck-

This has to have been written by either a bot or a hater who's reached peak god tier level at playing the long con sarcasm game because NOTHING about this feels sincere or even factual. Much of it almost has to be read in a mocking tone for it to make any real sense.

It says "Lore Olympus" (literally in quotations) in just about every single paragraph over and over again and every single talking point revolves EXCLUSIVELY around Persephone, which I suppose comes as no surprise considering that seems to be all the comic - and its fanbase - cares about at this point.

I really love (/s) how Persephone's "evolution" is being naive and then 'blossoming' into an independent woman who relies entirely on the rich man who groomed her to solve all her problems.

Also all she's done since becoming Queen of the Underworld is abuse lower class people. That's the stuff feminist dreams are made of <3

While we're talking about the main leads, "poster child" is definitely a word for Hades, I think a more appropriate term would be "literal child". And boy howdy, 'god of consent' sure is a title to give the guy who ripped out a lower class satyr's eyeball and beat him half to death.

This man owns slaves, btw. And both he and his "powerful wife" are equally horrible to lower class people, especially women.

This is hands-down the funniest section of the article and we're only three bullet points in.

Thetis and Persephone have never even so much as spoken one word to each other outside of the courtroom that Thetis technically put her in after plotting against her for an entire season.

Eros is a man. Nothing wrong with that but it comes with the unintentional icky hilarity of implying that because Eros is the gay best friend, that means he's a woman.

They literally don't read this fucking comic-

Everyone always relies on this weird talking point of Demeter not being able to "let Persephone go"... y'all, she just didn't want Persephone to outright move to Olympus, she wanted her to commute. That was it! That was literally the only problem! She wasn't preventing Persephone from pursuing a higher education or telling her she wasn't allowed to work, she literally fucking encouraged it! And with the added later context of Persephone killing a bunch of mortals - and, ironically, the fact that Persephone was assaulted/put in harm's way by TWO SEPARATE MEN in the first two days of her time in Olympus - yeah, I don't blame Demeter for not wanting her daughter to move cold turkey actually LOL

Also hilarious that they claim Rachel has turned "tradition" into "innovation" when the only thing she's managed to do is set back modern feminism in her young adult readers by 80 years and re-establish misogynist brainwashing in her adult ones. Rachel, your fanbase was literally shipping a victim of abuse with her abuser just a few days ago.

oh boy this is uh

this is some cult shit ngl

and the "rewriting the script of Greek mythology" part is VERY concerning knowing what we know about Lore Olympus and who it was written by. This is literally cultural appropriation, full stop, and it exists because Lore Olympus - and works like it, made by people like Rachel - exists.

I can't even commit to the original theory that this was written by a bot because it all feels very pointed and intenetional. This is being written by someone who, at the very least, REALLY sucks at media analysis and writing, because the entire article is just "Lore Olympus, buzzword, Lore Olympus, buzzword, buzzword, Lore Olympus", it's like a white knight incantation for guilty virtue signallers who have zero clue what they're talking about. And at worst, yes, it's appropriation from someone who doesn't mind taking a culture's stories and myths and promoting their erasure by people outside of the culture like Rachel.

And that's it, that's literally the article lmao

*EDIT: There was a section here before addressing the writer of the article from a very opinionated POV that, while isn't unusual for what I do here, did feel necessary to remove after I was contacted by the article writer who addressed the flaws in their original article and is now seeking to correct them with revisions/an article rewrite. So I felt it only fair as a compromise to at least remove that section as it really doesn't have a whole lot to do with this post as a whole and can be removed without entirely ruining the flow of this analysis. If/when that article is rewritten, I'll be revisiting this post and my overall analysis !

And honestly, it's all really telling, because this does accurately reflect the state of the LO fanbase.

Not only do many of the people who defend this comic like it's their job not pick up on the blatant misogynist tones that are going on in its narrative (I can't even call them "undertones" anymore, they're no longer that subtle) but whether or not they even read the comic at all is up for debate with how much stuff they tend to get wrong in their own arguments and justifications. And this is something that's VERY regularly seen in the fanbase discussions, readers will constantly be unaware of things that happened because they skimmed through it at lightning speed just to see if Hades and Persephone kiss and so they can get the top comment on Webtoons so they can be "ahead of the fanbase". It's no wonder that Rachel has gotten used to getting away with retconning things because her fanbase didn't even read what she established the first time.

Rachel's fanbase was literally defending the romance ship of an abuser and his victim on the newest FP episode preview. When that FP episode came out two nights ago and Hera said, point blank, that he didn't love her but abused her, I could only think of that portion of the fanbase who was very audibly simping over Kronos in the IG comment section. Are they actually having their moment of shameful clarity now? Or are they just gonna move the goalposts and pretend that didn't happen?

I don't want to say anything bad about Shelby here because she really seems like she's fighting for her life on this site that she's trying to get off the ground, but a lot of her other articles also come across as very one-note while being peppered with buzzwords that make it seem like what she's talking about is "progressive" when it really isn't. Case in point, Lessons in Chemistry has been commonly criticized for not actually appealing to the demographic that its Mary Sue-ish main character is supposed to represent - women in STEM career fields.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Lore Olympus is not 'feminism', it's white feminism that is designed to appeal to predominantly heterocis white women who think the solution to misogyny is to willingly submit to it and accept the status quo - that it's "empowering" if the woman is smiling and having all her needs paid for by a man. Sure, I can accept that different women will be looking for different relationship dynamics, some women genuinely are happy being in a relationship where they support their husbands first and foremost. But can that truly be called feminism? Or is the real feminism the choices we make along the way that we should be given the freedom to make?

It says a lot about the folks who tend to regularly prop up LO on a pedestal like this as some "revolution in feminism" despite the contrary after spending more than just 30 seconds skimming the attention-grabbing art, and Shelby is just one of many. She's not the worst of the bunch, though.

That goes to someone else who I want to give proper light to in their own essay. Someone who definitely earned a good stern talking-to this past week and has, thankfully, had consequences dished out to her for her horrible actions towards queer POC writers.

If you know, you know. If you don't, buckle up.

[ashenquill]

It's time to info dump about my character headcanons some moreeeee I love spreading my agenda on the internet hehe

Mumbo Killsalot Jumbo is one of those ambiguous types where you can't tell if he's actually a hybrid or not? Like, there's something a little bit... off about him. Something distinctly non-human. Also he's a really weird guy, which makes even less sense, because at this point hybrids are like 60% of the population, and nobody bats(ha) an eye at them anymore, so it's not like he needs to hide it. But he is, in fact, secretly a vampire. Or at least, he's 1/16th vampire or something like that. He just remembers this one guy named Vlad who he refused to believe was actually his great-grandpa because he's literally, like thirty? How on Earth would he have been old enough to father children with children with children? Mumbo started believing it when he saw him again ten years later and he hadn't changed in the slightest. Suddenly, the strict nobody open the curtains rule made a lot more sense.

Now, even though Mumbo is technically a vampire, his family is primarily human. The only reason they even have vampiric origins is because Great-grandpa Vlad got turned at the ripe age of 27, and wasn't about to abandon his wife over his new and very serious garlic allergy. She thought it was all one big prank he was pulling to get out of working on the farm, but after twenty years and seven kids, she realized that being a stay-at-home dad was definitely not taking the toll it should.

Mumbo and his immediate family have retained a few of the traits they inherited from Vlad, but it manifests in very mild coincidences. His mom is allergic to garlic and his dad has a strange Scarland-Princess-like affiliation with bats. Mumbo, meanwhile, really got the short end of the stick, as he can't expose his shoulders to sunlight without them miraculously burning (he's gone through more bottles of M-77 brand sunscreen than he'd care to quantify). Not to mention the insomnia! He'd be lucky to get two hours of sleep on an average night, and the fact that the only affect it really has on him is making his eyes look baggy is truly an injustice. Wasn't insomnia supposed to cause other serious health problems? How could he even complain about it if he wasn't constantly overtired? Rather inconvenient, that.

Don't ask my why I have so much lore for this guy when I don't even write him that often. It's just the Mumbo Jumbo allure, I guess

Here's some other fun facts:

Smells like iron/copper (metallic)

Book smart - special knowledge of redstone

Likes: cloud gazing, embroidery, old westerns/duels/guns, rubix cubes (only to look at though, bro can’t solve them for shit)

Dislikes: designing floor plans, social interaction, eye contact

Passions: philanthropy, travel

Habits/other details: Super fidgety like holy shit he never stops moving, picks at his nails and has lots of scabs & hangnails bc of it, he is littered with cuts and bruises of unknown origin, also usually covered in redstone & he mistakes his blood for it half the time, can’t tell if he’s ADHD, ASD, or both (deffo both)

Reactive to their environment - does not like to be around danger most of the time, would rather watch from afar, would rather not even watch tyvm, too bad he’s always a victim, #easytarget, your honor he’s just a wet cat

Special, plot-relevant skills: good w/ redstone, rich asf

Insomniac, also has RLS, always tired but it’s not very obvious, mostly just has dumb blonde moments, his intelligence would be 10% more if he actually slept, what the heck Vlad why'd you have to get bit by a vampire

[mikoth]

hum...did you have some fear x ennui or ennui x anger headcanons?

uh oh...

angui headcanon time... 🗿

I see them as enemies to lovers. It starts with Anger seeing Ennui as a sarcastic lazyass who somehow made her way to headquarters and Ennui thinking Anger is like a small dog that's always barking about things that Ennui believes are either stupid or not a big deal at all.

After a while, with some wacky adventures along the way that I don't have any ideas for right now, Anger gains respect for Ennui and her ability to keep cool in most situations that the other emotions would be freaking out about and solve them with a press of a button or giving the emotions a simple solution. Seeing this made Anger think he might be overreacting sometimes (a lotta times) over things that are actually dumb or not a big deal at all.

Ennui gains respect for Anger and his passion and determination to make things fair and to drive forward to help Riley and the other emotions. This made Ennui realize that maybe she's being too careless and laid back, especially in situations that are actually serious that she previously thought were the emotions just overreacting.

This is when the crushing starts omg...

Anger's the first one to start crushing on Ennui. When this happened, he started to become antsy, and his outbursts became a little more frequent than normal. Ennui didn't notice this until Anger started to avoid her. Ennui gets confused because she thought they made up or something. So, she gets enough energy to get up from her couch to confront him about it.

After a bit, Anger blurts out his feelings for Ennui, leaving her shocked... but not in a bad way 😳

....

So they started dating, this is when my other, less serious headcanons come in after that long ass... introduction? Lore dump? I don't even know.

Ennui and Anger keep their relationship on the downlow. They give out hints, but they aren't really lovey-dovey in public. They just ain't like that.

Ennui teases Anger quite a bit by leaning on him, patting his head, speaking French cuz of course 😌, giving him small, unexpected pecks on his head or cheek, etc etc. This is enough to make Anger blush and have a little or a lotta fire come outta his head.

Anger tries to tease back Ennui by doing things a lot more direct and not so teasing when the other emotions aren't around. Like kissing her right on the lips, biting her... other stuff I can't mention because I ain't comfortable with writing any of that in public. But let's just say he'll do what he can to make Ennui as flustered as he was when she teased him.

If Anger could, he would wear Ennui's sweater, but he can't because it's too thin for him. I believe Ennui's clothes are very soft and comfy 🥰

Anger and Ennui call each other insulting nicknames for fun, making some people think they still hate each other.

Anger is the type to get jealous pretty easily, so anyone trying to flirt with Ennui is gonna get their ass punted. 😈 (not really, but he'll definitely growl at them and make threatening gestures to make them go away).

Ennui rarely gets jealous, but when she does, she'll gently pull Anger away from whoever he's talking to while giving that person the most chilling glare you'll ever see before walking off.

Ennui accidentally poked Anger's eye with her nose when they tried to kiss for the first time. When the other emotions asked about the eye, Anger lied and said he tripped and fell on something pointy.

Ennui has an Anger gallery on her phone.

If Anger had a phone, Ennui would probably spam a bunch of memes to him, leaving him confused and irritated. Ennui makes up for this by sending him a cute selfie after her brutal spam.

If they were on dream duty together, I'm pretty sure they'd be talking shit about the dream while snuggled up together and eating popcorn or sommin... 😭

Okay, I'm tapped out. I might post more headcanons when I get more ideas.

[moomoorare]

Okay guesses for what the next season will be called are always hilarious. I gotta take a shot at it too.

Here's my guesses:

- Spare life

Each session you can give your best buddy an extra life, but you'll lose all saturation so you better have food. It's a very secretive series where it's revealed all the hearts were either given to Pearl, who asks them so nicely. To Jimmy the most pathetic guy in the series who BEGS for them. Or Scar, who scams them out of their pockets with a new mechanic called "Trick Track Truck", at least that's what he calls it.

The mechanic is actually useful because the one who gains the most will be brought back to life to fight with the last remaining player.

Jimmy still loses but comes second to last. Gem wins because I want her to.

- One life

Hate this title, great because it confuses people even more with the numbering scheme. Anyways it's actually a murder mystery dinner they all have to solve. They can't really solve anything because they keep killing each other. That doesn't matter because actually they have like 15 lives, also there's a bomb. No one wins. Kidding!!! Skizz wins cus he was the one faking being shot at the murder mystery party he sat up.

-False Life.

Because I want False to be added. That's it. 🥰

-Cub Life

Or Cub. Who's a literal bear that stalks them and makes increasingly crazy ass machines to fuck with them. Also they're all A/B/O coded.

- Zombie Life

Everyone has to run from Cleo who gets massive w's and can kill them all with a stick. They actually start a cult or church for her, ran by Scar, Bdubs and Etho. Grian too bc he's always into that shit. And Gem and Pearl, because I'd like that. Cleo wins again because the others all kill themselves. Also she accidentally kills Bdubs at the start of the season after he says Yuri time for the fifth time she hangs out with the Girrlss.

-One Life for Life

the one who survives the longest has gotta then live through the season like an hardcore world, alone. It sounds sad, but actually all the dead are haunting them. Weait, oh yeah that's sad. Anyways, they win a jackpot of one million netherite scarps and nothing else. So they can say they're rich.

- Grian Life

they all look like Grian, there's two squads of either fish and bird, but they all look like him. Absolutely useless information that changes nothing.

Tagnames are not shown, theyre all numbered Grian1 through Grian17. Grian isn't even number Grian1.

They have one life. The point isn't even surviving because actually you can respawn. It's kinda like Among Us. There's an impostor and that'll be mumbo. He still loses.

- Dumb ways to die-Life

completely breaks the way it's been titled for years and they all gotta find the stupidest fucking ways to die. If you die to a creeper or fall damage you gain a life. You start with three. Goofiest ass wins this season. Fuck lore-heads.

-Run for your Life

they give /op to one player. They all don't know who. It changes each session, three times. The goal is for the all powerful god to die at least one time, but it has to be at someone else's hand, since they can't naturally die, it's a new mechanic. They can absolutely fuck with people but cannot directly kill them.

- Fuck Life

they all um. no. Well they say "fuuuck life!!!" And immediately try to die faster than anyone else to have the saddest ending. First to die is Jimmy. Poor Jimmy. Somehow he's brought back to life. He still dies right after.

That's just my thoughts after having woken up at 4 pm and going to bed at 5 am. Yeuh

...

So what do you think it'll be? What are your ideas for the next season?

[xiyouyanyi]

Welcome!

@ryin-silverfish here, also known as "That person who talks a lot about FSYY and fox spirits".

This is my little LMK AU sideblog, which started off as a bunch of disjointed background notes for my fanfics, but developed into its own gigantic thing over time.

I've said elsewhere that, despite LMK (and many other JTTW adjacent works) lifting certain tidbits wholesale from FSYY——like Nezha's backstory or the Golden Dragon Shears, neither the show nor the fanworks really go into the implications of a FSYY/JTTW combined universe.

(For one, Zhao Gongming's three sisters, the Sanxiao, showing up to kick Jin and Yin's butts for stealing and breaking their treasure would be very satisfying, and also hella badass.)

Well, be the change you want, they said. 

So here it is: Journey of the Gods, aka "LMK, but FSYY is also canon and an extremely influential historical event".

Inspired by @digitaldoeslmk 's By the Book AU.

What even is FSYY?

"Ancient China's bloodiest bureaucracy recruitment program, kickstarted by a king who simped too hard for the creator goddess of humanity and the fox girl she sent to end his dynasty."

"I'll write my own God-Demon novel, with blackjacks and fox hookers and no Buddhist allegories!" ——Xu Zhonglin/Lu Xixing/Li Yunxiang

Okay, jokes aside: Investiture of the Gods(Fengshen Yanyi) is the other big "God-Demon Novel" of the Ming dynasty, written after JTTW. It's about the toppling of the Shang dynasty and its tyrannical King Zhou by King Wu of Zhou——but with more Daoism, immortals and demons helping out both sides, and ten billion magical formations and treasures. 

At the end of the story, almost everyone who died in battle were deified and became the 365 gods of the Celestial Bureaucracy, thus "Investiture of the Gods". 

Here is a link to the only full English translation of FSYY, by Gui Zhizhong.

Here is my overview of FSYY's grand overarching conflict, a.k.a. "Why are all the Daoist immortals fighting?" 

Compared to JTTW, it's a lot more formulaic and suffers from a massive character count inflation problem, but also extremely influential in Chinese folk religion, to the point of some modern temples, like Qingyang Palace, basically worshiping characters from the novel! Like, the western equivalent would be a church worshiping Dante and Beatrice from the Divine Comedy.

(Similarly, it is to orthodox Daoism what the Divine Comedy is to medieval Christian theology, and should not be treated as actual religious scriptures.)

Okay, FSYY happened in the LMK universe. So What?

Well, first, it will really do wonders to fill up that eerily empty Celestial Realm we see in the Spider Queen special, and the Celestial Bureaucracy will no longer consist of a grand total of five people.

Secondly, it can solve some major show-not-tell problems and actually give legitimacy to the grievances of the LMK Brotherhood + Havoc in Heaven, as well as fleshing out the Celestial Realm.

Third, so many cool magical treasures.

Fourth, LBD gets an origin story, with a twist.

Fifth, I delight in quality angst and horror, and FSYY had some seriously messed-up stuff and implications.

Sixth, Celestial Bureaucracy office politics.

Seventh, Nezha kicking asses and winning fights like he should.

Eighth, crazy Xianxia shit, as you’d expect from the great-granddaddy of modern Xianxia genre.

Ninth, infodumps about Chinese mythos and history trivias.

Tenth, Underworld lore.

...As you can probably tell, this is mostly just me nerding out and writing walls of texts. I'm not a very good artist and can't do Lego style, but will probably doodle some symbol/character designs for funsies.

I also derive most of my enjoyment from writing fix-its and worldbuilding, not shipping characters. Like, I love exploring individual characters through relationships, but just ain't a fan of romance.

There will be a lot of OCs, but unless otherwise specified, all of them will be based on actual characters from FSYY and JTTW, with a few folk gods sprinkled in for funsies.

With that taken care of: good luck and happy reading!

[mxdarling]

[FABLE OF THE STARS (2)]

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅• •❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

ೃ⁀➷: summary: after reading the first few pages of the fable of stars, you can't help but let yourself be intrigued by even more people who live beyond the stars. let us open your eyes to their story.

ೃ⁀➷: word count: 1.2k

ೃ⁀➷: ref/inspo: fable of the stars #1 | fable of the stars #2

[author’s note:] FINALLY PART 2!! no one really asked for a part 2 but i felt the need to write one plus my motivation is high on hsr anyways, so here i am rushing to finish this before school starts so let's hope this one is written a bit better than the first one CUZZ i didn't proofread shit last time BHDHBD

[part one]

[note:] If there is anything else triggering here that I didn’t list in the warnings section, please tell me.

[warnings:] bad metaphoric writing, bad attempt of character analysis (take this with a grain of salt please), lowercase, not spoiler free, can be considered 'x reader' if you're delulu enough, noah is trying to explain hsr character lore (and failing miserably, once again).

MARCH 7TH, THE WARRIOR

a cute girl who always has her camera with her and enjoys taking pictures of everything around her. according to her, it's good to have a pastime for someone her age, and she's less likely to forget these memories. every photo she takes inside her camera is safely kept close to her heart and in the comfort of her own room, where she can hang it up and smile to herself, hoping to take even more photos while she's around. perhaps deep down there's this inkling fear that one day all those memories she's made with everyone will be forgotten, that these people who've been with her through thick and thin will suddenly become strangers to her.

although she often has a smile on her face, she struggles to find her place in the astral express. in her mind, everyone has a role within the astral express: pom-pom is the conductor, himeko is the navigator, welt is the jack of all-trades, dan heng is the guard, and she is... the warrior. she doesn't necessarily feel nor act like one; warriors commonly don't wield a bow and arrow—rather, they hold their swords with a tight grip, slashing through every obstacle that comes their way, and when faced with a formidable foe, they push forward with bravery in their hearts and end up victorious. one day, she wishes to be just like those warriors, and maybe she'll find her place in the express.

contrary to belief, a cute girl such as herself is very much into mystery novels, especially ones that feature a detective. how they follow the trail of clues to piece together to hopefully solve whatever mystery they're trying to uncover—that's what makes the story so compelling for you. how you can read a clue and not understand its purpose only to realize what the clue meant many pages later, how there's a sense of satisfaction after reaching the end of the protagonist's journey to figure out the truth, how they learned so much about the world around them, their family, their friends, their enemies, their frenemies, but most importantly—themselves. to march, the feeling of needing to find what's inside a mystery is all too familiar, for she—herself—is the greatest mystery.

"a girl who once slumbered in eternal ice and knows nothing about her past. to find out the truth about her origins, she decided to travel with the astral express. as of right now, she has prepared about 67 different versions of her life story for herself."

JINGYUAN, GENERAL OF THE XIANZHOU LUOFU

the "dozing general," a title he's gained through his seemingly lazy demeanor, taking every opportunity to take a nap, spending an awful amount of time in leisure, gradually falling asleep during one of fu xuan's lengthy reasonings of why she should be nominated to generalship, and much more. yet he's much more attentive than he lets out to be, able to perceive the intentions of other people, keeping his cards close to his chest, knowing exactly how to play them at the right moment to catch the other person off guard, and checkmate you when you least expect it.

through his careful management of affairs and wise strategy of leading the cloud knights, the peaceful years seem to stretch into many centuries for the citizens of the luofu. while some have complained that the general feared combat so much so that he rarely resorts to battle it out, yet that couldn't be further from the truth. the reason is simple: he's protective—not corrective; he does not consider saving the xianzhou luofu from disaster at the last minute as a showcase of wisdom. he continues to oversee the xianzhou luofu, using his intellect to cut down on any thorny problems they encounter—like the tip of the sharpest blade.

even then, his renowned abilities as a general and his intellect are nothing against the cruel reality of time. in the past, the high-cloud quintet was regarded as legends during their time, accomplishing countless feats throughout their prime. however, in just less than a hundred years, the five of them soon fell apart. he watched and witnessed the destruction fall upon his very own friends—how, at the very end, he's the only one remaining. fate has been so cruel to other people around him yet somehow spares his out of everyone else, a haunting reminder of his powerlessness against the enemy that is time.

"the divine foresight, one of the seven arbiter-generals of the xianzhou alliance, leads the cloud knights of the xianzhou luofu. a student of the luofu's previous sword champion, though not known for his martial prowess."

JINGLIU, FORMER SWORD CHAMPION

in the present day, her name is one that is considered forbidden, and it has been like that a long time ago. her name has been erased from any sort of history recorded in the public's eye; only those in higher positions or who lived long enough to see the high-cloud quintet in their prime would remember it. remember how she was the one who established that high-cloud quintet, remember how she taught jing yuan the art of the sword and saw the fruits of his effort turn into his glory, remember how many praised her for wielding a sword so impressively, and that the title of sword champion is one she's earned rightfully so. they remembered, for the past can never be truly forgotten.

she recalls the first time she met her student, a young but devious child who had asked the same questions as she did back when she was younger and when her master was still alive. "master, why do you insist on using the sword? aren't there other weapons available you could've used?" he curiously asked during one of their trainings. "that's like asking why poets write poems; there are many ways to express oneself, but this is the only way i express myself," she replies with wisdom, the same kind her master has given her back then. her master is no longer around, though; there is no one to instruct her or provide any more lessons. however, she no longer needs one; the way of the sword has been imprinted into her system so long ago and so many times. she knows everything there is about a sword; they've become a part of her now.

she's has lifted and wielded many swords in this lifetime, and in many battles and wars she's stood side-to-side with allies and her disciple—no matter which way her sword swung, abominations could never escape the death or imprisonment destined for them. she just never thought she'd be pointing the end of her sword towards a lifelong friend in battle. it was during that time that she felt trapped in her own nightmares again, the destruction of her own home caused by that ominous planet, and she was unable to struggle against such a fate. yet as she leaped forward into the battlefield, suddenly familiar words were heard: "i will cut down even the stars in the sky."

"former sword champion of the luofu, and the creator of the cloud knights' legends of undefeated might. now, her name has been wiped from the records, and she is a traitor of the xianzhou walking on the fine line between sanity and mara-struck."

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅• •❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

PLEASE DO NOT COPY, REPOST, SHARE, TRANSLATE OR REUPLOAD ANY OF MY WORKS TO OTHER SITES WITHOUT MY PERMISSION + REBLOGS AND COMMENTS ARE APPRECIATED.

[ipatrichor]

dead boy detectives episode five thoughts

HELLO???? girl where do i even start. i May have to get some thoughts out of the way so i can properly talk about this shit what the fuck. my thoughts are goddamn incoherent 😭

OKAY start of the episode. i actually really appreciate crystal and charles having a frank conversation about like. hey kissing was nice but we both have a lot of shit going on and we're neither in a place to be in a relationship rn so let's just be friends. and it's not framed as a bad decision or for drama or anything, it's the reasonable and emotionally mature choice to make and i love that so much!!

oh my god the lesbianism.... noble was not lying there was in fact lesbians!! bro i was so excited 😭 jenny and the librarian were genuinely so cute, like when they were bonding over true crime. and when they kissed i kid you not i put my fists in the air like a highschool dad watching sports i was thrilled!!! but no the librarian had to turn murderous when jenny was uncomfortable with being stalked.... devastating 😔

i will say tho they really made me watch the aro nightmare play out. someone is interested in you, gets mad when you don't return their feelings in the way they want you to, and then tries to kill you. deeply uncomfortable, but i'm happy to know jenny canonically likes women and, if she ever feels like giving romance another chance, i hope she meets someone nice and average who doesn't stalk her. best of luck queen im rooting for you whatever you decide you want

okay the case was really interesting, i like a good bit of whodunnit. it's also a fun change from the usual, where the case they're solving is unrelated to finding a killer. very fun! i like both formats, and it's fun to switch things up once in a while

i didn't expect the killer to be so sympathetic, but by the end i was really rooting for her to go unpunished. makes sense that she turned herself in since it really was an accident, but ah well whatever she chooses to best help her move on with her life!

i'm glad those two assholes went to hell at the end tho, even if it does have some fascinating implications. like, are we talking christian hell? if so, what kind? classical, or more dante's inferno with the different levels and so on? is 'hell' just a term for an afterlife of punishment for crimes committed in life? how does all that work with demons being a thing? and why does edwin go to hell for being ritually sacrificed? they said it was a mix-up, but what kind of technicality or misfiled paperwork does that? give me the afterlife lore i need to know more!!!!

i feel like i haven't talked about crystal's demon ex in a bit so let's cover that. god i really was right in my first read of him, he really is doing all this because he's desperate to stay relevant in her life. it's honestly pathetic and idk what else there is to say about that. like it sucks that such a pathetic asshole has just enough power to keep hurting crystal, and i look forward to his comeuppance whenever it should appear

ALRIGHT OTHER THOUGHTS OUT OF THE WAY. ohhh my god so much in a few short scenes. MONTY KISSED EDWIN AND CONFESSED TO HIM?? oh my god i can't believe we got that in a netflix show no wonder it got canceled. AND THEN EDWIN REJECTS HIM?? this is so crazy im Thriving holy shit

okay i have something to say. so edwin says he isn't talking about monty but doesn't say who he's talking about, but i think he was talking about charles! like yeah it cuts to the cats and the episode ends, and that Could be implying he's talking about the cat king, but if i'm right it's just meant to indicate they were eavesdropping at that specific moment

okay let me explain my theory. there's the stuff i talked about in the past posts, about the scene where the cat king took charles' form (and i didn't mention it but. the bit in the same episode where edwin is just staring at charles' face distracted while charles talks? hello??) but what really cemented it for me was the hug this episode. in possibly the sweetest scene yet, edwin reassures charles that he is a good person, and charles hugs him. and just the look on edwin's face... the way he stands there almost stunned before carefully hugging back... the way after charles lets go and they start to leave edwin stands there a moment longer, with a hand pressed to his heart.... like i could be wrong but. i am seeing signs!!

and i think it's So interesting because charles has some kind of crush on crystal, even though they've agreed not to pursue anything there that doesn't mean the attraction is gone yknow? so im Really interested to see what's going to happen and where this is going

godd that whole scene was phenomenal. charles being afraid of being a bad person, like the jocks and like his father... yeah girl i've been there. it fucking sucks! and im so glad he had edwin there with him, who cares about his friend and knows him well enough to know how to comfort him. idk the whole thing was so good, i nearly cried when they hugged :')

very good episode! i've eaten dinner now so i'm ready to move on to the next episode, and i'm Very excited to see what's going to happen!!

[emelinstriker]

Anyone who calls this AU a 'slave' AU...

Then theres me who looks at this AU and just sees an excuse to hug and spoil favorite characters. (Not teying to start hate I just want to express to new viewers all I see are people taking this AU and creating fluff. The LMK already has angst filled (potential) characters and this AU, while also dark and angst filled, has characters that has the Reader who has potential to be comedy "what is going on!?!???" And "these are my pwecious babehs. Must hug and cherish" .... Brain is entering not making sense at near 11 pm....

EXACTLY-

The AU is supposed to have some dark content, I even mentioned that in my masterlist, but that's literally not even the point of the AU. It just adds more of a mystery to the environment for those enjoying the AU, who like to look for hidden lore crumbs, piece them together and figure out the story.

It's like a murder mystery. Just because people enjoy listening to/watching those does not mean they're into becoming killers. Especially if it's fictional, made up stories to let viewers engange with the situation themselves and solve it.

Meanwhile the way I've seen people interact with the champions in my inbox always ends up being more wholesome or funny. Because at its core, the AU is just there so people can have fun interacting with the characters.

And I'll keep saying it over and over if I have to.

Humans are different.

Opinions and preferences are different.

Literally no one is getting harmed in real life if I sprinkle in some hints to darker lore. Some people just like angst and dark things more than others, and that's fine. It's just generally more interesting for them.

But even then, those that prefer more of a fluffy, comedic, or even horny interaction with the cast have the option to do so. The AU is built like a one-shot. You can have one story or the other and don't need to look at the other parts. They can all be read on their own.

If someone doesn't like the AU or isn't interested, that's absolutely fine and I respect that.

However, what I can't respect is people talking shit behind my back like a group of children, publicly spreading hate and misinterpret messages. Again, I've already said my viewpoint on things. Whether people agree or disagree on my standpoint, I don't care anymore at this point.

Just as much as the brickwall I'm talking about isn't accepting the fact that not everyone shares the same opinion on how old a character is supposed to be. Especially in a fictional AU setting. When I say ESAU!Nezha is an adult, then in this very AU, as the creator of said AU, I can legally say he is an adult in this AU. End of story. If one says he's a kid in the source story, that's fine. If one says he's an adult in a made-up fictional Lego story, that's fine.

I'm literally just calmly explaining my own points and they start accusing me of more shit by taking my explanations and taking things out of context in a mob mentality, again. They even still for some reason believe Bean MK is canon and was "born and branded into slavery" when that was clearly just a wholesome way to do a crossover between me and @theweepingegg. Like, MK is an adult in this just like the others. I literally did an entire summary just some days ago, with art of him being normal-sized and not chibi-fied, about how MK joined the group. But of course they still say people are supposed to do their research, when they've clearly not done their own research on Bean MK if that's the only version to them that exists.

The fact that they already openly "exposed" my blog and all that to their followers too, without even trying to be vague at all anymore, is also starting to enter borderline harassment. Like that's literally just encouraging people to spread more unnecessary hate over literal opinions and assumptions.

Ironic, considering that blog's own controversial history.

From the unnecessary harassment of a Wattpad user over a few quotes/pick-up lines they allegedly "plagiarized" till their account deletion, to the unnecessary harassment of others for saying Nezha isn't a kid. There is literally a blog mentioning this allegation. Plus the Wattpad user could've been handled maturely like an actual adult, like y'know, talking to the author instead of being petty about it to your followers. Which is still very much something that apparently never changed about them. And after having witnessed them talk smack and lie openly about my own content on a blog of a game they're supposed to represent, I now fully believe all those harassment stories.

And despite all this, I'm still not even openly talking shit about them. Because I'm not a kid talking shit about another creator.

At this point I'm literally just about to ignore all that "drama" since I've already realized the topic hit a brickwall. Like, they're not gonna leave this very much unnecessary shit alone based on how they're still talking about it. But my care has already dwindled, knowing they're still acting like children trying to find something, literally anything, against me to rant about. I already stated my case multiple times and how the AU works. If one still takes the logical things I'm explaining out of context, then they can just keep that opinion to themselves. The "drama" literally hit the moment where all's just opinions and biases.

Now watch as either she or one of her followers will take screenshots of this post and take it all out of context as well. Because they will try to find any single piece of dirt on me to rant about.

And after some discussing about why the fuck this entire thing is even happening with some friends, and why the blog never actually notified me about shit personally, I will simply no longer respond to any allegations. I've already stated my side on the the mentioned allegations and no longer see the need in having to speak anymore. I'll just go back to doing my own thing, and you can go back to doing your own thing.

[bottlecap-joe-spooky]

How bad is the extent of Miles Edgeworth's mental state in rise from the ashes?

Tw: suicide, implied self harm

Obviously he ends up essentially leaving a suicide note of "prosecutor edgeworth chooses death", but that could be symbolic. He HAD already quit his job (one of the only things that had held his life together possibly since his father died) so him as Prosecutor edgeworth had essentially "died".

There's also the ambiguous definition of "dying" in the note. Did he mean it as in he would not be coming back (from death or to prosecution or to japanifornia or whatever) or as he would never come back as the same person (the "demon" prosecutor) or just to fake his own death for a little moral/mental break or whatever (everyone's allowed a little gay panic break every once in a while).

Who knows, and I genuinely love the ambiguity the game leaves.

Obviously, phoenix takes it as a serious suicide note, and is obviously absolutely wrecked by it for the next year. This is a topic often touched upon in fanfiction, though not in the game quite as much. Obviously it is hard to talk about mental health issues in a lawyer game, and they do it really well for a game not technically focused on it and from the early 2000s. Specifically for Maya and Edgeworth I think, as they both have loads of trauma that they deal with in fully different ways. Miles is more worrying though, as most of his coping skills are absolutely horrible, he has very little emotional support, and he's been pretty messed up in the head.

I honestly wonder a lot which people and relationships are meant to mirror the main characters, like phoenix saying shit like "that's so romantic- he saved you- I guess I'd fall in love too-" for the Delite's love story or edgeworth saying Adrian andrews codependent situation is very similar to how Franziska operates with her father or definitely Lana and ema reminding Phoenix of Mia and Maya or him literally telling Adrian andrews to kill herself in court. Specifically that last one. He specifically phrases it as "if you're going to say you would 'choose death', that is of no concern to me."

There is some especially worrying evidence in rise from the ashes, when he was at the most mentally unstable he's ever been. The only time that would compare was when his dad died when he was 8, but even then he had a new foster family to rely on (more or less). He's at his very worse, because, after 15 or so years, all of his past has just been dredged up and solved (by "that man" no less. Also, side note, does he only start saying Phoenix "saved him" after he came back from the dead?)

I really don't like any implications of why edgeworth would have traces of blood on the ground, especially at this point in his life.

So the options here are 1) it's someone else's blood, and maybe he fucking slapped someone so hard they bled or 2) it's his blood on his office floor for whatever reason. Neither imply anything remotely good for his mental state.

At this point it really could just be coincidence and ema is right or whatever. It's an easily missed peice, completely unrelated to the case and just an interesting tidbit for lore maybe. But sadly I found more evidence to support that that is not indeed the case.

I can't remember what the plot point for edgeworth's knife besides the fact that he had it in the car for Lana to find.

Mmm yeah ema. What is that little fruit doing with a knife? Very low chance that gay man knows self defense tbh.

Ema goes on to suggest he spends weekends "roughing it in the wild" and Phoenix basically laughs in her face (does this girl not understand what a homosexual man he is) as Edgeworth has probably never been in "the wild" a day in his life.

This doesn't feel like a coincidence anymore. There is cleaned up blood on his floor, enough for a nosebleed, and there is a knife in his car. One which he would probably never actually use on another person. This and then added to the fact that he had just quit his job and "died" shortly after. it's pretty obvious he is doing worse than even what he says, as he actually is kind of open about how he is doing throughout the games. Obviously he's always trying to hide his feelings (which Phoenix always sees right through), but during the case he does mostly explain to them exactly what is happening. Not that they do or even can help.

His entire career was based around punishing himself for something he didn't actually do. There is no way he isn't harbouring a lot of self loathing, and it's hinted at throughout the games (again, hard to touch on in a lawyer game). This game is so hard to tell what the writers originally meant, both beacause of it being looked at through translations and it being written in the 2000s (like how fruity they 'accidentally' made them in the first game lol) so that's not an angle I can look at this from.

So, to recap, he

had all his past dredged up, obviously very painful

he is open about talking about it, but doesn't show the true extent of how it effects him

has a knife in his car that no one has any real theories on why he has it (and the blood)

There is traces of blood on his office floor

he has spent his entire life punishing himself, and then can't forgive himself for it

he then chooses death

when he comes back, he repeatedly projects onto Adrian Andrews

No wonder he's always saying Phoenix "saved him" he sure needed a bit of saving.

This poor, poor man. His story arc is so beautiful to me.

[jq37]

I'm so obsessed with this whole lore drop. You get merc'd on you Sophmore year mission and to be revived you have to worship a nameless god of rage. Metal.

Also like I understand via narrative conceit how having a tragic backstory leads to better adventuring but IN UNIVERSE I want to hear Kipperlilly explain how having dead parents gives you an unfair advantage at school. Riz can't even afford college, KP.

Yeah man. I've seen people debating about Kipperlilly and if she's valid or not valid, a victim of the system or an exploiter of the system. But ignoring all of that, at the end of the day, being jealous that someone else's dad died--someone who's living in poverty no less--is just, on its face, deeply unsympathetic.

Like it would be one thing if she was jealous of Chosen One Kristen or Rich Kid Pirate's Son Fabian or Elven Oracle Adaine (though I'm not sure how much of being the best diviner alive is skill versus innate potential). She'd still be missing a lot of context about how they weren't exactly living on easy street but at least there's actual positive stuff to be jealous of there.

To say, "I'm jealous your life is insanely hard because it gives you easy plot hooks," is such a wild stance to take. Like girl, opportunity is everywhere wrt adventuring. It's not like insane shit only happens to the Bad Kids at Aguefort. There was a dragon at the prom that *everyone* was invited to and no one stayed except for the Bad Kids (and max legend Gem Peppercorn). And I've said this so many times but Riz didn't solve the mystery because it was connected to his dad. He solved it because it was connected to Penny and it ended up being extra cool because it was related to his dad. If you want to be a dramatic orphan so bad, run away from home and move to Leviathan or something. Don't get mad at the kid who's barely scraping by while ALSO getting screwed by the system. Yeesh.

Riz has been strangely quiet about this revelation and I really hope we get a direct confrontation cause I wanna know if she's got enough guts (or rage) to say that to his face and I wanna know what his reaction would be.