#On the other hand.. mmo...

[metalandmagi]

Romance Anime Starter List

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sick and tired of seeing “Top ___ Best Anime of All Time” lists that are nothing but shounen. So I wanted to put together a list of some romance anime that I consider good “starters” for the genre. Because if I were just now becoming an anime fan, I’d think all there was to offer was shounen action series.

And by “starters” I mean basic stuff that’s not too…out there, and actually involves the characters getting together instead of just harems or using romance as a side plot (sorry Ouran High School Host Club and My Next Life as a Villainess). 

So if you’re new to anime and want stuff that’s not just guys beating the shit out of each other (which is also fun, don’t get me wrong), here are some basics.

Taisho Maiden Fairy Tale- When the pessimistic Tamahiko Shima loses all function in his right arm, his family sends him away to live in the mountains with the cheerful, hard working Yuzuki Tachibana…who was purchased by the Shima family to pay off her family’s debts and basically act as a caretaker/future bride for Tamahiko so they’d never have to deal with him again. It’s a more cheerful version of My Happy Marriage (without the supernatural stuff), except in this one, the guy is the one who has massive self-esteem issues and an abusive family. There are still very serious themes, but ultimately it’s not meant to make you cry every episode. I swear it’s so good, but nobody watched it!

Horimiya- A slice of life in which pretty and popular high school queen bee Hori, finds out her quiet, unassuming classmate Miyamura is hiding piercings and tattoos that could get him expelled. The two gradually find out more about each other and get together in the most realistic way I’ve seen depicted in an anime. It’s also fucking hysterical and genuinely emotional.

Recovery of an MMO Junkie- Another slice of life that focuses on two adults who meet in an MMO game without realizing they also know each other in real life. I don’t want to say much more than that. It’s adorable, and the main character is so relatable it hurts.

Love with Yamada-kun at Level 999- Speaking of MMOs, this is a newer series about Akane Kinoshita, a college first year who’s reeling from a bad break up. In an attempt to get back at her ex, she winds up meeting Akito Yamada, a popular gamer who happens to be in her guild in the MMO they both play at an IRL meetup. The two go from acquaintances to something more as they keep running into each other. Even more relatable main characters and just wholesome relationships all around.

Snow White With The Red Hair- A fantasy in which an apothecary named Shirayuki (meaning, you guessed it, “snow white”) runs away from her home in order to escape becoming the concubine of her town’s prince. While fleeing, she is rescued by Zen, the prince of a neighboring country, and she ends up becoming an herbalist to repay him. It's super cute with some genuinely swoon worthy moments and a couple that just works so well together. I have a habit of comparing this to Akatsuki no Yona, even though the two aren’t really that alike. This is more romance driven while Akatsuki no Yona is more of a serious historical fantasy with romance elements (Yona manga is amazing, but the anime barely scratches the surface, so that’s why I didn’t include it).

Sasaki to Miyano- When the shy, easily flustered Miyano meets Sasaki, a cool “delinquent” upperclassmen, the two end up bonding over manga…specifically BL manga. That’s right, Miyano is a fudanshi, but due to his small stature and somewhat feminine appearance, he’s constantly trying to convince others that he’s not interested in having his own love story where he’d be reduced to a stereotypical doe-eyed uke. But as Sasaki and Miyano spend more time together, they realize that what they have is more than friendship, and they have to come to terms with their own perception of gay relationships. This is my favorite romance of all time. It’s a slow burn, but boy is it worth it. Their relationship is so natural and realistic, just like Horimiya. Just two people hanging out and bonding over things the way people do in real life!

Given: The story of some boys in a band with trauma. Enough said. It's great. Go watch it.

Bloom Into You- Yuu Koito is a high school girl who’s been waiting her whole life for her own perfect romance to start…but when she receives a confession, she realizes she doesn’t know how to respond when she’s just not into the guy. And then she gets another confession…this time from the cool student council president Touko Nanami, who basically jumpstarts her lesbian awakening. Very cute story about how we perceive the concept of love vs actually feeling it. Also has a canonically aro/ace side character, so that’s a win for me. Another show like this is Adachi to Shimamura (but I honestly don’t remember much about it. It just didn’t stick with me as much).

Ore Monogatari- Takeo Gouda is a tall, bulky high school first year with a sensitive heart of gold. He wants nothing more than to find his own true love, but most girls are intimidated by his enormous stature, and they end up falling for his conventionally attractive friend instead. That is, until he meets the tiny, adorable Rinko Yamato. He falls in love instantly, but he’s sure she’s interested in his best friend like everyone else, so he vows to help get them together, even though his heart is breaking. Peak himbo behavior. Pure of heart, dumb of ass.

Yuri on Ice- Yes it’s the gay figure skating anime everyone knows. And yes it’s a fucking romance, okay? I will die on this hill. The romance between Viktor and Yuri is just as important as the plot!

Kaguya-sama Love Is War- Two insanely smart high school students both have a crush on the other, but since they’re…you know…high schoolers, neither of them wants to admit it first. So they come up with increasingly convoluted plans to get the other to confess first. This will go down as one of the best of all time. It’s a hilarious yet poignant modern classic.

Fruits Basket- I’ve talked about it before and I’ll talk about it again. A romance “comedy” that slowly morphs into a drama about a girl named Tohru who finds herself living with the mysterious Sohma family after her mother dies. Little does she know, the Sohmas are the victims of a  (somewhat silly, but ultimately tragic) curse that she must fight to break. Even though I’m more into it for the family drama, the romance is still top tier and plays an important role in the story. This is my second favorite anime of all time, and it’s a classic for a reason. If anyone hasn’t watched it yet, GO WATCH IT! IT WILL RIP YOU TO SHREDS!

Blue Box- A sports romance about an aspiring badminton player named Taiki Inomata who has a massive crush on the girls basketball team's star player Chinatsu Kano. Through a twist of fate, the two end up living together and having to hide it from the rest of their classmates, all while Taiki tries to work up the courage to ask Chinatsu out. It's so sweet and wholesome, and it's a great blend of sports anime and romance that can appeal to anyone who is more hesitant to get into the romance genre. The animation is also so freaking gorgeous!!!!

Insomniacs After School- A slice of life/drama that follow two high schoolers with insomnia who meet and form a connection while using their school's abandoned astronomy club room to sleep during the day. They soon find themselves spending more and more time together and bonding over their personal issues. I don't want to say too much, because there are a few spoilers that heighten the stakes of their relationship, but the characters are so great. They're fun and realistic without being annoying. And the show is mostly chill, but it definitely builds the drama by the end.

365 Days To The Wedding- A workplace romance between the two most awkward people you could possibly imagine! The story takes place at a travel company that is about to open a new branch in Alaska, but because our two main characters are...like I said...very awkward, they come up with a plan to avoid being sent to work at the new branch...by telling their boss they're getting married. Because they wouldn't want to split up a married couple by making one move away, right? As ridiculous as the premise sounds, hilarious shenanigans ensue, but there's also a surprising amount of serious discussions about romance and marriage. The main characters also have major autism coding, so if you're looking for a neurodivergent romance, this is it. (There's also an episode that involves a princess wanting to give up the throne to pursue a life with her girlfriend!)

And now for some honorable mentions that didn't quite fit into the regular list:

Ride Your Wave- A movie about a surfer who falls in love with a firefighter……and I’m not going to say any more than that. Go into it blind. If you like stuff like Your Name, this is a good one to watch.

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun- A comedy about a high school girl who finds out the upperclassman she has a crush on is actually a shoujo manga artist, and no matter how she tries to confess to him, he just never gets it.

The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague- A slow burn slice of life that focuses on a guy with ice powers who has a crush on his coworker. That’s it. That’s the show. When I say slow, I mean SLOW. It’s perfectly cute and fluffy, but my god does it take forever to get anywhere with these two.

Skip to Loafer- A high strung, small town girl decides to go to high school in Tokyo, where she meets a variety of classmates, including the laid back Sousuke Shima. The unlikely pair become friends, and soon enough, she starts to feel something more than friendship. The only reason I didn’t include it in the main list is because they don’t get together by the end of the first season, but it’s still really cute (also canonically trans character for the win!?)

So that’s my starter list. And no, I didn’t include Toradora, even though it’s a classic. I know it’s blasphemous, but I like it more as a comedy than a romance. It kinda lost me with the ending. But anyway, maybe someone will find something they like. Or maybe you'll just want to roast me and my picks 😅

[corseque]

[spoilers] I was gonna write this in the tags but didn't wanna spoil anyone since I do have moots I've successfully annoyed them into playing FFXIV - BUT I just wanted to say, I actually found the Elpis reunion scene to be way more romantic than the solavellan ending. Solavellan is my OTP of all time but I can't help but feel like we were done dirty by Bioware with the crumb we did get.

The zoomed in eye contact with Hades/WOL at the Elpis lobby? When Neath Dark Waters plays again in the background?? DEEPLY ROMANTIC.

FFXIV SPOILERS

I was actually asked right before DA4 came out "which is more romantic, Solavellan or whatever Emet-Selch's deal is" and I said "well, obviously Solas because there's kissing" I think because I was hoping it would have a lot of stuff in DA4 so there WOULD be no comparison

but after everything, I actually change my answer. It's weird to say, but kissing is so good, but there are so many more important things in fictional romance than kissing. Like good and complete and consistent character writing. Getting to know characters to their very core and in extreme situations. Like the amount of time the characters get to spend on the screen. Like truly deep and affecting subtlety that catches your breath and makes you want to scream and cry. Like the characters' actions being loving and not just their words. Like everything coming full-circle. Like not switching protagonists 50% of the way through an unfinished love story, and getting to see the entire love story from one unbroken perspective the entire way through from beginning to end. Like, these are just a few of the important things that are different between the games.

I feel like DAI had all of these, especially the subtlety and the character consistency, but then DA4 came, gave them maybe 5 more minutes of content, and made everything extremely inconsistent. Meanwhile, Endwalker came out, gave you two hours more EmetWol content and elaborated the relationship SO much, revealed many more layers to it, kept things subtle and consistent, and allowed the characters to actually perform loving actions for each other, with very beautiful and subtly sadly romantic lines, and with the added helpfulness of Hythlodaeus making everything as explicit as you possibly could be in an MMO... so comparing DA4 to Endwalker is just almost laughable from a romance standpoint. I think that EmetWol has like... 2x the screen time over the entire story? It's actually extremely nutty. I think it also helps that Emet-Selch has the kind of personality where he would absolutely refuse to be overly romantic on screen, so even if you had him in a BioWare game, his romance would be exactly the same as it would be in the MMO, so you feel like you aren't missing anything. He's just Like That. That's his personality. He HAS to have a subtle romance.

I think it helps make Emet's story feel more romantic because you can view Emet's entire story AS a grand love story, whereas at the end of DA4 you're like "ok so Solas was like not actually motivated by romantic love...? And if he was, it was really love to someone else entirely?" Like Emet is just more consistent, AND they were smart enough to make it feel like it was all just you and nobody else, baby. You are the ghost that haunts his past and present, and you don't have to feel like you aren't important. You're it.

[the-wizard-of-magicland]

BABE

[chaosmagetwin]

Waiting Dreams

(This is part 5)

(Here is part 4. Links to the previous parts there)

It always takes a while for the soulbind to kick in. A lost weapon, or armor, always comes back after a few hours. It was intended to keep players from losing their progression if they caught death for a few months. Or from being soft locked if they were captured, or had their gear temporarily stolen. After all, it was fine to steal someone's gear in the moment, during a heated push. But never permanently. There were some players who made an effort to use other people's gear as often as possible. Usually Central mercs, with a build focused on unlocking as much gear as possible.

Which meant wandering the small town with Al'alvaeia, stopping between homes and checking down streets and feeling my heart pulse with fear was made all the stronger by my lack of weapons. It seemed, unfortunately, that we had lost the town for the most part; I saw purple uniforms every few streets. I could still hear gunfire from the edge of town on the side we'd come from. We'd even run into a tank that had shot at us when Al had walked out of shadow into the street. It'd been a near miss, and losing the pursuing soldiers had been a difficult thing. Al was fortunate I had camoflage, even if sharing it sometimes took direct contact. If I'd been a wizard like he'd thought, neither of us would have survived.

"So, Illeri..." Al spoke while we rested in a house, listening to an armored car trundle past us, probably a street away. We were both seated against the wall, the window between us. "Your kid sibling... brother? Sister? Other?"

"Sister, if I recall correctly." I took a sip of water from his canteen, and tried to imagine what they would look like. "It's been a long time... I was in basic for a while." Technically, the game could assign anything. If it were listening, then, perhaps it'd adjust. I hadn't met her as a character yet... only given her an age, and some personality.

"How do you think she's doing?" His green eyed gaze met mine, and I tried to put some pain into my gaze. He looked away again. "S-sorry, I don't... mean to pry."

"No, it's... fine. I told you about her, after all. I... hope she's okay. I don't know. I worry that something's happened. She doesn't respond to my letters, and she was pissed when I got drafted." I thought back to the lore I'd written up, typing away in that off-brand writing program I'd rented. I had history, and some personality. But every character developed their own voice, their own wants and needs.

"Why's that?" He took the canteen back, and flinched as our hands brushed against each other.

"I mean, she thought I should hide when the soldiers came. It's not exactly like I got shanghai'd or something. They just... handed me a letter. She thought I should've hidden. She didn't understand that they would've just gotten me at the store, or something... but it doesn't matter. Once I was drafted, well, that was it."

"... I'm sorry. That's dreadful. I wish this war wasn't like this. I became a doctor to help people, but now it just feels like I'm prolonging the inevitable. I... you know, vows of nonviolence only matter if... you can't bring someone back. But I can." She raised an eyebrow at him, and he looked away, ashamed for some reason. "And then it suddenly doesn't feel like it matters. Because they'll just shoot at me again."

"And yet, if we don't defend the nation, all our people will die. Our towns and cities, replaced. The war is like this. If I don't fight, my sister will just be another body on the pile. And then what?" Illeri shuddered in horror, and I tried to remember I wasn't her for a moment. Too much. I needed to back off. Just a game. "What about you, what was your youth like?"

"It was war. A refugee, from a defeated nation. I'd been... training to become a doctor, and my parents were too old to join. I was given the choice, to be a medic and give them a place to live, to stay... or to be outcast. I haven't been home in a long time." We both knew what he really meant; was there really a difference between a smog-choked city teeming with hundreds of millions, and a figurative home? One still couldn't see their parents, talk to their girlfriend, or attend a class. The escapism only worked one way.

We both stared at the ground between us, struggling to find the words that connected us, that would finish this conversation and stop the pain, anything. "I hope we get to go home some day," I said finally. He nodded, and pulled his legs to his chest, almost in a sitting fetal position, his eyes locking onto the ground in front of him. My heart panged; this wasn't doing us any good. "Doctor, we should get moving again. I'd feel a lot better finding even one person to help us."

I watched him stand, stretching his joints out, and I followed suit. "It's frustrating that all we've found so far is purples. We got pushed really far back. Maybe they're hiding the bodies, but... where?"

I shrugged, thinking it through for a moment. "If I were worried that they'd revive behind lines, then... basements, maybe? I can't see them taking the bodies far; it's time better spent fighting. I don't know, they just lost the trench fight, and got pushed back. I imagine they don't want to get back into trench right now, so, maybe there's some sort of protocol in place to stack and burn?"

"Hmm. If it were the other away around, we'd just leave them on the streets. Too busy pushing forward, keeping momentum." I shook my head at that.

"Nah. Even if we were keeping momentum, I think we'd probably just push them into alleyways or something. What's really weird is that if the purples are winning, why aren't they picking up their own dead?"

"Shouldn't it be for the same reason, then? Too busy pushing. Maybe we're just really unlucky?"

"Well, there's always the chance the entire battlefield was already lost, and the losing dead got sent back." He chuckled, and shook his head with a half smirk. "Well, we are still here, aren't we? Alright, they gotta be somewhere."

-

"There! Finally, some blues." Al said, relief in his voice. I nodded, and let out a sigh of relief. We wouldn't be going back to trench today. Not today. If we could just keep playing safe... those gunshots were getting fewer and fewer.

"Looks like they and some purples got caught in a fight. Look at the way some blood leads away, and the casings on the ground there, next to the pillars." I pointed it out from our vantage point on the second floor, looking down into the courtyard. "The fight wasn't done yet. No one had time for clean up here. You can see some of the blood spatter is from bullets, and some is from melee."

"Err.... how do you tell?" Al was looking at me in surprise, and I shrugged, trying to play it nonchalant.

"Well, bullet's make a sort of shotspray pattern, see. Behind that body there, you see, it's like a cone. But the other one, that one," I took his arm and pointed it to both who had fallen, and felt both our heart beats quicken for a moment. "It's in an arc, like it got slung. Melee, like a sword, or knife. Also, you can see the dead purple next to them has a sword." I looked back at him, and saw his face redden a little and quickly let go of his arm. "S-sorry."

"No! No, it's fine, I just, it, you just, uh, caught me off guard. Sorry. You're very knowledgeable." Great. Now we were both stammering. Great to know we were both bottoms. Damn hormones, fuck off...You're supposed to be under better control than this.

I shook my head and took a step away as I felt my face heat up. I had to be bright red. What was I, stupid? "We should get down there, and get some people up. People with stealth, or who can revive if we can."

"Y-yeah. Uh. Let's go." He was already heading down the stairs and I let out a sigh of... relief, maybe. I put a hand against my belly and glared down at it, annoyed with the way it was twisting. I followed a moment later.

By the time I was down the stairs, he was already in the courtyard, hiding next to a pillar, and squatting next to a blue. I checked the angles before following, and eyed the bodies. I didn't recognize any of the blues.

Fred, however, stared back at me from her purple leathers, and for a moment, I just stared. I glanced at the next body, next to the blue who had been killed in melee; Jini, face down, but her cat ears and tail were visible. The purple who'd been shot, next to a suspicious amount of dirt; Deirdre's black halo was crumbled on the ground next to her head.

I looked over at Al. Still blue. He was in the middle of charging his medical equipment that would revive the other blue by hand cranking it. I went to stand by him. "We got really lucky! I know this one, a druid. She'll help us get more up, and we'll be back in business! I'm so glad I found you." He sounded relieved. He glanced up at me with a smile, and I watched it die as I slipped my knife under his chin. "Uhh!"

"Nice trick," I couldn't keep the cold ice out of my voice. "Getting me away from my gun. And dragging away any other dead bodies, right? What is it, an illusion?"

"... Mind trick." He said stiffly. "Damnit. I thought I'd have more time."

"Yeah. Yeah, I bet you did. Real cute. Stand up, love." He complied, slowly. "You're going to revive my commander, so I can get orders and know what to do with you. So. You knew I was a thief." I lead him over to Deirdre and motioned. "How'd you find out?"

"I was part of the crew that ambushed you. When it was clear we were losing the fight, I hid. Your team really did leave you, though. For hours. I didn't drag anyone away. Come on, I've stuck by you this entire time, you know me! And! Your side is losing!"

"Is it? Gods, you must think I'm stupid. Get to reviving her, please."

"This vestigial is your commander?" I nodded. "What's her class? I'll make a trade with you. I revive your commander if she can't revive anyone, and you let me go. We don't have to kill each other. Please. I don't want to fight you."

"She's a thief into spell thief line. Don't know if she can revive or not, I guess it depends on whether she stole the spell or not." Al'alvaeia hesitated. "Either that or we fight. Your choice."

"All you have is a knife...."

"And I have it pressed against your carotid. Elven anatomy is nearly identical to human, although some of it is a little harder to reach, since it's smaller. Want to find out?" He sighed, and knelt next to Deirdre.

"Fine. But then you let me go."

"Also, drop the mind trick. It's annoying me to see you in blue." I watched as the hues shifted in his clothes, darkening into purple. Worse, my sense of direction suddenly righted. The feeling of north and south flipped. The distant mountain suddenly felt like the iron mine I'd been protecting with trenches. It all suddenly felt so obvious. "Gods, what a trick. You really had me going."

"... I don't like killing. I didn't lie." He was cranking the machine again, but the changes weren't done; his sharp ears were rounding, his features thickened. "I was going to offer you a chance to desert. If you work with the enemy, you can do that. You just... have to get them into the colors. I was going to get your uniform dirty, and then...."

I snorted a laugh, frustrated with myself. "How many people have you gotten like this?"

"... Seven. You act like a sopping wet kitten enough, and touch their hand, and blush a little... it usually works. Even if they find out." I felt my free hand clench. "People can't help but be a little down bad for elves..." he muttered. "I know it was working on you."

"How long of a game does it run for? How long until you make the reveal. Or do you?" My hand hurt from clenching my knife. He had to be stupid. Did he really think his elven form was more attractive to me? If he'd been a human, I wouldn't have even suspected! But, then... I hadn't suspected anyways. Not a hint. And who would?

".... I don't. I... Usually my plan is to sleep with people. Get their clothes off, and..."

"You are horrific!" I said brightly, smiling at him. "You really epitomize this war well. Good job. Now stop talking." The anger was white-hot. Incandescent. Everything was calculated. His every word was a farce. I wanted to rip his eyes out and brand him the mark of Cain, the wrath of a goddess. I wish I could say it was Illeri's feelings, and not my own.

The machine dinged, and he placed it against Deirdre. "One last question, actually. What race are you, really? I feel dumb, I should've put this together a while ago."

".... Human. My class is Medic - Heretic - Soul Healer. I put a point into magic, and all of my levels have gone into magic, too. Second class, Awakened, then Dreaming Healer. I put a lot into psionics, mind tricks, and illusions."

"Yeah. High technology, and high magic. Nice little package. Built for this right from the start, hunh?" I spoke through gritted teeth, and forced myself to breathe. There was more to life than this. This was just how he decided to have fun. Could I really judge him for that?

"How do you even know I'm here right now? Maybe I already left, hunh?"

I felt my eye twitch in annoyance. "Just revive the commander, healer."

There was a snap as the machine pushed life into Deirdre, and her eyes flickered. Color returned to her skin. "Let me go. You promised. She doesn't need to be involved."

I don't keep promises with liars, and I didn't bother to respond beyond killing him.

Deirdre stared up at me groaning, and felt her face. "Ugh. How long have I been out?"

-

The fighting in the town was, predictably, winding down. Every fight that I thought we'd lost was actually the other way around. Every purple uniform had really been blue. It was obvious, if I had just paid attention. The purple's had been set up in a meat grinder way for this town. Always with an exit plan, unless they got ambushed. It had made fighting them annoying.

I learned all of this as Deirdre brought the rest of the squad back, and I tried to not beat myself up too much. She explained that we had gotten ambushed, and the fight had been one that was mostly harassment. I'd gone down in the first barrage from an unlucky hit. They hadn't had time to revive me, and had gotten pulled into a fight that had dragged them across the entire city, fighting more and more entrenched purples. Vehicles had been brought in for the first time just to try to clear it out with larger guns.

When victory was finally declared, we were still recuperating, resting next to the very tank that had shot at us... or rather, at Al'Alvaeia. Or whatever his name was. He had me under his thrall, but that didn't work with multiple people. I didn't bother to look at the stat screen, or the heroes or gambits of the day. I was too angry. I didn't want to risk learning his name.

No one seemed to notice anything important about me in this stat screen, at least. Thank god my mistakes weren't being highlighted. Perhaps the story was too small for "the history books" or whatever. Too personal. Too... human.

"Congratulations on reaching level 15, Illeri Shadesmith. You've been granted access to the following abilities; Light Melee Weapon Specialty, Enhanced Senses. You will need to choose a Light Melee Weapon to specialize in. (Combat Knife). Your technology level is three. You may requisition one of the following; Cloth Slippers, Leather Boots, Heavy Combat Boots, or Sabotons. You may requisition one of the following: Long Range Radio, Short Range Radio, Improved Gas Mask, Sampling Kit, Vehicle Repair Kit, Magic Detection Kit, Gear Maintenance Kit. You may change this requisition at any quartermaster, but only carry one at a time. Your magic level is three. You may requisition one of the following: Word Scroll, Spell Diagram(Dome), or Theory Tome. You may requisition one enchantment for all gear pieces(Arcane Cloth: Resist Pierce; Leather Boots: Hush; Pippytyr SMG: Recall Missed Bullets; Gunnhildr 104 Pistol; Hush; Combat Dagger: Haste; Gunnhildr Type 202 Bolt Action Rifle: Focus Sight (3x); Gas Mask: n/a; Gear Maintenance Kit: n/a) You may choose one ability: Share Stealth, Burn Mana, Water Proficiency, Melee Training, Ranged Training, Motionless Spells, Hidden Spells, Steal Ability, Steal Health."

"Warning; you are a level 15 Starved; you will now mutate. Choose, or one will be selected at random."

Three options flickered into my vision. I already knew what I wanted. But it couldn't hurt to look?

Gargoylian: Your technological limits increase by 2. Your willpower and strength is increased. You gain access to a new resource: Stillness. You may expend stillness to heal yourself. Your skin toughens, and becomes harder to piece; this passively stacks with armor, and is roughly equivalent to scale armor. Your ears become more sensitive to sound. The following changes will occur: Your horns will grow in the style of the Oni. You will grow vestigial wings in a painful process that lasts three days. If you have vestigial wings from another source, these will grow into fully fledged wings with poor maneuverability. Your skin will gray, akin to stone. Your tail will become more powerfully built. Warning: you must meditate completely still for at least two hours a day, in addition to sleep. You must eat stones to survive.

Blood Demon: Your limits do not change. Limits do not interfere with one another an additional tier higher. You gain access to a new resource: blood. Your mana pool increases. You may use your hit points or blood pool in place of mana to cast. You may increase the strength of your spells by expending blood or health. Your vision becomes more accustomed to the dark. You are sensitive to light changes, but may still operate in the light. The following changes will occur: Your horns will grow in the style of the Ram. Your pupils will become slit during the day. Your fingernails will lengthen, harden, and sharpen. Your teeth will fall out, and be replaced by fangs and sharks teeth. You will find vegetables repulsive, and meat alluring. You will develop a thirst for blood, which will increase as your blood pool lowers. Warning: You must drink blood to survive. Some find this to be greatly psychologically damaging.

Night Lord: Your magical limits increase by 2. Your spells are passively four times stronger in the dark, but fail to function in the direct light. You immediately gain access to any words, shapes, or types to cast invisibility. Your mana recharges faster at night. Your mana pool increases. Your vision becomes more accustomed to the dark. You are sensitive to the light, and are light blind. The following changes will occur: your horns will grow in the style of The Devil's Crown. Your pupils will become shaped like that of a goat, and your eyes will increase in size by 12.5%. Your horns and eyes emit faint light. Your feet will become replaced by hooves in a painful process, and your lower half will grow fur. Warning: You must rest in complete darkness. You cannot sleep if there is any light source besides yourself.

What was a little blood thirst among friends, after all?

[tovaicas]

my real favourite character is Nidhogg, I’m only obsessed with Estinien bc he’s a hangers-on /jokes

[astral-schools]

say whatever u want about the technical problems in wiz. it is one of the only games (w/ movement) ive seen that allows you to play almost exclusively one-handed. and the fact that thats been a feature for a WHILE is pretty impressive

[bonjourxrenae]

thinking about the .hack//ygo AU.... ooouugghhhh

[microwaving-tesilid-argente]

most important detail ive learned from rereading is that hestio's specific skillset is singing sacred hymms and casting curses on enemies

BANGING POTS AND PANS, HESTIO CAN SING !!!!!!

[ivyfauna-ii]

DO NOT VOTE IF YOURE NOT GOING TO REBLOG

This is an update from Tareq El-Bawab’s gofundme page

“Hello, this is Danielle with an update. I am beside myself with worry and heartbreak for Tareq and his family and trying to make sense of a world where we are collectively allowing this to happen. I am not even sure what to do other than to share this with this community of people who also cares about this family. These are Tareq’s words from today:

‘swear to you, my dear friend, I truly wish for death rather than continuing to live in this world and in this kind of life. I swear, my children and I have been going to sleep hungry for days. I can barely provide them with anything that eases their hunger or gives them the slightest sense of comfort.

Even the most basic items, like flour, cost no less than $500 per sack—and we barely have any food to eat. I feel completely helpless. I truly don’t know what more I can possibly do.

Even za’atar, dukkah, and olive oil—the simplest things to put in a piece of bread—I can’t afford to buy. And if I do manage to get them, we need at least 1 kilo per week because that’s literally the only thing we have to eat with bread. But a kilo of za’atar or dukkah now costs more than $100… and a liter of olive oil, if we find it, is over $50!

I can barely keep up with my daughter Tala’s needs. A single pack of diapers costs $100, and she needs at least three packs every month. She also needs a can of baby formula every week, and now even that costs $50 or more.

No matter how much we spend, it’s never enough. And in the end… we still go to sleep hungry, unable to buy anything that truly fills our stomachs.

Even bread—when we bake it, it dries up after just a few hours. We’re forced to eat it hard and stale because we can’t reheat it. We have no gas, and not even a refrigerator to store food. The most basic parts of life have become impossible dreams.

To make things worse, everything in the market is sold for cash only. And to even get cash in hand, we have to lose 30% of any money sent to us just to convert it.

What have we become? What are we worth anymore? I swear to you, I have nothing left inside me. My strength is gone. I cannot endure a life like this any longer. I would rather die than continue to live this way—under this suffering, in a life that has become unbearable.’

Please do whatever you can to donate, share their story, pray, pressure your elected officials, protest, or whatever you can do.”

Edit: changed the gofundme link to the chuffed campaign link because the gofundme campaign got taken down

(tagging ppl so that the post gets more attention. If you don't want to be included in the post let me know in the comments)

@bluemandycat @wistful-gremlin @lordzannis @misscheetahroo @thestarryskiesofpalaven @zombified @aristotels @rob-os-17 @vee-da-skee @infernal-heart @livefungus @namichma @lookineedsleep @pawzofchaos @felixnorstubblewealthington @terezbian @ptb-composer @becky-kylee @scoobypineapple @scoobydoobyally @sawyermp3 @motherlatias @gutsofgold @kakashis-kunoichi @leede-ly @araccoonthatlikesmurder

[syrinq]

1. boring af especially if realistic shading's also used instead of cinematic crap

2. can get in the way of gameplay (animations in RDR2 were impressive as fuck but god awful clunky and/or slow when mixed with mechanics)

3. realism graphics preferred heavily in triple A instead of stylised, is the same notion that popular movie crap/other media must be realistic (with realistic cgi) as well, because of "AnIMatIOn Is fOr KiDs" idiocy

4. gets dated as tech improves but it's the least concern here compared to other points

5. realistic graphics + fantasy shit still looks about the fucking same across games, especially if creative design isn't really part of it. going realistic can put a limit on creative possibilities (i will not be talking about the gazillion zombie apocalypse games in triple a or cod wannabes)

6. oughhh i love adding 50 million more gigabytes to me computer besides the decreasing performance optimisation

7. for some reason the most annoying post-processing/hud crap i've come across is either in realistic triple a shit or the most stylised games ever. yeah fuck the chromatic aberration, fuck 3d/skewed huds, fuck bloom, fuck noise filters, etc. etc. thank god mods exist to rid of the annoying ass fallout hud colours or whatever atrocities they pulled for cyberpunk 2077. gutturally awful visuals to deal with outside a mere glance for aesthetics

i should ask, before i start longposting about it, what do people not like about realism as as style, especially for video game graphics?

[cellarspider]

Rambles in Star Wars History: The extreme shenanigans that changed an Empire

Bioware games can absolutely fascinate me, in part because of their worldbuilding, and in part because of where the worldbuilding ends. I mean, I did a whole long series of posts on the grammar of Qunlat and I have at least a dozen essays worth of material of exegetical analysis of religion in Dragon Age kicking around in my brain, which I keep threatening to actually manifest.

But since I'm here with my worldbuilding hat on, I'm going to ramble about Star Wars: The Old Republic, focusing on some of the sometimes-hilarious drama that's implied by the plot, and the implications for how these shenanigans remade a major galactic society in the process. Involved will be a man who faked his death to get out of going to meetings, a wine uncle who might become emperor, a living scowl with dangerous shoulders, and other assorted animals.

Expect a lot of bonus rambles in the image alt-texts, which is where I store commentary and jokes that I can't fit into the flow of the main post.

———

Before I dig into the topic at hand, I have to set the scene for those who don't know the game, or have forgotten in the fourteen years since the game launched.

Spoilers in the post below for Act 1-3 of the Imperial Agent, Sith Warrior, and Inquisitor storylines, Act 1 of the Jedi Knight storyline, the post-Act 3 Battle of Ilum flashpoint, and for various expansions including Rise of the Emperor, Knights of the Fallen Empire, Onslaught, and Legacy of the Sith. Assume that all reference links to Wookieepedia contain major spoilers.

SWTOR is an MMO set 3600 years before the Skywalkers crashed through the ceiling tiles of the galaxy, though it's not to say anything was less chaotic back then, just different chaos.

(Pictured: Anakin Skywalker, circa 32 BBY-4 ABY)

In this time, the titular Old Republic is opposed by a Sith Empire, which is precisely as functional as one might expect. After a decades-long conflict that ended with a Sith victory but left both sides exhausted, a state of cold war began. The Jedi, their Grand Temple destroyed, left Republic space to settle on an ancestral world. The Republic, battered and reeling, tried to recover its stride through use of its superior size and resources, and producing a truly unhinged number of superweapons.

The Sith Empire, in some ways, tried to pretend everything was fine for quite a while. They had successfully forced the Republic into a favorable treaty to end the war. They'd gained territory, they had a lot of work to do there.

…But as things started to look more and more like war again, they were left with the uncomfortable realization that they had sorta kinda killed most of the Sith in the last war, and Imperial citizens in good standing weren't producing enough Force-sensitive kids fast enough to rebuild the losses. Might've had something to do with most of them being dead.

The Empire, of course, is an absolute clusterfuck of a society. Slaves toil to maintain its power. Children of a slave and a citizen will be citizens themselves—unless they're "aliens", a category that includes everyone that isn't a human or a Sith pureblood, the original Sith species.

Being a citizen isn't great either: The Force-blind face mandatory conscription into the military, and can never rise to the highest echelons of society. Above them, the Sith act as a semi-hereditary aristocracy of evil space-wizards that serve an immortal, eldritch Emperor, their living god who has also kiiiind of gone AWOL for reasons only a few of them understand. He's torn between doing his job or staring at a living paperweight, and the paperweight has been winning. He also recently got trapped by an evil hole in the ground, it's complicated.

With the Emperor incommunicado, the duties of the state fall to the Dark Council, a ruling body of up to twelve Dark Lords of the Sith. Each have their own sphere of governmental influence, which are, one can only assume, very dark as well.

Presumably, the Dark Council had something to do with the inevitable yet still surprising solution to their space wizard deficit: over a thousand years of laws were suddenly overturned. Slaves, aliens, and prisoners were not only permitted to become Sith, it was now mandatory that they report for induction into training programs if they possessed any hint of Force-sensitivity.

This is how one of the eight protagonists of the MMO gets their start: if you play the Sith Inquisitor plotline, you begin as a former slave who has survived basic training and made it to the Sith Academy, where your teacher dearly wants to kill you. Your first mission: survive school.

I'm sure this is very relatable to quite a lot of you.

Now that I've got my PhD with only a few gray hairs, I'm looking back at this premise and thinking: This would completely upend the social framework of the Empire. You'd have every established Sith Lord in the Empire scrambling to kill these threats to their power, or harness them against their enemies, or both.

This is actually canon, but canon never touches on the broader, systemic implications of what the new Sith would do, and who they were before—Sure, the overseers of the training programs seem to be doing their damnedest to kill and undermine the newbies while maintaining plausible deniability, but enough of them survive to reshape the Empire. We know that. You play as one of them.

How in the fuck did the Dark Council ever manage to get this policy implemented in the first place? Obviously they did somehow, but the specifics are never mentioned.

But the specifics have the possibility to be hilarious.

The Dark Council itself is composed of Sith who either killed their way to the top, or inherited their seat from their Sith master—who they probably murdered. Turnover on most Council seats is incredibly high. The Spheres of Ancient Knowledge, Technology, and Military Offense each have three different Councilors within a single year, for example.

This also means that whoever ends up in charge of a Sphere might be entirely unsuited for it. Who heads up the Sphere of Expansion and Diplomacy? The least diplomatic guy on the Council, naturally. He goes by Darth Ravage, which fits in well enough with the three different Darths whose names mean 'death' (Thanaton, Mortis, and Rictus). The player can even end up as Darth Nox--'Darth Night'. You get the title by killing one of the Darth Deaths.

So, which of these barely-domesticated evil goths probably voted to allow 'inferior' beings to become Sith, overturning a fundamental tenet of imperial sith philosophy? Probably not the guy in charge of Sith Philosophy! We never see him, but he seems to have been a traditionalist. On the other hand, Darth "Murder has no rules" Ravage might not be huge on tradition, so we can mark him down as a "maybe". But he doesn't seem to be an instigator for something like this.

But on the subject of instigators: Darth Jadus.

Darth Jadus is an experience. While many of the other Council members make it quite clear they're angry enough to chew on the furniture, Jadus unnerves all of them by being utterly calm and composed, as long as you don't count how intensely fervent and irrational he sounds when he starts talking about the Dark Side. He's unhinged in a distressingly hinged-seeming way.

Heading up the Sphere of Intelligence, Jadus is a noted iconoclast on the Dark Council, using his authority to open Imperial Intelligence positions to aliens. He chooses slaves and Force-blind citizens to be his advisors and agents, ignoring the traditional power structures of the Sith. He prefers his literal cult following of fanatical adherents instead, who see him as a visionary savior, a terrifying inevitability, or both.

This means he seems to have basically no interest in elevating other Sith. In fact, he hates the way the rest of them run the Empire. Making more of them might potentially be against his interests.

Or at least it would be, if he didn't have some long-running secret plans that he wants to keep the other Dark Council members from catching wind of. Advocating for slaves, aliens and convicts to become Sith would superficially fall in line with his philosophy, and just raising the idea in public could cause such social chaos that his true plans would benefit from it. Jadus is also the most genre-savvy sith in the entire game: he seems to almost be aware at points that he's neither the protagonist nor main antagonist, and thus his evil plans involve not messing with either of them. When he jostles up against the main plot and realizes he has no plausible means to derail it, he responds by leaving the plot entirely.

Given the tactical chaos and uncomfortably fourth wall-touching strategies Jadus makes use of, let's mark him down as a "yes".

But Jadus is an unpopular one on the Council. He's creepy. Sith HATE feeling creeped out. That's supposed to happen to other people, dammit, not them! And with his disinterest in politics and his deep interest in foisting his manifesto on everyone, he's not the most effective Dark Councilor.

He might be able to pull in a few—Darth Decimus, head of Military Strategy, seems to have been quite willing to exploit any advantage he might be able to squeeze out of a situation. Fun side note, his voice actor also played the First Order officer who was just so done with Hux at the beginning of The Last Jedi.

[Video Description: A compilation of Mark Lewis Jones as Captain Moden Canady from The Last Jedi, with the video quality partially encrunchified by YouTube. This includes all of his shots from the film, from arrival of the Seige Dreadnought Fulminatrix, to the extremely annoyed look he gives the fireball that kills him. Sound supervisor Matt Wood was apparently pretty sure "FIRE ON THE BASE!" was going to be used as an EDM drop, and I can confirm, I've heard it out in the wild.]

Who else have we got rattling around in this Council, who might have extremely ridiculous reasons to vote yes? Well, we have Darth Vengean, head of Military Offense, was all about the Offense. Who needs defense? That nerd Darth Marr? HA! No, Vengean wanted to restart the war with the Republic. More bodies for the war machine would probably be fine with him.

Speaking of that nerd Darth Marr, Darth Marr.

Apparently he designed this armor himself. Solid effort, my man.

Marr is in his sixties by the time the game happens. He's one of the longest-surviving Dark Councilors, and he sounds so tired of his coworkers in every scene he's in. Heading up the Defense of the Empire, Marr also is the de facto leader of the Dark Council, by dint of being the only adult in the room.

Much like Jadus, he distances himself from the backstabbery and rivalries among the Council members. Unlike Jadus, he 100% means it, and has been focused on not making the Empire explode. He eventually ends up as the unofficial leader of the Empire until he gets one-shotted so hard it makes his ghost chill out a bit. He keeps the spikes, though.

So, if there's anyone on the Council who might vote for this on purely practical grounds, and has the power to push others into agreeing with him, because so help him if they don't stop holding duels in the conference room he's going to turn this Empire around—

Nobody listens to him on that, by the way. Both the Sith main plots involve duels in the conference room.

In fact, one of those duels is egged on by our last suspect. Marr might be a contender for longest-running Dark Councilor, but there is another candidate: Darth Vowrawn, who seems to be having a much better time being on the Council than Marr. I suspect the only reason why he doesn't have a bucket of popcorn with him in the Council chambers is because somebody made a rule that he had to stop doing that.

Vowrawn is a surprisingly cheerful old bastard who seems to have turned his hobby into his job. He shows up 'fashionably late' to someone else's attempted coup, after lamenting he can't sell tickets to the clusterfuck that's about to commence. In the expansions to the game, he can outmaneuver and outlive all of the competition and end up becoming the Emperor, at the age of 87.

Vowrawn is also indifferent to against the Empire's policies--he supports the ascension of a Zabrak to the Dark Council, and takes one as an apprentice as well. Beyond that, Vowrawn would have to support this move, because he's instrumental in any large project like this, both politically and practically. While the others I've mentioned all have roles explicitly to do with the aggressive expansion or protection of the Empire, Vowrawn heads the Sphere of Production and Logistics. In essence, he's the one who can decide whether all these other bozos get to eat or not.

If Vowrawn didn't accept this change, then it would have failed. So, he's a definite "yes" by default.

Speaking of bastards who are still active well into their eighties, we have one last major figure who isn't on the Council that likely advocated for this: Darth Malgus.

[Video Description: The "Deceived" trailer, set ten years before the game. God, I love this thing. This was the first trailer I saw for the game, and it got me, it really did. The Sith are just as ridiculous as they should be, combined with choreography that feels a lot more crunchy than lightsaber combat had been before, with distinct combat styles for the two main fighters. It's quick, it's impactful, and it's got a memorable conclusion. Love it.]

Malgus is as anti-racist and anti-classist as Jadus is, but without the insane transcendental Dark Side philosophy. Instead, he has an insane philosophy of bettering the Empire through eternal war, which he believes everyone should have an equal ability to participate in. He is what would happen if a Warhammer 40k character had an inside voice.

[Video Description: The "Disorder" cinematic trailer, set before the Legacy of the Sith expansion. Malgus is 75 here. Man's held together by spite and screws and whatever nutrients you can absorb by being thrown through walls. He's fully given up on the Sith Order at this point and is trying to do his own thing, and he makes it look rad. The choreography has only gotten better, goddamn. Why did it take me three goddamn years to watch this. IT'S REALLY GOOD.]

Malgus is a big deal in the military, with a lot of support from both the Force-blind soldiers and earning the loyalty of a surprising cross-section of Sith. We know this, because he nearly hijacks the Empire at one point in the early expansions. He'd be into this idea, and he probably advocated for it. While he'd have the most direct interaction with the military-related Councilors we already have in the "yes" column, he also has a history of annoying the bejeezus out of other Sith on "his" turf, so who knows! He may have been more persuasive to the others we haven't dug into.

And we can't really dig into all of them at the depth we have with some. Despite how bogglingly huge SWTOR is and the two thousand four hundred and ninety-five named characters and "Additional Voices" credits in IMDb, we never meet some of the Dark Councilors. If you don't play all the eight main storylines, you won't see all of them in the game. I'll admit, I've never seen Darth Hadra, because I've never gotten that far in a Republic-aligned storyline! The Sith you encounter in their stories can often be more one-note, because they're purely there as antagonists rather than people you are legally required to hang out with, and thus have more opportunity to pester mercilessly.

[Video Description: A clip from my own Warrior run-through, featuring my big lad Rejalgar, his coolest friend Vette, and his boss, Darth Baras, who is presently having a screaming tantrum, which Rejalgar makes worse with the most delightfully straight-faced "Is there a problem here?". The Warrior plotline lets you play things sincerely evil, sincerely noble, or sincerely hilarious. Do you want to see Jedi bluescreen when a Sith just straight-up refuses to be violent? Do you want to sidestep a boss fight by offering a family a government pension, something your boss commends as being very devious and evil? Do you want to break up a fight between gangs by threatening to eat them? Come play the Sith Warrior storyline, and be the chaos you want to see in the galaxy!]

[Video Description, from a clip I uploaded to YT specifically for this post after I found out you can only upload one video per tumblr post wtf: A clip from my Inquisitor run-through, featuring my extremely shirtless lad, Sericus, playing coy and a little airheaded when called up by his Sith master, Darth Zash. Back in the day, Purebloods weren't supposed to be played as canon for this storyline, but there were tweaks later made to dialog that provided a canon explanation for how someone with visible Sith ancestry could end up in this situation. The storyline, however, unfortunately does not fully account for a character whose ideal job description is 'villain's beautiful and deceptively intelligent consort, the true power behind the throne'. It assumes you're playing a character who wants to go conquer and/or do mad wizard-science. Bonus points for eventually letting you marry your eight foot tall razor-faced cannibal thrall though, that's very fun.]

Why don't we see all of the Dark Council? Well, because they're ultimately not important to the story as a group. Events keep you locked tightly under the purview of just one or two of them on the Sith side of things, before the post-game and expansion plots launch you into the experience of being a major player in Imperial affairs, and Imperial affairs launch themselves at you in return.

Everyone realizes the Emperor wants to eat them. Then he dies, except he doesn't. Malgus takes over the Empire for a few weeks. Marr takes over, but half the Council is dead and the rest are still in orientation and are probably also dead, because their would-be successors assassinated them. The Emperor, only mildly inconvenienced by also being dead, eats a planet. Then things go completely off the deep end, and the Dark Council is no longer your concern at all.

It's economical storytelling to not belabor the rest of the Councilors, and playing through as an ex-slave Inquisitor, you continue to face enough challenges directly linked to your background that the resistance feels systemic, even if you don't actually see all that many others who are facing the same issues.

But I think there's a lot of potential for some really wild storytelling in there. Your character receives some level of basic training before they reach the Sith Academy, along with a whole batch of ex-slaves. What did that entail? How was it organized? What happens when folks from abolitionist movements start being trained as sith, gaining all the attendant legal authority over the life and death of others?

And what about the prisoners who were released for training? While one canon option is to play a character who was facing immediate execution for participation in violent anti-Imperial resistance, at least a fair chunk of Force-sensitive prisoners were probably serving longer sentences. What happens when prison gangs start gaining a foothold in the Sith Academy, where they're too dysfunctional to even form Mean Girl cliques? What happens when some of their members become full Sith? How many of them might have Hutt backing, or even funding from the Republic Secret Intelligence Service?

These are the sorts of things the Sith themselves are terrified of. This earns a very sarcastic thoughts and prayers to them, of course. Yet it truly is wild to think about the decision-making process that went into this massive societal shift that the game treats as simply a piece of inciting incident for two plotlines out of eight: Twelve unhinged people sat down in some extremely high-backed chairs one day and voted to give everyone equal access to lightning.

I love Star Wars, it's just the funniest shit imaginable sometimes.

[vera-deville]

Between Worlds, Between Words

04/14/2025

Pairing: N/A Word Count: 1,829 Warnings: Depression that builds up from the fact that you're in a world that's not yours Gender: Gender Neutral Tags: @qaxdea, @katzline, @die-remastered Notes: Totally didn't take me like two years to write this. Inspired by this. Masterlist

It all began with a history lecture.

Professor Trein was going on and on (passionately, as always), about the Seven Great Sorcerers and the founding of the Queendom of Roses. Something-something ancient magic, something-something territorial disputes. You weren't sure. It all sounded like the dramatic backstory of an MMO.

You blinked down at your notes. You had written Queendom of Roses five times in a row, underlined one of them, and then - without fully realizing it - drawn an itty-bitty round-headed T-Rex beside the word. Your pencil hovered. You stared at the creation.

That was the moment you'd pinpoint.

The moment you realized you hadn't thought about dinosaurs or anything of the sort in weeks. Not a single pterodactyl. Not a single deinosuchus. Not a single Berthasaura leopoldinae. You used to be able to rattle off entire prehistoric eras like a party trick.

And now?

Now you were sitting in a gothic castle-school in another dimension, learning about long-dead magic monarchs, while wearing a uniform that quite literally had gold embroidery.

You raised your hand.

Trein, ever the professional, paused mid-sentence and looked up from his book. "Yes, Y/N?"

"Do you..." Your voice was very calm, very reasonable. "Do you know what dinosaurs are?" You waited for him to cause your world to crash down (and further cause you to crash out in the middle of a classroom, of all places).

The classroom fell silent. Deuce blinked at you from across the aisle. Ace looked up from where he was doodling something suspiciously inappropriate in the margins of his textbook. A few heads tilted. Professor Trein furrowed his brow.

"Dinosaurs?" He repeated.

You nodded solemnly. "Yeah. Y'know. Giant lizards? Extinct? Kind of a big deal where I'm from."

"I suppose you must be referring to the draconic species," Trein said slowly. "Dragons were once prominent in the Land of Briar, but-"

"No. No, no, no. Not dragons." You waved your hand. "They didn't have magic or fire-breathing. They just...ran around and roared and occasionally ate each other. Real chill. They had feathers sometimes. I think? And they're all dead. Very important part."

Trein blinked at you, confused. "I've never heard of such a creature."

You nodded again, eyes wide. "Yeah. That tracks. That definitely tracks."

And then you laughed.

It wasn't a cute laugh. Not a giggle. Certainly not a dainty little chuckle. No, it was a full-body, slightly breathless guffaw that escaped from your chest like it had been trying to get out for days. You slapped a hand over your mouth, horrified, but it was too late. The dam had burst. You were cracking up in the middle of lecture like a sitcom character who finally snapped.

"Oh my God," You wheezed, "I'm losing it. I'm actually going insane. This is my villain origin story."

Trein just looked tired.

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You didn't get detention, miraculously. (Trein may have chalked it up to "dimensional stress" and decided not to poke the hornet's nest).

But it was only the first domino in a long, long line.

The rest fell fairly quickly.

Later that day, at lunch, you tried to make a joke about TikTok and go blank stares from every single table. You had something dumb like "It's giving ✨depression✨" and the silence that followed was deafening.

Even Grim had paused mid-bite. "Giving what now?"

You wanted to scream. Instead, you chuckled weakly and pretended to choke on your food.

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"Do you ever," You muttered to Ace and Deuce one day while walking back from Alchemy, "make a really niche reference and then realize - oh. I'm all alone. No one here gets it. I'm never going to have a meme-based conversation again."

Ace shrugged. "You could just make a new meme?"

"That's not how that works!" You cried, clutching your textbook like a lifeline. "They're...they're communal! They're sacred!"

"Maybe you oughtta get used to the memes here then. Dunno what you're complaining about."

Deuce patted your back with a concerned frown. "Maybe you should take a nap."

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It would've been bearable, maybe, if you didn't keep catching yourself saying things no one understood.

Once, in P.E., you muttered, "I'd sell my soul for a Baja Blast right now," after running laps.

Cater turned to you. "What kind of spell is that?"

You nearly bit your tongue.

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There were good days, sure. Days when the chaos of NRC felt almost normal, the strange magic of the world you'd landed in had a fairytale charm. You even liked it sometimes. The floating candles, the enchanted mirror, the weirdly attractive student body (seriously, what on Earth was in the water here?).

But then something would happen - a throwaway line from a friend, a specific smell, a distant memory - and the homesickness would sucker-punch you in the gut.

You missed your old phone. You missed a steady flow of electricity. You missed your precious animes from back home. You missed complaining about anything and everything to your friends in your group chat at 2 in the bloody morning. You missed sending them cursed memes and sobbing over fictional characters they knew you'd been in love with since forever.

You missed feeling understood.

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You think the final straw was a joke.

Ace said something stupid and punny in class. Something about cauldrons and bad grades - classic Ace. Everyone laughed.

You didn't.

Not because it wasn't funny. You figured maybe it was. Surely it had to be, with the reaction of your classmates. But you didn't get it.

You didn't understand the slang. The reference. The cultural context.

So you just sat there, frozen in place, smile tight and fake, and your laughter coming out a few seconds too late.

You felt weirdly hollow.

Not the dramatic, tragic kind of hollow. Just the kind where something that should've made you feel warm instead made you feel like a cracked mug. Still functioning. Still upright. But leaking a little.

And of course, Professor Trein noticed.

He didn't say anything at first, just gave you a quiet, thoughtful look before resuming the lecture. You sat up straighter. Tried to look attentive.

But even so, at the end of class, while everyone packed up their books and filtered out of the room in clusters of laughter and inside jokes, Trein called your name.

"Y/N," He said, tone gentle enough that you flinched a little.

You turned, your bag slung over one shoulder. "Yes, Professor?"

"If you're not in a rush," He said, adjusting his glasses, "would you...care to join me for tea this afternoon?"

You blinked. "Oh. Uh. Sure. Is this - like - a detention-in-disguise kind of tea or...?"

He chuckled softly. "No punishment involved, I assure you."

So that was how you found yourself, after classes ended, sitting in the most scholarly little office you'd ever seen, across a worn oak desk from Professor Trein, with two steaming teacups between you.

Grim of course, had no reason to be there, so it was just you, Trein, and Lucius - who sat on the windowsill like a furry, judgemental gargoyle.

Trein poured your tea and added a sugar cube to his own with great precision. His movements reminded you greatly of Vil.

"I find," He said slowly, "that I don't understand half the things my students say anymore."

You blinked.

"They speak in riddles," He continued, "about things I cannot begin to visualize. They once referred to something as 'mid." I assumed it meant middling, perhaps average. But then I was told - by Ruggie, I believe - that it was an insult?"

You snorted. "Oh, yeah. 'Mid' is like the fancy new word for 'meh.' A good way to start a fight in a cafeteria."

Trein's eyes twinkled. "Yes. Precisely. I've taught for nearly four decades and still find myself utterly baffled by whatever new linguistic virus has infected the student body."

You laughed - genuinely, this time.

"I don't get any of their references either," You admitted. "But, like...from the opposite direction. I say stuff and they look at me like I've sprouted wings."

Trein leaned back in his chair. "I did wonder about your question in class earlier this week. About...dinosaurs, was it?"

"Oh my god, yes!" You set your teacup down. "They don't know what dinosaurs are, Professor. Dinosaurs! Like - prehistoric lizards! We have museums about them! They've made animated movies!

"Fascinating," He said, and it was clear he meant it.

"They thought I was talking about dragons," You muttered, sinking in your chair. "I nearly cried."

Trein's mouth quirked into a small smile. "It must be terribly isolating."

Your shoulders tensed. "Sometimes I don't feel like a person here. I feel like a joke. Like a weird little artifact that fell out of some ancient time machine and nobody's quite sure how to categorize."

"You're not a joke," He said, kind but firm. "You're someone trying to survive in a world that was no built for you."

That hit you right in the gut.

Lucius lept off the windowsill and sidled your leg, promptly resting his head near your foot. You sipped your tea quietly for a moment.

"...Thanks," You said, voice a little hoarse. "I think I needed to hear that."

He nodded, then tilted his head, thoughtful. "Would you be willing to tell me more about your world?"

You blinked. "Wait, really?"

"I may be old, but I've always valued learning," He said. "And you're a living library of knowledge we've never had access to before."

You grinned. "Okay, then. Where do I start?"

You ended up talking until the sun dipped low in the sky. You explained your version of the internet, social media, reality TV, electric cars, and theme parks. You showed him how memes worked. You drew a rough sketch of a dinosaur. You explained your favorite movies, and how music was streamed, and how cooking shows were a national obsession. Trein took notes with the fascinated curiosity of someone rediscovering the joy of being a student.

He, in turn, told you stories about past generations of students. About how the slang used to be different even back then, about the way magic has changed, and about the first time Lucius clawed someone in the middle of class for disrespecting history.

You both laughed a lot.

You scratched Lucius behind his ears for a bit, allowing the soft purrs to lull you further into your feelings. The conversation was exactly what you needed. As you left his office, you heard him say, "You are more than welcome to come to me for anything you may need. I am more than willing to explain the ways of this world to you so that you may pass your classes."

As you walked back to your dorm, the castle halls a little quieter, a little softer in the dimming light, you didn't feel so lonely.

Not everyone got you.

But someone was trying.

And for now...that was more than enough.

Author's Note: I'd just like to say that I genuinely think that Twisted Wonderland had dinosaurs and that their existence has long been known worldwide, etc. I like to further think that modern-day dragons (as rare as they may be) are descendants of old-day dinosaurs and that they somehow magically evolved into dragons. Having said that, I thought it would be admittedly funnier if the Reader found out that the people of Twisted Wonderland don't know anything about dinosaurs, and they crash out because of it. So, I went with that for this story!

Masterlist

[wosospacegirl]

Ohh I know ATWRreader would be sooo jealous abt this

Y/n had been excited to watch Kyra play.

Because of her injury, she wasn’t called up for yet another FIFA date, but at least she was allowed to travel with Kyra. 

They were staying in the same hotel room, and Y/n even got a free pass to watch the game from the family section. Y/n was actually happy. She was learning to enjoy not being on the pitch and just cheering.

Until that moment.

It happened midway through the second half. A tangle of legs, a misjudged pass, and Kyra went down–hard. Face-first. 

Y/n's heart jumped to her throat. She gripped the edge of the bench in the family section, tense, watching the scene unfold.

Before anyone else could react, Charli was there, kneeling beside Kyra. She helped her up, one arm around Kyra’s waist, her other hand so gently brushing at Kyra’s face. 

Y/n could see her lips moving–saying something comforting, no doubt–and Kyra just stood there. Serene. A small, crooked smile on her face.

Y/n narrowed her eyes. She didn’t even realize she was fuming until Mami’s wife’s voice broke through her thoughts. “She’s alright, I think.”

“She better be,” Y/n muttered under her breath.

Y/n didn’t wait for the game to end. She grabbed her bag and stormed back to their hotel room, needing space from the growing tension in her chest.

..

Back at the hotel, Kyra hummed softly as she unlocked the door, still a bit sore but in a happy mmo. She pushed the door open to find Y/n sprawled on the bed in her hoodie, arms crossed, lips set in a firm line.

“Hey,” Kyra greeted, toeing off her sneakers. “Why didn’t you wait for us?”

Y/n didn’t respond immediately. She just looked at her. Really looked. 

Dirt still clung faintly to the hem of Kyra’s shorts, and there was a tiny smudge near her temple–missed during the locker room cleanup.

“Do you seriously not know, Kyra?” Y/n asked, her voice quieter than she intended, though it still carried a sharp edge.

Kyra looked at her with the most innocent expression on her face, which made Y/n almost soften… almost.

“I’m just surprised you came to our room after the game instead of, I don’t know, going out to celebrate with Charli,” Y/n added.

Kyra blinked, clearly confused. “Huh?”

“Charli. Right there on the field. Everyone saw it,” Y/n continued, eyes narrowing.

Kyra smiled at her, still confused. “What are you talking about?”

Y/n turned her head, clearly annoyed now. “She was stroking your face, Kyra. With two hands. And you just stood there.”

Kyra took a second to process, then suddenly burst out laughing. “What?! Baby, she literally wiped dirt off my face. I fell. Flat. Like, chin-first.”

Y/n folded her arms tighter, not convinced. “Yeah, but she was way too gentle and way too close.”

“My love, she was close because her arms are not two kilometers long?” Kyra said, trying not to giggle.

Y/n wasn’t buying it. “She touched your nose, very, very softly–it was intimate.”

Kyra smiled softly and placed her hand on Y/n's. “My love, she’s a teammate. And a very close friend of mine.”

“Way too close,” Y/n murmured under her breath, though she couldn’t deny the feeling in her chest.

Kyra sat down beside her, bumping her shoulder against Y/n’s. “Come on. You’re not really jealous, are you?”

Y/n didn’t answer right away, her silence speaking volumes.

“Oh my God,” Kyra gasped, her eyes wide with realization. “You are. You’re mad because someone wiped mud off my face. That’s adorable.”

Y/n huffed, turning her head away, a little embarrassed. “I’m not mad. And I’m also not jealous. I just didn’t like it.”

Kyra smirked and leaned in, her lips brushing the shell of Y/n’s ear. “Well, next time I faceplant, I’ll make sure you’re the one to clean me up. Deal?”

Y/n finally looked at her, her grumpy mask cracking into a small, reluctant smile. “Deal.”

Kyra grinned, then leaned in to press a soft kiss to Y/n’s cheek, sending a spark of warmth through her. Y/n rolled her eyes but couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at her lips. 

She let Kyra curl up beside her, arm wrapped gently around her waist, content.

Kyra’s lips brushed against Y/n’s temple as she shifted closer, brushing away that last trace of dirt Charli had missed. “Next time you fall,” Y/n murmured, her tone playful, “I’m bringing a whole towel.”

[sjofn-lofnsdottr]

Something I find funny today:

I idled in Radz-at-Han a lot, over the course of Endwalker's life. I liked the day and night themes, and I loved how lively the city felt, with people arriving at the aetheryte and running off to whatever business they had there. It felt natural to go there, hit up the endgame gear vendors, then hang out by the retainer bell in the aetheryte plaza, people watching. And if I needed the market board, I would port back to Dusk's house, rather than go to Sharlayan, a place I just do not vibe with.

I HATE going to Solution 9. I dart in, spend my tomestones/books/whatever and then L E A V E. I hate how sterile the city is, I hate the droning lo-fi theme, I hate the immobile crowd of crafters all facing away from each other as they mindlessly grind their scrips (even as I understand it, I promise <3). I hate all the NPCs still wearing those goddamn regulators. I can't stop thinking about how awful I found the place during the MSQ, how the only place that felt alive to me in the entire place is the seedy area where the raids are. It's dystopian as fuck to me.

And when I need a marketboard ... half the time I port to Tuliyollal. Because that place is alive, it has day and night themes, the mass of crafters there get up and move more than once in a blue moon because they're mostly still leveling, so are running off to hand in leves or get their new class quest or what have you, while other people run by to whatever business they have there.

And I love that, I love that Solution 9 gets such a visceral reaction out of me, this long after I first arrived there. If it's supposed to feel Wrong - and I have every reason to believe it is, of course - they did a fantastic job of making it Wrong and keeping it Wrong, even with people doing their little MMO endgame tasks in it. And I love that Tuliyollal is such a stark contrast to it, long after the MSQ stops pointing it out to us.

[lovelyyandereaddictionpoint]

Yo if the requests are closes ignore this!

Can you do the Housewardens with a fem!Mc wth the powers and personality from Denji from Chainsaw Man? (Like the other one you did)

Please and thank you! <3

I love your writing

Thank you so much! I'll do a few! 🖤🖤🖤🖤

Chainsaw Reader (2) | Yandere Twisted Wonderland

Leona Kingscholar

“I want to touch it so bad!” 

“You should stop saying suspicious things so loudly.”

“Why not! Why should I hide that I looove touching your body parts?”

“Just say tail. Please.”

He finds your idiotic and loud personality to be problematic

He’s used to leading muscle-heads in his dorms that are motivated by pride, ego, or even personal gain

But only you 

only you would ask to put your hand down his pants for compensation

He doesn’t mind 

He just wishes you’d be a tad bit quieter

It also doesn’t help that you’re able to turn into a chainsaw demon

Which is fine, if it didn’t make taming you any easier

But once he’s got the hang of it your time, your attention, and one day your heart belongs to him

“Oi (Y/n), You’re chainsaw form is pretty scary right?”

“Yeah why?”

“Just want to see…will those herbivores be so happy to kiss up to you if you showed them the real you?”

“I dunno.”

“Let’s find out then.”

“What makes you think I’m going to do that?”

“I’ll let you motorboat my pecks.”

“Done.”

He loves when you get rid of the herbivores for him

And puts you on his level of a true predator

Too bad your motivation is just so flimsy

“It’s fine I’ll make it work long enough until they can’t leave.”

Idia Shroud

“Aaaaagghhgh!!! Your like a customizable MMO RPG skin!”

“Gee thanks you - - have skin too?”

“Thanks?”

Is torn between being horrified and beyond enamored

Move aside vampire/werewolf love stories he’s in love with a chainsaw!

When he gets past his initial fear

He dives right into studying

Checking your arms for the scars from your regenerative ability

Or bashedly admiring the drawstring on your chest

“Oh wow….you’re so–your chest is just–”

“Cool? “

“AHEM! Uh yes…the width is very uhm nice!”

He’s also amazed at how little it takes to get your attention

But realizing it he can’t fall behind the others who so easily prop their bodies up as compensation

It does help that he monitors his rivals online activity but still

He’ll beat them

“Sorry Ortho this mission is rated M for mature and this solo mission is going to decide whether I win the chainsaw’s heart!” 

“Yay! Good luck brother!”

“Thank you! Now where is that maid outfit?”

[darkwizart]

[incessant screaming]

unfortunately bills happened to my family (car and phone/internet, among assorted others) and i can't stem them and could use some help. i have the above things to offer because they're done fast, and i'd take payment in advance this one time. but if you'd like anything else, smaller and cheaper or bigger and...not, including whole comic pages like this:

...i can quote you a price, depending on subject matter. i quite obviously will draw you a people or a robot and most definitely a pairing, but also: -furries -armour -animals -your MMO/DnD character(s) additional info: payment over p4yp4l, watercolour pieces can be sent over if you provide postage. help along my nerves, family, and wallet and shoot me a message. i promise, very few things are too niche for my drawing hands.