#THERE WE GO. PROPER AND FLESHED OUT S/I. SORT OF.

[disco-self-ships]

I'm so curious about Tuco's hacker lapdog plsss tell me about him 🤲

ALRIGHT ALRIGHT I'LL REVEAL MY HALF-BAKED BACKSTORY (<- guy who writes smut and poetry, not plot.)

This ended up... so long somehow. I was worried that I wouldn't have much to say, but it just started pouring out of me as soon as I started typing (much of it made up on the spot 👍🏻)

Tw for violence, abuse, dubcon, and drugs (obviously lol.) I can have a dark self ship. As a treat.

I'm tentatively trying out giving my S/I a name that isn't my irl one. For whatever reason I just cannot use a name that doesn't have some connection to my irl one, so it had to start with a T at least, and hopefully this isn't weird but I wanted it to have a similar meaning to Rivera (ignore me feeding our red string of fate into our self ship canon) so I ended up on Trent!

I haven't really landed on a surname for him but I'll probably just go with something common and simple. I like how Trent Adams sounds.

Trent was born in WA in 1980, making him 22 at the beginning of B/CS and 28 at the beginning of B/rBa, although he didn't start working for Tuco until 2003 when he was 23.

Growing up, he was fascinated by media depictions of hacking, and when he was a teenager an older friend-of-a-friend (Doug) took him under his wing and taught him coding/hacking.

As an adult, Trent had trouble keeping a job and as a result borrowed quite a bit of money from Doug over the years. His debt piled up but Doug accepted small payments and Trent working odd jobs for him. Doug moved to NM in 2002 for a mysterious "job opportunity" that he wouldn't tell Trent about.

In early 2003, Doug called Trent and begged him to let him bring him to ABQ and do some work for his boss. As it turned out, Doug had been dealing for Tuco Salamanca while he'd been living in NM and he fucked up bad by getting mugged while carrying a huge amount of cash. He didn't have any way to pay Tuco back quickly enough, so in a fit of desperation he offered up Trent's services, as Trent still owed him a lot of money, so both of their debts could be squared off at once.

Tuco initially had no interest in some random guy who had no experience in the business, but Doug talked up the usefulness of having someone with hacking experience. Now, we know that Tuco can be swayed it you know how to talk to him, so he got into the idea of having his own personal hacker (not that he knew what that really means or entails as he's pretty much computer illiterate, but he likes stuff that sounds cool) and accepted Doug's offer of having Trent come work for him for free.

Doug drove all the way to WA to pick Trent up and gave him the rundown (much to his horror) during the drive back to ABQ about who Tuco is and what kind of business he deals in. He advised Trent to keep his mouth shut as much as possible and stay out of the way when Tuco's temper flared up. Naturally, Trent wanted to back out of the whole thing, but he didn't want his friend (who had helped him so much over the years) to get hurt, or potentially killed, plus the idea of squaring his debt was appealing, so he went along with it.

When Tuco and Trent met for the first time, Tuco literally laughed in his face and made fun of his stature and appearance. He obviously didn't take Trent seriously at all. Trent was offended, but too intimidated to say anything (<- which of course is a good thing as there's a good chance that Tuco would have just killed him.)

Doug put Trent up in a motel (as this whole thing was supposed to be a temporary arrangement), but Trent ended up at Tuco's place pretty much every day, as he needed a computer to work on, which Tuco provided. This had the added benefit (for Tuco at least) of letting him keep on eye on Trent.

Tuco started making passes as Trent pretty quickly, but Trent isn't great at reading social cues (he also assumed that Tuco was straight) so he kept brushing it off (but not actually turning Tuco down as he didn't realize there was an offer in the first place.) This pissed Tuco off as he felt as if he was being teased or possibly made fun of and in true Tuco fashion he flipped out. After shoving Trent into a wall, putting his knife to his throat, and accusing him of fucking with him, Tuco realized that Trent was genuinely unaware of how he'd been coming across. He found it pretty funny, and made his advances much more obvious and aggressive after that.

The beginning of their sexual relationship's consensuality was... questionable at best. Trent of course was terrified of Tuco, was his direct subordinate, and had gotten a sense of "no one says no to a Salamanca." He did find Tuco physically attractive from the first day they met, but he never had any intention of pursuing anything past a professional relationship (and he didn't even really choose that.)

Nacho got a sense of what was going on between Tuco and Trent pretty much immediately and took pity on Trent. He told him that it was for the best, as the more Tuco liked him the safer he'd be from his random violent outbursts, and the more protection he'd have from outside parties (this might seem like a cold way to comfort someone, but this was before they became friends, when Nacho viewed Trent as just another person he had to corral to keep business running smooth.)

Tuco saw Trent's presence and work very much as just a novelty for the first couple of months. Only after Trent crashed the fledgling computer network of a major competitor did Tuco realize that Trent could actually be useful to his business. This made him like Trent on a more serious level and start to want to get to know him for real. This and another incident where Tuco almost killed him (beat and strangled him while high, Tuco felt guilty about it when he sobered up) made him realize that he was actually becoming genuinely fond of him and he ended up going to Nacho for advice on how to make Trent less scared of him.

Somewhere around that time, (do I have an actual timeline worked out to make this story more clear? Hell no!) Tuco moved Trent into his house (under the guise of "keeping an eye on him", when in actuality he was beginning to feel deeply possessive over him, and let's be real, he wanted easy sexual access.)

Their relationship is (and was to an even higher extent during the beginning) closer to owner-and-pet than an equal romantic partnership. Tuco views Trent as more of a thing that he owns than a person who works for him. Tuco was, and is, extremely possessive and jealous over Trent. He's frustrated by his inability to publicly "claim" Trent due to being unable to be openly bi and struggles with letting Trent be alone with other men (Nacho and his cousins are the exception to this.)

Over time their relationship became sort of an open secret as Tuco insists on keeping Trent close even when there's no business-related reason for it, dressing Trent up how he likes (very expensive and gaudy, the complete opposite of how Trent naturally dresses), and becoming enraged any time someone insults or snubs Trent in any way. The people around them started catching on pretty quickly, but generally know better than to bring it up.

Tuco was/is very afraid of Trent betraying him (whether it be cheating on him or something to do with business) and once Lalo entered the picture, he asked him to keep an eye on Trent and report back anything suspicious.

Tuco made it crystal clear from the beginning that he would kill Trent if he tried to run or betray him, so Trent really has no intention of doing so. That doesn't stop Tuco from making him swear that he'll never betray him and that he belongs totally to him pretty much every day. No one has ever claimed that Tuco isn't exhausted to deal with, least of all Trent :^P

Alright, this is way too long. I could talk about Trent and Tuco's fucked up relationship for a year straight if you let me :^P And that's not even getting into his relatively normal friendships with Nacho, Domingo, and Rivera, and his mutually suspicious, tentative friendship/cousin-in-law-ish-thing with Lalo and the twins.

[mandareeboo]

What if Vaggie made some sinner friends outside the main cast, they knew about her being an exorcist, and kinda misunderstood the "Made for the express purpose of killing sinners" thing. They think she actually needs to do that for morale or fulfillment and being around Charlie makes that impossible. So her buds give her some info about a place where she can get those urges out "But be careful. Some of those dudes make you really sad and some just make you feel dirty" (1/2)

So the Sinner buds try to send Vaggie to a place where sinners sign up to get murdered like "Just swap out the angelic steel for something else and you'll be free to go all out". The kinds of sinners that go to there to get ripped to shreds could be somewhat fine. A lot of the times tho... Like, the kind of s**ty life someone has to get some level of suicide would just bum you out. Or they're into the dismemberment in a sexual way which not everyone vibes with. End of Vaggie thoughts (2/2) So Vaggie's a mix of touched and disturbed at all this and instantly clears up the misunderstanding that she *"needs"* to murder Sinners

This is THE funniest, most sweetest concept I can think of. Vaggie's theoretical friends were really like, "Okay, so we know angels are giant homicidal creatures given flesh, and we want Vaggie to get her Evil Enrichment because we care about her" and took her to fucking rage room. That's iconic. That's so in-character for this fucking show. I can just PICTURE the sleazy, spikey sign above the building.

Vaggie probably immediately tells her nepo girlfriend and gets them all proper mental health care, but Charlie ALSO has a moment of "do I need to, like, strike a deal with Rosie to get you evil jerks to slay, Vaggie? Will that sort of thing make you happy?" with honest love in her eyes and Vaggie will have to take in a deeeeep breath before answering.

[daystarvoyage]

I often see fans demonize some characters like Belos,The Blights, Camila, into far worse versions of themselves like fans portraying Camila as abusive since she wants Luz go to Reality Check Camp to correct her behavior and certain people interpret that of her sending her to a conversation therapy camp or the Blights while they are bad parents for sure they are sometimes depicted as physically abusive or homophobic despite that sort of thing not existing in the boiling isles and Finally Belos gets made into a bigot who is sexist,racist, homophobic because he a white Christian male despite not making any insults for Luz being a woman or POC while his stance of sexual orientation or gender identity is unknown the fact he didn’t insult Luz for being a woman or POC is remarkable progressive for a Man who is born in the 1600’s also He FICTIONAL and we already have enough of those people in real life what do you think?

I do say this, people need to start separating the art from the artist and fantasy from reality,

this type of writing and fictional perspective, a lot of viewers and fans sit through, its been done throughout animation, Even in real life affecting how we see our adult figures.

hope i say this, the best way i can cause the show did the adults and supporting characters dirty with its ill pacing in storytelling and character exposure

The Fans Of their favorite media love to exaggerate disliked characters (be it villains or unpopular ones) cause of how there perceived physically or in writing in the creator's eyes. We get this at the start of the first episode introducing Camila (whos a great mother who I relate to cause, I also was on the spectrum being raised by a single mom) I feel I look at her as a character who carries a burden with her being a single mother) yet relatable cause she does her best to take care of her daughter on earth cause she to is a single mother protecting her daughter from the harsh reality cause its not all huckydorey (like the ending of the show),when she wants luz to conform. the way fans see luz assomeone needing protecting, might villanize camila firsthand(DEMONIZING ADULT MOMENT BY FANDOM) as a cheerful person luz is, fans forget that she's also impressionable, impulsive, don't think far on consequneces and needy, might gloss over the fact she needs proper mannerisms (to get by in the world at times), cause shes young & fits the viewers mold of perception, that no one should be punished cause of sexuality, it might show she doesn't need help. Let's be clear the fans are gonna gloss the fact shes a troublemaker who brings harmful items to school WHICH fans should be concerned, i mean neurodivergent character doesn't mean good personality,

2. The blight situation I swear they did Odalia dirty with this GRRR & how talented and amazing Rachel MacFarlane is (Her VA voicing hayley from American Dad.) thanks for moring mark giving her proper depth in her character on how odalia acts.

She’s also over exaggerated for being ( DEMONIZED BY FANDOM cause SHE's an ADULT) to being just an abusive mother, but however others will see it is a character who was a dark and humorous character at least & she has great writing tools to be & alador was just a plot device to make amity look good even the twins, & get rid of odalia even though her had his hand in amity's abuse, which I feel no one in the blight fam is not innocent (neither was amity, also which the twins didn't get fleshed out more & used as plot device for lumity, Which fans at times gloss over. Fans will over-exaggerate that Odalia was physically abusive to the kids but NEVER WAS! cause that's a negative perception on the fandom that (We have a adult hater situation nowadays of how this new age of Gen Z & alpha kids are raised,

i also wrote a post on the matter btw

The Belos Treatment (we al know how the creator treated him, such good potential DOwn the Drain.)

Bruh or GiIIIRRRRLL, I commend the Belos fans for being on their own ship supporting and adding more to his BG in fanfic & art

Belos was an intriguing villain who rivaled not only Frollo, the horned king, & Prof. Screweyes. This man also has a perception amongst the fans who followed the creator's way of how he was written (basically the new Chloe bourgeois treatment from miraculous.) He was only a character who was hell-bent on piping witches out and saving his humankind NOT BEING Racist Homophobic, or BIgoted, However, Chloe made racist & prejudiced remarks To Marinette in the cooking episode,(BUT BELOS DIDNT!) So he's an equal villain Who is all about equal rights means equal fights (falls under the neutral evil cause of how he was depicted into a person of tragedy upbringing to now a one-sided character (getting tired of how creators write villains in a one-sided manner.) oh and some people need proper knowledge of the 1600s cause belos was born in that era and I heard someone saying he was born in 1700s which I feel the show does suffer from anachronisms.

And don't get me started of how the fans look over poc in animation, (Darius) cause that has angry black man written all over it, along Manny being ONLY relevant in Luz's dire moment not being explored more,

hope i put down a lot of tea & crumpets for everyone hope you also can look at my video essay on my YouTube.

hope you enjoy comment and subscribe for more.

[guts-8156]

Do you guys like this idea of a rewrite?

Hey, so a few months ago, I watched a video explaining why TGFB and everything after didn't work.

And I think that that points made sense, and they also thought that it was annoying how the Eastern caverns looked just the same as the 99 caverns and seemingly developed the same (which of course, doesn't make sense). As well as Junjie being stereotypical with what he says and do and just being there for Slugfu to be inserted in.

So here's how I would've rewritten the series from after the defeat of Dr. Blakk:

First, I would've introduced the Eastern caverns later. This is because there was so much more they could've done in the 99 caverns, like developing more characters such as Stocker, the Gentleman (as in we see his gentleman complex), Dana, and Twist getting a proper redemption arc of sorts. As well as spotlight to other side characters like Mario, Vance, and extras like Billy becoming a proper rival with Eli and I seriously wish and would've adored seeing a Frost and Flame friend duo (that could be development as we see how they care for each other) and trio if you add good ol' Shockwire into the mix. But yeah, and as I mentioned it would make sense that they have to stop the villains and higher ups of Blakk using bits of his remaining empire to excel in their new goals (the wonderful @a-sad-mage gave me the great idea from building off my own). They could also recruit members They missed the opportunity to have recruited in the earlier seasons. Like Vance, Mario, Dana and (while I suggest maybe in a season two so the main antagonist or multiple villains are fleshed out as well as so the decision isn't immediate and he gets more development first) Stocker.

They also would meet new characters (friend, allie, or foe) to deal with new Gangs or enemies stirring up trouble (e.g. in my story, the Stunters). As well as see new caverns like the tropical caverns that Mr. Saturday is from and learning new secrets (about dark magic and secret AI creations).

There could also be a mercenary gang, who team up with the Shane gang from time to time, with Stocker often being more so in his element around the more skilled mercenaries (which he knows from the past).

And the Eli development this season would be, another idea given to me by @a-sad-mage is:

"Not everything is Black and white."

This would first be seen (in my story featuring my ocs) with W.B.

And it would in a similar way to @a-sad-mage 's idea. The stunters end up entering the same tournament as the Shane gang. And Eli decides to go off for a bit while they wait and W.B.'s also goes of because as I mentioned in a previous post, W.B. forgets to eat before they get to the tournament. So the two meet and they seem to leave the interaction as somewhat friends. But as soon as they find out the Gangs there from, it doesn't settle exactly well...

After the tournament, Eli tries to talk to W.B. but he insists they can't be 'allies' because:

"Y-You're the Shane!... And we'r- I'm a bad guy!... And-And... Uh... Those don't mix!..."

So the relationship doesn't go so well, but after a few more interactions with the stunters and both Gangs get split into groups (e.g. Trixie, Eli and W.B.), Eli manages to find out more of W.B., making him realise that not all people choose their circumstances.

So when the team members get reunited with their respective Gangs, and Minotaur leaves an interesting reaction with Stocker, Dana, and he finds out W.B.'s new found friendship. He... Allows it?! Saying that is was simple because apparently:

"You helped us out of this, and helped W.B., so it makes sense..."

But Dana, Stocker and Mario already know that there's definitely something more to it.

But the twos Gangs leave the interaction with a shaky truce...

So this makes Eli realise good people can get in bad situations and circumstances but still be good even if they don't change those circumstances.

And the second one is:

"Good intentions don't always mean good actions."

This happens when in the mercenary gang, there is a member that goes by Chénxuán, surprising Eli because 'Isn't that a Chinese name?'

And he ends up being correct. But Chénxuán's main goal is he wants to find out how, with the use of this entity that helps him with its powers (kinda like a stand), he can go back in time so he can go home after he was thrown through a time loop into the modern day of the 99 caverns after almost dying in a war against an evil emperor.

Which at first seems innocent, right?

But as it goes on, Eli begins noticing all the questionable actions Chénxuán does to try and reach his goal.

But after a boiling point, Chénxuán... Has a breakdown?...

And Eli realises the weight of Chénxuán's situation and how desperate he is to get home. (And while I won't spoil my idea of how it properly ends) Eli helps Chénxuán move on and forward in a brighter direction.

So this of course leads to more development for Eli.

And then after defeating more villains and the main antagonist/s, then the portals introduced.

And this could also lead to a possible spin off series of the lives of older characters when they were younger (e.g. the old stunters short chapter series I'm gonna do).

Say if you want me to a part too because this took a while already.

Once again, thank you @a-sad-mage for a few of these ideas.

(And I might do some Stunters surface bound, by @slugterra-twisted-ends soon...)

Anyway thank you for reading, bye :)

[fistfuloftarenths]

WIP Whenever

tagged by @my-favourite-zhent and using this as an excuse to inflict some badly written regency au rugan on everyone there is some implied attempt SA in here but nothing bad happens (i think this is the right way to warn people? let me know if not)

“Don’t think the lass wants to go with you, friend,” said the newcomer. A man’s voice, raspy and drawling.

The Honourable was startled, but recovered swiftly. “And who are you to interrupt?” he sniffed. “This doesn’t concern you.”

“I’m choosin’ to concern myself,” said the man in the darkness.

“By the gods,” said the Honourable. “It’s just a bit of fun! They run, we give chase, the thrill of the hunt, you know! Or perhaps you don’t.” For the unknown man’s accent was very far from the plummy vowels of the nobility. A northern accent, one of those dreadful manufacturing towns full of soot and machinery.

Something happened, too fast for her to make sense of it; a shadow detached itself from the hedge and loomed close; the scuffle of feet and the thump of flesh on flesh, and the Honourable let go of her and fell down, and did not move.

“That’s him sorted,” said her unknown helper with some satisfaction, and Tav tried to take a breath to thank him and fainted for the first time in her life.

She regained consciousness to find herself half-laying on a stone bench, the other man’s arms around her. She flinched away and he let her go.

“Easy, lass.”

“Oh,” said Tav, inadequately. “Oh.” 

“Giving you a bit of trouble, was he?”

Tav nodded before realising he couldn’t see her. “Yes,” she said, although that couldn’t begin to explain being trapped in a room with four or five noblemen between her and the door, their eyes bright with drink. “I wasn’t - I didn’t -”

“Course you weren’t.” 

“Is he - dead?” she whispered. They’d both hang if he was. Maybe she could leave the city tomorrow. Travel south down the coast and change her name -

“Gods, no. Rattled his bonebox is all, and he’ll have the very devil of a headache when he wakes up.”

“Oh.”

“Who is he, then? He live here?” The man pointed at the house, his arm a deeper black against the shadows.

“A guest,” Tav said. “The Hon-honourable John P------.” An entirely inappropriate form of address, she thought bitterly. “The Earl of R—-’s second son.”

“I’ll be damned,” he said.

“Do you know him?”

“Only by name, but them rich tossers are all alike.” Which did not seem quite fair, but Tav was not inclined to argue the point. “We might move the body to be safe,” he added, reflectively. “Someone finds him sprawled out like that they’ll get the dogs out.”

Chased by dogs. Tav shuddered. She’d thought his hands on her would be the worst thing, not teeth closing in her flesh.

“I am very sorry, but I’m not sure I can stand up just yet,” she apologised.

“Aye, it takes you that way,” before adding in explanation, “went for a soldier. Seen all sorts. Seen grown men doing worse than you, lass, and I daresay there’s time afore someone comes looking for him.”

Tav managed, then, to loosen her hold on her lute. It seemed uninjured as she anxiously ran her hands over it, but she did not dare test the strings for fear of noise.

“What’s that then?” 

“My lute?”

“Thought it was a baby at first. You was holding it like one.”

“Oh - no - no - !” Somehow, she managed to laugh.

“That’s the spirit,” he encouraged. “Still, you might’ve dropped it. Would’ve been quicker on your feet.”

“I can’t,” said Tav, and patted the smooth wood. “It’s not paid off yet.”

“Makes sense, he said. “How much does one of them lutes go for?”

“Good ones? Pounds and pounds,” she replied. “This one is - it could be better - it’s not Italian - but it’s not bad. I had to get a loan.”

“Aye,” he said. “What’s your name, lass? Seems only proper to introduce ourselves. I’m Rugan.”

“Delighted to make your acquaintance, Rugan,” said Tav in her best cut-glass finishing school accent. He huffed laughter. “My name is Tav.”

“Never heard that one before.”

“No-one has. It’s short for Gustava, which is awful, and Swedish, and I can't - I refuse to be called Gussie.”

“By the gods,” he said, shaken - as well he might be - by the full glory of her name. “I shan’t say what I think of your parents for inflictin’ that on you, lass.”

[extraordinaryhistories]

#32 - 'Love Yourself' (1999 version) (non-album track)

It was not so easily escapable, unfortunately. ‘Love yourself / You are the one thing I needed’ – there was something about those lyrics, that message, that required closer inspection. How foolish that nobody had thought of it before – so simple, yet so, so important. He had to do it proper justice, and the seventy-six seconds of guitar and vocals that he had wrestled together in 1996 wasn’t going to cut it.

As with all of life’s greatest problems, an answer (though in the end not the answer) came via the synthesiser.

The 1999 treatment of ‘Love Yourself’, a song which was at that time a scrap of melody written three years ago during his earliest musical experiments, shows an element of Sufjan’s character that would prove to be utterly key to his success: instinct. You don’t return to an idea that you attempted, and then abandoned, three years prior, without a preternatural instinct: no, there really was something there. Of course, his instincts were totally vindicated – the eventual 7” release of ‘Love Yourself’ became one of only two Sufjan singles to chart in the United States. Some creative traits are only cultivated with time, but Sufjan’s ability to discern which songs are worth pursuing for major release is downright prodigious, and seemingly has been since the beginning of his career. Instinct is what gave us a wide release of ‘Love Yourself’ and not, say, ‘In the Words of the Governor’. You may scoff, but when you look at all your songs as scruffy little extensions of yourself, it’s a damn hard choice.

Okay. Instinct led Sufjan’s mind back to ‘Love Yourself’ – what to do now? His eventual decision to pursue the icy, glitchy trappings that would constitute the 1999 version (and all future ones) was assuredly a product of this time in Sufjan’s life. The turn of the millennium marked an explosion of creative interest from Sufjan in the synthesiser, out of which came ‘The First Full Moon’, ‘Joy! Joy! Joy!’, the early versions of ‘All Delighted People’ and ‘Year of the Ox’, and then, as culmination, the entirety of Enjoy Your Rabbit. This man is nothing if not a quick learner – synthesisers went from total exclusion from his instrumental repertoire (not a single synthesiser was used on A Sun Came per the album’s credits) to, for a brief period, dominating it. One wonders if the difficulties that accompanied moving to New York – new neighbours, a cramped apartment, minimal recording setup – led him to digital instruments partly by necessity. But his creativity and drive were durable, and the music that bled out of his first salvo with electronics was, given his inexperience, convincing. Mostly.

The instinct that ‘Love Yourself’ might have a future as a warped bit of electronica was evidently a correct one. But this second iteration of ‘Love Yourself’, the earliest complete electronic song we have from Sufjan, exists in a weird no man’s land between a fleshing-out of the 1996 take and a degeneration of it. Sufjan does not seem to be one to do things by halves – like ‘Joy! Joy! Joy!’, its closest analogue, this is a properly synthetic song, with squawking drum machines, chopped-up fragments of noise and stuttering vocal effects. The few elements here of acoustic origin, most notably a small drum part under the first verse and a polyrhythmic glockenspiel loop reminiscent of ‘Tahquamenon Falls’, are merely rhythmic foundations for the electronic top-line elements. There are all sorts of attempts at all sorts of sounds here, sounds that pop in seemingly at will and disappear just as quickly. Many of them are quite unlike anything else in Sufjan’s oeuvre – there is a strangely compelling instrumental break at 1:20 featuring a quasi-acid house synth arpeggio that would fit just fine on a Shpongle song, as out-of-place as it seems here.

As with other early Sufjan electronica, it is clear from the outset that a lot of work and care went into this one. Tracks like these are not so much recorded as they are constructed, and this one is a veritable mosaic of instrumental sections with just about everything possible thrown at the wall: a dancefloor-ready drum machine design here, a hip hop break there, a dissonant loop or two to send us off in the outro. Where the 1999 ‘Love Yourself’ differs from ‘Joy! Joy! Joy!’ is that its maximalism is more structural and less everything-all-of-the-time. Individual sections, though many in number, are actually texturally sparse. The focus remains on the vocal melody, the lyrics, and a mellow, tonal synth ostinato that probably evolved into the one on the 2018 version. These elements – the message – persist, even in the face of hostility.

Songwriting-wise, not much has changed from the 1996 version. We’re in 4/4 now, and it’s a careful, relaxed 4/4, slower than its older siblings. Sufjan’s voice carries the verses, which are few in number and very similar to the first version (minus, sadly, the ‘Change yourself / Love yourself’ section), in the same thin, breathy tone that dominates this era. The melody remains unchanged, except in the second and second-to-last verses, which see Sufjan singing the same line in a higher octave and under heavy effects. Everything is normal, everything is standard, everything is fine. And then the bizarre bridge section, exclusively created for this version (and no other), comes in like a left hook and annihilates the peace.

Out of a sense of dutiful writerly diligence, I made an attempt at a transcription for this bridge since none exists online – and understandably so, given how heavily treated it is. After dozens of close, methodical listens, the best I could come up with is this:

‘When you try to [elongate/allocate?] all things,

we always knew you

always knew your things

we try to [advocate?]’

Doesn’t much help, does it? It is quite a jarring moment, and one that was eliminated in all future versions for understandable reasons. Sufjan really strains to sing the melody here, but cannot do so with any reasonable competence, and ends the section on probably the most painful flat note you will hear on any of his recordings. For a man who so often produces clean, methodical music, it is remarkably messy.

And so is nearly everything else here. This is a messy, messy version of ‘Love Yourself’ that feels in some senses like a step backward for the song, even if it ends up being bigger, bolder and brasher than the 1996 demo. There’s a part of me that wants to intellectualise those characteristics – love and loving oneself can be a difficult, confusing process – but I really do not detect intentionality on Sufjan’s part there. It is easier to just conclude that 1999’s ‘Love Yourself’ is a very valid experiment that correctly identified the need for a lateral shift towards electronic music, but ultimately did not amount to the arrangement the song needed. Sufjan himself must have come to much the same conclusion: this version remained unreleased until a surprise blog post in 2013, and the song itself was seemingly not revisited for over a decade. It was not to be gone forever though. ‘Love yourself / You are the one thing I needed’ – yes, there really is something there...

[last-of-the-lot]

who do you think should've been the paladin? 👀

Hello anon!

It took me a while, but I was asked, so here is my opinion.

Ashton primarily and Fearne secondarily. Tertiarily, FCG or just having Braius from the beginning, but that isn't a fleshed out thought currently.

We are going to work backwards because I have more mechanical gripes about how Ashton works then Fearne.

Since you read all my tags, considering you had to to be asking this question, you are going to know that I said I am a bit of a power gamer so I look at this from two different perspectives.

Fearne is from a story POV.

Fearne has a backstory setup that is not suited for being a paladin. She is also not really suited to being a druid either, but that is another rabbit hole that I will not be going down right now and this is not my character so I am going to shut up about it.

Fearne could have had a great arc about how being a paladin does not have to be tying yourself to something bigger, and self empowerment in the face of the world coming down around your ears and lords and wizards trying to decide your path. Fearne could have had ZERO personality change and still have had the arc she had while being a paladin.

It would also add something to god conversation that isn't just a shrug and a conversation that moves in circles. Having someone with divine power that comes from something that is clearly not divine would have been lovely. Sort of like a point to Zerxus. Maybe she isn't as proud of it. Maybe she stumbled into her power. She grew up stealing knick knacks and wanting to see the world and somehow stubmled into paladin hood. Hell, she could even have been a dex paladin and still leveled into rogue. But the paladin base would have the ruidus born thing have more of an impact, and the fact that she played her father like a fiddle.

I will also say. I love Fearne.

She is not built for high level combat. This is especially clear after episode 118. But that is my piece. Go read this party comp post if you want my opinion on Fearne from a mechanical standpoint. It puts words to the ideas bouncing around my head.

Anyways, onto Ashton.

Ashton is going to be from a mechanical pov. They have the stats for a barbarian, he can make paladin work.

I love the path of fundamental chaos. Space and the portals, are a great way to close the distance and reasoning to go all out. Time and Gravity are a great way to control the field and enemies. Potential is amazing and provides a reason to keep an eye on the battle field/allies.

Know what would have made them even better? If they were all wrapped up in a paladin aura. Still roll the d4, still have the chance come into effect, but give yourself more ability to deal with it. Make the use proficiency bonus. Or tie activation to a spell slot. At higher levels let it be possible to choose which effect happens. Get the range increase when the paladin aura increases. Build a class that takes hits and hits back harder.

This build could be so much cleaner and it has neddled at me for forever.

I think part of me wants there to be a proper battle field controller in Bells Hells like Keyleth, Scanlan, Caleb, and to an extent Jester and Fjord can be for their parties, but I am going to ignore that and move onto stat redistribution.

Do I understand that with the dump stat something was going to suck regardless and charisma on a barbarian makes sense? Yes. But counter point, a barbs wisdom usually sucks anyways, and a part of the paladin would provide boosts to saves. Which is always helpful.

Plus proficiency in wisdom throws plus aura would be monumental! Battle field control as a wall of a melee character, still dishing out damage with hits and smites, and the aura providing either boosts or punishments which is another reason to stay aware.

Throw the earth shard on top of all of that and you get a mobile wall with an aura that provides security and support for allies and hell and a hammer to the face for enemies.

Yes the story implications and character takes a bit of a hit. But charisma does not mean you are liked. It is force of personality. I can still see a paladin who is punk and decided to power themselves while throwing the middle finger to the gods. Or blame it on the dunamancy. Worship a concept. A creed. That would also be another interesting dynamic for the party. And also drive a possibly hard line. I can be a paladin without a god.

Why can't the rest be as well?

Overall I think throwing a paladin into the action economy of bells hells would have made mostly everyone more specialized. It would have allowed for Orym to be more of a floater for who he protecting, provided Chetney an opportunity to be more flexible in terms of tanking and damage dealing, allowed Fearne to lean into either damage dealing or battle field control, and allow FCG and Laudna to have specialized in either damage dealing or fall into a buffing/debuffing duo. With the return of Dorian would see the addition and specialization of either a sword wielding front liner, or an additional field controller. Imogen and Ashton don't really shift if a paladin is added to the group so I have no real thoughts on them, but that might be because from a mechanical standpoint they are already specialized.

I want to end this once again by saying this is all my opinion. This got a lot longer than I expected it to. I don't talk a lot about player choices and I probably won't again unless directly asked. But I so wished that the action economy of Bells Hells felt less like staring at the sun.

Thank you for the ask, anon!

[fabdante]

CRIMINAL that we never got a sparring match between the reboot twins before Mundus was defeated (or before the Order was attacked). Like, it could've showed so much! About the twins' dynamic, about their different fighting styles (and maybe even how they've learned them! Let the twins banter, damn it!), about where they are personally in their relationship(s), about what different weapons they use or are willing to improvise with, just! So much! And, of course, it could be made into a heartbreaking call back/foreshadowing for their final fight at the end of the game, after they defeat Mundus.

But instead, nothing.

I feel like the twins' relationship gets skipped over a lot, in the reboot, tbh. Like, it's mainly because everything feels so rushed- how long does it take Dante to do all of this? How long is he actually a part of the Order FOR? We don't know. But if it's longer than like. A few days. It'd be nice if they used that time to flesh out the characters more. The Order members, too, and maybe show Vergil and Kat's relationship more, but also: give the twins more time to bond and develope, damn it.

I would have loved all of that!!

It's honestly a big thing with me and my reboot fics because I really wish we got to see more of the day to day and character interactions. I think a large reason why we didn't is the fact every single Devil May Cry game is only 20 missions, so the reboot also had to be 20 missions. A lot of their earlier plans for the game seem to imply a desire for it to be longer and I really think it would have benefited from this story wise but, unfortunately, it stuck to the Devil May Cry status quo.

In my headcanons and Swan Song canon I took a lot of liberties and expanded the events of the game over like...I think it was three months time? And I expanded the like Kat and Vergil relationship over the span of 5ish years (this is why Swan Song has been such a mess to complete, the current/prior unfinished draft only got to about year four of these events). These just felt like better, more realistic time tables to me then what the game implies.

Honestly, I'd have loved to see more about the Order, what it was like there, more Kat and Vergil interactions so we could really delve into this crucial relationship that is so important for the game, more Dante trying to get used to this new environment and find his place in it and get to know all these new people and so on and so forth.

And I would have LOVED a sparring scene.

Me and my girlfriend on and off over the years have talked a lot about Dante and Vergil and how they fight, and how they could have gotten this way combat style wise, and it'd be really interesting to see them discuss that. Particularly because I feel like reboot Dante and Vergil have fairly distinct and fairly opposed schools of combat going on. Like Vergil very clearly is very trained in what is proper and how to do that but has little field training. Where as Dante clearly is all improv, all things learned on the fly, all things he's decided works best at any given moment. It's very...idk if you are familiar with Samurai Champloo (my beloved) but it reminds me a lot of the Jin and Mugen dichotomy where Jin is classically trained in his specific combat style and a master in it and Mugens...well...it's very apt for a show whos name translates roughly to samurai stir fry which comes from practicality rather then any sort of formal rule system or school of thought. It'd be fun to see them talk about it.

TLDR: I really wish we had more time with these characters in the game to flesh them and the world out. Alas, there will always be fan works and meta's

[blueikeproductions]

The Transformers comics are coming back this fall in the newly christened “Energon Universe”… not to be confused with the Transformers Energon segment of the Unicron Trilogy. This new Energon Universe comes courtesy of Image Comic’s Skybound imprint, and shares the universe with GI Joe and new, surprisingly owned by Hasbro, IP called “Void Rivals”. Aside from Void Rivals, which so far features a factionless Jetfire cameo, the TFs and Joe comics are, so far at least, self contained stories, with no need to pick up the other if you don’t want to. I suspect this will eventually change though, with the upcoming Autobot, Maximal and GI Joe team up sequel movie underway.

As suspected before, the new Transformers comics are a back to basics approach where the Autobots and Decepticons awaken on Earth and resume their war. The use of the Decepticons as proper antagonists again is a great start, given their awkwardly implemented roles in IDW2, Cyberverse, their largely downplayed role in EarthSpark so far, and their semi curious absence in Rise of the Beasts in favor of the Terrorcons. Megatron is similarly poised to be in his more traditional role as the evil leader, whether or not he becomes the “Autobot” version later on remains to be seen, but I kinda hope not. It was an interesting take in IDW, but after Cyberverse botched it, and EarthSpark trying it again in a kid friendly way, I’m kinda ready to return to Megatron’s bombastic, revels in being bad personality we haven’t seen since the G1 cartoon based Devastation. Especially since Hasbro continues to be somewhat weird about making new villains or repurposing old villains to take over Megatron’s mantle anyway, might as well stick to the classics.

As for LGBT stuff, it’ll pry be in there, but maybe not in the same way IDW awkwardly implemented it. I can see something like Sunstreaker having a boyfriend or a Silverbolt/BlackArachnia dynamic with a same sex couple, and that’s the extent of it among the TFs at the moment, but I suspect for now it’ll be more like the G1 cartoon to bring in normies and then they ease in to LGBT stuff organically. I’ve heard one person offer the idea, and mind you they were somewhat unsure about Nightshade being NB when it was suggested, that rather than a Transformer be LGBT, that a human ally be that instead, and the Autobots get to learn about another unique facet of human cultures and lifestyles that, presumably in the case, differs from Cybertron. We do have this with the NB girl that’s friends with Nightshade, I forget their name, so we have a precedent for it.

And even if the Energon Universe doesn’t cover that as some would like, it’s been said Hasbro wants to make EarthSpark comics anyway, AND Skybound is apparently going to make other non Energon Universe Transformers comics! Presumably this could include new movie comics, as Beasts is doing really well as of typing, and movie tie in comics are missed. It’d be an excellent way to flesh out the RotB cast more, expand on Unicron, and tease more GI Joe stuff along future Decepticon/Predacon/Terrorcon encounters.

I’m hazarding a guess that the reason it’s called the Energon Universe is probably because, similar to the Energon cartoon, Energon itself is the defacto energy source of this universe. I semi wonder if that means the Joes’ and Cobras’ machines will also be powered by Energon also. Interestingly, rather than the pink and blue color the fuel has appeared as in the past, Void Rivals depicts it as a yellow color similar to the Energon anime. I sort of wonder if later on they’ll try to include the Micronauts and MASK, the two being created as a reaction to the Transformers in IDW. Micronauts and ROM meanwhile are having a sort of resurgence also, with the reprinted Marvel Comics omnibuses coming out later this year.

The other surprise is while Void Rivals is an original Image IP, it is apparently owned by Hasbro, making it part of the Hasbro Universe. Depending on how that goes, we could see seeing the aliens from there in future Transformers productions I wager. I assume VR being owned by Hasbro is to avoid some legal kerfluffles that prevented things like some older Marvel reprinting from happening.

Still it’ll be exciting to see what the future holds for the comics side of things going forward!

[the-valiant-valkyrie]

for the writer asks: 3, 16, 17, 23, 24, 34?

if this is a lot feel free to answer as few as you'd like

3. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

it's kind of hard to say, but if i have to give an answer, i'd probably be inclined to say my reliance (but, in my opinion, not overuse) of prose. i like finding proper moments where i can be grotesquely artistic. especially in contexts that eerily do not fit the artistic brushstrokes of traditional prose

16. Any guilty pleasure trope(s)?

if there are no torturing the fav enjoyers i am no longer on this earth. i don't know if it counts as a trope but. idk it's a trope to me. you will ALWAYS finding me doing something sinister to my favorite characters. that's how you know they're my favorite characters.

17. A trope you’ll never, ever write for.

this is kind of a hard question, honestly. i guess i don't spend a lot of time thinking about things i won't write about. i guess like, traditional fluff genres would probably be a hard pass for me? since normally, again, i like to write more in an angsty direction. but this is coming from the guy who wrote several chapters of 'going to a fancy party together but neither of us put a label on what we are' so who knows at this point

23. Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas?

honestly it entirely depends on my personal motivation. normally i don't do writing specific prompt challenges, but back when i was bigger into the rp scene i used to do drabble prompt challenges a lot, which is almost the same thing. usually my concepts are so niche that i end up just writing whatever it conjures up.

24. One-shots or multi-chaptered works?

while i still have stuff like feed the roses in the works, and this year i managed to churn out 6 or so chapters of dressed to kill, working on one-shots is way more within my wheelhouse. to this day it's still crazy that my longest one-shots used to be no longer than 2k words. now i'll be lucky if they don't breach 4k.

34. Copy and paste an excerpt you’re particularly fond of.

since i mentioned them earlier in this post i'm compiling some of my grotesquely artistic prose snippets bc. i likes them.

It wasn’t his pain or discomfort that enthralled her. It was what the pain and discomfort did to him. The man it turned him into… Quick tempered, out of sorts, burdensome, graceless, uncaring. It was the way the sweat made his hair jut out at odd angles. It was the way his exhaustion forced his eyes into a familiar, tired squint. It was the way the nausea forced words from his aching brain to his lips without as much of a second thought- without care of how poorly they might be received. Was it awful to say that she missed it? Would she be a terrible person to confess that seeing the new Jeremy at his lowest had never been more exciting? That- while he lied there, caught in the aftershocks of his withdrawal- she’d been fantasizing of a world where he never recovered. - I Feel Better, So Much Better; Chapter 3

Perhaps it was only inevitable. She was born a daywalker, after all… Regardless of the bite, or the venom that coursed through her veins and permanently changed her. She would never truly escape her origins… Only evade and obscure them. … No running now, though. The past had caught up with her, glimmering gently as it bundled her in its golden embrace. Her gorgeous namesake kissed every last inch of her reddening, withering skin. It cupped her cheeks in its hands, stared into her eyes until white was all that was left. - Nocturnus

The detailing on her skin rang of an abstract expressionist piece. All the marring and discoloration- the little divots burnt or carved clean out of her flesh- the haphazard scratches where shards of metal had claimed her. It was such a chaotic display it was difficult to discern the patterns of it all… But the closer they drew, the better they saw it… Nearly as impressively detailed as it was horrifically macabre. Nearly... - Sun On Earth

[the-firebird69]

Events from December 20 – August 1, 2025 – Florida Comic Cons

You should have money for some of it okay and these guys wanted to go and they're a bunch of lame pieces of s*** it's really cuz I can't get in and they're fighting with the Mac proper keep people out and they can't really get anything done it's a kind of cheesy and party and they are party a party a lot it's basically what they do and they're nasty about it blame everybody it's quite horrific comic cons are okay but usually suck real bad these comic cons coming up might be different as some put the image of the soap up and people are saying he's trying to tell us to f off and sometimes he says not all the time but for Christ's sake you got two homos on me that won't go away ever and they need to leave they're really doing the wrong thing when everybody else and it's impossible to tell people that and it really really reveals a lot and they're addicted and they're dying from the addiction and it's true all of it everybody has evidence now. The oxygen levels are up very high actually and my son is healing a couple of tags and they just are fleshy things that sit there it's kind of annoying as hell but that's what it is that's some kind of wound that went out of control it's not infection it's just flesh is growing and it'll go away he's treating it and it works it says it changed shape and it became smooth and rounded and that's a good sign it's responding softening and it will go away but really back to the topic Comic-Con is going to be pretty big coming up too he can't really get there and they might try it he looks big enough they said they're a bunch of wimps so he talks to Uncle Phil and he always says that so it's kind of funny because he doesn't really care if he gets pretty big and it's Tom Cruise as he uses things to work that these guys so it fits but they say it too and it's hilarious and Trump says some garbledygook and his kid is saying some gobbledygook that that's fair enough and things and really it's not mystifying everyone most of them want to stick you in a black bag trash bag and go to Comic-Con as a piece of trash. And he might do it it says you can put a pizza on your head every hour and show people you're eating it from the pile of trash on you have like all sorts of fake trash and then have a real Pizza and horrify people like you want. And this laughter about it. But really he did that soap thing and a lot of people are going around saying you can't tell but I'm actually huge like this old numbnuts here and he's not big and he's not muscular and he's a weekly and we know who he is and it's disgusting and we don't want to see this kind of crap but it's hilarious so there's a bunch of that and there's a bunch of people wandering around saying he's too big already and we're monitoring both and we're going to start maneuvers based on their b******* and he thinks the lady who we said died is back and she is there's some other stuff going on but this is having an effect besides the 10% of wackos and losers and cowards there's about 70% who want to see him up and growing and for motivation and the ones who are cowards and wimps and they will be the ones first into the Midwest and I'll try and threaten our son using them until they get it up and going next year February there's one in Lakeland and he went to that and by comparison it says it's probably better and they're a lot of costumes yeah even the small one in fort Myers Tampa was not very good I ain't seen it too but the past couple years they've had a lot of costumes he likes to see it but when he went he had a good time it's just that it was not as much fun as he thought it would be except he got the Thanos poster and Hera knows that one of his somewhat characters. There are some other things going on and yes you witnessed him with the gauntlet it looks a little small and stuff like that but it just change size it's not made out of wood but it's not made out of thorium it's made out of gold and it changes size because you modify it yes yup

--huge numbers of people coming in saying they're just arriving it's fairly annoying they're trying to hide stuff

--we've seen about 50 references this morning to the soap comparison and he says he's waiting for the sitcom people and someone was close nowhere near and he thinks it's the wrong one yeah they're doing the wrong show it's been doing Barney Miller that's ugly it's going on now though that people are starting to pick it up and they're getting to it and I'm pretty soon it's going to be huge huge okay we see people with bars of soap is not true but they are trying to flex in front of him and it's kind of a defensive thing it really is. And yeah it was a new bar of soap relatively new that was brand new so to check that and they see it's new any was bringing it somewhere and it's pretty big take it right out of the wrapper and had the picture for a couple days so some people are saying he used it. Ridiculously seen his grandpa and his gigantic. It's twice their hive and massive I explained that a big deal with they make one out of it so it's going on now some of these pseudo empire are suiting up and getting bigger and this girl is making a muscle and they've got big butts yep. It's going on soon that I'm just saying that I'm controlling the little dogs and it's not working out that great but the cute little dogs looks like someone had a litter we are in receipt of several threats about his size I was going to address them is serious and we're going to use it

-other than that he is going to start growing at the beginning of the new year and that's because of this weekend it clear it all out it's going to clear a ton of zyprexa out we think he'll be down to maybe 50% and it's going to get songs with it a bunch and it will start to deplete it's thinking maybe a month because their levels will be high with the canals it's true too they're going to go up and up and up now it's going to stay up around 40 to 80 that's pretty high and it's going to be kind of a little more steady being a longer duration and it could be right and he's been right before about stuff and I do think that he might be right and will be bringing him in and out the rest of the time he'll be still clearing it but when he leaves it stops to clear and he will start to grow and then he'll come back and clear it out so he doesn't get sick and it'll happen quite a few times over 3 months so 4 months you're going to take a total of five or six months we are compelled to get the money. So people see how it's going to happen there's a recent problems and they also think that the clans are doing it and they don't know how to stop them it's their computers and you're looking for signals that match and sometimes they see it. Did you have a video to put up and we're going to go ahead and do that

Is going to be a big boy he's already pretty big and people are saying it he's got more muscle mass than that muscle guy and they're looking at it that way

Thor Freya

Olympus

[themostop]

Y’know, the really fun thing about “AI”s like ChatGPT is that they’re free, easily accessible, and interactive. Like, I’ve had a lot of fun messing around with them and writing stories with them, but I wouldn’t really want to share most of the stuff I’ve made because a lot of it is just wish fulfillment/fan fiction stuff that I know I’m not gonna get anywhere else. And even then I end up having to just mentally ignore a lot of what the ai writes anyway. I basically just use it either to flesh out a few story ideas I have, write something quick but stupid to get it out of my head, or just have it do a bit of the leg work of getting started writing something when I’m too lazy to start writing myself. But none of its really that good. What I’m trying to say is, I wouldn’t want to pay money for it, at least not the price of movie ticket or streaming service subscription. Maybe, like, ten dollars fifteen tops if it had a lot of cool features. But even then, the fun comes from being able to push the story in whatever direction you want. It’s like if your action figures could move on their own, but just a little bit. I certainly wouldn’t want to pay money to see what someone else wrote with ai. Like, it’s already just okay and kinda cool, but the main appeal to me at least is being able to interact with it and make the story go the way I want it to go. If you take that away, why the heck would I pay money for it? Even if the ai improves and the quality of the writing goes up… it’s just not impressive. Like, I’d know (hopefully if we can get some proper laws and regulations in place) if it was written by ai that it didn’t cost that much time or money to produce. So why would I ever pay any amount of money to see it. At least when I go to see a Disney movie or watch a Netflix show I know there were some people who worked hard on it and my money is going to them. (Yeah yeah, I know a lot ends up in the higher ups pockets, but do you at least get the point I’m trying to make?)

The few times I do enjoy seeing what other people make with ai, like on YouTube and stuff, it’s with the older models that aren’t as good. The entertainment comes from how bad it is. And I still wouldn’t want to pay money for it. I’m only enjoying it because it’s free.

The point I’m trying to get at here is that even if movie and television companies tried to replace their writers with ai… why would we have any reason to support them. The biggest reason not to pirate something is so that the people who worked hard on it get paid, but if barely anyone worked on it and the work that was done was minimal… why bother paying for it? My real worry is that companies will start making ai written stuff but not say it’s ai written and then sell it at full price. But I hope people would still quickly notice something wrong with the credits or the money balancing or something, you know? And then people just would stop trusting companies. And besides, why go see Disney’s ai written remake of frozen 2 with deep faked cgi humans played by text-to-speech… when you can already make that yourself and better yet have it play out the way you want it to? Or even better, watch the free version someone uploaded to YouTube that’s written by someone who’s not afraid to write it for a queer audience.

I think the best way for a company to make a product out of ai that they can actually sell would be to make sort of curated ais that have been trained on a ton of works that all take place in the same fantasy/sci-fi realm and then you can write any story you want within that world. That might be something I’m will to pay a bit for. But even then, you’d still need writers to make all the works it’s trained on.

Now all of this is naturally assuming we get laws and regulations in place regarding ai. If something is made by ai, it should need to be stated clearly and plainly. AIs like Open AI’s ChatGPT should stay free for everyone. YOU SHOULD NEED TO GET PERMISSION TO USE SOMEONE’S WORK TO TRAIN AN AI AND YOU SHOULD HAVE TO PAY THEM FOR IT. And a lot of this (from what I understand) is part of what the writer’s strike is about. I’m only throwing this on in case you somehow thought I was saying that I think the writers strike is for nothing. I don’t think that. I fully support the writers strike. The point of this post is just to call out how unprofitable ai should be for companies. The only way they’re gonna be able to make money off of it is if they trick you into thinking it’s worth the same prices or more than a non-ai movie (don’t fall for it) sell lots of them at a cheep but still marked up price (once again, don’t fall for it. Think about who your money would even be going to), or the force you with no other options but to buy things that way because they make ai no longer publicly accessible and make it so that and independent writers can’t compete with their prices (don’t let them. Support indis if you can, pirate if you can’t.)

So yeah, I just don’t see how companies plan on profiting from ai when the largest appeal of it is it’s freedom both in terms of price and use. (Once again, unless they “cheat.”)

[mewguca]

Me when I self-insert so hard i accidentally take a one-off drawing and make it a whole au

haha i am back on my nonsense...

i guess the idea is basically. twin moons haha. diana is more like. the game version of moon but probably slightly different in some way idk i gotta work on them both...Luna is kinda just. slef insert beam go brrr but also kinda different i guess uh. different kinda strengths and weaknesses?

Diana is more "proper" and better versed in her iterator duties and the knowledge of the world around her. She's more outgoing and assertive and can even sometimes be a little bit sarcastic. She takes on a big sisterly role for the other iterators, checking in on them a lot. She is well-informed on politics and history and other topics that concern her duties, and she monitors the condition of the Regions around her. She tends to be more logical and rational, but that is not to say she is cold by any means. She is sort of the model of a "perfect" iterator, and she is praised as such. This gives her expectations to live up to, though, and she sometimes struggles under the pressure to live up to them.

Luna is less focused on her duties and more...spacey I guess? She's much more shy and reserved and is a bit more pessimistic and unconfident...but she enjoys creating things like drawing and singing and talking to the residents of their can(s) about their creations. She is less concerned about things like politics and history and more interested in looking at cute little creatures in the surrounding ecosystem, haha. She also has a bit of a mischievous side she lets show sometimes. She likes to make people laugh and maybe tease them a bit.

They're both very caring though, of course. They both share that aspect of Moon! They especially care about each other and enjoy spending time together...they also like to dote on their little brother FP. They are both highly regarded, if in somewhat different ways and for different reasons. Diana is revered for her academic and practical contributions, such as keeping the systems running smoothly. Luna is revered for her contributions to the culture and the arts in the cities atop her can. They serve important roles and are seen as inseparable.

Of course yknow theyre not perfect so they can be kinda envious of each other sometimes etc etc hehe...

I suppose my idea for their structures is connecting structures? They have a connecting chamber in the middle, and the combination of structures in general can be either connected or separated. Diana is technically the senior twin so she has the overall authority at the end of the day. They also still share some water with FP because they are still neighbors.

I am unsure what their chat acronyms should be...maybe copy the theme of moon's ingame one and do Big Sis Diana and Little Sis Luna? Though...then thatd be confusing talking to their little brother maybe haha. But having them use LTTMI and LTTMII does not seem...the most practical.

When it comes to ...yknow...I am unsure which direction I want to go in. Should I have them collapse together since it's less scary if they have each other?

or should I be evil and make one of them force their water onto the other so they can get help for the other twin...But then....they'd definitely be separated...and if one side collapses more than the other, I'm not sure how you'd get them back together. Much to think about!

I think it'd be cute to see them interact with monk and surv, though! the little scug siblings! just like them! and separated just like them if we go that route smiles diabolically

I do want them to be happy in the end of course! but yknow we can have a little suffering as a treat

I have much to flesh out...waahhhh the brainrot never ends I suppose

[trensu]

Jon's Creeping Terror Fun Fact Corner!

You know how Cecil has his Fun Fact Science Corner segment on his radio show? Well, Jon has his own show produced by The Magnus Studio. It's an educational kids show all about the Entities of Fear!! It's a very specific kind of kids show. You know the ones. Those kids shows that children are absolutely mad for but any adult in their vicinity is left deeply unsettled by them? Yep. On the surface, the show seems fine but if any adult dwells on the content for more than five minutes, they are left feeling very very unnerved, especially since the host, one Jonathan Sims, seems more than a little unhinged half the time.

The show is so popular it gets almost 15 whole episodes! (It gets cancelled at 14 bc at that point it had received far too many retrospective complaints from parents to continue any further). Sometimes, the episodes even have special guests!! Although it got cancelled, you can obviously still find it on the internet if you know where to look. There's even compilations of all the show's best Unhinged moments.

--

The Vast Episode

Jon: Today's episode is about the Vast! And to tell us more about it we have Simon Fairchild visiting us. Kids, if you ever see this man in person, please run very far in the opposite direction.

Simon: Thank you for that warm introduction, Jon. Now children, who here likes ROLLER COASTERS?

Jon: And that's it for our special guest [proceeds to literally kick an old man until he's off screen] Do not trust this man and please be careful when going on roller coasters in the future.

--

The Lonely Episode

Jon, reading from the teleprompter: We have an expert of the Lonely with us, Mr. Peter Lu--what? No!! Why's he here? Get him off my set! What do you mean no? I don't care how much funding he gives the studio!! He tried to take Martin away!

[scene cuts off and starts back up with Martin sitting next to Jon, looking particularly sweet and cuddly in a knitted jumper]

Jon: Here we have m-my Martin, I-I mean my ASSISTANT Martin Blackwood. Say hi to Mr. Blackwood, children.

[Jon is a twitchy mess and cannot even look at Martin's direction. Martin looks flushed]

Martin: Er, yes, h-hello.

Jon: Martin has experience [this is hissed with all the venom he can muster] with the Lonely. He's going to teach us the best way to avoid that evil, conniving bast--

Martin, hastily cuts in: Yes, well! Kids, who do you have in your life that you love? It can be anyone! Your siblings, your pets, your friends! Anyone at all!

[at the edge of the set, just barely visible, Peter can be seen crammed into a cage gleefully guarded by Daisy]

(it's during this episode Jon finds out that he's not allowed to use naughty words on the show. All the stuff with the murder and the skinning and the worms and such is fine! Just no cussing. Jon is befuddled and aghast. This is why Hopworth was not allowed as a guest; he's a very swear-y man)

--

The Corruption Episode

[Jon is seen clutching a jar of ashes throughout the entire episode with absolutely no explanation as to what it is or why it's there]

Jon, gesturing manically: and that's why it's important to see a doctor when you're sick and have an exterminator on speed dial.

[Martin comes onto the scene with a worried look on his face. The screen goes to black for a moment, then reappears with Jon still clutching his jar but looking significantly calmer. He smiles at the camera and it almost looks normal]

Jon: To finish the episode, can you demonstrate the proper handwashing technique we taught you at the start? Be sure to tell your parents what you've learned about infection control and have them show you where the CO2 is kept in your home!

--

The Hunt Episode

Jon, earnestly happy: This is my best friend Daisy! She's going to help us learn about the Hunt. She's one of the bravest people I know.

[Daisy turns away to hide a shy smile before clearing her throat and starting in on a rehearsed lecture. The episode ends with her and Jon making the children repeat the "don't listen to the blood, listen to the quiet" mantra and also "all cops are bastards."]

(Basira, in post production: ...yeah, that's fair.)

--

The Flesh Episode

Parents are horrified when they hear their children singing "you are what you eat, meat is meat!" whenever they play after that episode airs.

(Martin: Just to be clear, we're encouraging cannibalism??

Jon: no! ...maybe? i don't know, Martin, they told me it tested well with the focus group children

Martin: yes, okay, but WHY did you come up with that jingle?

Jon: Don't look at me like that, I'm not crazy, Martin! I wouldn't just eat a person. But, well, if someone asked me to eat them like, after they died, I wouldn't necessarily say no...?

This conversation was recorded and leaked somehow. And that's how Actual Cannibal Jon Sims became a trending meme. He has to do a PR statement confirming that he "has never knowingly eaten a person" and that that was "a completely hypothetical discussion." This convinces as many people as you think it would.)

--

The Stranger Episode

Nikola: I don't much like children. Not enough skin on them to do anything really fun.

Jon: Why are you--how did you even get in?? S-Security! Someone come get her out of--

Nikola: oh, but I have information for the little ones! [she pulls out a basket of high-end skincare products and looks directly into the camera with her featureless face] These are the lotions that are best for Archivist flesh but I'm sure they work for the kiddies as well! You all want to grow up to have lots of beautiful skin don't you? Here, let me show you how to use them! [attempt to lotion Jon]

Jon: [flinches away] Security! O-or Daisy. DAISY!

[growling is heard and we get a flash of a wolfish Daisy body-slamming Nikola to the ground. The rest of the episode has Tim shoving Jon off screen and going on a rant about circuses and how to best explode them. This becomes one of their most popular episode amongst the children]

--

Breekon and Hope show up occasionally in the background of various episodes and become something like an Easter egg for fans of the show.

Anyway, I love the idea of kids adoring socially awkward, neurotic mess of a man Jonathan Sims. Jon is completely confounded by his popularity but also, he's glad of it bc that means the children will be more prepared if they ever encounter any of the Entities (most parents think it's all fiction, except for the ones who've had Encounters with one of the entities; Jon ends up with a sort of underground cult following comprised of survivors of fear encounters)

I blame @lemonisinplay (and Jonny Sims) for the entirety of this post, tbh. She came up with the name and half the stuff here XD

[mysteryman-17]

* I USED TO HAVE IMP3CCABLE [[Speech - 100]] * BUT ALAS, [[take a look at me now]]!! * ALL [[File corrupted]], NO [[Hyperlink blocked]]. * I'D ASK FOR YOUR HELP, BUT LET'S BE REAL K1D. * THERE'D BE NO [[Get to the point...]] * YOUR HEAD'S JUST NOT [[In the game]]!

Time’s End is an AHIT/Undertale crossover AU of sorts, taking place in the aftermath of a timeline where you lose the final boss fight against Mustache Girl. You can find the write-up here! In addition, you can find the write-ups for the Neutral Endings and TimeWarp Route Requirements on Google Drive! The logo for Time's End was designed by @bittybattybunny. She's an incredible artist, be sure to check out their work here on Tumblr and over on Twitter!!

Moonjumper replaces Gaster. After escaping the Horizon, they're just barely holding on to their existence. Glitchy as anything, their form phasing in and out of view, distorted speech... the works. MJ desires to finally get a proper foothold in this world once more, but needs Bow Kid’s help... help that they'll never get on the Pacifist and Neutral routes, as it requires Bow to do things that she'd normally never do. But as much of a fool's errand as it is, Moonjumper fights Bow on those two routes anyway when she encounters them at the broken giant hourglass. You aren't really able to lose to them, as they heal you right when you would be about to die, but hey! No pain, no [[game]], am I right? ...If nothing else, it gives time for em to get some cryptically cynical thoughts off their chest. Having to leave your thoughts to fester while constantly being mere inches away from non-existence, and corrupted beyond comprehension, kinda does that to a guy lmaoooo. After the fight however, Moonjumper says a few more things that SEEM indicate the tiniest amount of hope, then just fades away without a trace, their grasp on existence being weakened just enough for it to slip completely... for a while at any rate. =)

Motifs:

Oh It's You + Your Contract Has Expired (modified)

The Badge Seller

"You're not supposed to be in the game!" (6:20 - 6:28)

That's right folks, I finally bothered to do a NYCTBA counterpart for the string bean! I was originally going to just not have one, since there wouldn't be a place for it to play, but then I realized... that's fucking dumb! So here we are; figured it was worth fleshing out a lil more to "complete the sentence," so to speak. ;) (Also I might do a Dialtone but idk for sure at this point so uhhhh S K I P) Anyhow ye, retooled and "backdated" the BIG SHOT's transcriptions to fit the NYCTBA format, changed the pitch and implemented the new vocals. Not much else to say here, hope you guys enjoy! (P.S. My hours and days off at work are going to be changing fairly soon, so my posting times/rates are going to get a LOT more irregular. Stuff for this AU isn't going anywhere, but I just wanted to prep y'all for that fact.)

You can also listen to this track in high quality on the AU’s SoundCloud here!

[the-firebird69]

Red Devil Vortex - Open The Gates [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

Hello the woman to find that there are too many people in the way and too many of them are not doing anything right and they also want to stop the Mac proper and are sick of people like BG who are toast and just sit there and bothering their son thinking that's how it works and it does not he's an idiot he wants us to take over his car business and we're going to do that by making the cars elsewhere and other people are already doing it believe it or not he sent out 20,000 cars and are those 20,000 how about 5,000 tried to copy them and then he sent out about a hundred thousand no he's still making them but he believes he can steal stuff from everybody making them that's what he thinks is great and we're going to make them and he will not be able to touch us and we're going to take tons of stuff from little s*** because of his mouth mostly and we don't control your mouth and we don't do windows either. And we're going to shoot you in the head too BG because of what you're saying but that's what happened and you know about it and we're going to take over your business as other people are there's a huge number of them out there and it's not the Vader cuz you guys are a real touchy about that it's practically the same thing. We had to do the design for that purpose but now you are worthless I will have someone else do other things and they'll be coming worthless like you are and we are taking the rest of your stuff too because of what you're doing at the laundromat little twat you're such a big and you're actually very stupid and you're an imp and you're like Jason that's why your friends cuz you're both dumb

Thor Freya

Olympus

This guy knows stuff about you BG that could get rid of you and I know what it is and so does he where your inventions are what they are what they can do he says you have an exo suit it's not very big it's high-powered and it has a little jet engines just like in the movie people want that s*** and I want that s*** and we don't want to hear you harassing him

Jason

I know it would come to this then today and all that stuff yeah I can't move and I'm stupid and you knew I'd fail and fall I'm too small I'm too dumb there's nothing you can do and you have to try and beat the empire and I'm too weak to go down and investigate and I'm holding the technology and they're pushing me pretty hard you say it makes sense and you kind of did a lot of work compared to everybody else keeping me down but they're doing it all the time this guy wanted to put me in a concrete room and that's it and I guess you did too but he wants to do it right and you can't force yourself to and he says that last part and it's true but now they're trying to get the stuff and they're really mean won't make any kind of deal either and I sort of get that I can't make the stuff for them because it won't be what it is it's like the cena car and they do that to people sorry to say is for the pleasure of serving you know no we're doing for ourselves and he knows that of course. But I'm going to really beat up and there's nothing you can do and he says yes there is you're flesh and bows and the grave are going to help save my people and that's not nice it's true and I never liked you and all this other stuff and he can care less he says you're a retard not even there for the most part I sort of get something you were all mean and we're all stupid to him and he doesn't really care that we should lynch him.

Bg

It's just that your competition wants to get at you so they are pushing you and you've got a big mouth to begin with I'm not afraid of getting lynched because I'll kill people who touch me that's why like you and you're a wimp I've never heard of some people like you idiots you turn it into a friend and an enemy faster than anyone can blink but you'll be shot today BG for your comments and go suck your own dick

Zues Hera

enough this is ridiculous but this guy BG is never going to stop he's an a****** he's getting pressured by everybody and they need to investigate down there not sit around bothering him and you're a f**** for doing that bg and I'm out you're f****** done. We're small and dumb and our kids come out really stupid and they're useless and you won't stop keeping me there cuz you're a piece of s*** and his special purpose has all sorts of things and yours has nothing. I see you out there on the stage of Comic-Con and I laughed here he is it is glory and it's fake he's not a hero and people don't like him and he thinks they do and he thinks he's fooled people and people see your face and think you're a little f**** he knows who iron Man is on his side and I leveled off my ass and smiles mild at the courthouse because it's across the street from me I can see people go in there from the stupid laundromat harassment and they lose every time and here's you is your mouth blabbing all the time you're such an idiot and we're getting ruined and exposed and things are falling apart and all you can do is make it bad with him now so you're through we're done

Crissy you try and hurt me I'm going to hurt you and you know it too and you're slow down and stupid these other people are taking over our business and he's going to take it over in the end and he had to do it and you knew it and you let it go right away and you sold the whole bunch of other people and they're not competing over it you're just dumb so they got how to do that cuz you're so smart that Got how to do the mid engine out of you. And what you are is a waste of time you have another bicycle and we're screwed because of it

Crissy

I'll tell you we're not and you're supposed to believe me he says whatever I'm saying so obnoxious I don't want to hear it I don't have to publish but I don't want and I don't have to say out here what you're saying this is my blog can you people are delusional as hell and go to f****** hell Joey featherman you're a f****** f**** you're a gay boy I can't believe how stupid you are is not true I knew you were stupid Jesus Christ what a waste of f****** time being friends with you is and other people you're a bunch of assholes I've never heard of so many people in one place they're so God damn stupid you're all f****** really dumb you expect them from this s***

Zues Hera

Olympus