#all for the game levels of plot shenanigans

[xiaowhore]

equivalent exchange.

DRAFT. this fic is incomplete, as i've stated in this post. this has been sitting in the dungeon for a while, and i have no plans to finish them, but i posted these drafts to not let them go to waste. it is up to you if you still want to read them regardless of their incompletion :) i will be writing my original ideas for the fic at the end so you guys will have an idea of what the fic was supposed to be like.

premise. when ayato stumbles upon a drafted resignation letter on your desk, he doubles his efforts to show you the perquisites of staying by his side.

he doesn't want to lose a competent subordinate. that's all there is to it.

note. what's wrong with secretary kim au but it's definitely not the same because i stopped watching at episode 5 and have no idea what happened. anyways i think we were all expecting a ceo!ayato x secretary!reader fic at some point so here it is. (couldn't keep this gender neutral for plot reasons, so feminine pronouns were used.)

Kamisato Ayato considers himself a good boss.

Or as far as things go, he's a decent one. He treats his employees well, takes them to expensive restaurants for company dinners, and discourages overtime so they can head off early for the night. He doesn't care much for formalities, and he gets along with his colleagues fairly well. He's never heard anyone talk behind his back or complain about his attitude at work, and there aren't any rumors spreading about him (if he turns a blind eye to the conspiratorial gossip guessing his relationship status).

But he does have minor faults. Like showing a more mischievous side when work hours are over. Getting Thoma dead drunk during dinners because his half-conscious inebriated talking is a form of amusement, or riling up Itto in drinking games just because it's funny. Then he leaves Sara to clean up the mess for him, since Yae seems to enjoy the comedy sketch as thoroughly as he does and probably won't lift a finger to help even if he asked her to.

As his assistant, you're prone to falling victim to his shenanigans, silly stunts that coax out aggravated eye rolls and sighs of exasperation. Years of experience eventually shaped you up to be entirely immune to April Fools' pranks.

He's in the middle of planning another one when he spots a letter of resignation on your desk.

At first, he thinks it's your rebellious phase arriving a decade late. He always found it odd how you never retaliated against his tricks, and this may just be the long-awaited April Fools' prank of vengeance. If it is, it's particularly mean of you—Ayato does have feelings, you know? Even he would feel hurt if you told him you wanted to leave! You shouldn't take this kind of thing lightly!

Then he remembers you aren't the type to make jokes, April Fools' or otherwise, and it's that moment when he feels (proper) fear.

“[Name] wants to resign?!”

Ayato makes a zipping motion and Thoma's shrieks immediately die down, but the disbelief on his face has yet to wane. His brows scrunch together, brain hard at work in processing this piece of information, though it seems to short-circuit in utter confusion from the sudden blow.

Scandalized, Thoma lowers his head and levels his voice to a hushed whisper, “Are you sure you saw it correctly?”

“I have able eyes. Unfortunately, my optometrist confirmed my perfect vision and assured I saw it just fine.” Woe is he.

“Get them checked again.”

“No matter how much I check, it won't change the results, Thoma.”

“We don't know that for sure, sir!”

“Trust me,” Ayato deadpans, looking off into the distance, “I checked with him thrice.”

Defeated, Thoma leans back to his chair, crossing his arms while deep in thought. “You saw the letter, but she didn't turn it in, did she?”

“She didn't. No e-mail, either.” Ayato taps the table in a mindless rhythm, expression stern but the shape of his lips almost resembling a pout. “Do you have any idea why she'd want to resign?”

Thoma rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. “Is that a genuine question, sir?”

Ayato's head snaps back to look at his companion. “Why wouldn't it be?”

“...Everyone in the office knows you... tease her for your own amusement.”

“It's my way of showing affection.” The corners of his lips curl up, stretching to a twisted smile as he rests his cheek on his palm. “Isn't she just so adorable when she gets angry?”

“You really do have a rotten personality.”

Ayato waves his hand in a noncommittal response. “We're straying off topic. What should we do next?”

Thoma hums, closed fist beneath his chin. “Since she hasn't turned in the letter yet, that means she must be hesitating. For what reason, we don't know, but it's keeping her here. So before she makes up her mind, we should dissuade her from quitting no matter what.”

Ayato laces his fingers together, brow in an inquisitive arch. “And we do that by?”

Green eyes sparkle with tenacity, clashing with blue irises twinkling in intrigue. “We bribe her, sir. It's time to show off your good points.”

--

“If a woman quits her job, what do you think her reasons could be?”

Ayaka blinks owlishly at her brother, taken aback by the abrupt question. It's a sudden thing to ask, especially odd given how their conversation hasn't led to that topic at all. “Did someone resign? I haven't heard anything of the sort, though.”

Ayato shakes his head, stirring the boba tea in his hands. “It's a hypothetical.”

Which means it's real.

Ah, whatever. At least he didn't go for the “my friend...” excuse.

Ayaka warily cuts a portion of her cake, scrutinizing each microexpression flashing on Ayato's face. It's one of their weekly lunch meetings, squeezed between hectic schedules, and they more or less have a silent agreement to avoid discussions involving work if they could help it. But this time, he brought it up himself.

How peculiar.

“Perhaps she wants to change workplaces? If she's exemplary, she might have been offered a better position or higher pay.”

Ayato nearly scoffs at the suggestion. The company, old-fashioned as it is, can only be inherited by a direct line of descendants. Outsiders can only go so far, and being the secretary for the chief executive officer isn't bad at all. Last time he checked, he's been paying you generously as well—how many figures was it? Six?

“Oh!” Ayaka exclaims, holding up a finger as she seems to have figured out something. “Or maybe she wants to settle down and get married? If her work is keeping her occupied, she'll most likely take time off to find a husband.”

Ayato proceeds to choke on a tapioca pearl.

“Or she got married and wants to be a housewife-”

“That's quite enough, Ayaka.”

Ayato would rather believe the Earth is flat.

--

If Ayato were any less desperate, perhaps he would have rationalized that putting together “give her what she wants to make her stay” and “she wants to get married” is a bad, bad idea.

Unfortunately for him, he is grasping at straws, so it leaves him no choice. Yes. Definitely. There is no other option than this, obviously.

(He does not delve deeper into the reason why he doesn't want you to leave, nor does he dwell any longer on why he was so quick to think he was fine with getting married if it was to you.)

“Don’t you want to get married soon, Ms. [Surname]?”

To clarify, Ayato does not spy on other people's conversations for a hobby, but he's always had impeccable timing. It comes with the job.

He stands by the door, reaching for the doorknob to the break room, but the mention of your name forces him to a halt.

“Why are you asking me that...?” You awkwardly dodge the question, sipping on your coffee. “I suppose I am at that age, though.”

“So you do want to!” The squeal rings with a note of glee, a stark contrast to Ayato's gradually dimming mood. “Wouldn't it be nice to marry a good man? I'm sure even you have thought of it at some point! Are you seeing anyone, then? Anyone you can imagine yourself marrying?”

“No, not yet.”

Before Ayato can even heave a relieved sigh, you follow with, “But my mother is making me go on dates to see people. Said if I didn't bring home a man soon, she'd come all this way to drag me back by my ear and introduce me to her friend's son.”

“Ah, I get that...” Your friend replies emphatically, nodding. “But those kind of meetings hardly go well. And you can't exactly tell your mother's friend you don't find her son attractive, right?”

“Why not just marry Mr. Kamisato, then?” Another one pipes up, to which Ayato gives a mental salute of appreciation. “You spend most of your time together. If you're not married to your job, then you're practically married to him.”

A cackle sends his heart dropping to his stomach.

“Not a chance.”

Can you at least expound why?!

“Huh? Why not? I mean, Mr. Kamisato is on another realm of existence and I can never hope to be on the same level as him, but you look good together!”

Your face pinches to a tight frown. “Look good together? In what way?”

“When you stand side by side, it just looks... right. And like I've mentioned earlier, you spend all your time with him. Why not seal the deal?”

“Mr. Kamisato is reliable, and if you marry him, you're set for life. He's handsome too, and we've all seen his muscles at our company sports day a few months ago!”

“I've never been so thankful for team-building events. Hallelujah.”

Ayato's face burns in embarrassment hearing the dreamy sighs. Even if they think there isn't anyone else listening on them (which is false), shouldn't they exert some restraint at work?

“Please don't lust over my boss,” you assert sternly, voice ice cold. “And we have a strictly professional relationship. So don't get any weird ideas from here on out, alright?”

“Fine. Tell me that again when I'm invited at your wedding, I dare you.”

“I said-”

They wave off your vehement protests at the statement. “Then if you're not into Mr. Kamisato, what do you plan to do?”

Ayato perks up, straining his ears in rapt attention.

“...I'm going on a date this weekend,” you sigh, rubbing circles on your temples. “I'll let you know how it goes.”

Oh no.

--

“-Dinner was nice. We didn't expect the rain shower, but he ran to the convenience store across the street to buy an umbrella because he didn't want me to get wet on the way to the car. He said it would be a waste if my hair got ruined since I-”

Slurp.

“...Styled it for the occasion. Then he drove me home. I found out we liked the same band from the music he played, and we agreed to-”

Sluuurp.

“-Go to their upcoming concert together. Then we somehow also like the same novel that's getting a movie adaption soon, so we also promised to see it-”

Sluuuuuuuuuuuuuurp.

“Could you please refrain from making noise when eating, sir?”

Ayato decidedly does not comply and only slurps his boba tea harder, nearly choking on a tapioca pearl yet again.

As always, you learn to ignore him.

“Concert... and a movie. I'm not sure about the concert, but the film you're talking about is the one coming out in the next two months, right?” Thoma confirms, sweating when Ayato's expression turns visibly grim. “You plan to see him for that long...?”

“Even if dating doesn't work out, we can always become friends, can't we?” You shrug, taking a bite out of your sandwich. “He seems like a nice guy. We get along really well, considering we've only met once. I ended up agreeing to a second date-”

The passive-aggressive slurping persists for the following afternoon.

--

“I've been meaning to ask for a while,” Thoma treads carefully, noticing Ayato's rapid-fire typing—no, striking—on the keyboard, “Ms. [Surname] is good at her job, but you seem really... eager to make her stay, sir.”

Ayato's fingers halt in their movement, and he takes a second to flash his business smile. “Of course. She's a valuable asset, and I'd be foolish to let her go.”

“Yes, I'm well aware, but...” Thoma scratches his cheek, looking off to the side. “You didn't go to such lengths when your former assistants resigned from their post. Or, uh... you fired most of them.”

“Yes,” Ayato simply agrees, still smiling, “she's competent. You don't find anyone like her easily, so it's only natural I'd want her to stay.”

“What do you mean by 'anyone like her,' sir?”

Thoma is awfully talkative today. Ayato might need to feed him something spicy to shut him up.

“Ms. [Surname] is special.” The words smoothly leave his lips. “Does anyone else have the meetings and company events scheduled for the next month memorized? She's the only one I can count on for work matters.”

Thoma's shoulders slump. “Okay, let me get straight to the point. Do you-”

“Mr. Kamisato?”

Thoma nearly jumps out of his skin at the sound of your voice, accompanied by the clack of your heels.

“What is it?” The cold smile on his face finally melts to something more genuine, softer around the edges and looking especially radiant. It's welcoming, like your arrival counts as a joyous occasion, and he is exponentially more attentive compared to the way he lent Thoma half his ear (the other preoccupied with a phone call, which he swiftly ends the moment you walk in).

“I came to deliver some files from Ms. Miko... did I interrupt something?” You gesture to Thoma standing idly by the side, dumbfounded from Ayato's inconceivable behavior.

“Not at all. Is there anything else?” Ayato accepts the documents, noticing your hesitance to leave.

“Ah, yes, I will be asking for time off tomorrow.”

That's... rare?

But it's not a hard request. Ayato's own schedule is blank for the most part, since the latest project wrapped up not too long ago, and the workload is lighter than usual. Missing one work day won't do any harm.

“It's fine, but could I ask why?”

You fidget, tentative as you reply, “I was invited... for a trip on a cruise. He insisted I come since his friend bailed on him and the tickets would go to waste.”

The warmth in his eyes freezes over.

“The tickets would go to waste...” Ayato repeats under his breath, mockingly cruel. The tone flies past your head but it hits Thoma full-force, making him sweat profusely.

Distasteful. An utter disgrace of a man. The magnitude of his ignorance is so awe-inspiring, I have to applaud. I must give credit where it is due, and the foolishness of this clown is truly impressive. “The tickets will go to waste,” he says? His money must worth more to him than his dignity. Inviting Ms. [Surname] to a date on a workday with no regard for her schedule is one thing, but making her out to be an afterthought as a substitute for his original travel partner is another. How shameful. This is no way to treat a lady. If Ayaka were to be with a man of his caliber, I would never allow it.

But what he says outloud is of course, “I see. I hope you have fun, then.”

--

Corporate events are, for the most part, adequately entertaining.

Preparing for it is not.

But the worst part isn't even brainstorming themes, or finding an appropriate venue, or planning the logistics, or writing the guest list.

It's choosing what to wear.

Actually, the cause for Ayato's headache isn't even what attire he'll go with. It's yours.

“That looks wonderful,” Yae praises, looking at the picture on your phone. It displays a silver necklace, a tear drop topaz encased in a diamond twist. It pairs well with the dress you bought with Ayaka last week, an elegant fit that accentuated your curves.

However.

“He chose that for you, didn't he?”

The stoic line of Ayato's mouth twitches and his eyes can't help but sweep over your screen, scrutinizing each grainy pixel.

Though he has plenty of insults prepared at his arsenal, he can't find anything to nitpick about. Damn it. It's a good choice.

“You'll look stunning,” Kokomi assures good-naturedly, smiling in delight. Ayato does not doubt that will be the case, but he's sure he would be in a foul mood the entire night if he were to see you adorning it.

He has already retrieved his coffee from the break room so he excuses himself to his office, long strides that lead him out of earshot.

As a result, he doesn't hear the following conversation.

“Why this, though?” Kokomi asks, looking closely at the accessory. “It's a simple design. Doesn't look like something a man would pick from the rest.”

You shake your head. “I just told him I wanted something blue, and I couldn't choose myself because there were too many that caught my eye...”

“Blue?” She echoes, a simple curiosity. “Why blue?”

“...It's a pretty color.”

--

It is an actual coincidence that Ayato runs into you in the middle of shopping.

You're hunched over a display stand showcasing a variety of earrings, deep in thought as you observe each one. You're doing that thing where you scrunch your nose in concentration, a habit Ayato doesn't think you even realize you have.

“Fancy meeting you here, Ms. [Surname].”

(He wonders what face you would've made if he said “You go here often?” instead. Probably some degree of disgust.)

You blink, correcting your posture and nodding in greeting. You don't look particularly thrilled to see him, but at least you're unbothered by the prospect of seeing your boss on a free day. “You're here to shop too, Mr. Kamisato?”

Ayato smiles amicably. “I am. Were you planning to buy earrings?”

“Yes, but...” Your gaze returns to the display, your own smile faltering. “It is a bit difficult to choose.”

He walks over, scanning the variety up and down. “Is it really? You only need to choose a pair that matches your necklace, right?” He focuses on shades of silver, bypassing the vibrant colors of reds and pinks. Not even fifteen seconds later, he picks out a card and holds it out next to your ear. “This one looks nice on you.”

“Huh? Really?” Perhaps surprised by his swiftness, it takes you a moment to react accordingly. You take the card from his hands and flip it over, eyes widening by a fraction. “Oh. It is rather pretty.” Then they widen further as big as saucers. “I can't say the same for the price tag, though.”

“Hm? What price tag?”

He plucks the earrings from your hands, walks to the counter, and pays for it without a second thought.

“M-Mr. Kamisato?”

“Pull up your hair.”

“Eh? Oh, okay.”

You're so caught off guard that you unwittingly do as he says, tucking your hair back obediently and still processing the last two minutes.

His fingers tug at your ear, warmth bleeding to your skin, and by the time you return to reality, he's already putting the earrings on you.

STORY FLOW.

ok i lied i actually can't remember shit about this fic so i will be making up stuff as i go lol

what i do remember clearly is that the resignation notice that ayato found on your desk is years old. you meant to submit it way, way back when ayato was tougher on you, and you weren't as well-adjusted as you are now to the job yet. as stated in the fic, being ayato's secretary is no easy task—he'd fired countless people he thought was incompetent.

you fought a number of times, and you didn't know if you could keep up working for a man you thought was simply incompatible with you (in terms of being colleagues/partners).

but over time, you learned to work together. ayato acknowledged your efforts and hard work, and you knew ayato had been trying to give you less jobs to reduce your workload, but you were going to prove that hou could handle it.

what truly made you appreciate ayato more was when you got stranded at the train station. you dealt with a far company they collaborated with, but work ended later than expected, and you'd missed the last train home. taxis were an option, but youd have to go through several of them to get back. right when you were thinking of checking into a hotel, ayato informed you he was already on his way and drove a couple of hours to get where you were to bring you home.

time continued to pass, and that brings us back to the present. you were on the process of cleaning up your desk and left the old resignation notice out in the open by accident, which led to ayato seeing it.

it is very apparent to the others that you two like each other, but the involved parties themselves are unaware of it. you currently aren't eager to get married, but you were trying to meet people so your parents would stop bugging you about still being single.

anyway, ayato bought those earrings for you. timeskip to the corporate event. you unconsciously picked a blue motif for your outfit because it reminds you of ayato.

when you get there, surprise, surprise. the man you were meeting, kazuha is a bigwig, heir to some other corporation. he actually owned that cruise he invited you to and pretended he didn't because you might be intimidated. ayato didn't think the kazuha he knew and the kazuha you knew were the same person, and now the advantage he had over him was ruled out (i.e being rich). (actually while i was rereading i was surprised i didn't mention that it was kazuha...? istg i was imagining him the whole time i wrote about him)

anyhow, as it became later in the night, ayato wanted to get you home before kazuha could offer to drive you back or worse, spend the night with him. ayato acted drunk so you'd tend to him and accompany him home while his driver was in charge of taking you to his apartment. as you were nagging at him, he compared your interactions with him to yours and kazuha's. you were certainly nicer to that man. smiled at him a lot more, too. did you really like him that much?

if you did, could he let you go?

he was ashamed that he couldn't answer it right away. as if he had any right to whatever you do.

you carried him to bed when you got to his apartment, but when you were preparing to leave, he hugged you from behind. do you like that man? why do you want to leave me? why can't it be me? ayato was just pretending to be drunk, but he felt dizzy now, soaked in your scent. he said things that he wasn't supposed to. things that he couldn't take back. things that would change your relationship forever.

slowly, you took away the hands wrapped around your waist. ayato figured that was a message of rejection.

but then you pushed him back down on the bed and you straddled his lap. his mind was silent for but a few seconds before he started screaming mentally.

i've always wanted you, but i knew it was impossible. you have a fiancee. i'm an ordinary worker. your family won't accept me. ayato's mind was in a daze because your face was so close to his, and all he could see was the red, glossy shade on your lips, but he managed to hear those few sentences.

it doesn't matter. nothing else matters. i can't marry if it's not you. if you accept me, i swear i'll make you happy.

from here on, it could be a happy, fluffy ending where turns out, you were tipsy so you were more honest with him and you fell asleep in the middle of kissing so he took it upon himself to change your dress into something more comfortable and end the night with a forehead kiss...

...or you could continue what you were doing and the first thing ayato takes off is the damned necklace so he could replace it with a smattering of hickeys. your choice ^^

[xlatrina]

Friends to Lovers HCs w/Homicipher x GN!Reader

$$$   $$$   $$$

Tags: Platonic + Romantic HCs, Friends to Lovers trope for basically every LI, Likely OOC for some LIs*, Mini Scenarios (so HCs are kinda plot-driven), *Multi-Part Series, entirely SFW

Also, changing tenses in some cases + not proofread again... sorry!

*Some of the LIs are likely written OOC (Out Of Character) mainly due to a lack of substantial in-game appearances (at least in my opinion!). 

*Split into multiple parts because I’ve come to realize that these HCs are muuucccchhh too long 😅 BUT!! I’m too lazy to shorten them sooo… YEAH lol

Part I (Big 🙆‍♂️)

Part II (Mr. Chopped 🪓)

Part III (Mr. Crawling 👣)

Mr. Big (AKA Mr. Huge Face)

Big mf tease.

Loves to mess with you. Finds it funny to watch you run around in circles as he keeps rotating the room.

The exit’s this way! …Oop! Nope. The exit’s that way! No, no, over there!

Soon, you find yourself whipping your head back and forth, totally lost.

“Wait, which way did I come from again? I came from that way, right?” You’ll ask yourself.

Mr. Big will just chuckle at you and reach for your little frame (well, relative to his own frame).

Truth be told, Mr. Big gets a kick out of seeing you jump in surprise and scream every time you see him. You’d think you’d get used to his shenanigans, but… well, evidently not!

If this big bully playful giant becomes more interested in you, you may find yourself in a super uncomfortable position, to be honest.

Like, he may very well take “playing God” here to a whole ‘nother level. So, like, he’ll probably just straight up get rid of the exits and entrances altogether.

At least for a little while… so he can observe you.

His favorite little plaything❣️

This sensation might be rather odd and unfamiliar to Mr. Big.

After all, he’s something that’s existed in this other world for… well, forever, really.

He’s never felt this way before… or has he?

If he has, it’s been entirely too long.

It’s just cute, you know? Watching this adorable little thing dart back and forth across the room.

There are times you give up on running, though, and you simply accept your fate.

Mr. Big takes that opportunity to scoop you into his palm.

He’ll try to talk to you.

“Why you no run?” He may ask. Or, maybe he’ll ask something like, “You no move. Not ok? Not alive?”

… Is he teasing you or is he seriously asking if you’re still alive?

You’ll squirm a little in his grasp, and he’ll grin and cackle like a witch.

Ah, so his favorite specimen is still kicking it after all!

At some point, you become his Barbie.

He frequently changes the room you’re in with a flair of style that you’ve never seen him do before.

From a chic studio apartment to a modern family home with a stunning living room to a burgundy brick loft and more…

Where the hell did he get all this inspiration from??

Probably those discarded magazines that fall in after the earthquakes...

Wherever he gets these ideas from, it appears obvious to you that this served as a means of softening you up for your lowkey forced newfound home in Mr. Big’s dollhouse.

He provides you with the basics for life, at least.

Shelter, clothing, soap, water, food…

What do you mean you won’t eat undeterminable meat??

“You no like?”

“...”

“How interesting,” Mr. Big’ll say.

He’s smiling… but his smile doesn’t touch his eyes.

He’s pissed.

As a means of surviving a little longer, you decide to humor Mr. Big by pretending to eat the meat. It’s difficult to pull off, but you’ve managed to fake eating for a while.

He’s trying to figure out why you’re body constantly growls, though…

“Body make sound? Why? You ok? Need more food?” He’ll ask.

As much as you wanna deny it, it’s becoming painfully obvious that you’re fucking starving.

But you really don’t wanna eat whatever mystery meat Mr. Big keeps trying to serve…

Well, you always have the option to give a limb of some kind to Mr. Gap in exchange for recognizable food. Or maybe information or other odd things you could request.

As much as the price hurts, one thing you could never say is Mr. Gap doesn’t deliver every time!!

As for Mr. Big, well…

It’s kinda nice realizing how doting he can be, actually.

Since he’s always watching you from a bird’s eye view, there really isn’t anything Mr. Big doesn’t know about you.

He’s gotten really good at guessing your needs —often well before even you realize you’re desiring something!

He can tell when the room gets too hot or cold for you, and he’ll usually rearrange the room for better air circulation.

He’ll build the room into a puzzle of some kind so you don’t get bored!

In those times, he can tell when a room’s puzzle is becoming too difficult for you to solve, and so sometimes, when he wants to be nice, he’ll slowly tuck a large finger into the area. From there, he’ll push things around accordingly until you figure out how to solve it on your own.

As a partner of some kind, Mr. Big is super attentive. Again, nothing really gets past him.

You might think Mr. Big doesn’t recognize the way you crawl over to an old bookcase and peer beneath it for minutes at a time...

You might think he doesn’t hear the faint whispering after a moment of quiet...

Hell —you might even think he doesn’t recognize the way you “eat” the food he’s provided you in a specific corner near a hole in the wall. Like he can’t recognize how much thinner you’ve gotten over the last few weeks…

But he does. 

He sees you, he perceives you.

And he doesn’t plan to stop 👩‍❤️‍👨.

You’re his little toy!! 🧸

He’s Mattel, and you’re Barbie.

That’s how things are between you two now.

Forever.

… But hey, it’s not all bad!

Soon, you’ll open up to him.

Especially when he begins finding ways to limit the amount of holes or dark pits around the area.

I mean… he’s not necessarily that bad, right?

He’s attentive, doting (in his own way), providing, and —so long as you remain in his territory —you’ll never have to worry about facing the potential dangers of the Apartments!

Because the only real danger that could really harm you here is him…

You’ll soon find yourself talking to Mr. Big on your own accord.

“Why you big? Where is place? Who you?”

“My body not small. Is normal. Where is place? Me not know,” And he’ll chuckle —loud, deep, and rumbly. Then, he’ll finally answer with, “Who me? …Me not say!”

Ugh, fucking asshole!

[Part I (Mr. Big 🙆‍♂️) | Part II (Mr. Chopped 🪓, First Half/Second Half), Part III (Mr. Crawling 👣)]

[theladysunami]

I was thinking about Bingqiu messing with common horror video game plot-lines by doing their whole Bingqiu thing.

Imagine Shen Yuan transmigrating into a vaguely Christian mythology based crapsack video game world, where he is the cruel monk, Shen Qingqiu, who teaches at some terrible underfunded orphanage where one of the orphans, Luo Binghe, is *gasp* the antichrist.

Rather then doing what his character is supposed to do (mostly harass the child with abusive exorcism attempts, get defrocked for it, then do the whole Cassandra thing where he tries to warn everybody Binghe is evil but they don’t believe him) Shen Yuan does his Shen Yuan thing instead and dotes on Luo Binghe constantly.

Luo Binghe was supposed to keep finding himself abused by various corrupt organizations, only to rise to the top and get the better of each one through karmic and often creepy demon shenanigans, leaving them as ruined husks in his wake, and gradually losing more and more of his fragile ‘humanity’… but apparently that won’t be happening.

All the totally deep and meaningful allegories indie developer Airplane put in there about the antichrist merely being a reflection of humanity’s own evils… Gone!

Shen Qingqiu taught Binghe loads about ethics, and while Binghe isn’t quite sure he gets it (and does still harass and kill a good number of particularly nasty people with his demon powers) he’s a lot less scorched earth about things.

It is very important he doesn’t make his beloved teacher (*cough* the future Queen of Hell *cough*) sad! Shen Qingqiu happens to like the earth being in one piece, so in one piece it will stay.

Airplane transmigrates into his own game later as the Player Character.

The Player Character is meant to be an amateur investigative reporter who gradually reveals Binghe’s life story by investigating all the ruined, haunted, and demon infested locations left in his wake, and then ultimately attempts to save the world from the apocalypse. Instead Airplane discovers that besides a few powerless asshole ghosts and some well contained eldritch horrors, everything is fine actually.

He tracks down Binghe while trying to figure out what the hell happened to the plot, only to find the man playing housewife to his former asshole teacher???

Don’t worry, Airplane! The apocalypse is canceled, and the only soul Binghe wants is Shen Yuan’s… by which I mean he wants it bound to his own in eternal matrimony.

Go hang out with that cool ice demon you designed for that one level.

[ghostytoad]

* Fun n' Games *

ROTTMNT Boys x GN! Leo-esque reader who enjoys drama, making jokes, and being overall awesome

Summary: The Hamato brothers unexpectedly fall for the smug, but genuine, fun-loving reader despite their egocentric habits

Headcanons for: Leo

GN! Reader; Romantic; Fluff, Mild Angst || Words: 2.3k

Raph | Donnie | Mikey | Bonus!!

Leo:

oho, hello good lookin'~ it's nonstop flirting and banter from the minute they met and it's not going to stop anytime soon

finally! someone who has a sense of humor and can appreciate a good one-liner or two! and they can dish it out as well as they can take it? be still, my beating heart!

leo genuinely finds it to be a gift from the gods that y/n shares his brand of comedy and will not let up on it when he's around them

the romantic tension between y/n and leo is so thick that he could probably slice through it with his odachi - it makes his brothers sick to have to listen to all the schmoozing but leo ADORES the flirting praise

the boy would bend over backwards for y/n; he'd sell his prized jupiter jim collectibles for them if they asked him to (maybe… he'd probably still keep one or two tho)

there's an unspoken and ongoing (very friendly) rivalry between them; leo and y/n are constantly looking to one up each other and it's getting to ridiculous levels of competitive; they won't stop until things hit "deadly" levels and one of them almost ends up getting hurt

even little everyday tasks become a competition for the two of them, there's just no end to their games

grocery shopping? betcha i can save more money than you! pizza night? i can stuff twice as many pizza slices in my mouth than you can. hanging out in donnie's lab? hoo boy, i guarantee i can make him snap first.

it's the bane of donnie's existence, considering he's the target of most of their shenanigans; if he has to endure another one of their "who can ruin donnie's day" games, he swears it'll be the start of his villain arc

mikey's the unofficial score-keeper and peacemaker when things get too heated between the two of them; although he's more likely to stoke the flames than intervene… he just happens to enjoy watching them get carried away (not that he'd say it to their face). definitely enables the chaos to a terrible degree

"no way, you know i totally had that game last night before you went on to blow up my spot with your little tackle! next time we portal our way onto the superbowl field mid-game, i'm leaving YOU on the sidelines and scoring that touchdown solo!" (concerned raph sounds in the background)

they've absolutely plotted to portal their way into "hard to access" places like the white house or splinter's secret lounge room, but raph and donnie made them promise not to do it for very different reasons (donnie doesn't want to have to bail them out if they get stuck and raph is just being raph)

leo and y/n's carefree attitudes combined has landed them into trouble with the law a few times, both in new york and the hidden city

together, they're banned from like 10 different places and they're legally not allowed within 100 feet of any magicians; leo's only explanation for that is "we couldn't tell if it was part of the costume or if the guy actually had a barber-stache and how were we supposed to know he was blind?!". to this day, no one knows what he's talking about.

leo would absolutely hide the evidence of a crime for y/n; he ain't no snitch either and he's not going to let his bestie take the fall for something that TOTALLY wasn't their fault! more than likely, he'd blame their antics on hypno or if it's something not so bad, splinter.

senor hueso has an entire wall dedicated to leo and y/n: The Wall of Failures and Stupid Mistakes That You Will Surely Learn Nothing From

it has photos of all the times leo and y/n went on a fun little adventure and ended up being taken hostage by a villain, thrown in jail, or overall just beat up (they're mostly selfies and yes, leo is smiling and posing in all of them)

he would never let y/n get into any major trouble and he has the common sense to remember that y/n is only human, so at the very least he knows not to do anything too dangerous when they're around; he's reckless but he doesn't have a death wish

"i'm all for a good espionage mission and all, but this is big mama we're talking about! i say we sit this one out and wait for another chance to come along so we can try on these rad bellhop uniforms."

the two of them have made it a point to announce their arrival anywhere by doing the team rocket motto; occasionally mikey or april will join in as meowth. they have the costumes to match and will inexplicably be wearing them every time they do it.

they truly enable the worst in each other; raph insists on tagging along as the unofficial babysitter to every little hangout because of their chaotic nature, meanwhile donnie has protocols for every possible "doomsday" scenario they could initiate with their little stunts. zombies or accidentally reviving the shredder is at the top of that list.

matching outfits are a big must for leo; someone as UH-MAZING as y/n is absolutely worthy of leo's impeccable fashion sense and there's no way he's gonna pass up a chance to twin with y/n. if they refuse to match with him for whatever reason, he will pout about it for days.

whenever leo is sad or feeling a little down, y/n is the first person he goes to for a little cheering up. they somehow know just what to say to make the boy feel like a champion. and no, he didn't give them a script to read off of! (he totally did)

even with all the flirting and pick-up lines, leo still dreads the thought of ever admitting his feelings to y/n; he's a confident turtle, sure, but that's just the face part of being the face man. he's secretly an insecure mess when it comes to them

will become a flustered mess if y/n genuinely compliments or praises him; he'll stutter for a good minute or two before finally snapping back to his suave cool guy persona (which doesn't fool anyone, he's OBVIOUSLY crushing hard)

after an unfortunate night of misadventure, leo's forced to confess to his feelings AND his crimes

Well, some adventure this was turning out to be.

"Get in there! Y'all got the right to keep yer traps shut!"

Yep. What a real swell time.

Being hauled away in a prison ball, headed to the Hidden City Police Headquaters, all the while Big Mama's men chasing close behind.

"So much for the adventure of a lifetime." Y/N hissed bitterly as they tugged and pulled from the tangle of limbs they found themselves in, trapped inside the small bubble with Leo tightly packed alongside them.

"Well, maybe if SOMEONE weren't such a slowpoke, we'd have made it back! And I'd like to say for the record, you are the WORST lookout. Maybe next time try to keep up, will ya?" the turtle spat back with a scathing glare.

Y/N could only muster a hearty scoff as they balled their fists, unable to throw a punch from how they were positioned. Their heel found a suitable landing in the direct center of Leonardo's plastron and dug in with a stomp, eliciting a pained groan from him and a satisfied smirk from Y/N.

"If you weren't so cocky, we might've ACTUALLY pulled off your little stunt! But nooo, Leo just HAS to get in the last word!"

"OHO, pot calling the kettle black now, eh?" Leo wore his signature smug expression and attempted to jab a digit into Y/N's forehead. Given the way his arm was caught between his bent thighs, he only managed a slight graze before opting for a flick instead.

The two bickered and took shots at each other throughout the trip, much to the chagrin of the arresting officials steering nearby. It was gonna be a long night for everyone.

At the station, Leonardo and Y/N were placed into holding together, both of them choosing to sulk in silence on opposite sides of the confined room. It wasn't until Y/N was being processed that the question of what to do with the human came up for the arresting officers. With Leo's odachi confiscated, it wasn't like they could just send Y/N home on their own, but they couldn't leave Y/N in the same cell as powerful, human-loathing yokai. Leaving the pair to stew in their anger, the officers left to deliberate on Y/N's fate.

Silence followed. Neither one wanting to give in to this bitter game of chicken, Leo instead let out a loud, exaggerated sigh.

Silence.

Irked by the lack of response, he threw his head back and gave a loud, guttural groan of frustration.

"Right. So you aren't talking to me." he rolled his eyes and forced his gaze back onto Y/N, who sat indignantly across from him on a cold cement bench, their knees held close to their chest.

Not even a glance back.

"Oh, come on! You can't actually believe this is my fault! If anything, you should be mad at the guard that threw us out and called the cops! He's the one who got us in this little mess!"

Nothing.

The silence tore at Leo's chest, his heart thumping heavily against his plastron as he dejectedly sat back against the cold wall. It was unlike Y/N to ignore him like this. With every second, the stillness became unbearable. This little adventure was truly a disaster, not just for the predicament the two found themselves in but also for the lengths Leonardo had gone to ensure Y/N would have a good time. So that HE would have a good time with them. It didn't matter to him that they could be facing time in prison. That whole deal was practically child's play to the mischeivious mutant. It didn't even matter that they faced a total ban from the mystic city itself. It was the fact that he might've dashed any chance he had of winning over Y/N's affections.

'You just HAD to fuck it up, didn't you? You had to go out and be an asshole!' a booming inner voice fed into his insecurity and the crushing weight was enough to curl the red-eared slider into a fetal position, his lower lip quivering as he fought back tears.

"I…" a sniffle broke Leo from the spiraling despair he'd been wallowing in, unsure if the sound came from him.

"Am I… holding you back, Leo?"

Another sniffle and this time, he was sure the sound came from across the room. Peering over at the source of the sound, he found Y/N curled in on themselves, little hiccups causing their small form to quake and shudder. They were crying.

"Y/N?" Shifting from the bench, Leo took a few hesitant steps towards them as his hand ghosted across their shoulder before pulling away. His face wrought with guilt and worry, he debated scooping them up in his arms and holding them tightly to him right then and there. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. The thought of rejection stopped him in his tracks.

"I don't know why I do it. Why I try so hard to prove that I deserve to be around you." Y/N continued, their voice muffled as they buried their face in their knees. "I'm- I'm just a human. I'm not as strong. I'm not as quick. I can't compete with you and your mystic skills. I can't even keep lookout for you!"

"What? Y/N, no, you got it all wrong! Yeah, you're a human but I-"

"Just stop it! Stop!" Forcing back a loud hiccup, their head shot up to meet Leo's concerned gaze with a fierce, stubborn glare.

"You DON'T have to feel sorry for me and you DON'T have to keep me around! So why? Why keep me around when all I do is drag you behind?"

Their narrow eyes locked themselves with his, desperately searching his expression for any hint of pity. All Leo could do was chuckle, his concern melting into fondness.

"I don't feel sorry for you. Sure, you've looked better but I was so afraid I was the one holding YOU back."

"H-Huh? Me?"

"Y/N." The turtle sighed as he plopped himself down beside them, allowing their back to rest against his side as they unfurled from their little ball of sadness. "You ARE a human, yeah. But do you get how cool that makes you? You can do so much more than I ever could! Look, I might have my good looks, my mad skills, and my amazing charm, but you have that and more in… whew, in spades and for you, it's practically effortless."

As Leo moved to wipe a tear from Y/N's eye, he cupped his other hand on their damp cheek and with a tender tap of his thumb, he parted their lips slightly and moved in to plant his lips softly against theirs. The ghosting of his lips left enough room for Y/N to pull away if they felt uncomfortable. Instead he was nearly knocked back with the full force of Y/N's lips crashing against his, their body leaning over him and practically trapping him underneath their warmth. Leo's hands held firmly onto Y/N's sides and he eased himself back against the cold of the bench, breaking the kiss to let out a soft chuckle.

"I love y-"

"Well, well, well~ Looks like someone owes me 3 months of chores." a familiar, taunting voice hummed not too far from the two.

A jingling of keys had them both whipping their heads towards the now-open cell door, spotting the unmistakable, cocky face of Donatello leaning against the bars with crossed arms.

"D-Donnie?!"

"Yeah, yeah, you two can get back to your little makeout session. But I thought you'd like to know I paid your bail, you're welcome." He waved them off as he began down the hall. Some adventure this turned out to be.

Bonus comic: Leo definitely used his one phone call to call Señor Hueso

[thejolteonmastertj]

Caviga ALTTP LU reunion? Like, the old manga? 👀

Yes! Exactly! Basically the idea is I squish the manga into LU Legend's backstory, & the Chain meets some characters from the manga! & by characters, I mostly mean Arjuna. 🤭

What I'm working with so far for a plot revolves around the fact that, up to this point, Legend refused to refer to Wars' as "captain," & the Chain is deeply amused to find out the real reason why.

Wars' isn't mad about it but it is super confusing for everyone involved. Legend can't kick the habit of calling Arjuna "captain" if he tried cuz I figure he's been calling him that all his life! Him & his uncle seem pretty close after all. I'm going with the assumption that he's known Arjuna since he was a toddler (& as the above image suggests, never found out his real name until literally towards the end of his first quest 🤣). Imagine trying to full-name your grandmother, that’s how Legend feels trying to use Arjuna’s real name.

There's a bit of drama where Legend doesn't want his old Captain to find out he's grown so openly bitter towards knighthood since they parted ways, but since the Chain is amicable to playing along for the most part even that's just more sitcom-level shenanigans. 🤭

I figure his ego in the Caviga manga could actually easily develop into the bitterness he holds for knights in LU, it'll be neat to explore that. Haven't decided how/if I'll directly address any other discrepancies between the game & manga, it'll probably be a one-shot anyways so I'll just keep some things vague. 😆

[logansdogmotif]

ANTON SHUDDER HEADCANONS 🦇

requested by the lovely @griffinskullz!! and yes i did use phantom manor as my building claim for the midnight hotel… tf you gonna do about it

🦇 is native american/has native heritage, (lots of my cousins/aunts and uncles my mum’s side of the family are cherokee (a generation up from me i think?) and when i read the books when i was younger she would always headcanon anton as native, so that’s always stuck with me). p.s. my fancast for him (pictured above) is eddie spears.

🦇 is autistic! i always see this one as quite widespread, and it’s completely canon to me. i think he specifically has problems with certain sounds/levels of noise so i hc that the midnight hotel™️ is a top donor to loop earplugs.

🦇 has a bunch of sisters, think one doesn't have particular root in anything i just get ‘large family of sisters’ vibe from him. and in that vein, in my modern au he has two mums <3 so i think he’s always had quite a strong feminine influence, which in turn provides him lots of security in his masculinity.

🦇 has been approached multiple times for modelling gigs (but obviously never took them), and tbh?? has the lethal-est facecard out of the dead men. like if you lined them up and said “oh the really hot, like, beautiful one” everyone would automatically assume anton.

🦇 GAY!! i don’t care what derek says i think he needs to go on a 12-step program for making all of his characters bisexual to be honest. not that i have anything against that obviously i think most of derek’s character are bi but anton? not one of them. he has had girlfriends though but only when he was very young and always got broken up with for not being ‘engaged enough’ in the relationship.

🦇 canon specific: goes full loras tyrell about larrikin’s death. i’m a big shudderkin shipper here and i think larrikin’s death would’ve completely broke anton. and whilst i liked him leaving the midnight hotel to his (ex?)boyfriend after his death as a plot device to confirm his queerness, i honestly don’t think he would’ve had any serious relationships after larrikin. which is totally not what larrikin would’ve wanted but hey ho.

🦇 big music nerd. has a whole record library in the hotel and can tell you the artist, release date, producers, influences and interpolation of most songs in the last few centuries. he specifically likes classical songs that are minimum 10 minutes long, ballad americana (lana del rey, ethel cain, etc), and 80s folk.

🦇 the most mental health aware of the dead men, which i partially think is why he is removed from their shenanigans often as he recognises the negative effect they can have on eachother. i think having the gist gave him cause to learn a lot about compartmentalisation and how we process trauma, and i think he would have set up (or at least wanted to set up) some sort of free-of-charge counselling service at the hotel, and would've let the hotel's space be used for things like veteran's support groups or AA.

🦇 closest friends with saracen out of all of the dead men, and (depending on which au) they've known eachother since they were very young/since when saracen was very young (in canon i think anton is one of the eldest of the dead men, the actual eldest i think being hopeless). they at least grew up in the same village (BIG UP CORMACKSTOWN, COUNTY TIPPERARY!!! which i think is where the two of them are from if that wasn't clear).

QUICKFIRE HEADCANONS:

🦇 annoyingly good at card games (specifically uno)

🦇 generally doesn’t drink but gets CRUNK when he does (think ron swanson in the parks and rec snakejuice episode)

🦇 nicest handwriting ever

🦇 goes non-verbal relatively often

🦇 horrible core balance (that’s why his back is so straight all the time bc he’s actively trying not to fall over)

🦇 slow reader

🦇 favourite weather is early morning mist (specifically on the coast)

🦇 makes horrible tea

🦇 pockets full of mints like a grandma

🦇 chronic chest pain bc of the gist

🦇 WILL win any argument you have with him (even if you’re in the right, you will walk away feeling like you’ve lost)

🦇 genius at finding bargains & sales

🦇 teaches people how to shoplift from big corporations

skeleton hatman taglist 🫶: @griffinskullz @mortalcoils

p.s. i met derek landy for the second time yesterday! he signed my copy of hell breaks loose and i thanked him for making saraxter canon 💗 (also my friend gave him a ‘legally binding’ contract to write demon road 4 and he signed it as simon cowell… what a guy)

[edwardashley]

Most Chaotic Modern AU Found Family/Friend Group Award Goes To: The Terror Mutineers

guy with working class trauma, misguided megalomaniac philosophizer, gay slut (writer or theater dude), smokes like a chimney and owns several knives, tatted up, almost deranged level of wifeguy

his bitchy, chronically ill, genderqueer wife, domestic king and actual breadwinner, constantly playing psychosexual mind games with her husband, does 50% of the chores

big bruiser jock, heart of gold, achingly in love with the first guy (they are f*cking, first guys wife knows, hates it, but cant stop them)

hard of hearing pretty boy, achingly in love with bruiser jock

angry small jock, size complex, achingly in love with bruiser jock

first guy’s best friend, cognitively disabled, but everyone treats him nicely. does other 50% of all the chores because the others are slobs and/or inept, may or may not be able to see ghosts

rich guy #1, won’t stop talking abt piss, sexfreak, has at least a graduate degree but feeling rebellious after being passed over for promotions by “the establishment”, funds most of the group’s shenanigans

rich guy #2, related to the queen, autistic, musical savant, catholic guilt, here against will, but somehow best friends with The Wife

barely legal delinquent who lives off cheetos and mountain dew

Completely Nice and Normal Boy-Next-Door Type Guy who keeps trying to leave but gets somehow f*cked over by the group’s plots and schemes

[hexcii]

First actual post of 2025!

I just want to take the time to ramble a bit about TNG. The Name Game is very special to me if I’m being honest, it’s the first fic I’ve EVER written (not counting drabbles and the random oneshots rotting in my google docs) and it’s been such a surprise to see so many people enjoying it. It’s such a weird feeling, so many people liking my writing and art feels so surreal

TNG has only been out for six months and it’s already surpassed every expectation I had of it, and I want to thank all of you guys for that :)) I never expected my lil health comfort fic to attract this much attention, it’s a little scary haha!

That’s truly what made me write this fic though, (skip this part if you don’t wanna hear about my health struggles 👍👍👍👍)

I’ve always been disabled but I had no idea I was up until maybe late 2022 to early 2023? But my health really started to decline throughout 2023-24 because 11 years of professional level circus training when I shouldn’t have been working out at all finally caught up with my piece of shit body and my symptoms got worse really really fast. And that was really fucking scary, and it’s definitely taken a toll on my mental health too. So, for comfort, I decided to turn to the dca lmao, I remember being incredibly inspired by the song Happy Hare by Yaelokre and that started this whole thing. So, I just put together the vibes I got from that song, a fnaf-esc plot along with the dca and my own struggles with my disabilities and boom! The name game woo!!!

It’s really special to me, I don’t think I would’ve been able to go through the whole medical process as well as I did without it (that’s not to say it hasn’t been a hellhole cause uh yeah healthcare kinda sucks for the disabled (and afab people) but that’s a whole other rant for another day)

Does this count as a love letter to my own fic? Oh well, I just wanted to ramble on about my feelings about it. I’ll probably write more fics after I finish TNG but I think it’ll always hold a special place in my heart <33

And ofc I wanna thank you guys for reading it and giving me so much support :]] I love reading your guys’ comments and tags (AND GOD THE FANART???? NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS DID I EXPECT THAT)

And also another thanks to @r0tting-rat @pluck-heartstrings @naffeclipse and @bamsara for inadvertently getting me inspired to write hehehe (sorry for the random tag I hope that it’s okay-)

And another another thanks specifically to @miahead for encouraging me to write it in the first place and dealing with my shenanigans in the process of writing each and every chapter, love you!! <3333

[fortune-maiden]

The Hundred Line: Slasher Route

8 more endings obtained, 2 of which are needed for that plot lock. I'm now at 20 endings and

...jesus christ what even was this route ._.

The Good

I mean... I was on the edge of my seat the whole time! This route is a mess and a half, but it was certainly entertaining

Several characters got a chance to shine! Kurara has regained a lot more goodwill, Takemaru, Shouma, & Kyoshika also had some great moments

I was on the Goodbye Kiss route first, and the twist about the killer felt really obvious overall - VLR this ain't... so the real twist was what happened when you weren't on the Goodbye Kiss path because WHAT THE HELL IS EVEN HAPPENING???? I'm still super confused about the Dead Takumi path because after everything that happened in the Serial Killer path - WHO THE HECK????

(But also... regardless of which path you're on, it seems like Takumi always killed Eva? Which doesn't really make sense with the Zombie path? Especially since it feels like killing Eito is also something that was the G'ie's will more than his own)

I think this route was great in setting up more mysteries though! Alongside all the other shenanigans, we have an interesting new enemy in the G'ie, mysterious visitors which the plot lock heavily implies may have been alternate versions of Takumi & Hiruko. I feel like we also haven't seen the last of the G'ie since Hiruko mentions learning about them in another route, and it definitely wasn't the Slasher route where we learned about them! I also loved how Endings 72 & 76 tied into each other. In Goodbye Kiss, Hiruko questions when Takumi got infected, and in History Repeats, we get our answer. And the implication for other routes is also horrifying. I'm really looking forward to how the other routes will tie back to this one!

And speaking of Hiruko... Tsubasa is still undisputed Best Girl, and puts in the work every time, but HOLY HELL DID THIS ROUTE MAKE ME LOVE HIRUKO MORE! Don't get me wrong - so much of the serial killer route had me questioning her terrible decisions so hard but at the same time, unlike certain stupid decisions in a certain other route, I could still understand where she was coming from and why she was committing to her bad decisions. I really love the role Hiruko seems to have so far - Takumi thinks he's in a time travel story where he made the conscious choice to turn back time and thinks every route is his first trip back, while Hiruko knows she's trapped in a time loop story and approaches things very differently as a result. I like how she remembers the loops which suggests there is some order to them - or rather, the order that Hiruko & Takumi experience events is different. It reminds me a bit of Gnosia in a way with how the two loopers keep closing each others loops. Takumi is the only person Hiruko can open up to about her situation and has clearly built up a level of trust and camaraderie with him over time, but also she has to watch the same events play out over and over while he thinks each loop is the first loop. It's heartbreaking, and I really can't blame her for wanting to believe in and protect Takumi as much as she did. It also just makes the serial killer path feel so much worse from her perspective

They did some really interesting stuff with the choices this time around! Definitely did not expect having to make choices as Zombie!Takumi or Nozomi but the best (and most sadistic) choice was the one you're forced to make at the end of the serial killer route. Who do you pick? Takumi will always run in the opposite direction and I think that's a very neat touch!

Since this is my first Kill Eito route, I do really like how the game absolutely is not okay with you doing this. Takumi is not in a good place mentally, FB is very wary of him, and generally people do (rightfully) treat him with some degree of suspicion for murdering a guy who hadn't actually done anything yet

All in all an interesting route though definitely not without its headaches

I've gained a new appreciation for the Romance Route and it's perfectly happy death-free ending so that's good too right?

The Bad

Hey Developers! You think that was enough chase sequences????

Also did all 8 endings really need to go to Day 100?

There were so many bad choices in this route, it's not even funny. I'm glad that most if not all of these bad choices were not actually Takumi's fault, but like. Hiruko, I appreciate you not wanting to suspect Takumi without confirmation first, but people are dying here! Gaku & Darumi - I don't even know where to start with you two idiots. And for the rest of you - so you guys know that fire & headshots are a weakness of the zombies. Half of you do not have a vehicle or a gundam as a class weapon. You're telling we can't use them against the zombies at all? Or print a weapon from the Gift-o-Matic if the hemoanima weapons are no good? Kyoshika literally has a REAL SWORD on her at all times! And you're telling me you can't camp out in the literal room with fire?

Seriously where was FB during the zombie route?

(Okay admittedly I am willing to give the Defense Room a pass for the zombie route since the group mostly hangs out on the 1st floor which is also where the cafeteria is. But for the other routes YOU PEOPLE ARE IN YOUR CLASS ARMOR FOR A REASON!)

I would make a joke about how none of you people know how to survive a horror movie but that's... that's literally the route.

I still don't get why death by zombie/serial killer is permanent in this route. All we get is that the "wounds are too severe" and "the drones don't activate in time" (why not?), but Takumi can be beheaded and survive that just fine.

With the way the route is structured, it feels like the zombie route just kind of drops all the Takumi related weirdness that was happening before. His constant exhaustion, his craving for frogs, his weird blackouts were all there before that route split and never mentioned again afterwards. I've also been accidentally spoiled on the other route that branches off the Slasher Route and just... huh??? Why that one? How is that going to mesh with all the Takumi stuff happening before that decision point?

Also Mister "I went back in time for a better ending" Sumino is weirdly fine with how much WORSE this route is than his original one. You sure you don't want to turn back time a little sooner bud?

Seriously what was happening on the Nozomi path???

Yugamu... wtf dude

The Tragically Hilarious:

The Invaders sure are a threat we need to take seriously huh guys. They feel like such an afterthought on this route and not just because I was skipping most of the battles ^^"

Seriously though... rip V'ehxness. You really did not deserve the zombie route ending. I hope you finally get your epic climactic battle in the next route

[skydigiblogs]

Digimon and Nostalgia

i have a habit of just kind of passing by in the tags sometimes even when i'm quiet, and i'm realizing i don't know how much i've talked about the thought behind why we decided to revisit digimon last february from start to finish.

okay so fair warning, this is gonna be rambly and a little bit semi-incoherent because i feel like absolute dogshit today but the brain worms on the subject aren't leaving me alone to rest.

i am putting it under a read more for all our sanity

so there's this category of post i always see in the tags that seems to come from a place of either not engaging with enough digimon media or not engaging with the media.

that first one is a bit easier to explain. sometimes people will talk about things they want to see in the digimon franchise, and it's kind of clear that they have a very narrow scope of what they've actually seen from it.

i'm trying to think of an example that doesn't put recent posts i've seen on blast lmao (because that's not the point of this post), but also i think some of the points brought up by this post by @starwardking (pardon the tag) highlight the complexity of the first kind of issue, because it both is and isn't the kind of problem that can be fixed by just finding the right digimon media.

when i saw this post, my first instinct was to point to series like savers and appmon, where a majority of the plot takes place in the human world and allows for a lot of mundane shenanigans. i also think a bit about the earlier episodes of tamers.

(i think to some extent ghost game has a bit of domestic life shit going on, but seeing as it is also a horror anime, part of it is about the dissonance between "Normal for Digimon" and "Normal for Humans." but you also get episodes about little hideaways digimon live in in the human world so they can drink tea and share snacks. you also have digimon that just hang out in libraries and shit like that.)

at the same time, this is also an issue i think that isn't fixed by finding the right digimon media. the comparison to pokemon is what makes me consider this, specifically because of something like pokemon amie. it may have just been a minigame, but it's also something that, especially in the video games, i don't think we have a clear parallel to. i do agree that it would be nice to enjoy a bit of domestic fluff with your digimon!

but then i also recognize that i myself have also skipped over games where i could tell there would be some of that. i couldn't finish survive because it has elements i just can't handle either playing or watching. what i do remember in survive is that you have quite a few scenes early on in the school that are about resource management (figuring out how to digimon survive, as it were). this is done while you're also chatting with your human and digimon friends.

which i think segues better into the second kind of issue, being that sometimes i see these posts and they come from an angle where it seems someone hasn't exactly made an effort to engage with digimon as it is. there's a phenomenal video essay by deep dive on youtube, actually, that talks about this with regards to ghost game.

on the most abstract level, are you trying to be cognizant of your biases going into a piece of art when you take it in? what experiences make it difficult to engage with the text in a way that it wants you to engage? can you even see what the text is trying to say, even if it's ineffectual?

this is also why i wanted to tie this in with the reason i decided to make a blog to track my revisiting of all the different series.

nostalgia is killer, and not in a good way.

one of the things we regularly do with media we enjoy enough to praise is revisit it. if it's been over a year since i've watched something and i am trying to hype it up to someone, i want to not rely on my own memory, but also the text of that individual piece of art.

the second form of this issue comes about when an individual has an Idea about digimon, and they post with a very firm stance on what digimon is or is not. it's a retreading i think of the same reason anyone is willing to not consider appmon part of the digimon franchise (despite the "digimon universe" title).

again: what are your biases coming into a piece of art? do you have certain ideas about what digimon is supposed to look like? do you refuse to give other digimon media a fair chance because of it?

this form is more likely to get me to just block someone so i don't have to keep scrolling past them in the tags tbh. there's a mixture of "it was better in the old days" combined with a blatant lack of media literacy when "attempting" to engage with newer digimon media. you see this in a lot of franchises, to be fair, but it is always frustrating.

like i could also be biased because of my own background, being that i have an english degree, but there's something so... disappointing, i suppose, to the latter form of this criticism. if you're going to have a take, i want to see you articulate it. it's not a school assignment, sure, but what in god's name is making you come to that take?

i think the most painful series to see this with for me are savers and appmon, if only because i did rewatch them to better understand why i love them (and also what i really hate about them!).

savers especially is a show i watched because i was interested in seeing if the "MIB but if the aliens were Digimon" series could handle making any statement about the nature of law enforcement! and surprise surprise, it fucking did!

people probably feel the same way any time i post about frontier, which is a series i've been vocal about my dislike about (though i respect anyone willing to try to make frontiers better through their own art and writing). it's been a struggle to rewatch that series, but i also don't want to make strong judgments with firm backing because i know i have not seen it in years, nor have i seen the original sub.

i don't think i have a nice clean conclusion for this. it's an observation i keep having, and i don't think there's any particular solution for someone like me who just wants people to try a little harder to pick apart the things they like. i want people to understand how stories tick, and the things they both explicitly and implicitly say. it's the english teacher in me, i guess.

[n1ghteeea]

hi im back :•) I see ur in need of asks so here’s a question that’s been in my own mind for a while if ya feel like it !!

So. The gang is great when it comes to catching ghosts. But how well do you think they’d handle a situation with no access to/where they aren’t allowed to use their equipment? (Ie scary games, etc. I think that would open some funny shenanigans)

Took me forever but I finally got time to properly answer this!! I think when it comes to horror content they’d all be very different.

Egon wouldn’t really like it since he addresses parapsychology veeery seriously, and in his opinion all the movies, games and books are “inaccurate and spreading misinformation across the masses.”

That is to say, he doesn’t mind watching horror movies with the rest of the team, thought he keeps his opinions on the plot to himself. I do think he would really hate gore, though. Slashers are definitely not for him.

Ray would loooove everything horror-related, whenever they watch or play something scary he’d spend the majority of time classifying all the monsters and comparing them to the ghosts they have caught, or pointing out where the inspiration could have come from. Man’s in love with his job!!

Peter would be neutral on these things, he’d say “I see enough horrors on the job” but still sit down to watch or play something scary bc at the end of the day, it’s about the company. Also he yelps at jumpscares, he’s always the one screaming the most on the busts and that translates to games, too.

Winston would lock tf in when playing horror games, set on winning every time, he’s a ghostbuster after all!! He gets extremely competitive and doesn’t even care about the horror part that much. He’s also neutral on scary movies, but I think he really likes creepy detectives books!!

Janine is not scared of ghosts, she’s kinda on Winston’s level: books over TV, and very competitive. If these two ever sit down to play something together, you bet the others will have to drag them away bc they would NOT be able to stop and admit defeat. I do think she’d jump at jumpscares, but if someone (mostly Peter) would even suggest something like “aw, you scared? don’t worry, we’ll protect you” she’d smack him lol

[alovesongtheywrote]

Nightmare Academia P.5 | Spencer Reid x Reader

♥ Summary:  the prank war continues- you steal spencer's mugs, he uses one of your worst fears against you, and you're both dicks to each other [Prof!Spencer Reid x GN-Prof!Reader]

♥ Warnings: reader makes a mean comment about spencer being fatherless, spencer picks at the reader's insecurities- y'know, normal fare. also, spiders. ALSO, MENTIONS OF THAT RABIES EPISODE FROM SEASON 9.

♥ A/N: i know this has been mindless shenanigans so far, but the next few chapters will contain hints of plot, i promise

♥ Word Count: 1525

Series Masterlist

You didn’t have to send the typewriter in again.  For the most part, this was a good thing- it meant that Reid was no longer torturing his students by making them write their notes and assignments by hand.  It meant that your students were no longer lingering on the edge of collapse.  It meant that the student body was dealing with healthy levels of stress.

It also meant you’d lost your main method for bothering Reid.

While you wouldn’t complain about Reid going pro-tech (or at least tech-neutral) it did mean that you couldn’t send the typewriter to Reid’s classes without being a massive bitch.  Before, when he had been tormenting his students, the annoying click of the typewriter had been a punishment.  It was all fair game.  

Now, you would have to find something more creative.  You would have to get crafty- punishing Reid for his various slights against you whilst being annoying, but not disruptive.  

So.  You decided to steal his mugs.

The idea crept over you like a bug, wiggling into you until you just had to do it.  So, you did.  You waited until he was teaching, and you snuck into his office.  The lock on the door was university regulation- and therefore, it was easy enough to bypass with a lockpick and the tiniest bit of skill.

Like that, you were in- and you were overcome with the realization that this was the first time you had ever really been in Reid’s office.  He’d been to yours plenty of times, he was the one who dropped off the typewriter after every class, but you never had a reason to come to his office.

At least, you hadn’t had a reason until now.

You were surprised by how familiar the space was.  It was warmly lit, filled with books and various trinkets.  The walls were covered with his doctorates and degrees.  Mathematics, Chemistry, Engineering, Psychology, Sociology- fuck that guy for being smarter than you.

You didn’t have time to dwell on that, though.  You were on a mission.  A mug-related mission.  

You searched the office, looking through drawers and swinging open cabinets until you found what you were looking for.  Behind Spencer’s desk inside a small cabinet, they sat- mugs.  Honestly, the sheer number of mugs tucked into such a small space was kind of impressive.  You certainly had options.

Eventually, you selected a dark blue mug designed to look like the TARDIS.  That was cute.  You did your best not to find it too endearing.  You promised yourself that you wouldn’t find anything in that office endearing.

And then, upon standing, you immediately broke that promise.

On top of the cabinet that stored all his mugs was a copy of Pride and Prejudice.  Your fingers brushed across the cover.  That alone was enough to charm you, but then you noticed, beneath the book- an article.  An analysis of Pride and Prejudice.  You would know the words on those pages anywhere.  You wrote that article.  

You felt heat building beneath your skin as a blush crawled up to your face.  You pulled away from the book as if it had burned you.  Kicking the cabinet door closed, you collected the mug in your hands, and you raced from the room as fast as you possibly could.

-

Reid enacted his vengeance swiftly.

Clearly, he was still in contact with that FBI tech girl of his- and CLEARLY, she was less of a tech girl and more of a mind reader, because she somehow found out about your phobia of spiders, and then she told Reid about it.

You knew all of this because one morning, you walked into your office to find a mug sitting innocently on your desk.  Inside of it, a rubber spider.  You, however, didn’t know it was rubber.  

You had spent the night before grading assignments, helping your GED students edit their papers, and crying over a really cute baby goat.  Needless to say, you were sleep-deprived- and it was in this sleep-deprived state that you flung the mug at the wall on instinct because you thought there was a spider inside of it.

Luckily, Reid, in his infinite wisdom, had predicted that this would be a possibility- or you assumed he had.  The mug was a tough thing, and flinging it at the wall hadn’t even put a chip in it.  The fake spider was also fine (which was good, because if it had been alive, and you had killed it, you probably would’ve cried again).

Once your racing heartbeat had returned to normal, you tried to calm down by grabbing one of your actual mugs from its actual place in a large drawer beneath your desk.

A fake spider sprung out at you the second you opened the thing.

You screamed, slapping the fake creature right off of its mechanism and across the room.  Once you were done having a teeny tiny panic attack over that, you took a closer look at your mug drawer.  Reid had put his engineering degree to good use, rigging up a mechanism that would let the fake arachnid jump at you once you’d triggered it by opening the door.  You were pissed- and a little bit impressed- but mostly pissed.

The last straw was the actual spider on your ceiling.  It wasn’t put there by Reid, but you still blamed him for it.  Once the little critter was gently placed outside, you stormed off to Reid’s office.  You didn’t care that it was the first thing in the morning, nor did you care that you had a class starting in a few minutes.  The only thing on your mind was Spencer Reid, and the many ways you could insult him.

You practically kicked open his office door, hitting maximum rage as you stormed inside “You DEEPLy UNFABULOUS POOL NOODLE.”

“Good morning, Dr. (L/N).  Sleep well?”

“No.  Fuck you for asking.  Fuck you even more for the SPIDER in the MUG.”

Spencer didn’t even look up from the paperwork on his desk, “At least it was fake.  The bacteria colonies that are currently gathering in my mug are very real.”

“Oh, come on, Reid.  I’m not using it.  I have some decorum.”

He flipped a page, “I find that hard to believe.  So, what kept you up, (L/N)?  Crippling self-doubt?  The crushing weight of reality and your inability to find a place in it?”

You brushed off the self-doubt comment.  He couldn’t know that was half of what kept you up grading papers so late.  

“Oh, baby, I know my place in it- it’s twofold.  I’m here to be dumb and annoy your terrible self,” you walked over and pushed all his papers to the side just enough for you to take a seat, “And I’m all out of dumb to be.”

Finally, Spencer looked up at you, “So here you are.  Y’know, insecurity doesn’t look good on you.”

“And fatherless behaviour doesn’t look good on you, yet here we are.  ANYWAY, my special little science boy, I am here to inform you that you’re gonna need to get more mugs.  Why?  Because I’m going to take everything you have, and I will leave you with nothing.  It won’t be today, nor will it be tomorrow, but one day you’ll come into work to face the most terrifying of all the Earth’s horrors- a lack of mugs.”

He paused, lips parted slightly as his eyes danced up and down your face.  Honestly, he probably would’ve been more upset about the fatherless comment if you hadn’t followed it up with such a monologue.  Now he just felt the need to one-up you.

He’d heard somewhere that less is more.

“Actually, the most terrifying of all Earth’s horrors is probably rabies.  Y’know, the BAU once had a case where a serial killer forcibly infected his victims with the disease in order to kill them.”

“Excuse me?”

The pure horror in your voice was delightful.  Spencer looked down to his wrist where his watch lay over his cardigan.  Of course, he already knew the time- he just didn’t want you to see the massive grin on his face, “Oh, shoot.  I have a class to teach.  Help yourself to the mugs, Doctor.  I hope you like arachnids in yours.”  

You sat in shock as Spencer grabbed his bag and threw it over his shoulder.

“Wait, Reid, I’m still on the rabies thing-”

“Bye, (Y/N).”

“‘Bye?’  The fuck do you mean ‘bye?’  Get back here and explain the rabies thing!”

He did not get back there and explain the rabies thing.  He just left you in his office with the terror of rabies hanging over your head.  Moving quickly, you stole your mug of the day and left.  That evening, while Reid was revelling in his temporary victory, you made a call that you never thought you would make.

“Hi, is this Derek Morgan?  Yeah, I’m a criminal justice student,” you lied, “I just had some questions about a case of yours involving rabies?”

Reid would rue the day he brought up the rabies thing- on that, you and SSA Morgan agreed.

♥ Tags: @icarusignite

[knightmareaceblue]

I had an idea for an animation vs. DnD type thing. Don't know if I'm going to do anything with it, but I liked the concept and characters I came up with for it, so I decided to draw them.

Some notes:

-TSC is the DM, and thus doesn't have a character. Green's character Limerick, however, has a twin sister in his backstory, so with Green's permission Second designed her to look like them. It looks like the two have matching headbands, but actually Limerick is just wearing Melody's. :(

-As a DM, Second is very good at weaving together a world and story, and successfully ties everyone's backstories in with the main plot. They are also, however, a bit controlling and easily annoyed. Red and Purple often get things thrown at them by Second for going too off track or just being plain stupid.

-Blue's character Azure (neutral good) is technically the party leader, having been the one to gather the party and issue the main quest. They are not, however, very good at keeping the party on track. Especially Spark and Amethyst.

-Limerick is a true neutral bard that got double classed as a fighter when the sticks realized they didn't have a lot of physical fighters in their party. He's also the most stand-offish member of the group.

-Yellow's character Spark was originally going to be a chaotic evil character, but some pouting and pleading from Red and Blue caused them to relent and change to chaotic neutral. They were a little annoyed about this, but whatever.

-All of the characters' backstories take a little influence from their actual lives. Red's druid/ranger Carmine (chaotic good), however, is the one where it's most obvious, having spent much of their childhood being possessed by a forest god before breaking free, fighting them, and then the two coming to a truce and the forest god training Carmine in the art of the druid. It may look like he's wearing fur pants, but they're actually made of leaves.

-When being handed a character sheet for a rouge, Purple demanded to know why everyone assumed they'd pick that class. Red, who had been sent to get them, responded, "Well, what else would you be?" Purple couldn't respond and just huffily filled out the character sheet. Their character Amethyst is a chaotic neutral.

-MT was a last minute edition to the game, having been guilt-tripped/emotionally manipulated by Purple into joining. His barbarian Bronze seems like a chaotic neutral, but they're actually lawful neutral: They just follow barbarian law instead of the law of the country. TSC is the only one aware of this, and silently finds it hilarious.

Some Shenanigans:

-Each party member has their own motive to join Azure's quest to save the world: Bronze because of honour and also this kid's stupid and will get themselves killed if they let them go alone, Carmine because the world-ending quest has put the forest and the forest god in danger and he wants to save them, Amethyst for the promise of safety and security afterwords, Spark because research for her magical weapons, and Limerick because Azure agreed to help him with a personal matter in exchange.

-Limerick originally didn't start out with a cape. Upon realizing every other character had a cape however (Yellow tried to argue that Spark's poncho thing didn't count, but Green said it counted in spirit), they decided Limerick had to have one too. TSC said that since character creation is over, they'd have to buy a cape at the nearby town. This caused Green to get annoyed and reject every cape they 'found' in the shops. It went on like this for a while until TSC got bored and turned it into an insane side quest, complete with a vampire mafia. Limerick staked the boss vampire and stole their cape.

-Bronze is a hunter; Carmine is a vegan. They get into quite a few arguments because of this and more than once Carmine would sabotage Bronze's hunts and get them into trouble with whatever the highest level monster in the area was. Consequentially, Bronze is a little better at stealth than your average barbarian.

-Purple has a bad habit of taking inter-party conflict too personally, and at some points gets legitimately upset. They repeated have to be reminded that it's just a game, and occasionally Second will call timeout for them to cool off.

-Every weapon except Limerick's lute has a magical gem on it to enhance it's abilities. Spark has stolen the gem off every weapon except Amethyst's Golden Moon Dagger (which they can never pass the check to steal) at least once for their magical experiments.

-The most loyal, trustworthy, and responsible member of the party is Bronze. Everyone but Purple finds this surprising. The second most is Azure, but they're incredibly naive and keep getting the party into trouble by trying to help people.

-Yellow wants their character to betray the party at some point, and then have a redemption arc. Second is the only one who knows about this, and they're all for it.

-Green is convinced the campaign will have a happy ending, because 'Sec is a sucker.' He isn't wrong.

[legally-allowed-to-slime]

Thinking about WL again and the disconnect between the players and the gimmick. And how discordant the season feels because of it.

Many of the players were prepared to bring their A game lore. After a year to stew after SL: wherin lore was a central element with the secretkeeper and Scar’s victory directly invoking a dramatic character study, and feeling like traffic only getting more popular. Part of the fun/honor in Life Series is telling stories that create fandom legacies (fanart/fic/animatics/etc.) and, while expecting more episodic gimmicks, assumed there would still be time for significant plotlines. So far, Life Series has been character focused — with straight pvp / boring impersonal deaths frowned upon — so why not look forward to more drama?

(SL tasks were rarely intrusive enough to stop lore, usually providing a framework instead. The End Expedition, Boogeymen Army, and Scar’s season in general, were all improv prompts the cc’s ran with. Meanwhile, wildcards by nature interrupt natural flow and can’t be temporarily ignored: the cc’s must adapt their plans to fit it.)

Renwood reconnection, Grumbo paranoia, Gempearl situationship, frickin GGG return! The central axis for three victors over four(ish) seasons! These are hard hitting plots that aren’t invoked lightly. And many of them struggle to find a foundation and satisfying resolution, simply because they don’t have time.

In fairness, the best Life Series stories are directly woven with the gimmick, not performed inside it. Pearl Scott divorce from soulmate bond, Villain Scar from tasks, etc. But those had setup from prior plotlines that got enhanced by the gimmick. Similarly, GGG angst hits different with the six lives kill-to-exchange-lives thing, but Scott’s sacrifice has no buildup and feels exclusively tactical. These stories could’ve flourished under better circumstances.

And to be clear: WL is still good content. Even ignoring plain ol’ fun block game shenanigans, there’s plenty of lore in what the players did make time for — and even what they didn’t, like the superpowers wildcard spawning so much au and speculations. The CC’s are professionals and even salvaged plotlines are entertaining (ex: Gempearl). But WL doesn’t FEEL satisfying, because bigger stories were setup and then scrambled to find resolution to. Which is worse than not trying at all.

Essentially, the players were ill prepared and invoked meaningful stories that couldn’t be properly executed. And that’s why WL feels off.

Not to drag you back into the trenches, feel free to delete this ask. A few months later retrospective and it’s still rotating in my head. Love to hear your thoughts xoxo

i’ve answered a thousand asks and posted a thousand posts about the faults of WL, but what’s one more, sure

i’m glad the fandom managed to put down the pitchforks and be able to interact with criticism in a mostly level headed way and understand that it is coming from fans who love the series and sincerely appreciate all the effort and heart and passion grian and his team puts into them.

you’re right that the gimmick intruded on plots instead of advancing them, and i think mainly it came from a disconnect. grian was looking to make a series that was entertaining and lots of chaos. other, more rp-oriented lifers whose viewers come to see drama were expecting stories. and did WL succeed in fulfilling grian’s objective? absolutely, it was an absolute blast to watch most of the time, but at the same time it sidelined other lifers’ plans that i believe grian did not prioritise. nor am i saying he should’ve thought to. this was grian’s series, and he had a vision for the sixth season, and that vision was decently realised. if stories fall apart along the way… well, that’s not actively the fault of the gimmick (though it can feel like it), but just a fact that when you have one big, fun, exciting ride at the carnival there isn’t really space for the small ones.

is WL a bad season? no. would i watch a next season? absolutely. WL missed the mark for me personally as a viewer who was looking forward to that interpersonal drama, but the same way you don’t fault a horror movie for lacking comedy, it’s pretty much understood that that wasn’t what WL was going for.

[dirtbagcore]

HELLO im thinking about your saiki k / spyxfamily au...... im so fascinated by this family dynamic. does kuriko still have all her powers, or just telepathy? in your comic it looks like she still does the telepathic communication which i LOVE. pairs well with anyas constant yapping...... also, if kuriko does have all her powers, how powerful is she? id imagine she'd be about at the level of 16-year-old saiki with limiters, since in the time travel episode he was a bit older and a bit stronger (but he also didnt have glasses so i guess he didnt have the power to turn people to stone yet? i wonder if there are other powers he unlocks later. its probably in the manga but im only halfway through 😭). man, just imagine the shenanigans those kids would get up to..... even just putting kuriko in anyas place would be hilarious, but then also throwing anya AND kuusuke into the mix???? these kids are gonna accidentally destroy the world lmfao

but im also fascinated by the dynamic of. anya and kuriko being siblings and knowing about each others powers, but no one else knows about them (except probably kuusuke?). cause like. kusuo originally can use his powers at home, so now he can use them less freely, but anya originally had NO ONE who knew about them and now she has 2 siblings who do, so she can use them more freely. which would probably result in an even more reserved kuriko and an even more outgoing anya. plus kuusukes inferiority complex would be doubled..... loid has no idea what he just got himself into lmao. just absolutely insane family dynamics all around im obsessed

ANYWAY sorry for yapping in your inbox but i would love to hear any other thoughts you have about this au..... if you wanna share.....

^((TLDR; [in my S×F / Saiki K crossover AU where kuriko & anya are twins] what are kurikos powers? what's the new family dynamic?))

HIII! ( ≧∀≦)ノ THANKS 4 THE ASK!!! v happy to answer, i was thinking kuriko would:

1. still have all her powers, and

2. they would be weaker than in canon since she got her limiters early⬇️

this obv includes the fact that she can remember all her time as an infant, so thinking of that (considering the vague experiments anya went thru in canon) i deffo think ur right about her being even more reserved ( ´,_ゝ`) </3 tho tbf anya being kuriko's voice and seeming (from an outside perspective) to always just KNOW what she wants, no matter how specific, sounds really freaking cute ( T∀T)

i imagine her other powers coming up in little scenes (+ prob main plot stuff but im not writing allat for a thought experiment lol)⬇️⬇️

overall, i think the family dynamic would be like this⬇️⬇️⬇️

kusuke wouldnt be threatened by anya cause all she can do is read minds, shes no genius on top of that. his relationship with kuriko tho, i feel like would be similar to how it was in canon, except that since kuriko is more fragile here, id imagine that she'd be less willing to indulge kusuke's games- leading him to harbour more genuine resentment, in turn leading her to kinda fear him. it'd make their dynamic more angsty than the og, but tbh i feel that that lends well to the new setting/kusukes new role.

i dont think kuriko would mind loid or yor, but since she can remember their bio parents (kuniharu & kurumi) better than anya, i dont think she'd be able to accept them as her parents right away, especially yor.

the only other thing i wanted to mention was:

how did kusuke get into eden without parents, you ask? (you didnt but--) YOU ASK?? well obvi its cause he's a super genius and probably achieved something so crazy that the schoolboard REALLY wanted him as an alum, so he completely skipped over the regular admission process. he would live in the dorms and probably avoided talking abt his parents entirely (cause who would share their personal trauma with ants??), leaving a very convenient spot for loid to slip into lol

anyway! thats basically it!! thanks again for the ask, hope at least some ppl appreciate our wall of text!! (me n you are like this 🤞 btw. YAPPING 🔛🔝🔥) ☆(゜∇^d)!!

[lurkiestvoid]

So I posted a copy of The Article the other day but deliberately didn't include any of my own thoughts; I just stumbled over it, saw it was paywalled, shared a ladder. But I do have thoughts and this is the post where I'm putting them and then I'm moving on (publicly at least; privately as always I reserve the right to rant in my shower) and continuing to enjoy my sandbox.

I have always been a huge fan of the whole DA+ME suite. I enjoyed Andromeda and Veilguard, not even to 'spite critics' or anything I just Enjoyed Playing Them. I found ways to connect to and play with the characters in my own way, with my own understanding of the lore and my own canon; I'm used to BW's canon Sacrificed Dalish Warden, for example, and not my surviving Paragon Brosca, and in my writing I like to play with the effects of that and other changes anyway (like making all my Wardens+both Hawkes+all Inqys bc extra timeline shenanigans + all my Rooks simulcast canon lol).

I just like these sandboxes. Call em a special interest or a hobby or whatever, but I've been playing with this sand since I first picked up DA2 at my wife's recommendation while I was postpartum 2013.

And I honestly, at first playthrough, did not like DA2. HOWEVER. On my begrudging later last-chance playthrough, I decided to maybe glance at walkthroughs now and then, just to make sure I wasn't fucking things up, and boy howdy, yeah, I'd fucked it.

Somehow I'd powered through just the main plot without much of the side quests, had my combat settings way too high for my comfort level, only skimmed a lot of actually important stuff (mostly from not getting References to DAO/lore so I just. Skipped a lot of dialogue and made random choices) and generally met my boss fights way too early, making them near impossible for my gear and level without a lot of angry grinding. And that ending was rough, everyone peaced out with a general attitude of 'meh' and I didn't even really understand why.

Anyways, second go-round with a Guide and it went so much smoother. And that's when I fell in love. DA2 is still my favorite. Grabbed DAO (only had Shale's DLC iirc), and then played them back to back in between similar reruns of Mass Effect until Inquisition released. Played those 4-5 times through by themselves, then started my rotations over with the newest additions. I did get to play Andromeda once on an old roomie's PS4, and had started my second run before we moved. I fully intend to add VG to my rotations after I've had my fill of it and feel like I really know it well, same as the last ones. I've read most of the books but I forget which ones, I need to do a few more rereads, and I've read An Amount of fanfic and have a massive to-read pile still. (I have, of course, played lots of other games and read lots of other things in between all this; it's been a long 12 years, I just enjoy reruns of fave media, like a palate cleanser)

All this to say: I love Veilguard, because it's Veilguard. And because it's unique in the way the other games were unique, and expansive the way the other games were expansive, and just for having yet another big new piece of the puzzle.

But I have and will continue to maintain (again, mostly privately hereafter except when I get a wild hair up my ass abt it and I can't promise I won't) that EA fucking murdered Dragon Age. No, not in the 'killed it's quality' way, this isn't a statement of quality but of intent.

EA kneecapped specifically the DA team at nearly every step of the process, and then put the Mass Effect team in charge and gave them whatever they wanted. The DA team was shut out of DA meetings. And funding. And time, and structure, and support, and resources. No backtracking allowed, this train only goes forward at top speed forever, line only go up. Limited platform release, ramp up the graphics make it neotech-accessible only. Make it multiplayer, no, wait, nevermind, just use what you have. Rework all the dialogue it's too unserious, oh your VAs' union on strike? Too bad just cut it anyway, we release next month.

The DA team, post-Inquisitorial success, was slowly beaten with hammers, and their project was handed over to a team that had no respect for the team NOR for the franchise itself, despite that team's last game having notoriously tanked???

And when a half-strangled labor of love, who was barely like three months old yet, didn't manage to still perform to exceedingly high expectations, EA took it out back and just fucking shot it.

The Storm/Executors would have made a bangin' cinquel wrap-up to a beloved series, and we could have partied hearty with the devs instead of their private, mournful, reminiscent sendoff; they deserved so much better. If the DA team had been treated like the ME team from the get-go, we could maybe have had something absolutely mindblowing in all directions.

I'm happy with what DA devs managed to get us, as I figured I would be. But I am both unsurprised and still deeply pissed that EA/BW treated the writers and devs the way they did, and I'm disappointed in how the ME team treated their peers.

Aaaaaand i'm going to bed. 💜 thanks for reading!