#Wes double-sv

[meteor752]

Getting emotional over the idea of the double life children being featured in the wild life quiz…

Cause yeah in that AU they probably would be, they were a pretty significant part of that season

So like there’s of course the funny angle of Mumbo, Skizz, Lizzie, or Gem getting a question about them and just being ???????

But for the parents, it just feels very heartbreaking to me, because as we saw in the episode, they are very prone to forget, even significant things and events.

So yeah some questions could’ve been easy, “Who was Jekiv’s parents?” “Who was the youngest of the kids?” “Which of the children could talk to wardens?”

But there could also be more difficult things, that they just can’t remember.

Skizz runs up to Pearl, quickly asking her what colour Novo’s eyes were, and for some reason she can’t remember. They were blue right? Or brown? Purple? Her hands shake as she desperately tries to remember what her son even looked like in the first place.

“What animal was Jekiv always carrying around?” Cleo thinks it was a bunny. Incorrect.

“Wes was deathly afraid of a particular mob, which one?” Impulse has a near breakdown trying to remember .

“What instrument did Johnny know how to play?” Tango couldn’t even remember that his son could play an instrument.

“Which one of these is not one of Liana’s middle names?” None of them look right to Scar. Is it a trick question?

Distressing time on the server

It’s even worse tho for the kids, who are literally in spectator mode watching in real time as the memory of them slip from their parents fingers. No one knows how long the games there will be, but at a certain point, after enough time has passed since Double Life, their real parents, those who raised them, will just have completely forgotten who they were.

[countlessrealities]

Plotted starter for @mcltiples & @evilmcg

The air in the lab was still and cold, saturated with the pungent smell of chemicals and disinfectant. Under other circumstances, there would have been other odours in the mix, coming from various experiments and test subjects, but Rick had made sure to remove any trace of his usual activities for the occasion.

Not only the procedure was delicate and demanded his utmost attention, but there was an emotional value to it. Not for him, of course, but for everyone else who was in the room with him. It seemed appropriated to treat it as a ritual.

The tools and devices he needed were already in place, perfectly aligned on the mobile side table set next to him, ready for use. He was very peculiar on how the instruments should be positioned, but he would have been more lenient about it today. After all, his counterpart would have been assisting him and he couldn't demand that the other knew every detail of his methods.

Grey blue eyes landed on the corpse that was lying on the operating table, studying it for a moment, blank expression unreadable. It had been perfectly preserved, as if mere seconds had passed from when her heart had stopped, but no one could have denied that this was a portrait of death.

The cold, naked flesh was too pale, closer to grey than to its usual rosy complexion. The hair was messy and spent, no trace of its usual volume and softness. The limbs were perfectly still and rigid. The face, unmoving and expressionless, was the biggest giveaway, even if he had made sure to close the eyes.

Holding a syringe in his gloved hand, Rick turned his attention on his other self, who was standing on the opposite side of the table.

"L-Let us begin," he spoke up, draining the vial of orange liquid that his counterpart was holding for him. "I-If any complication presents, I'll handle it myself."

Not that he thought that there would be any. It was a procedure he had perfected through the years. However, he knew better than being overly arrogant. In the unlikely case something went wrong, he would be ready.

Leaning against the whole, away from the too bright white lights, Morty watched in silence as his Rick injected the first drug in Meg's dead veins. Just as his second-in-command, his expression betrayed no emotion, even if his lips were pressed together in a thin line. A little hint that betrayed that he wasn't as unfazed as he was trying to look.

From his spot, he couldn't fully see the operating table, but he didn't need to when he could easily watch the procedure through his Rick's eyes. Literally.

Besides, even if he wouldn't have admitted it, he felt more comfortable remaining in the dim darkness. It made it easier for him to hide any reaction he might have against his will. Self-control wasn't something he lacked, but the feelings and the thoughts that had been festering inside him for weeks now had grown powerful and unpredictable.

Useless to say, the fact that he was conflicted about what was taking place in that moment didn't help. He would have never denied Meg the chance to be alive again. He could be cruel and he had been unfair to her plenty of times, but he would never cross such a line with someone he cared for. On the other hand, though, he couldn't stop thinking about how he would have soon be set aside, relegated to a background role while his counterpart and the girl were all over each other.

He had hoped that forcing them to put him at the centre of their world while she had been gone would have softened the blow that was about to come, but the knot that was squeezing his stomach in that moment told him that it hadn't worked.

Pathetic, that was what he was. Wounded by something as trivial as emotions. Perhaps this was for the best. It could have been his chance to walk away and get rid of the weakness that relationship had brought him.

A firm tug coming from the back of his mind snapped him out of his gloomy contemplations. He lifted his eyes just in time to meet his Rick's for a moment. No thought or gesture passed between them, but there was no need for it. He knew what he was being told.

Focus. Stay in the present. There would be time for everything else once he would have been alone, in the privacy of his flat.

[bmpmp3]

IA 2.0 voisona test with a short version of drag on dragoon's ending B song tsukiru/exhausted :) now i can hear Lia's beautiful dulcet tones sing scary scary songs

[goldensunset]

oh yeah i was trying to place why this melody sounded a bit familiar and it’s from the loyal three theme. that checks out

[muppetable]

y'all wait stop cause what if when janus gets his song it's like a tango or something?? and he goes around and dances with the other sides. if he does that i want to see him dip either roman, logan, or virgil. because him dipping roman could be a good opportunity to see the little bits of manipulative flirting jan did in svs, if logan becomes a dark side like the theory goes, or at least keeps up whatever connection he has to orange, it could be a metaphor for him controlling lo, and if it's virgil he could taunt him about his past as a dark side.

what's great is that through use of special effects, stunt doubles, and camera angles, this could be a great editing trick and could TOTALLY work. i mean we had the clock that was just zooming in accepting anxiety 2, and the remus face thing on two silhouettes at once in dwit during forbidden fruit, so masking like this has been done before and can be done again if they need to show two faces at once. and of course if they can't mask it they can always use split screens too, they just have to choreograph it just right so that's possible.

i'm just saying.. if there's any side that's gonna try and dance with others, it's janus. him or roman, but roman's too depressed for that.

[ecargmura]

The Mochi Mayhem Epilogue Was Hilarious (Review)

Here it is. The finale of the DLC. The ending to an era. How should we celebrate this milestone? Excuse me? Could you repeat that again? The Chicken Dance? What?

Anyways, this epilogue is bringing in the main story and DLC together by making the Paldea trio meet up with Kieran and Carmine, the DLC characters in one last misadventure to stop the land of Kitakami from doing the chicken—er, Mochi dance by a mysterious Pokemon that looks like a Pecha Berry.

The overall epilogue was very hilarious, but it also got me having a lot of questions. I know that the event starts in Kitakami when you examine the peach plush in Peachy’s. After the little scene that happens, Arven calls because he wants to come over to the player’s house, meaning you have to travel all the way back to Paldea where Nemona and Penny tagged along and then Kieran gives the player a letter, which then makes the Paldean group go back to Kitakami, which is when the event starts happening. I don’t know why the game makes it so that we have to jump through different regions. I know it’s for plot as the Paldean trio didn’t get offers to study abroad. It made me wonder what would’ve happened if they had come along during Teal Mask.

Despite that, Kieran meshes well with the Paldean trio. It sucks that Carmine was possessed throughout the whole story, but it makes sense as she had her fair share of spotlight in the Teal Mask. This is Kieran’s time to shine! I find it hilarious how he was theorized to have been possessed, but when Pecharunt showed up with the evil mochi, Kieran is the only other person aside from the player to not eat the mochi as it hit his forehead and flew off. Ha, take that, theorizers! I wonder what would’ve happened if Nemona had been involved in the Teal Mask DLC—maybe that was why they took the Paldea trio out of the story for the DLC because the story’s issues would’ve resolved fast.

Pecharunt is a weird Pokemon. While it has a connection with the Kitakami lore, it was never really explored. It just showed up and wrecking havoc. While it did give the Loyal Three their toxic chain, it never really had an involvement in Teal Mask until this DLC. The Loyal Three are its retainers, but there were slight hints of its existence sprinkled here and there. I’m also confused on why it decided to wake up and decided to possess everyone with toxic mochi. Is it angry? Chaotic? I’m not sure. Despite that, Pecharunt is no slouch in battle.

What I liked about the DLC is the fact that Kieran joins the player as a Multi Battle partner which is a definite redemption from his behavior in the Indigo Disk DLC. It was nice being able to battle together with him. I was actually surprised that Kieran’s grandparents were trainers too. They were pretty tough. Arven and Penny were challenging too. I do like that in the midst of the double battles, the last match is against Nemona, who is challenged as a single battle. I loved the mix-match of battling styles.

Once you complete the DLC, Nemona, Arven, Penny, Kieran and Carmine can be interacted with in the League Club with the former three being special coaches. I do like that they give you such a bonus afterwards. I feel like it’s a good way to end everything as you are reunited with the three most important characters in the main story followed by the two most important characters in the DLC. What makes Paldea special is the unique varieties of characters that makes it a worthwhile experience.

Argh, it’s going to be hard to say good-bye to these characters because they’re all so good. All the Gym Leaders, Elite Four, teachers, Team Star, students and DLC characters were just so GOOD! Scarlet and Violet legit shot up to my third favorite mainline Pokemon game because of how good the game and DLCs were. What will Pokemon do now after the masterpiece that was SV? If Unova remakes are true, will it live up to SV’s hype? Will it be better than BDSP? Only time will tell. What are your thoughts on this epilogue and the DLCs as a whole?

[danmei-confessions]

why is it that EVERY TIME sj fans try to talk about him they get accused of ""uwu-ifying"" him and people constantly feel the need to point out that he abused bing

we know.... i literally have never seen an sj fan who doesnt admit that he abused bing like the strawman these people try to create... you know whoes ALSO abusive? lbh i dont see people rushing to jump on lbh stan posts demanding that they do a disclaimer about how abusive he is bingge is a canonical rapist who sqh says raped at least double digits of women kills innocent people and destroys countless lives by uniting the human and the demon realms even bingmei cripples countless people's cultivation for his own selfish gain and is a woman beater. i was shocked reading sv for the first time when he beat the shit out of shl y'all are fucking hypocrites. no one is saying that sj didnt abuse bing, but its toxic af to constantly shit on sj fans bc of his crimes but then go on about what a perfect malewife their rapist demon fave is if lbh's actions are excusable bc "he was abused" then why aren't sj's? lbh also did nothing to end the cycle of abuse and takes his emotions out on countless innocent people shut the fuck up and stop shitting on other fans just bc you dont like the character they stan you can simply stay in your lane and stan who you stan without feeling the need to shit on other fans youre not better than anyone just because YOUR abusive fave is the romantic lead and their fave is a side character

.

[anxiousandindenial]

I think that the Sanders Sides might represent more than each has told.

Let me explain.

Okay, so we know that the sides can represent more than just their official role. Logan also represents reason, knowledge, and realistic expectation. Patton also represent emotions, childlike wonder, and over controlling yourself. Roman also represents passion, ego, femininity, and masculinity. We haven't seen a lot of Remus, and have no official things that he represents besides intrusive thoughts, but we can surmise based on his personality and entrance he also represents dark thoughts (such as ones induced by depression), disturbing thoughts (which are very different from intrusive thoughts), and impulsivity. Janus represents deceit, denial, self-preservation, and selfishness. As for Virgil, he represents anxiety, but he also represents shame, apprehension, introversion, pessimism, paranoia, fear (to some extent), foresight, caution, anticipation, motivation (slightly, but this is more by proxy of him representing anxiety), and satisfaction. Now, that last one may not seem accurate, but here's a quote from Accepting Anxiety Part 2 from Patton: "ALSO, YOU'RE THAT FEELING OF TINGLINESS AFTER ACHIEVING SOMETHING HE DIDN'T THINK WAS POSSIBLE!" That feeling is known as satisfaction. However, satisfaction doesn't seem to go along with the other things he represents, which are all before the event things, while this is a post event feeling. So perhaps he represents more similar things, and perhaps the other sides also have more to them. Let's take another look.

Logan first. Now, if we inspect his behavior throughout the show, we notice something: He seems to get annoyed easily. He also gets angry rather easily. Some would say this signifies that he's being influenced by the orange side, and that the orange side is Anger/Wrath, but I have my own theories about that. I think that this may mean Logan may also represent Anger and Annoyance, two things that would go right along with Logan's personality, and his habit of being ignored over the need to be polite.

Next, Roman. Now, for Roman, it's a bit tricky, however, if we look through everything, including how he acts towards the Dark Sides, we begin to realize something: He seems to decry and defame anybody who is different, suggest a different idea, or who is criminalized by the world. Therefore, he may also represent Bias/Prejudice and Societal Conformity.

Third, Patton. Now, Patton is extremely difficult, but after some searching, verifying, and double-checking, I noticed that Patton's default is to try to convince the other sides that his way is most important, often going to Roman first, then Logan, then the others, in no particular order. Therefore, it could be that our dear daddy Patton also represents Manipulation. However, the reason he hasn't taken total control of them all by now? One, he is likely repressing that part of him in favor of being "nice", and two, Patton is canonically an indecisive mess. With that in mind, we can accurately guess that Patton likely also represents Indecision.

Fourth, Remus. Now, Remus' is a little bit obvious, he essentially says it right up front with the 'cut out all the juicy stuff' comment. Remus is Honesty. And as for the other, it may seem odd, or like I'm reaching, but hear me out. Remus makes a lot of comment about religion, especially on the way of innocence, the losing if it, as well as biblical events that were meant to teach a lesson. Therefore, it is possible that Remus may be Wisdom.

Now for Janus. In SvS Redux he didn't use lies at all near the end, relying instead in harsh truths, ones that Thomas maybe would've preferred to have been kept in denial about, so clearly he didn't care about or even consider his purpose as Deceit. Plus, Thomas wasn't even lying here, so Janus shouldn't have even been summoned. Some would claim that Thomas was in denial, and that's enough, but we have seen that the state of simply being in denial is not enough to summon him, or he would've been summoned three or four thousand times in the first season. You have to actively lie to summon him, and Thomas wasn't actively lying. Additionally, he was summoned in DWIT, when Thomas clearly wasn't intending to lie, and objecting to it in the first place. You know what he was feeling both times? Guilt. So perhaps he represents Guilt, which, while similar to his normal things, is also very separate from them. Now, in addition, we notice that Janus only attacks or uses sarcasm as a defense mechanism. Additionally, his whole purpose throughout the show has been "Protect Thomas by keeping him in denial," but then it became "Protect Thomas by helping him face his inner demons," as seen by the fact that he revealed Remus and allowed them to defeat him when he could've just let Remus keep festering, which would've actually benefited Janus, but not Thomas. So perhaps Janus represents Protectiveness as well, even protectiveness towards oneself.

Now, with this in mind, the realm for what Orange could be suddenly got a lot smaller. It has to be something that could be a dichotomy of Logan while not being an emotion (as none of the sides are an emotion, with the exception of Virgil). Additionally, it needs to leave room for him to also represent things that are not directly related to what he is. Now what is he? I can't say, though I do have my theories.

[eroguron0nsense]

Straw Hats Pokemon League AU

I don't think I'm the first to do this by any means but here we go! I started thinking of how I'd make a One Piece AU in a Pokemon game format. I tend to play fairly fast and loose with the way the teams are structured; I like the thing they did in Gen 9 where gym leaders get a Pokemon not from their assigned type to terastallize but I would also like to see more gym leaders oriented around certain themes or gimmicks than just mono typing. These are not even remotely balanced and the few that have some strategy like Nami's can go wrong super easily; they're very very vibes-based. The region’s an archipelago, and all the crew members are friends who live and work on separate islands. I’ve always liked regions in Pokemon with lots of islands and water and I just feel like One Piece settings could translate well to that. 

Grass Gym Leader Usopp– The Usopp pirates are his gym trainers/pupils, and you fight him after going through a puzzle full of funny carnivorous plants like those on the Boin Archipelago (ideally there's a quiz format involved and if you get an answer wrong you get attacked by, like, a low level wild bellsprout or carnivine). This one could honestly have been more strategically developed although Shiftree and Sudowoodo were absolutely necessary because a long-nosed creature based on a tengu and a fake tree with an identity crisis are perfect for Usopp. He loves his status conditions and is generally very annoying to go up against Initial team: Lotad, Bonsly, Nuzleaf Rematch Team: Shiftree, Sudowoodo, Amoongus, Ludicolo, Tangrowth, Vileplume Normal/Doctor?? Gym Leader Chopper–This was a difficult choice honestly! I thought about making him a fighting specialist for the kung fu point, but ended up choosing this instead. He's a very young GP and gym leader on a winter island, and he has to split his time between doing house calls with Kureha and his League obligations and the poor boy is *stressed*. Marowak is there because Chopper and his backstory give me Cubone/Marowak vibes. The Sawsbuck is actually not there because of its deer associations; it’s a springtime/cherry blossom Sawsbuck because of Hiriluk’s cherry blossoms, I thought of giving him a Stantler but I think one deer is probably enough for him Initial Team: Spring Deerling, Stufful, Marowak Rematch Team: Mega Audino, Spring Sawsbuck, Blissey, Bewear, Marowak, Alomomola Weather (??) Gym Leader Nami–specializes in double battles with her cast form. Lives on an island kind of similar to Cocoyasi, and she's got her own lighthouse and meteorology lab up on a hill surrounded by tangerine trees. This is extremely strategically fucky and near impossible to program into something functional but I wanted to give her every kind of weather power and Pokemon that could adapt to every field change and hack weather balls at people. Nojiko and Genzo hang around. Currently training a Hippopotas gifted to her by Vivi and working on Sandstorm strategies Initial Team: Castform (Sun), Snover, Ninetales, Castform (Snow) Rematch Team: Castform (rain), Pelipper (drizzle), Ninetales (Drought), Abombasnow (snow warning), Castform (sun), Castform (snow) Ghost Gym Leader Brook–Brook is a touring rock star whose gym is on a barge with a kinda spooky ambiance; the Rumbar pirates work there as live musicians and there's a bar and a big stage set up for concerts. They pull up around the twin capes looking for Laboon around the same time as the player reaches there and are very distressed when he can't find him at first. I kinda debated giving him a toxtricity like Rhyme in SV but that's been done before and Frosslass kinda plays into his ice attacks, so I'm kind of leaving it open ended. His gym's located near the twin capes, and he's a former rock star who's slowed down a bit and taken some time off his career to look more actively for Laboon, who went missing in this world instead of being left behind. Laboon is a Wailmer Brook met years ago that later joins his team after they reunite, by which point he's evolved into a Wailord. Initial Team: Duoblade, Dusclops, Houndstone Rematch Team: Aegislash, Dusknoir, Wailord (Laboon), Polteageist, Frosslass or Toxtricity, Houndstone

Steel Gym Leader Franky– Franky's gym is also on board a ship he built, and he's docked outside a kinda high tech water seven sort of crazy artificial floating island structure. It's very much like water seven–Iceberg and Paulie run the show–and the Franky Family are his gym trainers. I threw in Alolan dugtrio because of the hairstyles and revavroom for the Kurosai FR-U. Metagross is there because I like him having a psychic type to link him to Robin (they're married and live together on Franky's custom houseboat). I thought of giving him a Magnezone but Franky with a Tinkaton just seems very funny and weirdly well-suited to his character Initial Team: Alolan Dugtrio, Excadrill, Revavroom Rematch Team: Alolan Dugtrio, Excadrill, Revavroom, Metagross, Probopass, Tinkaton

Psychic Gym Leader Robin–I tried to give Robin a few Pokemon that were more weird lore/ancient ruin themed without being actual legendaries to fit with her being an archaeologist. She spends a lot of time doing field work (Clover is the region's Pokemon Professor and her mentor; it even plays into the plant naming scheme) on a protected island full of ruins that looks kind of like Skypeia. I'd love for this world to have some ancient lore for her to research and make regular story appearances without the kind of tragedy we get in canon. Initial Team: Medicham, Duosion, Sigilyph, Claydoll Rematch Team: Bronzong, Medicham, Beeheyem, Reuniclus, Sigilyph, Claydoll

Water Gym Leader Jinbei–Honestly it was a bit hard making this one feel uniquely suited to Jinbei? Palafin suits his character best imho, but it was difficult choosing fish that ween’t tied in some other way to other existing fishmen characters. There's no whale sharks yet either :p That being said, Jinbei is a ship captain who works with both the Pokemon League and the Sun Pirates, and brings the player to a Fishman Island equivalent underwater town, giving you either a dive TM or something equivalent to navigate underwater and opening up a whole bunch of new areas for the player to explore. Initial Team: Wishiwashi, Palafin, Swampert, Omastar Rematch Team: Wishiwashi, Palafin, Swampert, Omastar, Dondozo, Tatsugiri

Fire/Kicking??/Culinary-themed Gym Leader Sanji–I feel a bit bad I gave Sanji so many starters when I generally try to avoid that for gym leaders but there's just not that many Pokemon with blaze kick and it's a necessity for him! You meet as he's soft-opening his restaurant in the All Blue equivalent, and going through some growing pains striking out on his own from Zeff (who’s very supportive of his boy's dreams but bad at expressing it). I threw a Clawitzer in because I thought I should give him a seafood item, and Siebold (one of the few Pokemon chefs) has one as his ace in X/Y. His team can kinda be split into kicking pokemon (Cinderace, Blaziken, Tsareena) and food Pokemon (Arboliva, Clawitzer, Garganacl). Zeff has a Stoutland, and the only reason I gave him one is because it more or less has his facial hair. Initial Team: Cinderace, Blaziken, Garganacl, Tsareena Rematch Team: Cinderace, Blaziken, Garganacl, Tsareena, Arboliva, Clawitzer

Zoro is the Champion and Luffy is the final boss, but I'll save them and my chosen Elite 4 members for another time. I'm not going to try and build an evil team, but suffice to say since I'm trying to make this AU a bit more lighthearted, everyone lives and they're all doing good

Edit: Link to Part 2–Elite 4, Champion, Final Boss Teams

[fierykitten2]

After looking at the latest article on PokéBeach, I don’t think I’m ready to surf twitter this morning because I know it’ll just be “hey look, Game Freak’s repeatedly promoting Unova meaning we’re getting Unova remakes this gen” please stop and think for a second. Mainly because with the exception of FRLG (why would you do a gen 1 remake in gen 2? Now we really know where your biases are) and LGPE (same as before plus Kanto being Kanto and getting extra special treatment) all remakes have been in the generation that is double the number of the original gen (what this means for Black and White 2 idk. I guess I’ve just assumed they’re getting skipped) so when we get to Pokémon Day 2025 and no Unova remakes have been announced, Unova was not forgotten, it’s almost certainly coming in gen 10. Another reason is that we’ve just been to Unova with all the pandering for Unova fans in Blueberry Academy (I’m still annoyed I spent this whole generation thinking this gen’s revisit to Kalos would be in SV but hey, I guess then they would have had to bring Megas back a game early and I’m not letting your Limited Usability In Competitive Situations overshadow my Pretty Crystals For Everyone (with Tera raids even being how they introduced my top two favourite Pokémon and damn Wake and Leaves are pretty especially when Terastalised. And I changed their Tera types to Stellar but that’s still pretty so I don’t care and now they each get their own little Terapagos whenever they Terastalise so I’m sure they’re happy too. I’ve also recently (re)discovered how pretty their modern-day counterparts Suicune and Virizion are too))

Hopefully we get something Gen 2 related next gen but I think that might just be me obsessing so much over the Proto Beasts and Neo Swords (and now at least Suicune and Virizion but the other Legendary Beasts and Swords of Justice (ignoring Keldeo) are also up there, alongside Ho-Oh, Lugia, Reshiram and Zekrom) that I now want Johto and Unova to get special treatment at the same time (anyone remember that person on twitter who made concepts for games where those two regions were both visited because everyone went into Pokémon Day thinking we were getting at least one of the two regions to get a new game even though we just visited a school in Unova and I’m sure Kitakami is near Johto?)

[floaromaxtowns]

Fandom hot take: Pokemon did NOT die after the 3DS era, it died when it switched to the Switch (no pun intended)

Fandom takes less gooo [Accepting]

Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Strongly disagree

Can confirm, this year I replayed my Omega Ruby and the game shows that it still had quite a lot of care put into it. Even if I find it to be way too easy to my liking, I genuinely enjoyed my time with it.

They doubled the price of the games, and now they release unfinished products ever so shamelessly. Because they /know/ the community will just eat it up, whatever they throw at them. Sword/Shield and Violet/Scarlet released in the same Beta bug glitch state, and people defended it to the very END. (even though IMO if you ask me: SV were a big improvement on SwSh, I really can't say anything good about gen 8).

We could excuse the limitations and some glaring issues of the games, when they were being released for portable devices since y'know, they weren't meant to be Nintendo's powerhouses.

But now that all Pokemon games are being released on the same console, as the other massive games? Then I hate to say it: You can't really defend their slop, lack of care and whatnot. Reminder that GF purposely keeps its Dev teams SMALL, meanwhile they want to release new generations & mainline games at a much faster pace. So, the products got so much worse, meanwhile they maximize profits. I guess that's the price you get for being the largest franchise in the world.

Can you tell just how overall disappointed I've been with the franchise's direction? c': I've been way more interested in keeping up with leaks and fan projects tbh.

On a brighter note: there's a Brazilian VG studio currently working on a Pokemon inspired game, but it's focused in our foklore/pop culture and whatnot! I've seen some arts of it, and it looks very promising

The game is currently being crowdfunded it's called "Saci hunters" Link to their IG page!

[meteor752]

The Double Life Kids headcanons 3

A whole lot has happened since the last of these headcanon posts, like, a whole lot. The last post was before the kids even went to the Empires server

So, I thought I’d do one of these again, cause I like making headcanon posts

All the kids except Liana share the same birthday, since Liana spawned as an egg and hatched like, a month later. They wouldn’t usually celebrate their birthdays in anyway, especially after their parents deaths, but when they were separated it became a tradition on both ends to get a cake and blow out their candles, celebrating both them and the ones on the other server, counting down the years until they could see them again. Liana gets a cupcake on hers

Zee (The Lizzie + Skizz child) uses She/He pronouns

Skim uses They/Them

Liana, Jekiv, and Gertrude are girlbosses while Johnny, Novo, and Jassy are boylosers. Wes is somewhere in between

Johnny brought Lily the Warden with him to Empires, and later to Hermitcraft, and then back to Empires. She’s his little sister, and where he goes, she goes

Gertrude bites in her sleep. It’s not always aggressive, usually it’s just lil love bites, but if she’s having a particularly vivid dream or is very stressed out, then she can leave pretty extreme chomps. It’s usually just her pillow or blanket, but sometimes Novo falls victim to her sleep biting. He doesn’t mind

Johnny hates using a bed to sleep, and exclusively sleeps in a hammock.

Through trial and error, and many years of work, Wes, together with Jassy, BDubs and one of his many steeds, managed to overcome his fear of horses. He even got his own, an Ardennais named Dweller

Jekiv also got his own horse, but instead of breeding one he kinda, made one. Virgil was his first successful resurrection, that didn’t just crumble into dust immediately. He’s not very friendly and struggles with obeying him, but he’s (mostly) fully alive which is all that really counts

fWhip was the one who made Liana’s prosthetic, and Doc later made improvements to it so it would hold better and be more comfortable. She has many stickers on it, just for funsies

In the good ending, where the kids all got a happy ending together, Gertrude and Jekiv were finally able to meet their other dads. Jek was thrilled to get another chance to bond with his dad, and Gert was just happy to have her dad back

Jassy also got to reunite with her little brother, Hermes

Johnny is very face blind. It usually isn’t a problem since everyone around him dresses and look very distinctively, but in Empires where everyone he knows wore entirely different outfits in varying aesthetics, he struggled a lot. It just became a habit of the kids that if you wore something different than you usually wore around him, you’d immediately tell him who you are and let him inspect you for a bit

Wes has little control over his volume. It’s kinda strange for him, as he doesn’t really take notice of it himself. When talking to him, he can go from almost whispering to straight up yelling without even realizing it. The rest of the kids are used to it, but it’s usually a surprise to any new people

Liana drinks exclusively expensive whiskey, Jassy loves tequila, Novo is a huge fan of cheap wine, Gertrude likes rum cocktails, Jekiv drinks straight Vodka, Wes sticks to cider, and Johnny makes his own moonshine. Drink nights are a mess

Speaking of which, Liana is the messiest drunk to every messy. She has absolutely zero filter, and for some reason loves to spit out random pretty miserable and dark facts that she’s read about. She tends to clonk out after like two hours though, so it’s just to put up with it

Nobody ever calls Johnny Johnathan. Nobody, except Keralis

Liana and Jassy’s first wedding was less because of love and devotions, and more because they were 14 years into life on the double life server and everyone was fucking miserable, so they thought an event could help cheer people it. It did, but like barely

This is why they remarried, to have an honest chance to express their love for each other. Also an excuse to wear fancy clothes

Jekiv and Wes, in the good ending, got married shortly after reuniting with each other on their new server. It was a very quaint ceremony, but still lovely

Gertrude and Novo are still waiting for the other to propose, and they will just keep on waiting

Also, since this will be posted on the two year anniversary of my first ever post about the kids, I thought I’d share some scrapped ideas and other bts stuff. It’s not a lot since I’m one person using Hero Forge and posting stuff on Tumblr, but there’s some things lol

Jassy was first meant to be a set of twins. It was scrapped for many reasons, one of them being the “one child per couple”, but when I was still working on their first designs I had two wips. The original idea was that one of them was going to take inspiration from some other Naruto character, I think Hinata is who I settled for, and the other was going to have more of a fantasy vibe, to fit the theme of Shrek. This was another reason this was scrapped lol, but for a short while the idea of twin sisters Hinata and Princess Fiona excited

The kids were originally going to go to Hermitcraft. This was before we knew the portal led to Empires, so I was planning of having them enter the portal and exit in Grians base. The main reason this got scrapped was of course that we found out that the portal led to Empires, but also because I knew next to nothing about the Ren The King storyline during season nine, which I was planning to have be a big part of it, with Gertrude and Liana taking center stage as the main characters

To piggy back of the last one, I was planning to make a part two to Logbook, Jekiv’s fic where he wrote journal entries throughout their 20 year stay at the Double Life series. The premise of the sequel was that Liana was to have found the journal before he left it behind, and that she was going to keep on writing in it during their time on Hermitcraft. I even started a rough first draft of it, but as the Hermitcraft storyline was scrapped, so was the journal entry sequel.

Novo and Jekiv are both based off of dnd characters I’ve used in the past, a Bard who can’t play any instruments, and a character who picked up and slowly mastered necromancy halfway through a campaign. It wasn’t planned at the beginning, but it felt fun to pay homage to it, even if I would be the only one who understood the reference.

Some scrapped design ideas is that Liana was gonna be part Vex (Scrapped because it was too messy), Novo was gonna have more of a purple shade in his hair (Scrapped because it didn’t look right, but his signature colour is still purple), Johnny was gonna have a blue fire motif (Scrapped because I like the red fire vibe more, fit him better), Jekiv was gonna have red hair (Scrapped because he just looked exactly like Cleo that way), and Jassy was gonna be entirely green (Scrapped because it looked weird and didn’t fully fit since Joel isn’t green and like no one designs him like that, she does still have some green to her tho).

I mentioned this in a previous post but Liana went through many names before I settled on Liana (The first one I came up with lol, it just stuck). These names (Sharina Ace Sage Aurelia Francesca Octavia Monroe) along with Xelqua and Jellie became her middle names

Not a fucking day goes by where I don’t regret having Jassy constantly change her hairstyle. I painted myself into a corner for that one, and by god am I suffering

And, as a final little thing to celebrate my two year anniversary of not knowing peace because of these fucking kids, I thought I’d show you all a little comparison of the first ever hero forge design I made of the kids, and the most recent one, both to show how they’ve grown but also how I’ve gotten better at using the site lol

Ah, my babies

The funny thing is, that while yes they have changed and evolved over these two years, they canonically have not grown at all lol

Anyways, happy two year anniversary kids

[countlessrealities]

That was something else Morty could relate to. He never wanted to feel like he had back in his original dimension ever again and he had done everything in his power to make sure it wouldn't happen. So, he could easily imagine her frustration, even if he had no intention of showing any sympathy.

Besides, he was already meeting her halfway by offering understanding and kinship.

And, since he was feeling generous, he would throw her another bone. After all, Meg herself had just hand him the perfect excuse to have her deep in his debt. Had he agreed with her, he could have easily demanded pretty much anything from her, in return for his attention and support. He would admit that it was very tempting, but he was playing the long-term game right now.

Instant gratification needed to be sacrificed for the sake of his final goal.

"You don't need to pay me back," he answered, standing up and starting to collect his belongings. "We discussed this already. You're my girlfriend now, I owe you time and attention. I'm merely fulfilling my duties as your partner."

Once the desk was tidied up and everything he needed was stashed away in his crossbody bag, Morty pulled out his portal gun. Normally, he would have walked the way back to his flat, but he didn't want everyone to see the girl's ghost.

"Let's go."

A portal was opened in front of them and the president gestured Meg to float through it. He knew the etiquette and he knew that she liked it when he acted all gentlemanly, so...Ladies first.

"I never wanted to feel this way again mortimer." Sure in her original life it wasn't always being ignored. It was either being ignored or bullied. Neither of which she was very fond of. "But it is comforting that someone knows how it feels." It was surprising that he was willing to share that information with her.

Even if he didn't follow it up with anything just admitting it at all was a huge step for the boy. Atleast that was how meg saw it. It made her feel like she had something to cling to. Something that made her feel closer to him.

Made her feel like she could depend on him. Things like pride right now didn't matter. She could pick up the pieces later. Right now she needed him and for him to see it as worth his time she would be what he needed her to be. Make him feel valued. Wanted. Because right now he very much was.

There was the fact that he was also right. About this sucking but her having to get used to it and fast. No reason to wallow in her misery more than she already was.

He was right about that. The fact that the sadness the grief she was feeling in having her life ripped away from her was that much more intense because she was a ghost. Deciding to focus on it too much would only make her feel that much worse.

"Your place." She repeated his words. Though it was more like a question atleast in her mind. She had never been to his apartment before. Whenever she would visit him it had always been at his office or at public place. To her this meant something big. Like it was a new step in their relationship. When it came to them they had never been the most open to each other. "Okay. Thank you mortimer. This really means a lot to me. I need you now more than I ever have before and I'll pay you back for this. I promise."

[galaxywhump]

Collarstys

[SV-240 AU Masterlist]

[Castys Masterlist]

Happy birthday, Castys and Berkeley! What better way to celebrate than to torment them in a collab between me and @brutal-nemesis?

contents: slavery whump, collared and leashed, restraints, mildly creepy/intimate and possessive whumper, violence, choking, verbal abuse, lots and lots of guilt.

~~~

Most of the time visiting Daniel was something Berkeley looked forward to. It was a chance to unwind, forget about routine, mess with Rackham, eat some great food and just hang out with his old friend. Those visits were always a bright point in his plans, no matter how tired he was.

This time was different. 

At first it was the usual, a fond greeting, then he helped Daniel carry all the supply crates inside. He immediately had to open one of them and rummage through it, feeling his heartbeat in his throat.

"What got you so down?" Daniel asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Just tired." Berkeley shrugged, avoiding looking at the two other men in the room, both quiet, kneeling on the floor. He finally found what he was looking for - he took out a nice box, the kind used for gifting jewelry, and a small paper bag. He handed both to Daniel, who was smiling. Berkeley forced himself to smile back. 

"You can nap on the couch if you're tired," Daniel said, setting the bag aside for the time being and closing his fingers on the cover of the box, not opening it just yet. 

"It's fine."

Daniel did a double take at him, but dropped the subject, instead focusing on the box. With a genuine grin of someone who had just received their dream gift he opened it and took out the contents - a red leather collar with a custom lock, one that prevented the person wearing it from taking it off on their own. The room had been silent before, but somehow now it got even quieter, and Berkeley couldn't stop himself from glancing to the side.

He could immediately tell that Castys hadn't known about Daniel's idea beforehand, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that the gift wasn't meant for Wren. Castys’s eyes were wide, his lips pressed together to form a thin line, all traces of the initial smile he’d given Berkeley gone. His hands shook slightly as he wrung them in his lap, breaths slow as he stared at the collar for a few more seconds before finally speaking.

“O-oh, hun, you really shouldn’t have.” He tried to keep his voice level as he slowly leaned back, glancing over his shoulder.

Daniel rolled his eyes, but seemed to be in too good a mood to punish Castys for addressing him this way. 

"Well, even if I can't permanently brand you, you still need something that makes it clear that I own you now." He approached Castys as Berkeley and Wren watched his every move, a silent audience. He smiled and held the collar right in front of Castys's face, holding the small metal tag still between his fingers to give him a good look at the words engraved on it in a simple font.

Property of Daniel Rooney.

“Isn’t that…lovely. A-although, honestly, is it really necessary?” Castys asked as he slowly crawled backwards. “I mean, I’m here, and, like, I think we all know it, it’s just us, it’s pretty obvious that you, um, that I’m your-your,” he gulped, “precious little immortal boy. So I think I’ll pass, but thank you for your generous offer.” He gave Daniel a sheepish smile, some part of him clearly aware that this was happening no matter how he protested.

Daniel smiled to himself, then walked over to Wren and put his hand on his head, making him flinch. For a moment, nothing was certain - was he actually going to let his idea go? Was it just a prank on the two of them? Wren frowned and hunched his shoulders, as if to protect his neck if Daniel decided to put the collar on him.

"Before you joined us, it was just me and Wren, and it was even more obvious that he was mine. And yet he has his own reminder that I own him. Can't see why it should be different for you, vermin. But since I don't think you're going to just let me put this on you…"

His movements were too fast to even react to - he kicked Castys under the ribs, pushing until he fell onto his back, then stood over him, straddling his waist. Wren swallowed and averted his gaze. Berkeley jolted in place and opened his mouth to say something, anything, subconsciously taking a half-step forward, but then fell silent, knowing there was nothing he could say without making Daniel turn against him. Unlike Wren, he kept his gaze fixed on Castys, trying to convey a plea - don't make him angry, just go along with it - with just his eyes, or, hell, maybe even telepathy.

Castys gave Wren a concerned glance as he struggled uselessly against Daniel, his arms pinned to his sides by the man’s legs. He looked up at him for the briefest second before turning away and meeting Berkeley’s eyes. Something in them made Berkeley forget how old Castys actually was, and for a moment he just looked like a scared kid, which made this all that much harder to watch. 

Castys winced as Daniel pulled the leather around under the back of his neck, fists clenched at his sides. He wasn’t looking at Berkeley anymore, wasn’t looking at anyone, just staring ashamedly at the corner of the ceiling, gulping as Daniel threaded the end of the collar through the buckle and started to pull it tight. His mouth opened slightly, as if he was going to beg for Daniel to stop, but it turned into a gasp as the latch of the buckle slotted into the last hole in the leather, cinching the collar snugly around his neck. Smiling, Daniel ran a hand down the side of Castys’s face as the boy beneath him shuddered, his embarrassment all too obvious even from where Berkeley was standing. Daniel’s hand moved lower, settling around Castys’s throat, his thumb stroking the collar’s tag as he took a moment to savor the view.

“I knew being collared would suit you,” he said, voice low, but still feeling loud like a cannon shot in the absolute silence. “Red was a good choice, Berkeley. Such a universal color, isn’t it?”

Satisfied with his work, he straightened and stepped to the side, but Castys didn’t move from his spot, still lying on his back, staring up with empty eyes, his usually active hands just barely twitching. Daniel didn’t mind it in the slightest; with a light step he walked over to where he had left the paper bag, and picked it up, then reached inside and pulled out the second part of Berkeley’s gift.

Berkeley looked away, lips pressed tightly together, his face red from… he didn’t even know what. Embarrassment, maybe - but he had no right to be embarrassed.

Daniel was holding a leash, made of red leather as well, matching the collar. It wasn’t particularly long and couldn’t be extended, but that didn’t matter when it wasn’t supposed to give much freedom of movement. 

          Castys was sitting bolt upright now, his gaze fixed on the leash as he slowly shook his head. His fingers reached up to the collar, feeling for the lack of a ring that he knew was there, fiddling with the lock, the buckle, scrambling to pull it away from his neck as Daniel stalked closer. “You-you can’t be fucking serious with that thing, I’m not gonna let you-”

          “I think we both know that this is going to happen regardless of whether you ‘let’ me or not,” Daniel said calmly, crouching down in front of Castys. For a moment there was silence, tension in the air so thick Berkeley forgot how to breathe, and then Daniel pounced. He grabbed Castys’s wrists in one hand, wrenching them up as he knocked the boy onto his back once more, pinning his wrists above his head with one hand while attaching the leash with the other. Once it was on, he pulled it taut, not moving from his position above Castys, who was staring back at him this time, fire in his eyes as his fists clenched above him.

“Still so feisty,” Daniel chuckled, cocking his head to the side, clearly considering something. “Not complaining, but I know you’re going to try and get your collar off as soon as I let go of you, and we just can’t let that happen, can we?” He lifted his head to look at Berkeley, and nodded. “Can you fetch me some handcuffs? There should be a pair on the shelf.”

Berkeley shuddered, but remained frozen in place, his eyes going wide. His gaze moved from Daniel’s face to Castys’s, and despair twisted his features. He couldn’t do it.

“Handcuffs, please,” Daniel repeated with emphasis, straightening once again and nudging Castys’s side with the tip of his boot, a gentle encouragement to get him to roll over onto his stomach. Unsurprisingly he didn’t get a reaction, so the nudge turned into a kick and a push that knocked the air out of Castys’s lungs, and with the help of a sharp yank of the leash Daniel managed to roll him over and immediately pinned him to the floor with a boot to his back. “Stop struggling,” he ordered as Castys squirmed beneath him, giving the leash another pull, but this time he didn’t let it go lax, instead keeping it tense, the collar digging into Castys’s throat, nearly choking him. Berkeley couldn’t breathe either, and it was clear he was in no state to grab the handcuffs and add to Castys’s already horrible situation.

“I’ll get them,” Wren choked out, scrambling to his feet. Daniel rolled his eyes, but nodded, and he ran up to the bookshelf and took the handcuffs that he was so familiar with, cold, thin, made of metal. 

“Hold this for me,” Daniel said, holding out the leash after grabbing the restraints. 

Wren swallowed, glancing at Castys, then at Berkeley, before accepting the leash with a heavy heart. He didn’t have a choice - and at least he could loosen the grip to allow Castys to breathe freely again while Daniel wrenched his arms behind his back and cuffed them.

“There. Now we're all set." Daniel took the leash back from Wren and grinned. "Come on, vermin. Let's test it out."

That was all the warning Castys got before Daniel pulled hard, and since he couldn't prop himself up on his hands, there was no way for him to relieve the increased pressure of the collar on his neck, choking him. Castys gritted his teeth between gasps, frantically trying to get his legs under him to relieve the pressure. To Berkeley’s relief, he managed to get on his knees and stand up from there, coughing as air filled his lungs again. There was still plenty of defiance in his eyes, and he almost looked like he was going to say something, but he kept quiet, either because speaking was too difficult or out of fear of being muzzled. 

Daniel smiled at him, pleased, and tugged again to force Castys to take a few steps towards him.

"Perfect," he said. "Collars and leashes aren't my MO, but it feels right to use them on a feral thing like you. I can see the appeal," he laughed, shooting a glance at Berkeley as if expecting him to join.

He didn't. He stood, still frozen in place, his fists clenched, and stared. It wasn't the first time he'd seen someone treated like this, and he'd even had to collar someone before, at the buyer's request, but this was Castys, his friend, being dragged around on a leash like a feral animal. 

He forced himself to smile and nod at Daniel, even though it required inhuman effort. He'd already been acting suspicious, unwilling to help, and he couldn't allow himself to make it even clearer to Daniel that he didn't approve of how he was treating Castys. 

Seeming to think Berkeley’s reaction was good enough, Daniel turned his attention back to Castys. “Mmm, I think I liked you down on the ground better, after all.” He started pulling the leash downwards, not letting up until Castys knelt, who rolled his eyes and looked decidedly at the wall as he did so. “Ah, ah,” Daniel said, tilting Castys’s chin up towards him, “eyes on me, vermin.” Castys looked back at him with annoyance, but it only made Daniel’s smile widen. “You’ve been rather obedient since I collared you, you know. It’s a nice change of pace.”

“Congratulations,” Castys huffed. “Want a certificate?”

His snark was promptly ignored.

“Even then, you could do better since it still seems you don’t know your place.” Daniel dropped the leash, stepping down on it before Castys could make a move to grab it and slowly dragging his foot back, forcing Castys to bow his head and lean forward. Before he got very far, though, Castys flopped over onto his side, grinning up at Daniel.

“On the ground. Got it.” He gave him a thumbs-up as best as he could from behind his back. Daniel, unamused, swiftly kicked Castys in the stomach, and Berkeley couldn’t help but flinch. 

Without a word Daniel pulled Castys up to his feet again - only to give the leash a sharp yank forward and kick Castys's leg from under him at the same time, causing him to trip and fall… almost. The leash went taut, leaving Castys suspended in midair for a moment, choking him, before Daniel smirked and loosened his grip. Unable to catch himself with his arms restrained behind his back, Castys fell flat on his face, making Daniel snicker.

"Yep. On the ground."

Hearing Daniel’s amused laugh, seeing Castys fall like that, the beginnings of tears he blinked out of his eyes, the blood dripping out of his nose…it was all too much for Berkeley to watch. He looked away, his gaze landed on Wren, and he felt his powerlessness bubbling up inside of him, turning into anger, and this was the only way he could deal with it, the only thing he could control. Following the thought that sparked in his mind, he grabbed Wren by the arm and dragged him out of the living room.

Wren stumbled after him, too surprised to resist, which might have been a good thing considering who he was dealing with. Daniel didn't seem to pay attention to them at all, too preoccupied with Castys and the mess his blood had made, so before long Berkeley led Wren out on the porch.

And then he punched him square in the face.

Wren cried out, stumbling backwards, but Berkeley pressed one hand to his mouth, pushed him until his back hit the wall, and wrapped his free hand around his throat, glaring at him.

"It should be you," he hissed, tightening his grip; Wren's eyes went wide and he tried to free himself, but with the wall behind him and Berkeley standing so close to him he had nowhere to run. "You should be collared and dragged around and kicked, not him. You-"

He got choked up a bit, and he covered it up with fury, squeezing Wren's throat, making him squirm.

"He doesn't deserve this!" he continued. "He-he shouldn't be here at all, with Daniel, and maybe if you did… I don't know, something, he never would've found out about Castys-" 

He could feel tears coming, which only made him angrier; he let go, but before Wren could catch his breath, Berkeley slapped him hard, causing him to gasp, and grabbed his hair to hold him in place.

"You better do everything you can to make Daniel focus on you instead of him. If you don't, I'll make your life hell."

Despite the shock and pain, Wren couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh of disbelief.

"You made my life hell months ago," he said, doing his best to keep his head up and his voice level even as he trembled. "And I don't deserve this either."

While Berkeley stared at him with an unreadable expression, Wren continued.

"Castys deserves better, but what did you expect?! You're a slaver, you ruin people's lives for a living, and now you're surprised because someone you actually care about got dragged into it?" He shook his head. "Cry me a fucking river, Berkeley."

He wasn't surprised when Berkeley attacked again, slammed him into the wall, kicked him in the stomach with his knee, knocking the wind out of him. What he was surprised by was seeing Berkeley's eyes well up with tears, something he never thought he'd see.

"How dare you- You're nothing- You're- You're worthless, Rackham," Berkeley choked out, and Wren couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of satisfaction at having clearly struck a nerve, but it didn't last long when Berkeley continued. "Listen to me. You're an idiot, you're weak, you're completely useless, you-you're just a waste of space. You don't matter." Reciting every insecurity, every fear, everything he'd learned, while Wren stared at him, wide-eyed, suddenly on the verge of tears too. "I wasn't there, but I know how your funeral went. Wanna know? Nobody cared. There was cookie-cutter crap about you being a great ranger or whatever, but no one cared. And they definitely didn't care enough to be suspicious of your death."

"I know," Wren croaked, but it was completely different to have those grim thoughts and to hear a blunt confirmation, and of course he started crying, and Berkeley smiled at that.

"Crybaby," he said quietly, and finally let go. "We're going back inside. You can go cry in the bathroom or whatever your hobby is, and don't say a word about this to Daniel, got it?"

Wren did his best to glare as tears trickled down his face.

"He's too busy hurting Castys to care anyway," he hissed, earning himself another quick slap before being grabbed by the shoulders, forcibly turned towards the door, and pushed.

"Walk."

Fuming, Wren obeyed; once inside, he rushed to the bathroom, keeping his head bowed so that Daniel wouldn’t see his tear-streaked face, and locked the door. Berkeley took a deep breath. Blinded by guilt and anger he hadn’t stopped to think about what he was doing, what taking his emotions out on Wren entailed, but now the realization was catching up to him.

He had left Castys alone, at Daniel’s mercy.

After a while of being pulled around like Daniel’s new favorite toy, Castys found himself surprised when Daniel simply sat on the couch behind him after using the leash to force him to his knees. Was he finally tired of his little Yank Castys Around fest? Ah, nope, there was another jerk of the leash, this one forcing Castys’s head right up against Daniel’s knee. Daniel didn’t let the leash go slack, keeping Castys snuggled against him like a stupid pet. Fuck, whatever, he probably preferred this to being pulled around by the fucking neck. Probably.

When Daniel’s hand slid into his hair, Castys couldn’t help but flinch, feeling his face grow hot as Daniel chuckled. He fought the urge to make some comment about Daniel needing to get a pet cat. The last fucking thing he needed right now was to be muzzled on top of having to wear this stupid collar, so he’d keep his thoughts to himself for the time being. It had already been such a long day, so if Daniel was going to give him an opportunity to rest, he’d take it, even if it was…like this.

He flexed his fingers behind him, wishing he wasn’t still wearing these stupid handcuffs, but it’s not like they were the only thing preventing him from relaxing. Daniel’s hand in his hair was making his skin crawl, and it was all he could do not to shudder, which was especially hard given how close he was to the guy. It’d been a month or so since Daniel had cut his hair, but Castys still wasn’t really used to the feeling of it, especially now that Daniel was touching it, running his fingers through it, ruffling it, smoothing it down, like it was something just for him to play with, so of course he’d do what he liked with it, and that annoyed Castys enough that he had to strongly resist the urge to bite him. Not that it took much for Castys to want to bite Daniel, but still.

Castys wasn’t sure if this was better or worse than being hurt, honestly, because, yes, it didn’t hurt, but this still sucked majorly. Well, at least Berkeley and Wren weren’t here to see it anymore since they’d gone off somewhere, and that was making this a little easier. Maybe that was part of what made this collaring thing so awful this time around. He’d been collared and leashed before, and he’d dealt with it just fine, but something about this particular scenario was just…more humiliating somehow. He’d never had anyone see him this way before, let alone one of the best friends he’d ever had. Not that he didn’t like Wren, too, but their relationship was nothing like the one he and Berkeley had.

The way Berkeley had looked at him…Castys had gotten pretty good at telling how he really felt behind the mask he wore, and that aside he was doing a worse job than usual at hiding it. Honestly, seeing how much all this hurt Berkeley upset Castys more than everything Daniel was doing to him. He could take this, it wasn’t that bad, and even if it was in the moment, soon enough he’d be numb to it anyway. But Berkeley…fuck, he was so worried, and he probably blamed himself when it wasn’t really his fault. He knew how Berkeley got, how he’d spiral, his anxiety so high he could barely focus, and he wished he could hold his hands and help him calm down like he always did. Maybe he didn’t deserve to after how he’d lashed out at Berkeley when he first learned he was staying here, but…maybe he wanted to make it up to him, too, wanted to make up for doubting him. He hadn’t meant to but in the moment it’d reminded him so much of…of her, and he’d just panicked, and…

Daniel’s stupid fucking hand moved lower, lightly stroking the back of Castys’s neck, and this time he couldn’t stop himself from shuddering, earning a satisfied hum from Daniel. God fuck off dude most people don’t like being touched there you’re not fucking special. Now he was stroking the collar itself, fingers brushing over the sensitive skin on either side. Castys was kind of glad he could make all the faces he wanted at that since Daniel couldn’t see, so that was something. The hand was curled around the front of his throat now, not pressing or choking, just resting, but the message was completely clear. Not that Castys gave a fuck, but oh the vermin boy in him was wanting to chomp so bad. Instead of acting upon his instinct, he slipped into a daydream about biting Daniel’s finger off, the thought alone calming his urge. This wasn’t a battle he particularly wanted to fight at the moment, not when he could hear the sounds of Berkeley and Wren coming back into the house, so he’d settle for being a good little pet vermin. 

For now.

After taking a moment to pull himself together as much as he could, Berkeley entered the living room, where he was greeted by the sight of Daniel sitting on the couch, his hand casually wrapped around Castys's throat, while Castys himself was kneeling on the floor. Berkeley felt sick, and Daniel just smiled at him.

"Look how docile he can be," he said, giving the leash a light tug, making Castys wince.

Berkeley nodded, not saying a word, and all he could think about as he hesitantly sat down on the couch as well was the fact that Daniel didn't even ask about Wren.

He was right. Daniel was entirely focused on hurting Castys now, making his life hell, and Berkeley was all too aware that he was the one to blame.

With a heavy heart he forced himself to look at Castys, locking eyes with him. Castys should be angry, he should hate him, he should glare - but instead he gave Berkeley a reassuring smile, which made him feel like he was going to break down right there and then.

Still, he managed to mirror the smile as best he could. If Castys could stay strong through this nightmare, Berkeley could too.

He owed him that much.

~~~

SV-240 taglist: @faewhump @inky-whump @whole-and-apart-and-between @whatwasmyprevioususername @procrastinatingsab @funky-little-glitter-bomb @goneuntil @redstainedsocks @luminouswhump @lonesome--hunter @as-a-matter-of-whump @renkocchi @whump-only @muddy-swamp-bitch @girlwithacoolcat @watermelons-dont-grow-on-trees @sophierose002 @whump-headspace @to-whump-or-not-to-whump @kixngiggles @ohwhumpydays @whumpvp @wibbly-wobbly-whump @stab-the-son-of-a @his-unspoken-words @pumpkin-spice-whump @onlyhappywhenitpains @suspicious-whumping-egg @morning-star-whump @there-will-always-be-blood @springwhump

[devilsupdates]

Period 2

4-0 Islanders. That squeaked through the 5-hole (damn it)

Tough audition for Jakub Zboril who just didn't play that puck well and allows a breakaway.

Nico takes an interference penalty.

#NJDevils third penalty tonight already.

Islanders PP is 2-for-2.

Nico in the box (so sexy)

#NJDevils going to the PP.

Cizikas to the box.

Timo Meier PPG.

#NJDevils down 4-1.

Pretty good sequence, nice backdoor feed by Dawson Mercer.

Alex Romanov took a run at Timo Meier and Curtis Lazar jumped right in there and dropped the gloves.

Lazar is going to be called for a double-minor for his roughing of Romanov. Romanov gets two-minutes for roughing.

5-1 Islanders. PPG (😤)

Islanders score just a second before Foote steps out of the box (he was serving one of Lazar's two penalties).

Lazar remains in the box as his second penalty ticks by.

Jake Allen allowed three goals on 0.46 expected goals in that period.

#NJDevils were sloppy, but Allen's .400 SV% didn't help.

Sheldon Keefe had his entire team crowded around the bench as he delivered a hearty message during the TV timeout. Amanda stein posted

#NJDevils to the PP.

Mitchell off for interference.

End of two.

#NJDevils trail the Islanders 5-1.

1: ✖️Karlstrom (Bolduc, Cholowski)

1: ✖️ MacLean

1: ✖️Horvat (Barzal, Dobson)

2:✖️ Foudy (Dufour)

2: 🚨Meier (Mercer, Bratt)

2:✖️ Wahlstrom (Cholowski, Karlstrom)

Shots 17-12, NJ

We need to get our shit together

[virgeandhis-pocket-protector]

Ok i've gotta succumb to my SaSi SvS brainrot real quick

I really just need to ramble on indefinitely about deceit's introduction in selflessness versus selfishness here just so badly

I'm going to be talking about 02:25-05:57 in SvS by the way. There's...so much to unpack in this episode. But I just really love this introduction here. First off, I know everyone has pointed out Deceit's awkward rise-up here:

But no one has mentioned yet about the Not-Logan's very Deceit-looking expression here, with the purse lips/darting eyes/still head (which is really just wonderful instinctive acting on Thomas's part):

(maybe not the best comparison but I think any deceit fan will get my point)

Also, it's interesting to see when and where Virgil appeared in the video – right after Deceit revealed himself. Now, it's been clear throughout the series that Sides can't really hear what's going on in Thomas's apartment when they're in the Mind Palace (e.g., Logan had no idea Deceit was impersonating him). If he couldn't hear or sense Deceit, how did Virgil know to appear then? Well, probably because with Deceit's appearance, Thomas started getting nervous – his anxiety spiked. This probably caught Virgil's attention. Hence, the guy popped in looking about ready to slap a bitch.

Also, I think it's just lovely how consistent Deceit's intentions are here. When he first rose up as Logan, he'd said, "If Thomas would rather go to the wedding...we should hear it straight from the house's mouth. Thomas, the floor is yours. Wedding or callback?" Then, again revealed as Deceit, he asks, "Do you want the part or not?" Essentially, I think Deceit knows that Thomas wants to go the callback instead of the wedding. For the evidence to be sound, though, he'd need Thomas to admit that himself. However, Thomas isn't the one who answers Deceit's here.

Roman answers for him. Actually, there are several times throughout this whole introduction where Thomas could speak for himself, but doesn't because a Side gets to it first.

[Deceit]: Do you want the part or not? [Roman]: Of course [Thomas] does!

Originally, I hadn't caught on to the purpose of Roman's usurpation here; I had assumed Deceit was trying to get Thomas to go to the callback, so Roman stepping in helped prove Deceit's point, right? But, no, that's not the case at all – Deceit, frankly, doesn't care about what Roman wants right now. He's trying to figure out what Thomas wants. If Thomas had declared at the end he really wanted to go to the wedding, and Deceit hadn't sensed any lies, he likely would have let Thomas do so. But Thomas doesn't want to go to the wedding. A fun solution to this is the one Deceit picked: by putting them all in a courtroom meeting, he can single them out one by one, to hear what everyone wants independent from each other (including Thomas).

This all is a little interesting, since what Thomas wants to going to be literally deeply influenced by what the others Sides want since they are physically a part of him. However, it also seems to be that Thomas has some individuality from the other Sides, so maybe Deceit is actually on to something here.

I also want to mention this perhaps interesting part later:

[Virgil]: Okay, Thomas, even if he can tell the truth, that doesn't mean he can be trusted. [Thomas]: Mm, you're right. [Deceit]: Virgil's very right. You can't trust me! It's not like I'm trying to look out for you or anything. [Virgil]: Yeah, when I think of trustworthiness, I immediately think of someone who consistently disguises themselves like a member of Team Rocket.

Deceit is really leaning into Thomas's propensity to overthink things with "You can't trust me!" It's the same kind of prompt to cause constant double-guess and back-and-forth assumptions as "This sentence is a lie." This is called a Liar's Paradox. As an author, my inclination would be to have the other characters fall for it, argue amongst themselves for a bit, then figure out what happened and rise above it (therefore learning about how to avoid being manipulated like that). This could help enforce or denounce Deceit's trustworthiness, and also cause arguments amongst fans.

So that's what happens? Nope! Deceit's paradox falls flat and gets him nowhere. It goes straight over Virgil's head too (he immediately speaks up to Deceit's falsehood after the paradox line: "Yeah, when I think of trustworthiness..."). Either that, or Virgil could be familiar with Deceit's liar paradoxes, ignores them entirely, and continues to believe Deceit always lies. Or something else. But I think this is a really interesting moment, because Virgil seems like the kind of character who could definitely overthink the Liar's Paradox – or any paradox, for that matter (Logan and Patton might as well, too). But he doesn't. Former dark side moment, used to Deceit's shenanigans, perhaps?

I think it's also interesting that the Sides each have very different opinions about Deceit's appearance here.

Patton states that he believes "Lying to [Thomas's] friends is out of the question" – I think he also believes Deceit's a liar, and therefore, his intents and opinions are likely wrong. Additionally, Patton says that he feels Thomas needs to uphold his "commitment to Lee and Mary Lee's commitment." It could be possible he thinks Deceit is trying to get Thomas to go to the callback (instead of trying to hear what Thomas has to say), and is adverse to Deceit because of that as well. Patton is against Deceit because Deceit appears to be against going to the wedding.

Virgil just straight up hates the guy. Deceit's a liar, trying to get Thomas to lie, and is (he thinks) inherently untrustworthy because of that. I think that whatever Deceit's opinion is or is coming off as doesn't matter to Virgil much at all – the emo's just upset Deceit's popped up in the first place. He seems neutral about the wedding versus callback argument.

I think Roman finds Deceit untrustworthy too, but kind of looks past that because he thinks Deceit is on his side of the argument (which he seems to be). So, Roman is a lot calmer about Deceit's appearance here, despite still not explicitly appreciating Deceit's support.

Anyway that's me rambling on about Selfishness vs. Selflessness for not really any discernibly good reason. Feel free to reblog with more observations of this part before the courtroom. Ciao!