#I remake most of the things from scratch and think it worked well enough

[3d-made-by-paws]

Hello hello dear friends! Time has come!

It's been little more than a year since I started this project and today I can happily announce: I MADE IT. IT'S DONE. YAY. \o/

My computer died a few times on the way but he's okay mostly. And school/work almost drew me insane but I survived! I want to say "thank you" to my mutuals and all people who wanted to see this as much as me.

Here is THE video:

@somerandomdudelmao @tapakah0 Tumblr ate quality so here is google disk with all files Enjoy!

Video from the future

Some previous footage

Funny earliest model

The headless model

The first sketch model

little meme

[mochiwrites]

Jellie tends to be a very curious cat, sometimes. She likes poking her nose into places it doesn’t belong, or snatching things from Scar and Grian when they catch her interest.

Maybe Scar should’ve known better, then.

He sits in his and Grian’s bedroom (it’s been theirs pretty much after the second month Scar moved in), a ring in his hands. The metal is cool against his palm, a soft rose gold. The band isn’t anything special, a simple engraving in it. Scar knew Grian would throw a fit if he found out Scar spent so many diamonds on the ring. So he tried to get something reasonable.

He can spoil Grian with the actual ring.

If he says yes, that is. Just the thought makes a shiver run of Scar’s spine. Is he really doing this? He and Grian have only been together for a year and a half, but Scar just knows that he’s the one. There isn’t any doubt in his mind about it. But does Grian feel the same?

Jellie jumps up on the bed next to Scar, meowing at him. She brushes her head against his arm as she settles beside him, and Scar smiles. “Well hello there beautiful lady. Are we requesting pets?” he teases as he brushes a hand through her fur. She curls up close to him, leaning into his touch. Scar sighs softly, scratching behind her ear. “I don’t know Jellie… do you think he’ll say yes?” he asks quietly. She stares blankly up at him. “Yeah okay, fair enough.”

Past their bedroom, the front door opens and shuts. “Scar, I’m home!”

Scar jumps up, disturbing a content Jellie. He shoots her an apologetic look, giving her one last pet. But the most crucial piece?

He makes the mistake of leaving the engagement ring on the bed.

As Scar walks out the room to greet his boyfriend, Jellie takes to making their bed her own. Yet as she moves, the shiny ring catches her attention. She tilts her head, curious about the shiny object. Sticking a paw out, she swats it. Again. And again. And again. Until the ring tips over the side of the bed, dropping to the floor with a ‘plop.’

Her pupils widen in that playful way they tend to do, wiggling before she pounces.

Oblivious to what his cat is doing, Scar is sweeping his boyfriend into a hug. “How was work?” he questions, looking down at Grian with a curious yet soft gaze.

“Tiring,” Grian huffs, content to melt into Scar’s grasp. He lifts his arms, returning the embrace as he does so. “I had to remake the blueprint at least five times until the guy was happy with it.”

Scar winces, “Eesh. Now I’m kind of glad he only wanted you to meet with him.”

Grian glowers at him in return, though the look is entirely playful. “Yeah, yeah.” He leans up, brushing their lips together in a soft kiss. “Consider yourself lucky.”

“I think I will, thank you.” Scar grins, stealing a kiss. “How does a movie and dinner sound?” He bumps their noses together as he smiles.

“Let me think about it,” Grian hums, booping his nose against Scar’s as he does so. “As long as there’s ice cream after.”

Scar lets out an affronted gasp, pulling away. “I’m offended you think there wouldn’t be ice cream after all!” he says as he walks toward the kitchen. “Go sit! I’ll grab the takeout leftovers.”

Laughing, Grian takes his shoes off and heads over into their living room. He finds Jellie there, playing with something caught between her paws. He fondly shakes his head at her, “What do you have now, miss?”

Jellie looks up at him with a meow as she swats at whatever it is she’s deemed her new toy, chasing at it. However, said mystery object knocks into Grian’s foot, and he gets it first.

Leaning down, Grian picks up what appears to be a rose gold ring. He inspects it in his hand, eyebrows knit together as he does. “Where did this come from?” He blinks at it, looking down at Jellie. “Did you rob someone?”

Jellie sits in front of him, slowly blinking. The perfect picture of innocence.

Shaking his head with a faint laugh, Grian looks at the ring again. His heart skips a beat as he really takes in the detail of it. He certainly didn’t buy it. Did Scar? And if he did then….

Heart a little louder, he turns to his boyfriend. “Hey, Scar?”

“Yes, love of my life?”

“Any clue what this is?”

Scar walks into the living room, the soft crackles of a furnace behind him. He pauses when he notices what Grian is holding in his hand. His eyes go wide, looking a little pale. To the side of Grian, he spots the movement of Jellie’s tail, and looks directly at her. “Traitor,” he mutters.

“Scar?” Grian questions, confused and… maybe a bit nervous.

“Haha uh… any chance we can forget this all happened and revisit it like. Next month?” Scar weakly chuckles, the epitome of nerves as he looks at Grian.

“What’s going on?” Grian’s brows furrow in confusion, a bit of concern leaking into his expression.

Scar knows trying to lie about it is practically pointless. Grian is too curious and too stubborn to let it go. And now that he’s seen the ring… Scar takes in a shaky breath. “Void, alright. Guess we’re doing this.”

He walks over to Grian, “May I?” He gestures for the ring, and Grian slowly nods. He hands the ring over to Scar, who accepts it with shaking hands. ��Okay.” Scar sucks in a breath, unbelieving that he’s really doing this right now.

Slowly, Scar drops down on one knee in front of Grian, watching the way the other’s eyes go wide. But something about the position doesn’t feel quite right. Brows furrowing, Scar sets his other knee on the carpet below. “G? Mind kneeling with me here?” he asks, to which Grian nods. He joins Scar on the carpet, kneeling with him as well. “Much better,” he hums, pleased.

“Scar what?” Grian questions, lost and confused, and goodness his heart is beating so fast.

“I uh, I had a whole thing planned out, but Jellie seems to have thrown a wrench into all that,” Scar chuckles. “But it’s fine! I can improvise, who needs a plan?” He does. He needs a plan. Shaking his head, Scar reaches for one of Grian’s hands, grasping it in his own. He takes a measured breath, and begins to speak.

“I love you. More than words will ever be able to describe, G. You’ve done so much for me, more than I think I’ll ever be able to thank you for. You found me on the street, and despite being scammed by me, you still offered me a roof to live under, and a home to heal in.” Grian’s eyes are focused on him, listening with rapt attention. His gaze only worsens Scar’s nerves, heart beating a mile a minute. “You’re stubborn and witty, and sometimes you steal the blanket from me.”

Grian laughs.

Scar loves the sound.

“You don’t let me wallow in self pity, or memories of the harder times. You’re endlessly kind to both myself and Jellie, and everyone around you, even if your patience runs a little thin and you get snippy. We may get into a minor disagreement here and there, but you always come back around to me.” Scar smiles softly at him, so painfully fond and loving. “Back on that world… I never thought I would get to live life again. Or even enjoy the night sky without being afraid. It felt like a part of me was always missing, but I found that part with you.”

“Scar…” Grian trails off, face going red.

“G, you’re my home, my light. I want to spend every day waking up next to you and messing up pancake batter with you,” Scar laughs, the sound wet and shaky. Grian laughs with him, sounding just as affected. “I want to hold you on your bad days, and on your good ones. I want to be there through everything, for the rest of our lives. You’ve reminded me what it’s like to live and love, what it’s like to be me. There’s no one else for me, my heart and souls are yours.”

Scar swallows, holding the ring out to him. “So… will you entangle your life with mine forever? And marry me?” His expression turns bashful as he asks, and Grian is red in the face.

“You…” he trails off, amazed and in disbelief all at once. He looks between Scar and the ring, and he shakes his head. “I’ve been trying for days to find the perfect way of proposing to you, and you go and pull the rug right out from under me,” he laughs. “Curse how perfect you are sometimes.”

“C’mon G, you’re really leaving me hanging here!” Scar whines at him, making Grian laugh all over again.

Grian wraps his arms around Scar’s shoulders, pressing their lips together. “Yes, you spoon. I don’t want anyone else. Just you.”

If their neighbors hear how loudly Scar yells, well… it’s a warm congratulations to the newly engaged couple.

Jellie watches her humans cry in each others arms, tail flicking lazily at her side. She better get extra treats for this.

(It’s only later, when they’re sitting on the couch, curled into each other, that Scar realizes what Grian said. He turns to him, “Wait, you were planning to propose too?”

Grian snorts with laughter, “Hadn’t even picked out a ring, but yes Scar, I was.”)

[kennediffed]

Reflections

pairing: Leon Kennedy x Reader

description: you're casually playing the RE4 remake when you learn that the main character that you've been crushing on can talk directly to you (aka 4th wall breaking shenanigans)

word count: 548

contents/warnings: 4th wall break, gender neutral reader (no pronoun usage), ooc leon(?), shenanigans ensuing, barely edited/proofread

this is so fucking goofy im so sorry MASTERLIST

AO3 VERSION

REQUEST BOX

~

You couldnt help but stare at your screen while in a safe area at the character you've been controlling. The sight of him made you want to kick your feet and twirl your hair like a schoolgirl who had a crush.

You see, the remake to one of your favorite games had just come out and you intended on spending the whole weekend playing the game from start to finish. Well, that was the plan, until you started staring at the protagonist with heart eyes. The way the devs modeled him was… oh boy. The things you would do to him.

You couldnt help it though, Leon Kennedy was a looker, there was a reason why you, among many other people, simped heavily for him.

Man, why cant you be real? you thought silently to yourself, continuing to stare directly at him. Although you were alone, you couldnt help but feel like someone was watching you while you eyed him.

that was when something unexpected happened.

"y'know, im flattered, but are you gonna keep ogling me or are we gonna get a move on?" a familiar voice spoke in an annoyed tone.

that earned a jump from you. did… did leon just… address you? you looked at your screen to see Leon looking at you, a disappointed look present on his face and arms crossed.

"Yeah, you… y'know its rude to stare, right?"

You sat there in shock, he WAS talking to you. but HOW? this was supposed to be something that was one-sided. why was he talking to you?

"cat got your tongue?" he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

"w…wait have you been able to see me this whole time?" you asked hesitantly. "and… hear what i say??"

He gave you a small smirk "yeah, you could say that"

"uhhh" you trailed off, scratching the back of your head gently "well this is embarrassing". Since you deducted that he could hear you, you realized that he most likely had heard your thirsty comments about him. and that was enough to fluster you. "sorry for the comments" you mumbled, almost embarrassed by your actions

you heard a soft chuckle in response "dont worry, im used to it by now…" he replied "but i bet youre confused right about now, am i right?"

you sat up in your chair, putting down your controller before making eye contact with him once more. You had so many questions but you werent even sure if you were to get any answers to them. you started out with a simple one; "so… how long have you been able to hear what ive been saying?"

"since you started playing the other day, i'd say" he responded flatly.

"gotcha, gotcha…" you responded. "guess i gotta watch what i saw now since i know you can hear me now…" you twiddled your thumbs in pure embarrassment.

"hey, like i said, its all good," he reassured "im kinda flattered that people see me like that"

you picked up your controller again, ready to move on with the game "i think im gonna keep playing now" you mumbled "do you just… emulate what im doing with my controller or… how does this work?"

"something like that… lead the way" you heard him say in response.

[stoopidnightcrawler]

Well hello there. Thus time i got only quick weekends. Now I'm gonna talk about Bloodborne. In general it's gonna be about the Blood Gems. As you can see, I giving you a box with a young jeweler set. That is mean you can do with that gems sorts of things. Didn't understand? Well I'll explain now.

One of the main problems with weapons in Bloodborne is the lack of adequate gems.

I mean, yeah. You can play the game without any gems at all, but the game isn't designed for that kind of play. The game wants you to put strong gems on yourself and fight your way through enemies with a decent fight. The only issue with the game is that the game doesn't really like to give you gems.

I understand you can farm them from winter lanterns, from dungeons, but often you will have gems in the category "+19% arcane damage, -8hp per second", when you want a gem for "+24% lightning damage, +15 lightning damage, +3% stamina cost".

What's most offensive is that you CAN get gems in the main game from winter lanterns, but they are designed only for physical damage (blood damage included), and it seems like they didn't even think about our brothers through arcane.

But... what if you could craft gems. So, you have 2 gems that have "+19% damage, -50 weapon durability/+2.6% stamina cost", you fuse them together, and the new gem has "+23% damage, +3% stamina cost". Plus, this process leaves you with nugget shards that you can assemble into a new gem if you have enough. And best of all, you can fuse those shards into an elemental gem.

Well, agree. THIS IS AWESOME! In addition to the fact that you can mine and make a set of strong gems, in exchange you get a non-standard gem that you can use for experiments. And this is just one of the options.

How about mixing non-standard properties, like "23% damage, +9% piercing damage"?

Or crush excellent bloodtinge gems (+32% blood damage) and use their fragments to assemble shotgun gems (+20 bloodtinge scale, +15 blood damage)?

//That numbers i taking from skies.

The concept itself, that you can remake gems for yourself, probably recommends itself well. Especially for those players who can't get the necessary gems in the main game. But let's say this was sewn into the game. How would it be balanced so that players don't farm 150 small runes and make an ultra-bending stick?

Well.. I have some thoughts on this matter. Let's start with the fact that these tools will be 3-tiered. Let's say they will differ in the set and quality of the tools. And at first, it will be possible to solder only pure gems, without curses. And the heredity of their properties will be absolutely random, both in effects and in form.

The next level of the set will be in Yaar'gul. What? Yes, I'm from Yaar'gul, what can you do to me? But! The fact is, these tools CAN already work with cursed gems. But nevertheless, the heredity will also be completely random, but then. Now these tools can collect fragments, from which you can make effects that are not typical for parent gems. And so, you can get physical and elemental fragments from the gem, from which you can already collect the full-fledged gems you need. At the same time, both in working with full-fledged ones and with those created from scratch, you can already choose the shape of the gem (even a drop-tier shape).

Well, the last one, the coolest one, let's say.. Yes. You will have to go down into the bowls. Right in front of Queen Yharnam, lies the wayward Ho-hunter, who died and left the coolest set of tools on himself. With them, you can not only work with cursed gems, but also choose what shape the gem will be.. BUT. Also choose which of the parent effects the new gem will receive.

For example, you can cross a gem to increase strength and dexterity scaling gems. But, you do know that there are NO gems for agility that can reach the same level as strength?

//Well, technically the sequence of power growth may be the same as other gems, we just don’t have access to the effect and we just haven’t discovered it, but that’s not the point.

But now, by crossing the gem of strength and dexterity, you can make a gem of dexterity yourself, which is as powerful as the gem of strength (+65 dex scaling).

Well, you must admit, it would be much cooler than... being an Arcane enthusiast, being forced to switch to physical damage, without adequate scales, simply because the gems from the winter lanterns overpowered your scales without the proper Arcane gems.

Besides, the stuffy farming of one gem will bore any Bloodborne enthusiast. Therefore, in the long run, such mechanics will be the opposite of a winning one. Instead of long and monotonous farming of the Brain Sucker, Bloodgulper Beast, three fatties, etc. it would be better to cross-breed gems and increase their natural power. I think many long-time Bloodborne players will agree with this position. If not, then please. The comments are open and you can always share your thoughts. In the meantime, bye-bye!

[foundry-fabrications]

Happy Halloween everyone! It is with immense pleasure and excitement that I present to you a labor of love, the long awaited rework of Flesh & Bone! Originally, I had intended to release this shortly after the absolutely stellar remake of Dead Space, but that obviously wasn't going to happen. So as to not repeat my last mistake with big projects and arbitrary deadlines, I took things nice and slow, took my time to give this work the true love and attention it deserved. Anything for my beloved Dead Space.

And I couldn't be more pleased with the result! Well, I can always be happier. There's always something I wish I could have added or done differently, but I won't dwell on that. "Don't let perfect be the enemy of done".  But it makes me so happy to see it in its full gorey glory after all this time. But that enough preamble, let's get into the changes from the original!

Being the result of a 3-week mad rush to release on time for Halloween, the original brew has a LOT of problems. I forgot a lot of details and made a lot of mistakes just by the nature of not having enough time to do it justice. Having had, what, 2 years, between now and then has given me a lot of time to hone my skills as a creator and figure out exactly what I wanted to do for the eventual rework.

The first and most obvious thing is the aesthetics. Flesh and Bone was the first time I ever tried to make a Homebrewery theme from scratch, so I had a LOT to learn in a very short timeframe. I got it most of the way there for what I wanted to do, but it still had a lot of issues, namely a lack of integrated stat blocks. Formatting was also just awful. I just couldn't get them to work quite right, and they always looked super off, so I elected for images instead. Since then, I've made my Xenomorph supplement which used that initial test as a starting point, and I was able to fix a lot of the issues I ran into. I also want to change the overall look of the theme itself. When I designed it, I was going for a design mix based on the Dead Space wiki and the holographic UI from the games themselves. The result was...not the most legible. I've taken a new approach with the rework, made everything MUCH more readable, and borrowed heavily from the aesthetics of the 2023 remake.

As for the contents themselves, turns out there were a bunch of really cool necromorph variants that I just completely forgot about like the Twitchers, those reanimator swarms from DS3, and the Ubermorph. With that last one in particular, I reworked the old Hunter into the Regenerator with Hunter and Ubermorph variants, like I have with the Slasher, Spitter, and now Twitcher. In general, most of the necromorph forms were in dire need of reworks up in one way or another, especially their descriptions. I pulled almost all of that text directly from the Dead Space wiki, and it showed real bad. Again, 3 weeks, all panic. All the descriptions have been rewritten to be more in line with my other writing.

I also removed that section at the beginning about the Markers. I originally included it to give context for the rest of the brew, and I just really wanted to talk about the Markers, but the more I looked at it that section honestly added very little to the rest of the brew that couldn't be done in other areas. And let's be real, the Markers are SO IMPORTANT to the Dead Space universe that they really need their own dedicated brew. So, I pulled that section out, and it will go in said dedicated brew another time.

And the final change is I actually included some form of boss necromorph this time! I hadn't planned to, but I started thinking more and more about it, and I was also asked by one of my lovely patrons about it, so I gave in and made stats for really the only Dead Space boss worth talking about: The Hive Mind. I actually had fun writing it, working out its abilities from both the original and the remake, as well as taking some creative liberties and giving it some fun new abilities as a result of it being a Nexus necromorph.

So that's everything! I hope this gruesome creation of mine brings you as much joy and terror as it has to me. Stay safe, stay spooky, don't forget to love each other, and m̵̧̈́ͅa̴̜͑̍ḳ̵̍ë̷͍͇́ ̶̖̾̏u̸̪̅͜s̷͙̟̓ ̷̬̩̒w̸͇͘h̶̠̳͆̽o̶̻̺͂̀l̴̛͍̦e̸̡̡͗. See you next time.

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[markantonys]

I came across a Twitter thread that said the set up for the docks when it comes to the Warder bond between Lan and Moiraine was handled much better in the books cause in the show they feel like the mechanics of the Warder bond was too vague/not explained well in the show that they weren't able to connect with Moiraine and Lan's emotional conflict in s2 because of it. And I am a bit confused cause honestly I don't think the books explain how the Warder bond works at all from what I remember. Just making a lot of wild claims about how everything about the books are better and how the show is fumbling when they haven't even read half the series yet (show first to book reader). Just this trend to shit talk every choice the show makes when you don't even know the full complete story is wild to me

haters: the show hasn't done enough to explain how the bond works

all the screentime across 2 seasons the show has dedicated to showing how the bond works which the haters kept complaining was a waste of time better spent on rand having swordfights:

like literally what do they want lmao some people will never be satisfied!

but the mention of the "mechanics" of the bond is interesting to me because i think we may be hitting upon 2 different types of viewers here: the minority of lore enthusiasts who need to understand every single detail about how things work or else they will be upset and lose immersion, and the majority of audiences who are content with a general understanding of how things work and don't get hung up on details, or will at most go "hmmm i'm not sure if this makes sense, but it's a cool story beat so i'm happy to shrug and move on".

the former category were going "but what weaves is moiraine doing now? did they actually unbond and now she's remaking it from scratch? i thought the bond was only masked? this is such a plothole, it doesn't make sense, i can't concentrate on anything else about the scene" during the 2x08 moiraine & lan beach scene, and the latter category were thinking "what a beautiful and emotionally satisfying moment of seeing them come back together!" and that's it. and probably similar for the rest of the season. if somebody felt unable to connect with the emotional aspects of that storyline, i would bet it's because they felt too unclear about the mechanics of the state of the bond and couldn't let go of that confusion enough to sink into the emotional aspects. (which is really more of a personal thing; my show-only mom was definitely keyed into the emotional aspects of this storyline and didn't get bothered about some mechanics being left vague. in fact, i think she would've just gotten confused if they'd tried to explain the mechanics in more detail djkfjg bless her.)

undeniably, the show does not explain magic mechanics in as much depth as the books do. but that is because it's banking on the very fair assumption that the majority of audiences don't need to have this level of detail in order to enjoy and understand the story (and may get more confused than they need to be if they ARE given this level of detail). i'll admit that s2 was a bit muddled on What Exactly Is Going On with moiraine and lan's bond, and i found myself a bit confused by the mechanics at times, but that never impeded my appreciation or understanding of the emotional aspects of the storyline because i'm someone who is happy to shrug and move on if the mechanics of how something is functioning in a fantasy story aren't making total sense to me.

also, moiraine & lan at the docks won't happen until the end of s3 and it's very very possible we might learn even more about bond mechanics earlier in s3 via elayne and birgitte (who will be good candidates for explaining some New Bond Basics that it wouldn't make sense for moiraine and lan to talk about since they've had theirs for 20 years), so like..........maybe they should just Watch And Find Out.

it's also very interesting that this is coming from someone in the show-to-book pipeline because i honestly would not be surprised if a lot of their base knowledge for how warder bonds works was absorbed..........from the show. and they just don't realize it. granted, if they started with new spring it might be different because i'm assuming new spring goes into a lot of depth about how warder bonds work (though i don't know for sure, i haven't read it). but if they only read EOTW-TFOH, they sure as shit are not gonna have gotten much info about bonds *from the books* because we barely spend any time with characters who are part of a bond during those books. we get, what, maybe a couple chapters total of moiraine or lan pov and then start diving into it a tiny bit more in TFOH with elayne and birgitte, but it's really not that much from what i can remember - and i can't remember very well, because i went into the books already having a very solid understanding of the concept of the bond thanks to all the work s1 put into showing it. i do not remember learning anything significant about the bond in the first 5 books that i didn't already know from s1.

it's also so strange to me in general to see people start with the show, then go to the books, and then start hating on the show because as a show-to-book pipeline person myself, all going to the books did was make me go "wow thank fuck for the show, it will fix X, it will fix Y, it's already fixed Z" basically constantly. it made me 10000x more grateful for and appreciative of the show and the way it's choosing to tell the story!

[thompsborn]

gonna make little chapter recaps while i reread what's posted of homeward bound so far. and then i am going to bust out chapter seventeen. might not finish it this weekend, but i hope to get a majority of it written. let's get into it.

starting with chapter one - i'm so tired of being afraid

word count: 7,535 (7,515 without the chapter lyrics at the start)

chapter song: six by sleeping at last

chapter lyrics:

what would it feel like to put this baggage down? if i'm being honest i'm not sure i'd know how

recap + lines i felt were important enough to jot down:

peter moves into his new apartment (december 2024)

peter decides that needs to be alone

"when he's alone, there's no one to let down but himself."

peter looks up norman, otto, max, flint, and curt as a precaution now that he knows they turned into villains in the other worlds

norman and otto: started oscorp together during the five year gap between snaps, but have not gotten very far due to the world mourning the half of the population that's gone and also because stark industries is already a powerhouse in all the industries that oscorp is trying to step a foot into. peter deems them not a threat for now but will occasionally check on them just to be safe.

max and flint: peter is unable to find records of anyone with their names when looking them up. that's doesn't guarantee they don't exist in this world, they could have different names or something like that, but peter finds no trace of them and feels like it's safe to assume they don't exist here. he'll still check again occasionally to see if anything pops up down the line.

curt: a professor at empire state university with no signs of any of the things that happened in the other world happening to him here. again, peter will check occasionally to make sure, but overall he thinks that his world is most likely safe from these five people becoming villains like they did in the other peter's worlds.

peter looks into empire state university after looking up curt and thinks about how he'd like to go to college. it's always been part of his life plan. his life is completely different than what it was ever supposed to be and he'd need to get his GED, but he thinks about how he'd like to still go if he can make it work.

peter decides he needs to remake his suit, partially because he other suits can't be used anymore now that karen doesn't recognize him - edith doesn't recognize him anymore, either, which makes peter sad because he feels like he's lost a connection that he had with tony after tony's death - but he also wants to remake his suits because he knows the other peter's made their own from suits from scratch as well, so he thinks it's pretty fitting and thinks that it's kind of like he's building himself up from scratch and starting over for good - "...as both Peter Parker and as Spider-Man"

"and karen not knowing him feels a lot like losing another friend."

he includes peter 2 and peter 3 in his suit design to honor them and remind himself that, even if he is alone in his world, he isn't alone in the universe.

raimi spidey emblem on his chest:

and tasm spidey emblem on his back:

"when peter gets lost, or angry, or overwhelmed... he has reminders of them, interwoven into his suit, for him to brush his fingers against and think to himself, be strong, peter. do it for your brothers."

peter had an uncle ben in his world, but his uncle ben died less than two years after his parents did when he was six and a half years old. peter thinks about how his uncle ben impacted his life in a much different life than the other peter's. his uncle ben's last words shaped his morals and his outlook in life, to the point that, when tony first showed up to recruit peter for germany, he had used his own wording based on what ben said to explain why being spidey is so important to him.

"he remembers ben shrugging, remembers him smiling, remembers him saying, "if i didn't help, it'd be my fault, too." the way he said it had been so simple, so sure - a philosophy he fully and passionately believed in."

actually just this whole section feels very important to me so i'm going to copy and paste it right here:

In a way, Uncle Ben played a significant part in Peter becoming Spider-Man, but not in the same way that the Other Peter’s seemed to be influenced by their Uncle Ben’s. Peter remembers that he didn’t think much of the last words he heard his Ben say for a while, but that they seemed to click in his head around the time he was nine or ten, and suddenly they were words he wanted to live by. Doing good, and getting in the way to stop bad things, no matter how big or how small, because then it’d be his fault, too, if he didn’t.

It’s what he told Mr. Stark, back when he was still fourteen almost fifteen and the man had appeared in his apartment. When you can do the things I can, he had said—not exactly what Ben had said, no, kind of added onto by Peter, altered with the weight of Spider-Man stacked on top of the same philosophy he already lived by—but you don’t, and then the bad things happen… they happen because of you.

It’s not what the Other Peter’s talked about, though—because Ben didn’t tell Peter that great power comes with great responsibility. Aunt May told him that. But, for the Other Peter’s, it had been an Uncle that lived longer than his own did.

Then again, the Other Peter’s didn’t have the Avenger’s, and they never had Mr. Stark. Maybe it’s just different because each world isn’t supposed to be the same, and that’s all there is to it.

also may's line from right before ben died, which peter later tells harley about when telling harley the truth about his life:

“You stupid Parker men,” May had scoffed. “Way too selfless for your own good.”

peter thinks that it feels important that uncle ben had such a huge role in shaping who he is, and how the ben's of the other worlds had such a huge part in the other peter's lives as well, even if it was in vastly different ways. he then thinks about how, out of the very few things that peter was able to get out of his and may's old apartment before it was cleared out, one of them happened to be a box of uncle ben's old stuff - including, at the very top of the box, ben's old camera.

peter learns how to use ben's camera to take pictures properly in order to then take pictures of himself as spidey to sell to the daily bugle. he thinks it's amusing and ironic that the pictures he takes are used for articles that slander spidey, knowing that jjj would probably lose his shit if he knew he bought the pictures from spider-man himself.

"everything seems to be trial and error these days - life was never a certainty before, but now it's pretty clearly up in the air and he's left scrambling to try and figure it out, approaching every corner completely blind to what he'll find when he turns it - but that's alright, because he's got the brain of a scientist and trial and error could just be another term for experiment, so it works out well."

that ^ quote is a nice tie in to the tony flashback that happens in chapter 16, where tony calls peter an observer and says that peter is always gathering information and how peter looks more than most people do because peter likes to be prepared and likes to understand.

peter spends new years eve alone (new years, 2024) and watches the fireworks while thinking about the other peter's not being alone before going back to patrol.

peter gets his first Big Injury since ending up completely on his own. he has no one to call and he has no super pain killers like the ones tony had made for him before tony died. the injury starts at his left hip, goes over his ribs, stops at the center of his chest. it was done with a knife. peter has to stitch himself up. it's the first time he's ever done stitches on himself.

he passes out after finishing the stitches and wakes up almost a full day later. thinks about his healing and how his enhancements are definitely being negatively impacted by his lackluster eating habits - he's broke as fuck and also doesn't have much of an appetite due to being traumatized and depressed.

"part of him wonders how drastic a change it really is - wonders if, maybe, the scars will stop fading away. for some reason, that's the thought that makes him feel sick to his stomach."

fun fact: this injury is the one that peter tells harley about in chapter 15 when harley is asking about some of peter's scars.

and that's the end of chapter one! these little recaps are entirely for my own benefit - the only reason i'm posting them is because giving myself the expectation and responsibility of posting them will make me actually commit to recapping every chapter, which will make working on chapter seventeen a lot fucking easier and will make it so i'm able to finish chapter seventeen a lot fucking faster.

i will be reblogging with the chapter two recap shortly

[melancholy-marionette]

Hi hi! I'm a fan of your yandere games and I just recently found out about your Tumblr account while hunting for fandoms of your games X3 I just finished playing Solipsism Reigns after letting it just sit there somewhere on my laptop for a whole year cuz I got attached to Kuro XD Ik your hands are already full from the amount of visual novels you've been creating so far but would you consider re-creating SR if you can? You don't have to feel obligated to ofc, I'm already impressed with the amount of visual novels you've cooked up XD (I'm quite nervous asking this cuz SR is so underrated and it's rarely talked about these days)

Hey hey! That’s awesome :D Super glad to hear it <3 

Yeeeeah, I mean, I don’t know for sure cos I’ve never looked, but I can’t imagine there's much in the way of fandoms for any of my games since they tend to fly under the radar x3 (my own fault for being incapable of using social media to promote stuff, I know T_T haha)

Since my following is mainly concentrated on itch I guess maybe that doesn’t help since other devs tend to post stuff in places like this and interact with people more. Heck, one of my supporters was even kind enough to make me a Discord server, which is incredible! But even with that, I struggle to use it regularly cos I can’t cope with live conversations very well >.< My social processing power is extremely limited T_T

The most frustrating thing is that I would like to be more active with social stuff, I just can’t handle it very well thanks to my ASD :( It only takes a little bit of social media for me to become completely overwhelmed and have to force myself to come off it so I don’t shut down, haha. It sucks.

Anyways, I’m rambling, sorry x3

That’s so cool you played SR :D my original baby, haha. It looks so old now T_T Every time I see it on my itch dashboard I end up thinking of all the things I would change now I have more experience as a dev! It makes me a happy bunny to hear that you got attached to Kuro though ^-^

Funnily enough... I had already planned to remake SR at some point :D 

As much as the project will always have a special place in my heart with it being my first-ever VN, there are many things about it that bother me too, haha. 

My hope is to eventually remake it from scratch (I kinda have no choice in that anyhow since I no longer have the old Tyranobuilder project files x3) in Naninovel :3 Cos I know Tyrano was kinda clunky >.< In Nani, I could make it all work more smoothly + add more in the way of visual FX and stuff too.

On top of that though, I plan to go over all of my writing because there’s sooooo much I’m not happy with (mainly glaring at the student route >.>) + with any luck add an entirely new route as well that I cut from the original release due to a lack of time to write it properly when I found out Kuro’s VA was going to be moving to another country and putting voice acting on hold, haha. 

There was also a BxG version in the works that’s currently on hold but features redesigned sprites by LazyPolarBear + CGs for a male protagonist x fem Kuro.

I’m not sure what I want to do about the music in the project because I feel like I chose the tracks well to fit the game, BUT, I’ve heard those same tracks in soooo many other people’s games now that I kind of hate that I used so much from Incompetch, haha. Kevin’s music is incredible, but since it’s very generously free to use, it does mean it’s kind of overused in games >.< I didn’t have any other option at the time cos I couldn’t make my own music and I didn’t have any money to buy asset packs.

Now that I tend to create my own OSTs, it would seem kind of insane not to make one for SR in the process of a proper remake. It’s just it would require me to make a lot of tracks x3 I’ll probably give it a go though + maybe keep a handful of Kevin’s ones that I really like too much to let go of, haha.

So yeah, my hope is to eventually remake the original otome version of SR in a different engine with edited + new writing, some new art, new UI, new FX, possibly an OST, and I guess new VA to go with the new writing :D 

I don’t really know when because I need to finish CiQ, DD, and Blue Blythe’s route in Bitter/Sweet before I tackle any more long-term projects x3 So it won’t be any time soon. Once I’ve managed to finish all of those though, I’ll probably make it my next long-term priority project :3

I’m genuinely flattered that you actually liked SR enough to even ask this! It always amazes me when anyone leaves a positive word about SR because I assumed that it had kinda just been lost to the sands of time at this point xD I know it’s definitely showing its age, haha. It’s nice to know there are still people out there who are willing to give it a chance if they happen to come across it somehow ^-^

I feel like my games are probably rarely talked about in general, haha. I mean, since I’m a fan of yandere games and play them myself, I do lurk in some communities + sometimes look at recs threads other people post to get ideas for things to add to my own playlist, and it’s not often that I see any of my games mentioned on recs or being discussed x3

I always kinda hope it’s cos people don’t know they exist rather than it being a case of them thinking they’re not worthy of mentioning xD Either way isn’t exactly great though I guess, haha. 

I just can’t promote stuff for the life of me cos I find it too overwhelming & exhausting + I don’t really have the self-confidence to try and put my games in front of people anyways cos I always feel like what I make isn’t good enough >.< I’m basically 100% reliant on other people sharing my games for anyone to even discover them x3 Either that or searching the yandere tag on itch, but even then, they might be kinda hard to locate cos they’re not super near the top since I don’t get as many people rating my games as other devs do. SR is my oldest game and it doesn’t even have 100 ratings yet on itch xD

If you search the yandere tag on itch and sort by ‘top rated’ 14 Days With You is first with a whopping 1238 total ratings as of searching right now while I type this… my first game to appear is Darling Duality as the 13th result with a mere 427 ratings by comparison, haha. And I’m pretty sure DD only got rated that much because of Manly’s video x3 Bitter/Sweet is next with only 228 total ratings by comparison.

I know people can just click on my itch profile if they happen to find and like 1 of my games and maybe want to see if I’ve made others, but a lot of people don’t realise you can do that, or they don’t know that I primarily make games with yanderes in x3 So they just go unnoticed.

Heck, Dawn of the Damned is related to Darling Duality, and even though DD is my most popular project, I can’t seem to get people to check out Dawn of the Damned, haha. At this point, the tiny demo for DD has 44.7k downloads (this still blows my mind o.o), and yet despite Dawn of the Damned being a completed project and set in the same universe featuring future DD characters, it only has 4036 total downloads as of today x3 If I can’t get the majority of my own followers to check out a game I made that’s set in the same universe, I have no hope of getting them to find my other yandere stuff T_T and even less hope of getting my games in front of people who have never heard of me as a dev, haha.

I’ve even had a handful of people tell me that they think Apartment No.9 is my best game, and that Doyle is their favourite ever yandere guy, but the project only has 3680 downloads x3

But yeah, my analytics on itch are really skewed cos pretty much all the numbers are for Darling Duality and my Yandere Heaven fandub. I may have somehow managed to get a fair few followers on there over the years, but I think probably something like 90% of them (possibly even more than that) are waiting for DD and aren’t interested in my other projects.

My poor Yandere Heaven fandub has received some attention (in fact, it’s actually beating DD on total downloads somehow), but there has been a lot of negativity + a looooot of 1* and 2* bad ratings on itch because, for some reason, people don’t realise it’s a fandub even though I put that very clearly on the page T_T So they rate the game badly with comments saying the story sucks, or that having no choices is stupid, the characters are dumb, or that it’s too goofy and OTT. None of which is even my fault since I’m trying to faithfully recreate the original content. All I wanted to do was make a Japanese drama CD into a VN fandub game >.< haha. 

I can’t believe I’ve rambled so much anyhow xD I’m so sorry, haha. It’s just one of those things that causes me a lot of confusion x3 I know I can’t handle social media very well and I fail at promo, but I can’t understand why a majority of my projects receive so few views/downloads in comparison to DD >.< I can’t for the life of me figure out what’s so appealing about DD and not my other stuff, haha. Unless it’s literally just cos Manly played it x3

Before I go though, I just wanna say a big thank you for playing my stuff :3 It really means a lot! I hope you get to have a super duper year ahead <3

[dayshift-loop]

Thank you all for 150 followers, it means a lot! But I have a question now about the blog and where to take it.

As you may have noticed, I've been unable to work on much to push this blog past Colorado, this is partially because DSAF 1 is hard to work with, and also because sometimes the chaotic nature of the blog itself derails stuff.

So. I thought of a few possible things I could do. From rewriting more of DSAF 1 to include a phone route for example to making a new blog for a separate continuity as a comic blog. I just want to know what you guys would want most.

Option one would be either me remaking the blog from scratch, or writing it into the story as BB doing fuck shit again.

Option two would be the simplest. I simply write up what is different from what happened before and continue as is.

Option three would add on a comic blog that would update every few weeks with a few pages.

Option four is the nuclear option where I stop the ask blog and just focus on a comic version entirely.

Option five is a mix of option one and three.

I would like to know before I answer more asks, I have two asks in my queue right now to cover tomorrow and the day after, which is enough time to see the result of this poll. Personally, I think option two or three are the easiest ones. But option five, while the one that would require the most work, might also be good. I want to know your opinions though on this.

[kozykricket]

now i also wanna say a bit more, again DO TAKE NOTE: SPOILERS. and also later getting into some below zero critique and how i think the game might go in terms of whether they learned or not. sorta more meta predictions on the development

so, i think... going along with my assumption, we could very well see more crashed ships, like the aurora, degasi, or mercury. I'd really hope for at least one, because ... despite my critiques of some of below zeros writing, the mercury subplot is great. I love it. and of course i love the degasi, who doesnt? I just think, the mention of mysterious ruins has me ... going HMM. because like. its a new planet? AKA not the planet with enzyme 42? so the precursors/architects probably wouldnt have reason to have been here much. but also, we know that they studied on a lot of different planets, when searching for a cure. They could have very well stopped by here, or heck, even encountered this squid thing themselves. Maybe it even did something to THEM, and it wasnt just that they got bored and left or something. but okay, on the story of below zero I think, the big reason its so messy is probably because they COMPLETELY changed the story most of the way through development. The main writer for the first game left, because he didn't want to be working on such a potentially big franchise. and fair enough! but like, my hypothesis for a while has been that when the new writers took over, instead of finishing up what he wrote, they were like "no nono people dont like below zero" (clueless to the fact that people who didnt like it just ... wouldnt like it no matter what because of its foundation and basis of being more directly story driven, with a proper protagonist and such) and ended up trying to contort the story, characters, and world that were designed for each other... back into a more familiar form of "Subnautica" as in, you're isolated, its scary, you've crash landed. Theres not many people to talk to. etc. like, I think its pretty clearly gonna leave a mark no matter how good of a writer you are, if you're changing the story of something, rather than writing a new story. Because the world and characters had been MADE for that story, and ... so, unless you wanna remake the entire thing (which they didnt ofc), you're gonna be left with .. well. characters that were made to support a different story. and features, too. its weird that al-ans talking to you system is Calling You on your PDA but like, makes sense cus more characters than just him and marguerit would do it in the earlier story! does what im sayin make sense? that taking a whole ass GAME with a WORLD that has been MODELED and BUILT and characters that have personalities and backstories made to support a specific story... and changing that story, will end up leaving remnants. so like all in all i dont have doom and gloom that the new writers will make a bad story, because they get to make a story from scratch now, instead of remixing an existing one. hell its even a new planet. and im certain they've heard the backlash against below zero. I can just only hope they've learned the right lessons I will say a lot of robins exchanges with al-an in release just felt weird imo, so I kinda hope we dont get more of that

overall im cautiously optimistic. im really hyped, i think the game'll be fantastic. as long as they dont hard-pivot away from the basis of the game :P i hope they've just, learned the right lessons! like! story is awesome and good! and even dialogue! but just, it needs to feel more purposeful than shoehorned ...also pls let the leviathans be intimidating rather than just annoying (reaper leviathan vs shadow leviathan)

subnautica 2!! now lets see how much i can guess right!!

okay so. subnautica 2 news yippee!! ill get right to the point: -ill be talking about what we know, and speculating based off of what we vaguely know. and also giving some opinions on stuff maybe -here be spoilers for both subnautica and below zero. the games story+lore are cool!! trust!! -also the reason its subnautica 2 is because below zero wasn't a full on sequel, it was moreso a really big dlc. like how uh pokemon black 2 and white 2 arent a new generation. anyways.

ill be using info from the steam page, if you're wondering wtf i mean by some things

okay so ... we know early access comes out in 2025, it has multiplayer, itll be a hefty big game with big hardware requirements, and they plan to give it content updates in early access, probably akin to like, slime rancher 2 is doing rn. they say 2-3 years of early access is their roadmap "Throughout Early Access, we plan to release a number of updates that add new content to the game — Such as more biomes, creatures, craftables, features, and narratives." ANYHOO to the juicy stuff. the game takes place on a NEW PLANET and the premise is that... your AI assistant suspiciously tells you "hey go to that planet" even though its uh, allegedly dangerous for humans but we'll get back to that THE BIG GAMEPLAY THING: does anyone remember the old Transfuser concept that was never implemented beyond some models and such in the first game? I think they even tried to bring it back in below zero, but ... they never could quite figure out how to make it work. okay but what WAS the transfuser? The idea behind the transfuser was to obtain DNA from creatures and use them to modify yourself for enhancements, such as mesmer DNA scaring off prey, or jellyray DNA making you glow! They were only basic concepts, the features were never implemented.

But, well... I should call it the Biosampler now! It's real now! and.... It seems its the main gimmick of your adventure in this game! The store page states "The ship's AI insists you carry on the mission. This world is too dangerous for humans to survive… Unless you change what it means to be human." as well as "Use your Biosampler to take samples for study. As you learn more about this world, evolve your genetics to adapt your body for survival." So, yeah! Seems they really were determined to get that concept into something real. and i LOVE it. freakin cool stuff but... thats the main gameplay. im here to be like matpat and say i think ive SOLVED the STORY ALREADY??? REAL?? so, not only is there that big creepy thing dragging the protagonist down in the teaser trailer, but the image of... assumedly the same creature, and is named subnautica_2_keyart_banner

...gives me some vibes that this thing is an important sort of... Big Bad of the game. and yknow what my bold prediction is? "You are a pioneer traveling to a distant world, but something is amiss. The ship's AI insists you carry on the mission. This world is too dangerous for humans to survive…" Hm, an AI giving suspicious instructions. Something is amiss. Listen, I'm not saying its this big squid guy, but I'm saying its this big squid guy. Dead serious, I mean cmon we had a telepathic creature talking to us trying to get us to reach it in the FIRST GAME, and we also had an ALIEN in our HEAD in the SECOND GAME. so i think a reasonable evolution / different take on Al-An, the weird but friendly alien stuck in your head because he didnt think of using your PDA, is... a not so friendly alien creature that definitely does think of using your PDA. I think it'd make a lotta sense, and... while I'm against the idea of having a straight up evil creature in subnautica, since yknow, the game wasnt designed for horror and evil to be its big thing... rather just, natural, primal terror from... creatures just doin' what they do in nature. (Shoutouts to this rockpapershotgun article from after the first games full release) but like... for one, you'd think it'd just want us to die. and could probably do that pretty easily, unless... its trapped. or needs help, or wants something from us more than just Dinner. Yes im saying that the plot is basically fnaf security breach dlc. THE MIMICCC is real, and its a squid now. I could see it being pretty fun if it only had SOMEWHAT of a hold on your AI or PDA... and so you'd sometimes get conflicting information. genuine tips, and then ... "you should go to that freaky deep cave over there haha" but also, it may have reason and capability to intentionally try to get on our good side instead of seeming trustworthy. They do say "What creatures, intelligent or otherwise, await your arrival?" on the steam page. also im just A BIG FAN OF THE TROPE OF LIKE. AN ENTIRE PLANET CRASHING SHIPS DOWN ONTO IT LIKE THAT. SOME SIRENS SONG TYPE VIBES i love the first subnautica and both risk of rain games for being... very similar in uh, being stranded on a planet where, oh hey, it turns out that theres been ships crashed here because, basically no ones allowed here! and theres just, a big history of. mysterious planet with stuff happening around it but just like. okay its just the bermuda triangle but for space lets be real. but now, instead of the planet wanting you OFF of it like in the first game, it wants you ON... MORE speculation: "...diverse ecosystems and unique creatures. But something isn’t right. The world is out of balance. What happened here? What happened to you? And more importantly, where are you?" this is mayhaps the most intriguing line on the page. theres tons of references to Mysterious Lifeforms and even mysterious ancient ruins (yess!!!! love those) but this, feels significant. I think the main story themes will be ... how creatures adapt to their environment (and you yourself adapting to overcome the situation, via awesome dna shenanigans) (the indomitable human spirit as well) and... of the balance of said environments / ecosystems. Why is it out of balance? Well, if they're doing something similarish to the first game, maybe... we could have something akin to the whole kharaa and warpers situation. Remember, warpers were just designed to attack and eliminate anything that was infected. Basically every creature there hates them because of that. Poor things, just doing their job... but... what if... this psychic-squid is trying to use its powers to control more creatures on the planet? Not all of them, of course. Many would just like to kill us because they're hungry. But some... may be brainwashed into disrupting the ecosystem... but also, then that'd kinda confuse me on the motivations of this big guy. Maybe it doesnt have any motives! Maybe it wants help, though ... I think that'd be too much of a repeat of the first game. But maybe they wanna go for that!

[astriiformes]

New Year’s Resolutions are always dubiously helpful for me, but it is a good time for reflection, so here is an organization of things that are not quite “resolutions,” but possible goals for me nonetheless:

Writing:

Last year I made a post expressing how excited I was that I had started working on fic again in earnest, and modestly expressed the hope that I could match it and write at least 25k of fic in 2021. Turns out that I instead managed to publish 84,582 words of fic, marking my most productive writing year.... ever. 

What I am taking away from that: Fandom challenges & events are great motivators for me. The bulk of that published fic is from Whumptober and my Fandom Trumps Hate piece, and Whumptober in particular was a fantastic test of my skills & gave me some ideas for larger stories

What I would like to do in 2022: Keep that momentum! I love writing and posting fic so much and even though it’s hard it’s been great for me! That said, 2021 was also the year of not working on existing projects and instead posting new ones. Part of that was a new special interest developing in August, but in 2022 I want to return to my LotR longfic and BttF stories I’ve had percolating for ages, alongside new TOH stuff and finishing my FTH story/hopefully taking on a new one

(Additionally: I want to look more at non-fanfic writing projects. Thinking more seriously about original fiction or academic/freelance publishing seems like something worth doing if my writing ability is really returning so strongly, after struggling with it for so long)

Cosplay:

I only finished one cosplay in 2021, but Hunter’s Golden Guard outfit is far and away the most complicated one I’ve ever made and proof that I really have launched into a new sort of... echelon of ability

What I am taking away from that: I can in fact learn new skills without too much angst, and I do have some really solid problem-solving creating abilities (throwing together a mask to go with my Percy cosplay at 3am the night before wearing it again also proved this). It is absolutely worth tackling the projects I have been putting off because I think my abilities aren’t good enough. (Also, I really love the hobby and should invest in it)

What I would like to do in 2022: Finish at least one new cosplay from scratch. I also might like to fix up or remake parts of some others, but I want to tackle something completely new and finish it before the end of the year. Raine, most likely, but I also kind of want to look seriously at starting Fjord or Caduceus finally after worrying that they’d be “too hard” for me for a while now. Also, maybe look into doing a real photoshoot at some point because my costume(s) actually look good!

Music:

I struggled with this one this year and got very imposter syndrome-y about my abilities as a musician. Not so many successes. But I did write multiple original songs, which is a new one for me, and play one concert at the local con this summer, and at the very end of the year, before I injured my hand, was actually trying to regularly practice again!

What I am taking away from that: I know what I am insecure about and should tackle that as well as try to actually keep that practicing momentum. Also, I am a better lyricist/songwriter than I think probably

What I would like to do in 2022: Figure out regular practicing methods that work for me. Write at least a few more songs. There is a very decent chance that 2022 might end up being our album year -- work towards that. I think I need to share my music more to feel better about it, because I am my own worst critic so.... do that. On tumblr or on streams or even at more concerts if they’re possible. Also, if it’s possible, I really want to play in an ensemble by the end of the year. That probably means thinking about an audition, which terrifies me, but... I should try to bite that bullet. Maybe.

Of course there are other things I want to work on, but I think my school/mental health/interpersonal goals are a very different beast, to be handled differently. Mostly I wanted to look at three of the hobbies I invested in most this year in various ways & that made me happy (or sometimes did, at least), beacause oh boy were they one of the things that carried me through this last year, and I’d like for them to keep doing that. Creating is really important to me. I want to keep and get even better at creating.

[this-acuteneurosis]

Heeeey just wanted to tell you how I‘m obsessed with don’t look back ! I‘ve been reading the series since almost the beginnings as well as For want of a Skywalker. Both are amazing and I love to read every new chapter you post.

Anyway, I know you mentioned to disregard everything that happened in the clone wars series, but I just can’t help but wonder how you depicted clovis‘ and padme‘s relationship that well ? They don’t actually mention it that much on the wiki and some time back you said you hadn’t actually watschend the clone wars.

Anyway, there’s this episode in which padme gets poisoned by senator dott and Anakin begrudgingly works with Clovis to get the antidote ( I‘m rewatching that Episoden gift now). And I just kept wondering what Leia from DLB would do in that situation, e.g she came along on that trip where this happened ?

To be perfectly clear, I've watched, um, 3.5 seasons of TCW??? And I'm on the internet enough to encounter spoilers for some stuff I haven't seen. I actually have seen the episodes you mentioned.

The reason I keep reemphasizing for people to NOT expect things from the show is because I am being very selective about what from the show makes it through into the story. Clovis made the cut not because I liked that specific episode or arc (I really didn't), but because he represented for me an interesting political/interpersonal dynamic. Padmé being naive about an old friend who was clearly politically motivated by people directly connected to the Separatists. And because DLB is about politics, he's also a useful, named character I could tap to advance certain plot points. I kept his crush because, eh, I didn't want to have to remake his personality from scratch. But his characterization is going to develop based on what DLB needs, not TCW canon.

Leia would not let Padmé get into that situation. If Leia hadn't gone with Padmé herself (the most likely scenario), she would have at least made sure two of the handmaidens went. No one would have been relying on Anakin to be discreet or on top of things. Boy is not a spy. He wouldn't have been invited (a thing I think he did himself because jealous and marital problems? which is not an issue in DLB).

Padmé of DLB also trusts Clovis less and has been impacted more by Leia's paranoia. If Padmé let herself be alone with him (ever) it would be on her terms, with lots of backup plans. And way more security than a jealous husband.

[istanleyff7]

TOTP, Episode Aerith, Scenes 28-35

Final Fantasy VII Remake: Traces of Two Pasts Episode 2: Aerith Scenes 28-35 A Light Novel by Kazushige Nojima Translated by Stanley (@istanleyff7 on twitter) Scene 28

Aerith intended to find a job on her own, but Elmyra had already promptly sorted it out. It was to help the teachers at the Sector 5 House. Even though it was a job, she didn't feel that she was working because she spent most of her time playing with the children. She wanted to know about the world that she hasn't experienced. Yoko, who was older than her, had already left the house. She rented a house with a group of friends and made jewellery, which she sold in markets around Midgar. Jean and X collected machine parts from the scrapyard, polished them and sold them to people who needed them. Elmyra frowned when she told her this and ordered that she must never leave Sector 5 no matter what. 

"You said that if you restrained me, you'd be the same as Shinra. Have you forgotten?"

"I can’t believe you said that kind of stuff to your mother."

Elmyra looked very tired. Her work probably took a toll on her. If she had continued her "business" with Carlo and the others, she would not have had to work this hard. No matter how Aerith thought about it, she felt Elmyra let go of the business because of her. They were not a real parent and child, and she didn't have to care for her in the first place. Aerith wondered if she really had those inner thoughts, and she sure did. Was the given circumstances the reason why she tried to hold herself back with unnecessary words? Now, she was retaliating as a way to get back at Elmyra for tying her down.

Scene 29

"That's really sick."

"Yup, I admit it. My rebellious phase made things worse. I didn't have things to pour my heart and soul into, unlike you, Tifa."

"I really recommend exercising."

"Yeah, I’ll do that eventually."

"Yeah right… I’m sure.... You’ll do that eventually…."

"So, even though all these happened, I continued to help out at the house. The kids were so cute. They loved me. By the time I was fourteen, I didn't have much to complain about. But..."

Scene 30

After finishing work at the Sector 5 House, Aerith headed down the alley back home and saw people within the Gainsborough property standing by the entrance, unintentionally blocking it. There were two men and two women, and they seemed to be looking at the garden and the house. She recognised one of the men. His long, beautiful golden hair had not changed.

"Rodin!" Aerith called out to him instinctively. 

The face she saw when he looked back was unmistakably Rodin's.

"Yo, Aerith!" Rodin called back to her cheerfully, but for some reason, still looking about his surroundings.

"You've grown taller, haven't you? How long has it been?"

"It's been two years? Maybe slightly more than that?"

"Ahhh, yeah around that long."

She also looked at the other three to see if she knew them.

"Cheers."

Their eyes met. The young man with a large body and a boy's face raised his hand bashfully.

"Eh? Is that you, Marcellus?"

"Ah, you recognise me?"

"Of course."

Although Aerith replied that, she did not think that he was the same as back then. His physique became like his father's.

"I brought Marcellus here because, for some reason, he insisted on seeing you, Aerith."

Rodin took a step back, seeming like he made an excuse. There was a sense of discomfort. Marcellus darted his eyes from place to place and Aerith could sense his nervousness. He scratched his cheeks two or three times and started to speak in an awkward manner.

"Aerith. Firstly, I want to apologise for calling you a thief. Please forgive me. I was really a stupid kid.  I hated anything and everything about the world at that time. I didn't even control myself."

"I had already forgiven you. I'm glad you seem to be doing fine."

Marcellus's face lit up.

"Yea, I've been doing fine, thanks to you. Some thugs were chasing after me, then I ran away before a monster attacked me, and I was dying. Then I had a dream that you came to save me. For the longest time, I thought that it was a dream. Even if you were close by to me, you had no reason to save me, and you definitely couldn't be close by. But I had heard it from Carlo the other day that you knew where I was. Carlo didn't believe your reason. That's why he didn't tell anyone about it for a long time."

Aerith gave a faint smile, thinking that it was best not to deny or confirm anything. Damn you, Carlo.

"So I did a lot of research, and I've been wondering if it was the influence of the Lifestream. It's the flow of Spirit Energy. Do you know about it?"

"Nope."

She pretended not to know anything.

"Mako Energy sucks away the Lifestream..."

"Marcellus!" the young lady had been quiet the whole time, rebuked at him. "You're not allowed to talk badly about Mako Energy. I'll tell Papa if you do."

She then looked over at Aerith—

"My brother can talk about this for a super long time. Hey, have you been well?"

It was Rona.

"Yup. It looks like you're doing well too, Rona. How's Mr Meguro?"

"I can't say he's fine, but he's doing better now than when we left the slums. The air is better on the plate. You see, it's polluted and cloudy here, isn't it? I didn't know that until we left."

Rona was the same as before. She hurts people without meaning to.

"What's Carlo doing now?"

"He's working hard and is managing the business well. But I do wonder how he was during The Sector 5 Clash..."

"The Sector 5.... Clash?"

"You don't know about it?" Rona was shocked. "After Papa retired and Carlo became head of the household, the Corneo's, and some other ambitious, unknown people, came into Sector 5. Carlo and the others tried to get rid of them, and there was a bloody clash. Marvin, Roger and Bowman died, unfortunately."

"Eh...."

Aerith wondered how she could not have known about that.

"Well, things have already settled down, so there isn't an issue. And everyone has settled down where they should be," Rodin said, looking around again.

"Well then, Marcellus, Rona, are you both done? You both still can send letters in the future."

"Elmyra will be back soon. Do you all want tea?"

"I'm afraid we can't have tea either. We're actually not allowed in the Special District."

"Special District?"

"It spans from the station until here," Marcellus said. "It was established by Shinra around the time the Clash began. We weren't allowed to fight in the Special District. Anyone who breaks this rule would be executed. It was the only rule that everyone obeyed."

"I wonder what made this district special."

"Eh? Of course, it's because you're here, Aerith!" Rona could not hide her shock as she said it out loud.

"Okay! That's enough!" Rodin panicked.

"You both talked too much. Well then, let's go." Rodin urged them.

Marcellus hurriedly tried to arrange another meeting with Aerith. It seemed that he wanted to talk about the "mysterious incident". Aerith gave him a faint nod and dodged his attempt to do so. Rona invited her to come up to the plate to play, and Aerith replied that she would ask Elmyra. The four of them began leaving the alley. But Rodin turns around and points to a woman beside him. She was the one who was not introduced until the end. 

"This woman is Amber, and we'll be getting married soon. Would you please pass the news to Elmyra? It's unfortunate that I couldn’t introduce Amber to her."

Amber looked at Aerith with an angry look on her face.

↞↠

When Aerith got home, she looked at a stand, which had a vase placed on it. There used to be a television on that stand. She wondered when the television disappeared from the house.

"Ah..."

She remembered. It was a month after Elmyra severed ties with Carlo and the household. While Elmyra was cleaning the stand, the television fell over, and it broke. There was no television in the house after that. Aerith wondered if it was a coincidence or was it just to keep unnecessary information out of the house.

 Elmyra returned home late at night, and Aerith talked to Elmyra about Rodin and the others.

"Oh my, it's been a while, hasn't it? Are they alright?"

However, Aerith could tell on Elmyra's face that she was on guard.

"Hey, Mum. Do you know about the Sector 5 Clash? And about the Special District too?"

"What have you heard? We are living in a different world from those guys. It's better if you don’t worry about every little detail."

It seems that she would leave things in the dark again.

"The Special District is right here, isn't it? It's because I'm here. That's why Mum, you wouldn't let me go far away. That's the promise you made to Shinra. A promise to shut me in the Special District."

Elmyra shut her eyes and shook her head. 

"That's not it. But let's stop talking about this now. I'm tired, and whew, work was rough. The water tank in the café had broken down."

"Why don't you quit your job if it’s that tough? If you want money, why don't you get it from Shinra? You've been living on their money all your life. Nothing would change, wouldn’t it?"

Aerith knew she should not have said that, but she did. She could not see the look on Elmyra's face, and she then heard footsteps. Elmyra went up to the second floor and went into her own room.

Scene 31

"At that point, I thought that would be the end of my time in the house."

"But it had a happy ending, didn't it? I mean, you both went back on good terms."

Scene 32

Aerith thought that she could not stay in the house any longer and she was filled with emotions. Aerith firstly went back to her room, pulled out a suitcase she had never used from under the bed and stuffed a few sets of clothes, along with a few valuables, into it. Lastly, she put all the money she had earned from the Sector 5 House into her pocket and left the house. She walked down a familiar alleyway into a brightly lit street. A familiar face called out to her.

"Hey, Aerith. Are you going out at this hour?"

"I'm heading towards Sector 6."

She instinctively told a lie.

"Wait, what, no!"

"Don't worry. I'm not going to the Wall Market."

"Be careful, okay? Elmyra will cry if that happens."

As she walked along the street, she remembered her adventure with Ifalna.

『I wonder which direction is Sector 3 in?』

『Which direction is Sector 3 in?』

『I've heard that there's a church in the Sector 5 Slums. In the past, people gathered here and prayed to God, but nobody comes here anymore. I've been thinking that we should hide there a little...』

Aerith's steps became lighter. She still really liked this idea that Ifalna brought up in the middle of that adventure. The church should be far and beyond the station, outside the 'Special District'. It was the perfect place for Aerith's mood. The depressing feeling she had when she left home unbelievably cleared away. 

『Never forget that feeling, okay?』

『The feeling that you’ll enjoy anything.』

The memories of Ifalna came flooding back one by one.

Scene 33

"When you fight with a parent, adrenaline builds up in you, doesn't it?" Tifa uttered and seemed to be reminded of something.

"Yeah. That's why I couldn't stop and think about it."

"Yup. I understand."

"I've regrettably hurt people."

Tifa swallowed her breath after hearing Aerith's confession.

Scene 34

A train just pulled in at the platform of the station. That was probably the last train from the plate. Aerith glanced at it sideways and went ahead to try walking past it. This place was where she left her birth mother, and because of that, she still could not look at it directly. She felt as though the scene was still there. Suddenly, thoughts that she would be making a wrong move flashed through Aerith's mind. Was she about to make a grave mistake? The adrenaline she had felt earlier had unbelievably disappeared. The "Special District" was to protect her. Once she crosses the station, she would no longer have the protection. She stood rock still, as though there was an invisible wall ahead of her. Only the surrounding areas of the station were lit up. If she went forth, the road ahead would be dark. She could not see the future.

"Aerith?" a deep voice called out to her. 

She turned around to see a large man standing with his back to the station. He had big eyes, a big nose and a big mouth.

"Ahhh!"

"You've totally grown up, haven't you? You look like your mother."

It was Fuzz, and he was wearing the same white coat as that day.

"You've got the wrong person," Aerith lied at the spur of the moment.

Trying to get away from him, she turned her back towards the station and darted towards the darkness. She noticed that Fuzz was following her. She could not stop.

"Aerith, wait up. It's not what you're thinking."

Aerith wondered what other reasons could he try to stop her. She felt that she should not believe him and stop for him. He must have been angry and detest us. She wondered what would happen if he caught her. Aerith no longer knew where she was headed to. She was running along a narrow road, and the surroundings were a mountain of trash. By any chance...

"Jean! X!"

There was no response. Even if this were their scrapyard, they wouldn't be there at this hour. But she could not help calling out to them.

"Ahh!"

Aerith stumbled into something big and soft and fell. The suitcase she held dropped to the ground with a thud, signalling that it broke.

"Ouch..."

She did not know what was in the middle of the road at first, but it was the carcass of a dead monster. There was an unidentifiable sound coming out from it. It died not long ago. Its bodily fluids reached Aerith's feet and hands, and she felt a stinging sensation.

"You don't have to worry. That's harmless."

It was Fuzz. She looked up at him on her bottom. He was as big as she remembered him when she was seven. She noticed that the hem of her skirt was very crumpled, and she hurriedly fixed it. She looked for an opportunity to stand up and back away.

"Aerith, how could you do this to me? I've been worrying about you since then. Ever since you ran away from Shinra, I've been wondering if you've been living in terrible conditions. I heard about this from Amber, whom you met today."

"Amber!?"

Amber. Aerith met her in the evening, and she was introduced as Rodin's lover, and they were to be married. She had an angry face. Aerith then connected Amber to Fuzz. 

"Looks like you don't remember her. She was the friend who unloaded you both from the cargo train at the Sector 4 Slums Station."

"Ahh!"

So Amber was the grumpy-looking woman in the dirty work clothes that day. 

"I heard from her about where you were, and I hurriedly came over to find you. But what a close call. We almost didn't cross paths. I'm sure it was Ifalna who brought us together."

Aerith slowly stood up. Fuzz took two steps back, perhaps to assure her that he was not a threat. 

"Are you going to church, by any chance?"

"What?"

"I've talked to Ifalna about it before. She seemed to be very interested in it. When I told her I'd take her there someday, she said she definitely did not want to go. After you both disappeared, I went to look for both of you several times at the church, just in case you were both there. I prayed, but in the end, it seemed to me that there was no God."

A roar of a beast could be heard somewhere.

"That's from a monster. Here's the danger zone, especially at night. Shall we go to the church? Since we came all the way here anyway. It's not too far off from here, and it's nearer than the station."

It seemed that Aerith ran away further than she thought.

"But..."

"I see. Are you more afraid of me than the monster?"

She nodded honestly. He should already know how she was behaving towards him, and there was no point in pretending. 

"Well, I'll just walk ahead then, and you can keep a distance and follow me. If a monster comes up behind you, run away on your own. We can’t expect the vigilante corps to be here at this hour. And I must warn you, don't expect me to put up a good fight too. Just because I'm huge doesn't mean I'm strong."

With a thin smile, Fuzz walked away. His big white back disappeared into the darkness. Fuzz was right. She did not dare to go back alone on the monster-infested road. Just because they didn't appear on the way here doesn't mean they won't appear on the way back.

"Watch out!" Fuzz's voice came from a long way in front. "The monster is dead, but it's still fresh. Don't step on it."

↞↠

The "soon" was somewhat a lie, wasn't it? They had walked so far that she was doubtful of Fuzz, and after passing the carcass of the third monster, which was still fresh, they finally came to the front of the church.

"I wonder who brought them down?" Fuzz wondered as he walked up the stone steps and approached the door of the church. It was a big door. The style of the building was unlike anything Aerith had ever seen before. She could not see the entire structure even if she was looking up. She wondered what it would look like in daylight. The door opened with a squeak. Fuzz beckoned to her, and he went in. Aerith then went up the stone steps. A light, sweet scent wafted over from the church. It was a smell that Aerith knew. The inside was pitch black, but the floor at the back was slightly white.

"Look, the flowers bloom here. Regardless of whether there is a God or not, this is a special place," Fuzz said.

Aerith thought the same. Flowers bloom in special places. The same scent from the Gainsborough garden surrounded her, and she was soon faced with feelings of regret. She wondered what Elmyra was doing—wondering if she was looking for her daughter, who ran away from home. She wondered if she was going in the direction of Wall Market, taking the word of her acquaintance and believing him blindly.

"You can sleep on the bench near the flowers. I'll be near the exit.

"Thank you."

Aerith was not sleepy at all, but she did as he suggested and sat down on a bench near the flowers. She let out a big, quiet breath and felt every stiffness in the muscles of her body relax. She must have been tenser than she had realised. She felt like she was about to really fall asleep. She had to think of something. She wondered what would have happened if she had come to this church that day with her mother, Ifalna. What if the adventure had continued until the end? What would she have worked as? With little knowledge about the world, what would she have done? Would they have been able to live together on good terms? No matter how close they were, would they have disagreements? Since they were a real parent and child, would no problems arise?

"Aerith."

A voice came from a distance.

"Yes?”

"The house at Sector 3, it's still there. I've continued paying the rent since then."

"I see."

"Would you like to live together?"

She wondered what he just said to her. What did he mean?

"You'd like me to live together with you?"

There was no response.

"Fuzz?"

As she stood up fearfully, she saw that Fuzz was right next to her.

"Yeah. Let's live together, ‘I..fal...na…’"

Fuzz smiled. The pupil in his eyes seemed like it was not looking anywhere. A big hand reached out slowly towards her.

"Come here."

He was going to grab her! Aerith tried to take the suitcase and run. However, he caught her by the arm. 

"Let go of me!"

She slammed the suitcase into Fuzz's face as hard as she could. Fuzz flinched. The handle broke, the suitcase came off and flew off somewhere.

"You're heartless, Aerith."

She did not care and ran away. Weaving her way between the benches, she ran for the door. Fuzz jumped over the benches and gave chase. 

"Wait!"

There was no way she was waiting. The door was already nearby. She had to exit and run away. And what should she do after escaping? Fuzz knows where she stays. Amber, without a doubt, told him about Elmyra's house. Even if she ran away now, Fuzz would show up eventually. What should she do? Would she always have to live in fear? As long as Fuzz was around...

And Aerith eventually darted out of the door.

"Eh?"

Elmyra was there in front of her, dressed in her usual clothes as though nothing was wrong. Her face changed from surprised to relieved, and her facial expression changed a few more times. Finally, she turned serious.

"Aerith, move aside."

"Huh?" Fuzz sluggishly came out of the building, "Who’s out there?"

Elmyra hammered his throat with her weapon with all of her might. Fuzz let out a shriek of pain, collapsed and laid down motionlessly. Aerith was shocked to see what weapon Elmyra was using. It was a broom, and it seems that she had brought it here.

"Shall we go home?"

"Okay."

"You didn't leave anything behind?"

"Ah..."

She forgot her suitcase. There was something important inside of it.

"Quickly go get it."

"Okay."

She went back into the darkness of the church and went over to the flowers. She looked around and immediately saw a suitcase. The lid was open, and its contents were scattered outside. She gathered up the scattered clothes and put them back in the case, but she could not find her "treasure"—the pouch containing the materia.

"What are you doing?" Elmyra called out to Aerith, her voice audibly contained irritation.

"I can't find that materia."

Elmyra mumbled in annoyance and crouched down to join Aerith in finding it.

"It's in a little pouch made out of cloth."

"I know."

It's true. Elmyra knows everything about her.

"But, how did you know I was here?" Aerith asked while searching for the pouch.

"That's what I'd like to know too."

"Eh?"

"I knew that you ran away, and I soon went out of the house too. I thought about where you'd have gone as I ran. And then, while I was in the garden, I knew that you would have gone to the church on the outskirts of the slums."

"Why?"

"It just somehow came to my mind. Ever since you came to the house, I've had several strange experiences. I thought that it was this sort of experience again. So I went back home again and did some preparations before coming over."

"And what you prepared was a broom?"

"I wasn't exactly calm, you know. But it was useful, wasn't it? Look, Aerith, over there."

Elmyra pointed towards the densely grown flowers. In the middle laid the pouch that they were searching for. She parted the flowers away to not step on them, picked up the pouch and looked inside. The materia seemed to be glowing brighter than usual. 

Aerith turned around to look at Elmyra and was about to ask her shall they go back.

Elmyra was seated on the bench, and she was praying. She had her hands clasped at her chest, and her eyes were closed. The sight of her took Aerith's breath away. 

"I used to give thanks like this when I was a child," Elmyra said, opening her eyes as she stood up. 

She seemed embarrassed by it.

"Is it different from a prayer?"

"It's different today."

"Who did you thank?”

"Whoever told me about this place. Well, let's head out of here."

Elmyra started to walk, and Aerith followed her behind.

"Mum."

"Yes?"

"I'm hungry."

"Aerith, you’ve been talking to me normally since just now, but I'm angry with you. When I get home, you will face the music and hear everything I want to say."

"Okay～"

Both of them were completely distracted.

Fuzz had regained consciousness and was hiding behind the door. Firstly, he kicked Elmyra and sent her flying. 

"Mum!"

Fuzz tried to rush over to Elmyra and was drawing near her. She dodged his grasp, picked up the broom that she had dropped, turned around and struck the big man. However, the handle snapped right in half.

"Aerith! Come over here!" Elmyra called out to her.

Aerith ran towards her in panic. She saw Elmyra holding a gun with both hands and pointing it at Fuzz. That was the gun that Carlo had left behind. Fuzz stopped in his tracks and stared at the muzzle of the weapon.

"You take one more step, and I'll shoot you."

"Why don't you understand me!?" Fuzz yelled as he came towards them.

A shot rang. Elmyra had fired the gun. The dry sounds of gunshots echoed in the air. How many shots did she fire? Finally, they only heard the metallic click of the trigger. 

"Ifalna..."

Fuzz approached them as if nothing had happened. His lab coat was terribly stained, but there was no sign that a bullet had hit him.

"I can't believe this gun didn’t do shit!" Elmyra swore and threw her gun at Fuzz, but it flew well over the big man's head.

"Mum, let's run already..."

A bang was heard, and it was a sharp sound that cut through the air. Aerith did not know what it was until she looked at Fuzz. He was holding his left shoulder with his right hand and moaning. His blood was running on his white coat as he had been shot in the shoulder. Who had shot him? From where? Aerith looked around, but there was no shooter in sight.

"Let's go," Elmyra uttered in an awfully calm manner.

Fuzz collapsed and was writhing in pain. Aerith was not fearful anymore. He just looked so pathetic now.

"I'm sorry."

"Aerith, let's hurry."

Without delay, Elmyra started walking, holding the broken broom with both her hands. At last, Aerith apologised to Fuzz once more. She then proceeded to hug her handleless suitcase and chased after Elmyra.

"Hey, Mum. I wonder who shot him."

"I'm guessing this, but the 'Special District' probably expanded."

Ah. That makes sense. As they walked on, Aerith looked around her surroundings, searching for a black suit. Just for tonight, she felt that she could give them her thanks.

Scene 35

"What happened to Fuzz after that?" Tifa asked with a concerned look on her face.

"I never saw him again. Though, till now, I still get nervous when I see someone big."

"I see."

Whenever Aerith thought about Fuzz, she would still have mixed feelings about him. She did not want to see him again. However, she also carried guilt. Fuzz became like that because of what Ifalna and her did to him. If she never pondered about this, these feelings of guilt would continue for a long time. She wondered if she would ever get the chance to atone.

"You can talk to me about everything, okay?" Tifa assured her.

Aerith was delighted by her compassion. She wanted to tell her more.

"Well then, next up is a big one!"

"You gotta be kidding me. There's something bigger than whatever you said?"

"For that, you're right. It's about my first love."

"Oh, that's definitely something big!"

―It sounded like someone walked into the cargo hold. Tifa seemed to notice it too. They put their index finger to their lips and looked at each other. The sound of footsteps was coming closer, coming from the other side of the cargo wall. Tifa moved noiselessly to the gap in the cargo. It looked like she was waiting for the owner of those footsteps.

The time passed slowly but surely, and the footsteps came to a stop.

"It's me."

It was the voice of Cloud Strife. Tifa's expression softened.

"I'll tell you next time. About the story of my first love," Aerith whispered to her.

Cloud walked in front of them and looked at both of them with a dubious look. He made a face as though he was investigating them, and he looked ridiculous. Aerith and Tifa burst into laughter, trying to keep their silence.

-fin- ↞↠ You’re on page 142/142 of Aerith’s segment of the Light Novel Word Count: 29322 The End. Thanks for the reading!  Translator’s Note Previous Scenes: Scenes 22-27 Back to Content Page (click/tap here) Final Fantasy VII Remake: Traces of Two Pasts Episode 1 — Tifa (Coming Soon) Episode 2 ― Aerith Coda: The Investigation Unit Within the Painting follow @istanleyff7​ on twitter for updates support the TOTP translation project financially here (click/tap here)

[drac-onion]

Status update I guess. I dunno, I think these are kinda fun. Besides, I want to get into the habit of using tumblr as a space to just vomit out what I'm thinking more often.

Anyway, I'm up to the final chapter of the second draft of LFI (the big thing, but that's too vague and this is just a temp name anyway). I'm not too worried about it since it doesn't need that much work done to it. I think. There's some stuff that's gotta get changed around and fixed to fit the changes I made throughout the second draft-ing but that should be about it. Also it needs an actual ending. Damn.

It'll probably take a third and maybe even a fourth draft before it's truly "done" but such is the life of working on a long work that you've poured nearly a year into. I just want it to be as perfect as possible. Reduce the chances of looking back on it and thinking "oh god why" or at least increase the timespan between posting and regret. I'm half-tempted to get some fresh beta readers in on it. Not because I don't trust my current beta, far from it. But I think maybe a fresh-ish perspective that hasn't been colored by months and months of workshopping and brainstorming would be good. Like having the author of a book talking to you about the book you're reading would probably change your perception of it, right? Instead of taking the writing at face-value, you're taking into account things that aren't even written down. Vibes, really. Hm. I dunno. Maybe once it's "done".

As for the other thing, the one shot that's still untitled(M1, we'll say), it's also going well. It's edited (for the most part) and it even has a summary. No title, but I think I'm gonna brainstorm one from the list with my beta when they get through it. Hell, I even wrote out what I wanted the author's note to be. It's damn near ready to go save for a final pass of beta reading and a title. Yippee fuckin' skippy.

I highly encourage writers going for a longfic to also have a oneshot on the side they can go through when the longfic gets overwhelming. Keeps the momentum up. I've got a few more oneshots that I wrote around the same time as this M1, but I think only one of them is really a concept I could run with. For the sake of discussion, we'll call these A1-3.

A1 is probably one of the earliest from that time, but the concept is a little...eh. Not bad, but not impressive. I think if I explored it a little more, I could find something in there, but I kinda doubt it.

A2 is a lot better. Like it's actually pretty damn good. I based it on a particular day during my playthrough and the tone of it just spoke to me. Good concept. Good tone. Good a lot of things. Probably the next one I'll work on. This is the one I was talking about a few paragraphs ago. I could work with this one quite easily.

A3 is... well, it ain't bad. It's got a pretty good tone and concept, but again, it all lies in the execution. There's a lot there I could work with, but it would take a lot to get it where I would be satisfied. It's my first crack at a post-11/20 so there's a lot there to work with. I just gotta figure it out.

Other than those, I only have ideas. I haven't written a oneshot from scratch in a long time, so I'm kinda just sifting through the ones I have written and editing those to be good enough since I already did a bulk of the work. Maybe once I'm done with these, I'll go through my older stuff and rewrite them. There's some chapters from BTM that are no longer accurate to the 'verse I'm rocking with so I could pull a uh... I dunno, like a remaster/retcon thing where I both remake them and change some stuff around as needed. Although I think going back and rewriting older stuff is a slippery slope. If I kept going back and rewrote all my older stuff to the "new standard," I'd never get anything done because I'd be rewriting everything. Maybe I'll go back to them after a significant period of time, but I kind of want to focus on new stuff. (I admit that the temptation is STRONG.)

Hopefully the next update I have will be that something is "done" and uploaded. Probably M1.

idk

my ass re-editing the same 86k words and then my brain tells me to rewrite an entire major-minor plot point (i've been writing this thing for five months and im dissatisfied with half of it for various reasons):

[slashingdisneypasta]

Since you said it's ok to ask, do you have anything in store for Chucky, Hades, BJ, Slender Brothers and anyone from Gotham?

The ones in pink are the ones most likely to get finished/the ones I'm most excited about.

And the ones in blue are one I really love- but have kinda gotten stuck on.

Beetlejuice:

Drabbles: Supernatural!MultiVillains x Reader where the reader becomes supernatural like them (So you become a ghost/demon for BJ) and are struggling- but they can help. If you allow them.

Chucky: Oh my god I have so much for him, I love him.

Drabbles: Reader is travelling the world and sends postcards back to various Slashers- The Horror House reacts.

(SHORT; No more then 250 words) Drabbles: Little tiny drabbles inspired by all the little things in 'Thing That Never Cross a Mans Mind' by Kellie Pickler- that the horror villains definitely do say/think (Chucky got 'This steak is too thick. Ain't no way in the world I'll ever finish it').

Drabbles: Horror Villains catch their S/O lip syncing a random song.

Drabbles: Disney Movie Parodies (Chucky x Reader x Michael in a Princess and The Frog-type plot). This is one I'm excited about!

Drabbles: Fem!Reader has a sexist monster hunter husband so she decides to go after the monster (Slasher) her damn self- but what if the Slasher can offer her more and she ended up with him/them? (Chucky's bit involved Tiffany as well! ^^)

Drabbles: Reader looks back on when they were still struggling with their desires for this horrible, evil psychopath (Slasher) and thinks 'What would the old me think of me now?', with Time Travel!!

Drabbles and/or Headcanons: OG Slashers S/O's meeting Remake Slashers.

Drabbles: Various Horror Villains find their S/O having a breakdown over not looking good enough.

Drabbles: Drabbles for the SIX!AU.

Drabbles: Types of Kisses, randomly chosen according to a list of kiss prompts i found on Pinterest. Chucky's is: When one person stops the kiss to ask “I’m sorry, are you sure you want- “and getting answered with more kiss.

Drabbles: MultiVillains x Reader inspired by Spikes song 'Rest in Peace' from Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Drabble: THIS IS THE ONE I'M WORKING ON CURRENTLY. Its an angsty one inspired by the song 'When I Was Your Man'. Basically, a while after you broke up, Chucky sees you with your new, lovely boyfriend- and says spews some bullshit. You end up fighting. Theirs lots of sexual tension involved but its also angst.

Headcanons: Reader breaks up with their current, non-villainous S/O for whatever reason and the Horror Villains react.

Headcanons: Fairytale Princess!AU. Basically Various Horror Villains x Reader... if the stories were fairytales. Chucky's is Princess and the Frog and the tagline is 'If she had practised on a doll first to get her nerves up to scratch before smooching the amphibian.'

Headcanons: Supernatural Horror Villains x Reader where reader gets their HV S/O's abilities for a day (Basically your soul is going into a doll.)

Headcanons: What fighting with your Horror Villain S/O is like+Making up.

Headcanons: Reader gets sent to a mental hospital because of something Chucky did and meets Billy Bibbit. (Theirs also a Freddy/Benny bit too)

Headcanons: Just SFW headcanons of Salshers x Reader ^^ When you actually LIKE them.

Headcanons: Horror House AU! What having a crush on various Slashers would include.

Headcanons: Horror Villains interrupting various Horror Protagonists from asking out THEIR crush (Reader obviously). The Protag that Chucky has randomly been allocated is Adult!Alice Johnson from ANOES.

Headcanons: Slashers with colds.

Headcanons: Descriptions of your soulmate mark if your soulmate is one of the Supernatural Horror Villains. (Involves Tiffany)

Headcanons: Horror Villains reacting to catching reader sneaking out the window at their wedding (To someone else).

Oneshot: Part 2 of that Teen!Bubba/Chucky/Freddy x Reader, in which it shows how Y/N has gotten closer with both Bubba and Chucky and... oh yeah. Freddy kills Mr Underwood so you have to help him deal with that. Chucky also turns up because he seems to always be around you somehow, and you were having a sleepover with Bubba at the time so he and Chop Top (He has a truck- good for moving the body) are there too. Chucky has some useful insights into this problem and theirs a lotta hostility between him and Freddy (But MOSTLY on Freddy's end).

Oneshot: BestFriend!Chucky x Reader x Freddy. Reader is basically Freddy's Proxy (Willingly, because they're in love with him), but he treats her like shit and Chucky knows for a damn fact that he could do better. He's always asking you but you're too wrapped up in the Freddy of it all. Tagline is 'He treats you like property'.

Oneshot: The Slashers are hiding out at the Hewitt property and all catch feelings for reader.

Oneshot: Horror House AU! Basically, Jennifer and Freddy leave mistletoe everywhere and you know how that'll end...

Reactions: Slashers react to their S/O getting a 'Horror Villain Match-up' on Tumblr and it not being them (With specifics about how they'd react to you getting particular Slashers).

Smutshot (With feels): You two meet on accident at a bar, both drinking away your feelings, and decide to give each other a hand. *cough*

Hades:

Drabbles: MultiVillains x Reader where Villains who is your best friend but also secretly fucking in love with you mistakenly thinks your current boyfriend touched you without permission and surprisingly gets PISSED.

Drabbles: MultiVillains x Reader where reader has a crush on their best friends father... A.K.A the villain.

Drabbles and Headcanons: Seducing the enemy... and then falling in love, too.

Gotham:

Drabble: Jervis Tetch x Reader where reader gets overstimulated (In a non-sexual way). Jon and Jer are also there.

Drabble: J Squad x Wiccan!Reader

Dark! Drabbles: (Dwight Pollard x) Reader x Jerome Valeska where Dwight tries to not only take Jeromes face but also his S/O, Jervis Tetch x JimGordensDaughter!Reader where Jervis decides you're his new Alice and Riddler x Reader where while Ed was in love with Kringle... the Riddler on the other hand has always been infatuated with you.

Drabbles: Drabbles of Ed, Jerome and Oz inspired by different sections of 'Its Too Late To Go Back Now' from Bonnie & Clyde and the musical.

Drabbles: MultiVillains x Reader (Including the Riddler) where Villains who is your best friend but also secretly fucking in love with you mistakenly thinks your current boyfriend touched you without permission and surprisingly gets PISSED.

Drabbles: MultiVillains x Reader (Including Riddler) where reader has a crush on their best friends father... A.K.A the villain.

Drabbles: MultiVillains x Reader (Including Riddler) inspired by 'El Tengo De Roxanne' from moulin Rouge. Basically they BUY you.

Drabbles: MultiVillains x Reader (Including Jerome) where a powerful being cursed your villainous S/O to be mellow and well behaved... and you miss the person you fell in love with. Because although this new version is better for the world- he's not the one you loved.

Drabbles: MultiVillains x Reader (Including Barbara) where you try on your villainous S/O's costume.

Drabbles: MultiVillains x Reader (Including Jervis/The Wolf from The Walking Dead) where reader meets a 'reincarnation' of their villainous S/O.

Drabbles: MultiVillains x Reader (Including the Riddler) where your villainous S/O is under mind control and you need to bring them back.

Drabbles and Headcanons: MultiVillains x Reader (Including Riddler) Seducing the enemy... and then falling in love, too.

Headcanons: MultiVillains (Including Barbara Kean, Headhunter / Wendell, Mr Freeze / Victor Fries and Edward Nygma /and/ The Riddler) opinions on Age Difference.

Headcanons: Tetch Siblings x FamilyFriend!Reader. Basically some very messed up family bonds where Jervis tries to assimilate you in as his wife figure while Alice is your child together.

Oneshot: Riddler x Reader x Penguin where you are stuck in the middle of their split because you were their assistant while Oz was running for mayor, so they both got close to you. This one is Platonic.

Oneshot: Reader, who has an open relationship with Oz because they're always travelling, comes back to visit and finds Ed; Who (At this point), certainly doesn't have any good intentions towards Oz and you stick around because clearly Oz hasn't noticed and you need to protect him.

Oneshot: You're in love with Ed Nygma (And vice versa) so whenever the Riddler comes out, you're there to call Ed back. You HATE the Riddler. Lots of fluffies woth Ed and sexual tension with Riddler- the way it should be XD Haha

Oneshot: Penguin x Reader inspired by 'You're Going Back To Jail' from Bonnie & Clyde the Musical.

Slender Brothers:

Dark!Drabbles: Offender x SexSlave!Soulmate!Reader where the only way Offender could get his soulmate is through blackmail, Slender x Captive!Reader where Slender is never going to want a proper relationship even with the love of his life so he keeps you underground just for when he actually wants you, Teacher!Splender x Student!Reader where he's in a dark place and allows him to do something with his seductress of a student that he knows damn well he shouldn't and Trender x reader where he tries to stop you from changing at all because you're his best inspiration.

Drabbles and Headcanons: MultiVillains x Reader (Including Offender and Slender) Seducing the enemy... and then falling in love, too.

Drabble: Offenderman x Reader called 'Lapse In Judgment'. I'm sure you can assume yourself what that one is about (; Regretful Morning after stuff+Offender being his surprisingly wise self.

Drabbles: MultiVillains x Reader (Including Slender) inspired by 'El Tengo De Roxanne' from moulin Rouge. Basically they BUY you.

Drabbles: MultiVillains x Reader (Including the Offender) where your villainous S/O is under mind control and you need to bring them back.

Drabbles: MultiVillains x Reader (Including the Riddler) where Villains who is your best friend but also secretly fucking in love with you mistakenly thinks your current boyfriend touched you without permission and surprisingly gets PISSED.

Drabbles: MultiVillains x Reader (Including Offender) inspired by Superman by Daughtry. Reader is idealistic, Fairytale Princess-type reader has been waiting for their Superman... and she gets Lex Luther instead.

Drabbles: MultiVillains x Reader (Including Offender) inspired by Spikes song 'Rest in Peace' from Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Drabbles: Creepypasta's x Reader (Including Slender and Bonus!Offender) Soulmates where the CP has been stalking you throughout your teen years, waiting for you to become 'of age' and finally get to meet you once you finally graduate highschool. This is also set in THIS universe, where you were a huge CP fan when you were in your tweens.

Drabbles: MultiVillains x Reader (Including Offender) where not one of the people you love is there when you really need them... but the one person who you least expect to care, makes sure that they are.

Drabbles: MultiVillains x Reader (Including Offender) where a powerful being cursed your villainous S/O to be mellow and well behaved... and you miss the person you fell in love with. Because although this new version is better for the world- he's not the one you loved.

Drabbles: Creepypasta x Reader (Including Slender and Offender) Hattice (Alice and the Mad Hatter) moment inspired drabbles. Slender's moment is the goodbye and Offender's is his (The Hatter's) escape from the Red Queens castle and reunion with Reader (Alice).

Drabbles: Slender Brothers x (Seperate) Readers who are quite on the younger side (early-mid 20's) and how they react to that.

Headcanons: Reader grows old while her Slender Brother S/O stays the same.

Headcanons: Offender as Mrs Doubtfire. I dunno man but it sounds hilarious and YOU KNOW IT.

Headcanons: MultiVillains x Reader (Including Offender and Splender). With being in a relationship with these villains theirs a lot of just PUTTING UP with them involved. But lets talk about the moments you actually LIKE them.

Headcanons: MultiVillains (Including Splenderman) opinions on Age Difference.

Headcanons: MultiVillains x Reader (Including Offneder x Reader x L.J). Various Poly Relationship Headcanons.

Oneshot: Poly!Teen!Human AU!Laughing Jack x Reader x Offenderman. 3 times two of you had to sneak the last out of their house and one time you all stayed in.

Oneshot: Offenderman x Reader where you go from his proxy to housemates to best friends to lovers. Tagline is 'Lets do some 'We shouldn't be doing this' things'.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Hi! Hope you're doing well <3 I been reading some of your posts about LO and Greek culture in general! And as a non-greek I think your culture is amazing and it should be respected as any other culture, so, I had this question a little while ago

I made a couple of characters based on greek myth creatures, and I kinda had a story for them in an ancient greek inspired world (highly inspired tbh, I think it might take place in an ancient greek ambience as well), but now I think that might be insensitive (?) I don't know how to express it, but I just want to know, would it be ok if I continue with that idea or should I scratch it?

TIIIME TO FINALLY ANSWER THIS

I am really sorry for the long wait! I was trying to think how to answer this properly and also mustering the energy for it xD I will pin it so you can find it more easily, if you come back to the blog.

For starters, you can write whatever you wish. I am hesitant to say to people “you can't write this and that” because it might make people feel estranged and uncomfortable and I believe that distance serves no real purpose. Yes, it’s likely that a xenos won’t be making the story VERY culturally accurate but if the story is 30% culturally accurate as opposed to barely 5% which we see in the popular media today, then it’s still a win. Not to mention that Greeks themselves are not 100% culturally accurate most of the time in their Greek mythology stories. This happens because 1) Americanization has hit us hard 2) They write them just for fun without bothering to research much. We are also lucky if we have a 30% accuracy in our texts most of the time.

(I love percentages if you can’t tell 😂)

You might have figured out I have the tag #writing (and perhaps also #writing advice ??) where I answer these type of questions, so visiting it might help! I'm not gonna tell you if you can write it or not - you can write whatever you like - but I would advise you to treat the Greek culture like any other real or fictional culture. Do a proper “worldbuilding”, let’s say.

THE CREATURES

As you know, some are more serious and some are more playful. They don’t easily “switch” from their behaviors so it’s best to keep a serious creature serious and a playful creature playful throughout most of the story. Some reading is needed, to figure out how the ancient Greeks saw those creatures. Because assumptions are usually not helpful. If we have no clues about their behavior, that’s free real estate I guess 😂

Now, if you are going for the “almost like Greek culture but not quite” thing, that still needs similar studying. You need to know where you are basing those creatures and how they see their world - or how the world sees them. And what elements make sense to change.

You can still not base the characters nowhere and just have a gal with snakes in her head. You can do that xD However, if you like to be more in touch with the culture you need to use some context and the “ambience” you talked about. It’s another thing to say “this gal has snakes on her head“ and another to say “this is THE Medusa“.

Some Greek culture needs to shine through. I mean, it would be great if it could shine though in general, so your references and basis to Greek mythology are better. It would be safe to assume the ancient folklore creatures have some Greek culture in them since they have Greek names, they have been written in Greek stories behaving according to the Greek societal rules and ethics, and generally being symbols in Greece until our days. And your story is about Greek mythology, so you want to emphasize the Greek aspects of your heroes and world.

THE ANCIENT GREEK INSPIRED WORLD

I don't know what research you’ve done so far but I will begin from the basics anyways. Ancient Greek ambience, as you can probably guess, is not “chitons, wine, vines and white pillars” 😂 The ambience specifically doesn’t come from the aesthetics but from the feel of it - the food, the customs, the symbols, the dances, the language interjections, the behaviors and values. Parts of the culture are also how is reverence and modesty are expressed, what makes someone present “manly“ or “feminine”. So, it’s gonna take some research.

People usually write some of the aesthetic and think they are covered, even though their worldbuilding is bad, precisely because they have only presented the very top of the iceberg. No food, no dances, no certain behaviors, nothing. You could say they are “soulless Disney remakes”. 😂 You can also do that, but you need to know how it will come out. It might be quite bland and, if I am not mistaken, you said you want to avoid that. (And I think most of Greeks would tell you that they don’t mind a Greek “soulless” remake but it would be super extra great if you put cultural elements in).

Ok, I don’t mean make it like an encyclopedia, but presenting some stuff from the culture is how you get the ambience. You might as well take a writing advice list for worlbuilding stuff you must have and see which ones you can find irl from the Greek culture.

Important! Remember that nearby cultures affect each other, so if you change one element from the Greek culture it’s likely it has to be changed in other cultures next to your area. If wearing green makes you manly in Imaginary Greece, it will also make you manly in Imaginary Turkey and Imaginary Bulgaria, let’s say. (there is no “ancient Turkey” or “ancient Bulgaria” as countries - and depending on the era, “ancient Greece” is also not a thing - but you get my point xD)

For the interpersonal relationships/interactions, you can read some ancient translated texts presenting daily life situations of the ancient Greeks (start from Googling stuff, I really don’t have sources for that xD). It’s very likely that the ancient sources won’t give you a very defined feel (try it anyways, if you like). Therefore, I suggest you see interactions of modern Greek people.

Worry not! YouTube - through me xD - has you covered! Searching the tags #greek tv #greek youtuber #greek podcast and #video. On youtube you can even find vlogs of people visiting Greece and see interactions with the locals. (If you have trouble finding them, you can send me another ask).

Similarly, it might take months to find all the Greek language interjections so you can go for modern ones. Besides, many interjections like “popoo“ are ancient. Besides, if you are not making a very “serious” story, the modern touches might help it feel more in touch with the present.

Surely, people are people everywhere and humans between countries share cultural traits, but there are some slightly more predominant stuff depending on the culture. Cultures close to each other share more traits, so, if you can’t find any Greeks around, you might be able to find our neighbors. Middle Eastern, north African, or south European people (and Hispanic/Latino Americans!) around might help to understand the dynamics between friends and family members. If you already belong to some of those cultures, congrats, you have most of the formula figured out!

I gave so much space to the interpersonal relationships because that’s gonna give you an idea where the line of “respect” is. Surely, the ancient interpersonal relationships won’t be like the modern American ones  😂 There is no way a student goes to Chiron being like “hey, man, how you doin?” Knowing how Greek teachers were, as late as the 20th century, that’s gonna earn him a slap 😂

Another thing: saying “Good morning” and “good afternoon / goodnight” when you first and last see people in the day is VERY important and the best social practice! You won’t be considered rude if you don’t say them but in a slightly formal and especially professional environment, better use them. (Other modern Europeans also consider this a good practice.)

The most ancient greeting of Greeks is “be happy” (χάιρε / χαίρετε) but health is also very important and is another old greeting. Xάιρετε is more formal in our days and Γεια/Γεια σας ("have good health”) is the most used formal and informal one. Seeing how people wish health in the middle east, it might be that the Health thing has been here for centuries. Also, if you break something or something bad happens to you, we say “health” because having your health is more important than anything else.

Fun fact, “Charon“ (Χάρων) probably means “the happy one” :P It has the same root with (χάιρε / χαίρετε).

Many other social cues can be found in the tags I mentioned, but you can send me an ask if you need to know something more specific!

As for the food, you can find ancient recipes and even use modern ones (which are usually with the same ingredients). Same goes for dances and symbols. You can google stuff about them, go on Google Scholar and search there, as well. (Also, google pages where you can download those papers for free ;) ) Please do some cross examination to make sure that this element indeed exists and it’s not just one person pulling it our of their a**. 😂

If you can’t find info, you can lean on modern symbols and dances. The dances are similar through the centuries anyways. No one is going to come for you if you say you based an element on a modern Greek thing bc the ancient one was impossible to find with the resources available to you.

I don’t have many more things to add on these cultural elements because I already have tags for the modern ones. #greek cuisine #melomakarona #greek dance #greek custom #greek tradition  etc.

And, last but not least, research the weather!! I can't stress this enough 😩 We are not a desert and we are not the Tropics. If your weather is similar to the Greek one, then your creatures most likely will need some serious covering in Autumn and Winter 😂

All in all, it’s certainly not a piece of cake to write about other countries and cultures but, if they are open to let you in, you can learn stuff and do your best depicting them. It might not be perfect (and no work is actually perfect) but it would be a step to the right direction and might encourage more writers to do the same - instead of throwing some chitons in and calling it a day xD

If you have any other questions feel free to send me another message (dm or ask). You - or anyone else - REALLY WON’T BOTHER ME if you ask me many questions on my DMs or here.