#and duel of fates because it's impACTFUL

[meatbag-status]

Anakins attack the Jedi Temple!!

[nekomanager]

A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL –✦– OIKAWA TOORU

GRAND DEMON KING OIKAWA's one-on-one duel with you escalated to something you didn't expect...inspired by final haikyuu quest! happy halloween 🥂

f!reader, pwp, enemies to lovers, oral, f*ngering, 69, multiple, mindbreak, ahegao, creampie, grand demon king!oikawa

How did things turn out like this? How were his lips on yours while his tongue roamed your mouth so intoxicatingly that you felt heat building up between your thighs? 

News had it that the Grand Demon King Oikawa was eyeing your village. There had been rumors that he was brutal, cold-hearted, and mean. To defend your home, you travelled to settle things with the Grand Demon King through a duel.  

His castle was dimly lit, and you could tell how cold and lonely the place was. The gargoyles were easy to defeat, and it didn’t take you long to reach him in his throne room. Despite the dimness and the eerie ambiance of the place, you were surprised by the Grand Demon King himself.  

Oikawa was...a handsome man. Good thing you had a helmet on which could hide the amused expression on your face. His horns weren’t terrifying. His red eyes even added more appeal. He was magnetic and charismatic; someone you would fantasize kissing. Wait...what were you even thinking? You musn’t be crushing on this man! He’s the Grand Demon King! Was this part of his magic? You shouldn’t give in! 

“Oh, ‘nother knight, huh?” Oikawa quirked a brow up. “I heard of you. You’re Y/N.” He scoffed egotistically. “Easy peas—” 

You rushed in for an attack, “Stay out of my village.” 

He was amazed. He didn’t see that coming especially from someone like you. “What if I want to?” 

“Then, I’ll stop you now.” 

Even with your armor, you appeared quite...frail in comparison with the other knights he defeated, he thought. Ha! Your audacity to fight with him, the Grand Demon King Oikawa, yet he weirdly admired that from you.  

With several exchanges of attacks and a few amount of time, Oikawa oddly felt a special kind of fondness for you. He couldn’t deny...you were the smartest of all the knights he came across with so far, almost outwitting him in some of your advances. He’d keep you as one of his companions in addition to Kuroo and Bokuto. Then it’s time for this fight to be over, ultimately delivering his final blow. 

You fell on your back. The impact shattered your armor into pieces and sent your helmet flying off fully revealing your feminine figure and beautiful face underneath, something very vivid amidst the darkness of his throne room.  

Oikawa’s eyes widened. W-What?! “You-You’re a woman?!” He exclaimed in disbelief.  

“What’s it to you?” You questioned, annoyed. He seemed to be more powerful than you, but your spirit would never waver! You would never accept defeat. 

He turned on his back and held onto his chest. His heart beat so loud. Oh, how could fate be so cruel?  How come he finally met his perfect match but in the form of an enemy?  

Despite the bad rep about him, the Grand Demon King Oikawa’s biggest, deepest and darkest secret was that he’s a hopeless romantic, and right now he could strongly tell you’re his love at first sight. His soulmate. 

“Coward?” You provoked. He shouldn’t turn his back on you. You must settle things before it’s too late. “Are you refusing to fight me because I’m a woman?” 

Oikawa scoffed. “Don’t you ever try me.” 

“So what now?” You dared and he sure felt his dick harden at your admirable bravado. He wanted this to be romantic but you left him with no choice. 

He walked closer to you, and you inhaled sharply. The way he oozed so much appeal was distracting. Bracing yourself, you took on a fighting stance ready to risk your life as you came face-to-face with him. You gulped, he’s attractive and a bit intimidating in a way you couldn’t explain.  

“W-What are you gonna do?” You put on a brave face, but before you could even process it, what happened next was something you didn’t see coming. 

Oikawa had his lips on yours. His hands cupped your face firmly as he dipped his tongue inside your mouth and started massaging yours. Your eyes shut in response. The kiss was making you feel tingly and weak.  

W-What's this? Your head was spiraling and all you wanted to do was to surrender. No- You shouldn’t give in. Holding onto his wrists, you deepened the kiss. If he’s pulling his dirty tricks off, then you’d play even dirtier.  

Oikawa didn’t even cast any magic or release any pheromones and he didn’t have any intention to. He believed in true love. The way you kissed him was enough proof that you’re the love of his life and that urged him to convince you even further. 

Swiftly, Oikawa removed his robe and coat, leaving only a loose white dress shirt. He pulled you in by the waist, letting you know how hard you made him fall for you. You moaned in the kiss as you felt his erection against your stomach. You amped up your game, grinding your body against his and stimulating him even more. He placed a knee in between your legs and rubbed against your pussy. The kiss broke off with the two of you panting, both competing to get each other off first.  

He sucked on the exposed skin of your neck and groped your breast, while you palmed his hard-on and unbuttoned his pants to free and stroke his dick. He groaned and you smiled a little in victory.  

“You seemed to be enjoying me too much,” he said. 

You replied, “I think you’re falling weak for me.” 

Shit! You caught him and he couldn’t let this be one-sided, so he slid his hand underneath your pants and rubbed your pussy. 

“Uh-oh...you’re this wet already.” He whispered against your ear and teased, “How’d you like that?” 

“Sh-Shut up- mhmngh-” your face contorted while his fingers worked like magic. He was caressing your slit so slow that your hips began dancing in the same rhythm. How come...How come he’s making you this lewd? Y-You’re losing! Your mind and will to resist him...you’re losing.  

Your walls were now triggering to shake. You can’t shouldn’t come first! You worked your hands even faster against his tempting length. Oikawa bit his lip, knitted his brows and tilted his head back. Gosh, he’s so fucking near. You're so good, so damn good. He panted heavily and pumped his fingers in and out of your wet cunt harder.   

Your knees buckled, body giving up on the floor. Oikawa removed his top before following and getting on his knees to discard your pants off. 

“What? Don’t tell me you’re done?” He teased. 

“N-No way,” you retaliated, doing the same on his pants. While you’re at it, you laid on your side and headed straight to his hardened shaft. Your mouth swallowing him whole to show that you’re never giving up.  

Oikawa moaned and you spurt a little with how sexy he sounded. He licked his lips at the sight of your dripping pussy. He grabbed your hips closer and lifted a leg up over his face, so he could have better access and began sipping on your arousal.  

You whimpered against his cock. It feels so damn good.  

He’s sliding his tongue against you as he slurped thirstily, while his finger pleased your hole. You matched his efforts as your hand massaged his balls with your tongue swirling around the tip. Your actions encouraged him even more now focused on lapping against your clit and added another finger in to tease your cunt. You shook and sucked him harder and faster.  

The friction of your attacks on each other sizzled, you trembled in his hold with your love juice squirting all over his pretty face and he spurt his cum inside your mouth.  

You came at the same time. It was a tie.  

Rolling on your back, your head spun. You took a glance at Oikawa. Gosh, he’s still hard. So damn hard, big and pretty. You gulped.  

Oikawa saw it…Your eyes...they spelled lust. So much lust that his ego could never feel more inflated it went straight to his cock now standing upright for your viewing pleasure. Your pussy glistened in arousal, and he knew that you still throbbed and wanted more.  

“Can you take all of me?” He challenged. 

You opened your legs wide ready for the final battle. “D-Don’t underestimate me.” 

Oikawa removed your top fully exposing you naked before swiping the tip of his shaft along your entrance. You heaved in anticipation, while he leaned close to you and entered slowly. Your pussy stretched to his size and your mouth gaped as big as his cock.  

His hips moved and you couldn’t help but be a moaning mess beneath him. If he’s like this...you’d be coming first. No, that couldn’t happen! You wrapped your arms around his neck and captured his lips. 

Shit! He almost came when you kissed him. In return, he lifted your ass with his hands and thrust even harder, harder and harder! 

“Mhmn~” you whined, your legs hooking around his waist. “N-nooo~ Can’t...Can’t just let you win~” You couldn’t believe it. The Grand Demon King’s cock was inside you and was stirring you like crazy. 

“So goood, it’s so goood, huh?” He huffed as he attacked, slamming hastily and powerfully deep. 

Oh god. Oh god. It’s so amazing. So terribly amazing. “Oh! O-Oikawa...” 

“Tooru-” He jerked his hips forward. “It’s Tooru!” 

Your back arched and his ass clenched with both of you coming together.  

You’re in disarray; beads of tears decorated the edge of your eyes as you panted. You just came and was shuddering a bit but Tooru continued thrusting. There’s no way he could stop after seeing you be such a beautiful mess for him.  

“Tooru! Tooru!” You cried quite surprised.  

“Y/N! Y/N! I can’t- I can’t get enough of you.” 

“Me too! Me too!” What’s happening? Was this still part of your duel? Were you still even fighting? 

“You can’t let me win...but you...want this, right?” He pulled you both up he’s now bouncing you on his lap. “You want this. You want this cock. You want my cock so badly.” 

You nodded, helplessly. You’re a knight. You came to defend your village, but you ended up coming endlessly and wanting nothing but more that you couldn’t stop yourself from thrusting back.  

“What do you say? I’ll leave your village alone, but you’ll stay with me forever,” he said through gritted teeth as he pounced without restraint. “I’ll fuck you like this forever! You’ll fuck me up ‘til this hard dick you love so much goes limp.” He thrust in deep, and your eyes crossed. He knew! He knew! He’d always be hard around you.  

“Yes! Yes, please! Just take me...Take me away!”  You didn’t know anymore. All you knew was...it's amazing...He’s amazing and no one ever felt this great. “Let me fuc- no defeat you ‘til you can’t go hard anymore!” You rode up and down his length wildly that your tits jiggled everytime. 

Tooru carried you by the waist, slamming his Grand Demon King cock up to destroy you, balls deep inside. “And I’ll fuck you over and over ‘til you can’t stop cumming anymore!” 

Your walls clenched around him as a final blow, squeezing that he shot his load straight into your womb, completely filling you with his love and owning you as his from this day forward. At the same time, your walls caved in, and your body shivered; head tilted back, hearts fully drawn in your eyes in pure pleasure.  

Together, you came again like a perfect pair, catching your breaths as the final battle ended with a win-win deal. 

Gently, Tooru cradled you like a baby on his lap, caressing the side of your face. Your heart fluttered with his gesture. He dipped to give your lips a small peck. Perhaps, this was not so bad at all. Contrary to the rumors, the Grand Demon King was secretly a doting man. “There, there, take a rest for a while, my queen.”  

A smile painted his face as he looked at you so dearly you knew you’d fall for him in no time. 

© sir-kuroo 2023 - All rights reserved. No work shall be reproduced, reposted, modified, translated in any form or by any means.

[bizlybebo]

hey dsmpblr so since we recently lost our minds over eret’s planned-but-never-executed dsmp ending and the reveal that it’s possibly all one big loop, one that’s likely repeated several times before, i have some fucking thoughts about wilbur.

more specifically, the idea that someone else posted, that wilbur could have removed himself from the loop by leaving for utah.

(edit: the persons url is @/idkwatthehec !!)

see, i think this could go one of two ways.

one, maybe his fate was always to be from somewhere else, to appear and burn bright, so incredibly bright, but burn out fast, only to be revived months (granted, years for him) later. to eventually leave it all behind in a bittersweet goodbye. maybe there’s no real escape, maybe he’s just as much a part of this as everybody else and he has his role and he’s always going to fucking play it.

but maybe he really did remove himself from all of it. maybe he’s no longer part of the loop, and that’s why, like the original poster said, he didn’t have a room in mizu(?) from tales of the smp.

this can mean so many things.

what if he thinks tommy never wanted to (or never could) come visit him in utah?— never even wrote after that final letter. because the tommy that’s there now isn’t the same tommy as before.

what if tommy, in his newest incarnation, finds himself standing one day, overlooking a stretch of land; it’s water and it’s mountains and it’s grass, and he feels… off? like there should be somebody here with him, but he just can’t place who in god’s name it could be and he can’t even describe the feeling. tubbo calls his name and he forgets he even felt it, just continues on with his life and eventually learns to live with that feeling of something missing until it eventually disappears.

what if, although it’s somewhat out of character for him, wilbur ever came back?

what if he sees this kid, bright-eyed and young again, and he’s got tommy’s nose and his crooked teeth and his gangly limbs and his choppy hair but he’s not tommy. not his tommy.

what if, this time, it’s tommy who came back, but came back different?

what if tommy’s worse without him, but what if he’s better?

what if he doesn’t tense up at the mention of tnt? what if he doesn’t have that scar in the middle of his chest from his first(?) canon death acquired in that duel with dream?

what about everybody else?? what about phil. would phil ever even come to the main land if it weren’t for wilbur’s letter? what would that mean for techno, for niki, for ranboo, for literally fucking everyone??

how the fuck would wilbur feel seeing a world unaffected by him?

what if, knowing who he is, he has the impulse to come back to it, to wrap his fingers around it again and leave an impact. because wilbur was always someone who had to be in control, who had to be in first place, and although he’s now older and changed so much, what’s he going to feel in a world where he has no legacy? where there’s no crater for him to stand in after revival and laugh in surprise at (although that wasn’t his original crater)?

maybe, in the end, he throws himself back into the loop.

because maybe he never was free from it, at least, not in any way that matttered.

[elisysd]

Place in me - Luke Hemmings

Masterlist - Previously - Next Chapter

Call me in the morning, yeah I'm sorry that I let you down, I I'm so apathetic, it's pathetic But I need you now, now

Charles approached the Japanese Grand Prix with confidence, but with a certain anxiety. Confident because he was just back from a race where he had won. Apprehensive because of the memories linked to this track. Memories that he preferred to repress far, far away in his memory. But it was as if fate had decided that it wasn't going to leave him in peace. Conditions on Sunday were far from ideal. The track was soaked and Charles shared his concerns with Fred, who admitted that he wasn't at ease either. But despite the FIA's reluctance and the rain, which showed no sign of stopping, the race went ahead.

Getting up at seven o'clock on a Sunday morning was not what Lyanna had in mind when she thought about her weekend. But she had promised Charles that she would watch all his races, from free practices to the finish line. In addition, he was starting from P3, a position he didn't particularly like, but nonetheless he was in front and that made Lyanna happy. She had no doubt that he would be able to hold his position. But the rain and the commentators on television didn't reassure her. She couldn't wait for the race to finish. Firstly because she knew that Charles didn't really like Suzuka and secondly because it meant that he was coming home, something that Lyanna felt had not happened for far too long. She couldn't wait to see him walk through the doors of the flat and she had promised herself that as soon as he arrived, she wouldn't let him out of her sight. Besides, he was coming home just in time for her birthday and she couldn't wait to spend it in bed with him. Nothing but Charles and the few phone calls she felt compelled to take.

The race finally started and Charles quickly overtook Checo to follow in Max's trail. The rain was pouring down and Lyanna couldn't imagine what Charles could see, or rather not see, and feel. If she closed her eyes, it would make her want to throw up. With her eyes glued to the screen, she could see Charles battling with Max for P1 and even before the impact, she knew. She knew that neither of them would win the duel. And it was Charles who made the mistake in trying to overtake Max. The Ferrari's rear wheels locked, forcing him to adjust his trajectory and collide with Max. Both spun and hit the barrier.

Lyanna gasped, events of last year replaying in her head. But it wasn't long before she saw Max and Charles get out of the car, unharmed. She exhaled. They were fine.

She was the first person Charles called when he got back to the hotel. He was exhausted and angry, and unfortunately for Lyanna she soon realised that it was going to be up to her to find the words to comfort the Monegasque driver.

“You don’t understand Lyanna! It’s my fault. 100%. And I can’t afford to make stupid mistakes like this! Not now that I have a real chance at the championship, I can’t fuck it up.”

“You’re too hard with yourself… The track was completely wet because of the rain it could have happened to anyone, to Lewis or even Max. You’re a human Charles, not a robot.”

“It was a rookie mistake, Lyanna. I know better than that.” He said harshly.

“I’m just glad you are okay…” she whispered.

“You know what we always say, right? You know what I always promise you. You know that.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Repeat it, then.”

“Be fast, come back to me, I love you.”

“And I’m always fast, I always come back to you and I’ll always love you. Enough about me. Tell me about you, I feel like it’s been so log since we actually got a proper talk.”

“That’s because every time we’re on FaceTime your mind is always elsewhere but never on me.”

“I’m sorry about that. It’s just… this start of the season is already a lot…”

“I know. That’s why I don’t want to add to your problems or your stress.”

“You know you’ll never. So, how’s the shoot.”

“I’ve known better if I’m being honest. Don’t get me wrong, I love the movie and I trust Michael’s vision and you should see Adam Driver on set, he is magistral, but anyway. It’s a lot of pressure, a lot of work and it’s a range of emotions to portray that I’ve never done before. It’s exhausting. Fulfilling because I feel like I learn so much about myself, but hard and stressful. I can’t wait for you to get home… I... I just need you and your arms and your kisses… You. Only you.”

“And I’ll be all yours as soon as I stepped out of that plane, I promise you. Do you want to do something in particular for your birthday?”

“I want to do you. That’s it.” She jokingly said.

Charles was far from against the idea and if he was honest, it was something he was looking forward to. But he also knew how much his girlfriend loved her family and the place they occupied in her life. He wanted her to have a birthday to remember. And he wanted to be the person to give her that. His ego would feel flattered. After hanging up with Lyanna, he searched his contacts for Renée's phone number, which she had given him in case of emergency.

“Charles? You are the last person I expected a call from.” Lyanna’s mom greeted him after she picked up.

“Renée, hello. I hope you’re alright and I’m not bothering.”

“No, you don’t. Is everything okay with Lyanna? I’m assuming she is the reason why you call.”

“Yes, kind of… I wanted to ask you something.”

“If you are asking me for the permission to marry her, it’s a no. You still have to prove that you deserve her, young man.”

Charles was taken aback by the way she said it.

“Hum... well. I was not calling for that but it’s good to know… I guess? Hypothetically, if I wanted to ask you for permission, what should I do?”

“Don’t ignore her for starter. She told me what happened after your win in Bahrain. It didn’t make me happy to hear that, Charles. You promised me you would take care of her; I’m not asking you to be perfect, everyone is human and bound to make mistakes but… don’t play with her and her feelings. She went through enough.”

“I’ve already apologised to her, I kind of groveled if it can help. But anyway, it was not the reason of my call. I want to organize her a surprise birthday party and I was thinking of making you all fly out to Monaco to see her. It would make her so happy. And… I was also thinking that you all could meet my family since I wanted to invite them as well. Lyanna is close to them and I know my mom would be delighted to help to organize. She loves Lyanna.”

“Well… it’s very nice of you…”

“You don’t have to do anything. I can arrange a private jet and the hotel. You would just have to show up to the airport. Say yes, please. For Lya.”

Charles couldn't help jumping in joy and punching his fist in the air when Renée told him that she agreed and that she would take care of planning with the rest of the family. As soon as he had finished with his mother-in-law, he hurried off to phone his mother and explain his plans. Pascale was delighted and assured him that everything would be fine and that she would take care of everything. All he had to do was keep his mouth shut and not reveal anything to the actress. So it was with great excitement that Charles set off the next day for Italy to meet up with his beloved.

Lyanna wasn't there when Charles arrived from the airport. He hadn't said exactly when he was coming back, wanting to surprise the young woman. On the way, he stopped at a florist and bought her a huge bouquet of red roses. He knew it wasn't original, but he didn't care. He took the time to put his things away and take a long hot shower before changing into comfortable clothes. He plugged his phone into the stereo in the living room before choosing an acoustic playlist to play in the background. When that was done, he settled into the sofa and closed his eyes, savouring the fact that he was home. Soon he heard a key turn in the lock and he sat up, ready to welcome Lyanna and shower her with kisses.

He had expected her magnificent smile to light up as soon as she saw him, but what he saw destabilised him. She was crying. And not just a little. Her glossy eyes found Charles and she burst into even more tears, if that were possible, before rushing into his arms and soaking his shirt.

“Love… Lya… Oh my god babe. Hey, talk to me.”

“I want to give up. I can’t go back there. I want to give up Charles” she was like a broken record repeating the same sentences again and again.

“Babe, come here. Sit down. Tell me what happened.”

She pressed herself against Charles and wrapped her arms around his torso before burying her neck in his shoulder.

“I fucked up. We were supposed to shoot a scene and… and it was a hard one. It was about abuse. And…I freaked out. Something in me froze. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak, I got flashbacks from…” she shook her had as if she was trying to erase the memory. “And then everyone was staring at me, Michael wanted me to redo the whole scene from the top but I couldn’t Charles. I couldn’t. I ran away. I said that I couldn’t do it anymore and I left. They are going to be so mad. So mad. But I couldn’t stay there, I felt like I was drowning and I couldn’t breathe. It scared me.” She was rambling and Charles hugged her even tighter, kissing her forehead.

“It’s okay. You’re safe. I’m here, Lya, I’m here…”

“I’m so thankful you’re here. I thought you were coming back later and I would be alone and I don’t know what I would’ve done.”

He let her cry against him until she finally fell asleep, exhausted. He carried her to their bedroom and laid her on their bed. She tossed and turned, seeking the warmth of Charles' body. He joined her shortly afterwards and, naturally, she found herself back in his arms.

When Charles woke up a little later, it was still dark. The jet lag was beginning to wear on him, even though he was usually rather proud of the way he handled it. Lyanna hadn't moved an inch; she was still snuggled comfortably in his arms, her legs intertwined with his. Instinctively, he pulled her even closer to him and placed his lips on the top of her head. He didn't want to move, he felt good, peaceful. But a pang of worry pierced his heart. He couldn't help wondering how the young woman would be when she woke up.

With a gesture, he grabbed his phone from the bedside table and looked at the time.  Barely five in the morning. He knew that he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep and that he risked waking Lyanna at any moment, who needed sleep so badly. He got up carefully and put on his workout clothes. His building had a gym, which was handy for him. He grabbed his airpods and left the room, then the flat, without a sound.

He returned an hour later, but not before stopping off at a café to pick up a takeaway breakfast for Lyanna and himself. He could hear the water running in the bathroom, which told him that Lyanna was awake, which was reassuring. He set the table, taking care to display the bouquet he'd bought the day before, which he hadn't had the chance to offer properly. Soon, the young woman's silhouette appeared in the doorway and it was a weary smile that Charles received when she saw him.

“How do you feel?” he asked her as he took her in his arms and gave her a light peck on the lips.

“Like shit. I’m supposed to be on the set in two hours… I don’t want to go…” she smiled gently at him as she saw the flowers on the table and inhaled the scent.

“Is there something I can do to help?”

“Actually… do you want to come with me today?”

Charles was used to cameras, but he had to admit that a film set was a very different environment from what he knew on a day-to-day basis. Lyanna didn't have to worry about a thing; as soon as she arrived, the director rushed over to her and asked if she was alright. Lyanna briefly explained how she had felt, without going into detail, and apologised profusely, which Michael Mann brushed aside with a wave of his hand.

Charles had spent many hours sitting in a corner in silence, admiring Lyanna as she worked. Seeing her in her element, confident and in control of every detail, giving her opinion, chatting and laughing with the other cast members, made him fall a little more in love with her. As soon as she could, she checked on Charles and made sure to introduce him to everyone, so that by lunchtime everyone knew Charles' name and knew that he was Lyanna's boyfriend.

Lyanna was free by mid-afternoon and wasn't needed on set until the end of the week, which was perfect for Charles as it would allow them to get back to Monaco where Lyanna's birthday was being held. Pascale had booked the same room where Charles had celebrated his birthday a few months earlier, and the orchestra and caterer had also been rebooked. Lyanna's family and friends were due to arrive the day before and Joris, Arthur and Lorenzo had been asked to drive everyone to the hotel. This way, Charles could take full advantage of his girlfriend without her suspecting anything.

On the morning of his birthday, Lyanna was the first to wake up and it was she who woke Charles up by placing light kisses on his stubble, his neck and then down his chest.

“Hey, you.” whispered Charles in a sleepy voice.

“Good morning, babe.” Lyanna replied with a twinkle in her eye.

“You’re in a good mood this morning.”

“Indeed. Do you know why?”

“I have an idea but please enlighten me.”

“It’s my birthday and you’re home and that means I have you to myself and let me tell you that I’m going to enjoy every second of it.”

“Oh yeah? And what did you plan?”

“Oh so, so many things that don’t require for us to leave this bed.”

And true to her word, they stayed in bed all day. Lyanna ignored the messages and calls she received on her birthday, her family playing along with the idea that they were far away, when in reality they were only a few streets away from Charles's flat.

At the end of the day, and not without some difficulty, Charles managed to persuade Lyanna to get out of bed and go celebrate her birthday somewhere quiet and out of sight, just the two of them. He hated having to lie to her, but he hoped her reaction would be worth it. Lyanna pouted, unenthusiastic about the idea of going out.

“Lya, I made reservations and I really can’t cancel…”

“But I didn’t want to go out… I just want to be with you.”

“You got me all to yourself the whole day. You barely let me out of the bed to eat.”

“I didn’t hear you complain though…”

“Oh believe me, I’m not. It’s just that I want to spoil my girlfriend for her birthday and I want to please her because she deserves it. So let’s go out.”

“I must say that you did a really good job pleasing me the whole day and you can keep doing it without us having to leave the flat. It’s very convenient, it doesn’t require you to move and it’s completely free. No need to spend a penny on me. See, I’m really low maintenance.”

“I’m going to drag you out of here if I need to.”

“Can’t you just tell them that we will be going tomorrow?”

“We both need some fresh air. It will do us good.”

She continued to complain, but realising that Charles would not give in, she headed for the bathroom.

“I’m letting the door open, if you want to join me.”

“Lya, we can’t afford to be late and we both know that if I’m stepping even just a toe in this bathroom we will be very, very late.”

“You’re loss Leclerc, then.”

Charles shook his head and slipped out of the room, not wanting to be tempted more than necessary. He checked his messages nervously, his mother keeping him regularly informed of the evening's progress. He decided to call her to find out exactly how it was all shaping up rather than read the dozens of messages he had received throughout the day.

“Hey mom. How is going?”

“You would know if you were answering my texts! You really choose the right day to go full radio silence. Everyone is here, Charles. Where are you, guys?”

“On our way, don’t worry. We will be there in no time.”

“You haven’t left your place, did you?” it was not really a question, just a fact and Charles could almost picture his mom rolling her eyes.

“We’ve been a little bit carried away but don’t worry the situation is under control…”

“You had one job Charles, just to arrive on time.”

“Well, it was harder than expected…”

“What is hard? Because I sure can help with that.” Lyanna was just behind him completely oblivious to the fact that he was on the phone with his mom.

“There are some things that a mom doesn’t need to know. I’m going to leave you but please for the love of god, be quick.”

“I’ll try. I promise.” He hung up the phone and eyes his girlfriend. “My mom heard you and I think next time you’ll see her she is going to look at you in a very different way.”

“I’m sorry… but admit it, it’s funny. Just a little bit.”

“Having my mom knowing about our sex life is something funny to you?”

“Come on Charles, she is not stupid, she knows that you are not a sweet and pure and innocent little angel.”

“Of course! It doesn’t mean that she has to hear things!”

“She will be fine! What did she want, by the way?”

“Just to invite us for lunch tomorrow. Up for it?”

Charles was amazed at how easily lies slipped out of him.

Eventually they arrived outside the hotel where the birthday party was being held. Lyanna winced, quickly realising that Charles was not taking her to the quiet, intimate, relaxed place he had led her to believe.

“What did you do, Leclerc?”

“Spoiling my girlfriend. Come on, let’s get in.”

He got out of the car, handing his keys to the attendant as another employee opened Lyanna's door. Charles hurried to her side and offered her his hand, which she accepted.

She glanced suspiciously at Charles, who winked at her and smiled broadly. As soon as they entered the hotel lobby, they were directed to the private room, which Lyanna recognised. And that's when she saw them. All her family, her close friends and Sophia were there too. She was surprised to see Charles's family there too, along with Pierre and Kika, who had also travelled for the occasion. She even recognised Fred. She questioned Charles, who replied that his team principal had taken a liking to her, especially as he thought she was the reason why Charles was performing so well in this early part of the season. Emotion suddenly took hold of her and she felt tears welling up. Her mother was the first to come forward and give her a hug, soon to be joined by her best friend Emilie.

Charles gave them some space and went to talk to the other guests. The evening passed quickly and Charles could only feel his heart swell with joy at the happiness emanating from his girlfriend. She went from guest to guest, laughing, chatting and dancing. Just as he had found a quiet spot, Emilie came to join him.

“Charles Leclerc, finally I’m meeting you.”

“Emilie, right? Lya told me a lot about you.”

“It goes both ways. You are all she talks about when I have her on the phone… I feel like I know you without actually knowing you. Which is weird.”

She sipped her glass of champagne and sighed.

“I’m going to be honest if you don’t mind. Lya is my best friend, I might even dare to say she is the sister I’ve never had which is why I often feel the need to protect her. So don’t take it personally, but I made research on you.”

Charles almost choked on his drink.

“I found things that made me questioned your true motives with her. You don’t have the nicest dating history to be fair. I’ve got scared for her. Athletes don’t have the best reputation in terms of being faithful… But you make her happy, everyone can see that, even I. And I can see that you love her as well, not everyone would go out of their way to do something like that to someone if there were no real and deep feelings involved.  I still don’t like you. But for now I’m going to tolerate you. But I’m watching you. One dick move and I will hunt you down.”

“Copy. Right and clear. But don’t worry, I intend to keep her for a very, very long time.”

As the evening wore on, he found Lyanna eating a piece of cake. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes shone with excitement.

“I’m glad you made me leave the bed in the end…”

“See, I have good ideas sometimes.”

“Thank you, Charles. For everything.” She said seriously.

Charles put an arm around her shoulders and placed a kiss on her temple. She nestled a little closer to him and they enjoyed a brief moment of peace before returning to the guests. Lyanna stopped suddenly and tugged at Charles's sleeve before pointing to a corner of the room.

“Charles, do you see what I’m seeing?”

“Hum, well… your mom talking to Fred? Why? What’s wrong?”

“My mom is not talking! She is giggling Charles! Giggling! With Fred! They are so flirting.”

“Fred is single, your mom is too. If they can have some fun, good for them.”

“It’s my mom and technically your boss we are talking about!”

Charles paused.

“Yeah, you’re right. It’s weird. Imagine they actually get together, the kind of family reunions we could have! Do you think that would mean your mom would come at the Grand Prix?”

“I don’t want to imagine!”

“It would sure be fun and interesting! You could have Fred as a stepfather!”

“Shut up!”

Charles laughed and wrapped his arms around her as Lyanna groaned in protest.

Soon it was time for everyone to say goodbye. Lyanna thanked them for the surprise and soon left with Charles.

“Well, I’d say that your family and my family got on really well. That’s amazing. No awkward family reunions in sight.”

“Yeah… I can’t believe you did that for me. I mean, I can believe it because you prove me everyday how much you love me but… for you to actually take the time to organise that… it blows my mind.”

“Shout out to my mom who actually did most of the job. I really just had to get you there in time and I failed. But really, it was nothing. I know how much stressed you’ve been under lately and how much your family means to you; it was normal for me to do that. It was not much.”

“I love you so much, Charles. I couldn’t ask for a better birthday present.”

She placed a kiss on his cheek as Charles kept his eyes on the road before sliding a hand onto her knee and gave it a gentle squeeze.

=======

author's note: I love this chapter so much despite how long it is lmao 😂 As usual, let me know your thoughts through the comments or ask box if your too shy. And don't forget to leave a like or reblog the story. It helps. And it lets me know that you like the story. taglist @zendayabelova @purplephantomwolf @ru-kru @dakotali @blueflorals @aundercover @ruleroftheuniverse @fangirlika @writerscurse @elijahmikaelsonbitch @leclerc13 @karmabyfernando @stargaryenx @pitlanebabe @boiohboii @reengard If you are tagged but did not receive any notifications, please check your settings because it means that Tumblr didn't let me tag you.

[cafeleningrad]

When I think what that the literal as well as semantically correct tanslation of RGU is actually "Girl's Revolution Utena" (even though the French subtitle in the original show directly translates to "Revolutionary Girl Utena"...), I was reconsidering the sometimes bleak readings of the ending.

Some interpretations point towards the meaning of "revolution" to a finalized revolving motivement before another round begins. I think is pretty much accurate. After all Ohtori is a place of circular abuse and perpectual stasis. But SKU is also a story in which people and symbolism. are complex, therefore many things at the same time without contradictions in themselves.

Many people correctly conclude that the revolution was in the small, intimate frame of Anthy leaving her abuser for good. This is a 110% accurate. But I also think Anthy's choice is far more impactful as it's motivated by revolutionary thinking as well.

The final duel is neither shimmering not glorious as the viewer might be used from anime. The glamour of triumph is missing entirely, and our protagonist is beaten down, crying, stripped of all the beliefs that made up her self-identification, then vanished, almost forgotten. So the anticipated "Revolution" gets attributed to Anthy finally cutting ties with Akio. This act is revolutionary because moving away from pain and daring to leap into faith for future after hopelessness as certainty was a perpetuated propaganda within Akio's realm.

But I also think not only wasn't only leaving her abuser. Akio and Anthy are simultaneously allegories, possible dieties, as well as people of flesh and blood. Anthy has been trapped at Ohtori for counless cycles, for countless attempts of Akio to reclaim his former identity,her tornment seems endless, her pain is a metaphor for the patriarchy needing as well as abusing women for their gain. She's also a 14 year girl, old suffering from the very real pain of all sorts of physical and emotional abuse. Akio encapsulates all the mechanisms and entire faulty logic of toxic patriarchy and machsimo. HIs presence and direction is the force and logic driving all the action at Ohtori. He's also a guy depending on marrying into the Ohtori family to have any propect on his own, and only capable of impressing teenagers who have no further knowledge of the world.

Thre's another person participating in the revolution in this room: Us, the viewer. We've been involved as active participant all the time. Nanami looks at us terrified after she discovered the truth between Akio and Anthy. In the first arc, the Shadow girls only perform their play for explaining the situation for the viewer. They only interact with the characters in the Black Rose Arc, mostly as sybillic warning to Utena. The misleading framing, the judgement, our interpretations of each event, making sense of it all... we're involved in the revolution of mind.

With Anthy's allegorical nature, her journey is also a woman's journey. Meaning: Following Anthy's journey is slowly seeing through an oppressive system. And Ohtori is oppressive in multiple ways. Oppressive seixism is a big one! The necessity for someone to submit in order for another person to step on the them, up to top - the constant play of dominance and submissing as only understanding of relationship contradict the need to be loved and understood. And so many characters are unhappy because they're neither loved nor udnerstood. But Ohtori also utilizes fatalism, if not doomerism as a tool to make people believe the only chance of happiness is by dueling, there is no alterantive to duels to escape the seemingly endless tornment.

All paths and faiths are designated already, directed without hte characters having any say in it. All the characters are colour coded, attributed a fate and personality according to the rose colour designated to them. Even the regular brown or black hair colour designates one to the role of background character. So it seems everyone has to at out their script. If only violence, lack of alternatives, and dominance are used as currencies in this world, the intial problem of wanting to be loved and understood can never be adressed. Hence Anthy has given up. But Utena as a character, as a story disagrees with this notion. Characters as young as Tsuwabuki might already be entrapped in this fatalistic logic but Utena's and Anthy's entire relationship is based on the idea that actually they should listen to each other, that vunerability doesn't get exploited but rewarded with help, warmth and comfort. But even the background characters are people with desires, abilities, and pain. The student council moves on from their designated colour symbolism the further they progress in their character development. Nanami simlutaneously inhibited the yellow rose symbolism, of childishness, naivety, and jealousy - but she's also a girl getting neglected and groomed. The world of Ohtori is simultaneously an egg's shell as well well as a coffin as well as eternity as well as endless despair as well as.... Such layers and complexities depicts or complex things and people are - everyone is a person with all the facetts that entails, not even Background-hair-colour makes one insignificant. By Anthy's worldview dismanteling Akio's structural logic, she triumphs not only over her abuser entire intertwined systems. It's a mental triumph over patriarchy. It's a mental triumph over fatalism and hopelessness. It's a mental triumph over simplistic worldviews, and inviting in the idea of people as whole personalities.

Other girls in the story follow the same journey. Juri progresses from beign absolutely terrified from the world but also her own feelings, to giving up on the comfort of the self-fulffilling prophecy of eternal pain, and helps Utena getting into terms with her sexuality. Kozue realizes how naive, even reluctatnt Miki is to mature. Kozue herself finally stops idolzing Miki, hopefully she stops framing herself around Miki's perception of her. Shiori realizes that the girl who caused all her deep seated insecurites thinks that she's special, maybe even can a be bit more honest about her sexuality too. Utena realizes how paternailizing, actually disempowering to others princehood is, and is just Utena. Brave, loving, fighting against the notion of endless hopelessness Utena.

All the girls go through different notions of existencial pain, caused by structural oppression, and structural propaganda about a narrow worldview. And all, to different degrees, have a small emancipation from the central struggle that holds them in it's fields of gravity.

Last but not least, Utena has has an impact on the duelists. They might not remember her in the end but Touga and Kyouichi reconnected, Nanami turned her back on Touga's and her relationship, Juri and Shiori interact friendly for once, Miki has decided to teach piano to Tsuwabuki who isn't following neither Nanami nor Touga anymore. The end is and how to read each last scene of the chaarcters is left an ambigious note. Are these aneding really ideal for the characters? Is it really that hopeful? Afterall they're still at Ohtori. But at least a little change is noticable in them.

And yeah, with Anthy gone, the central piece to Akio's entire design is missing: The source of his power, the person he could put down to step on higher on her back, is gone. The system design is to collapse.

Last notes as to why the actually hard earned argumentation, revelations of logical fallacies, epipahnies, and total overthrow of Akio's logic doesn't look like a grandiouse classic anime showdown:

For one, we're still at Ohtori. Whatever realisation Anthy or Utena, or anyone else had, Akio doesn't understand them, maybe doesn't even want to understand them. So Anthy's absolute smack down of a goodbye speech is entirely lost in it's gravity on Akio. Menaing, the last duel would not be seen as actually glorious in his eyes.

Actually, Utena prying Anthy's coffin open and reaching out for her is a pretty dramatic, amazing moment. I noticed how in Ikuhara's other works like Penguindrum or YKA, the finales are all about rahcing out to people, showing love and understanding. They're as dramatic as a last bright and mighty Kamehameha-blast. But unlike animes and mangas in which winning is defined by violence, beating another person down, and even in magical girl animes where the power of friendship becomes just another powerful laser beam (rainbow edition TM), the glorification of violence is anthithetical to the stories we witnessed. Making violence look glamorous in forms of duel, or dueling outfits lures the characters back to the duel platform. Which only perpetuates the duelist's egoism, and prolongs Anthy's abuse. The need for domination by physical, systematic, psychological or emotional violence is the motivation behind Ohtori and keeps the system running. Violence and need for domination keeps everyoen apart. (In every Ikuhara story I watched so far, violence direct, systematic, phyiscal, philosphical, emotional, psychological, or, personal, or all together tears bonds between people apart.) The glamour doesn't lie in smacking Akio down bur in the priority for Utena to not let Anthy behind. The open-coffin-scene isn't actually any less amazing than a Kamamehameha beam with impact frames.

All to say: The Revolution happened as in the circular events at Ohtori seemingly ended with the same result: Akio is no closer to becoming Dios again. He's even writing out new letters for new duelists. Anthy has her smal private revolution ending the personal tyranny of Akio's over her life. Anthy and we, the viewers, experienced a revolution in dismanteling a lot of beliefs about an oppressive system - in fact Anthy revolutes by abandoning the thinking and participation in the system. Anthy's journey is the journey on the same campus as hers. And with out understanding it is our revolution as well.

[bookofmirth]

The main reason why I call bs on that argument, that it's Elucien Sjm had in mind when talking about the whole "mated but wrong for each other" is because it's so unlike Sjm to make them mates, only to have one reject it and both go they seperate ways without exploring first. Like... what would be the point? Just so El/riel could have an obstacle to go through? Because nothing else really stands in their way and honestly, elucien's mating bond would be a cheap obstacle. Elain isn't forbidden from anything, it's Elain who has the choice to decide and Rhys doesn't want Azriel to get in the way of that. If she'd were to reject it, Rhys would be on her side no matter what and provide protection. Lucien would accept the rejection anyway... so, we'd read a whole ahh book about characters playing hide and seek for nothing. Sjm would've paired Elucien for no nothing at all.

It would've been far more epic if Tamlin was Feyre's actual mate but she still chooses Rhys. 1. Based on how Tamlin reacted without a bond, imagine him having one? 2. Feylin already bonded, so to have her choose someone else over someone she has a bond with and was in love with would make sense and prove, that her love for Rhys is very strong. 3. Spring court vs Night court. Rhys can't do much without risking his people. There would be an actual blood duel. And the other courts might hold Rhys back for the simple reason that no one has any business to come between a mated pair, least of all a mating bond that includes a high lord and they just don't want a useless war.

Well, we already kinda have that story, just with Rhys being her mate. Just saying that it would worsen their situation if Tamlin was her actual mate.

Elain and Azriel literally isn't forbidden anything, no one gives a shit, including Sarah, which is why she hasn't given people who ship it anything since his chapter.

And what she gave there was a clear sign of "ummm, this is dark and awkward and feeling ashamed of being with someone probably isn't the way to go???" juxtaposed with Azriel feeling better and more lighthearted when thinking about Gwyn's smile. The woman wasn't even in the room and the thought of her made him smile.

People who don't admit the importance of that are being intellectually dishonest.

we'd read a whole ahh book about characters playing hide and seek for nothing.

Is THIS why Elain has barely been on the page? lol

You are so right about Feyre, Tamlin, and Rhys. If she really wanted to explore those questions in such a way that the answer always came down to making your decisions, what a perfect - and still super impactful - way to do that by making Feyre Tamlin's mate, and for her to still choose Rhys because she loves him. That would actually be such a good story, someone should write that fanfic. But that's just not the type of story sjm writes. She gives relationships a much cleaner path to endgame. And the Feyre/Tamlin/Rhys triangle really proves that to Sarah, the answer is both - freewill and fate. Love and a mating bond.

A while back, when the forbidden romance trope was a hot topic of conversation, I brought up that sjm doesn't tend to write external conflict for her couples, but internal. What I mean is that her couples don't get together right away because of their own trauma, the emotional journeys they need to go on, or how they relate/react to one another. She has never written a ship where the people can't be together because of a third party - another person, a political situation, another love interest, someone who is jealous, whatever. The closest I can think of is when Maeve was going to control Rowan and then he took the blood oath to Aelin - but they weren't romantic at the time. They weren't for another full book.

The fact that she has all of her mated couples be endgame and in love tells me that she thinks the answer is a bit of both - fate and what you make of it.

[drbtinglecannon]

for the character ask: genshin asogi? 👀

Everything during canon happened because of the professor case... Heh, could say London really felt Genshin's Impact 🥁

How I feel about this character

Sorry Kazuma I have a lot of unholy thoughts about your dad

Haha but really I have a lot of conflicting hcs for him, like I imagine he was very serious and focused, but I also like imagining he was snarky and comedically strict about his opinions like Kazuma is (like why he wore the hackimaki in the first place or the over the top manner he talks about Karuma, etc). It's bittersweet when a character is soooo bare bones in canon, because sure I can imagine anything and it'll never be contradicted in canon! But also I want information!!! Tell me about them!!!!!

Anyway regardless of other traits I'm munching over, I always stick with he and Klint were genuinely extremely close, like Herlock&Yujin level, and they shared a joking mean humor in private like calling each other a twat over any little inconvenience

All the people I ship romantically with this character

His own wife haha, Klint, and Klint & Lady B

Kazuma has enough issues so his parents not really caring about each other doesn't do it for me. Legit tho it isn't compelling to me to think they were a loveless marriage, the only point to it I can remember being was she wasn't mentioned in his final letter, but there's bittersweetness to explaining that away as out of a sense of paranoia that it would be wishing ill on them so he had to stay quiet until he made his escape, which..we know how that went. I think them having a loving marriage also kinda ties up the original study students, with Genshin having a wife and child he's leaving, Yujin losing his wife but gaining a newborn he has to leave behind, and Jigoku not having a spouse or kids, and it mirroring each Londoner they attached to (Klint has a wife and a baby on the way by the end but loses both, Herlock loses Yujin but gains a newborn, and Stronghart never takes a family). Genshin can almost relate to Yujin too, their wives are no longer around and they have young kids back home, but he still was expected to be able to return to her one day, and his fate is so similar to Klint's, they both lose their wives and their kids end up losing their connection to the family & being taken in by someone else (iirc Kazuma is kind of cut off from the Asougi clan after they learn his dad died and was outted as "a killer"), those parallels work better if Genshin and his wife were mutual love.

Genklint had an insane unhinged yaoi ending like the homoeroticism of a duel to the death for the honor of your friend that fell so far but you still cared about him too much to leave him like that... when it would've been way smarter for them to team up and kill Stronghart then Genshin tell Klint "no more killing or istfg >:(" and that's that. I also love the mutual suffering that is Barok & Kazuma going back to the prosecutor's office after 2-5 and just staring into the room with the deepest eyebags and deadest expressions like "they definitely fucked in here"

Genklintville is just the ultimate version of genklint haha. It makes it all so much hotter AND tragic! And what more could we ask for from their canon endings

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Genshin & Yujin is a fun relationship I think about a lot. I wonder if they were both jealous of their respective British bestie for being able to get so much closer than they ever were with each other? Was Genshin the shoulder Yujin cried on during the boat trip to London and during the time before he met Herlock? Yujin went above and beyond to help Genshin when he was arrested, and maybe if Genshin listened to him on getting extradited he would've survived, but also Yujin cared so much for him to not only go to Lady B at his request but take Kazuma in once all the dust settled. Idk, I'm not sure I'd call them an OTP but they're a favorite non romantic dynamic for both characters

My unpopular opinion about this character

Ok so there was a post from a blog I love that used pixels from the games to determine character heights and deemed that Genshin was 6' tall based on that information, and I've seen a number of fics describe Genshin as very tall, and I vehemently disagree. Genshin was at most 5'10, taller than average and a tiny bit taller than Kazuma, but still noticeably shorter than Klint & Barok. I will die on this hill

One thing I wish would happen/ had happened with this character in canon

Lived haha but really I can't think of anything that wouldn't drastically change canon (him living, them killing Stronghart, him actually escaping, etc) that like is actually impactful for his role in the story. Not that I don't love AUs but I like leaving this all as my sandbox and not canon. I guess I wanna know his height so I can be correct that it's not 6' tall haha!

[storiesofsass]

The whole Unity drama can really only be described as 'How to completely fuck yourself and everyone else over' but in a actually comedic how stupid this was kind of way.

Like let me explain.

Warning long post but for a good reason.

Unity practically runs (or soon to be ran) the mobile gaming spare. There's a reason for this as Unreal's mobile port kinda sucks(it's gotten somewhat better recently) and alternatives like Flash are dead.

So mobile games like

All Mihoyo/Hoyoverse games so far (Genshin Impact, Honkai Impact and Honkai Star Rail, Tears of Themis)

Disney's Twisted Wonderland

Yu GI Oh master duel

Marvel Clash

Pokemon Go

Among Us

Fate: Grand Order

Ensemble stars/Ensemble stars music

Obey Me/ Obey Me Nightbringer

Path to Nowhere

Arknights

Dislyte

Temple Run/Temple Run 2

Subway Surfers

And many many more will be affected by this change. In fact, it might just be easier to list the popular mobile games that don't use Unity.

Now from a purely capitalist point of view(and ignore common sense), every game I just listed there is a potential million dollars or more. A literal infinite money generator especially gacha games that thrive off of a install and uninstall loop.

But, there's no way they could actually enforce any of this.

Mihoyo/Hoyoverse and most Chinese gachas use a version of Unity that's only available in China and is basically it's own thing. Meaning that it's unlikely that the changes are actually going to affect them. But they did say the changes apply to 'emerging markets' so don't hold your breath.

Games like Twisted Wonderland, Fate: Grand Order, Pokemon Go etc. are licensed games aka they'll be messing with the likes of The Pokemon Company, Komani and Disney. Who would probably take them to court or shut down if it was barely profitable enough before than have less profit.

Game companies(mostly female focused ones) like Happy Elements(Ensemble stars) and Solmare(Obey Me) actually make more money from merch and irl events than the actual games.

Which leaves the rest. Who may not be able to get by. Like the creators of Among Us who would likely go bankrupt if this change were to happen. Or older games like Temple Run, Angry Birds and Subway Surfers who no longer make that sort of revanue anymore.

The problem is 'the rest' is basically 90% of the users of Unity on mobile and a giant chunk of the mobile gaming market.

So instead of an infinite money generator, most devs are going to shut down and either remake on a different engine or shut down completely.

The minority that can pay either might not have to (Chinese gachas) or are unlikely to/litigation bait.

So not only did Unity shoot themselves in the head but they somehow managed to put the billion dollar mobile gaming market in jeopardy.

And this is just mobile gaming, this doesn't include PC, Xbox, PS4 games. Unity is pretty easy to learn and was cheaper than Unreal for a beginner/ Indie dev so they basically dominated that market as well.

And the same problem persists there as well. Those who could afford it aren't going to pay and the majority of users can't actually pay the fee and are going to delist or switch. So the entire market ends up in jeopardy because it's at risk of losing a giant chunk of it.

All for an infinite money generator that anyone with a brain or at the very least had a basic understanding of the gaming market could see wasn't going to work.

The shortsightedness to even think this was going to work is astounding. The stupidity is astronomical.

[twistedtummies2]

Year of the Bat - Number 23

Welcome to Year of the Bat! In honor of Kevin Conroy, Arleen Sorkin, and Richard Moll, I’m counting down my Top 31 Favorite Episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series” throughout this January. TODAY’S EPISODE QUOTE: “At what point did I become life’s punching bag?”

Number 23 is…Joker’s Favor.

In my earlier entry for “Christmas With the Joker,” I mentioned that the creators behind B:TAS felt they had a hard time “settling” the Joker at first, and his first few episodes in the show are widely considered among his weakest stories in the DCAU. This was the episode that changed things; according to Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, it was with “Joker’s Favor” that the team felt they finally “nailed down” how their take on the Joker should really work. While, of course, I have no real major issues with those first few episodes – and I particularly enjoy “Christmas With the Joker” – I will concede that this is when the character went from just a good Joker to an AMAZING Joker. It’s the episode that officially secured Mark Hamill’s tenure as the Clown Prince of Crime. The episode is probably most famous now because it introduced Harley Quinn. And while, yes, Harley’s introduction is a big plus for the story, she’s not the focus here by any means, and is a little different than how she’d be portrayed for the rest of the series. It’s the story that really makes this one unique. The plot focuses on a thoroughly mundane man by the name of Charlie Collins. One night, after an absolutely miserable day, Charlie gets cut off in traffic by a mysterious driver, and impulsively starts to road rage at them…only to discover the man he’s cussing out is the Joker. The Harlequin of Hate chases Charlie down, corners him, and seems ready to kill him…but agrees to spare Charlie’s life if Collins will agree to do “a little favor” for him. Charlie: “O-Okay…what?” Joker: “I DON’T KNOW! I HAVEN’T THOUGHT OF IT YET!”

The Joker thus departs, promising to call on that favor at some undetermined point. Grateful to be alive, but horror-stricken by this whole ordeal, Charlie moves his family out of Gotham and changes his name…but two years later, the Joker – who has been keeping tabs on Charlie all this time – calls to collect on the debt. Charlie must find a way to escape this proverbial Deal with the Devil, before good people get hurt. Something interesting about a lot of the best episodes in “Batman: The Animated Series” is that Batman, himself, isn’t always necessarily the focal character. A lot of times, he just kind of ends up getting roped into the action and conflict as a result of things other characters do or do not engage in. This is a good example. Batman has very little direct impact on the story; the focus is really on Charlie and the Joker. While Collins isn’t the most interesting character in the show, that’s actually part of the point: the episode plays Charlie up as something of an audience surrogate, a completely ordinary guy who is just going through the motions, but – because of one bad day – he ends up in over his head in a fantastic duel of the fates, sandwiched between the Dark Knight and the Clown Prince of Crime in their endless war. It’s a unique perspective for the show to play with, and while there were other episodes that tried similar tactics of fairly ordinary people ending up in extraordinary situations, this is easily one of the best, as well as one of the earliest.

I love the subtle way the episode plays with the Joker’s own dark philosophies on life. While his origins are left somewhat vague in the series – we know he was once a gangster named “Jack Napier,” inspired by the Tim Burton movies, but that’s about it – I think most people are aware of the comic book version’s ideology on how “all it takes is One Bad Day to turn a normal man into a monster.” The conflict between Charlie and the Joker, and how it ends (I won’t give away that twist) provides an interesting twist on that idea. I also love, once again, how diabolically petty the character is in this story: he decides to spare Charlie’s life basically on a whim, but once he declares he’s going to collect on a favor, he takes it VERY seriously. What’s hilarious is that, when he DOES call on Charlie, both the man and the audience themselves are expecting this favor to be something like “Chuckers” being forced to shoot somebody or whatever…and instead, the Joker literally just needs him to open a door. That last bit, alone, probably says a lot about why this episode is so revered. Again, how much more Joker-ish can you possibly get?

Tomorrow we move on to Number 22! Hint: “All I wanted from you, dearie, was a little friendship! That would have cost you nothing!”

[minecraftrelatedrandomness]

working on the pirates smp tv tropes pages is kinda rough rn bc idk what counts as spoilers and what shouldn't

posting this as an edit consultation bc i would like advice pls

things that are STAYING spoilers

all pov character deaths other than p!aimsey and p!guqqie

the ajax suarez twist in the "final wishes" event

the finale/ending revelations

all character fates in the finale

p!acho's starlore + lore finale

p!apo's character development choices near the end

p!krow's finale lore (the tyrannicide and backstory)

p!martyn's lore finale (sunset stone return + loot shard destruction + volcano + sun god's fate)

p!owen returning for the finale + reasons for returning (yt-exclusive)

how p!saus got out of the sword possession whispers in the finale

p!will full name

things i am CONSIDERING REMOVING spoilers for

marnie + hook dying

the cruppy torture incident (specifically the torture part)

the sunset stone gets stolen

p!acho kishi lore (pre-finale)

p!apo's lore for "the duel" (e.g. what happened during the lore)

p!cleo backstory

p!el's identity crisis post-"final wishes"

naya being a dictatorship + p!krow's pre-finale lore (e.g. cultist yoinking, full name, the whole child spldier thing, etc.)

p!martyn blondbeard villain arc (mainly bc it ties into p!apo's character arc heavily via "the duel")

p!owen's navy storyline (yt-exclusive) + leaving the isles post-"final wishes"

p!saus Getting possessed by the sword whispers

p!water's wedding getting crashed (the details, incl. jeffery dying)

things that are NO LONGER spoilers

the halloween event/subplot because it has no large impact on greater server lore

the volcano as execution discussion

p!saus backstory + stone arm incident

p!water's wedding getting crashed (the fact there is a bounty on her specifically for the wedding day has been known since october BUT i haven't unspoilered how exactly that happened yet)

things that are NOT SPOILERED due to late-arrival spoilers

p!aimsey + p!guqqie ded

the whirlpool + p!michela releasing the corruption

the og round of kidnappings + the rescue mission + revenge raid (minus the deaths)

p!ros + sabertooth clan plotline

[selfish-wanderer]

Record of Isekai

Crossovers are going to be the death of me. Not many things make me feel the same as pairing two universes that mingle well (and sometimes that don’t) and seeing something wonderful come out of it.

But how about 10+ series? Following the Record of Ragnarok formula is possible, and I need people talking about this.

Summary

Existence was made up by several universes, endless worlds connected with each other. Normally independent from each other, one day, the divinity of each world came together and decided the fate of those that are transported and reborn to new worlds: Erasure. Yet thanks to a certain Valkyrie, they would get a fighting chance! Thirteen against thirteen, in a battle called Ragnarok! Gods, divine and similar would face the mortals in one against one duels! Will the divine get what they want or will the mortals defy fate itself?

Review

First and foremost, aside from being a crossover fan, I must admit that I really like the isekai genre. A fat chunk of it is trash, don’t get me wrong. But we don’t always need a gourmet dish to satiate our hunger. Sometimes the shitty burger with more grease than actual nutritious content is just the thing we’re craving.

But I digress. Why am I talking about Record of Isekai?

Well, obviously because it’s fun. It’s well-written. There’s obviously a lot of thought going into each fight, but most importantly it doesn’t suffer from the same problem that the canon RoR suffers.

If you read Record of Isekai, it’s probably because you liked RoR and at least know some of the fighters that are going to be on the human side. Characters like the isekai quartet, Rudeus Greyrat, and Cid Kagenou have all been gathered to fight for the right to jump between worlds and to continue existing no matter what the gods say. And that’s perfect for the story that this fanfic is trying to tell.

We know these character, or at least have an idea of who they are. The story doesn’t dwell too much in their backstories because of this, and the pacing doesn’t suffer as result. Furthermore, the gods that fight are also from other series that people can recognize and be surprised by. And as result, each outcome is all the more impactful. You cheer for these guys to win, even if you don’t like their series, because the gods they’re pinned against really test their might. The OP pls nerf factor of isekai MCs is effectively nullified as they enter the arena. The bleakness feels even worse because you know most of those characters could probably fight toe to toe with RoR gods.

So if you like the premise or isekai or crossovers, go give this story a shot. You can find it on Space Battles and AO3. I won’t say anything else because it could spoil the battles. I’ll only tag with the series I remember seeing.

And don’t forget to support the author, if you want. It’s a great story and I honestly don’t want it to get dropped. Hope this post helps spread the word!

[navy-leader]

I can’t help but wonder what rhg videos made you the most emotional, such as crying or seeing personal struggles in the characters?

For me, it was gilded guy’s last seven videos for relatability (and suspense concerning bog.)

And I literally cried in the Larry vs skid video.

Man, skid and One likely are a found family. And I look forward to one day seeing how One fares in a fight against Chronos. Who knows of One will even recognize yoyo! That’ll be tragic to see them fight in a bad way.

I dont think ive gotten That emotional while watching the videos itself, but when i think about the characters and their situations, and thats when i get sad over them. Particularly Yoyo and One, theyre brothers who have been seperated since a young age, One was left behind and enslaved, and has been searching for Yoyo ever since he escaped. All the while Yoyo's whereabouts and fate are unknown (atleast,,, canonically? I personally headcanoned that he became a very successful duelist/gladiator whilst One was still under Blackwatch). And thinking about them meeting after that long makes me emotional.

Skid and One are definitely a pair thatd get you emotional because theyre practically what the other is trying to find, Skid is a stand in for Yoyo and One is a stand in for Skid's parent/sibling(?) so its very;;;

Another RHG related one that made me kinda sad is Umbrella vs FLLFFL, its a duel between a veteran and a soldier who never wanted to be one, and the fact that Alfa gets killed and Umbrella later hallucinates him talking to him again is rlly,, telling of the impact that fight had on them.

And good lord how could i forget my girl YUPIA..... Her entire story especially with the way the animations are shown, the music,,, its all very sad. Its another character who was stripped off their personhood to fit someone else's vision, and even if they try to break away from it, they still do what A Living Weapon would be created for, and at the end she just,,, Dies. Those kinda stories can have problems with sending the wrong message but like,,, tragedy, yakno. I personally like it but i do wish she was written up more.

[killer-orca-cosplay]

Because I still have Flying Circus RPG brainrot, here’s the line of my circus for the fanfic I’ll probably write someday when I get the actual rule book and can discet Chapell’s detailed worldbuilding. 

-Whalestrom Aeronautical Mercenary Company (usually just refered to as Whalestrom, or WAM)

Members: Arlo Thursday: (Worker, former manager for a small grange store in a village near the northern side of the continent, now basically press-ganged into being manager for this flying trainwreck of teenagers)

Helena Mercury: (Scion, from the former Sopwith lands. Basically gave the circus its kickstart Balore funding, now also flies with them because shes completely unable to keep her boy-crazy in her pants and there’s a lot of very firm, fit dudes in this circus and they do all of the drugs and weird fischer hypnosis)

David Maraness: (Another Worker, this one formerly at a weapons factory. Also doubles as the units off-hand extra mechanic)

Shiloh Adams: (Soldier, from a land-hold in the central mountains. Absolute BEEFCAKE of a woman, almost too large to fit in most cockpits. Kind of just ended up stuck with the circus due to issues with her hold and several honor duels gone very wrong. Never speaks in contractions and has a strange obsession with “battle challenges” and Trials for everything)

Micheal Berring: (Farmer, joined when the circus was passing through because he was bored and he liked flying. Basically a Worker at this point as well as half his money goes back to helping his family get the stuff they need to rebuild their farm after gas leaked out of one of the dead cities and killed their land)

Hester: (Survivor, “joined” after crashing onto the circus’s airstrip riding what was basically a seat strapped to a pulse-jet engine. Doesnt speak much but has at least gotten to taking her gas mask off more often than not. Often seen hanging around Christopher)

Christopher Harkness: (Student, also the circus’s resident savant when it comes to most anything to with esoteric stuff. Hester’s comfort object in the flesh, as he uses her for info-dumps and treats her the same as he does everyone else; just another person, who he can info-dump on)

Fossa Upwell: (Fischer. Technically the founder of the circus since she found their airfeild, but has happily left the actual running of it to Arlo and David. Currently attempting too, and failing, to get Helena to notice her.)

Charles Whitesides: (Circus head engineer, machinist, navigator, and resident cat-man. TECHINCALLY counts as a Worker because all of his money goes to his 16-children family and three wives back home. Is currently working on moving all of said family to the circus’s airstrip)

And last but not least; Him: The circus’s airstrip (not actually a solid location, but in reality, the giant magic flying four-fluked humpback whale that the Whalestrom uses as their airstrip because its broad back is so large and tough it doesnt even feel the impact of planes landing, nor the bracing used to make their base. Him was found by Fossa originally when the Deep Ones spoke to her in a dream, and she found Him tangled in skytrain wires in a valley near where she lived. Freeing him, she set off as his guardian so that he could heal and regain his strength to return to the heights he was born in, but fate and fortune has lead him to become the circus’s mobile airstrip. Him doesnt seem to mind, and Fossa communicates with him directly, telling the whale where to go next. 

[eleanor-bradstreet]

Director's Commentary

I'm going to need you to tell me how Number Ten came to be. That was the first fic of yours that I ever read and I knew you were going to be my cup of tea!

When did you first realize that angst was something you enjoyed exploring? What is it about whump, specifically, that you gets your blood pumping? Does writing the happy ending ever feel like the wrong thing to do?

Trust you to come in with the big gun questions 😘 I expect nothing less. Hoo boy, okay. Number Ten. I am fascinated by the concept of 'Viscount Benedict'. Because it's a reality in the Bton world that is close enough to almost taste, but is never explored. We are always one breath away from this bizarre timeline that is depressing for everyone - especially him - and I simply had to get inside his head and see how he would react if that turned out to be his fate (because I love him and would happily write a fictional diary that documented his actions and emotions every day of his life birth to death because I have a problem. Anyway....)

Yes, Benedict was born out of the love of his parents, but as the second son, it is the functional purpose of his life to be the 'spare' and take on the title if the unthinkable should happen to Anthony. And in the duel of book/season one, we are faced with the very real possibility that Anthony could die. I feel the immensity of this risk definitely gets lost in the shuffle of the show episode, with so much focus on Simon and Daphne and Benedict being an underdeveloped character at that point. There is the great scene in the study beforehand where Anthony says "hey bro, your life as you know it is over tonight. Hope you enjoyed your little druggy art party. You'll be the Viscount in the morning no matter how his goes" and all we got out of Benedict was a pained glance (exceptional acting by LT of course, but there is SOOOOOOO much that went unexplored here).

LadyJenevia is a media critic and Benedict stan and she is desperate to get on the Bton press junket to interview LT and ask him the very pertinent question of how much weight he carried into the duel scenes of Benedict thinking he would walk off that field either as functional Viscount with a fugitive brother, or literal Viscount with a dead brother, and how that informed his acting choices. It's an incredible question and deserves to be asked. I think I was chewing on this when one weekday morning I let my mind stray to the darkest timeline and saw Benedict screaming as he shook Anthony's lifeless body. Because we were thhhiiiiisssss close to that, but I don't think any audience attention was drawn to that potential reality, or how that would impact Benedict or his siblings. Anthony was seen as a hotheaded asshole at this point and attention was largely on Simon. (Even I walked away from S1 not knowing Benedict's name, so I get it.)

So the scenes started to play out in my head (I checked AO3, this was a Tuesday, I should have been working), and I felt his desperation and terror in those moments, heard his screams, saw his panic as his brother and his life and his dreams died in his arms. I saw Anthony fall (an accident of course, Simon was not intending to shoot him, but Daphne fked it up), I saw everyone in denial, Daphne screaming, Anthony fading, Benedict showing up back home covered in blood and having to explain to his mother what happened. I even saw scenes of him losing it on Daphne and blaming her, and also opening up and crying to Eloise about it all (but these weren't written/maybe I'm saving stuff for another WIP). This alternate timeline had to be explored, because we were so damn close to it and it would be an entirely different Bton universe, balanced on Benedict's shoulders, if just a couple factors were changed. So it just poured out of me in a couple hours and I posted it immediately. This was one of those brain-movies and it felt like unburdening myself to get it down on the page for others to see 😛 And of course at the end of the day, this is an act of love for Benedict. Because as crushed and miserable as he would be by it all, he wouldn't run away or fail his family. He would rise to the occasion and do his best, but he would be a very different head of family than Anthony was. I wanted to champion his fortitude, and Anthony's single-minded focus as he died, that Ben continue the protection of the family. Because they are both amazing men aggghhhhhhh 😭

When did I realize angst and whump were my thing? Honestly, I don't think I did until just recently joining tumblr. I've been writing since summer of last year under the (perhaps misguided) assumption that the purpose of fanfic was to grind characters through bizarre scenarios of heightened emotion (be that angst, whump, smut, etc.) for gleeful wish fulfillment. Then when I saw folks calling Love to Spare 'angsty' because it had lightly conflicted romantic emotions I had a lightbulb moment of 'oh, wait til they see all the pain, grief, gore and death I've put characters through in my WIPs' 😅 My angst barometer is clearly higher than others. It definitely aligns with my taste in media, that I tend to only consume dark, angsty shows and films because the intensity/urgency of those scenarios grabs me by the gut and causes a visceral reaction. I want to feel something really hard when consuming media. It's more satisfying than letting happy fluff wash over me (though of course there are rare times for that too) because it feels like I have learned/grown through the pain and insight. Now that I have been/attempted to write a variety of fics, I see clearly that I am more motivated to write angsty and whumpy scenes and stories, than I am to write fluffy or even smutty ones, and I'm glad to have learned that about myself.

Whump, IMO, is the perfect recipe for character exploration and reader engagement. You've said it yourself - when characters are suffering and/or facing mortality, everything else is stripped away and you get justification for really raw and intense emotional interactions and personality revelations. Readers can feel the stress of the situation and wonder how it's all going to pan out, and you can deliver that joyous happy ending or devastating tragedy which forces them to examine new perspectives of the characters and world. And to answer your final question, I do think there are scenarios where happy endings are the wrong conclusion. As we all likely know and have experienced by now, that is not how the real world operates, and I think its healthy and cathartic to examine that in our media sometimes. Art imitates life, so it should imitate the times when the bad guys win, or people die, or you don't always get what you want. Not only does that make it more realistic and relatable, it creates a safe, fictional space to examine how you would respond to that scenario, and contemplate it as a potential reality you may need to prepare for. Thus, it was worth seeing how Benedict would have reacted if things had played out just an inch differently, and his whole world was transformed in an instant.

Thank you for the ask my dear 💙

[gayoperatorgunclub]

Could you please do Ash with a gn!reader, and the prompt “You’re either with me or against me.”?

hello. i'm back. yes i will do this prompt mwah

There's no goddamn way any of this is real.

You had joined the military because the recruiters at your high school were way too charming. You had stayed in the military because you figured out you were good at it, and you'd met some cool and interesting people. Approximately zero percent of your decision was impacted by the (apparently commonplace??) occurrence of a dodgeball tournament.

The recruiters should really lead with that.

Regardless of what led you to where you are now, you and about 50 of your coworkers (the vast majority of whom are scary Europeans) are standing around in the base's gymnasium.

Your boss just dumped out a cage of foam balls.

And then all hell broke loose.

Minutes pass, and you're not sure whether to be thrilled that some of your scary European coworkers seem to be absolute ass at dodgeball, or scared that the others apparently play professionally outside of work.

You narrowly avoid ejection by blocking Ace's sorry attempt at a throw, and duck for cover behind some rolled up wrestling mats.

"Hey."

You nearly shit yourself.

"Oh! Hey, 'liza," you hear what could either be bloodshed or an extreme makeout session from the court and decide to focus on the here and now with Ash. You give her your best seductive look. "Come here often?"

She does not laugh. Instead, she fakes like she's gonna throw the ball in her hands at you, and laughs when you flinch.

"I was going to see if you wanted to form an alliance with me, but now I'm getting second thoughts." she says, sitting next to you.

You ponder this unforeseen circumstance. Having been double-crossed at workplace bonding fuctions before (there's a reason you and Iana have beef), you ask, "What's the catch?"

Eliza snorts. "The catch is that I don't pummel you so bad even a kiss from Doc won't make your boo-boos better." She leans in close, and you catch yourself thinking, are we about to kiss? before she's continuing, "You're either with me, or you're against me."

"Wow." you reply, "Very Anakin Skywalker of you. Am I your enemy now, 'liza? Do I have the high ground? Where's Duel of the Fates when you need it?"

Eliza scowls. "Fine. You've made your choice." She scoots back, shooing you away. "You have five seconds to run."

"What?" you say. You think you just heard the very distinct sound of Tachanka drop-kicking Mozzie.

"Five." Eliza says.

"HUH?" you exclaim. The rest of the day is really gonna suck, because you just know Doc is gonna kick everyone's asses the moment they walk into medbay for some ibuprofen.

"Four."

You scramble away, slipping on what you hope to god is water as you go (later inspection of the gym will reveal that someone (Sledge) missed spectacularly and hit a water pipe).

"Three."

Once you're out from behind the mats, you see that there's very few people left. Huh.

"Two."

Actually, taking the time to gather your surroundings, you realize that the only remaining operators are Pulse, Castle, Thermite, Ash, and you. Funny how that works, right?

"One."

You barely have time to realize that you were not Eliza's first choice for an alliance when a ball comes flying at your face.

[good-prog]

ff8 review

Main campaign date: 2023/02/17-02/27 Playtime (in game) to roll credits: 30 hrs (No Steam playtime this time; artificially inflated that metric by accidentally leaving the launcher open after closing the game.)

I think the best I can say is that Final Fantasy 8 was okay, I guess? I'm probably not part of the target audience, though I imagine the story and characters would have resonated as a teenager [redacted] years ago. Once I figured out it wasn't for me, I just sat back and tried to enjoy what I could. The stakes that the party faces throughout the story are on par with what it feels like to be a young person. The only difference is that in their world, that those crises are truly life threatening or world ending, intensified by the struggles of school, relationships, and lack of guidance from adults in the face of those challenges.

Spoiler warning for all aspects of the game.

characters/story

Despite the drama of the opening cutscene and duel between Squall and Seifer, the game started off relatively slow compared to most other FF titles. The first hour showed off the school setting and encouraged the player to read way too much tutorial text.

Initially, the Garden students in the party felt pretty interchangeable due to their lack of character development and similar character design. This issue was further exacerbated by the junction switch function, which allowed all magic and GFs junctioned to be immediately swapped with another character's. Their similarly rectangular character designs didn't help either. (I understand that they were going for realism--hence the lack of deformed character sprites--and you can hand wave their shared social background, but it's pretty bland nonetheless?) Throughout the story each party member did have their stand out moments, though they were sparse. For example, Irvine starts out as a flirty and somewhat un-serious sniper. He chokes during the assassination attempt on Edea, but his hesitance (and familiarity with the female members of the party) gets clarified during the GF memory loss reveal at the start of disk 3.

I felt a bit uncomfortable at some points with how violent the society depicted in FF8 was. Sure, the age of majority might be younger in their society, but they're also being raised as child soldiers? And yet, Edea (while possessed by Ultimecia) manages to order a missile bombing on an entire school of these children (and pit two such schools against each other--putting cadets/actual children at risk!), without any sort of objection from society at large or the schools themselves. A common comment I made through the first two disks was "do they not teach critical thinking at this school?" I guess one could argue for the main party being trained as unquestioning mercenaries, but I don't think their goal to become leaders because of the "fate" Cid envisioned for them was particularly compelling.

Side note on Cid: he keeps urging the party along, but seems to think that his prior preparation by creating Balamb Garden and training them is sufficient; surely he could have taken a more active advisory role along the way besides just throwing Squall into his position.

on Squall's char arc: I liked the asides and getting to hear his thoughts, as well as the option of different dialogue options (though they ultimately did not impact the story). He starts off being incredibly introverted, likely due to his traumatic childhood, but learns to become a leader that relies on others for help, on top of developing a romance with Rinoa, ultimately becoming her knight and promising to keep her in check should she lose control of her powers.

Seifer: Like the rest of the cast, his personality doesn't seem to change much from his childhood to the present. (could attribute to childhood trauma, I guess) Maybe I was lucky with my junctions, but he was a pushover every time the party faced him, rather than a true rival. (Well, it was a 3 v 1 battle, so…) I found it interesting that he recovers his memories of the orphanage around the same time the party does (either told by Edea/Ultimecia, or managed to do it in a different way). Nice that he, too, gets a happy ending (fishing with his buddies, Fujin and Raijin)—but doesn't get much redemption, either.

Laguna and his friends/comrades Kiros and Ward were an interesting diversion from the main plot, giving hints of the world's historical geopolitics to the player as well as context for when the player revisits those locations in the present. He seems to perpetually fail upward, and despite becoming the leader of the most powerful, technologically advanced nation on the planet, still puts the responsibility of defeating Ultimecia on Squall's party, though he sends them off with some encouragement about the power of friendship.

Ellone seemed to be more of a plot device than an actual character. She was a perpetual damsel in distress; Laguna, then Cid and Edea, then Squall were constantly chasing after her to ensure her safety, with the party only hearing about her in relation to other people. She initially sends Squall into Laguna's consciousness in a fruitless attempt to give her adoptive mother, Raine, a better death (or prevent it altogether). She also inadvertently helps Laguna and friends via infusion of Squall's power. She finally understands that she can't change the past, though she can (by proxy) experience it for herself.

plot/story?

The reveal that GF use causes memory loss seemed too convenient, but in the context of the game's outlandish plot, not unrealistic? Regardless, Irvine staying silent about it for an entire disk seemed odd; you'd think he'd at least make a comment about Edea/Matron during the assassination beyond just chickening out.

Time compression: I guess it works? It taps into some primal fear of time passing/memory loss/eventual death, and subsequently being forgotten. Even if the delivery was haphazard at times, I feel like some of the themes definitely resonated with me, particularly with respect to memory loss.

I feel like some of my peers fear getting older. A friend talked about traveling to Korea for leisure (but also to get plastic surgery). There's anything inherently wrong with wanting to look or feel younger or healthier or more like oneself; it's just that there's some denial embedded in it all. My own parents, too, talk about their own mortality, especially since their peers are getting old and sick and dying; those things are a guarantee—"when it's too late". We arguably don't know how to talk to each other in the present—their most common sentence starter is "remember when-?" as if I would remember the way I was as a child.

Beyond natural decay, in undergrad I dealt with poor mental health, and large parts of that time of my life are just gone. It's been several years, and I've healed from it enough to forget my own forgetfulness. Even now, I sometimes thumb through old journal entries going "oh, I guess that happened." (Potential knowledge gaps with respect to my professional career aside, I'm disappointed that I forgot the good times that I had and the friendships I made amidst everything going on.)

I don't really have an answer to these things beyond "oh, it just is what it is." The quite cliche'd sayings about living in the present are probably right, after all. The best I—and FF8's party—can do is to be confident about oneself in the here and now and keep moving forward.

gameplay

I didn't really mesh with the gameplay, either. Because of the game's reputation and my own miserly RPG-playing tendencies, I was afraid to level or spend magic unless absolutely necessary (e.g., for healing/recovery, and even GF abilities replaced those over time). I stuck to drawing from and carding enemies, refining the materials from cards, and junctioning that magic to stats. However, I was hesitant to refine materials, in case they became useful for weapon upgrades, or in case I got better refinement abilities (e.g., maybe I could use a wizard stone for Curaga instead of Firaga). I know that the "proper" way to amass magic for junctioning is farming Triple Triad, but I only played a couple games before deciding to do it the more grindy way. (I've played my share of Triple Triad in FF14, but I'm honestly not that big of a fan.)

Early in the game, I found that GF spam was quite effective, since it did significantly more damage than the party's attacks. For example, while escaping from X-ATM092 during the SeeD exam, the party had to do about 1.5k damage each time—doable with about 3 GF summons but much longer with standard attacks that did double-digit damage. After the party had improved stats, though, I didn't feel like sitting through the entire GF animation each time and instead favored standard physical attacks.

Until disk 3, I carded/drew from enemies as convenient, but I didn't go out of the way to farm. Boss battles dragged on a bit, but with decent junctions (e.g., sleep to ST-Atk-J on human enemies) nothing was too challenging. I was a bit worried about my subpar gameplay going into the endgame, though. After obtaining the Ragnarok, I spent an hour hopping around the Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell mindlessly drawing spells for stat upgrades. I also farmed cactuars for AP to max out all of my GFs' abilities.

My endgame build involved junctioning triple (one of the higher, but not the highest stat modifier) to each of my character's Str stats and using the standard physical attack each turn. Since there are only 2 GFs that naturally learn Str-J, I overwrote a third's Magic ability with the same so that all three characters could benefit. For bosses, my strategy was casting meltdown to increase the potency of physical attacks, then using the two other characters in the party as support for Squall's LB spam (keeping everyone healed/buffed and Squall buffed with Aura, attacking normally when it was safe to do so).

One of my gameplay highlights occurred while trying to get Bahamut as a GF. I didn't think to buff everyone with shell, so after a nasty megaflare, only Squall was left standing. Angelo was the MVP, though: he revived Rinoa, and the next turn used wishing star (dealing almost 80k damage!) to defeat the boss. (That was the first and last time I've seen him use that limit break; the party needs to be practically dead for that to occur.)

Ultimecia's Castle was definitely a highlight as well. I liked how it sealed off all abilities (besides the standard attack) to start, and defeating each boss enabled the party to unlock one new ability. In between each boss were little puzzles that involved both the main and secondary parties. Even if my main strategy was standard attack spam, I had to think a bit more about junctioning beyond using the "Auto" junction function. For example, one of the bosses attacks with high level thunder magic; by junctioning lightning to Elem-Def-J, those attacks could be minimized (or even used to heal). For the final boss fight, I managed to die to Griever's Shockwave Pulsar a couple times before playing it super safe and keeping all the characters topped off and shelled.

music highlights

FF8 has my favorite soundtrack of the FF games I've played so far, likely because of its use in the FF14 Eden raids. (When I first set foot outside Balamb Garden and heard "Blue Fields", I was transported back to The Empty. Similarly, when I heard Don't Be Afraid, my first reaction was "oh, that's Cloud of Darkness!") The Eden's Promise tier was where I learned to raid and also where I made most of the friends I play and raid with now, so I have a lot of fond memories associated with the music.

misc

In addition to the music, I had a couple "Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme" moments while playing the game. Voidwalker (E2) is reminiscent of Adel's fight, where Sorceress Adel junctions Rinoa, physically connecting her to her chest and siphoning hp from her each turn. As referenced in FF14's Oracle of Darkness fight, Ultimecia casts Hell's Judgement (reducing party HP to 1) as her opening move in her final form. An astute Twitter user also pointed out parallels in the ending cutscenes.

Side note: I appreciate how various fan translations of Ultimecia's speeches further elaborate on how Griever was created, as well as her motives.

conclusion/next steps

There's a lot of creativity that can go into the junction/magic system and "break" the game. For example, once Rinoa becomes a sorceress, she gains "Angel Wing" as a limit break, which is effectively a berserk magic form that has her cast offensive spells from her inventory repeatedly without depleting those stocks. So, should she only have Ultima and Meteor stocked, the AI will favor Meteor (the "weaker" spell), allowing her to do ridiculous amounts of multi-hit damage every turn. I certainly know more for a second playthrough, but I don't think I'd want to play through again anytime soon.

I'll probably just uninstall for now; with my current stats, I don't think I'll have a fruitful time tackling the Ultima or Omega weapons. Plus, if I want to play Triple Triad (with better QOL) I can always do that in FF14. I'm glad I got to experience the game, though, and draw my own conclusions about the story.