#Psi is not my favorite at all but out of all the stories it's one that is actively worked

[ultimatebottom69]

Hi just came here to know why the fuck Song of the crimson Nile got 4 seasons...Like you all serious ?

[cryingpariah]

Because my Tumblr is being a B*tch, today will mostly be a “Ask Box Fun Facts/Short Stories Day”

Fun Facts about the Sneak-Wave Pirates (with a special bonus from Luna Nero):

Jolene:

-Jolene’s Liver is ironically perfectly healthy…this is because in true OP Fashion, it’s a lot bigger than it would normally be and therefore works harder. It’s also how she can stomach some VERY toxic stuff

-This is a big reveal for Jolene but…She enjoys the little things like cooking traditional Alabastan food for her crew like; Ful Medames, Falafel, and occasionally Baklava (She will not be in a good mood after making it though).

Mono:

-When and If Mono’s tail splits, It will make her messier and more awkward cause now she has to figure out how to “bend her knees” (which is actually just split tail bones) and walk. This however will give her a running gag of tripping over air.

-I said IF Momo’s tail splits because she’s technically a deep sea mermaid or a creature I like to imagine remains with a full tail but can grow legs…it’s rare though.

Hati:

-He is very kind and has lots of manners…however if you see him eating or drinking something wildly, that means he REALLY likes whatever it is he’s eating or drinking.

-His Sulong technique is called “Lunar Visualization.” Something Rein came up with for a name once they figure out Sulong is a normal-but-dangerous thing.

Cherry:

-Has troubles accepting how much she respects the other female members of the crew…but they are literally her favorite women in the world.

-When she gets her gun, she’ll be a natural sharpshooter because her 3rd eye can sort of act as another iron sight. (Whenever she chooses to show it off).

Sol:

-She is the physically strongest on the crew being able to lift up 7000 lbs in her base form. I’m her hybrid form, where her strength gets enhanced, she can lift up to 11,000 pounds.

-She occasionally writes fan-fiction…It’s mostly about a warrior fighting against a Sexy Horrific Avian Creature. It’s a very self indulgent work

Rein:

-In the Criminal Underworld, Rein handles most of the sales for the things the crew steals. He has a fake name (or more accurately an epithet) as “No One” as in “No One sold me this, it’s mine.”

-Still writing his book…still struggling, he mostly takes inspiration from his regular life. So far he’s only got a rough outline for characters and an idea where it should take place.

-(Secret: Has killed people who judge him for having a basically all female crew, or as they put it “Harem”…did you know a great horned owl’s talons can crush with 200 to 500 PSI? Did you also know that it only takes 33lbs of pressure on the trachea to completely close it off?)

Every once in a while Tumblr just shits the bed doesn’t it. At least I get something fun out of it this time!

Jolene:

- Livers in anime are such mysterious creatures and One Piece (and by extension Jolene) are no exception! I like to think she did first try to regulate her drinking but after getting a little older (and really learning what the Marines are all about, she just throws caution to the wind.

- Considering the last fact, I’m surprised Jolene can just be around open flame (then again she can be around Sol but DF fire is special and different). Considering we have no idea how she went from living in Alabasta (that despite being government protected doesn’t actually have a lot of Marines there) to uprooting her life to be a government dog. Gotta imagine she didn’t leave on the best of terms which would account for such a sour mood…

Mono:

- A legged Mono! She could finally do the things she’s wondered and dreamed about! Like! Painting her toe nails! And!…No that’s it, just painting her toe nails. I like the ambiguity about whether her tail will split and while I’m sure she’d be ecstatic, she’d probably rather stay a mermaid. It’s all she knows after all! She’d be tripping on air, freshly mopped floors, dust, but weirdly not banana peels?? She’s fine with those somehow…

Hati:

- To be fair to the fluffy fella, who doesn’t go a little hog wild on some good food! In comparison to some of the other members of the crew (not gonna name names..cough cough REIN..cough cough SOL…cough cough JOLENE) he looks downright posh most of the time.

- After figuring out that form is not just a Hati exclusive thing but a general one about Minks, the crew goes into hyper research mode to figure it! They’re quite shocked he can even do with his lack of sight but that only makes the best of the best in their eyes! (Lunar Visualization is a banging name!)

Cherry:

- It’s quite hard to reconcile with everything you’ve been told vs what you’re seeing now and it’s nice to now Cherry is coming around, slowly and in her own way as it be!

- She probably trains real hard (within reason, she’s still a kid after all) to not have to show off her third eye. If worst comes to worst and it’s a desperate situation, she’ll throw caution to the wind like a pirate (or cowboy) would!

Sol:

- Always figured Sol could bench press the entire crew, I just never thought she could do them all at once! What a tiny titan she is!

- Ohoho~! My, what a complete random piece of work she came up with on the spot that has absolutely no real world inspiration~. If she ever needs a beta reader, she can be free to ask a certain journalist for her assistance (especially considering the second Rein finds out, he’s gonna volunteer and it’s gonna be a whole thing).

Rein:

- Oh the Odysseus of Ithaca of Rein Jay! What an absolute hilarious name choice, I’m sure if the people of the Underworld had normal senses of humour, they’d appreciate that alias more 🤣!

- The progress he makes is incremental but it’s progress all the same! He keeps a small notebook on hand in case he ever gets a good idea he doesn’t want to forget! (Do you think he’ll put the crew in the dedication when it’s finished? I think he would!)

- (Considering he has already *check notes* infiltrated the slave trade, killed celestial dragons, and led a crusade out of Impel Down, this doesn’t surprise me a bit. No one, absolutely no one, is allowed to so fundamentally disrespect the people Rein holds dearest in this life and walk away scott free…or at all.)

[x-manson-annotated]

X-Manson Annotated Chapter 5 - Part One: INFILTRATORS.

Holy shit, the final chapter. This is where I really like a lot of concepts. The Avengers make a proper appearance and everyone's favorite sapphic Carol Danvers has a shitty time. See the reblogged version for the rest of it, since Tumblr has a limit on only 30 images.

If i'm not mistaken, this places the year that Kitty is watching the documentary as 2000 whereas before it said "Present Day" or "Today" . This places Kitty and Dani at probably 23 and 26 respectively.

**Dwight Hammer, like all cops is a goddamn moron.

Paid Schill.

1999 the y ear of the raid? Xavier's psychics forcing people to confess to murders that they didn't commit?

*I'm not sure if Dolores is a reference to someone special or just a filler character.

**I don't know why the spelling of her name with the 'e'. I've looked at multiple versions of the story and that detail remains in all of them.

**ALIENS EXIST IN THE CULT AU.

Motherfucking Carol Danvers!

*I'm not totally sure if that's something Supergirl used to be like.

** Rogue. I'm not sure who the intelligence agency is, since SHIELD seems to be a known quantity in the world.

*** That isn't really a thing she's known for either.

*Carole uses that very insistent phrase "the Kree that fucked me up". In the comics, she gained her abilities from an explosion that mixed her DNA with Mahr-Vel. So, is it possible in this au the Kree intentionally experimented on her?

**Pretty green eyes convince Carole Danvers that Rogue isn't a tech. Gay as hell behavior, champ.

***Further gay behavior. Much less traumatic loss of her powers as opposed to what happened to her in the comics.

*This is referencing her lesbianism within the story. I don't know if this is Benway's potentially homophobic perspective on Carole's sexuality, or if it's meant to be a purely in-universe sense of present homophobia.

Rogue's Mom, Destiny is being a cryptic old biddy. She's present twice the story, but Mystique isn't. Maybe she died a while back after some encounter with the cult, resulting in Rogue being sent in as an agent. But, that's just my headcanon.

*See.

**Rogue gave Carole a type.

**Why didn't she decay? Because of Carole's powers?

***Destiny was able to see that Carole was going to fuck her shit up by kissing Rogue's corpse, but not that Rogue would get murdered? Like, c'mon, that's your daughter.

*I might be right.

**I'm so fucking sick of Vance taking every single incorrect lesson from his life. Of course, she was angry, Vance. She was in near-constant pain, you unbearable prick.

***Probably doesn't help that she was being cryptic about what happened.

*I still love how angry he is with American spy agencies.

*Possibly this universe's version of Freedom Force?

Xavier loaning out cult members for odd jobs?

*Sorry HOXPOX fans, Moira isn't a mutant.

**So that's where they're potentially filling up their ranks?

***My immediate thought was Gambit both because of the title and the New Orleans connection. This might also be Amahl Farouk, who has a history of employing pickpockets, but he was based in Egypt. Though, I don't want to discount him totally because of my biased headcanon.

*Tracking the cult's activity from the ground up. But, how is the cult going to all of these places constantly? How far spread are they outside of Westchester?

** Nice to know that Black Tom exists in this au. Hope he and Cain have a summer cottage together somewhere on the coast where they can grow old together, far away from any of this cult horseshit.

Spain

Morocco

Romania

Hungary

Yugoslavia

Westchester, New York.

So, Sean was likely trying to infiltrate them after making contact in Yugoslavia and then ended up being inducted into the cult, proper.

That is so goddamn scary it's unreal.

*was their a psi on the isles manipulating the local Interpol agents? Can Xavier or Cable stretch their influence that far?

*Rahne Sinclair

*I just now noticed that Terry in this story is eleven. My god. That's an especially horrifying ordeal at that age.

*if Sean was pleading, it's possible that either they didn't have him under psychic control yet (not coring him) or the distance allowed the connection to break. But who else is with Logan that's coercing Sean into action?

*She could tell almost immediately that Rahne was a mutant and not some kind of freakish dog.

The river to confuse Logan's tracking ability?

*Rahne's home in the woods.

*They don't see her transform in the dark, but she can take on a human or at least human adjacent shape. Rahne Sinclair is a saint.

First Voice, Unknown.

Second Voice, Logan.

*My first instinct was that this is Sean, but Moira would have clarified if it were. Maybe it's Cable or Piotr?

**Rahne can take on a human shape, but is functionally feral and cant understand human language.

*Logan's voice again.

**Cars everywhere. Some of them look burned. Sunfire? Is the second voice Sunfire?

*Christ alive, they massacred ten whole police officers and special forces agents.

Logan sticking around to threaten the family by leaving shreadded vehicles around? Why not murder them?

[kursed-curtain]

What is your favorite part about Psychonauts and Psychonauts 2?

Awaugh you can't just hit me with this it's TOO MANY there TOO MANY!!!!!!! 💥 I'm jus gonna talk abt Psychonauts ig now

Psychonauts 1 has so much charm in it, released in 2005 I like to joke the game was destined for me, I got so scared of dying by the brain tank boss battle that I didn't play for a week, and then I died in a mental world and everything was normal and I was like. "oh okay". Conquering fear of video game death one horrible parkour jump at a time

My favorite part of PN1 is the thorney towers crew, I love em dearly, they're my favorites, yes this includes sheegor n loboto (and... crispin ig? Ehhh). Wanna Split A Cab crew don't even get any big features in PN2 I just like em very much

PN2 was a lot better of an experience for me - for one I decided to upgrade to using a controller instead of my keyboard, that's just a personal thing lmaoo I found I liked controller better. All the Psi-powers were *fun* and *snappy* and my least liked ability (telekinesis) became my most liked ability

Huge fan of the mystery and story in PN2, I had a lot of fun trying to figure out what was going on. And everyone is so appealing and cool and the little details and ahhhggh...

I love the Psychonauts games... 💕

[shark-myths]

👀🏅💻 for the fanfic ask game!!

👀 Do you have any WIPs that you would never let see the light of day? If yes, what are they about?

a sequel to the gay pirate au I wrote a billion years ago. the sequel is so good, guys. some of my best ideas ever and I haven’t written adventure as a genre in a long time! I’m never going to finish it and I no longer write for the fandom it’s in, so it shall never breathe free air. it’s an historically accurate yet magical sea-faring adventure set in the golden age of piracy that pulls our MCs out of retirement for one. last. haul. predictable hijinks ensue!

🥇What is something you recently felt proud of in regard to your writing (finished a fic, actually planned for once, etc).

I will take any and all opportunities to be proud! I’m proud because on vacation this year I wrote every morning despite my extended family being around, and afterwards the characters started popping into my head each morning whether I reached for my notebook or not. usually I aspire to write on vacation and never get to it because I’m too guarded or distracted. not waiting for perfect conditions and getting my pen to the page is a huge win!

💻 Do you do research for your fics? What’s the deepest dive you’ve done?

OH GOD. I just got my favorite comment possibly of all time, which was someone saying I always seem like the expert of every AU I write. this is because I do a frankly insane amount of research. my most common research is into travel routes around my location, but my deepest dives are either 1) reading as many NASA transmissions and space botany papers as I could access with my academic credentials at the time or 2) spending an hour doing math on a napkin to calculate PSI of a swan’s wing for an absolute throwaway line in a story where A MAN TURNS INTO A SWAN and accuracy was maybe not the biggest concern.

[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #38: Psychonauts

Achieved on 8/6/2023 at 2:56 PM

I've mentioned before that I used to be a huge fan of a YouTube channel called Funhaus. One of the main cast members of Funhaus, James Willems, always talked about how his favorite game was Psychonauts. Now, I've never heard of that game before, but I did decide to buy it and try it on my PS4, and I actually enjoyed it a lot! However, I got distracted by other games and never finished it, so for my next Platinum on my PS5 I decided to finally go back to Psychonauts and finish Raz's story.

This extremely stylistic game is about a summer camp for psychic kids training to become government agents called Psychonauts. Razputin, aka "Raz", sneaks into camp after running away from his circus family. While learning how to use his psychic powers, Raz discovers a conspiracy is unfolding at Camp Whispering Rock, and it's up to him to save the day!

When I first played this game, I had made it up to the part where you are being chased by the lungfish monster at the bottom of the lake. However, upon researching a trophy guide for this game before playing, I discovered there were a LOT of missable trophies, some of which you have to get before certain story events - including some trophies I actually missed in my first playthrough - or else they become lost forever. I also knew that the game had a LOT of collectibles. I mean a LOT of collectibles.

So I decided that I would play through the game normally, but while keeping a list of all the missable trophies so I could get them, and also trying to get as many collectibles in each level as possible, and then go back with a guide before the final level if I missed any of them.

1/38: Your Last Chance to Chicken Out - Complete Basic Braining.

2/38: Camp Gossip - Read many bulletin board messages.

3/38: Stump Speech - Give the Coach's speech on the stump.

4/38: A Victory for Good Taste - Complete Sasha's Shooting Gallery.

5/38: Mmm...Bacon! - Use the bacon. A lot.

6/38: Made Man - Witness Maloof's transformation.

7/38: A Slice of History - Discover the secret history of Whispering Rock.

8/38: Holiday Dinner - Cook and consume two different kinds of roast in one sitting.

9/38: I'm Sure She's Over It - Uncover Milla's Secret.

10/38: Junior PSI Cadet - Achieve Rank 20.

11/38: Rolling Rock Star - Complete Milla's Dance Party.

12/38: Maybe It's The Hair - Spy on Bobby's love life.

13/38: Wolpaw Says Thanks - Hear Vernon's ghost story.

At this point, I finally got to the part of the game I hadn't progressed past on my first attempt at Psychonauts. I think at the time I kept getting caught by the giant lungfish and dying, but this time I was able to complete the sequence and encounter the first mental world I'd never seen before, Lungfishopolis. While all the mental worlds I had seen beforehand were all very fun and straightforward (they are all pretty much tutorials), this mental world was the first one where I struggled to figure out how to complete it. This would go on to become a recurring theme in all future mental worlds.

14/38: For Insurance Reasons - Complete Lungfishopolis.

15/38: Self Aware - See yourself through the eyes of many others.

Side note, I just wanted to say that The Milkman Conspiracy was the only level of this game I had heard about before playing Psychonauts. Apparently it's considered one of the best levels in video game history, and after playing it I highly agree. It's trippy as hell but also so creative. I'd recommend playing Psychonauts just for the experience of playing The Milkman Conspiracy alone.

16/38: Time To Deliver the Milk - Complete The Milkman Conspiracy.

17/38: You're All So Kind - Complete Gloria's Theater.

18/38: Thanks For All the Snails - Complete Waterloo World.

After completing Waterloo World, I decided to get a trophy that actually required me to manipulate the time and date on my PS5, changing it to Christmas Day for a specific trophy.

19/38: Christmas Shopping - Buy an item from the Camp Store on Christmas.

Then I changed the date back to normal and completed playing, up until the point where I finished the last mental world before the endgame, Black Velvetopia. I also managed to find all the golden helmets in each level, so I got my first collectible trophy as well.

20/38: Regular PSI Cadet - Achieve Rank 40.

21/38: They Should Totally Sell Those - Earn all Merit Badges.

22/38: I'm Gonna Live Forever - Find all Golden Helmets.

23/38: I Always Loved You More - Complete Black Velvetopia.

After that, I picked up a quick trophy by re-entering each mental world for the second time after completing the levels.

24/38: Victory Tour - Revisit all brains after completion.

Then I went onto the first level that was not a mental world, but an actual place, the Asylum. I fucking despised this level. It was incredibly hard platforming, and the collectibles I needed to get in this level, the brains of all the campers (long story), were in VERY hard to reach places. Not to mention I kept getting killed by bomb rats and hearing this weird female voice make extremely loud and irritating breathing sounds. This level was not fun to play at all, but I managed to complete it.

25/38: Height of Insanity - Complete The Asylum.

At this point in the game, I was literally one action away from entering the endgame, but I still had a lot of clean-up to do. So I left the Asylum and went back through all of the levels, cleaning up all the remaining miscellaneous trophies I needed to get and picking up all the remaining collectibles in each world I had missed my first time around.

26/38: No Solid Food for Six Hours - Re-brain the children.

27/38: I Think They Were Impressed - Introduce all Camp Kids to Mr. Pokeylope.

28/38: I LOVE PUNCHING! - Complete the Punchy Target mini-game.

29/38: Advanced PSI Cadet - Achieve Rank 60.

30/38: Look At Those Pansies! - Find Edgar's Secret Garden.

31/38: Super PSI Cadet - Achieve Rank 80.

32/38: They Call Me the Hunter - Redeem all 16 Scavenger Hunt items.

Once I had done all of that, I entered the final level of the game: The Meat Circus. This level is notorious for being extremely hard, so I decided to be a cheater and used the cheat code for invincibility. I'm not sorry, I'm not looking to spend 10 hours trying to beat one level. Plus, even with invincibility on, this level is still very hard. Well done game developers.

Anyway, Meat Circus actually consists of several different stages before you hit the final boss fight. Once you enter the final boss fight, all those other stages in Meat Circus become impossible to return to, so I had to get all of the collectibles in Meat Circus before that. So I played the final level using a guide all the way through, and got all the trophies for collectibles and getting all PSI Cadet points.

33/38: No More Secrets - Crack all Vaults.

34/38: Figgy Piggy - Gather all Figments.

35/38: Happy Bags - Sort all Emotional Baggage.

36/38: Math is Hard - Achieve Rank 101.

With everything else done, I defeated the final boss, finishing the game and earning the Platinum trophy!

37/38: I Thought That Was Unbeatable! - Complete Meat Circus.

38/38: Brainiac - Unlock all trophies.

Psychonauts is a hidden gem. It is an incredibly unique concept, has creative gameplay, fun characters, and awesome level designs. Some levels are great, some are terrible, but the entire game is so fun that I think finishing it is 100% worth it. I definitely am gonna replay this in the future!

Rating: 10/10

[saskieenkeli]

Do you have any favorite LIs in RC, LoD, and SHS?

Hi, thanks for asking ❤️ Actually more than one, but I'll try to highlight some.

RC – Bert and Jonas, my two doctors. I fell in love with Bert completely unexpectedly, and it was a beautiful journey. I started his route purely out of curiosity. At that time, I was deeply immersed in the story of Arcanum and believed Bert would be the traitor of the second season. So I replayed for him on another device, and oh... he completely captivated me, and to this day, I'm crazy about him. An LI who was always supportive of the MC in a "Show them, queen!" kind of way. And Bert in the second season is something else entirely—I reread the second season countless times because of him.

With Jonas, it was different—I fell for him right away. And until the end of the first season, it didn't even seem like he would be an LI at all. I thought I would end up in PSI without an LI because I couldn't move forward. In the end, he did become an LI, and in my opinion, it’s the best friends-to-lovers story in all VNs.

LOD - Casper. I have so much inner conflict because of him. This is what I love about LoD—they don’t create perfect LIs, they create realistic ones. In RC, Casper would be a walking red flag, but when we have LIs like Vincent Sinclaire, aka a literal battlefield, Casper actually feels like a harmless puppy.

To me, he’s one of the most underrated characters in LOD. If you romance him and take him with you, even Scarlet’s friends start trusting her less because of it. They believe that if he really wanted to, he could have left Vincent long ago, turned him over to the authorities, and reported everything. But I don’t see it that simply. He fell into Vincent’s hands when he was just a child. His entire life, he was manipulated by Vincent. He was a victim himself, and it frustrates me so much that this was never acknowledged in the story—that Casper wasn’t perfect, but he was a victim.

That being said, I love his banter with Scarlett. And honestly, it was this story and Casper that turned LOD from a side app I’d read when I had nothing else into a full-fledged app whose updates I look forward to and even know the release dates for. So he will always hold a special place in my heart.

SHS - This one is harder because I’m not familiar with all the stories, especially the newer ones. But from what I’ve read, it has to be *Nobody*. He is my guilty pleasure.

I can't even explain why I love him so much because we actually know almost nothing about him, yet I love him anyway. His angelic appearance combined with mystery and a cunning personality makes him an LI you don’t come across often.

[zetto-protection-squad]

Fun conversation topic: What would be your peak SELF INDULGENT version of TOME?

I started thinking recently about how the RPG is a big outlier in the TOME franchise (is it accurate to call it a franchise?) because I feel to me personally that the "you die in the game you die in real life" elements were what really hooked me on to begin with. However, the RPG itself has some nice elements to it; the more in-depth game mechanics, RPG Flamegirl by herself, etc etc...

However, I'm never a "Fuck Canon" kind of fan; moreso a "I love this, but how would I make it better?" kind of fan.

Even so, I think it's important to understand the difference between if a piece of media does something poorly versus if a piece of media simply didn't do something you didn't enjoy. Such as, TTA Flamegirl is a poorly written female character, BUT me not enjoying RPG Alpha doesn't mean that he is inherently poorly written. Remember, there is inherently a huge difference between the creator's intention with their story, and what you as the audience PERSONALLY want from their story.

That being said, the questions stand:

What would be your peak SELF INDULGENT version of TOME? Which plotlines (TTA/2011/RPG) would you want to encapsulate the most? Which versions of each of the main 7 would you want to explore this plotline?

I've pitched this concept to my friends (Thank you for your support @d-buggers-org + @mechcity-skyline !), but some wanted to see this as a public prompt so here you go!

Remember, I'm writing all this from a place of love! I NEVER want to say "Fuck Canon"; I simply want to gush about my favorite elements from each TOME variant, and daydream about what will satiate my own self indulgence for a series that means a lot to me :]!

Under the cut would be my own personal "P.S.I." version of TOME (will refer to it as "my PSI-TOME for short throughout this essay); so get ready for TOME, [insert Mod Blue's real name] version!

Which plotlines (TTA/2011/RPG) would you want to encapsulate the most?

I'm going to immediately start out the gate with the controversies BUT...

TV TOME Adventures.

Like I said in my intro, it was TOME (2011 in particular)'s "you die in the game you die in real life" plotline that really hooked me onto the series!

However... something about the air of TTA alone is very different than 2011. I think it feels much darker, plotlines such as the forbidden season 4, Ericho's mind being trapped in the gang, Kirbopher1111's descent, Motherboard's corruption and the shadow clones??

Maybe it's because it's a longer series, or maybe, by my own account, "I am a dramatic bitch", I think I would love to see a lot of the TTA plotlines polished to be feasible for a more advanced series. They are the building blocks for the franchise, after all!

Overall I think it would be interesting to explore TTA by itself, and its full potential when working with its building blocks; cutting the fat where you could tell it was initially written by a random teenager and polishing the interesting concepts presented in TTA that aren't in 2011. I also think me wanting TTA's plotline in particular is an interesting conundrum when taking into account my other question...

Which versions of each of the main 7 would you want to explore this plotline?

Now, this one actually gets complicated!

I'm mostly going to yap about why I think they'd be a perfect pick for my PSI-TOME plotline, but @d-buggers-org actually brought up a great point about how you could choose between who you want for plotlines BUT steal another version's character design! So I'll mention whose design I'll steal in the midst of which plotline/character arc would be better as well.

So get ready for a ride...

ALPHA:

TTA Alpha.

While I do have a soft spot for 2011 for reasons I may get into later, I am and have always been ENAMOURED with TTA Alpha in particular. I'm not a huge fan of "shy character becomes more confident" plotlines (truthfully I don't even know if I can explain why), so TTA Alpha in particular sticks out better to me!

I think he comes across as a somewhat brash, almost arrogant person at the beginning of the series, but one who slowly gets worn down by the heaviness of the plot over time, until he presumably "gets his spark back" by season 4 (Chris mentioning one of season 4's final episodes being a fight between Alpha and the literal God Of The Internet to prove that Alpha is proof that the virtual world is protected by good hands). He comes across as cocky at certain moments, but in a fun way! He's also very captivating while angry, and even though Chris himself doesn't like the 3 hour infiltration mission... I rather enjoyed seeing Alpha in particular have to directly lead his friends into danger, him and Voltarius having a back and forth conflict of who has the upper hand over who.

I think overall, TTA Alpha feels like a real teenager to me. Maybe I feel like the shyer Alphas of 2011 and RPG come across as more trope-y to me than TTA? I may have even posted about how TTA Alpha reminds me of Sonic specifically in Sonic Frontiers, my favorite video game of all time... but either way, that's how I feel! TTA Alpha would be my pick for my PSI Alpha.

Also, I wouldn't be too mad at keeping TTA Alpha's designs as-is lol. Maybe just remove the lizard tail and also steal 2011 Alpha's season 1 outfit for him BUT keeping TTA Alpha's season 2 + 3 + 4 outfits :D

ALSO ALEJANDRO SAAB IN THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF TTA EPISODE 60 IS MY PERFECT VICTORY; I NEED ALEJANDRO SAAB IN MY PSI-TOME <3

FLAMEGIRL:

RPG Flamegirl. (SPOILERS FOR THE RPG INCOMING, FYI)

Now, I think I speak for a fair chunk of us will admit RPG Flamegirl is the best Flamegirl has been written. Heck, probably the first time Flamegirl didn't feel like "THE GIRL" of the group!

Now, I initially didn't like RPG Flamegirl in the demo; but with the context of her full character in the RPG? She singlehandedly fits SO PERFECTLY with the higher stakes I enjoy from each series... but I feel kind of bad she's stuck in the one TOME variant that doesn't have those sci-fi high stakes I fell in love with. She's one of those rare characters I see in media that I swear I'm gonna hate the entire time, only for their character arc to showcase the OPPOSITE. (FYI, those awards are also gifted to Ling Yao from FMA and Weiss Schnee from RWBY <3)

I love that she's still learning to be a leader of her guild. I love that she has blatant trust issues that make her friendships fall apart, and she learns to grow from it to make sure she's not in a constant cycle of platonic break-ups. I love her raw determination, and I love how she very much ISN'T perfect and struggles with that. (And also, she's Filipino and voiced by a Filipina actress! Filipino pride :D)

If I'm particularly stealing the elements of TTA, I think you can easily interweave RPG Flamegirl into that sort of plotline. Maybe her sister was impacted by the virus at some point? I think RPG Flamegirl in particular ABSOLUTELY has the will and strength to take down the hacker organizations; She obviously does the same even if the hackers aren't directly harming people physically through the game.

As for design?

...

To be honest, 2011 Flamegirl with RPG Flamey's personality would be god tier. I love the demon aesthetic she has, and it's a little less busy on the eyes than RPG Flamey's outfit.

NYLOCKE:

...

...I could go both ways! (Both 2011 and RPG Nylocke.)

Now, I would like to elaborate that I'm not the biggest Nylocke fan, so I'm very much not the person to ask when it comes to which Nylocke is better, or go onto rambles on each version of Nylockes' character arcs.

But I don't hate him! I've been in the fandom for 10 years at this point, and growing into adulthood I really appreciate who Nylocke is as a character. He is really the heart that holds the group together, and really makes everything feel okay when he's at his best. I'm not sure if you could argue he has this big massive character arc, but my point is that you don't NEED him to change so massively because he's everyone's rock in the face of adversary.

Truthfully, not being a Nylocke stan, I personally don't see much difference between 2011 and RPG Nylocke outside of the circumstances they're in; that's exactly why I could go with both of them in my PSI-TOME. I think, like I said, being a steady rock in the face of adversary would be EXACTLY what my PSI-TOME would need, being reminiscent of TTA's darker elements.

As for design however, RPG Nylocke 100%! I think his silhouette cements the "big support" character he needs to be, his palette is more pleasing to the eye, and his cape's back!

KIRB/ZETTO:

...I'd like to hope y'all remember what my blog is about because it is ABSOLUTELY going to be...

2011 Kirbopher/Zetto.

What else can I say? I love him. He's an integral part of my childhood, my adulthood, my writing, my personality, my interests??

I've mentioned before that TTA Zetto is sort of the "common ancestor" for what would evolve into two separate paths; 2011 Zetto, and RPG Zetto. I think where TTA Zetto falters is Chris attempting to have both cakes; the Vegeta redemption arc, and the ever-intimidating adversary. RPG Zetto is a perfected version of the latter; I'm scared of him, to be honest. He's an asshole with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I would say I'd punch RPG Zetto if I saw him in the streets, but he'd probably doxx me on his Reddit account.

2011 Zetto is a perfected version of Vegeta. PERIOD.

His dual identity made TOME (2011) SO SO captivating. He alone raises the stakes, directly links the main group into the main conflict (but even spicier, AGAINST HIS WILL!). I'm in love with all of his issues and he's personally the most relatable person in the entire cast.

EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM IS SO CAPTIVATING! My favorite episode of TOME (2011) is Episode 10, because it's the first time we see Zetto's mask crack and he starts showing emotional vulnerability!

His dual identity with Kirbopher also helps "declutter" the main cast a bit more, and gives Kirbopher himself a lot more meat to his character! TTA Kirbopher15 is fine, but kind of works like the Joey Wheeler to Alpha's Yugi; but more people remember Kaiba and Yugi than Joey and Yugi. RPG Kirbopher works well without the higher stakes of TTA as just Alpha's friend.

However, with my PSI-TOME having TTA plotlines specifically BECAUSE I love drama and darker plots...

It'd be a crime to say 2011 Kirb/Zetto WOULDN'T be my pick for my own PSI-TOME!

2011 Kirb/Zetto is just SO STELLAR of a character that he just HAS to be there for my PSI-TOME.

(Heck, he was my awakening for loving the SHIT out of characters with dual identity issues.... lots of my dual-identity faves come from obscure webcomics BUT I literally just finished reading Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde because it's THE "dual identity conflict" novella of all time so uh... yeah 2011 Zetto flows through my veins at this point)

As for design...

No, yeah. I'm keeping 2011 Zetto as-is; obviously TTA Zetto just has a sleeveless version of Vegeta's armor, and RPG Zetto captures the "big douchebag" energy so well that I don't think I'd want him NEAR 2011 Zetto. I'd jokingly say perhaps I'd steal RPG Zetto's hair, though... I've always struggled with drawing 2011 Zetto's hair 😭😭

RPG Zetto's scarf and tattoo is kinda cute tho. Something to consider, maybe.

Kirbopher himself is funnily enough a different story. Personally, 2011 season 2 Kirb is my favorite of all the Kirbs! But I also like RPG Kirb's design over 2011 season 1 Kirbopher too... Also something to consider!

NOW...

GAMECRAZED:

Truthfully? All of them, in one big mega-Gamecrazed.

Much like Nylocke I don't think I have MEGA huge opinions on GC as a character, but in terms of plotline? All of them could work in my PSI-TOME; I think there's elements behind each one of them that could work/could be fun exploring as one giant mega-GC!

I'll just get this out of the way that I could also go for either 3 of their designs; I'm not too strong on one over the other, since I think it's fair to say their silhouettes are generally the same (well I used a pic of TTA's Redemption but still)

That being said, onto plotline:

1.) I love TTA Gamecrazed starting off as just a normal teen coping with his parents' divorce with his little brother, only to be sort of "awoken" by virus power and singlehandedly being able to talk down Motherboard from her own corruption.

2.) I love 2011 Gamecrazed secretly being an AI built to stop hackers by the game's main AI, only to learn about what love is through befriending the main cast.

3.) Gamesoft is just a cutie pie... I love that the RPG was willing to tackle her being trans, and I love that the concept of GC with a little brother was brought back! Truthfully out of all "shy" characters, I definitely prefer her as a more introverted/softspoken person over 2011/RPG Alpha's shyness.

So here's what I've been thinking:

Maybe PSI-TOME GC starts off as a normal teen, perhaps also coping with their parents' divorce but overall having a generally normal human life with a little brother outside of the game

At some point PSI-TOME GC gets involved with the development of a hot new video game, but virus stuff happens and they're now somehow interwoven into the game, maybe their mind is trapped or they are now "transformed" by something within the game that makes them technically no longer human

Motherboard uses GC, whether they be a shell left behind by some fatal accident within the game/Motherboard fusing with GC's mind after a traumatic accident, as a shadow, and learns about love through her experiences as GC + their little brother

Somehow this is a trans allegory

Like, it is 4am. But also imagine...

Food for thought once again. I'm just daydreaming, at the end of the day! But I truthfully believe there is something to be done by using elements from ALL versions of GC to make one big mega-GC to be within my own PSI-TOME.

That being said, I do prefer Motherboard by design instead of SOFDTI (or the RPG's 'Prisoner', especially because Prisoner in particular leads nowhere without the context of an RPG DLC or sequel)

I think "2011 Motherboard" concept art is just gorgeous; especially that top right doodle showing exactly how GC is her shadow. I do prefer humanoid designs hence my neutrality towards SOFDTI's squishy fairy design, but also I am also very much a women enjoyer ♥🧡💛💚💙💜

RURI/KIZUNA/TIGERLILY:

...

Kizuna over Ruri, but I could go both ways perhaps...

No shade to Tigerlily stans! But hear me out...

I think overall for my PSI-TOME, Kizuna is the better choice. Obviously she's made MUCH more important to the plot and conflict in 2011 than Ruri is in TTA; and she's such a girlboss as well. I think her Riza Hawkeye dynamic with Zetto is beautifully done, especially with the A2Z movies giving her a much more hopeful ending and wrapping up their relationship in a neat little bow. She's such a professional in her hacking, and she is a formidable antagonist within TOME (2011); she also has my favorite voice of the franchise! Imogen Fox if you're out there... your performance as Kizuna has been a gay awakening to a LOT of people.

But, after seeing @artlasllm's "Ruri is a Twitch Streamer AU"... I think Ruri also has something to her character to explore as well. I think she's an interesting addition to TTA that would've been quite compelling if explored more; is she the "things IRL I should be taking care of" that TTA Zetto talks about in episode 60? If they've been dating long before Zetto's redemption arc, why hasn't Ruri seen Zetto in a while when they meet back up in-GAME in season 3? Zetto himself rarely talks about her in comparison to Ruri talking about him, she's such a ride-or-die gf that I'm wondering how far Zetto has really pushed that mentality within her. Maybe perhaps she is directly abandoned by Zetto; Zetto fading into obscurity as a prodigous teenage game developer, and Ruri becoming popular only for being a let's player.

I think both are very valid catgirls to explore more within my PSI-TOME; I think I prefer Kizuna for direct plot reasons, but I think I wouldn't be mad at exploring what could be done with Ruri as a character.

That being said, on a funnier note: I've been told you can probably have both of them, since they're so different from one another LMAOO. Some highlights from a brief conversation with @d-buggers-org about including both or maybe ALL of the catgirls include:

Ruri/Zetto/Kizuna polycule at Netking Software's development team (Zetto and Ruri as both beta testers, Kizuna still as head bug checker)

Throwing Tigerlily in the mix with Ruri, Kizuna, and Tigerlily within the plot as a former clique of high school friends, perhaps maybe quite Heathers-esque XD (FYI Kizuna would be Chandler, Tigerlily would be Duke, Ruri would be McNamara)

Kizuna could and would doxx Ruri, from a professional hacker to a simple streamer 😭😭 on the reverse side, Tigerlily would look Kizuna dead in the eye and take selfies with whatever creep shows up at her house after getting doxxed by her

So yeah. Kizuna is a little complicated of a topic for my PSI-TOME, because you could argue that the differences between all of them mean that you could probably have multiple of them within anyone's PSI-TOME as different characters!

I think for simplicity's sake I would say that I do prefer Kizuna to Ruri in regards to who I would choose for my PSI-TOME, but if I were able to juggle both Kizuna AND Ruri in my PSI-TOME, especially with Kizuna as a professional hacker and Ruri as successful gaming streamer? I think I would love to explore both of them.

MISC:

So what else could I say about MY PSI-TOME?

Well, first off, a lightning round of Netking Opinions:

I would choose (MOSTLY) all of the 2011 Netkings over them all, with a few changes and exceptions; I think at the very least, Webmaster, Bitshrum, and Kindarspirit are the best in 2011 continuity, with Rubirules in 2011 being my favorite Rubyrulz/Rubirules/Rulerruby design

I'm not sure whether Rubirules or EXE would work as the true Hacker Boss in my own PSI-TOME, because I was fine with either of them when comparing TTA and TOME (2011)! So simply, I could go both ways!

However, I love Queen Rulerruby... regardless of if I'd pick Rubirules to be my PSI-TOME hacker boss, I absolutely want him genderbended to be the lovely Linda Young-voiced gemstone queen that Queen Rulerruby in the RPG is. God, that'd give off such wonderful Yzma vibes 8) <3

Regardless of EXE/Execk being my PSI-TOME hacker boss, I think I'd at least choose TTA/RPG designs over 2011. I think he looks a little plain and normal in 2011, so I'd def try to pick TTA or RPG's EXE/Execks for a liiiittle more oomph :D

NOW, MORE RANDOM PLOT LINES!

Seeing RPG Flamegirl having to deal with the fallout of 2011 Kirb/Zetto's reveal... I think she would NOT hold back in regards to holding him accountable for his actions. Honestly with the context of them being in the TTA plotline, maybe there's more time to explore the fallout of Zetto's dual identity within my PSI-TOME's Purple Flame Arc

Yoinking the 2011 Design for the D-Bug Dragon, but TTA Kajet for the yellow streaks in his design

Not particularly sure if D-Bug Dragon is a virus like in TTA, or an antivirus like in TOME; the general concept of the flame going haywire and making someone comatose would be the same, however. I do definitely think that in my PSI-TOME, perhaps it was built by the hackers, or at the very least Kizuna unfortunately roped into working on it with Darkeyes...

Obviously 2011 Zetto doesn't have the same genuine bloodlust that motivated TTA Zetto to start the hacker organization; I truthfully believe he does the things he does out of paranoia of him but more importantly other people getting hurt by the virus, which I think would motivate Zetto into starting the hacker organization with Kizuna

Oooh, when Archy/Ericho get trapped in the game... I think it'd be spicy to keep 2011 Rockoon as part of my PSI-TOME, a former hacker now desperate to avenge his innocent friend, alongside the horror of the main cast finding out that he's trapped as an AI within the game...

Elaborating more on the "Ruri/Zetto/Kizuna polycule" pitch... I imagine that Ruri and Kizuna act as shoulder angels on Zetto's shoulders; Ruri representing a normal carefree life, but Zetto abandoning it to run the hacker organization with Kizuna... where Kizuna herself has issues surrounding the morality of the hacker organization that she has to deal with (AND I WANT THEM TO END HAPPILY <3)

There is the potential question of asking if Kirbopher still "dies" within my PSI-TOME, since Kirbopher's "death" is a huge symbolic metaphor for Kirb/Zetto as a character... 🤔

This entire PSI-TOME concept is under the assumption that season 4 would be a thing.......... because my PSI-TOME absolutely has Xirra and Darkeyes 🥺🙏

Heck even outside of my PSI-TOME concept, Kizuna and Darkeyes feel like they have parallels in regards to their shared hatred towards technology, their involvement in building the D-Bug Dragon... perhaps in my PSI-TOME, Darkeyes would be a dark reflection of what Kizuna almost becomes...

Would it be easier to say that this entire post is probably just fanfic fuel and I've accidentally written a fanfic the entire time I've written this section of my post, and I only now realize that at the end of this entire essay at 4 in the morning? Maybe. But I don't write fanfic so ig these are the best crumbs I'm gonna get 😭😭

Legit, if you've read this far, thank you so very much for indulging me in my little daydream! This entire post is open to more conversations about what YOUR personal PSI-TOME would be, and I'm hoping that my little yap-athon here is inspiration for you all to play around with! I would love to hear what your personal PSI-TOMEs would be!

[twothpaste]

Giegue/giygas for the ask game, maybe?

First impression: I learned about Giygas through internet osmosis long before I even thought to play EarthBound. All the usual "ooooh this game is secretly sooo dark" and "he's ack-chewally an aborted fetus, see, oooo" kinda shit. I remember it giving me the impression Mother was way scarier and edgier than it turned out to be. (I played games like OFF and Yume Nikki first though. So by the time I got around to Mother, it was very refreshing to play somethin bright & uplifting at its core, lmao.) (In retrospect, I kinda wish Giygas wasn't among the first things every prospective player is told about the EarthBound. Going into the Giygas battle blind seems like it would've rearranged my brain molecules, and I wish I'd gotten to experience it like that.) I forget when exactly I learned about Giegue (I didn't get to play M1 blind either), but I'm pretty sure my first impression was honestly pretty neutral? The imposing presence of a huge alien spaceship, 8-bit sci-fi machinery, and a barely legible creature in a capsule was pretty wicked to see for myself the first time though!

Impression now: Giygas is a big triple decker chocolate layer cake worth of metaphor & symbolism. The existential horror of growing up, the fear of losing who you fundamentally are in the process, the horrific inhumanity adults are capable of, the hopelessness of coming to terms with the world as it is, and so on. Not really a character per se, but the quintessential globular slurry of adolescent angst Ness & pals've gotta contend with. Giegue is a bittersweet little story about a broken family. An internal conflict between vengeance, familial love, and maybe where one's obligations lie? Cool antagonist for sure. I wanna like him more than I do (M1's cryptic hands-off approach to storytelling is hard for me to sink my teeth into 😔). I've speculatively written (and drawn a comic for the upcoming zine 😉) about how Giegue became Giygas, and read some good fics on the topic. In the canon we're given, though? There's really so little binding them together narratively or thematically… I have a difficult time reconciling the two, in the context of the games themselves. Mother 2 in general feels more like a reboot than a sequel - and there's hardly if any "lore" weaving Giegue & Giygas together - so Itoi's choice to declare they're one and the same just seems kinda odd to me. C'est la vie. Fan creators make do.

Favorite moment: The Giygas battle, but like, before he goes sicko mode. When he's bound to a chamber of wires and innards, reflecting Ness' face back at him, and it turns out our fervently raving buddy Porky is actually the one in "control". The atmosphere is so intense and unnerving, such a bizarre yet captivating way to ramp things up. There's like, this sense of stomach-churning dread, as you begin - if only scarcely - to realize the alien overlord you were expecting is an entity far more powerful and personal and helpless and incomprehensible than you ever could've imagined. I mean. You know, because the internet spoiled you when you were 11. But in the bigness of the moment it still makes my mitochondria itch on a primal and cellular level. /pos. Love it.

Idea for a story: My favorite Giegue thing is the vague implication (??) of whatever the hell George did to to him. Y'know, whatever made him hate humanity so much. Whenever I see fan content speculating on how George might've experimented on him or mistreated him I do in fact Feel Somethin' There. (I have been a sucker for angsty-creature-in-a-lab stories from the time I saw Mewtwo Strikes Back in kindergarten all the way to Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 a couple months ago, and I don't suppose I'll ever be sick of 'em.) The conflict it introduces between George and Maria is intriguing too. Like, her husband's treating her dearly beloved child like a science project? Trying to extract the secrets of PSI from his oversized alien brain?? You know if this kinda shit went down, those two were on a caliber of divorce drama the world has rarely seen.

Unpopular opinion: I really like Giegue design interpretations that're freaky and grotesque and biologically unfamiliar. When the beast isn't just mammalian in nature. Truly out of this world.

Favorite relationship: A mean-spirited but otherwise ordinary 13-year-old willingly aligned himself with the alien emodiment of all things evil. And the alien embodiment of all things evil willingly let the kid be his right-hand man. And I'm normal about it. EarthBound tells us basically nothing about how Porky n' Giygas' partnership in crime came to be, but speculating about it sends me into a shark frenzy. Porky seeking power over the world that wronged him, at literally any cost. Giygas weaponizing a child's worst, most vengeful impulses. Porky ultimately usurping Giygas, at least in terms of agency. Witnessing the absolute horror his "master" becomes, and simply sidestepping out of the universe itself to dodge the mess he brought about. I like to imagine there was a period where Giygas was still cognizant enough to maintain a rapport with Porky - and that the two of them fucking hated each other. Both of 'em using the other as a means to an end, assured in the conviction they're the one with the upper hand. And they're kind of both wrong. Bloaw up da worl.

Favorite headcanon: Giegue/Giygas speaks (telepathically?) with a rural midwestern accent. Courtesy of the fine folks who raised him. Other aliens probably think it's weird and mondo cringe, but are too intimidated to say so.

[ohandcounting]

The Book That Will Try And Eat Your Hands.

The year is 2X1X, and 30ish years before that, a new type of book had been made: The Living Book™

The Living Book™ is not actually alive, it is just a format that lets books do things that books could not normally do. Like have voice acting, videos, or even sections where you have to play a game. (This isn't going to be about Homestuck.)

A new Living Book™ released, and a lot of people are talking about it. It's wearing inspiration from another well known Living Book™ on its sleeve: "psi kid 2" A Living Book™ you've never read, but one you know enough about to know you would enjoy reading if you did. So you decide to buy the one everyone's currently talking about:

"HoleBound"

A story about a kid who falls into a hole, and is stuck underground. It's primarily about the great characters met during the story, and its unique interactions with them. Then you get through the prologue, start reading the first chapter and...

The book starts trying to eat your hands! Someone in the book looks you dead in the eyes and says "YOU MORON!" It obviously can't eat your hands. It's not even strong enough to hurt you, let alone damage you. But dang! This might be really funny and definitely makes reading the book way harder! It's common place to just watch someone else go through a book like this, and plenty of people do. Tons of them just to see people's reactions to what happens in the book.

Maybe you read it yourself, maybe you don't. But you know this for a fact: You loved it, it's one of the best things ever written. When you get to the end, a character addresses you directly. They tell you: "I know how to get an even better ending, one where you could even get the book to stop trying to eat your hands." So you do it, follow their instructions down to the letter.

It! Is! Amazing! You're crying tears of joy, even getting to go back through the book again without it trying to eat your hands! It is fantastic, all of the characters are grateful you finally got the book to stop trying to eat peoples hands.

Then, a compartment in the back of the book pops open.

Out of it falls supplies to seal the book closed. It's the only way to make sure they'll stay happy, reading the book again risks the book trying to eat people's hands again. You will never be able to enjoy this book again, or any of the magnificent characters you got to meet within it, but it's the only way to truly end things.

Tears fill your eyes as you do, but...Finally, it's over.

You aren't really satisfied though, it was such a good Living Book™! Surely there's plenty of things other people have written about it! so you look it up and

People are eating the book. They. Are.

EATING!

THE

BOOK!

LITERALLY

This isn't just a clickbait thing either. The chapters of the book are wildly different from what you read, as the characters within are reacting to people EATING THE BOOK. This is the ONLY way to get specific information on the backgrounds of the characters you love so much, it even gives unique information on how the world works. This ends up being so popular, that there are multiple entire fanworks that are Just About Eating The Book. In fact, there's so many now that there's even an Eating The Book Multiverse for just some of the fanworks about eating the book.

You ask a friend about it, and they're like "Oh yeah, it's absolutely my favorite part of the whole thing. I 100% recommend eating the book, but if you can't this guy has a great video on it. He even sealed his book, so you get to watch him rip it open too." You might even look at them like they're insane, but at the end of the day: It is just a book.

It IS just a book.

No one in there is actually happy the book is sealed, they're just written to act that way. They are not real.

You are now sitting in a room alone. Looking at a sealed book. Remembering all of the good times you had with it, all the characters that made you laugh. All the tears you shed fighting with it, the time spent sealing it closed. You would wipe away your memories of it to experience it for the first time again in an instant.

Asking yourself just one question

Am I really going to eat the book?

. . .

This is effectively what it felt like to play Undertale when it released.

[airasora]

I'm... Let's say extremely close with a white passing Rroma person (if I said exactly how I'd be disclosing who they are and they don't want that). Sometimes genetics are weird; they have green eyes and a similar skin tone to Quasimodo, and reddish blonde hair. Some of their siblings look like Esmeralda or Clopin. They also explained to me that unfortunately, a likely explanation for Quasimodo's og appearance is that the man we see with his mother isn't his biological father, and that he's the product of a gadje (non-Rroma -it is not an offensive word as far as I'm aware, it's like "goy" meaning "non-Jew") sexually assaulting her. Historically it's the most likely explanation. (As evidenced by latter attitudes toward Esmeralda; Frollo may have been the only one to go insane over her but she's definitely regarded as an object of lustful desire by most).

Florida.Florian on YT and TikTok is a Rroma person who makes really informative videos about his people and culture. Several of them are about HOND and one of them touches on the issues (historical and racial) with the "Jehan fix", after precisely mentioning how Quasimodo's appearance unfortunately lends itself to the stereotype you mentioned. I'd highly recommend giving it a watch as I'm really not qualified to speak this far out of my wheelhouse any more. I'm not saying it's a bad thing that you like it, not at all, just that you probably want to be aware of the background that that kind of story has, based on what I know about you as a person (basically, not racist, open minded, and someone who wants to learn). Plus the channel is just plain enjoyable, he's very good.

Personally, I always thought the intention, accidental harmful stereotypes aside, in the design, was so Frollo could further "other" Quasimodo from his people. After all, we see he's trying to raise him to be as racist as he is but while being aware that his mother was Romani. If their typical skin color and features are something else he doesn't share with them, it's another weapon in Frollo's arsenal to explain why he saved him and why he's different from those horrible evil g-psies, the same way his deformity others him from everyone else. I'm thinking especially of the scene where he accuses both Esmeralda and Quasi's mother of being incapable of love, and the Rroma people at large of the same, while at the same time stating that a poor soft-hearted deformed child had no chance to not fall in love with the evil witch. Could also explain why Quasimodo talks about his own people as "them" and parrots Frollo's rhetoric, despite being fully aware that he IS part of "them".

No matter how you put it, this story in its most original form is already VERY problematic to say the least. Yes, this is my favorite Disney movie and Disney stage musical, but that doesn't mean I'm a big fan of its original source. When you create stories like these, there's unfortunately bound to be prejudice, presumptions and historically problematic or incorrect information. I'm not claiming that HOND is good Roma representation, not at all. I like it as a fictional story and that's it.

[deastrumquodvicis]

Dark Genesis: the Birth of the Psi Corps (review)

TLDR: 3.5/5

I’m a big Babylon 5 fan, always have been. Tie-in novels have always been a favorite genre. When I heard that the Psi Corps trilogy was well-done, and, importantly, canon, I eagerly loaded book one onto my Kindle and finished it in two days, a typical speed for me. As I understand it—though please correct me if I’m wrong—these stories were seeded from the B5verse series bible, and info was intended to trickle out during the original plans for the Telepath War and Crusade’s later seasons.

The good:

It’s canonical, and it’s always interesting to get world-building that was never committed to screen. The slow emergence of the Corps and what it meant felt very much like a dark reflection of Marvel’s X-Men—a group of people with a recently-awakened genetic mutation being persecuted by, in this case, “mundanes”, given classification based on the strength of their power, and eventually given a home where they could use their gifts without shame, and with an anti-group picking up strays and carrying out rebellious, almost terroristic, acts. I suppose that’s not all that much of a surprise with JMS having written the outline, though not the book itself. It’s also interesting to see non-unified pre-EarthGov components, and hints of the construction of EarthDome itself along with the Psi Corps facility. Definite reflections on how Byron’s group saw themselves, and the mistakes they wanted to avoid. Getting first contact with the Centauri was cool, including their opinions on the telepath thing (and Narn-bashing, because, yep, that’s the Centauri).

The bad (or at least the disorienting):

The book took place over something like seventy years. We see four generations of the rebels, and the birth of the fifth, while we get two should-have-term-limits men in power in charge of the Corps and its creation. Yes, the book is divided into four parts, but it became hard to connect to either group and feel for them, even if you don’t hate the Byron arc of the show. It also became hard to keep track of who anyone looked like, because it was an extremely dialogue-heavy, descriptive-light sort of book, and trusted the reader to keep track of who initiated the conversation (very little in the way of “dialogue,” Name said, and it didn’t take a teep to see his mood had soured, instead more “dialogue.” “Dialogue?” “More dialogue.” “Even more dialogue.” “But dialogue?” “No, dialogue.”) The rebels used code-names among themselves, particularly in the first two generations, but the EarthGov types used their, well, government names, and it was hard to know when Blood, Mercy, Monkey, and so on, were being referred to. That got better as the generations went on. But no one really had a distinct voice without descriptors, and rarely was a physical feature mentioned except when the characters were first introduced, at which point, you didn’t know if they were major characters or not. And I really didn’t care for the ending with the baby, it cheapened the whole thing into almost George Lucas (derogatory) levels of retconning. A true “seriously?” moment. And it didn’t feel like Babylon 5. In fact, if it weren’t a worldbuilding puzzle piece for B5, my rating would be lower.

Other:

The Corps uniforms—gloves and badges—didn’t have a clear introduction. I think the badges were only mentioned once, gloves twice. I suppose the author expected the reader to remember Talia’s (iirc) explanation. Some familiar surnames popped up, and an explanation that because the telepath gene travels on the mitochondrial DNA, the daughters take their mother’s name, felt like it was a bit of an excuse to have a Ms. Alexander around. I get what they were going for, but still. The fact-finding trip to Venus was also a bit mixed, and while I enjoyed most of what came out of it, there was something that happened that had me going “really? Like, doesn’t that kind of contradict the plot point in the show with Lyta?” And why are our main rebel telepaths all P12s or P5s? Granted, there was a P0 and a P8, but almost everyone in the rebellion was P12. Would have been nice to have a P10 or a P3 or something, with only the matrilineal line of rebel leaders hitting P12, and more inspiring if none of them reached double-digits. (I know, the baby at the end needed to be P12 for Reasons, something something Psi Corps breeding program being validated, but variety is nice.)

And guys? The cover is so ‘90s.

[splinter-cat]

Do you ready books often? (And do you have any book reccomendation?)

Unfortunately I don’t read often, I’ve struggled with reading for like 15 years now due to my ADHD. I often miss it because I used to be one of those “reads a book in one night” kids. My "to read" list gets longer and longer each year because I add to it more than I actually read off of it, haha.

That said, I have managed to read a few things over the years that I’ve loved! Long post so it's under a cut:

Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong

Goodreads link here!

Obviously I have to start with the series I've done the most fanfic for, haha. Bitten is about Elena Michaels, the world's only known female werewolf. It follows her as she navigates accepting having become a werewolf and her place in her pack and with her mate.

The series itself follows Elena for the first two books before switching to another narrator, the witch Paige Winterbourne. A few more narrators crop up during the series, each with different powers and romances. Occasionally the series returns to earlier characters, like how books six and ten return to Elena. There are also a ton of short stories and novellas taking place before, during, and after the series, and if you like the werewolves there are plenty of stories following them.

The series still has some of my favorite werewolves I've read about, which is why I like writing in the world so much. It's pretty much what kick started my werewolf obsession, haha. Unfortunately the series is extremely hetero- and cisnormative, so even when queer characters are (rarely) introduced, the writing isn't the best (hence so much of my fanfic being queer lol). But the main characters are still a lot of fun to read about and the plots are full of suspense, mystery, and magic.

So, if you like werewolves and witches and vampires, I recommend this series! Just go in knowing it's a strictly het romance series.

Fae Tales series by Pia Foxhall/not_poignant

Found on AO3 here.

Okay, so really I would rec anything by Pia, but I wanted to start with this one.

The first part of the series is Deeper into the Woods, which follows the Seelie King, Gwyn ap Nudd, as he seeks healing from an Unseelie waterhorse, Augus Each Uisge. It's a shorter introduction to the characters and Augus' healing-through-BDSM methods.

The next part is Game Theory, which follows Gwyn after he has defeated the former Unseelie King, Augus, and imprisoned him. It's an amazing enemies-to-lovers story with a captor/captive dynamic where it's not always clear who really holds the power.

After that the series goes for another million+ words of political intrigue, epic fantasy quests, and another amazing enemies-to-lovers dynamic with Mosk Manytrees and Eran Iliakambar. If you like long, character focused stories of trauma recovery, found family, and BDSM, it is absolutely worth checking out!

(To give you an idea of just how much I love this series, I've styled multiple ball-jointed dolls as some of the characters from it!)

Falling Falling Stars by Pia Foxhall/not_poignant

Found on AO3 here.

Technically, this is a sequel to The Spoils of the Spoiled, which I also recommend (it adds context to a lot of FFS, too). But this one in particular has one of my favorite MCs of all time, Efnisien.

Falling Falling Stars follows Efnisien ap Wledig through a long path of trauma recovery, finding himself outside of what others wanted him to be, and learning to live with the ways he badly hurt people in his past.

If there were ever a manual on how to write a good redemption arc, this would be the absolute best example to use. It is such a thoughtful, soft, and comforting story, even though it touches on some very dark themes. To me, it's hot chocolate and marshmallows in story form.

Chronicles of City M by Lissa Kasey

Goodreads link here.

Hidden Gem follows Misaki Itou, a psi who works at a brothel in a post-apocalyptic city, and his shifter love interest, Shane McNaughton, as they try to solve a series of murders in the city. The subsequent books also follow their friends with various abilities and the relationships they form while still returning to Aki and Shane.

I first read this series during quarantine in 2020, which seems like an odd time for a post-apocalyptic story to be feel-good, I know, but this series focuses on the city and the people rebuilding after everything that happened in the past. It's a story of trauma recovery (seeing a pattern in the stories I like? haha) and hope, even when it seems like humanity itself might be wiped out.

How to Raise an Honest Rabbit by Amy Lane

Goodreads link here.

Another sequel story, this time to The Winter Courtship Rituals of Fur-Bearing Critters, but this couple was one I really enjoyed.

How to Raise an Honest Rabbit is about a former con man, Jeremy, who finds a place he might be able to stay for good in the form of working for an alpaca farm and fiber mill in a small town. There, he meets Aiden, who is determined to make Jeremy stay even when every instinct tells him to pack up and run at the first sign of trouble.

Rabbit is a much angstier story than the very fluffy Winter Courtship Rituals, but the setting still makes it a very comfy story to me, and I deeply enjoyed the characters. Once I can get around to reading again, I'm looking forward to continuing the series and seeing more from them in Blackbird Knitting in a Bunny's Lair.

That's all for now!

I thought about including fanfiction in this post, too, but it's already quite long, so I might do a separate post later. I also have a very long to read list that I can post some secondhand recs off of if anyone wants it, it'll just be less detailed recs since I haven't finished the books yet haha.

And if anyone wants manga or TV show recs I can also provide those. :D

[xprojectrpg]

This Day in X-Project - September 17

Quentin Quire's birthday.

2015: Maya apologises on her journal for being a brat. Hope A. and Monet are chatting when Monet gets a call from her father, allowing her to return home to Australia. Jubilee announces her return from Egypt. Cecilia meets Hank in the library and has her own frankenberry cat moment; Jean meets Hank and acquires a new lab assistant. Megan texts Tandy about their trip to London for Fashion Week. Billy and Rogue have a mishap with her powers; Rogue texts Adrienne to apologise for missing a work meeting after the accident with Billy; Rogue posts to her journal, apologising to Billy and complaining about her lack of control. Tandy emails Julian and Adrienne before leaving for London. Jubilee texts Amanda with a minor freakout over the new Hank and the lack of warning of his arrival.

2016: Quentin and Gabriel sneak out of the party early for a date in a hotel room where neither of them plan to get much sleep. Doug emails Laurie, Wade and Marie-Ange to let them know that he’s going to be out of town with Hope A. for a few days. The Dulcet Sound of My Voice: Doug and Cara (a mutant friend of CJ's) work to figure out the identities which Scanner and Garrulous are using; CJ and Hope A. try to brainstorm out the most likely targets for the villains to have talked to; Hope A. and Darcy then search through the media for a likely candidate; after that Darcy and CJ check the backgrounds of the politicians to see who would make a viable target; Doug and Hope A. hack a phone looking for confirmation; Doug then hacks into the appointment books of the politicians under suspicion; Hope A. convinces Cara to access her own resources to check into staff members who might have been approached; Darcy and Cara prepare some footwork for a honeytrap, but end up just talking about their favorite restaurant; Doug teaches Darcy to connect phones.

2017: Green-Eyed Monster: Sue emails all teams with updated info on the green jewels that was making people sick. Psi War: Rogue visits Jean while she is recuperating from the Shadow King battle in the Box and tries to cheer her up. Angel posts to her journal about wanting to travel the world in search of ridiculous food. Darcy makes a journal post about the internet having reached peak awesome.

2018: Topaz leaves Clea a T-shirt as a birthday present. Jean leaves Quentin an Omega symbol necklace and a dozen cupcakes as a birthday present. Jean-Paul posts about one of his art classes where a visible mutant is acting as an art model.

2019:

2020: Operation: Crazy X-Girlfriend: Kevin holds a meeting with the rest of X-Force regarding the recent murders and parts of his past; he tells the rest of the story to Emma later.

2021: Betsy and Hope A. go dress shopping for the gala and Hope A. warns Betsy to stay alert as the Hellfire Club can be dangerous.

2022: Alani posts about her chickens laying way too many eggs. Kyle challenges everyone to a Battle Royale based on a meme of Stone Cold Jane Austen.

2023: Angelo is accosted by a curious cat-person while bringing in groceries and winds up as a cat toy in the name of powers experimentation; Jean-Phillipe is graciously allowed to watch by Her Purple Felineness.

[vomitsunandsorrow]

Now That I Know What I Want to Do

Do I do it? Such a silly little question, whatever could it mean? Long story short, I have a job that has turned out to be my favorite in all my years that I've worked for these various companies who've sucked me dry of my hope. I have never felt more seen and appreciated and believed in than where I am now. Here's the damn trouble: is that it's a job. Not a career, not a stepping stone, even. A mere job, no matter how positively impactful it feels to my inner most being-- not even being *that* dramatic, I fucking swear it. And, all this time, I've put up with these other jobs. Thinking that I would find my Meaning and True Purpose amongst the chaos...whaaaat? yada yada, hindsight whateverthefuck. The point is that I know now. After years and years of thinking I know, being wrong, and being "so absolutely sure" and then I'm wrong again. So, either way, my next steps are hurtful to move from.

So now here's part two of This Whole Thing: I know the next job. The next job being one that I have quit three times and the last time I left, it was a relief to be out from under that heavy psi. It has since exploded. There are remnants that are ugly and there are good, but hurt, people. People who hurt because of me. There is a chance, as it has been almost two years since I left, that a lot of it has stayed the same while they have matured. Not to implicate anyone as *immature*, we just all age and it's beautiful. But that to say, I would answer any questions now. I would be honest with them and in turn, myself. There were false accusations, still. There was hurt on all sides, still. I never aim to play the victim as I am not one. I am a resourceful survivor, and I have no choice but to try and alchemize beauty from any pain and ugliness. The pain needs time, though, I know. And, the ugliness must have its moment of silence and exhale. I can only hope for the beauty, and I'll have to use all of it (the hope, that is). This job holds the next step of obtaining my bachelor's. I don't know if I feel comfortable to declare my next steps Out Loud On The Internet just yet, but I should soon, and I will. It was unexpected as are all good things. But, in knowing who I am now and what I have to do, because I have to do it, comes this opportunity cost.

The job where I feel appreciated, loved, held in the ways I've been needing all this time, but I will in fact move slower. Or the job where I know I could use them as my stepping stone to be Ultimately Me, but will most likely grip my neck more often than not.

We will see. We have to.

Thanks for listening.

Olyn

[mycomicbox]

You seem to be a huge fan of RPG’s what is your RPG favorite game and/or series?

Man, where do I even begin? You can't make me pick just one! I'm just going to go down the list of RPG series that I've played and enjoyed:

Pokémon: My bread-and-butter series since I was 9. My first game was X, but since then, I have played all of the mainline games from the Game Boy to the Switch (currently playing through Violet). I just love battling with those funky lil' creachers :3

Mario & Luigi (and by extension Super Mario RPG): A very charming Mario spin-off series with some unique twists on the RPG formula, mainly with using timed button presses to execute attacks. Unfortunately, the developer AlphaDream shut down a few years ago, so this series is probably dead...

Undertale and Deltarune: C'mon... do I even need to go into detail?

EarthBound/M🌏THER: I love medieval fantasy, but it's sometimes fun to avert tropes. Rather than playing as a knight or mage slaying dragons and goblins, you're a bunch of ragtag kids using PSI and baseball bats to fight animals, gang members, and animated objects. Plus, the series is full of great jokes and overall just OOZES charm. Also MOTHER 3 made me cry.

OMORI: The one that you were probably expecting. Lovely music and presentation, a heart-wrenching story, and beautifully displays mental illness without making a mockery of it.

Final Fantasy: I've only played a few of these (I, III, IV, V, and currently playing through IX), but I have enjoyed the ones that I have played. I've heard good things about VI, VII, X, and especially XIV (though XIV is an MMORPG and those intimidate me). I have to say that my favorite so far is V, simply because of the excellent job system. Speaking of job systems...

Bravely Default: A series that I've gotten into back in May of this year, and it recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary. A sister series to Final Fantasy that's basically a love letter to the JRPGs of old, with an excellent job system and a unique twist on turn-based combat with the Brave and Default commands. The fandom is frustratingly small, however...

Now for some RPG series that I'm wanting to try:

Persona: When the Switch port of Persona 5 Royal dropped, my brother and I both pitched in money to buy it, so I do own it. I just haven't touched it yet because I have so many other unfinished games on my plate. I WILL get to it, though, and that's a promise. If I like it, I might pick up P3P and P4G once those release on the Switch.

Dragon Quest: I've only played the first one so far and when I finished it, I was like "yep, that certainly was an RPG from the NES". Even though it isn't necessary, I want to try to play the games in numerical order (skipping over X because I can't read Japanese), though like I said, I want to clear out my backlog first.

Octopath Traveler: Love the 2D-HD style, and I've heard that it does have a job system of some kind. Also there's apparently a sequel on its way.

Fire Emblem, Triangle Strategy, and Final Fantasy Tactics: I'm lumping these together for one reason. All of the games I've listed so far are your standard turn-based RPGs, with your units on one side and enemies on the other. However, I am open to trying more tactical/strategy games where positioning matters. I've head good things about FFT, and I did find TriStrat at Walmart for relatively cheap. In the case of FE, however... what game do I even start with?