#and 1 of those is something I don't think I've ever actually seen in survival?

[jupiterswasphouse]

Unless the third mob ends up being an insect or arachnid I'm super excited for, if the crab loses the Minecraft mob vote I will sob and cry

[directdogman]

Hi, I hope you're having a decent day! I'm sorry if this is an invasive set of questions - feel free not to answer - but do you still actively like DSaF as your own creation, or is it more of a "it was fun while it lasted but i outgrew it and it's for the best to leave it behind" kind of project? Do you ever regret making the games? If you knew they would get so popular, is there anything you would have changed about them? Is there anywhere I could read more of your writing.

It fluctuates a bit. These last couple of years, I've really just been sorta nostalgic for it. I've seen a lot of people discuss those games being a source of comfort during bad times in their lives, people talking about how much the characters mean to them and it's hard not to smile when you see that.

It's a funny thing for close friends of yours to see people WITH fanmade DSaF merch out in the wild, or to watch a random youtube video and being hit with a DSaF reference outta nowhere. It happens from time to time, even today. On a few occasions, I've even had a person reference my work to me in real life and not realize who they were talking to, believe it or not. It's really fun to play dumb and get someone to explain your work to you like you don't know what it is.

I certainly didn't think any of that would happen when I first made the series, or even during development. I think the normal assumption would be to look at DSaF as it exists now and assume its release was a peak for it, but believe it or not, the official discord only had 30 people in it shortly before 3 dropped! The archive listing of the series (reposted to a single page after the series ended) is now sitting at over 1.1 MILLION downloads.

People kinda assume the true heyday of something is when it's new, when it's fresh and novel. For instance, some people look back at when FNaF itself was new and see that time as its peak because it had a lot of internet cultural relevance as big new indie thing on the block. But, raw numbers don't lie. The series has been continually growing since its conception and that growth has similarly bled over to its fan projects. This explains why DSaF, despite not having a new series release in almost 6 years, seems to be inexplicably growing.

Just recently, I saw someone post footage of a scene from DSaF 2 on Twitter, which got over 16k likes. People praised its writing and largely celebrated the scene. The ironic thing about that particular scene is that I remembered being unsure if it was good or not, so I showed it off in one of the FNaF community hubs. The response was broadly lukewarm to negative. Now, it's held up as one of the best scenes in those games. That's kind of the point I'm trying to make, my thoughts on the series have certainly changed with everyone's else with years of hindsight.

Heh. I'm not sure if I've talked about this in a long time, but y'know, the very first scene I implemented in-game was actually the very first Phone Guy scene in DSaF 1, more or less exactly how it appears in-game today. This was before I'd even written the bulk of the game. I was pretty unfamiliar with visual novels as a whole, pretty unsure if something like this would be palatable to a fandom that was really just used to sit 'n' survive stuff that were far more gameplay than text. I mean, there wasn't any FNaF fangames really LIKE DSaF before that point. Closest was FNaFb, a jokey turn based RPG made in the same engine.

The engine I made the game in is also not exactly fit for VNs out of the box either, and I wasn't 100% sure the idea would actually work. But, the very first time I added the image of the prize corner, Phone Guy, the audio of that iconic cheesy stock track and booted up a test screen, I had a little moment where I said "Oh. I think I'm onto something interesting here." I kinda remembering instantly realizing in that single moment how much potential the idea had. Over 8 years later, I still remember that moment like it was yesterday.

I think lately, that's the sort of stuff I think of when I see people coming to me and asking about the series. Yes, it's really rough around the edges, yes, there's jokes that've aged poorly. But, it is a source of comfort for people and entertains tens of thousands of people each month. And that's gotta count for something, right?

[sopaprimordialy]

Boppers, hear me out.

Victor is Luther's father.

Ok, now, you might be thinking: "what the actual fuck are you talking about?" Well, in this essay I'll expose favorable arguments to my theory/theses/head canon that, in the album, captain Victor is Luther's father. Keep your radio tuned tight, boppers, bcs I might be crazy OR I might be onto something.

(There will be spoilers)

1. First of all...

For context, Victor is the cop that kills Fox. He's played by David Patrick Kelly, the actor who plays Luther in the original movie, The Warriors (1979). This alone is a huge reason for me to believe that they are somehow connected, BUT THERE'S MORE!

I think we already established that what a character claims to be their reason for doing something is not always their real reasoning, or, at least, not the entirety of it. I do believe Luther kills Cyrus because he enjoys the chaos and has a lot of hate in his heart, as Swan wisely says, but I don't think that's all.

We have hints among his lines that he's also misogynistic and racist. "Well, duh?" You might say, because there were few white men who weren't those things by the time this story takes place, but sometimes we may underestimate how heavy this stuff weighs in the narrative. If he really likes chaos that much, why not kill, Idk, a police captain? That would certainly create generalized chaos just as he likes, but instead, he deliberately targets marginalized groups' leadership — he kills a black woman, a powerful black woman who was trying to unite her community.

She was obviously an obstacle for the cops to keep up with their oppression towards these groups because unity is strength, and all they don't want is strong communities that knows their rights and won't accept to be chased down like animals when they've done nothing but trying to survive.

In the very first track of the album, the question "but is Cyrus atractin' police action?" Is asked. The answer we find further on, especially when the police invades Van Cortlandt Park right after she's killed, is: *yes*, of course she is.

* Also, the timing here is too convenient, don't you think? Just like the police knew exactly when to attack, when the desperate crowd would be disorganized, when they would be easy prey... anyways 😛

2. That weird af phone call

Now that we have established that there would be a lot of interest on the police's part to have Cyrus killed, let's move on to the next topic.

Suddenly, without any further context or this being ever mentioned again, Luther talks to *someone* on the telephone. This happens in the album, and in the movie as well, it is not confirmed who the hell Luther was talking to on that phone call. I've already seen some people theorizing that he has contacts inside the force and that he's talking to them, and I agree, but I think he's not talking with some random cop, I believe he's talking to Victor.

Come think with me: how did Luther instantly knew Ajax had been taken by the cops ("Holy shit, Warrior down [...] Picked the wrong fight / now she's in for a long night", I'll talk about this later btw), and most importantly, what exactly was Victor doing at Union Square's station?

Let's compare this approach with Barnes' one at the park.

Barnes was alone in the bench, and only when Ajax approached him (and started beating the shit out of him), he called for police reinforcements. It didn't feel planned, even tho he was trying to bait them to come closer to him, I think it was much more about sexual harassment than him actually intending to arrest them. With Victor, however, it doesn't feel like a random encounter.

"Officers are on the scene". This line repeats a lot during Reunion Square, that alone indicates that there are a group of cops there, like they've been called. They knew the Warriors, specifically the Warriors, would be there, and why was it so important for them to get the Warriors if they're just a "likkle Coney Island crew"? Because Luther would be FUCKED if the Riffs reached them alive.

Of course, the Riffs could just not believe the girls, but he was not willing to risk it — after the phone call, Luther tells Cropsy the Riffs wanted the Warriors alive, but they don't. And he was right, wasn't him? Cleon being alive and telling the Riffs the truth was the only reason for him to be caught and... well, we don't know for sure what they did to him, but we can imagine they weren't gentle.

That being said, we have strong evidence that Luther was in touch with the cops, else he would have no way of knowing Ajax was grounded. And Victor needed a reason to be there as well; not only an informant, but also a motive, and if we consider the theory that he was talking to Luther, we have both things.

3. Trust in the impunity of a daddy's boy

During the entire musical, Luther thinks he can get away with about everything. I atribute that not only to the fact that he's a white man targeting women of color, but he must also have other reasons to believe he's immune to justice of any kind, and there's where I start to try to convince you that he's Victor's son.

I mean, when Cropsy shows that he's worried the Riffs would go after them, Luther, rather ignorantly, responds with "they're looking for the Warriors, remember?" As if the fact that the Riffs are going after the Warriors is enough for him to believe they would never even think about interrogating them, trying to find the murder weapon, etc.

This behavior suits someone that has never been held accountable for any misdeeds at all, and who would fit this description better than a cop's son?

Let alone that Victor is a captain. He holds even MORE power within the police. Being the son of a cop, even if you're a fucking gang member, you'd feel safe enough to do just whatever the fuck you want without even thinking about the consequences.

Like, how many times he could have been caught doing something illegal, just tell the cops "do you know who my father is?" AND IT ACTUALLY WORKING? I firmly believe he was the one to inform the cops about all of this — the gathering, the Warriors' location, and the fact that he needed daddy to arrest the women who could potentially cause something to happen to him, because the Riffs are not the police, they'd not give af abt who his father is, even someone like him would have to be a little worried about being taken by them.

4. Fox & Luther — Parallels

I bet you did not see that one coming. "What do you mean there's something in common between Fox and Luther specifically that makes Victor killing her an interesting parallel with his (supposed) son?"

Well, games. That's kinda it. Old games.

So, there are only two characters that canonically like games in the musical, because they actually mention them: Fox ("A-yo I'll take you on an Odyssey like Magnavox") and Luther (with his multiple references to Pacman during the entire thing and other game expressions, like "I was at the top of the screen when I took that shot")

The Magnavox Odyssey is actually mentioned on the movie (according to my own father. I confess I don't remember this part, but I trust my nerdy father who actually have a connection with old consoles to notice that) by the Lizzies (fem version of the Bizzies), and Fox was not even there at the moment. Actually, movie Fox does not have a lot of... personality, if you ask me, he was kinda irrelevant. Anyways, even if Lin and Eisa wanted to reference this specific part in which the Lizzies offer to play Odyssey with the Warriors to lure them, why not have the Bizzies saying that? Why Fox?

Because that would be a bitter irony in the future. I might be crazy, BUT HEAR ME OUT, Victor killing a young woman that shared his son's interest for games was a foreshadowing for him being responsible for Luther's death as well — because he failed.

This is other thing they share: they failed. Victor failed to stop the Warriors from going home, Luther failed to kill Cyrus and blame the Warriors with no consequences, they failed together at silencing them, and this CAUSED Luther's (probable) death.

5. A gang member who endorses the police?

Ok, this last section is based in my belief that, even tho the crews fight and have their diferences, they all share a common enemy: the cops. That was the reason for them to accept the truce after all, the cops are their common enemy.

But somehow that doesn't feel true for the Rouges.

First of all, they killed Cyrus, which obviously means they were not in favor of the truce. But why? They sure would suffer from police brutality too if they were a normal gang. And we can all agree that they are even more violent than the average gang (I mean... have you listened to their leader?).

Also, this line intrigues me.

I mean, "picked the wrong fight"? It is clear that Luther's view is biased to take the cops' side. In this case, one could argue that his misogyny would play a big part on him diminishing Ajax's will to fight against an abuser. Anyhow, I think that this evidences that, even tho he's a gang member, he has a strong connection with the police.

CONCLUSION

I think we can all agree that Luther has something going on with the police, and I hope I have convinced you that he has something going on with Victor specifically.

It is possible to argue that their connection is only "tactical", or even go as far as to say that they are friends or something (tho, I don't think that's possible. One thing about brats like the Rouges: they don't go well with old people, with all due respect. I don't personally see this working as a friendship), but I'll stand with the father-son relationship till the day I die!!

Thank you for reading this madness and please lmk what you think! If there's something that doesn't make sense, if you have your own theories... I mean, I'm far more invested in this than I ever thought I would be, please give me more content 🙏🙌

[burner-blaze]

The death of human rights

Fellas, is it gay to want human rights?

So I guess now we have to suffer even more for the rich's gain. It's insane how they manage to reel you in, make you believe they care about you, when you're the kind of person they care least about. I wonder sometimes where I'd be if I wasn't so dissociated to begin with, if I was able to look at politics or news and deal with it normally. Would I have believed them? I was already in church, and weirdly those values align. Everything has been a warning of our economy and it's downfall, but as long as the people born rich show you that we have something unfamiliar, that's the issue. I don't think of myself as political nor do I ever want to be, but even with how much I avoid it, how can I not have an opinion when it feels like everything is collapsing around us? Let's go back to the church part, and just imagine from my perspective when, unknowingly, I was told that trans people were evil people and wrong. I'm glad I never connected the dots when I met trans kids at my school, because naturally when they asked to be referred to by a different name and different pronouns, I did it without question. I don't think I'm a saint at all for this, just that I never saw an issue with it conceptually, which would be the majority if there wasn't interference. It's genuinely terrifying to see people work themselves into a cult, where the leaders don't actually care for them. And you know it's a cult when the people inside it deny it. What's going to happen when this reaches other countries, are we all going to be treated by communist governments? because that's where we're headed when basic human rights are called into question. We have a right to live, be respected by who we are, get healthcare and food and drink, have a home. HOW IS THIS DEBATABLE.

It's even worse when you know the rich call the poor lazy, when all I've seen are people who work 80 hour work weeks just to be able to survive, because this system has never worked for anyone except those born rich. We should all be born on equal terms (disabilities accounted for). Again, how is this debatable? No one has earned more or less for being born, we're all human, we should have equal chances to be able to ever achieve anything. How far does the rabbit hole go before everything's taken from us and the supporters might believe they've been brainwashed. I can't even be sure anymore. Your country will never improve or "great again" when what made the country great in those post-war days was the exact opposite of what's being done now. The rich were taxed, the government ensured everyone had or could get a job, buildings and services were made to account for the struggles of the time. How will it help to distance the gap further between the super-rich and us? How is any of this debatable. If you believe you elected someone who will save you I hope you learn a lesson here, because that's all that can be done about it now. The climate will continue to collapse, the economy will continue to collapse, and the 1% will get everything they wanted because they played you all for fools. Soon free speech won't be free speech unless you agree with the worst people you can think of, and it'll be a privilege, not a right.

TL;DR I miss when I didn't have to see Nazi propaganda being taken seriously and we're all doomed.

[moongothic]

Tbh I wanna see crocodile fight someone so we can see how strong he is because the last time he’s gotten in a real fight was in marineford. Does crocodile have haki? Does he need it at all to survive the new world? Like with most of the relevant pirates knowing haki, retroactively or otherwise, it’s kinda hard to gauge what he’s capable of

Anon I am so sorry I'm gonna go slightly off-topic/become deranged because I've been thinking about writing a whole ass post about this very subject and now you just gave me an excuse to word vomit incoherently instead. So I'm just gonna do that. I'm so sorry

(Hey won't you look at that I actually came back and edited this so it's vaguely legible and there's like a proper point to my thesis lmao)

Also I am. So sorry. For how obscenely long this got. Holy shit I have no idea how this happened I am so sorry

I can not put into words just how badly I want to see this man have an actual, proper 1-v-1 fight with someone. Oda, for the love of god let him fuck up someone, please, I c̵͍͛r̶̢͠a̴͕̾v̷̠͆ḛ̶̐ ̸̤͝t̷̟̋h̷̳̓ḙ̵̀ ̷̱͌b̶͓͑l̸̦̚ô̶̠ȯ̸͇d̴̲̕

No for real though, the one, true, proper 1v1 we ever saw Crocodile have WAS with fucking Luffy and like, to be fair they did fight three times, but still, during Summit War? Sure we see him exchange a few blows but it's never a proper 1v1 because we keep on cutting from one thing to another and the opponents keep on changing etc. So there was no time for a proper battle with anyone

So out of principle alone I want to see him have a proper fight with someone (who isn't a Strawhat preferably) at least once before the series ends (though honestly if we could have more than just one fight scene with Crocodile I would not complain at all, but I might be asking too much at that point)

But also yes. I want to know Croc's actual Power Level in the story right now (and I don't mean that in a powerscaling-kinda way, just in a "I want my husband to look cool because it's what he deserves" kinda way)

Like. The Crocodile we've seen in the past absolutely under no circumstances deserves the fucking unit of a bounty he has on his head right now. And I mean, to be fair Buggy doesn't deserve his gigantic bounty either, canonically the numbers don't matter or mean THAT MUCH-- They just reflect what the WG thinks a person is worth, not the true level of threat the person actually poses But also. Croc's bounty has literally gotten like 24 times bigger from his OG pre-Shichibukai era bounty. To be fair, according to trivia his OG bounty would've at least doubled had the WG known about Baroque Works, but his current bounty would still be like 12 times bigger than before. And god fucking knows Crocodile does not fucking deserve a bounty this fucking big if he hasn't gotten any more powerful since Alabasta. No amount of hanging around with Mihawk and running evil organizations should beef up his bounty that much

So surely, he must've gotten more powerful since we last saw him action, right? Surely? Somehow?

But indeed, how?

And that's where we kinda get to the interesting part, don't we? We have no idea what Croc's been up to for the past two years. Like whatever he's been doing, surely it's been better than spending a decade sitting on his ass and barely ever lifting a muscle when overpowering rando pirates attacking Alabasta with his Logia powers, right. Like surely being in the New World alone would be enough to make him break a sweat for a change

But then like, the only two times we have seen Croc post-timeskip (pre-Cross Guild) he has been just sitting around reading the news (to be fair, the scenes were also about him catching the news about Luffy, it's not like he can't do anything else outside of those scenes). So like. I feel kind of conflicted, like on one hand to get stronger then surely he must've been working out or something. But also I do kind of mentally associate Training Arcs with much younger characters, and Crocodile is quite middle aged, like is he even allowed to go through a training arc anymore?? Especially when he's like a such a Proper Gentleman, it's so hard to imagine him to go back to the basics or anything

But also?? How else would he get stronger?? Like?? Maybe there really was?? AN OLD MAN TRAINING ARC??

But also, to be fair

Crocodile did make a big point about how he "keeps on honing and developing his Devil Fruit skills instead of stagnating like some other losers" back when he and Luffy had their first match. So I really would love it if Oda kept that actually true for the character, I'd love to see him actually whip out some new tricks, techniques and attacks instead of us seeing Sables again for the 839423th time

And really he can't really whip out new attacks if he hasn't at least tried to come up with new tricks (and preferably tried them out)

But that was just the basics right, Croc's Devil Fruit capabilities

Then there's the whole mystery of Crocodile's Haki Status. A whooole different can of worms. Considdering how the only actual damage he seemed to take during the entirety of Summit War was because of Jozu's Haki, and the fact that even fucking Blackbeard can use Haki now, it'd feel deranged if he doesn't have any kind of Haki capabilities. Like everybody knows Haki is going to be Croc's persona kryptonite, including Croc himself! And Haki Mastery really is The Thing that decides whether a pirate crew can actually make it or not in the New World (Kaidou made a specific point about that too). So surely, considdering Croc's supposed to be A Smart Boy and all, he knows he'll need to actually figure out how to use Haki if he doesn't want to lose another limb, right. Like surely he's figured that shit out, right???

Now people have been speculating for years if both Crocodile AND Moria used to be Haki users who lost their Haki after getting their asses kicked in the New World. Which, in theory would make sense, since Haki is essentially just willpower, and getting crushed the way they did would give them good in-universe reasons to why they didn't use the ability, as their traumas could translate to them losing their wills. But also it is willpower, that's not really a tangible thing you can really lose, and the idea of "Haki loss" isn't actually canon (yet at least). So although it's great fanon, we can't assume it's true. Like just as an example, we know Hancock can supposedly use Conqueror's Haki but we've never actually seen her demonstrate the ability

And to be fair to Croc (and Moria), the concept of Haki didn't really start to get Truly Solidified in the story until post-War, so expecting Alabasta!Croc to use it a whole decade earlier in real world time would be ridiculous since Oda hadn't figured out the system yet.

And while that is 100% true and fair.

Thing is. Although extremely vague, I do think Oda had been slowly starting to build the IDEA of Haki already in Alabasta. Like we know the concept gets properly introduced during the Skypiea Saga where Blackbeard both namedrops it and we get to see Observation Haki in action, under the name Mantra. But already in Alabasta, when Zoro is trying to figure out how to cut steel (to defeat Daz), that whole "breath of things" and hyper-awareness he gains when near death... I'm not the first one to point out how much that sounds like rudamentary Haki. And like, yes, on paper the idea of the battle was that Zoro became strong enough to cut steel. But also, learning to use Haki would be what would allow anyone to cut through a Devi Fruit ability like that. The same applies to Luffy's final attack on Crocodile too, his punch destroying the sand blade that before would've sliced his entire hand in half before is poetic on its own, but makes even more in-universe sense if you considder the possilibity Luffy might have subconciously been using Haki at the very end, his sheer willpower allowing him to punch Croc.

The reason I'm pointing all that out is that I kinda wonder if we might've gotten hints at Crocodile having not just Haki, but fucking Conqueror's Haki in Alabasta

This is based on two things:

First, Crocodile's pet bananawani. Yes, he could just be Really Good with animals and that would be adorable on its own. But we know Conqueror's can be used to intimidate and tame animals, including really fierce beasts. Keeping in mind that bananawani are meant to be one of the few species of animals that prey on Sea Kings, IDK, if you told me the reason Crocodile was able to tame them and keep them as pets thanks to Conqueror's, I would believe you. It's nothing solid, there's no proof one way or another, but it would make sense in-universe, it is plausible.

Second, this scene.

Does that blast of Ominous Air/Energy on the third page not remind you of one of those Conqueror's Haki shockwaves?

Of course, considdering Luffy was able to knock out Bon-chan with his untrained, uncontrolled Conqueror's in Impel Down (though to be fair, in the Impel Down scene Bon-chan was in rough condition anyways), if Crocodile was displaying his Haki here, either

A) Shit's real fucking weak or

B) He must've intentionally "kept it down" in this scene just to make sure his agents didn't actually pass out on the spot

But of course, if Croc had fullblown Conqueror's that he was able to control that well, you'd think he might've actually used it to subdue weaker enemies at some point or something (though, again, Hancock also supposedly has it and we haven't seen her use it, and if we had seen him use it on Luffy or something then the story really would've ended in Alabasta). So if that really was Conqueror's, I'd personally maybe rather lean on it being weak as hell (especially if Haki Loss was canon) over him having perfect control over it

Of course, just because that ominous blast of air in hindsight might resemble a weak ass Conqueror's Haki Blast, it doesn't mean that's what it was. Just like with the Bananawani example, there's nothing solid here to go off of, it's just plausible

(Also just for clarity's sake, Crocodile doesn't need Conqueror's Haki. I just think there could be evidence to suggest it if you overthink it just right)

All of this to say

Regardless of what Croc's Haki Status was during Alabasta and Summit War, the fact is that the dude really does kind of need Haki just to survive in the current storyline. So if he can't use ANY KIND OF HAKI, I'm just gonna be speechless. Like Luffy could kill him by just farting on him at that point Not to mention I'd actually love to see the Haki Loss-concept explored in the canon. Like either have it debunked, or somehow confirm it's a thing and show off what a horrifying threat Crocodile can be when he's actually putting his everything into a fight (same for Moria btw, if all he has to protect rn is Perona I'd love to see him go apeship and use Haki to protect her)

BUT THEN THERE'S A WHOLE DIFFERENT DIRECTION WE COULD GO WITH CROCODILE'S POWER LEVEL

OH DID YOU THINK I WAS FUCKING DONE WITH THIS POST? NO, WE'RE STILL FUCKING GOING MAN

So I've seen a lot people speculate about Logia Awakenings and what they could be like. Most people seem to agree on the theory that Punk Hazard being the way it is could be a result of two awakened Logias (namely Akainu and Aokiji) clashing. Similarly that Enies Lobby could be where an Awakened Light Fruit did a thing in the distant past, causing the eternal daytime on the island

I'm not sure I'm entirely convinced that's what Logia Awakenings will be like (some people have also suggested Enel's Final Form was a Logia Awakening, which I kinda doubt but okay), it's a neat idea in any case, we'll just have to wait and see what Oda has cooking for us

Regardless. On a mere narrative level, if they're even possible then I think it'd be cool as hell if Crocodile could act as an introduction to Logia Awakenings and what they're actually like. Because, depending on the role the bastard is going to take going forward, it could prepare us and Luffy for what's to come with Akainu (the real threat)

And again, depending on his role in the story, I think he could be an actual candidate for someone who could deserve to be Awakened-- like the whole Awakening State is sliiightly OP, and Logias are also kind of OP by default. So between OG Croc being kinda weak as hell (by current standards), but also him being an experienced pirate who's known his abilities for god knows how many decades... IDK I think he could deserve The Honors, y'know?

Like compare him to someone like Sabo or Blackbeard who got their Logias only recently and are still learning to use their abilities (more or less). If either of those fuckers somehow Awakened their Logias before Sir Fucking Crocodile I'd be kinda pissed off y'know?

The Admirals are kinda OP to begin with anyways too, I kinda just don't want Smoker to get The Honor of being the first on-screen Awakened Logia either, and really that would leave us with like... Ceasar and Enel as our only remaining options

And Dragon, if he does have a Wind Logia (which remains to be seen)

So. Yeah. If Logia Awakenings can be a thing, I think Crocodile could be the perfect guy to actually introduce them in the story (depending what his role will be).

All of this nonsense to say

Mr Oda, please, I would like to see Sir Crocodile in action pwease

And I want to know what the hell that weird spike thing was

Mr Oda please, I wish to see the Husband and see what kind of tricks he can do now after all these years, please allow him to commit a murder or two or three

[jester-dragons-aus]

Ah fuck I've done it again

Amalgam AI AU

I've seen some AUs about the humans being AI instead of Caine and I thought that might be the simplest way to get this monstrosity to happen with a massive glitch without abstraction playing a part.

I think I just really like horror AUs and doing stuff like that is just so fun so I made another one with a better title than "Horror House" cuz c'mon what the hell does that mean lol

The only characters I don't have designed currently are Zooble, Caine, and Bubble but I'll add them soon. Caine will be a human, Bubble could be something to help him out and what not.

Inspired by AUs like Sm-baby's and The Horror Circus AU, but like, different ofc.

Think this: the game wasn't originally supposed to be a horror game, just a game you go through for fun. Like Undertale, I guess? But not quite

[WARNINGS: LOTS OF EYES/ARACHNID IMAGERY, BODY HORROR, EYESTRAIN]

So first and foremost, I think people would wanna see Pomni, though Jax was the first to be designed.

Pomni is supposed to be some sort of anti-virus or some sort of protecting thing. Supposed to fix bugs and glitches and prevent viruses from getting into the game. Like a firewall, I guess? I tried to make her look like "right/wrong" esc thing. She was the last to be designed and it was like 1 am when I designed her. I had no clue what to do with her, I'll be completely honest.

Story wise, she'd be trying to find a way to undo this massive glitch and get the game back to normal before she can even rest. Once Caine pops up to try and fix the game from inside, as a dev himself, she does her best to protect him and help him fix the game.

No there is no shipping in this AU, they're just helping each other basically survive. They might become friends over time but nothing more. :V

Next up: Ragatha and Gangle! I actually really like Gangle's design but Ragatha definitely needs a few tweaks I think.

Ragatha, before this massive glitch, would have been an NPC that would help a player out at the start but end up getting lost after a certain point, like a tutorial. She was the most caring character in the game before everything went down.

Gangle used to be someone who ran a little theatre thing in the game, as I've seen from other AUs and took inspiration from, but she's usually nice no matter what mask she has on. More arms means she can help more people at once, right? Game mechanics wise she was like a little shop keeper for costumes if they're needed and she can help with newer mechanics on stage if something new is added. Friendly NPC, you know? Love her design, too!

Now for the first two to be designed, Jax and Kinger!!

So Jax was like a reoccurring villain, I guess. Always trying to make the player quit the game or just scare the shit out of them, despite him not being very scary himself. He's more played off to be a joke character, if I'm honest, always failing with his antics and what not. It's part of the code! I actually like his design, small lil paws and just so shapey over all.

Kinger was like a final boss, I guess? The scariest of all of them at that time. He was a king, ruling over his pawns and such, all of which were also bug themed! I love making Kinger bug related it's so fun. He's a big softie in reality but hits like a train if you ever went against him. He had terrible vision despite all of his eyes and was very slow despite the amount of legs.

Now for what everyone has been waiting for.

The reason for the AU title.

The MASSIVE glitch that caused everything to go downhill.

The Amalgam.

I still think it needs a few tweaks here and there but this is one of four concepts I've had for it.

One time all four of these characters were together, which was relatively rare but possible, a glitch happened in the game. Pomni doesn't know where it started from and none of the game devs understand how it happened, but it did. Some devs think there's a hacker. A massive glitch pulled those four characters together into one terrifying being, always hostile and destructive. All the code of the characters were merged into this thing and somewhat scrambled. The game has now been broken to where once you're in, you can't escape until it's fixed, yet no one knows it, which is why Caine went in.

So much has happened and it's still being fixed, but a hostile blob of characters constantly attacking whenever it's near? It will be hard to fix.

It seems to be guarding something.

Concepts for the amalgam:

You can see in the first one I was going to put Zooble there but I still need a good design for Zooble. Let's see what they'll be.

[p4ngilz]

2. PYJAMA PANTS

hey hi :D oneshots for the white boy that has had me in a chokehold since 2019. these are also available on wattpad but pls. i was 12. stay here, it's better if you don't see what i've done in the past JOKE but i was crazy fr. im matured now promise. speaking of wattpad i'm rewriting all of these so it'll be a while until this is complete

note: all of these from no. 1-12 are fem!reader

TRACKLIST.

1. study session - (hogwarts!au) you have a bitter history with a certain slytherin, the same one professor potter assigns you to tutor!

2. pretty impressive, huh? - (peculiar!au) set during the events of a map of days/desolation of devil's acre. contains minor spoilers for the latter. connor protects his favorite seedsprout when caul's buddies appear knocking on their door.

3. only you - a new girl is sent to camp half-blood by her demigod parents in new rome. how cool! you know who else thinks she's cool? connor. ooh, she sees to have him whipped. what do you think about this?

4. light in the dark - you're off on a quest with a blond and a brunette. and judging by how the train shudders, something scaly has joined your trio.

5. reassurance - the second titan war has everyone on edge, including you. what better way to be comforted by your close friend, connor?

6. cliché - caught up in a puppy crush on your cousin's friend, you find yourself daydreaming and smiling giddily over what could be.

7. lifetime - hours before the wedding, you look back on what could have been.

8. little games - little games your boyfriend lies to play with you, to see that smile he adores.

9. take my place - a hopeless romantic, fervently reading each word, turning each page with their fingertips on fire. it does feel much better when they're actually in your arms, though.

10. homecoming - connor promises to tell you something if you both survive the war. what a silly promise to keep. it's as if you're not going to battle age-old greek monsters, instead you're mortal kids doing mortal kid things. pfft. as if you'll ever get a taste of that.

11. undercover - connor bumps into a familiar face, a child of nike to be specific. he patches her up whilst reminiscing on a shared memory of theirs. maybe there's something behind those stolen glances and nervous chuckles.

12. nice - a daughter of athena has no idea what to do with connor's mixed signals. the hell you mean, i'm "not the ugliest thing" you've seen?

submit requests here!

[shieldmaiden-tabris]

You wanna know what really kills me?

Heaven was never going to leave Aziraphale and Crowley alone. After what they did, there's no way they could. Crowley and Aziraphale didn't just go rogue. They openly defied Heaven and Hell, gave middle fingers to the Great Plan, and walked away with no consequences. They showed that Heaven doesn't have as much control as they claim. Their continued existence threatens the fragile status quo that Heaven has painstakingly worked to maintain over 6,000 years. If Heaven is to salvage what remains of the Great Plan as they see it, their next plan cannot have any uncontrolled variables, and Crowley and Aziraphale are as uncontrollable as it gets.

Heaven needed to find a way to eliminate Crowley and Aziraphale to prevent them from ever interfering with their plans again. However, it can't be as simple as just killing them.

When Aziraphale and Crowley survived their attempted executions, they became an even bigger problem. Hell made a huge mistake in choosing to make Crowley's trial a spectacle. While "Crowley" splashed around in Holy Water in front of a demonic audience, Beelzebub immediately went into damage control mode so riots wouldn't break out, but by then, it was too late. Too many demons saw that Hell had lost control of one of their own and any remaining power Hell had over Crowley vanished. Crowley absolutely knows this. Look at the way he responds when directly threatened in season 2. When Beelzebub threatens Crowley in episode 1, he doesn't react at all, it's like he doesn't even hear it. When Shax says that he'll be, "hunted and eliminated by Hell," in episode 2, Crowley gives such a nonreaction that Shax even says, "So you understand that I'm threatening you?" Even then, he just revs the engine until she leaves. The threats are empty.

Heaven's saving grace was that only the Archangels were present during Aziraphale's attempted execution. Only they, the angels in power, know that the Hellfire didn't work and they aim to keep it that way. If on the off chance anyone asks why Aziraphale went unpunished for his role in stopping Armageddon, all they need to say is that, "oh, he's been forgiven by God, who has decided to be merciful and x, y, z, so on and soforth," or something along those lines that supports the idea that Heaven is still Good and nothing is wrong and do not look at the man behind the curtain, so to speak.

Neither Heaven nor Hell have reason to suspect Crowley and Aziraphale switched bodies, so I highly doubt they would risk trying the same methods again unless they're entirely certain it would succeed. (Yes, Crowley spilled the secret to Gabriel while drunk, which I do think is going to come into play in season 3, but given that Gabriel never had the chance to tell Heaven and is now off somewhere with Beelzebub, as of the season 2 finale, the other angels and demons still don't know.)

If Crowley and Aziraphale can't be destroyed, then Heaven's only alternative is to separate them somehow. Physically forcing them apart would have been out of the question from the start. Crowley and Aziraphale displayed pretty impressive power performing that miracle on Gabriel, and when you couple that with the idea that they can't be destroyed by Holy Water or Hellfire, that's more than a little threatening. If they were forced apart, I can guarantee there is nothing in Heaven or Hell that could keep them separate.

So mutual separation it is. But how?

Enter, the Metatron.

I've seen a few posts pointing out that Crowley was the only one who recognized the Metatron in the bookshop and how such familiarity is possibly a hint to his former rank in Heaven. But what if Crowley knows the Metatron for another reason? I keep thinking back to the scene with Crowley and Aziraphale on the mountain, watching as Job talks directly to God. While Aziraphale looks on in awe, Crowley looks confused, maybe even envious and a little hurt. Consider the next few lines of dialogue:

Crowley: "Is God actually..." Aziraphale: "I think so." Crowley: "...talking to him?" Aziraphale: "I don't suppose he's getting any answers." Crowley: "No. But just to be able to ask the question..."

We know Crowley Fell for asking questions, but what if he never talked directly to God? What if he asked those questions to the voice of God, the Metatron? And what if the Metatron was one of the last faces he saw before he Fell? That would certainly leave an impression, no doubt.

I think the Metatron already knew Crowley wouldn't accept Heaven's offer because he knows what questions Crowley asked. He knows Crowley has never been one to blindly follow orders like Heaven demands. Crowley doesn't want to be a pawn anymore, he's never wanted to be a pawn in the first place. He's left Heaven and Hell behind to stand firmly on his own side and make his own decisions. Aziraphale on the other hand, still believes in Heaven's goodness. He thinks the rest of the Heavenly Host has just lost their way and longs to change the system from the inside. The Metatron is now using that faith to get him away from Crowley and back under Heaven's thumb by offering him a chance to change things in Heaven.

First, he defended Aziraphale when the Archangels were being bullies in the bookshop. Then, he offered Aziraphale coffee.

Oh, my god, the coffee... As soon as I saw it, I knew exactly what he was doing.

The coffee was a manipulation tactic to establish a commonality between himself and Aziraphale and distinguish the Metatron from the other angels by saying, "see? I'm like you." The use of drinks this season has been SUPER interesting to observe. When Gabriel appears at the bookshop, Aziraphale offers him hot chocolate. Before losing his memory, Gabriel wouldn't have touched the stuff. Later, Aziraphale offers Muriel a cup of tea and Muriel has no idea what to do with it. The Metatron's offering of coffee is the first time another angel has offered Aziraphale a drink. An offering of sorts.

The next thing the Metatron did was to physically separate Aziraphale from Crowley. And the look, the LOOK the Metatron gave Crowley when Aziraphale walked ahead... The moment the Metatron was able to get Aziraphale alone, he knew he'd got him. He took Aziraphale away from his support and then offered him a chance to make a difference.

"So predictable," the Metatron says to Nina in the coffee shop.

And he was right. He knew Aziraphale would accept his offer, just like he knew Crowley would refuse.

Heaven got their wish. Crowley and Aziraphale are separated. It took the Voice of God coming down from Heaven to do it, but it happened.

I don't know what Heaven has planned for Aziraphale. Maybe they plan to attempt to indoctrinate him again, or maybe they plan to keep him so busy with tedious tasks so he's out of the way of the real work they're doing. We'll just have to wait and see.

I do know one thing. Aziraphale will come back to Crowley. They won't be apart for too long. They will be on their own side, together at last, the two of them against Heaven and Hell at the end of all things and after. Of that, I'm certain.

[bcatdfox]

The Road to 'Road to Kingdom 2: Electric Boogaloo' [RTK2 #1]

The time has come, my friends. 'Road to Kingdom 2' is coming, set to start airing in September (as far as I know, there's no specific date yet). At this point in time, I'm planning on watching the entire series and, after running a poll on my twitter, I will be (attempting) both livetweeting my reactions to the episodes, as well as posting full recaps and thought posts here on tumblr.

Why, you may ask? Well, first of all, I'm an absolute survival show junkie. I don't necessarily watch all of them (because there are so very many of them) but I try to watch as many as I can. Secondly, I am actively part of the performing arts community, from musical theatre to concert band to choir to dance to drama - and I enjoy engaging with things in that area. And thirdly, I'm very opinionated and I enjoy hearing myself talk, lol. So instead of terrorising my various group chats, I'm just going to get all my thoughts out there into the void.

Anyway, with that out of the way, here's what we know so far. Taemin is going to be the MC (so fun), and the official lineup of participating groups is Oneus, Cravity, Tempest, Younite, The New Six, 8TURN, and The CrewOne. Mnet have already announced that, unlike the first season of RTK, this season is no longer for smaller/unknown groups with no music show wins and will not be a precursor to 'Kingdom' proper; the prize for the winning group does not include a spot on that show, apparently. This show is effectively going to be a whole different show from the original RTK, just using the same name, which... why bother? Just give it a new name, then, instead of piggybacking off one of your existing IPs, Mnet. Removing the ticket onto Kingdom element thoroughly defeats the purpose of the show, in my opinion, but hey, since when has Mnet ever cared about doing stuff logically. I could say something about 'Build Up' and how that was handled both during and after the show, but I digress.

Due to it not being the same show as the original season, there's not a lot that can currently be predicted about how it might run, what sort of challenges the groups will face, or how any of the rounds will be conducted. The only thought I currently have is that an uneven number of groups (to me) is implying potential eliminations, which I'm not thrilled about. I'm still traumatised by Golden Child's elimination on the original season, and I'm not likely to be getting over that any time soon.

Now, onto the actual groups. I'm actively a fan of two of the groups (Cravity and Oneus), a casual listener of one other (Tempest), and am only tangentially aware of the other four groups. So, leading up to the start of the show, I'll be making a few intro posts to the groups with my first impressions and thoughts on them as they stand, to see if the competition affects those impressions (I could come out of this with a new stanlist...). If anyone has any MV recommendations for 8TURN, TNX, ATBO/Justb (The CrewOne), or Younite, please feel free to drop them here or reply to me on twitter or whatever.

Pre-voting opened today (July 22) and will run until 12:00pm KST on July 26. As far as we know, the group that wins the most votes during this time will receive some sort of benefit when the show starts. The groups also seem to have started preparing for the first round (most likely will be some sort of introductory performance) if the posts I've seen on SNS are anything to go by. If you want to join in the voting, you just need to download the Mnet Plus app and create an account.

I think that's all I have to say, I'll be back over the next few days as I get to know the rest of the groups on the show. For now, happy voting, and I'll see you all in September for the airing of the first episode!

[adribelladonna]

The fairy biology post reminded me of some questions I have had:

If fairies can be drunk and they can be poisoned (apparently), then, presumably, anesthesia and aderall should work

Since it seems the detached wing remains somewhat alive, how improbable would it be to eventualy invent a way to reattach it with surgery and magic and loads of painkillers.

If fairies cannot taste, it means they may have even less way of telling if they were poisoned or drugged than humans (who can sometimes smell or taste something off) until it is too late

How important is quality of food to fairies and does the food need to actually be fresh. Did Shall starve a lot? Can someone put some meat on his bones?

How long will a fairy survive if their remaining wing is not torn off but rather has a tear? Can any damage to wings ever recover?

If a fairy's durability is defined by the qualities of the origin material, couldn't the Fairy king found some... less brittle stones for his kids to be born from? The only one who rolled something more or less decent in terms of durability is the babiest brother. Or is that durability isn't as directly influenced by the origin material as we think? Or maybe the Fairy King simply thought that whatever other traits the opal and the obsidian could offer were worth the trade-offs (makes me think, if he anticipated that the opal fairy would come out as potentially very cunning and crafty and obsidian fairy as rather stoical and pragmatic for example, do not know enough about the diamond fairy).

While fairy names are just names and all, the consistency of Fen seems to indicate that sibling fairies at least may share a naming pattern. Do these patterns differ between different sets of siblings or not.

Did Rafalle try to deliberately teach his diamond baby brother things before he was born by constantly talking to his "unhatched" stone, I need to know this. Just how much knowledge do fairies retain from their origin and why if Lusul knew nothing, she could still talk dammit. Are they suggesting the entirety of nature is actually capable of thought and speech and it is just that no living creature is able to normally hear that.

I'll try to answer those with to the best of my ability (and my knowledge) from the various novel titbits that I've gathered!

1. Probably? It would make sense I guess, but then again, no one's seemed to bother to try to give meds to fairies. We know that aphrodisiacs would work on them (it was explicidly mentioned by Mythrill. The best wingman out there was trying to drug Challe with "special tea" at one point. I swear Mythrill is unhinged. If you see him -- run!)

2. It is unclear if the detached wing is still alive or not. It loses it's warmth and colour so it's safe to assume that it's a dead limb... but twisting it still brings pain to the fairy and tearing it still kills them so... not so dead???

3. Haha I was thinking about it for a lot for various reasons. They can still smell things, but what if a poison is colourless and odourless?

4. And can they "eat" something that is not food? Questions without answers maaaan

4.1 I swear both Challe and Anne need to put some meat on their bones. Have you seen them? They both look like twigs, pls.

5. It seems they just can't. If a wing is torn the fairy dies. Don't tear your wings, kids, it might be lethal (probably it IS).

6. The Fairy King was a Ruby, we do know that. He didn't need a weapon since he could just make one like Challe and Lafalle (and Ellile, the diamond fairy for that matter) can. He's crafted a sword for himself specifically so that he could encrust it with an opal, an obsidian and a diamond. Why he'd go with these three stones in particular is a mystery.

7. I've said it before and I'll repeat my joke again:

"We fairies do not have last names," -- said Challe Fen Challe, the brother of Lafaell Fen Lafaell and Elille Fen Elille.

The other sibling-fairies that we know of are Daan and Hala and, unfortunately, I believe that it's their human names, so we don't know their original names.

8. Elille was born from Lafalle's gaze. He was a little cocomelon ever since his birth damn it. For now we only know that Elille is incredivally attached to Lafalle and that is all. It's a mystery how much of Lafalle's "teachings" he retained after his birth. And I don't really think it matters all that much since Lafalle was there with his diamond baby brother from the very beginning. He'd get tainted by Lafalle's ideas either way.

As for the whole "just how much knowledge do fairies retain after their birth" thing, I think it's just an author's tool to use at her own convinience. Magical realism bullshit at play. Of course fairies are born knowing how to speak, no one has time to teach them that, it's not relevant to the plot. What if I tell you Challe was born already knowing some basic sewing skills? What are you gonna do about it? Flip out just like I did? Honestly, good. Glad to know we're both sane.

(I kid you not when I'm saying this btw, the first thing he did after he was born was (aside from scoffing at Liz) pilfering clothes from baby Liz, making a whole scene about how human clothes constrict his wings and how uncomfy it is, pilfering a sewing kit from Liz and resewing shirts to better fit him. I kid you not. I could not make this up. Just... Mikawa-sensei, why?)

[thebreakfastgenie]

1, 3, 8, 12, 13

And i may come back later to hand you an even bigger spoon with which to stir the pot

1. the character everyone gets wrong

Trapper John McIntyre is not a himbo. Yes he's bad at card games up to and including solitaire. But he's an extremely talented surgeon (there are more episodes that say "those two are the best" about Hawkeye and Trapper than Hawkeye and BJ) and episodes like the one where he writes his daughter or Ceasefire show him as a thoughtful, reflective person.

I'm giving this one a double because also, Henry Blake. When people say "how did they survive Henry being in command?" it upsets me. Henry's incompetence is deliberate and occasionally implied to be deliberate in-universe. It's an act of rebellion from a guy who doesn't belong in the army and doesn't want to be there. His laziness is the same. He's also not a bad leader. Henry is there for Hawkeye in both Sticky Wicket and Sometimes You Hear the Bullet. He admits that he's not comfortable with the kind of command decisions he's expected to make. And the thing is, most of the time he doesn't have to. The unit does a pretty good job of running itself, because everyone cares about doing the medical stuff right, Radar handles the paperwork, and no (except Frank and Margaret) cares about the military stuff anyway. The 4077th achieves its high efficiency rating under Henry Blake's command.

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

There are so many contenders for this but honestly I think the worst take I've seen is the variations on the thing BJ loses in GFA being Hawkeye, or Hawkeye and BJ losing each other. The actual worst one was the one in a ten minute tiktok that said "the thing Hawkeye loses is the war" and then also said if you see him as a queer man, he's leaving a "safe space" (??????)? in "the middle of the lavender scare." But I've seen so many versions of it on tumblr, too.

It's so wildly against the point of GFA it makes me wonder if the people saying it watched the episode at all. I think fandom takes "everyone loses something" way too literally; I don't think it was ever intended as listing some tangible thing each of them lost, which is why no one from the show ever does that. Alan Alda also frequently describes it as "everyone is changed in some way" which is a lot less rigid and fits the story a lot better. 

Hawkeye and BJ only have each other because of the war and the idea that none of these relationships, including that one, can survive outside the war is also brought up. But the things everyone loses, the ways everyone is changed, are not things they only gained because of the war. If they were, it wouldn't work. The only exception is Potter and Sophie and I think there's a bit of symbolism there that makes it work when you consider Potter's backstory of getting into the army as an idealistic kid in the cavalry. Mulcahy's hearing, Charles's love of music, Margaret's unwavering faith in the army/her father (which are the same to her), Klinger's home, these are all things these characters came with. 

Hawkeye's loss, too, which Mike Farrell kindly summarized for us as Hawkeye loses his sanity." Hawkeye also arguably lost surgery, or at least his love for it. BJ's loss, of course, is the thing he spends the entire episode obsessing over: his daughter. There's a reason there is so much focus on her birthday. He left shortly after she was born; her second birthday means he's missed two full years of her life. Like Charles's music, Margaret's belief in the army, Hawkeye's love for his work, Mulcahy's hearing as a part of his work, Klinger's hometown... being a father is foundational to BJ. 

I don't care if a take is shippy or not, if it says Hawkeye and BJ's loss is each other, it fundamentally misunderstands GFA and it's not worth anything to me. 

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

Basically everything as far as BJ Hunnicutt is concerned. He doesn't have layers. Every "layer" is just headcanon and headcanons are fine, but they're not layers that are in the show. BJ in the show is a straightforward family man who loves his wife and child and can't wait to go home to them. That's how he's written and that's how he's played. That's his character's one big thing to the point of him getting boring sometimes. The writers struggled with him; this is confirmed. He's also not a liar; there is no evidence of him telling lies the way fandom describes. He's not particularly manipulative, either. He has his day in the sun in practical joke episodes, as does nearly every character (Hawkeye and Trapper in A Smattering of Intelligence, Charles in a Eye for a Tooth, Potter in April Fools...). To suggest this is a BJ trait is incorrect. BJ is also not an unusually jealous person and he doesn't have any issues with Trapper. The idea that BJ is "putting up a front"... sorry, but that's just who he is. MASH isn't an especially subtle show; when a character is putting up a front (e.g. Frank talking a big game while being a dirty coward) this is made obvious to even the most casual viewer.

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

I don't know if he's unpopular but Luther Rizzo has haters and I can't understand why! He's lazy and likes making the army pay him for sleeping on the clock. Iconic! He's also one of the most loving and dedicated family men we meet. We never see him with or even talking about another woman and he seems to genuinely love Zola and their son Billy Bubba. He never does anything offensive. I don't understand it! He's great and I want to read more backstory about him.

13. worst blorboficiation

Hawkeye for sure. I love to blorbofy Hawkeye, but it gets taken way too far. Hawkeye pre-war was a successful surgeon living on his own and I think people forget that. I think a lot of people project their own issues onto Hawkeye which is fine if you know that's what you're doing, but the line gets blurred a lot. Just look at his TVTropes page (don't). There is no canon evidence that Hawkeye has a lot of the issues that are popular to give him. I also think this ties in with the mischaracterization of him as a sad sack love martyr who waits around to be swept off his feet. That isn't Hawkeye. I also think people really like to project their own politics onto him. Hawkeye is progressive, yes, but he doesn't talk like a tumblr post. He doesn't agree with your exact politics.

[aimmyarrowshigh]

I know this is a super broad question, but; I'm in Chicago this weekend for MPCA/ACA and was wondering if you have any recommendations on what I could do in my freetime? Any smaller/niche museums or bookstores or whatever. Anything you think is interesting/nerdy. And food, of course! Food recommendations are always good :)

Oh man, I wish I had less touristy answers to give you, but I live just enough outside of the city that I mostly do touristy kinds of things when I go down there, and I've only been once since the 2020, so a lot of my answers aren't open anymore/didn't survive the pandemic.

BUT: I do have one that's not touristy! If you're into crafting or found objects at all, there's a secondhand crafts supply store called The WasteShed on Kimball Ave. that's very cool. My favorite thing there are the collections of donated old family photos and slides that people just sort of... give away, when someone in their family dies and they don't want to keep the personal effects(?????). I found an amazing pair of gorgeous family portraits from 1928 in Tokyo last time I was there. The family's names, ages, and the date are all written on the back in both Japanese and English. I'm glad those portraits didn't go into the landfill. But I'm a Small History person who loves things like ephemera. They also have tons of stuff for every type of art or craft imaginable!

Greektown also used to be super cool, but I don't know whether it still is. AFAIK the big tentpoles all didn't survive the pandemic, so don't quote me on that one.

I'm also always going to hype the fairy castle at the Museum of Science & Industry. It was created by and for Colleen Moore, the flapper and silent film star, and she used to tour the country with it to show at children's hospitals. It's fucking amazing. There's a 1" actual Guttenberg bible in there. There's a polar bear rug made of mink and mouse teeth. There's mother-of-pearl chairs made from her earrings from the set of a movie. There used to be running water on the Weeping Willow, but they had to turn off the water in the '90s because it was eating through the materials after 70 years. It's truly my favorite dollhouse, and I've seen the Nutshell Studies.

...I also love American Girl Place but that's literally just a me thing. I also sort of hate-love it, because they have Lost Their Way Severely.

I also am a big fan of the Field Museum -- I know, I know, museums evil, but it does genuinely seem like they're trying to course-correct and make amends -- and the Shedd Aquarium (same). You can touch a manta ray. You can see otters. You can smell penguins. I mean, you can also see them, but boy can you smell them. And Sue (the t-rex at the Field) is an unofficial Chicago mascot.

This is a good list of cool bookstores in the city, which I have to say I haven't explored as much as I should. I've been to a ton of cool bookstores in the Twin Cities, New York, and Staten Island, and some in the SF area and Seattle, but I haven't really explored the ones in Chicago too much because there used to be THE BEST children's/YA bookstore in my suburb and it was where I spent my entire life. This list looks like it has good options for many neighborhoods in the city, though, so wherever you're staying there should be something near-ish to you.

Which is kind of the other reason I haven't explored Chicago as much as other cities in which I've lived, despite living here the longest: public transit here FUCKING SUCKS and I hate city driving more than anything in the world. Maybe you'll have a better experience with the L than I ever do, though, so don't let me being terrible at the L put you off trying it out. I just am not good at it. I can do the subway! I can do trams and the Skyway! I can do street maps okay! I cannot do the L. Somehow every single time I try, I miss a stop and have to circle all the way around again.

Ooh, one other fun thing I did in like 2019 in the city was go ax-throwing, so if you want to try that, they have that right near the symphony building. That's surprisingly fun and not scary.

Food-wise, Chicago is full of good food. Pretty much everything I've ever eaten in the city was great, from the popcorn at Union Station (YOU MUST GET THE CHEDDAR AND CARAMEL MIX AT UNION STATION. IT IS THE BEST POPCORN.) to the $600+ per plate price fixe at Alinea (the only good thing I ever got from an ex). I feel like Sam @copperbadge has a more "a la minute" (hyuk hyuk) set of opinions about Chicago dining than I do -- like I said, a lot of the places that I really liked didn't survive the pandemic or they're outside of the city itself.

Oh! And it is sort of touristy but also very nerdy: the International Museum of Surgical Science. There's an exhibit right now about Frankenstein!

Honestly, looking at the MPCA/ACA website, I'm just jealous you get to be doing/seeing that all weekend. I feel like that's the nerdiest and most fun-seeming ticket in town. What are you there to present or see specifically?? I'm so intrigued!

[quillpokebiology]

What is your least favorite Pokemon that's annoying or something that triggers you?

Squawkabilly

Look. I try to have an open mind when researching pokemon. I don't necessarily hate them, but if I didn't have to care for any, I wouldn't complain. And here are my reasons for heavily disliking them!

1. They poop everywhere

Flying-type pokemon poop a lot more than regular pokemon, and that's fine! It lightens the weight to help them fly, and they have a fast metabolism. It's healthy for you flying-type pokemon to poop a lot!

But squawkabilly do it so freaking much! You move them? They shit! You pat them? They shit! You feed them? They shit while eating@ and it smells so bad and it's so annoying to clean up!

2. They're loud

Do you know how annoying it is to be woken up at 4 in the goddamn morning because squawkabilly don't know how shut the f*ck up? Every morning, I have to deal with these shitstains screaming their asses off with their ugly voices. I don't even use a fucking alarm clock! They're my alarm clock!

3. They're ugly

I don't mind traditionally ugly pokemon, and I actually don't think many pokemon are ugly! But squawkabilly have the worst pompadour I've ever seen, and it's just an ugly grey color as well! At least the shines have pink ones. Those are interesting.

4. They're racist

They form flocks based on their colors 🤨

(In all honesty ik there's survival reasons for that and all, but still)

5. THE GREEN ONES SCREECH IN THE EVENINGS AND MORNINGS

Right when we're trying to relax! Both times! At hours when people are f*cking sleeping@

6. A flock of them stole my f*cking sandwich

It was my grilled cheese sandwich. I miss it. I spent a good 10 minutes making it. And the yellow ones attacked me and stole my sandwich.

7. I theorized that they're an invasive species from Alola or another island region

They're suited to fit tropical and rainforest climates. They're are no rainforests in Paldea. And they haven't been here for long. Invasive species are bad.

(ooc: the game hinted at an Australian pokemon region, and I think squakabilly came from there bcuz they remind me of cockstoos)

[margridarnauds]

Baldur's Gate questions! 18, 24, 30!

THANK

18: What would your Tav be doing if they weren't kidnapped on the Nautiloid?

I've never actually figured out what Kitrye was doing just before the Nautiloid, she's being annoyingly evasive as ever with that, but I think she'd have still been on the run, still trying to work her way into the world Aboveground, still trying to stay one step ahead of her mother. In the canon turn of events, the things that really solidified Kitrye's arc the most, and that really established her sense of self, were (1) Facing down Minthara, (2) Getting Phalar Aluve in the Underdark and (3) Facing down Nere, since all three involved her establishing her sense of self and her right to be there, as well as facing down more traditional Drow (even though both had turned from Lolth). It's why she still carries Phalar Aluve around into Act 3, because it's Her Sword. You don't take the Gae Bulg away from Cú Chulainn, you don't take Excalibur OR Caliburn away from King Arthur, you don't take Phalar Aluve away from Kitrye. It's just *Wrong.* If she didn't have those things, I don't think she'd be as firmly grounded. She wouldn't have seen what she could do, she wouldn't have seen the positive results of her actions, and she'd still be trying to find her footing, and it isn't as easy to do Paladin Things on your own, without a sense of guidance, possibly going from place to place, especially not as a Half Drow (who can pass as a full Drow). Something tells me she still would have found Baldur's Gate, I do have Raphael at one point commenting that he thinks that they still would have crossed paths -- I believe the former, I think the latter is his ego talking. And, once she got to Baldur's Gate, who knows? There's a lot for a paladin to do there, but I'm also not certain she'd have survived, especially since her mother really will not rest until she's dragged back to Menzoberranzan, and even though her mother has lost her scent over the years, and there aren't as MANY Lolth-sworn Drow in Baldur's Gate...there's always the danger. She's resilient enough that she might have pulled ahead, regardless, but I don't see her being settled. She wasn't going to end up on a nice Eilistraean settlement where she would do group dancing, she's too aloof for that. For however bittersweet things are at the end of her storyline, as sad as she is to see her companions go their separate ways, she is MUCH better off than if she'd never been on the Nautiloid.

24: Does your character believe in the afterlife?

Given her devotion to Eilistraee, she very much does believe in one, even though I think she was really shocked by the actions of, say, Mystra in-game (since Mystra is a close friend of Eilistraee's, it was personal for her in a way that it wasn't with, say, Shar or Vlaakith, where she never liked or trusted them to begin with even if she was respectful in Vlaakith's temple.) According to Ed Greenwood, followers of Eilistraee "join the Great Dance as flying, weightless images of themselves, unless or until the Dark Dancer changes them for her own purposes (see Lolth, above)." Lolth can consume them, change them into new forms, or give them a new life -- I don't think Eilistraee would do anything to her followers against their will, but I could see Kitrye, hypothetically, given her actions, potentially have becoming enough of a champion for Eilistraee that she WOULD HAVE been a Chosen of hers and, subsequently, being given the chance to be reborn...had Things not happened. (Eilistraee will always love Kitrye and vice versa, but realistically speaking, Kitrye chose the Hells over moonlit forest glens. And she'd have done it a thousand times over, but it means that her afterlife is in other hands now, even if I think that Eilistraee would still be willing to step in if Raphael actually ALLOWED Kitrye to die...which he isn't going to because, even if the romantic/sexual side of the relationship ends...she's His. He isn't going to let her be in a situation where she could be claimed by anyone else other than him.)

30: What's your favorite thing about your Tav?

I described Kitrye to another friend once as being "my Quiet Girls With Trauma Representation" and that was very much the vibe. I like that she's a badass who puts up this steel front, who's compassionate, who does DESPERATELY try to do the right thing, and who very rarely lets people know what's going on in her head. Even the companions who think they know her the best, like Gale and Shadowheart, are only getting about 25% of what's going on in her mind, and that's a distance that she deliberately keeps. She doesn't judge Shadowheart for worshipping Shar, at least not on the surface, doesn't chew out Gale for keeping secrets, doesn't chew out Wyll for Mizora, and they're grateful for it, like "Oh, Kitrye, such a nice person" while not digging deeper, and she's sitting on this maelstrom of issues that she refuses to give away. She acts very courageous, she is willing to stare down a True Soul in a room surrounded by lava and say "I'll take your head if you touch one more innocent", while also being petrified of spiders and wearing anti-spider shoes long after she's left the areas with the most spiders. She's naturally distrustful, doesn't give away information easily, is very guarded about herself and her background, and she's still thoroughly (at least at first) a Lawful Good paladin who still uses persuasion to get out of most of her fights. She's sworn to fight for the light and to protect against the undead, but she chose to read the Necromancy of Thay and reads every book she comes across (even though intelligence is actually her dump stat.) She's a bundle of contradictions to her companions but in a way that makes sense internally, because they are getting very little of what's going on in her head. (Except the devil thing which, tbh, even she doesn't fully get.)

[cherienymphe]

yeah i don’t personal see the appeal with rafe and kiara….i feel like people like to use kiara as a self-insert and also there’s like this obsession with enemies to lovers. but i just don’t see it realistically happening, mainly because he’s already choked her out and tried to drown her to death (maybe if the show was a dark fic lmao) and he’s done so much fucked up shit to pope i don’t think she would do that to him or he would forgive her for that. plus drew in an interview said the age gap is creepy and idek the characters’ ages so I’ll just take his word for it. i just don’t think it fits with her character like everyone said there was tension in they’re scenes and to me i saw it as her just being scared lol and also just trying not to get killed by him. i honestly think the only reason she got paired with him in that kidnapping thing was to just feed the riara shippers just a little bit to keep them watching the show cuz there’s been shippers since season 1 spamming the writers’ pages and now they’re even more unhinged and i think the writers will give them like random scenes together in the next seasons just to kind of throw those shippers a bone but they won’t actually do anything with the ship. but hey this is a silly little boat show and half of the stuff that happens is not realistic so i could be wrong. i also read that they’re gonna keep Sofia as his girlfriend for the next season and i’m not crazy about that relationship cuz there was barely much of it but i think it’ll be interesting to develop it more. honestly i don’t care if rafe gets a consistent romantic love interest or not, but i think it would be funny if he were to meet a girl who was just as crazy as him or even crazier, kind of like a “met your match” kind of thing. anyways this was a long rant but yeah i agree that if they were gonna do riara they should have done it/started developing it a long time ago because now it just doesn’t make sense and i don’t see their friend group surviving that.

I mean they've had moments since season 1 that gave people ideas. This isn't something people just pulled out of their ass I don't think. When I first watched it I, along with so many others, clocked that he called her Kie, something mostly reserved for her friends and I can see why that would make people think they had a history. Actors' opinions on ships rarely mean much to me but a 2 year gap between teenagers (especially teens within the same age group 17-19) is unimportant to me. Of course if there was a real chance of them being together, I would prefer if it happened when she was a little older.

And hey I don't mind being thrown a bone of fan service because then I get people like riaranation on tiktok putting together the best edits I've ever seen 😭

[buriedunderdaffodils]

holy shit. life is amazing when you kill as much of your shame as possible and befriend whatever survives. i don't know if i've ever felt this genuinely happy.

i think the key is something along the lines of - step 1, realize that there actually ARE people like you, yes in THAT way, and that way too, and they're happy with the parts of themselves that you, in your own mirror, are ashamed of. there are people like you and they have a community and they're happy.

step 2, dip your toe into the community. maybe you get scared and back off. try again. repeat this process until you reach step 3 - saying fuck it and jumping in completely. you're really having fun now! but you're still carrying your shame.

step 4 is key: the realization that you would MUCH rather spend your time with people who don't judge you for those supposedly "shameful" parts - and they DO exist, you've seen it now, you've met them - than with those who pass judgement on you. you realize you've lived your whole life curled up in a ball, tangled up in knots, rigid and tense, always on the defense, while others like you... aren't doing that. they're happy. they're safe. you can be happy and safe too. you just have to surround yourself with the right people. people who see you as a real conscious valuable being and not an error, or a threat, or disgusting, or or or and and and. take a breath. take a deeper breath than you ever could with your knees pressed so tightly against your chest. you're okay. your existence is perfectly natural. and there are people who will ADORE you as you are.

of course, maybe you have people dear to you that you know would judge you, but they're still dear to you. maybe you still have to hide yourself from them, maybe that's a sacrifice you're willing to make (and you really aren't obligated to share those parts of yourself with them anyway!). maybe you still keep some defenses up, maybe you won't ever fully drop them. but you've found somewhere you can at least lower them. and it's more than you thought you'd ever get in your life. and, step 5, you start to make peace with what remains of your shame. maybe slowly, maybe not ever completely. but there IS peace. and you're happy. this is more than you ever thought you deserved. you're happy. you're gonna be okay.