#I only feel slightly bad for giving them the backstory I did though

[untoastted]

Random fact about Juniper for the hell of it

Juniper hates physical touch from people they don’t trust (and by that I mean anyone but their qpp’s and Diluc)

They can and will pull a dagger out on those who dare to simply grab their shoulder to try and get their attention. Many of their subordinates have been murdered cause they lightly taped them on the shoulder to get their attention while they were having a bad day

And with the people they do trust they’re a clingy little shit to. Imagine Dottore and Pantalones surprise when Juniper went from full on threatening them to being like a fucking cat

[aihoshiino]

The babygirlification if Hikaru is crazy in this fandom... I can't believe that people seem to believe he did zero bad things when ch109 literally showed him standing over Yura and saying that she died so he could feel something...? Just because he's not the one who pushed her, doesn't mean he wasn't an accomplice! (I don't see how Nino would've known about the hiking trip without his help. Also don't see why he would be there monologuing unless he's also a hiking enthusiast who just happened to be there.) He could be both! He could be someone Ai loved but also be a person who became lost without her! Look at Aqua who literally went on a maniacal journey of revenge that saved literally no one & killed 2/3 people whom Ai loved. Because she's gone. The way I see Hikaru's character is that, he loved Ai and understood her as a person instead of the persona she presented. Yet her passing made that persona the only legacy she left behind (in his eyes). She was seen as "the idol closest to the Dome" even though she didn't care! That title wasn't given to any of the other Bkoma members, just her. And, he wasn't really allowed into their children's life because she said so. The only thing he's got left were the "lies" and despite knowing that killing people for her legacy is not what she would've wanted, she's not around to stop him anymore. I think he was a man driven to desperation and doing terrible things because his love was genuine yet no one taught him how to love properly. And her final "rejection" made him believe that being a terrible person was the only thing he could be. Which was why Ai's video became such a huge blow to him: he could've lived without her knowing that her as a person didn't let go of him, yet he went down this path thinking that the true her rejected him & the "lies" was the only thing he could take.

I don't think Ai's rejection broke Hikaru, per se. I think she made him believe that he was worthy of love and not broken (like he thought). And the way things unfold drove him into a spiral that was planted long ago. Humans don't need to be innocent to be worthy of love. The HKAI relationship was two traumatised children finding comfort in eachother. And Hikaru's crimes were about someone letting intrusive thoughts get to them. I don't like how Akasaka handled it at all, but I think erasing Hikaru's grief and the destruction it brought isn't a good way to read his character.

SO, for what it's worth, I do think the way you've analyzed Hikaru here is how he was intended to be read by Akasaka, at least by the end of the story, I don't blame anyone at all who went into this final stretch of OnK legit thinking we were going to get a reveal that Hikaru was not just a straight up villain or at least sympathizing with him and interpreting him as a slightly softer character, because the story basically spends the entirety of the Movie Arc beating you over the head with Extremely Sympathetic Hikaru Characterization.

Hell, it starts asking you to sympathize with him basically from the word go. The first concrete fact we learn about him outside of Aqua's insanely (understandably!) biased POV immediately throws every explicit and implicit assumption we have about him out the window. Not only does his age mean that he was one of Ai's peers and not, as Aqua seems to have been assuming, an older man who had victimized her but we learn this information in tandem with realizing - as Akane points out - this means Taiki was conceived when he was eleven years old, with all that implies. Akane's disgusted reaction pretty clearly telegraphs to the reader how we're supposed to take it and… idk, maybe this sounds cynical, but giving a character a backstory of CSA is like the Press To Make Audience Instantly Want To Protect This Character's Smile button. It very much primes you to want to feel bad for him.

109 does throw a spanner in these works and I do remember even at the time feeling very fucking uncertain about OnK potentially going for the grody old trope of "this character was a CSA victim and now they're Evil" (IF ONLY I FUCKING KNEW) but the more I re-read 109, I felt increasingly uncertain of what, exactly, we were supposed to take away from it. I actually had a suspicion for a really long time that 109 was so heavy handedly and overtly portraying him as a straightforward villain specifically to mislead the reader When They Cry-style and that he wasn't the one responsible for Yura's death at all.

Add all this to the fact that the Movie Arc centers Hikaru's victimhood and his extremely sad wet cat pathetic boy characterization literally at the expense of Ai's story in the movie that was supposed to be about her but what the fuck ever and it's really hard not to think that this is how the story wants you to feel about Hikaru. Hell, the Movie Arc even asks us to empathize with Airi, who is a fucking child rapist. I don't think it's unreasonable for anyone to assume that we were not supposed to think of Hikaru as a straightforward villain, especially when Ruby basically, like, looks into the camera when she's having her meeting with him and goes "nobody is born ontologically evil btw people get fucked up by their environments and blaming individuals for systemic issues isn't how anything gets fixed".

Also, like… I want to be delicate about this but I think it's also important to remember that Hikaru's motivations and supposed villainy as portrayed in OnK as of late are pretty outlandish and hard to connect with. But there are almost certainly people in OnK's audience who are also C/SA survivors who are able to resonate with a more grounded portrayal of him. I don't blame anyone at all for preferring a more sympathetic take on him in that case.

[petarabbit2]

Realistic Deuce Spade + Headcanons

Deuce Spade + Realistic artwork done with Art Breeder and edited in Clip Art Studio:

Ready to meet the goodest boy? I am. (always)

Sidenote: When headcanoning Deuce and all my other characters I take both factual and some of my personal thoughts/beliefs of the character to construct my headcanons.

Back to my rendition, I didn't give deuce any flaws necessarily (moles, acne, freckles, etc.) since I can not picture deuce with bad skin and he just seems like he tries to keep himself tidy and neat after being accepted into NRC. (Even if he did have a bit, after his change in behaviour he would try to fix it to again look more tidy and put together).

However, it's not shown in the art since it's not to that level of detail but he has a couple of past holes in his ears from piercings and he has a reverse tramp stamp above his yk yk from his rebellious days. How’d he got it without being of age? Idk really but probs a fake ID or something. Anyways it's just a simple design I chose from pinterest which i'll draw him with someday but it's basically just a spikey sorta design?? Idk how to describe it.

I also made this deuce half asian, Japanese to be precise, as I have seen a lot of people headcanon it, plus it makes sense to the extent that a sign of rebellion in Japanese households is dying hair which deuce mentions he did back in middle school.

For his features, Deuce has hooded eyes, a bit thinner and higher eyebrows, a straight nose that is upturned at the end, sorta longer eyelashes and an upside down triangle face shape, most of this is taken from his character model but taking some liberties to make the cast more diverse in terms of appearance.

For his body its a trapezoid shape so wider shoulders and a smaller waist, however he has pretty muscular legs (from track and field) and I’m caking my boy up 🫡. He has just regular size hands and feet but slightly longer fingers.

Aw yes, another slight british accent, sorry not sorry 🤭 – used to use heavy slang but stopped after getting accepted into NRC but it slips out here and there.

Without & With Face Makeup:

Personality and backstory headcanons + a bit of character analysis:

Deuce, like Ace, is one of the first characters/friends we meet in the game, he is presumed to be a very sensible and hardworking student (which he does try very hard to be) but always ends up getting himself into trouble. We later learn of his past as a delinquent which we can connect to his still aggressive nature towards hostile people who threaten him or his friends. I haven't seen much extreme mischaracterisation of Deuce personally because he's an extremely hard character to mischarcterise as the game is very straight forward with his presentation and past.

But diving deeper into his character we can discover why he's the way he is. Its cannon that his parents are split with his father completely out of the picture, and we never hear of a grandfather (maybe due to another divorce or death) so he grew up around all women which in theory is great for a boy since they learn all about how exactly to care for them but can also be straining.

Even if Deuce loved his mother and vice versa, he still would have wanted a father figure, which could be why he became a delinquent. Obviously the other delinquents were either kids of his age or a bit older which were the only ones in his eyes that could maybe fill in that role as a father figure. I know it's canon he became a delinquent because of his slow learning, feeling the need to just not try at all but subconsciously, it could have meant more to him.

When he heard his mother on the phone crying about if she's raising him wrong, if she’s a bad mother, etc. it made Deuce realise what he's been doing, that he's been taking the easy way out of things. Even though he probably didn't (and still to this day) realise he was hanging around the older delinquents because he saw them as potential father figures. (help my boy plsssssssss)

We all already know Deuce is a big mama's boy, not the sharpest tool in the shed and can have a bit of a temper when provoked, I believe Deuce is also emotionally aware of his friends. Women are known to be the more emotionally aware and supportive gender stereotype, and with Deuce only being around them he must've found his foreground (we using the big english essay words) on being able to see when someone is upset and/or mad at him or something. Even though he may be able to see it he might be a bit awkward with the comfort as again, he's still an awkward teen. 

With deep conversations, he will try his absolute best to understand and will ask questions to further his knowledge on the topic even though he might not completely get it. He would never try to avoid or show immediate distaste for these conversations because he feels he really gets to know the type of person you are based on them (Ace learn something from Deuce). 

Deuce appreciates quality time with friends alot, and especially appreciates people he knows are there for him as well as those who he knows he could tell anything to and would never be judged. He probably had to fake things about his childhood and personality to his old delinquent friends and never really realised it until he got real supportive friends like Ace, Grim and Yuu.

My editor/assistant cause I can’t grammar or spell to save my life: @cyb3rpnnk 

SIDENOTE: DO NOT REPOST MY REALISTIC RENDITION OF DEUCE OR ANY OTHER CHARACTER I DO AS YOUR OWN. EVEN THOUGH THE BASE WAS MADE WITH AI IT IS STILL MY CREATION!

However you are permitied to use my headcanoing as your own for art or stories or whatever, just not my realistic rendition.

Also if you want realistic dating headcanons with the cast please leave a comment and I might do it! Btw if I do, these headcanons will be based on my normal headcanons of the characters.

[bettsfic]

18 and 19

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage.

passage below the cut! this is from Skinless when Layla and Henry meet. by this point we've mostly been in Henry's POV, where his coworker Layla seems like a nice young woman with whom he is foaming-at-the-mouth obsessed. we get to her POV (second person because that's just how she thinks, and also this is a flashback because her pacing and story structure is entirely separate from Henry's because i hate myself i guess) and find out she's been totally deranged for Henry from the beginning. this is the first time we see Henry from outside his POV.

backstory:

the career fair scene went through many iterations but has become an unfortunate foundational turning point of the story, despite the fact that a commercial underwriting department of a bank would never be at a college career fair

i did once research every question of every exam for a class where i thought the professor was being cruel. i also went to the dean about it, and there was an investigation, and every single student in the class went from a C to a B. (that's how bad it was: we all had the same grade, based on basically nothing, which was deeply ironic considering it was a statistics class)

like Layla, i've also had the Kids in the Hall theme song stuck in my head for most of my life

ultimately Skinless is a light-hearted rom com about two walking red flags who are trying to make their relationship work even though one of them is not who he says he is and the other is plotting a murder

the ethics test at the bank was really only 10 questions

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

the first thing i ever wrote was a series of stories in my diary when i was 8 or 9, and they all had the same premise in different settings: a child lives in a community but everyone hates him (they were always boy povs) and eventually the child runs away or is killed by the townspeople and everyone is much happier with him gone. the end.

a wrote a bit more here and there until i was 14 or so, at which point i seemed to forget writing fiction was even a thing. i kept a journal from 14 onward and that was the only creative writing i did besides the occasional poem until i was 24 and started writing fanfic.

i'm now 34 and i have an MFA in creative writing and half a PhD, and i've had some short publications and won some awards and i do artist residencies sometimes and have an agent. i'm hoping to put two manuscripts out on submission later this year or early next.

one of which will be Skinless, an excerpt of which is below the cut.

from Chapter 5:

In your final semester of college, you attend a career fair. As you wander the booths, you begin to consider that there might be industries more suited to people like you. You spot a bank. The man standing at the booth is talking to someone. You notice immediately that his congeniality is feigned, proven when the applicant walks away and his face returns to apathy. 

He is wearing a sharp black suit. Black dress shirt. Black tie. He is in his late twenties, perhaps. He has light brown skin and his hair is buzzed close to his scalp in a way that makes you eager to touch his head, feel it against your palm. He is tall and broad-shouldered, but he holds himself like he isn’t, slightly slouched, the way people stand in public transit to give others more room.

Something about him piques your curiosity, and as you walk toward him the small spark of your initial question mark grows into something that consumes you. You can’t even tell what exactly is drawing you to him. It’s not his beauty—although, aesthetically speaking, he is quite pleasing. It’s not his attire, though it’s strange to see a businessman in all black. It’s not the bored blankness of his face that reflects how you have felt these past four years pretending to be a peppy sorority girl. But it’s something, and suddenly you’re standing in front of him and handing him your resume.

He takes it and scans it. This is a bizarre interaction, this not speaking and not acknowledging each other thing, but he doesn’t seem to notice. Without even looking at you, he says, “Tell me about a time someone blamed you for something that wasn’t your fault, and what you did about it.” 

His voice doesn’t match him at all, this enormous man with this soft yet vaguely robotic voice. When you say nothing, he glances at you expectantly. You feel small and young. He doesn’t even see you. You are just one student among the many he will speak with today. 

“Last semester I had a professor who didn’t like me so he tried to give me a B,” you tell him. “I guess because I kept finding errors in our exams and proving it by cross-referencing the textbook. And it was outdated, so even if the exam matched the book, I’d be able to find newer research that conflicted with it. In a fifty-question exam, he would have to throw out almost half the questions and everyone got a way better grade.”

“You researched every question of every exam?”

“Yep.”

“Why?”

“He called a girl stupid and made her cry. And anyway, it’s not really ethical to be teaching outdated research.”

“So you—”

“Got him fired.”

“Fired? Really?”

Not exactly. He just didn’t get assigned any sections the following semester. You shrug. “Adjuncts are expendable.”

“And you don’t consider any of that underhanded?”

“I’d rather be underhanded than complaisant.”

Briefly he looks you dead in the eye. It ignites something in you like a match being struck. All the stupid princess movies you hated growing up and which Candy still makes you watch are right: love at first sight is real, and it happened to you, the person least qualified to do anything about it.

When Angie from the bank’s HR department calls you to schedule a formal interview, you begin your preparations. You buy an interview outfit. You ask Candy to teach you how to do your makeup and hair. Then you study. Common interview questions. How to answer them. What the fuck underwriting is. 

You arrive at the bank certain that the beautiful career fair man won’t be there, but he’s the one who greets you in the lobby. He’s once more wearing all black.

“Hi, Layla, good to see you again.” He holds out his hand to you. “Henry King.”

“Henry King,” you say back, awed as you shake his big, beautiful hand and look into his big, beautiful eyes. You’re going to be Layla King one day. You promise yourself you won’t go home and practice your future signature, because that would be ridiculous. 

Now you are in an elevator with Henry King, going all the way up to the thirtieth floor. He opens his mouth to pop his ears at floor sixteen. 

“Mr. King?” You wait for him to say, Call me Henry, but he doesn’t. “Do you have any tips for me?”

“Wouldn’t that give you an unfair advantage?”

“Don’t you want me to have an unfair advantage?”

He looks down and away, scratches his head, and even though he’s not smiling you get the impression he’s pleased. “As long as you don’t admit to being a psychopath, you have nothing to worry about.”

“I would never admit that.”

The elevator doors open and he holds them for you to step out first. “Just be honest,” he says, “and be yourself.”

When you arrive on your first day, Henry King is waiting for you in the lobby again, and he’s still not smiling but there is something in his eyes that tells you he’s glad to see you. He holds out his hand and says, “Congratulations.”

You won’t be shaking Henry King’s hand. You hug him and he goes oof. Tentatively he pats your back. When you pull away, you say, “Thank you for getting me the job. It really means a lot to me.”

He seems to be short-circuiting, like you have suddenly initiated improv in a well-rehearsed play. It’s fine. You have the job now, and after all, he did tell you to be yourself.

During your training, you’re required to read the corporate ethics guide and take a ten-question test. The questions are so obvious that you don’t really have to read the guide. In fact, you only need an eight out of ten to pass—which has frightening implications for the state of ethics here—but you read it like you’re studying for the MCAT. 

The section on dating in the workplace is a single paragraph. Should two employees engage in a romantic relationship, it says, it must be reported to HR. It also says that a manager dating a direct subordinate is grounds for termination.

You hail Henry over to your computer and show him the company policy on dating. Any other person would see how obvious you’re being. Not Henry. Henry says, “The ethics guide is a CYA document.” 

He uses that acronym a lot. It means Cover Your Ass. More specifically, it means to analyze all documentation from the perspective of the documenting party, whose goal is, above all things, to avoid a lawsuit. And in the event of a lawsuit, to avoid losing it.

“Look,” he says, pointing at your monitor, bent over your shoulder as you sit in your desk chair, so close you can smell him. He smells so good it makes you angry. “It says you have to report it. It doesn’t say what happens after you report it. That means the decision moves to the manager of the employees in a relationship. Then HR can wipe their hands clean of it, and the manager can fire both employees, citing that a potential breakup would create a hostile team environment.” He points to the next sentence about managers and subordinates. “It says ‘eligible for termination,’ but it doesn’t say who gets terminated. Again, probably both.”

You look up at him. “So we really can’t date?” 

Given his lack of a reaction, he seems to take your “we” to mean all employees of the company.

“It’s unprofessional.”

 

Every day the stakes grow higher. You study Henry, in part, thinking that if you dig deep enough you will find nothing, you will discover he is like all the rest, boring, bearing the sad burden of existence and merely passing the time until death. Watching television. Picking up a hobby. Sports. Disgusting.

You decide that you must first befriend Henry King. You have learned that people like talking about themselves, and for the most part they love being asked questions, because it is the status quo in the world to be self-interested. For all your faults, at least you are not self-interested. You’re very interested in others, and you’re so glad to be able to see this, in some ways, as a strength. You are at once perfect at everything but also somehow have no admirable qualities. You ask Henry King many questions and he tells you, simply, “I’m not answering that.”

You take a different tactic: you tell him about yourself. You try to be interesting. The cool stuff you learned in the classes you took, the drama of Candy’s vocational school love life. He listens and goes “uh huh.”

Next, you try to make him laugh. You are a funny person simply because, like all things, you’ve trained yourself to be. You have watched many hours of standup comedy and sketch shows. You’ve had the Kids in the Hall theme song stuck in your head for most of your life. 

One day, you’re busy looking at a client file while returning to your desk and run into the cubicle wall. Henry King laughs at you. That’s a start. 

After many months being his personal court jester, you conclude that Henry King exists in the infinitesimal Venn diagram overlap between having a dry sense of humor and being totally unable to understand sarcasm.

You’ve been looking forward to your first annual review, seeing evidence of your excellence. You’ve spent this past year learning quickly, working hard. You work through lunch sometimes. You arrive early and stay late. You take on as many deals as you can, some weeks more than Henry. You make sure everyone on the team gets a card and a cake for their birthday. Finally, you enter Jerry’s office with a notebook and a smile.

Fifteen minutes later, you return to your cubicle with a single sheet of paper marking you adequate. In every category, you “meet expectations.” No raise. No bonus. No promotion. 

Henry has a bad habit of offering hard truths in a way that is not at all gentle. “Look,” he says when you slump down into your desk chair. When he begins a sentence with “look,” you know you’re about to hear something horrible. “You’ll never get an A at work.”

He goes on to tell you the worst of all truths—that banks thrive on inefficiency and hard work is rewarded with only more work. And if you do too much work, employees will start to get fired, because it’s clear the workload isn’t high enough to justify paying so many people. You’ll also set a new standard for yourself, and if you set that standard too high, if you burn out and stop meeting it, you’re the one who’s going to get fired. The only reward you’ll ever receive is the privilege of returning to work the next day. 

To prove it, he pulls a manila folder out of his desk cabinet and hands it to you. You open it. Inside you find eleven identical sheets, each one declaring Henry has met expectations for the year, each signed off by the revolving door of bookrunners.

He’s the hardest worker you’ve ever known. You have a crush on him, sure, but even if you didn’t, you would still admire him. He’s diligent and patient, level-headed. He’s at least as smart as you, if not more. In every way, Henry King has exceeded your expectations. 

After work that day, you cry in your car. You haven’t cried since the time you watched Lacey torture a squirrel, and you witness it with interest and confusion. You’re not crying; crying is happening to you. Henry passes your car on the way to his. He pretends not to notice.

The next day, he asks you to lunch. You tell him no thanks. He does what you do: leans on your desk and stares at you for so long that you can’t ignore him, which is actually super annoying. You can’t believe he tolerates you. And since you’ve never taken no for an answer, neither does he. 

“I’ll pick you up and carry you out of here,” he says, nudging your shoulder. You’re always touching him but this is the first time he has touched you. Your face feels very hot.

You enjoy the thought of him picking you up and carrying you. You like how big and strong he is, even though he doesn’t seem to know that about himself, like a giant dog that thinks it can sleep in your lap without crushing you. 

He might be flirting with you. You’ve never actually been flirted with. You go to the copier to get your printouts. They’re still printing. Suddenly you’re swept up into his arms. You yelp.

“Put me down,” you say.

“Not until you agree to go to lunch with me.”

He holds you like you’re no heavier than a big client file. You know you’ll get in trouble if anyone sees you, but everyone’s at lunch. He takes you to the elevators. 

“Okay, okay,” you say. “We’ll get pizza.”

At lunch, in a roundabout, somewhat evasive way, he tells you what a good job you’ve been doing and that he appreciates your hard work. 

“Thank you,” you tell him, choking up but refusing to cry in front of him. “I really look up to you, so that means a lot.”

A silence follows that would be awkward to anyone else, but you understand that Henry needs these occasional pauses. For him, silence is not something that stretches across time but must be carved into it. He makes spaces for feeling, for thinking, for simply being in the company of someone else. 

These traits make your crush grow to unwieldy proportions, but after a year of trying to get his attention, you’re still just a plucky young apprentice to him. You don’t know anything about him. You’re close to giving up and you’re shocked by how badly that hurts. A boy you like doesn't like you. Your broken-heartedness is so clichéd, so conventional, so boring, and yet it’s the worst thing you’ve ever felt. 

One day, you tell Henry a story about a high school friend, nameless, and he says, “Wait, is this Michelle or someone else?” 

You stop dead in the middle of the sidewalk. He listens. He’s been listening.

“Yes,” you say, “it’s Michelle.”

Another time, waiting for a table at lunch, you accidentally stand in the path of someone making their way to the host station. Henry puts a hand on your lower back and guides you closer to him, out of the way. 

Every once in a while, he plucks stray hairs that cling to your wool coat.

A new thing begins to grow, so nebulous and strange you don’t at first allow yourself to acknowledge it. Over time, it becomes too big to ignore, and finally you look right at it: 

You love Henry King. 

You no longer just want his attention, you want him to touch you, curl up on the couch with you and watch TV each night, have children with you, grow old and die with you. It’s disorienting to know something in your head immediately but not actually feel it until a year later. You wonder what other things you have only thought but not felt. You wonder how long you have confused thinking for feeling.

[lover-of-skellies]

Don’t know if you’re still doing this but has anyone asked about inks smoochability?

It's been a year since I've done anything with the smoochability ratings, but hey. There were a few skeletons I hadn't done this for, and Ink was one of them, so I figured I might as well :P

All my logic is under the cut if you wanna look at it, but at the end of the day, Ink gets a smoochability rating of 9. He's one of the safer options, surprisingly enough, so if you'd like to smooch him, go right on ahead. Just be prepared; he could end up accidentally nipping or throwing up ink on you if you get him too excited

1) Is Ink's mouth dangerous at all? I don't believe it would be. His teeth are flat and standard, though I've seen some depictions of him that had little fangs, too. There are no parasites in there, no mysterious diseases/viruses you could catch, and a kiss wouldn't kill you; in fact, the worst thing that could happen would be Ink getting too excited and throwing up ink in your mouth and on you in general. While that's incredibly gross to think about, that's more of a health hazard than a danger factor, since if you kiss him, you'll at least leave without having any blood drawn. So, 2 points for safety

2) Would he bite? Not intentionally. While he IS like adhd incarnate and while he DOES do things that are a bit impulsive (see: everything involving taunting Error), I would assume he knows that biting people is bad. There is a chance that he might bite accidentally if startled, but for the most part, no, I don't see him being a biter. 2 points for not munching on anyone's lips

3) Are there any health hazards to the smoocher? Uhhhh yeah. It's the fact that if he gets too excited, he vomits ink. That in and of itself is gross, but not overly harmful. Then again though, there are different types of ink that exist, and we don't know what specific type he vomits. The impact that accidentally swallowing it might have on a human person could vary, depending on what exactly the type is. Worst case scenario, it's toxic and you need your stomach pumped asap to get it out, and best case scenario, it's yuckydisgusting and only makes you slightly sick for a short amount of time. The hazard level is up for debate here, but I'll still give him at least 1 point since death is not a guaranteed outcome

4) Does he have a sympathetic backstory? Sort of?? I know he was from an incomplete AU and was sorta. Left alone in the vast nothingness, until creators' feelings started raining down on him and he started experimenting with them. It'd really suck to be the only vaguely self aware person from your home, and then be alone eventually, surrounded by nothingness, so that does give me at least a little sympathy. So,, 1 point. It's very unfortunate, but it's not sad enough that I feel like crying over it

5) Does he deserve a smooch? Ehhhh, this one is up for debate. Personally, I'd say no, since from what I know and remember of his canon story, he never really did anything that would make him deserving of a smooch. 1 point, since maybe under the right circumstances he'd be deserving, but as is, I'm not really feeling it

6) Is Ink cute or cool? In a way, yeah, he could be considered cute and cool. He's cute in the "small guy with 0 thoughts behind those eyes" sense, and then he's cool design-wise. His first design was interesting and unique, but it had a lot going on, and then his updated design has less going on visually, but it's still pretty interesting and unique. If I was shown a silhouette of him, I'd be able to identify who he was, so. 2 points

When we add up all of our points and take everything into consideration, Ink is a 9 out of 12 :P he's a safer option, but even then, he could still unintentionally give you a nasty surprise. This is the part where I'd add in a scenario to kinda lay out how it'd go, but like. It's hot here. I'm feeling lazy, and thinking is Hard right now. I have a first kiss master list in my pinned post, which could be something to consider checking out if you're curious at all!

[sweet-lemonad-rose-sapphire]

Link Character Analysis Pt. 1

Child Link

Just as a little note here, by “Child Link” I am talking about the child version of Link from BOTW

What was he like?

Unfortunately, we don’t know much about Child Link in game besides what we learn from the Mipha memory and Mipha’s Diary (BOTW DLC):

- He’s described as “curious and full of energy with a ready smile”

- Has “exceptional swordsmanship” only at “about 4 years of age”! AND he was literally going against adult knights and even beat them! Why that was allowed, I’ll get to that later…

- He’s very impressed by magic!

Where did he live?

Ok. This one’s an unpopular opinion for some people but here’s what I found.

- According to Creating a Champion (pg. 376) , Link had likely started his childhood in Hateno Village.

- HOWEVER, also according to Mipha’s Diary, the KING sent a group of knights to the Zora Domain. The same group of knights that Child Link was with. MEANING that even though Link may have at least been born in Hateno Village, he must’ve ended up in Castle Town, where he spent the rest of his childhood, gaining traction as a gifted swordsman.

Link’s Family

I may be cheating a little on this one, but by also looking at past Zelda games, I can kind of piece together what his family is like.

- In Memory #11 (Shelter From the Storm), Zelda makes the first mention, probably in Zelda game history, of Link’s father who was a knight.

- Although I’m sure Zelda was talking about Link when she gives the comment “Your commitment to the training necessary to fulfill your goal is really quite admirable,” I think she was also still comparing Link to his Father’s journey of becoming a knight. According to Creating a Champion, Link is NOT of nobility. And unlike all the “likelys” and “maybes” that this book says about most of Link’s past, this information is for certain. Therefore, Link’s father would have had to work HARD to rise the ranks to be personally asked by the King to go to the Zora Domain with the other Hyrulian knights with him.

- Strangely enough, just a few paragraphs before this, Link is said to be born into a line of knights. These could also probably have been Hateno knights too

- This is the point where I’m slightly cheating. In the Japanese version of Creating a Champion, there’s a whole TWO PAGES of concept art that us English speakers are missing out on. 😔 On one of those pages, we can see an image of a (what looks like) 12 year old Link with an older man and a little girl. The man may look older than a father but, after what Zelda said, this can likely be Link’s Father!

- And the little girl would likely be Link’s little sister! Unfortunately, there’s no evidence in the game that Link had a little sister, but after looking at the Wind Waker game for reference, I have a feeling this girl is supposed to be BOTW’s version of Aryll. She even looks like she loves Cucco’s while Aryll in Wind Waker loves seagulls! I could go on about what this means for Link and his backstory, but then that would be touching “spoiler territory” for my duology, and I don’t want to do that just yet!

Link’s Childhood Friends

Most of Link’s friends that are mentioned in game are actually Zora! Although I’m sure he had some Hylian friends as well.

- Bazz: Was the leader of the Big Bad Bazz Brigade (BBBB). Link trained him sword fighting (or at least the “art of the blade”).

- Rivan: him and Link used to swim together when they were kids. Also a part of the BBBB

- Gaddison: her and Link used to play together as kids. She was also part of the BBBB, known as the heroine.

- Mipha: she used to heal Link whenever he would get hurt in training.

I’m not adding Kodah to the list because (I assume!) she didn’t “befriend” him until he was older

unfortunately I can't find a clip of Bazz talking about the BBBB, but believe me that it's in the game!

[cr4zyoosh]

Here is some concept art & some ideas for my creepypasta Oc/story!

This is about my story I did & the slenderverse au I created/inspired!

First: Her ability.

Her ability is sleep paralysis type power, along with it goes with mind fuckery.

She is able to “feed” on the soils & fear inside the mind & dreams of the victim/person.

This also has affect on multiple people/victims.

Second: The Red.

She basically has her own… realm? Yup let’s call it that. This is where her power can truly be used at full advantage. The proxies lure/chase the victims far enough to go into “The Red”. She is then able to a huge massive kill with multiple people. (Think of it as a game, like dead by daylight!) but, she mostly joins in the chases/sprees with the other proxies due to the whole thing taking up slightly some of her energy.

Third: Sleep Paralysis.

She has this ability where she can basically stun someone by giving them this sleep paralysis effect. This is when the proxies sneak into their victims houses for the sprees. While they are stunned/having “sleep paralysis” they think it’s a dream, such as one does with actual sleep paralysis. But this is not the case & is a way for the other proxies to murder their victims without having a fight.

She also if she’s going solo can also do this ability when in ones home. She then looms over them, like sleep paralysis & has her “red” take over them by entering through mouth & eyes. This “move” is called “The Red Mist”. It’s called this because it’s a mist type feel that enters one’s body, causing red veins to take over the whole body. This is where she is able to feed.

Fourth: Weakness.

Her weakness is if she doesn’t feed & loses/keeps losing energy, she will start to get sickly but more gruesome. She will start having the dreams again (like in my story!)

Only this time, it’s mostly about her. Herself getting hurt & sick in brutal ways. It’s so bad it forms into actual reality for her. Much farther it goes she starts to have hallucinations. Hallucinations of her life before the dreams & meeting “The Operator.” This happens due to her having a very very very very very powerful mind. It’s so bad though, it hurts her physically & mentally. She will also not be able to go into her “realm” she would have to with the other proxies but slightly slower due to being weak, this may cause her to be ambushed by a victim/person who has a weapon. In order for her to get her energy fully back, she will need four people to “reap”. (Referring to my story, the part with the angel numbers 4:44!)

Fifth: Proxy Name.

I was thinking about giving them the name “The Dream Reaper” or even “The Mind Reaper”. since their design is nearly like the Grim Reaper & their whole ability is also sort of like it too!

I also want to have them have an iconic quote they use! I will take any suggestions! You can even say they look like someone that wouldn’t even say anything!

(This is based on my story & my slight version of The Slenderverse. This is where “The Operator” when going through the process of the person becoming a proxy, they go through these stages; much like a sickness but slightly worse & gruesome. This is how they are able to get their abilities. During that process their memories erase the events before “The Operator” finds them &/or before they had their backstory happen that caused them to meet “The Operator”. Once mentioned from the proxies of a memory or when explaining their story, their memory of it will erase within hours or the next day. This helps them not want to go back to how it was for them & so they don’t have to worry about love ones.)

That is all I have for now! Tell me your thoughts & if I should continue with the story of the slenderverse au with my self insert tied into it! I have lots of ideas for the story but if this gets enough attention then I will definitely make more!!

[bpftgods]

I technically finished this last night but I was sleepy so I didn't post it

It's Nightmare!!

Oki, time to ramble about his backstory

So firstly, the twins don't guard a big tree

If they did, Adam and Eve wouldn't have been sent to Earth /j

Instead, their domains encircle Nim's resting place

She kinda just made two gods and then went to take the world's longest nap

Mortals can't go to the God's Realm (before death) so they don't gotta worry about that

They don't gotta worry about anything, actually

Nightmare's just paranoid and Dream does whatever he can to make him feel better

He's been paranoid since before the incident

He's the God of Fear and he believes that's enough reason for the other gods to want to plot against him

On bad days, he finds it difficult to trust Dream too

Only Killer (I still have no idea what to do with him, I just have a vague design) and Crescent get a pass, mostly because he thinks they're too weak to succeed if they really tried to kill him

When he was younger, he was slightly obsessed with his appearance

He kinda believed that if he looked presentable, other people would like him more

However, because of his paranoia, he still felt like the other gods were out to get him

This meant he tended to cause conflicts sometimes

Even though he believed it was in self-defence, he was usually the one initiating the fights

And one time, he made the mistake of messing with the God of Destruction

He lost

Very badly

Error was going easy on him, but his version of easy is very skewed

He took a hit to his right eye socket, which allowed his aura to begin leaking out of his body

He spent a while hiding, during which Dream was freaking out trying to find his brother

Eventually, Nightmare regained enough sense to go to Dream for help

However, by then, his aura had stained his bones and clothes, making them appear darker

It freaked out Dream even if he didn't say anything while he did his best to tend to his brother's injuries

Nowadays, Nightmare doesn't care much about his appearance

He is still paranoid though and doesn't want his weakness to be used against him so he uses his abilities to hide his injury

It's still there, you just can't see it

Also, Crescent doesn't know it exists

Since he spent so much time with him, Nightmare's aura stained his son's bones too, making them grey instead of white

The only reason that Crescent still has those stripes and the crescent shape on his forehead is because that's his magic manifesting onto his body and you can't stain magic without getting LV

Think of it like Ink's tattoos

The mug was a gift from Crescent

He kind of manifested it by using the magic in Nightmare's domain and then painting onto it

He practiced lots before giving the best one to his dad

Nightmare loves it and even though he doesn't need food/water, he fills it with lots of drinks so that he can stare at the drawing on the back

Also, he thinks that using it more often will make Crescent love him more, but he's being silly because Crescent loves him anyway

As one can imagine, Crescent going to the Mortal Realm is freaking him out

He has no idea why he'd go down there, especially when there's a prophecy that literally dictates he's going to interact with "a great evil"

...Not that Nightmare's told him about the prophecy

Nightmare has thrown hands with other gods multiple times for insulting his son because of this prophecy

He also would have done the same to Sci for revealing it in the first place, but Sci knew where to hide

Most of the gods fear Crescent as much as they fear Nightmare

Also, he has resting bitch face so sometimes he and someone else are staring at each other and both freaking out

[lunarifie]

Hi can we remember that characters are Multi-faceted

Rant based on the atsv fandom. I promise I’m not seething. This is very dramatized and my mood will change the next day. Don’t take this seriously.

Edit: I was right, its been 5 minutes and the agony is over. I have found fun funny people.

(VERY minor spoilers. More under cut)

- I am soooo disappointed in the early fandom of spider-verse right now. Maybe its because Ive been hanging around Tiktok when I really shouldnt, because its MOSTLY them with the bad takes but WHY are they SO bad.

- Im just going to start with the controversy with Gwen. Because thats happening for some reason.

- All over tiktok people are treating her as irredeemable and undeserving of Miles, as if she hadn’t gone out of her way to see him even though she wasnt allowed to. Even though the writers gave her a conflict with her father that was supposed to pull the audiences heart strings.

- Its as if people can’t see characters as anything more than one-dimensional. I appreciated every character in spider-verse because they were all so multi-faceted with their own flaws, positives, and motives.

- It just irks me to see people put down Gwen simply because she was slightly stand-offish with Miles. She had so much going on and it made SENSE for her to not want to risk everything she was given. The gift of traveling dimensions, of being safe from her father and to make friends that understand.

- Branching from Gwen, MIGUEL. I love him, he’s great, his backstory is so unique and explains his motive and character perfectly. Again, he’s multi-faceted, and I appreciate that SO much.

- But why is every fanart on tiktok I see JUST him and how hot he is. I understand, hes hot, and thats fine! Its also great because it gives fans something to talk about other than spoilers. But its the ONLY thing I see. Gwen was practically the second main character other than Miles in this movie. We were introduced to her conflict and then her resolution.

- Why not talk about Peter B. and how he must be feeling with Miles in danger?

- Why is Miguels hotness talked and drawn more than that, more than the PLOT. On tiktok AND tumblr. And I can bet that if I check instagram it’d be the same.

- Secondly, the love triangle. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that there was relief at how there was no true love triangle. The spiderverse characters did so well in making romance a component but not the main focus. So why are some fans trying to FORCE a love triangle?

- Examples are: People hating on Gwen, saying she was playing with Mile’s heart by fooling around with Hobie.

- People saying Miles had 100 times more chemistry with Morgo/spider-byte than he ever did with Gwen.

- I love ships, im very big on the fact that people can ship whoever they like as long as its not incest or pedophilia. Im not even the biggest Miles x Gwen shipper. But putting down ANOTHER ship just doesnt sit right with me, especially since its false? The writers are amazing, and they DID amazing at giving Miles and Gwen cute subtle chemistry. All these ship wars just seem like another play at hating Gwen.

- Spiderverse is amazing, and I love that the first movie was a great hit. But it was praised for its story-telling, art, and worldbuilding. The second movie just, isn’t, and I wish it was. Of course, with show and movie fandoms expanding, theres gonna be toxicity introduced. Like this one person who was revulsed by the idea of Gwen being trans, even with her trans pin on her backpack, her protect trans kid flag, and her signature colors.

- Its expected, I just wish it wasn’t.

- Maybe im just on the wrong side of social media, maybe I should wait until I can wedge my way into a spider-verse sub-community fandom I wanna see. Or maybe I just have to wait until this all blows over and then the fandom will revert to character and plot loving. Who knows.

- Im usually not the type of person to be hung over something like this, and I truly don’t think this beginning view of the movie will stick. I promise I don’t hate when people have fun in fandoms.

- Thoughts just needed to be put down and perhaps heard. Soooo if you read all of this, congrats! You have been hit with my very temporary negativity. Don’t let it drag you down! Enjoy the good parts of the fandom as I try to wiggle into those sections!

[adamwatchesmovies]

All Fun and Games (2023)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

There are so many people out there whose dream is to make a movie. Though you might lower your expectations when you learn you’re about to watch a directorial debut, you're still excited. “I'm going to pay close attention so I can tell people years from now that I saw the mark of a great director coming.” When, even with lowered expectations, the movie you see isn’t good, it’s doubly disappointing. I don’t want to be mean to All Fun and Games directors Ari Costa and Eren Celeboglu. I also want to be fair to you by admitting this film is not worth seeing.

In Salem, Massachusetts, young Jonah (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) finds a strange knife in an abandonned home. Its hilt is made of human bone and there’s an inscription on the blade. When his brother, Marcus (Asa Butterfield), reads the words out loud, he becomes possessed by an evil force. His sister, Billie (Natalia Dyer), her boyfriend, Pete (Kolton Stewart), best friend Sophie (Laurel Marsden) and uncle Bob (Erik Athavale) have no idea the “games” Marcus wants to play are deadly.

There are two major issues with “All Fun and Games”. The first is that it isn’t frightening. The idea of someone you love suddenly turning against you is ripe for potential but evil Marcus never uses his familial ties to his advantage. There’s little suspense, even in situations that should naturally generate it. The games of Hide-and-Seek and Tag, for example. You hold your breath for a moment, but no more than you would a normal game with friends. Some of that comes from the second major issue: the premise itself. The idea of games with deadly consequences isn’t enough anymore. Ready or Not did something different by supplementing the idea with comedy and social commentary. All Fun and Games doesn't do anything. This problem is amplified by the fact that some games work against the film itself. Playing Hide-and-Seek, for example, means the people who already want to get away from Marcus are allowed to do so. The villain searching for our heroes… continues searching for them. So what?

The premise gets increasingly convoluted as we learn the backstory behind the knife, particularly the way it leads the characters into playing a game of Tag. I think even the filmmakers knew that what they had was rather thin. The final running time is only 76 minutes.

All Fun and Games isn't devoid of merit and what’s good about it shows the people at its helm may have a promising career ahead of them. The Fletchers are dysfunctional, sometimes in a slightly comedic fashion but never to the point where they become over-the-top. The children bicker in a way that feels genuine considering the relationship between their parents and their age. Minus one sentence where Billie reminds Sophie that they’re best friends, everyone sounds real and the actors who’ve received the script by Costa, Celeboglu and their co-writer JJ Braider, deliver it convincingly. I’ll even go so far as to say that before people start getting possessed, you won’t understand why anyone would give the film a bad review.

The unimaginative premise and rushed conclusion (I had to double-check that I didn’t miss anything), combined with the missed potential and the lack of scares or tension means All Fun and Games is a movie you’ll forget right away. Usually, I say that it’s better to be memorable than good but that rule doesn't apply for directorial debuts. There’s potential here and although it isn’t entirely successful, some aspects of All Fun and Games make me think the next film by the people involved could be good. (June 30, 2024)

[shmowder]

Two dollars?? Whoa. I'll keep an eye out for a sale. Based on screenshots, it seems like P1 has more dialogue and more opportunities to get to know the characters better? I love the P2 art style so much though so it might be hard to get used to the original. I know some people have the opposite problem and are unhappy with some of the redesigns.

We like the same aspects of yandere <3 Oh I need to rant for a second. There's nothing wrong with legitimately enjoying the violence and kidnapping aspects, but I do feel like there's sometimes too much emphasis on making sure readers don't think you're (general "you") romanticizing yanderes. Like intellectually I know it's unhealthy you don't have to tell me every other sentence that this is wrong and bad and that the reader insert isn't supposed to like it! 🤧 ... Ngl I love willing!reader 🫣🫣 Anyway. Rant over :)

I'll never get over actually being asked for my thoughts?? Thank you, even though I often feel out of my depth lmao. Please tell me about yandere Aspity!

In addition to what you said, I think Maria would be prone to jealousy too but unlike Katerina, would feel more of a sense of entitlement and is more prone to lashing out at others and at you occasionally. Katerina is more likely to internalize perceived rejection and be self-destructive about it. They'd both want to dress you up and do your makeup (even if you don't normally wear any) like a doll >:)

Lara and Peter might be the clingy/obsessive type, would latch on to the idea of you as a lifeline to pull them out of their despair. Lara would try to prove herself to you through acts of service; you'd be the inspiration for Peter's art and he'd give you little gifts all the time.

Victor would be overprotective, treating you like glass and like you've said before, wanting you to feel you can come to him, only, with your troubles. Would also randomly ignore you occasionally lol :( He can't help it he's too lost in thought! Big Vlad would spoil the ever loving fuck out of you *and* intimidate everyone else away.

Btw. I read your Andrey x reader hcs last night and they were really good! I don't really feel anything for this guy but it seems like you've got his personality just right :) I've never wanted piercings in my life, why is that part speaking to me 😭 (ok, that's a lie, I did want snakebites when I was seventeen :o)) I liked the little bit about sketching diagrams afterwards, too. Your smut is so good forreal

🐿️ anon

Delicious juicy food delivered straight to my inbox for FREE? I am in heaven and ascending even higher rn.

I want to let you know that this concept lived in my head rent-free for the past week. Each time I came to answer this ask, I'd get distracted by the brief yandere drabbles you wrote and get lost in the fantasy. Especially the overprotective Victor one, it's my favourite. Oh god, you're a genius. Tell me more I beg!

And yes P1 had a lot more dialogue which is nice because it explains the story a lot more. Especially characters like Aglaya who get a lot of backstory and other things revealed about them. It's a game that does the best it could with the very very limited technology it had at the time, and despite the graphics it's beautiful in some areas.

The music is its crowning gem however! P1 soundtrack literally blows P2 soundtrack out of the water. It's like the devs know the graphic and everything is lacking in P1 so they more than made up for it with fire music that gets you in a trance of how amazing it sounds.

I think the major flaws are how the charactersation and story is slightly different. Some characters like Victor and Aglaya remain the same but other characters like Alexander Saburov are massively different. Also as a majority everyone is more of an asshole in P1, especially Artemy and Daniil at times.

Eva and Andrey are more slutty... do with that what you will.

Yulia in P1 feels like a younger Yulia who's still lost and figuring out life. Like a freshly out of college Yulia. While in P2 she's more of a jaded full grown up who knows how the world works but is displeased by it. I love both versions <3 She is one of the very polite characters in P1... which are surprisingly sparce. P1 is also more funny and silly with the dialogue, it's more whimsical with more realistic options too. Also you get a lot of opportunities to break the 4th wall while in P2 you can only do it while talking with the rat prophet, the replacement Artemy and endgame Mark.

And I agree with you about the yandere thoughts. The horror ones are fun but sometimes I want romanticised obsession and devotion yk? Like a yandere ready to move the earth and bring down the moon for their beloved. Where the conflict is more focused on the emotions and intenal turmoil rather than the murder or horror aspect. Even when it comes to the reader, I enjoy a little toxic reader too 👀 Like someone who encourages their yandere behaviour or doesn't mind it, someone who is okay with the obsession or someone who actively goes out of their way to make it worse. A reader who's a full fledged character rather than a damsel in distress, someone who takes actions and can effect the world around them.

But don't get me wrong! I do like a damsel in distress... as a kink. It's kinda hot to be a useless fawned upon princess that everyone is looking to save and please.

Yeah, I feel you so much on the "Don't have to tell me this is wrong every sentence." Like, oh my god, dude! I hate when stories treat the reader like they're an idiot. You have to have faith in them, especially when your content is marked for adults that they will be able to read between the lines. Like you don't see murder or serial killer stories saying how this is wrong every sentence?? Yandere is just a mix of horror, romance, and smut! It's just an archetype with interesting concepts and maybe even a fetish.

Why do people have to psychoanalyse every kink someone has??

I'll get back to the other characters in a bit, let's focus on the overprotective Victor for example! bc the brainrot is real i legit haven't stopped thinking about him for one second.

In one of his dialogue trees he has this line:

5.Victor Kain: ...If I'd learned about this earlier, I would have torn his head off already. Now give me thirty-five seconds of silence, please. I need to think.

It's when you inform him about the chemist who's helping people hide their dead. The same one who buys body parts from Artemy, he apparently also works for tha kains but manages to hide his shady businesses right under their nose.

And his reaction is just odjwofjwofkwk So Delicious? Like that chemist posed a real threat to tramble down on the fragile castle the Kain built with their reputation, start a domino effect which exposes them as law breakers for the townfolks which they absolutely cannot have.

You see him angry, even if it's just a small glimpse. He could've worded it more elegantly, used so many different expressions. But no, Victor chose the phrase "tear his head off"

THE FERALITY! THE POTENTIAL MY GOD. This man is so good at making himself a safe and trustworthy pragmatic person so much you forget there's a wide awake tiger with deadly focus behind those melancholic eyes, weighting your every word and soaking in all the information you unawarly expose to him. Memorising all the names you mention, drawing a map in his brain of your social circle and connections. Saying so little himself just to get you to keep talking and telling him more and more until a secret or two spill out without you realising it.

The way he's briefly quiet before snapping, composing himself, and holding back the flood of rage in his brain from bubbling to the surface. "I would've torn his head off" only scratches the surface of what he really wanted to do and say.

Even this simple sentence from someone usually so polite and level-headed paints a gruesome picture of a predetor's sharp teeth tearing apart a person's brain, completely dislocating the head from the shoulders and tearing the skin off with one bite. The crunching of the skull as it caves under the pressure of the tiger's jaw.

AND THEN YOU COME INTO MY HOUSE AND TELL ME HE IS AN OVERPROTECTIVE YANDERE!! I love you so much.

All that anger directed towards anyone who wishes you harm. It's like you struck a match inside him and now he simply cannot help but watch out for your well being from behind the curtains.

His obsession stems from thinking of you as... lesser to put it kindly. Of course you will never be aware of this condescension nor how he views you as a fragile thing unfit for the real world, a glass figurine that needs to be handled with delicate gloves so you won't crack.

Non the wiser, you think he's just a really good listener. So when he invites you over for tea, you oblige and just spill your heart out to him. Telling him how your week went, talking about the boring details and your hobbies, mentioning the mundane things like your trip to the grocery store.

And he never interrupts, at first you thought it was a little creepy how he'd have you over just to listen to you talk. Only answering with questions and dismissing any questions directed towards him ir his well being, saying he'd rather know about you more.

But with time you warmed him to him, I mean it is Victor Kain? He has never done harm to anyone has he? Sure the Kains have some screws loose but Victor always seemed the calmest one amidst his eccentric family.

You think that maybe he is just lonely and needs company or a friend! He's definitely awkward when it comes to normal conversation, so you're understandable when all he wants to talk about is you.

As far as you're concerned, that's as deep as youre surface relationship goes. It starts with afternoon tea and ands just after the sun sets down when he walks you home, ever the old school gentleman. Strange tho, he never walks anyone else home and lets Maria run loose at any hour of the night. But you've never given it much thought.

You poor sweet thing, so unaware of the monster you're feeding. The obsession you're helping nurture whenever you oblige to his request or head his advice. The rush of satisfaction that runs through his veins when you come running to him to vent after a particularly hard day, the addicting euphoria flooding his system when you thank him for listening, saying how he's the only person you trust with these embarrassing things.

Victor who's pulling strings when you're not looking. Taking over your life and holding power over every aspect of it so he can fine tune it, surgically decide every small detail like he's tinkering with the delicate inner-machinery of a clock.

Making sure he is your sole support system. Coincidentally, the friends you make are offered jobs back at the Capital and have to move away. The grocery near your house relocates, and the closest one is right next to the Kain's resident.

Whichever job you held is deemed too dangerous for someone as helpless as you and he takes it upon himself to talk to someone who talks to someone else who persuades the owner into getting you fired or at least you're out of business if it's privately owned. No one wants your services, they all deeply admire the Kains and would run to please him at the drop of a hat.

No one but Victor who so kindly extends a helping hand. If you refuse chairty money then he immediately suggest working for him instead, he needs a helper you see. No matter what excuse or response you have prepared, he has already accounted for all of them and has a convincing counter-argument.

You don't have to know that in reality, he just thinks the world is too dangerous for you to freely roam and get a job. If you want to play pretend as boss and employee then he will indulge your childish antics and offer you a job, either way the end is the same with you slowly migrating more and more under his wing and care.

Stripped of your income, support system and any opportunity for growth. Once Victor has you in his claws, he will make sure you never slip through his fingers.

Tbf he is content with you just being around, as long as you're safe and sound under his watch he will even if you just see him as a friend and nothing more.

Because while helping you is enthralling, not knowing where you are is the worst withdrawal he has ever experienced. And that man lived at the Capital before, do not let his grown up facade tirck you, he's probably even tried coke and all drugs under the sun at some point in his youth out of sheer boredom or curiosity.

It ircks him thinking you're vulnerable and bare outside for anyone to grab, it makes his brain ache to see you in a situation outside of his own control. He needs you to live in a world of his own making for all of eternity or he feels like ripping his hair out.

Zero expectations are set upon you to do anything. He isn't looking for a slave or a housewife, he just wants to be reassured no harm will ever befall you and keeping you under his watchfull gaze is the best solution he could come up with.

So what if you're basically a glorified pet? You still have your freedom... although limited. You can pursue your hobbies, indulge in his money and even befriend his two kids if you feel like it.

If you get really desperate for company other than his own and the Kains, then maybe he will think about letting you socialise with the other utopians every now and them. The mostly do not pose any dangers but some of them (caught Andrey, Eva and Vlad the Younger) Do really test his patience and boil his blood with jealousy from the shameless sexua advances and romantic propositions they throw your way as if he wasn't in the room.

Still, the utopians are your toys to play with until you're content. Didn't you ask for friends?

But he'd be lying if he said he wasn't thinking of more... forgive his brain, humans are inherently flawed and he cannot help but think of you in rather scandalous ways at times. Animalistic desires of lust and love rearing its head. Whenever you lean too close to him, pat your beautiful eyelashes or call his name out with a faux whine.

He's more than open to a seemingly "normal" relationship with you. As long as you get used to his busy schedule and periods of ignoring the world around him while in deep thought. He lives in his own brain most of the time and you rarely if ever guess what's going on in his life at any give day.

He remains an enigma while settling for nothing less than your whole heart laid bare before him on a silver tray. Proding at the fragile organ, never causing it any harm as he caresses it with gentle fingers. Feigning ignorance of the way his mouth waters, salvia dripping down the sharp fangs.

But again, he's down to compromise. You can only go places if he's by your side, even his own brother, the judge, he doesn't trust to accompany you alone.

-

God that was a fucking treat to write and think about. Talking with you is always so fun, I can just let go and say everything on my mind. When writing fanfics or sharing my thoughts to others I always trim the edges and make sure I'm not repeating myself yk? I have to put in effort to make my thoughts presentable and tied nicely with a bow, compress it down to bite sizes.

But man i am living the dream! A wall of text! my purpose in life! I wrote so much in such a short time that my fingers actually hurt.

Anyway I have more so let's keep going!

-

YANDERE BIG VLAD MY BELOVED.

He'd also fall on the overprotective category but not possessive controlling like Victor Kain. No, He'd want you to genuinely be happy.

Spoils you rotten, without decorum or an excuse. Literally buys you anything and everything, even the things you don't ask for he will get you just because he thought you might like them.

The softest thing with you despite how harsh and uncaring he is with others.

Don't get him wrong. He is still a ruthless businessman with shady and amoral practices, he simply does not care. The only things worth it in this life are the people you love, and he loves his family the most.

Including you! Surprise! He starts considering you part of his family. His love is definitely not just platonic however but he does hold the most shame when it comes to getting together with someone after his dead wife yk?

Especially if you're younger, oh my god he lacks morals yes but this is just humiliating. He gets over it easily.

If you want someone who is extremely self-aware and the guilt of lusting after a young adult really eats him up to the core, then look at none other than Alexander Saburov. Not only is his wife still alive so triple the shame and guilt, but also you're a 20/30 something cutie and he well past middle age. He is getting his ass beaten by his conscience inside his own mind and having a moral crisis.

Anyway, back to Big Vlad. I think he'd try to make you get with his son as a way to coerce you into joining the family, especially if you say he is too old for you.

Try saying Victor Kain is too old for you and that old man 404 errors on the spot then quickly recovers pulls up the shady "well the passage of time is subjective and age does not define a human's mind as long as they are a sound adult" argument. I don't think he himself remembers the fact he is almost 60. Age and time is just a suggestion to the Kains.

However Big Vlad would never pull the "becoming your boss" move ever. He wants you to see him as someone close and in an intimate light, that move will just ruin everything he has built. If he wants to throw money your way then he will shamelessly do it without tact and no one can stop him.

You do get your own worms bodyguards and nice herb brides who watch over you courtesy to him however.

Alexander might be the biggest simp in yanderes but he will hesitate before doing something which conflicts with his convictions.

Big Vlad however, will not.

Your suggestions are heard and the changes you demand in his treatment of the kin are immediately obeyed. He tries his best to please you and make you happy, you literally have this man wrapped around your pinky.

A single kiss would have his brain haywire, all it takes is a pat of your pretty eyelashes and a cute pout and all the complaints fizzle from his brain. You immediately win the argument by default.

While sex is good and all, I feel like he is more of a romantic at heart. Genuinely a big doofus in love and would melt over something as simple as hand holding or having you sleep against his chest. He lives for the early morning breakfast where your eyebrows are scrunched from being so sleepy, as you walk over and sink into his arms.

If Victor Kain treats you like a glorified pet and Alexander Saburov like the temptation & sin incarnate then Big Vlad treats you like royalty, a literal prince/princess fallen into his lap and he's the king who will ensure you have the most pampered and spoiled life ever.

You're not helpless in Big Vlad's eyes, he doesn't infantilise you like Victor Kain does. If anything you're the most capable and talented person in the entire world, which is why you deserve everything good and sweet in it.

-

I have so many more ideas and concepts! I love your idea of Maria and Katerina treating the reader like a doll and dressing you up then making out with you- Like you're just a beautiful thing to them to cuddle with as they fall asleep and string along on dates.

Yandere Maria wouldn't care what you have to say, she never begs or asks, she just takes. The day she decides you are here doll, everyone acknowledges that you are off limits because who in their right mind would oppose Maria??

And while Katerina doesn't hold much power, her husband is the leading authority over the town criminal and justice system. He is also the biggest simp to her and is 100% okay with being a cuck if it means his wife is happy.

If having you as her precious doll to dress up, smooch, and play with will put a stop to her morphine addiction, then he'd step over his own morals and look the other way.

YANDERE ASPITY MY LOVE. She has potential! I adore non-humans obsessing over a human. You're not like other humans, you're full of surprises and she wants to test and study you more. You make her see worth in her life and the world beyond the earth and why she was born.

I also like the implication that since she is literally a piece cut from boddho's heart and moulded into a person like clay, that if she falls in love with you then the earth itself would too. With Yandere Aspity you get a Yandere Boddoh and the entirety of the kin for free!

Maybe even possessive Aspity who doesn't want to share you with the earth, who refuses to hand you over and wants you to be hers. A piece of the earth defying its original self, establishing herself as her own person by choosing to love you and never share you.

But my food already went cold, and my fingers are growing numb, so I will cut it short for now.

Ha. Short. I say while having written the entire front page article of a gossipy small town's newspaper.

Do tell me about your thoughts! I love hearing them and reading what you write! Be it your thoughts about other yanderes or your opinions of what I have written. Or even an entirely different concept in general.

Lastly, thank you so much for the praise! I'm glad you liked my Andrey fic. He was a bit challenging to write because as you can see I specialised in romanticism and down bad old men and he's a fuck boy with anger issues and a renaissance man. So I had to conceade that no, he won't take you on picnics but he will take you to get your nipples pierced and maybe get a matching set of his own.

I'm happy you like my smut! I struggled a lot with figuring out how to write it ironically- I stuided romance and fluff I didn't take any good dick courses! So I only improved through trial and error, I changed my smut style so many times ah- The current one is the one I like most!

[hermionegalathynius]

Sweet Sixteen (4/11)

I know it’s not Christmas in this fic, but we’re currently three days away, so I’m going to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas!!

Anyway, one with the show.

Pairing: Sirius Black x Ravenclaw!Reader

Warnings: I have a Hufflepuff OC who’s a bit of a b*tch, and I just wanted to say now that I have no qualms with Hufflepuff whatsoever. They are my sister house (I’m a Ravenclaw) because they know how it feels to be under appreciated. I just didn’t want to be generic and make the annoying ex a Slytherin and I didn’t think her being In Gryffindor would work for the storyline.

Enjoy ;)

"So, how did it go?" Sienna asked at lunch in the Great Hall. 

  Y/n had just come back from her first tutoring session with Sirius. If she was being honest, it really wasn't as bad as she'd expected. Sure, he'd flirted with her in the beginning, but as soon as she'd asked him to stop he had. From then on he'd been, well, serious. He had listened to her and cooperated and by the end of the lesson he could recount everything they had gone over almost perfectly. He had cracked a joke every now an then and made a few flirty comments but those were more for laughs than they were for seduction purposes. Y/n had actually enjoyed it, though she would never admit it to anyone. The only thing that had bothered her was the way her heart had fluttered slightly when he'd slid into the seat opposite her and given her that famous, Sirius Black grin. 

  "I couldn't leave a lovely girl like yourself waiting, now could I?"

  Those words had almost made her blush. Almost.

  Because he was still Sirius Black. Hogwarts playboy. Heartbreaker. It didn't matter that this morning was the first time she'd spoken to him for more than a few moments, or that he had worked hard like she asked him to, or that when she'd told him about the extra credit she would be getting she could have sworn disappointment flashed across his face for a split second. None of that mattered because she was a smart girl. A logical girl. And falling for Sirius Black was the most illogical thing she could ever do. Besides, it's not like her reaction to his words meant anything. It was a natural reaction under the circumstances. 

  "Y/n? How did it go?" Sienna's voice brought Y/n out of her thoughts and she realised she had been sitting there in silence after her friend had asked her a question.

  "Oh! Um, it was okay, I guess. It's not exactly supposed to be fun, right?" She said, not totally convinced what she was saying was the truth.

  Sienna was still giving her that concerned look so she added, "I'm fine, Si. Stop fussing. I just zoned out, that's all."

  Her friend didn't look convinced but dropped the subject. Y/n was relieved when she did, not really wanting this new development to take over aspects of her life. They chatted about nothing for a while, munching on the sandwiches the house elves had put out for lunch. Y/n found herself acutely aware of Sirius and his friends a few meters away, talking and laughing at Gryffindor table. The Marauders was what they called themselves. An odd name, but fitting, she had always thought. Their nicknames, however, never really made sense to her. She knew Remus was Moony, as she'd heard James calling him that a few times, but she couldn't remember for the life of her what the others were. All she remembered was that they were odd and clearly had a strange backstory that she didn't know. 

  Why was she so curious about them anyway? It wasn't like she had ever paid much attention to them before. 

  Y/n shook those thoughts out of her head and tried to focus on her friend.

———

  Sirius had to resist a groan of annoyance when Abby Stoffhuis walked into the courtyard and made a beeline for where he and the other Marauders were sitting. James and Remus did not resist, however, and they both grumbled angrily in Sirius's direction as the blonde Hufflepuff drew nearer.

  "It's not my fault she's an obsessive psychopath," Sirius muttered to his friends just before she stopped in front of him.

  "Sirius!" She exclaimed, that sickly sweet smile pasted on her make-up covered face. Sirius resisted the urge to wince at her high-pitched voice and the way she batted her eyelashes. How had he ever found her attractive?

  Oh right. He'd been an idiot looking to do something that would piss off his parents. An unknowing Hufflepuff girl seemed to be the most obvious option. Figures she would become his own personal stalker when they broke up after two weeks of dating. 

  "Hey, Abby," he said, trying to sound a lot less uncomfortable than he felt, "How's it going?"

  She latched onto his arm with her red-tipped fingers and purred up at him, "Much better now that I've found you," then with a pout, "You've been missing the whole morning."

  Sirius carefully pride her fingers off of his jacket and took a step back only to have her take a step forward. James snorted and quickly covered it up with a cough, making Remus stuff his fist in his mouth to prevent breaking out in laughter too. 

  "I was at tutoring the whole morning. Y/n's helping me with Muggle studies," he said, then immediately wished he hadn't.

  Abby's brown eyes darkened and her face grew murderous, "Y/n L/n? The girl you couldn't stop staring at while on our date in Hogsmead?" She hissed.

  Sirius sighed, "Yes, Abby. On our date in Hogsmead two years ago. We're not dating anymore, remember?"

  People were starting to stare at the scene Abby was making as she clenched her fists. Even Regulus and his friends had stopped brooding long enough to glance in their direction. Sirius's patience was growing thin.

  "Of course I remember," was all Addy said, "See you later Sirius."

  And finally, finally she walked away. However, Sirius had a pretty good idea of who she was walking away to find and internally groaned at all the progress he had made with Y/n being washed down the drain.

———

  The following morning was Monday. Y/n's least favourite day of the week. Just because she was a school-loving Ravenclaw, didn't mean she liked waking up early after a late night of relaxing to go to class and socialise. And of course this particular Monday had to turn out worse than usual. 

  "Oh no. Abby Stoffhuis approaching ten o'clock," Sienna murmured to Y/n as they were walking to their usual spot at the Ravenclaw table. 

  Y/n frowned in confusion as she realised the girl was glaring at her. What could Abigail Stoffhuis, a Hufflepuff and one of the many people at Hogwarts that Y/n had never conversed more than two words with, want with her? They weren't even in the same house, so there was absolutely nothing connecting them. Unless...

  Abby had been Sirius's first girlfriend, if Y/n's memory served her correctly. She'd only known about it through the grapevine at the time but if the rumours were true then Sirius had broken up with her after two weeks and she had been obsessed with him ever since. And Y/n had spent three hours alone with Sirius yesterday teaching him Muggle Studies. 

  "Dammit, she's mad because I tutored Black yesterday," Y/n told Sienna as Abby got up from her seat and started storming towards them. 

  "Ouch, RIP to you then," Sienna replied which earned her a glare from her friend. 

  "I could take that barbie doll any day," Y/n muttered.

  "What's a barbie doll?"

  However, Y/n never got to answer because Abigail Stoffhuis chose that moment to interrupt their conversation. 

  "L/n," she started, her brown doll eyes glaring into Y/n's e/c ones, "I heard you and Sirius had a tutoring session yesterday morning." The way she said 'tutoring session' made it sound like that wasn't at all what they'd really been doing. Of course that was what Abby would assume happened, because she was so naively unaware that not everyone was as open to snogging anything with lips as she was. 

  "We did have a tutoring session upon Professor Sikander's request we do so. Do you have a problem with that?" Y/n replied coolly, already exasperated beyond measure. 

  Abby only deepened her scowl and moved forward until she was far too close for Y/n's liking. 

  "Stay away from Sirius Black," she growled, the sound so animalistic it made Y/n wonder if this girl wasn't just a territorial cat who'd been transfigured into a human. 

  She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "Honestly, Stoffhuis. You can't be that dense? Do you really expect me to disobey a teacher's direct orders just because you can't get over some guy who dumped you after two weeks?"

  Abby bristled — actually bristled — and pointed a finger at Y/n, "He's not just some guy, he's my soulmate. I knew it from the moment I laid eyes on him."

  Y/n couldn't suppress the look of absolute shock, disbelief and amusement that took over her face at those words. She actually thought Sirius was her soulmate? She was delusional. Crazy. Insane. 

  Instead of expressing her exact thoughts on Abby's declaration, Y/n shook her head and mused, "Black's birthday was two weeks ago. Don't you think he would have told you by now if it's your name on his arm?"

  She seemed to regain some of her control and shrugged nonchalantly, "You don't know him like I do. He's probably just nervous to tell me."

  Y/n scoffed a laughed and started to turn away but Abby grabbed her arm angrily and put her mouth by Y/n's ear.

  "You'll regret ever laughing at me, L/n," she spat softly before releasing her grip and stalking off.

  "What. The bloody hell. Was that?" Sienna said, staring after the Hufflepuff with a baffled expression filling her features. 

  Y/n's face mirrored her friend's as she replied, "It looks like I just made myself an enemy of Abigail Stoffhuis."

Tag list:

@obscurilicious

@hphufflefan

[aliensmoothie]

I WPULD. LOVW TO KNOW SO MUCHABOUT BALONEY . i think the fact that he's in the bg3 universe is amusing to me . i hope hes been getting up to shenanigans . i love that he outdrank some guy

HE HAS IN FACT BEEN UP TO TONS OF SHENANIGANS . him and ast*rion are on slightly less thin ice than usual which maybe doesnt bode well for baloney's moral compass atm but he is pleased to be getting more info abt the man at any rate . he gave shadowheart a flower and it reminded me of the flower scene from tftb and i cried a little . i dont think baloney has romantic feelings toward shadowheart . but it was cute nonetheless HER LITTLE ' HA JUST KIDDING ' AFTER SAYING IT WAS POISONOUS WAS SO CUTE . i was pretty neutral on beloved shart at first but now i belove her alot . he has still not stopped travelling with wyll they are besties forever to me . baloney is like wyll's pet decrepit old man who has mostly good intentions and is only sometimes overly violent .ALSO FUN FACT HE HAS OUTDRANK PEOPLE BEFORE HE DID IT IN A DND CAMPAIGN I PUT HIM IN . he ALMOST outdrank the whole party . but the ( i think ) warlock just barely beat him .

also . coughs . let me go dig up the summary i wrote about his backstory . grins completely insane .

ok . smiles . SO . Bloney is from a town called bone-dry ( which also has it's own whole lore google doc but thats another story ) which in short is a small town surrounded by it's own graveyard in the middle of a salt desert . he is the middle child of . like 13 ? i dont have the number written down anywhere but i think that is right . anyways he's somewhere in the middle . he has always been just a very strange child . standoffish and always smiling at inappropriate times and not very good at talking with people , and spends most of his time reading whatever reading material passes through the town through trade , and then cataloguing all of it . HE ALSO catalogues any stories he can get out of the travelers who pass through ., and anything the people in town tell him . that said . he is standoffish and people in town are just kind of made Uncomfortable by him . so this effort does not ever bear much fruit for him . can youtell i am projecting my autism experiences onto him BAD . one day when he is a fairly young adult , his eldest brother dies under somewhat mysterious circumstances . on that same day , baloney finds himself lost out in the desert , and almost dies too . all he remembers is wandering , trying to find his way back home for hours and hours , and as the sun beats down at him he collapses and goes unconcious . he wakes up to a raven pecking at his head , and when he wakes up it starts to fly away , but stops and lands a few feet away and looks back at him . and when he follows it , it leads him back to town . from then on , he does not remember how he ended up wandering through the desert , and he does not remember that his eldest brother is dead . they never find his body , and with nothing to bury they just erect a gravestone in their vast graveyard with nothing underneath it . this whole experience combined with baloney's newfound memory issues give him a . warped view of death . where he never fully believes someone is dead , just missing , sick , or is generally in some kind of denial about it . ( BG3 BALONEY I THINK THIS GOES ANOTHER WAY WHERE HE BECOMES SORT OF OBSESSED WITH DEATH . though i dont know much about the durge stuff yet SO we'll see . we are talking about canon baloney for the most part here anyways though . if the durge stuff doesnt spell completely otherwise there should be some overlap still smile ) ALSO since that day , a small number of ravens have been appearing in town , which tend to folow baloney . or maybe the other way around . at any rate , baloney find that the ravens are most interested when he tells them tales of the dead ( or in his mind the sick or the missing ), which starts when he talks to them about his eldest brother . over the years he spends nearly all his time combing through the town's graveyard , and telling whatever stories he knows at the dead . he gets *really good* at piecing together stories of these people's lives from what limited information he can get from the rest of town . and without him knowing , the raven following him and listening to his stories were a weak manifestation of the raven queen , who was over time building him up to be her cleric . after many years he notices the ravens have started flying away from the town and not returning . at this point he is familiar enough with the ravens that their message is clear : he needs to leave town and seek out more knowledge of the dead . his one wish being to figure out how to heal these " sick " people , to talk to them and find their stories from the source . all of that building up to him being a death domain cleric LARGELY FOCUSED on necromancy . smile . also i have been playing with the idea that he is the one who killed his oldest brother . my only roadblock being that im not sure Why he would have done it . alas . it is a neat concept !

[remyfire]

Okay, so, lot of thoughts about the BJ vs Trapper thing. First, you were absolutely correct, I am a Trapper girlie deep down, but BJ stole my heart within only a few minutes. Trap might just barely win as my favorite, but I think it's because watching those first three seasons made me fall fully in love with the show. So if he is my favorite, it's more sentimentality reasons rather than being a better character or partner to Hawkeye, you know?

While watching both Preventative Medicine and Period of Adjustment, I did realize that BJ and Hawkeye butt heads more often than Trap and Hawk. The show made that very clear to see. But that being said, I don't think it's a bad thing. Trap was definitely more of an enabler, and I think sometimes Hawkeye does need someone to bring him back down to earth. Trapper was also much more pessimistic than BJ seems to be, and I think it's good for Hawkeye to have someone to help pull him out of his spirals a little easier when he starts to get too deep. Again, not that Trap was unable to do that, but I think BJ has a slightly more positive view on things than Trapper did. But at the same time, having someone with that easy friendship where you can think the same thing without even speaking like Trapper and Hawkeye had can be so nice. They were often so in sync with each other, and I think having someone feel and think the same way also helped Hawkeye feel less alone over in Korea.

Regarding both of them knocking Hawkeye away, I think a bit of a disservice was done to BJ by making his episode and moment a bit heavier than Trapper's. When Trap whacked Hawkeye with that bag, it was played much more as a joke. When BJ blew up, it fell more on the drama side of the show. So regardless of my personal feelings, I do think both of these scenes would be seen very differently if they were both played in the same tone. As it stands, having BJ's lean away from the comedy made it feel much more charged than Trapper's, even if the overall situation is the same for both of them.

Personally, this doesn't take away any of my love for BJ. It gives him nuance and depth. We hear him talk about missing his family, but this is the first time we really *see* it have an effect on him. And while I do wish he would have directly apologized to Hawkeye, I think that was an extra layer of his emotional onion that he was just not able to peel back at that time. Even though he didn't say the words, I think he showed his remorse by opening up to Hawkeye, going to him for comfort, helping him rebuild the still. I still think Hawkeye deserves a real apology for being hurt like that, but I think he also knows that BJ feels bad and didn't truly mean to hurt him. That being said, I think he also deserves an apology from Trapper, but Hawk and Trap's relationship was always a bit less explicitly emotional than BJ and Hawkeye's has been.

Also, this may all be sentimentality speaking. There are two scenes I remember the exact wording of from when I watched this show as a kid so many years ago, and one of them is "You know what I did today? I hit the best friend I ever had." And even the first time I saw that, even without knowing their full backstory, that line spoke to me so much that I've remembered it all these years. I remembered the pain in BJ's voice when he said it, the tears in his eyes, the way he looked at Hawkeye when he spoke. To me, it showed the depth of their friendship, even without the several seasons of backstory. It told me that BJ cared, and he felt remorse, and also had a kind of love for Hawkeye that I only hoped people could have for me. Like I said, it may be sentimentality speaking, but I think that was a hugely powerful scene.

All this to say: I don't think it affects my love or BJ or him and Hawkeye as a ship. It's definitely a tough episode to watch, and I think it's also a hurdle they might have to work a little to get past, but personally it made no difference for me in my enjoyment of his character. All it did for me was add more depth to BJ, show me his experiences of the horrors of war, and make him more of an interesting character. And thank you for posing such a question! It was definitely in line with the hints of a thought I had on my own after watching this episode, and it was very fun to delve deeper in and really analyze what I thought and why I thought that. And of course I could probably go on further, because I clearly love talking about these boys. But thank you for the question and thank you for sharing your thoughts too!

Hi anon, you said all of this so articulately that I am honestly struggling to come up with an in-depth response because I am just sitting here chin-handsing and thinking about all three of our boys with very, very large emotions. You and I really do seem to be like-minded regarding quite a bit about how we absorbed these experiences and let them coalesce into the wider narrative and relationships therein.

So instead I'm just going to think about how after the war, what this means is that all three of them are going to [I am hooked and removed from the stage]

[giantchasm]

top 10 pokemon characters/story arcs?

Hi! Sorry this response is coming a little late. I can take a bit to answer asks, but I swear in general I will get around to them. Life's just been hectic.

To answer your question, though (And assuming this only applies to mainline Pokemon— I'll do everyone a favor and spare you from hearing me talk about my feelings on PMD characters... unless people WANT to hear about those too?)

As a note, this is within the context of how well developed I think their characters/story were, so it's not in the order of my favorites in general. That would vary slightly. For example: I love Raifort, but her ass does NOT have that much going on. I'd also put Volo much higher up than I did on this list.

1 - N - Honestly, I had a lot of trouble deciding whether he or Lillie deserved first place. They're more or less a tie in my book. I think they both had character arcs handled extremely well in different ways. I ultimately opted for giving N this slot because I think BW is just the more thematically rich game as a whole, but I do love Lillie. N is just so fantastic, though. I love his arc as well as the different facets of his personality. He was the first character that was ever truly a "blorbo" in a fandom sense to me and with good reason. I would take Ibuprofen with him any day.

2 - Lillie - Like I said, Lillie almost made first place. I really do love her. I think her arc about learning to stand up for herself and generally carve out her identity as an abused child is extremely well done. She is my FRIEND and it made me VERY SAD when she left at the end of the game. I hope everyone who complains about Sun & Moon's story without ever having actually bothered to engage with it blows up forever.

3 - Arven - Say what you will about Scarlet and Violet- they're buggy, rushed games, but their story slaps. I think Arven's arc and the general way he's characterized is super well done. Although that goes for all of the ScarVi cast! I think they're just sincerely good characters. Blowing up everyone who didn't pay attention to the story then had the audacity to complain about it being bad with my mind here as well. [This is malice directed specifically towards Alpharad for his read on Penny, but don't tell anyone that]

4 - Silver - Silver's interesting in that he comes from a time when Pokemon character arcs weren't super defined but he has such a solid one, so he really stands out! I love him learning to open up, trust, and love his Pokemon and think the way that story is told organically through elements such as his Golbat finally evolving is wonderful. His Pokemas event with Ho-Oh made me cry.

5 & 6 - Cheren and Bianca - I feel weird separating these two because of the way their arcs parallel each other, so they're going together. They really do exemplify the way that Black and White were sincerely well-written games and I love their individual stories as well as the way they play into the themes of the overarching story as a whole.

7 - Cyrus - What a character. Cyrus is well and truly one of the most offputting yet interesting characters in the entire series. His nihilistic outlook burying what little he does seem to sincerely care about is so fascinating, and his backstory easily gives him even more depth. He's just this guy who's like... sincerely mentally unwell, and not in a cartoon villain way. He has legit psychological issues. I would love to study him under a microscope.

8 - Volo - This guy's one of my favorite Pokemon characters, but even I've gotta admit he doesn't actually have that much going on. I feel like so much of what I like about him just came from my head. That said, he has a fun charisma about him, even in canon, and I loved getting stabbed in the back. Please stab me in the back more, GameFreak. ([A flying ice-cream truck appears over my head, a la SpongeBob] IN THE STORY! PLEASE DON'T STAB ME IN THE BACK BY MAKING DISAPPOINTING GAMES...)

9 - Barry - Yet another fantastic character from gen 4. I love him realizing he needs to actually take some things seriously and the way he grapples with his failure to protect the Pokemon of the lake. For the third time in this post I'm blowing people up with my mind, specifically the people who just see him as annoying and loud and don't pay attention to the way he changes over the course of the game. ADHD king.

10 - Bede - Tbh... I don't know if Bede actually deserves to be on this list. I think it's probably a little offensive to put any SWSH character on this list. But truth is... I just like him! Even if it was ostensibly poorly executed, I'm a complete sucker for the "spoiled brat gets smacked in the face by reality and has to learn some goddamn humility" trope, and he embodies it well. I also like how ultimately he finds himself and his place in the world through embracing things stereotypically associated with femininity :) I simply think it's nice.

[professionallyunprofessional]

The 7th Guest VR

If you've been following me for any length of time, you know that The 7th Guest is one of my most favorite games ever. I have talked about pretty much every iteration of it on here, except for things like the mobile 'Infection' game and the T7G board game (which, sadly, I don't own). It is time for me to talk about it again. :D

This past year, a VR remake of The 7th Guest was created by Vertigo Games. It was teased both on its own Facebook page and on Trilobyte's pages as well. The game was released on October 19th, 2023. I would be lying if I said that I didn't want a VR headset just for that game. I got both a headset and the game for Christmas.

As always, spoilers below the cut. But the TL;DR version of this review is thus- This game is very good. 4/5 stars. From the moment I first started it up, it already had the gloriously spooky vibes of the original. For this review, I'm going to break it down into parts, wherein I'll be talking about both the good and bad of each.

The Gameplay

When I first heard that a VR remake of T7G was being made, I was excited. I had such fond memories of the original, and it was an absolute treat to revisit the Stauf Mansion. Experiencing it now is a whole new level of amazing. Not only are the graphics much sharper, of course, but you can see so much more of the house. Instead of a still frame backdrop like the original, you’re able to freely wander around the rooms and interact with objects. A few rooms were scrapped (the art gallery and laboratory were removed entirely, and the maze/catacombs were reworked into a storage room and basement), but I feel like it doesn’t take anything away from the game. If anything, the removal/revamping of certain areas streamlined things.

A new mechanic added to the remake is the lantern your character walks around with. With the lantern, you can spawn in items, see hidden messages on the walls, and get hints for some of the puzzles. It took some getting used to, but I thought it was fun. The original game was point-and-click, so it was cool to see something new added to it.

Slightly less successful, at least for me, were some of the spooky effects in the remake. The original game had the occasional cutscene that wasn’t necessarily plot relevant, but they were still fun. Hands coming out of a picture, floating table settings, a clown ghost appearing in the game room, the Woman in White beckoning you to follow her, etc. The remake's spooky effects come in two ways- One is blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments of shadowy figures appearing in rooms and hallways. Another is paintings that change when you shine your lantern on them.

The Story

Both the original 7th Guest and the VR remake tell the story of one fateful, bloody night at the mansion of the disgraced toymaker Henry Stauf. Six guests were purposely invited, and a seventh was very much in the wrong place at the wrong time. The original game had an opening blurb about the events leading up to the story of the game, but the VR remake takes it a step further. Not only does the story of Stauf’s childhood slowly unfold throughout the game, but each guest’s room has little lore bits sprinkled throughout that give deeper insight to the characters' histories. Pictures, newspaper clippings, etc. Frankly, I love this. Those pieces of backstory were what was missing from the original game.

The Characters

The six guests from the original game make their glorious return in the VR remake. In the weeks leading up to the game’s release, Vertigo Games put out various teaser images and video from the game. At first, I was skeptical (a few of the characters seemed not quite right for their parts), but I think most of the actors did a fantastic job. In particular, I adored both Temple and Elinor. The game's narrator wasn't my favorite, though. There was a certain oomph that was lacking.

The Music

The soundtrack for 7th Guest VR was composed by Jonathan van den Wijngaarden, and I think he did a fantastic job. His score has the same delightfully spooky, but still strangely beautiful quality to it, especially with several of the tracks including familiar tunes from the original. George ‘The Fat Man’ Sanger himself even contributed to the piece of music that plays when you enter the chapel. I honestly have no complaints about the music. It was my favorite thing in the original and it might be one of my favorite things about the remake.

The Puzzles

I was very curious as to what the puzzles would be like in the remake. I have to say, I’m impressed. They have been reworked entirely, with each puzzle now being distinctly themed to whatever room it’s in. Temple’s puzzles all have to do with stage magic tricks, Julia’s puzzles are about either drinking or her fear of getting old, the kitchen puzzles involve things like finding ingredients for soup, etc. The only one that hasn’t changed is the puzzle with the 8 queens in the game room. If I had to nitpick something, it would be that it’s not always easy to spot the puzzles. Unlike the original game, there is no pulsing brain icon to show you what’s a puzzle and what isn’t.

The Easter Eggs

The 7th Guest VR is full of delightful nods to the original 7th Guest. The achievements you can unlock are all named for bits of dialogue from the original game, the dining room has a few glorious nods to the original dining room scene, and there was one particularly delightful music-based Easter egg I stumbled upon purely by accident (pro-tip: Explore every wardrobe, cabinet, and closet).

The Ending

I have thoughts on the ending. The 'final game' was a very weird choice, IMO. For the entirety of the game, the puzzles either relied on strategy or had very clear steps to how to solve them. The finale, however, throws you into an RNG based game against Stauf, where you roll a die, move pieces across the board, and the first to collect three souls wins. Switching up the formula like that honestly pulled me out of the game for a sec. On top of that, there were no actual consequences to losing. If Stauf beat you, the final game just started over from the beginning. It would have been nice for there to be a bad ending, especially since the original game was supposed to have multiple endings as well.

I do love the final cutscene, though. In the original game, a combination of budget and technology constraints kept Trilobyte from fully carrying out the vision they had, so it wasn't entirely clear what happened to Stauf. The remake's ending, though, there was no mistaking how Stauf meets his end. The last bit of dialogue/narration in the game strongly hints at the possibility of a sequel, though, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. If anyone from Vertigo Games happens to read this: if you *are* planning a sequel, I would implore/encourage you not to draw too much inspiration from 11th Hour. That game was not good.

All in all, this game is fantastic. Not quite perfect, but almost. If you have a VR headset and you like puzzle games and spooky atmosphere, I highly recommend you get this one.