#and i don't really know what distinguishes one person from another but it does kill me inside !

[elytrafemme]

my best friend (no. 4, i'll start assigning emojis soon for lore followers) asked me about BPD and i told them i'd talk more about it in person because BPD is the exact overlap of my own lived experience (note: i am not diagnosed but have extensive history with BPD in a secret more confusing way) and my psychological interest. but like now i'm thinking about it and generally speaking i think anything that was a symptom towards BPD i experienced has either grown more mild now that i'm out of an active trauma situation, OR has just become part of what i consider my amorphous CPTSD thing,

but i do like. think about the efforts to avoid perceived/real abandonment. and maybe i've not gone to the lengths some folks might with this but to be honest the more i think back to my own personal history the more i realize that i do in fact repeatedly do insane shit to avoid abandonment 😭

[rappaccini]

.......... kingdom of the planet of the apes thoughts

noa

great new protagonist. excited to see how he evolves as a character. he's definitely The New Caesar, but his gentler personality is a welcome change.

damn somebody else CAN actually hit the andy serkis notes for playing an ape. props to this actor.

glad he isn't caesar's descendant and that his clan's totally apart from caesar's tribe. thank you for expanding the world instead of star warsing it. -- and for calling out the obsession with nostalgia via proximus.

his arc was great. questioning the state of things and wanting something better should hopefully spell good things for the development of the ape society in the reboots. more on that in a sec.

that or he's about to have one hell of a disillusionment arc.

these movies keep coming up with clever ways to distinguish their ape characters. the bald spot, green eyes and armband being his thing are his.

his tribe and their eagle culture is fascinating. the concept of apes using abandoned skyscrapers as towers for bird husbandry comes from a history channel documentary i remember watching as a kid and i love seeing it pop up here.

even the eagle song, which could've been so cheesy, works in context.

even his name is so well thought-out. noa as in noah, who guides people through a flood; which noa does at the climax. and noa as in 'no', the first word an ape spoke out loud in the first trilogy, which is paralleled when mae shouts his name- the first word a human speaks in the second trilogy.

.... anaya and soona were certainly there.

the soona romance felt out of nowhere. like oh ok so the one girl in the friend group is the future gf. we're doing that. fine.

and all that just so her designated bf can emotionally cheat on her with a human for two more movies. girl. get out of there now.

yes i think noa and mae had chemistry. pota is a franchise that simply does interspecies romance. a lot. you just have to roll with it if you're gonna be here.

i was wondering when that would make it to the movies again, and it seems like they're trying to see how much they can get away with.

like it's 100% intentional that they have young adults who aren't married and have no kids as the pro and deuteragonist in this trilogy. they know about the chemistry. they animated him checking her out like that on purpose. they made them co-leads for a reason. they did a parallel to the "NO" scene in rise with mae calling noa's name. they gave mae a beat of jealousy when she learned about him and soona. he's catching her on horseback and giving her a token of clothing from his clan. he's unable to choose between his childhood sweetheart and the girl he's been traveling with for weeks. there's a layer of innuendo in the climb to access the military silo that had me cackling.

they know what they're doing.

it's probably not gonna be a literal ship, more like a symbolic one. i don't want them to kiss or fuck or say i love you i want them to stare at each other, obsess over each other, debate the nature of humanity and sentience, touch foreheads, save each other, try to kill each other and die in each other's arms. they're gonna make their symbolic breakup everybody's problem.

general worldbuilding thoughts

maybe it's just that i've been getting back into fantasy but there's a very... familiar vibe to the rhythms of the story. a noble prince, a fat goofy monk and a belle dam sans merci setting off to fight an evil king. but it's apes!

damn we're really so desperate for gay rep that we're taking raka saying "he was my village" about a guy he was close to and running with it huh

(👀 at noa and mae encountering another unconventional couple. it just keeps stacking up.)

okay. then we have to talk about how the only possibly queer character is the guy who can't even admit that he's gay even though none of the characters should have a problem with it, who drowns halfway through the movie. and is played by the only person of color in the main cast. oh so i guess these apes aren't that different huh.

no this is such a gripe i have with pota reboot worldbuilding. the apes are starting a new civilization... and building it like humans. everyone's straight, even though bonobos are famously up for anything and even chimps, orangutans and gorillas have been known to get gay. apparently monogomous mates are a thing even though apes don't do that. all power is held by male characters, even though bonobos are matriarchal, orangutans wouldn't give a shit either way and female chimps may not lead their troops but they sure as shit don't hide at home with the babies. yeah okay ~they don't have to behave like their species~ but... isn't that a missed opportunity? if you're going to build a new society based on a species of animal, wouldn't it be more interesting to build it around how those animals behave? or at least do something different than the same system we have?

at least this reboot doesn't fridge any of the female characters. was sure noa's mom and soona were toast. still think they won't make it to the end of this trilogy but they got through part 1.

.... so are gibbons evolved too. i think raka mentioned gibbons. wtf would that be like. skinny little dudes with big voices. can we meet some.

mae

a great deuteragonist. another gripe i had about the caesar trilogy was how male-centric it was. no seriously i was sitting in the theater ten years ago watching dawn, thinking, those humans could've sent a team of women up to restart the dam and this whole mess could've been different because koba's specifically triggered by the presence of men. because men were the people abusing him. (and because bonobos follow the females in the group)

not a coincidence that when the apes adopt a human into their tribe, it's a little girl.

so kotpota having a female deuteragonist was very needed and even something as small as noa's mom being a leader figure was too. the bar's in hell. don't love soona being The Designated Girlfriend, and mae only interacting with guys though. please let her interact with women.

seeing kingdom actually use that angle, of apes being calmer and more accepting of women than men, and having mae exploit that with those puppy eyes? oh that was smart. even if they didn't realize they were writing it that way i'll take it.

another smart detail: the bunker being in the plains. humans were grassland apes. makes sense that would be where they'd continue to exist, and where the other species would avoid.

adding onto that: humans are good swimmers compared to other primates. wish more was done with that given how much of the story revolves around being near water. i'm just saying i wish we got a scene where mae casually swims across the river while raka and noa are like. trying to inch their way over a fallen tree or something. different apes are good at different things. let's see more of that.

anyway love the mae twist. love that she isn't an astronaut-- but is setting in motion events that will lead to their return. and that there are pockets of intelligent humans out there.

extremely funny that she keeps accumulating dirt and has the rattiest side braid. this girl simply does not bathe.

i am staring hard at the implications behind mae always wearing eagle clan blue after she accepts noa's mom's blanket. it's the blanket, then the shirt, then the poncho. hm.

i'm wondering if there are in fact cultures where humans and apes are living together peacefully. or if this is the story of how one is created.

regardless it looks like the conflict's going to shape up to be humans trying to reclaim earth and apes fighting to maintain their new lead. cool.

still annoying that even in the apocalypse women have tweezed eyebrows and hairless armpits. okay.

i'm so curious about mae. how much of her backstory was true and how much was a lie. her group being massacred was clearly true, but her mother being dead may not be. she's clearly isolated from the bunker civilization given that she isn't allowed inside, so is she just... alone. unable to go home again. do they think she's contaminated. is she going to be stuck outside alone in a hostile world for years until the next movie comes out. what's going on there.

anyway the foiling of her and noa is great. smart but naive rule-following son of the chief who's never had a hard day in his life, vs bitter manipulative grimy girl who grew up in constant fear. that's juicy. he can fix her! she can make him worse!

she's clearly not evil. she's just been through some shit. you can see the wheels turning in her head as she realizes raka and noa are genuinely kind, and where her fears about apes are coming from when she literally watches them hunt other humans for sport, had her group murdered by them last week and just narrowly escaped being killed by them. her paranoia and bitterness is actually justified. when she lies to noa, it's because she has good reason to fear him and her distrust of him is well-founded. when she blows up the dam to destroy the weapons inside the vault, it was the right move because proximus absolutely would have used them to enslave more apes. and when she conceals that she has the gun, i don't blame her. (also worth noting that she takes the smallest one in the locker and leaves the rest)

... love that she's the one who made the choice for noa about ~which girl will you choose to kill~. nah bitch. she's choosing YOU.

and she WAS honest to noa about what she wanted from the bunker. dude's not gonna get what a hard drive is, so "book that lets us speak" WAS accurate.

(... very clever of the movie to have noa and co pick up a book of abcs, aka, a book that teaches you how to translate letters into sounds, and see images of apes in cages. the misunderstanding makes sense: he thinks she was here for that. and symbolically, she kind of is.)

the mission she's on IS that serious. fuck yeah getting the satellites working so we can speak to other survivors is worth taking all those risks.

.... and fuck yeah it's gonna lead to some conflict. gonna be interesting to see what mae does when that breaks out.

if she's getting a redemption arc, i love it. if she's about to turn into a tragic villain, i love it.

she's the koba of this trilogy.

(... and since koba was gay as hell for caesar. you know that that means.)

proximus

great villain. great personality. great example of the apes getting in on serfdom and organized religion. he's got an immortan joe flavoring that's exciting.

i know i'm the only person who gives a shit about this but noa should absolutely have been a bonobo and proximus should've been a chimp. putting aside that we're really doing that Good Chimp Evil Bonobo shit again... the softboy from a pacifistic clan being a bonobo just makes more sense because bonobos are the peaceful apes. like yeah ~they don't have to be exactly like the species they're based on~ but when are we gonna get a good bonobo depiction. why is every bonobo an evil wannabe dictator.

and the violent caesar wannabe being a literal chimp and using that heritage to try to claim an inherent connection to the ape messiah feels like a missed opportunity.

especially when you consider that the bronze age apes are already starting to take after humans in their social structure: the apes, all on their own, just invented organized religion, monks, animal husbandry, kingdoms, patriarchy and raiding parties that capture and forcibly convert other tribes to make them into slave labor.

... odds are speciesism is next. it's already there with the humans. how long's it gonna take before they start insisting that certain apes can only serve certain roles in society. we already have it as a given that the chimp Must Be The Protagonist and the bonobo Must Be The Antagonist, that the always-male gorilla's the enforcer, and that the orangutan's always a chill smart guy. what happens if someone doesn't fit that caste system, or if the system fragments into tribes that don't mix species. probably not anything good.

... at what point are we gonna talk about how humans are apes too. it's not the 60s anymore, let's go into that.

or how we really needed to expand the 'proximus wants to be like humans and that's why he's bad' theme to 'any ape that becomes as evolved socially as humans will end up emulating human civilization in all its best and worst ways because humanity isn't the problem, power is'

i hope we still get there. the reboot spent an entire trilogy building up how human apes are and how apelike humans are; let's see the lines start to blur.

anyway frank gallagher being his human advisor was fun. proximus has a real king louie vibe that's funny and eerie.

did proximus and frank gallagher explore each others bodies

of course this fucker's obsessed with the roman empire.

.... still think there's a missed opportunity. like. think about it: proximus wants to be human and is obsessed with evolution and speeding ahead through it by any means necessary. and with bringing an intelligent female human to his court alive and mostly unharmed, and keeping her in a gilded cage. and his manservant's warning said human female captive that whatever the fuck proximus wants with her, it might be worse than death.

all i'm saying is, when proximus literally pulled a 'bathe her and bring her to me' and had her eating at his table as he was breathing down her neck right in front of the guy who has a crush on her who he's trying to break the spirit of, talking about speedrunning evolution and how superior he thinks humans are, preening about how he's made himself a kingdom, sneering about how interesting it is when humans and apes pair up, and. uh. the innuendo in him saying he wants to speed up evolution by forcing his way into an enclosed chamber that's important to mae that she desperately wants to keep him away from that she insists is only for humans (... which she will let a different ape into anyway later that night by clinging to noa as he... you know. gets her there. as they're soaking wet.)

look i was waiting for him to drop the bombshell that he's looking for a human queen and has decided that he wants mae.

you know what that implies.

i wish they'd gone there. it's not even new territory for this franchise!

it would've given mae a visceral reason to snap necks and blow shit up that the audience would understand a lot easier than amorphous ~mistrust of the apes~ -- you really needed a concrete example of what mae personally is afraid of, and this was the best opportunity to give her that while disrupting as little of the story as possible. it would've taken one line of dialogue and maybe one gesture from him to pull that off.

it hammers in that proximus really does want to repeat the worst aspects of human civilization. which contrasts him to noa, a chance to do things differently. the law is wrong, and whatnot. what's the point of starting over if you're going to do it all the same.

it gives proximus another level of menace. fast way to switch the audience's perception from 'he's a dick but he's fun to watch' to 'oh yeah this guy needs to die.'

and since you're clearly playing with interspecies relationships, you gotta establish that they're going to start happening. this would've been a good opportunity to say "yes, we're going there" and show the audience what a bad one would look like, so they can recognize that the good one is different.

predictions.

... ok so beneath the planet of the apes is next, right? and then conquest to close out the middle chapter trilogy?

my wild guess is they'll focus on mae and her bunker people to contrast noa and his clan, and they'll have a female human antagonist to balance out the male bonobo. possibly dichen lachman's character.

maybe they'll drop a male human love interest in for mae to balance things out. another layer of plausible deniability. also it would be extremely funny if he and soona met and were like 'wait a damn minute'

… if they’re really doing a beauty and the beast, what if he’s the gaston figure

and to really drive the foils home, this time noa's gonna have trust issues and instigate the shady fuckup that results in the climax.

and then in the third, there'll be another war that the apes, in some form, will win. and noa and mae will either be trying to prevent it or leading their factions into a death spiral. fun either way.

they won't ever Go There with them being a couple. like no way would they have the balls to do it, and soona being the out-of-nowhere gf for noa pretty much confirms it. unless she's fridged. (man i hope she dumps him)

but their dynamic's got that vibe for a reason. i wouldn't be shocked if they ride that ambiguity through the trilogy and then have their historical interpretations in poto 7-9 be assumed to have been a couple, the same way caesar's been reinterpreted-- either the story of a human-ape relationship that made it possible for their species to live together, or a cautionary tale about Why We Do Not Mix. or springing some indication that the first human-ape hybrid came from them after the credits roll on the third movie, assuming they survive it. which i doubt.

part of me really fucking wonders if the twist for this reboot's going to be that apes and humans DO find a way to live together and noa and mae do succeed at getting their respective factions to live together. maybe it will be some romeo and juliet/uniting the tribes through symbolic marriage shit. feels like the fullest encapsulation of the do-things-differently theme they're playing with in kotpota.

or maybe they'll kill each other. which would also be fun but in a tragedy rubberneck way.

either way i'm excited. i missed these movies!

[darkfictionjude]

Etymology nonnie here!

The real one this time. Funnily enough. Never expected to get an impersonator. By the way, I'm not mad, I found it funny, I understand the want of saying my catchphrase... But I would appreciate it not happening again. It doesn't upset, because I can easily fix any attempt of serious impersonation since Jude already knows my real blog and I can stop being an anon, but it's the principle of the matter.

In any case, I wanted to write something during those last days, but unfortunately I didn't have access to internet or electricity for most of those days (nothing serious happened to me and my house, but the rain and wind did have some effect on electricity and the internet services). I got to play the Hollywood IF demo just today. And I didn't get to comment about EC even though I played it. But that's it's what I'm going to do now. My comments on the other demo will have to wait for another ask.

-

I find very interesting the way you wrote the Prologue of EC. It made itself immediately distinct from the Prologue of WWC. Not only by having two different storylines that are connected but happening at the different chronological locations, but also by the way they are narrated. But what I understood was the past using third person, and what it's the present (or future) using second person. Although I would have appreciated having something that distinguishes both time period above each section, I think it was clever to have the different person (third or second) as the way to distinguish them, since it does allow to have some mystery that otherwise may be lost.

I also appreciate it's pacing. It's very fast, and it seems appropriate for a crime thriller. Even more so with the cliffhanger (and plot twist? I'm not sure if to call it that, since it's more of a plot twist for people who were speculating here on the blog rather than a twist that it's part of the Prologue structure; meaning that we were under the idea of MC being a normal person and then being confronted with them being a murderer and being actively hunted, but I digress). It really is an effective strategy to create anticipation. So much so I'm sure many of us wanted to be able to continue very badly to get answers.

Now, I did mention the sections with Luce were either the present or the future. And this was on purpose. Why? Well, the thing is, the text never makes it explicitly clear, but I'm under the impression the Prologue cannot be something that happens before most of the events you plan to write. That means, then, that the entire IF is going to be an analepsis, in which we get to a specific point from the past till the scene at the end of the Prologue. The question being if it's going to be in medias res or in ultimas res. I do believe the former makes more sense, mostly because it would be a weird thing for an IF to have such a defined ending point from the very beginning, especially given we have two main routes that are entirely different.

Now, I may be entirely wrong about this, and the Prologue may actually be happening in present time to the entirety of the story. That is, the story begins right after the Prologue. This also seems possible. The reason I don't believe this is because it would mean:

1. The person who shoots at Luce is either Dante, or a character we don't know as of yet.

2. If it's Dante, then we get to the kidnapping plot immediately. But, the thing is, while Dante is insane, I don't see why would he do this unless Luce killed someone important to him (in which case the romance is... Well, harder to understand I guess); but even then, just because of Luce's identity, Dante would be not just crazy but stupid to hunt Luce. It means getting into war with Luce's family. Then again, so does the kidnapping if Luce's family figures out Dante is responsible. It's a very messy situation.

3. If it's not Dante, then it's a character we don't know. But given the plot involving kidnapping, then I can only imagine Dante saves us from whoever is hunting us, and then proceeds to kidnap us. Which is insane too, but would be so insanely funny.

Yet, the idea of the Prologue being in the middle does appeal to me more. I may be wrong, I do recognize, but it really does feel like it's the case in my mind. Mostly, because it would serve as a point in which Luce has no choice but to be involved with the crime world one way or another. But, having said that, it's a very weird way of beginning a crime story from a character standpoint if it's just the start of the story. Since we don't get how Luce got there, and flashbacks would be very necessary. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. If Fallen Hero can do that, then why not Excellent Cadavers too?

Then, of course, EC can go the Fallout New Vegas route. In which we survive a shot that should have killed us, and we have a possible revenge route from the rest of the story. But only as a catalyst.

Overall, I must admit I'm intrigued.

Also, some things that are not that related to what I've been discussing here:

1. As for RO's, I decided to go for Lazlo. Dante is fun, I just don't see myself being seduced by him. I prefer RO's with an elegant mask hiding their unhinged and wild behaviors and desires (like Imre), more than straightforward insane people. But it can be hot, not going to lie. Yet, I prefer Lazlo because the romance is just angst made plot. It's a forbidden romance in almost every angle. And one in which both probably don't want to fall in love with the other. There is resentment, unwarranted or not. There is envy. There is the incest tones neither may recognize but Antonio forces into the relationship. Mostly, Antonio's shadow haunting any hope for this relationship is so exciting to me. And it gets worse because my MC is male, so add homosexuality into the the reasons why this romance is forbidden.

2. I saw people speaking about becoming a doctor in college. And, in all honesty, I hadn't considered the possibility. I was imagining Luce becoming a lawyer, so he could defend the family in court. And maybe eventually becoming a politician (a senator, perhaps), so the family gets their claws inside the government. Yet, the idea of a doctor Luce is fun. And it would allow for a tending wounds scene with the ROs to feel even better. So now I'm obsessed with Luce studying medicine.

3. I'm not surprised, just disappointed, by the reaction against Carmen. I understand not liking open relationships of sleeping around, but there is no point on insulting someone for it. Especially when she does worse things than that, and it's meant to be consensual between Carmen and Luce anyway, from what I gathered. I do appreciate having non traditional female RO's, even if I'm never going to romance them (well, never is a strong word, but it's unlikely I'll do it since I'm gay, lol). It makes the story more interesting to read and play. Furthermore, it was evident since Carmen was introduced she wasn't going to be a traditional female character. She is a woman who knows what she wants, and won't be stopped in getting it. Luce is someone who can join her, or not (is Dante the one who won't let Luce go, if anything).

Finally, I don't think I have any real questions to ask that cannot be answered by waiting for the release of chapter 1 (or is going to be called an episode too like in WWC? Maybe that's the question I have). I'm just excited from what it's going to come.

Apart from your usual identifiers no one else writes me such in depth messages you could never be confused with anyone else 😭

In reference to you saying there isn’t an identifier to when the timeline changes, I swear that at the top of each page there’s the date, the past of 1937 and 1977.

Yeah like I was like “so the problem with Carmen isn’t that she kills people and has committed all sorts of crimes but that she likes sex and is honest with Luce about her wishes?” PRIORITIES but yeah I feel if you’ve been here for a while you should understand what type of women I write 😅

No it’s not en episode it’s a chapter, WWC just always felt more episodic to me. EC feels like a novel almost

[strawberryamanita]

Ranty rant rant about homonationalism and white Christian paranoia because I'm pissed off. Thoughts may be out of order because my brain is jumbled, so I apologize in advance.

Okay, so:

The thing about the argument that "in X country/city they'd kill you for being queer" just not working on me is that... I don't care. I just don't care. I really, really don't care. That statement doesn't move the needle in either direction in my head.

I don't care what a hypothetical thug or savage or predator or whatever stereotypical strawman pops up into your head to scare me thinks about me. If they even exist, they're in another country, thousands of miles away from me, don't know who I am personally and have no access to me. Nobody is swimming across an ocean with a dagger on their way to my exact location at this moment because they heard that I'm a fruitcake. I don't have the energy to care about made-up enemies – that part of my brain is occupied by real issues that are happening right now.

Does this person who wants me dead have a name? An address? Do you know what they look like? Is there any recorded evidence of them saying this about me?

Then shuddap.

I don't care what people think about me; I care about how they treat me. This has been the case since I realized it was the case, and it will continue to be the case. These things can look virtually similar sometimes, but they are not.

My response to someone wanting me dead is not wanting them dead first, faster, more brutally, before I die. That's really just not where my brain goes. In that moment, I'm not wishing for more violence, I'm wishing for less of it. I'm prioritizing my safety, weighing how much of these actual thoughts can be put into action and how soon, and then working on feeling through whatever uncomfortable emotion such a statement caused me to reflexively feel. And then I move on appropriately.

The thing about thoughts is... they're thoughts. I don't have a black eye or a swollen lip or a bruised chest from someone thinking that they want me dead. It can hurt if they tell me this, but it doesn't cause me physical damage.

This is gonna sound like a non-sequitur, but I'm trying to make an intelligible analogy: as someone who has to deal with chronic pain, has to deal with a body that's constantly crying wolf, I've had to learn the difference between hurt and harm in order to understand my bodymind. The number of times I thought I had something internally wrong with me, only for the doctors to find absolutely nothing (not just downplaying my pain but literally finding nothing), is embarrassing, and it does not help that I adopted a hypochondriac mindset from my family. The logical part of my brain can't curb this imagined pain no matter how hard I try; at this time, I can't discern between chronic pain and pain from actual injury, though I have recently asked my therapist if we can look into whether that's even possible.

I digress. The point I'm trying to make is, in this analogy, the imagined pain equates to one's negative thoughts of me, and the pain from actual damage equates to these thoughts being put into action. They can both hurt, but one of them has an actual impact on my person, and it can continue to affect me for any subsequent span of time.

I hope that makes sense; please let me know if it doesn't.

Saying a thought out-loud is situationally somewhere between a thought and an action, depending on how vulnerable you are to that particular person's words. If you care what a person says -- if you deem it important enough that it makes an impact on your life -- then it feels more like an action. And sometimes, those words are objectively important, like a politician trying to put a new law into effect that will actively hurt you and people like you. That's why I distinguished between what people think of me versus how they treat me -- sometimes these lines can blur, depending on the aforementioned.

People who dislike you can still treat you kindly; conversely, people who like you can treat you horribly, sometimes without even realizing it.

Even after you telling them it's hurting you.

Multiple times.

Because as long as their intentions are good, they're apparently exempt from any feedback that would require to look inwards...

Again, I digress.

Look, I don't want a cross-section of your brain where I can see the nuance of every thought I inspired you to think. I just want the minimum amount of respect that every single human being is entitled to -- the respect that an excruciating majority of humans are not regularly given.

But all these stupid debates, by design, are getting away from real, tangible issues in the world -- such as genocide, slavery, displacement, artificial famine and subsequent plagues ravaging entire nations, right stat now, as I am typing this. I don't care if some hypothetical caricature of a human in your head wants me to die for being queer; we can talk about educating them on queer history ot whatever when this person isn't wracked with pain from hunger, trying to identify their family members from beneath the rubble of a building or between the scorched fabric of what was once a tent.

Priorities, people.

And no, none of this is to say I'm better than anyone who may struggle with these thoughts. At this point I don't even know if this is a common way to think or not, and I don't really care either. I don't have a holier-than-thou mindset, I just have a strong conviction about this topic.

I don't want anyone to starve to death, no matter how much they hate me. I don't want anyone to die of preventable diseases, no matter how much they hate me. I don't want anyone to suffocate under the ruins of their residence, no matter how much they hate me. And it's honestly a little rude that you would assume that of me.

In closing: it doesn't matter if I'm being killed by a wild, jibbering, Cenozoic parody of a non-white/non-Christian human being, or the cleanest-cut, whitest-collared, most experienced in optics and performative action-ass white Christian in history, for being gay. If I was killed for being gay, then I was killed for being gay, and I can be killed for being gay literally anywhere in the world. I can be killed by a family member for being gay – and some people will try and justify the murder, because I'll have been killed by a white person. If I'm killed by a person of color or a non-Christian, the news will double-down on their narrative of the Poor Little Paper-Skinned Bleeding Moth Sacrificial Lamb White Christian Girl (which isn't even accurate, because I'm a 28-year-old transmasculine person, but nobody cares about that in any capacity, you know they're gonna bury me with a headstone that says “Beloved Daughter” no matter how many times I come out to them) being killed by the savage, not-as-evolved-as-us-white-Christians-who-God-loves-more brutishness that they believe runs in the veins of anyone whose skin is darker than skim milk.

But none of that will matter to me. Because I'll be dead.

Drowning is drowning, whether in 100 feet or 1 foot of water. Nobody's murder of a queer person is more brutal, more sophisticated or more righteous than another's. If the people who bring up the “you'll get killed here for being gay” argument actually cared about the safety of queer people, they'd rail Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, and all the other US states about the danger they've put their queer population in these past couple years. We “have problems on our own soil” until someone actually points them out, and then we immediately stop the traffic of progress to talk about how horrible the rest of the world is.

Give. Me. A break.

[mr-nauseam]

HI, so, I really wanted to learn more about the au you're writing, but one thing that have been keeping on my mind was: what do you think that'll happen in long term? in the sense of the second rebellion and the 74th games and stuff, do you think it'll still happen?

I wanted to answer this question today and it's at night, so there might be a bit of rambling in my answer but let's get started!

First thanks for the question!!! Also I've decided to call this Au: Suffocation Au so I can distinguish it from my other wips even if I don't talk about many of them, haha.

I have to admit that I don't have such long term plans, I usually enjoy open endings and not getting so involved with the events in THG but I do have some ideas of the future after the events that take place in Suffocation (one shot) and I will leave my hypothesis concerning the second rebellion and the 74th games at the end!

The Cardew family enters into crisis. On the one hand, they have no other biological heir, so they will have to give one day the power of the bank to another family, which will cause a lot of tension between the elite families and well, vultures.

The Cardew also demand a meticulous investigation, Livia's mother suspects at one point Coriolanus and there is a potential scandal when that happens Casca (who did not die because in this Au, Coriolanus returns to the capitol in another way) tries to support this hypothesis publicly, this rumor is silenced by the fortune of the Plinth (Sejanus specifically does and this is what makes Coriolanus finally murder Highbottom).

The wedding gift that Coriolanus gives to Sejanus is to murder Dr. Gaul, because in this au specifically Sejanus and Dr. Gaul have a history together of failed apprentice and teacher and a lot of shit happens between them, and Sejanus was very serious when he says that Gaul was in charge of ruining his life (house arrest and he was practicing gamemaker in what Coryo returned and other things).

Some former mentors are more vocal in their opinions against the games (Lysistrata Vickers in specific), and it takes longer for the inhabitants to adopt it as a show, instead of solely a punishment of war because Coryo doesn't immediately return to the capitol when he is sent to D12 and Gaul and Sejanus are not interested in making nice shows, but in fighting 24/7.

Snow not only kills political rivals to be president, he will also kill more people he thinks hurt Sejanus because since he didn't make a big deal about Dr. Gaul he thinks Sejanus approve it somehow, and there are some abandonment issues that Lucy Gray reinforced and he's really as dependent on Sejanus as Sejanus is on him.

The public opinion of the Snow-Plinth wedding is that it was out of pity for Sejanus, who by that point has a reputation for being mentally ill / unstable, this will interfere later with the possibility of an heir (lab baby).

Io Jasper is the head of Gaul's lab when she dies and I believe she could had many arguments with Snow.

About 2nd rebellion: I think the rebellion could have happened earlier, there are details make me believe that it is possible the Capitol is not a united front, able to offer the same comforts and unity among its inhabitants, and Katniss mentions how many people in the capitol from her perspective were there for personal vendettas and we know that if people lose their comfort, they are more willing to want things to change.

What I fear is that an earlier 2nd rebellion (maybe Haymitch games?), could be more problematic in many ways, and end in a very long war (lets remember the dont had the neccesary resources was a big thing in revolution dont be allowed to happen), the D13 would do its thing and I suppose that would affect in many ways. Your question definitely made me began to think about what it would be like!

I promise that if I structure this in a better text later I will share it, I hope I have still answered some questions you had? Thank you again for being interested in my au, I'm open to more questions if anybody want!

[vincent-sinclair-deserved-better]

time to freaking escalate let's go

Talking about Cylas, Part I

General

Name (US): Cylas Keir | (DE): Larissa Siebert

Date of Birth: 10th of October | Zodiac Sign: Libra

Nationality: US American, German

Pronouns: She/They

Occupation: Nurse

Relationship status: Married to pizza

Physical Appearance

Age: Middle to late 20s, but usually seen as younger

Eye colour: Blue-grey

Hair colour: Natural dark blonde, dyed dark blue | Style: straight, reaches middle of their back, no specific style. Tends to have it in a ponytail or braided in some way due to the temperatures,

Height: 5'3"

Build: A little chubby, stronger and more muscular than she looks

Distinguishing marks: Scars caused by pseudo-scientific "experiments regarding the human pain response and effects of psychologically taxing situations" (some might consider it torture). The most distinct would be a burn scar on the right side of their head and another one reaching from the top of right her shoulder to her collarbone. They aren't insecure about their scars though and aren't ashamed to wear revealing clothes. They also don't regularly shave and have been told they have "man legs".

Personality

Introvert or extrovert: More of an introvert although they like spending time with their friends. It just gets draining after some time and she needs to "recharge" afterward.

Morals: Ambiguous? She questions the exact meaning or "moral" in general and certainly does not agree with the societal consensus.

Temper: Despite her issues with regulating her emotions, she still manages to keep a calm appearance. However, that only leads to frustration and anger building up behind the facade. This means that her reactions to what- or whoever was unlucky enough to push her past her limit tend to be over the top. They have only seriously injured a person due to losing their composure once. Maybe twice, but that's up to one's definition.

How to set them off: Talking badly about her sister can be enough, being disrespectful or aggressive towards people she cares about in general will definitely get some kind of reaction, violence against animals or children.

Drives and motivations: On the positive side, they have a big need to help others. She has been called a hero or (guardian) angel before, and patients often refer to them as the 'happy and friendly' nurse or say how she is 'always smiling. On a more negative level, there is a lot of hate and frustration in her. Friends have (only half joking) said that she "runs on spite, determination, and more anger than their body knows what to do with". Both make them hard to kill though - they will push past what many consider possible to save someone's life, just as they will give everything to prevent death due to something or someone they consider "not worthy or deserving". They have a strange sense of pride when it comes to dying.

Spirituality: Doesn't mind people's beliefs as long as the individuals themselves don't harm anyone. She hates Christianisation and isn't too fond of Christianity in general, but doesn't think it is the single worst religion either. Absolutely despises cults and sects.

Favourites

Colour: Dark blue, purple, and red

Music: Anything, really, lyrics are important though. They aren't particularly fond of songs that have hard-to-understand lyrics or no "real" singing. They do like instrumental stuff too, though.

Food: Pizza

Beverage: Cola and hot chocolate

Tea or coffee?: Tea all the way. Leaf juice over bean juice. (German Joke Time: Wer hat es schwerer, Tee oder Kaffee? Kaffee, weil er darf sich absetzeen, Tee muss ziehen.)

Film genre: Horror, Fantasy

Film: V for Vendetta, Und weg bist du

Book genre: Fantasy, Thriller, Poetry

Animal: Snakes

Plant: Forget-me-nots and Weeping Willows

Habits

Do they drink alcohol?: Not really, only around people they really trust. She never gets drunk though (and hasn't before), drunk people make her uncomfortable.

Do they smoke?: No.

Any drugs?: Not voluntarily, aside from medication.

Sleep: As regular as working shifts makes it possible, they try to get their eight hours. Rarely dream. Not a light sleeper per se but they do seem to have a sense for when something is off.

Hobbies: Gardening (difficult with her job but she makes it work. Their garden is fairly small), baking, parkour, writing, martial arts, knife throwing, crafty and creative things. It varies based on whatever they feel like doing. Also, to the surprise of many due to her being German, she does like firearms.

[bookishlydazed]

All That's Left In The World by Erik J. Brown

Review (spoiler free beginning and spoiler at the bottom)

Genre/s: Apocalyptic fiction, Lgbtq romance

My rating: * * * * * 4.75

Pacing: Medium-fast

Pages (digital): 345

Summary per back of the book :

 When Andrew stumbles upon Jamie's house, he's injured, starved, and has nothing left to lose. A deadly pathogen has killed off most of the world's population, including everyone both boys have ever loved. And if this new world has taught them anything, it's to be scared of what other desperate people will do . . . so why does it seem so easy for them to trust each other?

After danger breaches their shelter, they flee south in search of civilization. But something isn't adding up about Andrew's story, and it could cost them everything. And Jamie has a secret, too. He's starting to feel something more than friendship for Andrew, adding another layer of fear and confusion to an already tumultuous journey.

The road ahead of them is long, and to survive, they'll have to shed their secrets, face the consequences of their actions, and find the courage to fight for the future they desire, together. Only one thing feels certain: all that's left in their world is the undeniable pull they have toward each other.

Spoiler Free Review:

Ok so to start off just for your reference. I read this book on my kindle and now I want a physical copy. That's how much I loved it. I would 100% recommend you read this book and I don't even really like apocalyptic fiction. So why didn't I give it 5 stars. In my five star rating system one of the criteria is that it has to make me cry and this didn't. Thus the 4.75 of five star rating. However this does not mean that it wasn't an incredible read. I loved so much about this book from the pacing, characters, the world structure to little things like how covid was dealt with and how subtle changes in personality affected the characters. Truly this is one of my favorite reads of 2023 so far. 

The pacing of this book was very good. I was never bored while reading this book(a very hard thing to do for me honestly). Though a lot happens it never felt rushed or too much at one time. Everything happened when it should have taken too long to happen either. 

The world itself was kind of cool. Yea it was a “modern america” but because so much had changed so had the world. The way that Brown wrote this world in my opinion is very realistic. It follows a pattern that I could definitely see happening in real time should a super flu come about. 

I loved all of the main characters in this book, which I can't say very often. Most of the time there is just one that kind of gets to me. However in this book brown wrote each character in a that you have to like but not so much that they seem unrealistic. They all feel real. Another thing I liked was that I could very easily distinguish one character from he next. I have always found that to be a struggle for some reason. Every character was clear and unique.

Lastly, I just have to say this was Erik J. Brown’s debut novel. It’s incredible. I mean this book was so so good and for it to be his first just wow!!

More In-Depth Review  - SPOILERS BELOW!! Also just like a collection of thoughts in no real order…

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First I have to talk about Jamie and Andrew and their slow burn romance. I really liked how it wasn't rushed. I mean there were plenty of moments where I think both characters had acknowledged that they loved the other and could have made a move. But they didn't. It created this great tension within their relationship. As much as their first kiss, that whole bedroom thing at Fort Caroline(FC) and so many others there, time spent in the cabin is probably my favorite part. It was calm and one of the only times they could just be. Their relationship was new but over those few months they began to trust each other and it was beautiful. Without that time I don't know if they would have made it honestly. 

Henri was so cute. She was the classic tough lady who I honestly thought was gay in the beginning but that was just me stereotyping her. I really hope that they made it back to her and she was alive and willing to go to Florida to see her daughter. 

I really don't know what to think of Cara. She didn't have muchpage time and didn't seem to have much personality. And maybe that's because she was just shy and traumatized but I do wish we could have gotten more time with her. I never completely trusted her either because of that. 

As I said before, I love all of the main characters. I even fell in love with dead ones. I mean hearing Jamie's descriptions of his mother were so heartbreaking. But being able to see what kind of person she was was great. And Andrew's sister, the fosters and their kids, all of the people who were lost. 

There was a point when they met Chris, Desiree and Keith I thought they were going to start gathering people and making their own little civilization. But i guess that's not really them

As much as I hate FC and everything it stands for, I liked the depiction of it. How they pretty much reverted back. And much as I wish I didn't think this, I think it is honestly accurate to what would happen. As awful as that is. 

When Jamie shot and killed Harvey Rosewood I mean that was heartbreaking. Not for Harvey of course but for Jamie. When Jamie kind of lost it was so sad. It really wasn't his fault, just circumstance. I hope that one day he can heal from that. 

When I was reading the chapter that Jamie gets shot in I didn't realize the time. So when the chapter ended i actually had to leave and it was awful i had no idea if he survived or not. It was excruciating. Anyway obviously I'm glad he did survive. I really thought he wasn't for a second but I guess that's the point. 

That last chapter. I love how you have no idea who's talking. Whether its Jamie or Andrew. At first I hated it, not going to lie but now that I've had time to think about it, it's great. I like to think Andrew is narrating it because I think Jamie would be out on the dock but i don't know maybe not. I understand their predicament in the last chapter though, should they stay or go. Once the world starts to awaken again and communication with other surviving settlements begins, FC could find them. But would FC honestly care and plus if there are so many people living in the Florida settlement could FC even find them, would they even want to. If Jamie and Andrew left they may have a better chance of surviving but they could just as easily be killed by another settlement or people. If I Were in their position I would probably stay in FLorida. They have friends there, people they trust, a home. I think they should stay and fight for it. 

Quotes: 

“Funny how little things can feel so big when you haven't done them in a while”(Andrew, pg. 187 digital)

“We are facing the end and it’s not okay but it is. It’s all okay, the world ended and there’s nothing left but shit. And him. Us. so that's all right, then.” (Andrew, pg. 285 digital)

“”You can use my shirt to wipe your snot,” he says. “If we’re going to die, i’d rather you not kiss me one final time and confess you love to me with snot flying out of your nose””(Jamie, pg.285 digital)

[eamonorus-blog]

Why TLOU2 fails as a morality tale.

Ok, it may feel like it's not necessary in order to talk about tlou2, but I want to talk about the first game first. Specifically, the ways in which it fails to be realistic, but why that isn't important in the same way the failure of the sequel to be realistic is.

Obviously, stories in any medium feature impossible scenarios, contrivances and fantastical elements all the time, and they don't have to ruin the story. They can either have a minor negative effect, or in fact be part of the appeal.

So, I feel like I have to explain why the way that tlou2 is unrealistic is a problem first, and a great case study of the opposite is the first game.

tlou follows in the footsteps of many tropes from the post-apoc genre. Most notably for my discussion, in the way the world is populated by hordes of kill crazed bandits.

To a degree, this is the inevitable nature of the medium. tlou is a third-person shooter, so it needs a lot of hostiles, and hordes of vicious killers with a bad sense of self-preservation are a great way to add that.

But I think there is more to it than that. Cormac Mcarthy's The Road has the same set up. As does the Fallout series. So, I think this is more a matter of genre convention than medium convention. Plenty of games are just about killing zombies, so there is no reason that the killing of human enemies couldn't be very limited or non-existent.

And why is this a problem? This is a problem because its not how people would really behave.

Of course, I don't know that for certain, but I think I have a good argument to make. The world of tlou is a pre-industrial society basically, and we know what those would be like. We can look at all of human history. And what we see is conflict, sure, but not just hordes of angry bandits without women and children that they look after.

Its human nature to fight, but its also human nature to cooperate and breed. The all male groups of criminals who focus on material possessions are not the natural outgrowth of a collapse of civilisation, but instead its continuation.

We ascribe the presence of sadistic Mad Max style raider gangs to the post-apocalypse because that is the kind of social ill that actually plagues us in the here and now, in our modern world. In the presence of urban gangs, motorbike gangs, etc…

Even if you look at African modern civil wars with child soldiers, those conflicts are still based around racial and tribal loyalties which distinguish them from the multi-racial rootless gang which tends to predominate in post apocalyptic fiction.

In the first game the biggest culprit here is the Pittsburgh group, with their lack of women and children, and hence any wider society that they are fighting for, and their total lack of regard for their own lives in chasing after Joel no matter how many of them die.

In the modern overpopulated world, life is cheap. Whether we are talking about gang warfare or full scale conflict. But in a post-apocalyptic setting people would be risk averse, respectful, and would only resort to violence as a final choice.

Steppe pastoralists like the Mongols, Scythians, Turks, etc… who had a low population and lived in vast nearly uninhabited wildernesses tended to adopt fighting styles that minimised casualties as much as possible.

And people living in a wasteland caused by some apocalyptic event would act in the same way. They wouldn't attack a stranger for no reason, if only to avoid entangling themselves in conflict, with another tribe who would seek revenge. Ofc course, like I said, conflict would still exist over territory, resources, women, etc…

But it wouldn't be the way it is shown to be in tlou.

But why is this not that much of a problem in my opinion? For starters, one of the central themes of tlou in regard to violence is that we all just do what we have to to survive. That that is what drives conflict. And that is what David uses to justify his actions, and what Joel does to.

So the game is diagnosing the way conflict works correctly, even if the gameplay is doing a bit of a sloppy job of getting that across.

But the main reason why it works is because the game ends with Joel choosing to sacrifice hope for a cure to save Ellie. By doing this the game would have us believe he is dooming humanity as a whole to more suffering, but what has the game shown us humanity consists of?

Certainly not the tough and brutal but nonetheless sympathetic and rational people who would really exist in such a world.

Instead it would be to save a bunch of trigger happy fascist police, a whole city of murderous bandits, random bandits who attack people trying to rebuild society, and a bunch of cannibals lead by a pedophile.

Yeah, no thanks.

Sure we meet some good people, and we like Jackson, but if we got a broader sense that humanity as a whole consisted of decent people who would really benefit from the cure, we might feel a bit differently about Joels decision. As it is, we have Tess, Sam and Henry die as a consequence of being bitten, and that's sad, but still, thats already happened and cant be changed.

Having the world of tlou be more realistic would make how we feel about Joels choice more complicated, and I dont think it would make the game worse, but as it is the games failing in this way just makes us sympathise with his decision even more.

So the game is actually leading us into being ok with the ending.

If we never met any hostile humans, just helpful kind people who are desperate to avoid being infected and need whatever help they can get, who are traumatized by losing loved ones to infection, we would feel quite differently about Joels final decision. In that hypothetical situation, making the world unrealistically OPTIMISTIC about how humans would behave in the post apocalypse, as opposed to PESSIMISTIC, would hurt the story, since it would lead Joel to seem more villainous and unjustified.

So, with that extended preamble out of the way, let me explain why lack of realism hurting the story is exactly what happens with tlou2

First off, tlou2 fixes the problem I mentioned in tlou. In the sense that the rabid, mad max style, casualty careless, all male bandit groups of the first game are gone.

Instead we have group conflict happening between rational, capable societies that fight each other over land, resources, normal stuff, stuff that makes sense.

This is a good thing as far as it goes, but unfortunately this increased realism is countermanded at every turn.

Lets start with the opening, with Abby leading the Salt Lake crew to Jackson to kill Joel. Right away we have serious issues.

As I just laid out, in the real world people fight each other over resources, land, women, stuff that really matters. And they fight on behalf of a broader group/society.

Even the modern criminal groups I mentioned beforehand do this for the most part. Sure, lone vengeance killing unrelated to a wider societal enemy or resources do happen, like with the few famous cases of parents who have killed someone who raped or killed their child before they could be sentenced.

But even that is very rare. FAR more common is revenge killings in the context of a gang war over territory. Which mimics the historical pattern of conflicts over history I have mentioned before. When people seek vengeance over a murdered parent, historically that is within the context of their parents' killer being a part of a group their tribe/society is at war with. If the killing is within their own society in most cases, there are social mechanisms to get justice.

By which I mean that the vengeace, while a very real motivator, is actually given the ooomph to be carried out because it serves the wider purpose of fighting your societies enemies.

We see this in tlou2 with the way Isaac talks about the back-and-forth conflict with the Seraphites. That is an example of a realistic conflict leading to realistic revenge being sought by both parties. The fight is actually over ideology, territory, etc… The vengeance is just a factor that comes out as the conflict escalates.

Let me reiterate, human beings are risk averse, and are only usually willing to resort to violence to defend their people, and/or for a big material benefit.

And Abbys quest for revenge has none of these factors. Joel was a lone individual. He isn't a member of a group the Fireflies have a vested interest in fighting, or who will continue to be a threat to them. Ideologically it would make sense for them to go after him to get Ellie, but the game dismisses that with the claim that Jerry was the only person who could make the cure, so that's a non-factor.

All of this has a cascading effect that makes going after Joel a terrible idea. Finding him will involve taking a bunch of people the WLF can't afford to lose, across country on a massive trek where they are liable to get hurt or killed, in order to kill one man who is no threat to them, and who they have nothing material to gain from killing, and in doing so risk aggravating any community that he has become a part of in the meantime.

The game itself, to its credit is well aware of all these problems. We are told that Isaac green lit this operation off screen with the claim that he "cares about justice"

Well, it looks to me like Isaac, as a person engaged in an actually plausible example of group conflict, cares more about winning and fighting for the survival and wellbeing of his people against outsiders. It looks to me like that is his value, not justice.

But he does agree to this for some reason.

But then we have all the reasons why people in the real world don't act like Abby does begin to raise their heads.

When they get to Jackson, Owen discovers that the place is big and thriving. There is no way their small team that Isaac for some reason granted permission to leave is going to be able to attack this place. And he rightly says that the others are going to want to leave after this. But Abby ignores him, goes off on her own, and miraculously finds Joel and Tommy, miraculously in the middle of a zombie horde so they can bond fighting them off and it makes sense for them to trust her.

It's also necessary so that she can plausibly convince them to come with her to their hideout, where, as many people have pointed out, Joel and Tommy seem shockingly unconcerned about why a large armed group would have come all this way to Jackson and not have introduced themselves.

The contrivances, character assassinations and almost plot holes here annoy people. But they annoy them especially because even if they can't articulate it like I can, they know that this kind of thing doesn't make sense for people to do in this world, and it doesn't make sense that they would succeed at it.

The blizzard, the infected, Joel giving out his name, they are all needed to happen because logic needs to be bent out of shape for this to happen in the first place.

Ellie choosing to go after Abby is just as stupid. Some people felt that way too, but others didn't, because yes, we are more invested in Joel than Abby, and the human instinct for revenge does kick in, which is of course the feeling Neil wants us to feel.

Abby has gone out of her way to be unreasonable and stupid, so we feel that Ellie is justified in doing the same back.

But that doesn't make it any less foolish. Maybe if we had seen Ellie grow and get attached to Jackson, as she probably would have, we would realise more how stupid she is being by risking all that going after Abby. But just like the masses of decent people that we would have needed to see in tlou to get us to really question Joels decision to save Ellie, we don't see that here.

tlou2 wants to be a commentary on the nature of violence, and why the cycle of violence is bad, but it doesn't actually critique the kind of cycles of violence that actually occur in the real world. Neil is fighting shadows, wagging his finger at a kind of human being who doesn't really exist, shaming us for doing something people don't actually do.

In terms of the games actually believable conflict, that between the Seraphites and the WLF, the game tries to a degree to be nuanced and "both sides" but it falls short because the Seraphites are so over the top evil, in a different way than the Pittsburgh gang maybe, but in a way that makes them just as unlikable and clearly coded as evil.

The only Scar characters that we are meant to empathise with are defectors, we clearly aren't meant to actually understand or sympathise with their perspective like we are with Abby.

The game is about different perspectives, but only for someone who is engaging in a self-destructive, stupid, act of vengeance, not for a religiously minded oppressed people fighting for their beliefs and their way of life against a superior enemy.

And this is why the game doesnt work as a tragedy.

The idea of a tragedy is that the protagonist has a fatal flaw, one they are given opportunity, time and time again, to correct and overcome, but the flaw is a part of their nature, and they fail to overcome it and perish.

But Ellie does overcome, she lets go of the pointless hatred she and Abby have engaged in. And she still loses everything. If she had killed her, and lost everything, just like Abby did after killing Joel, that would have been something, but no.

Either a story is a hero's journey, where the protagonist learns the lesson and triumphs, or a tragedy, where they do not, and fail.

But Ellie learns her lesson and still fails.

tlou2 chastises humanity for a sin it doesn't commit. That is its great failing.

[spinningbuster98]

Sigma's Moon Palace is certainly pretty unique for a final level, it really gives its own sense of anticipation and finality

So fun fact: if you play on hard mode, which I did here by loading a seperate save file, you actually get different cutscenes and circumstances here:

Vile will suddenly pop back up and trap whatever character you weren't using when you beat him, forcing you to handle the rest of the level solo.

Sigma will grab you after a few hits and monologue, leading to the other character suddenly returning and saving you

You actually can't even fight Lumine on Easy Mode

I love the tracks for Vile, Sigma and especially Lumine's 2 forms! Hell the normal Maverick boss theme is my absolute favorite boss theme in the franchise!

So anyway, Lumine

Apparently he's the actual mastermind who was stringing Sigma along all this time.

And Sigma is dead for good now apparently

Ok soooo....where to begin?

First off: How is Sigma dead now? Wanna explain that game?

Don't get me wrong: I LOVE the idea of Sigma being gone for good and making space for another villain but, much like with X5, you can't just have a villain like Sigma, whose whole deal is that he can't die easily due to being a virus, and just arbitrarily having him perma dying just because another character said so.

At least X5 sorta insinuated that his programming had gotten strained from spreading the virus worldwide, what's this game's excuse? Especially knowing that, according to the Zero games (specifically Zero 2, which had come out 1 year prior) the Sigma Virus was destroyed after X used the Mother Elf during the Elf Wars. So....what? Is this a fakeout? Can the Virus exist without Sigma? Give me an explanation dammit!

But even then Lumine...is just there. He does nothing for the whole game and then just pops up suddenly going "Oh it was me all along!" Now I'm going to act all crazy and evil!"

And look I like the idea of the New Generation Reploids! In a way they're a better version of the general idea behind Sigma of being an intagible threat that you can just kill, in his case a virus. The New Reploids are not infected by Sigma but they do carry his ideology, so even though Lumine may look down on him he's really just spewing Sigma's own drivel but for his own ends: now every one of these new Reploids is a potential Sigma but with (hopefully) their own personality. In a way Sigma may have died but his spirit lives on through them!

However I detest the way that this game tries to insist that these new Reploids "have the power to go Maverick at will"

Dude

Lumine

No fucking shit you're REPLOIDS! The main thing that distinguishes Reploids from old Robot Masters is their ability to think and act freely, technically speaking ANY Reploid can go Maverick at will!

Yet X8 seems to act under the assumption that Mavericks are exclusively created whenever Sigma's virus infects them

No

Let's look at past games shall we?

To start off X1's manual states that the first Mavericks popped up way before the creation of the Maverick Hunters and Sigma, meaning before Zero and Wily's Virus were discovered

Now throughout the SNES games the Mavericks have no dialogue, however there have been various secondary (usually japan exclusive) materials that have delved a bit more on their personalities. This info has been condensed into small character bios in the X Legacy Collection and if you read those bios you'll find out that ALL of the X1 Mavericks were acting of their own will

Flame Mammoth was a bully who took advantage of Sigma's revellion as an excuse to do some damage

Launch Octopus had always had some resentment against humanity and Sigma gave him an outlet

Armored Armadillo was just blindly loyal to Sigma as his commander

The same goes for the X2 Mavericks, like Wheel Gator who was a sociopath addicted to violence or Overdrive Ostrich who had lost his ability to fly after an accident and then Sigma gave him a new reason to live by enlisting his help

The only exceptions are Wire Sponge, who Sigma created specifically to be a Maverick, and Magna Centipede, who was brainwashed

The X3 Mavericks are all infected tbf, but the X4 guys are all free willed which is made abundantly clear in the game, even Magma Dragoon, who is working for Sigma, says it was just because Sigma had offered to make him more powerful

Most of the X5 guys are infected but Grizzly Slash and Mattrex were both weapons brokers doing illegal activities and had no connection to Sigma, case in point if you let the Colony fall and spread the virus further they'll have different dialogues because they're now infected implying they weren't before and were just evil pricks

The X6 Mavericks are either just evil for the sake of it or are actually resentful of their actions but still do them out of loyalty to Gate, as is the case of Rainy Turtloid and Blizard Wolfang.

X7's Red Alert were a gang of violent, outlaw vigilantes way before they even met Sigma, and it's implied that they started killing innocent people to gain their DNA data before Sigma corrupted them, plus Red himself was never infected in the first place and did everything out of his own free will

So no X8. The New Generation Reploid's ability to "go Maverick at will" is as special as Homo Sapiens' ability to run on two legs when compared to a Neanderthal. This shit only spraeds misinformation among fans.

Anyway depending on the character who deals the final blow to Lumine you get a short special cutscene:

X just doubts the whole situation

Zero ponders with a smile that, with Sigma really gone, he may not have to fight anymore and then looks at X, which if you wanna be generous you could theorise is him thinking he can finally put himself in a capsule to be studied like in his X6 ending....or maybe he's thinking about finally boning X

Axl's ending on the other hand...is far more interesting:

I don't think I need to tell you that this has sparked over a decade of fan theories. What's going on? Did Lumine embed a piece of himself inside Axl? Is Axl going to turn evil? Is this why he's nowhere to be seen in the Zero games?

Man I can't wait for the next game to answer these questions!

Mega Man X8 came out in 2004

It's 2023...and still no X9

Get used to this sort of thing with this franchise

X8 is, to me, halfway through in my X games ranking

Way better than X6 and X7, has far more going for it than X3 and while it has some similar issues as X5 it also has more positives I feel.

However it's not nearly as well designed as X1

It's technically more creative than X2 but also more inconsistent and more intrusive

It shares X4's issue of having lackluster final levels although less so, and IMO has better bosses if for nothing else then because they don't all restart their pattern when you hit them with their weakness

However outside of X4's relatively disappointing yet still decent X campaign it's still more inconsistent and doesn't reach X4's highs aka Zero's campaign.

And this concludes the X series!

For all intents and purposes it's the most inconsistent Mega Man series, but I'm also glad it exists because when it was godd it was pretty damn good and I feel there's still a lot of untapped potential with its gameplay mechanics, which is why I truly hope an X9 will one day be a thing and be given the same kind of polish as Mega Man 11

But until that day we can only wait...and move towards the future

More specifically...

About 100 years into the future

In a world ravaged and in need of hope

Hope that only an ancient hero will be able to provide

The Red Reploid will soon awaken once more...

[thrown-away-opinions]

Really fun little exercise in spin, data fudgery, and fearmongering.

Here's the narrative they badly want everyone to believe: The NHS and Cass have enacted such hateful, draconian restrictions on all trans healthcare that it is leading to an unfathomable surge in suicides, the likes of which we've never been seen. it's practically like Dr. Cass is out there killing trans people herself. This is a hatecrime in action. They just want all trans people dead!

Here's what actually happened: Firstly, no one clutching pearls over this story actually read the details or understood what was being said. They just went along with the implied narrative that the NHS is willfully creating conditions for a staggering (exact numbers fuzzy) increase in trans suicide without a moment of critical thinking.

Here's the figures that actually matter. They claim in the 7 years before the High Court decision in December of 2020 that ruled 13 year olds or younger couldn't consent to puberty blockers, there was a single recorded trans person in the system who committed suicide.

In the last few years, since then, some documents and minutes from meetings make reference to a few apparent suicides. Other information presented as a smoking gun that the NHS/Tavistock/Cass/etc are that they allegedly refused to release some kind of statement about the number of suicides that have occurred in a given period, despite that being a thing that is not often done. In some of their claims, they mix the numbers of deaths, just deaths in general, with suicides, and don't clearly distinguish between adult and youth suicides.

In all cases, they gloss over the obvious comorbidities and unsubtly assert that if they had just gotten some HRT or puberty blockers a little sooner, that they would not have killed themselves. This is a profoundly stupid and manipulative way of framing the issues that tries to imply that all the mental illnesses, autism, and other traumas so commonly found in the majority of gender identity cases is just a symptom of not getting to transition ASAP. It's a frustratingly common belief that all the depression, anxiety, mood disorders, and other issues will simply vanish or just stop being an issue if the patient is allowed to transition with as few hurdles as possible, and that's just simply not the case. Refer to the WPATH files and the overwhelming evidence that, shockingly, the mental illness persists, along with all the negative and often suicidal tendencies that go with it, if not treated, even when transitioning is allowed and supported unconditionally.

Now here's where I will cut them some slack. The NHS is a fucking shitshow of an organization. Government-run healthcare usually is. If they worked faster, could they have zeroed in and identified a proper treatment plan for various suicidal mental illnesses and stopped some people from killing themselves? Maybe. No way to know for sure, but lumbering bureaucratic monsters are inefficient and prone to letting people slip through the cracks.

Does that mean that they should just hand out puberty blockers and hormones to anyone who asks on the off-chance it will stop them from killing themselves.... Fuck no. The fact that people are becoming obsessed and hyperfocused on transitioning as the cure-all to every problem in their life is just another symptom of untreated mental illness and everyone needs to stop encouraging it as soon as possible. It is not a cureall. It is not health care. It is not helping.

This was published weeks ago, yet I haven't seen a single mainstream news source covering this massive scandal. Read the full article here: https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/trans-youth-suicides-covered-up-by

[arobinwithoutbatman]

((Alrighty! It's Sunday so time to read more Tim Drake with the... 3 different guides I'm using to make sure I do it in the right order... why are comics like this?

Last week I did Lonely Place of Dying (Which covered Batman #440-442 as well as New Titans #60 and #61) And Robin Volume 1: Reborn (which covered Batman #455-457, Detective Comics #618-621 and Robin #1-5)

So I'm starting with Robin Volume 2: Triumphant

...after I've had some lunch

Hoookay DC #465...

Awwww patrolling with Batman and noting that Bruce is doing okay~

Oooooo unfortunate choice of words... I'm sure it's fine, Tim

Oof, slapped by a lady he prevented from going through something awful. Not your fault, bud

Alfred and some rando watching soap operas together while working in the Cave? Fuck yeah!

Ah yes, Bruce Wayne helping where he can as the man himself rather than a vigilante

...is he *actually* dating Vicky Vale or is it s cover?

Hah! Making a stab at the lady's age for kissing Bruce on the cheek! Very cleverly and subtly done, not sure I like the jealousy angle. Also how does Bruce put up with being flirted with and having his boundaries crossed all the time?

Oooooooohhhhhh this Ginny Gray person can't distinguish fiction from reality

Nicely played, Bruce!

Awww Jim's getting married!

Oh shit! Tim's Dad is awake!

-----------

And now #467

Ooooo I see Lynx is back

And King Snake apparently. Looking to set up shop in Gotham and be a nuisance

Sorry Jim, you're forever gonna get ghosted by Batman and Robin

"We're not the only ones who trade in fear. Crimelords run empires on it" Stares loudly in Jason's direction

OH. Oh I don't like that! Tim's still settling and the informant got dressed in a Robin costume and beat to shit?!

Yeah that's one hell of a threat

------------

Let's go 468

Yup, Ghost Dragons going nuts

And that is *not* what happened Edmund!

...Bruce... Bruce I'm begging you. Just tell him you're worried for Tim's safety after a very clear threat was made and it's low key triggering you a little

You know what? I'll take that. Admitting that Robin has been singled out as a target and wanting him to be kept out of it

And of course, Tim being the clever little shit that he is, using Bruce's own words and lessons to make him finish the night and get some rest. Nicely done

Aaaaaand another threat. More subtle this time. Cause that doesn't look like a robin, I think it's some other bird?

-------------

Aaaaannnnnd 469

Oh Lynx is 100% manipulating Edmund

Bruce, you will keep a civil tongue in your head when speaking to Alfred, I don't care how tired and worried you are

Oh good, Bruce at least knows he's running into a trap

Oooohhhhh that's gonna hit hard

--------

Robin 2

...oh joy, it's clown themed -.- fucking clown

Nope. Absolutely do not allow the fucking clown to see his mother. Keep them faaaarrrrr apart from each other, nothing good can come from this

Like listen. I'll fight for the rights of the disabled both physically and mentally until I'm blue in the face. But given everything he's done so far, going from a relatively harmless nuisance to a literal murderer and continuing to put thousands of people in danger every time he gets out. He shouldn't get anything other than his meds.

FUCKING TOLD YOU, YOU CAN'T TRUST EITHER OF THEM

Oh God, and it's Tim's first solo patrol?!?!

Good thing Jason hasn't come back to life yet!

...this is the first time Freeze shows up? Huh... that actually goes with one of the Belfry chats

Warlocks and Warriors? Awwww Tim's a dnd nerd!

Hell yes, stand up for your friends! Sucks you've got no time rn tho

...2 years from getting his driver's liscence sooooo... he's 14 currently?

Yes Tim, the guy who killed your predecessor really is that crazy!

--------

Hm, hologram Batman. Smart idea on short notice

Oh damn, Ives is a great friend keeping Tim out of trouble like that

Uhh Ma'am? You're a local right? Surely you know not to trust anything with clown iconography?

...I'm gonna say that that phonecall wasn't Bruce and was actually Joker managing to get through on the line thanks to the computer scientist he kidnapped and drugged

Tim, honey, just be glad you're not dead because Joker knows you're on your own now

----------

And this is why you don't give the old clown anything except his fucking meds

Because he may not have a PHD like several other rogues but he's pretty decent at chemistry and he's a quick study. Look at what he's managed to do with just a few books from the asylum library!

Snrrrrkkk Alfred just admit you've come to like the excitement of American Football~ You're still a proper British gent, I promise~

...a billion dollars when the city is boarderline bankrupt? Delivered by Batman? ...I fucking hate the clown

And Tim is venting it out via his dnd game with his buddies, bless him. I've done that too, buddy

Oooooo good catch! The power grid!

...well that's not creepy at all! I might have to make an ammendment to the thread I started with my fiance

Welp... this isn't looking good

--------

Okay, setting the trap and trying to find a solution to all this

Remote controlling the truck with a Batman suit inside? Smart! Here's hoping the clown isn't expecting conversation

...is that where the Batman version of fucking Jingle Bells came from?!?!

HAH! Every other inmate making fun of the clown! As he fucking deserves!

---------

I'm gonna start another post from here I think, this one's getting long enough even under the read more

[ballorawan740]

SCP Scenarios: SCP 1678 (Unlondon) x Reader (REQUESTED)

Source: Photo

SCP Scenarios Masterlist | My Works Masterlist | Main Masterlist | Rules | My Original Post | Request | Socials

Requested by: @lilithisfurry

Ok, so I've done it!!! 😃

Before any of you say a thing, I know that there are 2 humanoid 1678s which are 1678-A (Bobbies/Policeman) and 1678-C (Wretch) and an avian type one (1678-B)

The one I'll be using is 1678-A (Policeman) because it takes too much time to write 3 versions of this SCP (But I might consider writing the other 2, but it's highly unlikely)

First Encounter

When you first met this humanoid, you were sent into SCP 1678 for some test

The police humanoid emitted a loud whistle as the speakers screamed ‘‘Police! Halt, criminal!’’

A couple of others who were with you attempted to shoot them with their guns but were quickly shown to be resistant

Luckily for them, they managed to plant some explosives which caused damage

The other 1678-As went in and attacked them which wasn't unusual because of their hostile nature

However, for you, one of them managed to capture you and ran

For some reason, it showed some interest towards you and warded off the other SCP 1678-As off from you

They seemed to understand that you were "marked" and left you alone

That particular 1678-A managed to get you out from harm and back to your foundation

The foundation staff did wonder what had happened and you told them everything with proof since you were wearing a bodycam

They've soon noticed that this particular policeman was softer towards you as you bandaged up its broken arm

Your feelings for him

After the incident, you were sent back down into 1678 for further research and you bumped back into the sane 1678-A

You only remembered that it was him because of its gesture and its unusual markings which distinguished him from the others

Somehow, you both were able to communicate with each other

The researchers realised that they seemed to understand human speech, mainly English, however, they seemed to understand other forms of European languages as well

Moreover, this particular Bobby also understood sign language and used it to his advantage to communicate with you, displaying some fondness for you

The researchers were reluctant to let you carry on with this test as they've noticed that you've reciprocated the same gesture

Let's just say that the researchers and the other Bobbies agreed to the fact that it was strange for you and that special policeman to be dating

His Confession

Over time, as you both became closer, he worked up the courage to sign to you that he cares a lot about you

And you've found that rather cute and returned the gesture

Which then made you both a rather unique type of couple

The other 1678-As were concerned and curious about this new relationship and so was the Foundation

The researchers had decided to borrow your newfound partner and took him to his new room (No, you've basically kidnapped him)

Needless to say, the other Bobbies were somewhat furious while others were glad that he's gone since he betrayed them for not killing you

Your new partner was somewhat homesick, so you've decided to paint some victorian style art for his cell

Date

From time to time, you both were shoved back into 1678 which just so happens to be the main place for you both to date

Some of his friends were relieved to see him and some would even offer you a hug

You obviously returned the gesture for being so flattering and because your man could finally get laid (NGL yall still be touch starved to the point you'd even date strange beings and objects)

Dates with this Bobby would be rather interesting

Like, he'd hold hands, but probably wouldn't start it during the beginning of the relationship because he's just shy (Just like everybody else here)

Since his face is all bandaged up, you wouldn't really be having many kisses

But he'll make it up with hugs instead

His fellow friends would probably enjoy bothering the both of you while you're there and would pull pranks on you both

If you both were in the foundation, you'd be chilling in his cell and talking bout your experiences in life (Not like you'd have much to say, get back to studying/work)

The researchers may poke fun of you both but would generally leave you both alone

When he gets jealous

Now, depending on who he's jealous of, he would react differently

If it was another fellow 1678-A, he would be slightly hostile and assert his dominance over the others

However, if it was a member of the foundation or anyone else that's not 1678-A for that matter, he'd be even more aggressive and would probably try and kill them

Unless you manage to stop him then it's fine

This Bobby would be slightly possessive because you're the only other person who genuinely cares about him other than his 1678 friends/family

If he sees you having a friendly chat with another person/SCP, he would wrap an arm around you just so the other person knows you're taken

I think over time he learns some boundaries so even if he is aggressive, he wouldn't just automatically send the dude you're with to hell

Unless that person is a crappy person then good for them

Yandere!1678-A

This yandere right here would literally kidnap you and take you back into 1678

He'd make sure that you would never find a way back into the foundation which does concern the researchers, so they send a group of D-classes and MTFs to find you

If he was feeling nice, he would let you wander around 1678 but he would most likely be next to or near you at all times

If he was having a bad day, he would tie you up in a random building and made sure that nobody can get in or out

Would most likely be even more hostile to everybody else around you

If you haven't behaved, he'd probs use something sharp to inflict pain on you

If you managed to behave, then he loosens the ropes around your arms, legs and neck

Probs would feed you tiny doses of 1678-D but only a bit because he's aware of how that affects the bodies of ordinary humans

Their younger sister

You and the other 1678-As would literally be families at this point or friends with the ones who are lurking away from the main area of 1678

And since you were rather new, you were treated as the younger one (That's also because you're the youngest one)

Would probably protect you from everything

You would be spoilt to death and wouldn't have to hurt a fly

One of the policemen would get you a 1678-B as your personal pet

And it's rather fond of you so it basically follows you around

Would most likely intimidate your dates if you have one

Even more so if they're a human/SCP from the Foundation

If it was another member of 1678 then they're more chill

However, if you were dating 1678-C, they'd be quite reluctant for you to be in a relationship with her but would let you anyways

When their kids say their name for the first time

Would 100% be crying internally and shocked

Like, it happened out of the blue since you both were just relaxing

Word would spread across the whole of 1678 because of this

And not because you both were a unique pairing in the first place

1678-A would try to teach your child some sign language in contrast to you who would teach them to communicate verbally

Most likely try and teach the kid to defend themselves and probably attack others

But you wouldn't let him because they were too young (Just like you lot!!! Shouldn't y'all be studying in primary or high/secondary schools?)

The other 1678s would literally yeet their way to meet the kid just so they can teach your child to say more words

And to swear of course

When his S/O is angry

Oh dear

If the foundation doesn't know any better, they'd just assume that all the Bobbies were the aggressive ones

And oh boy were they wrong

You were the one who needs a chill pill

Basically, some guy tried to hit on you and wouldn't stop

So you just casually gave him a taste in his own medicine

Which were a punch in the face and a kick in the nuts (Kids, don't do this to a guy unless he really deserves it)

He somehow got back up and carried on harassing you

Your man was just strolling around the park until he saw the commotion

He had to literally hold you back and made the guy run for his life

Which was a shocker since it's usually the other way around

And of course, everybody inside 1678 heard about the news and cheered on for you while others just ran since they didn't wanna have the first-hand experience with your anger issue

When someone tries to steal you away

Oh this man right here would gather all his police friends as well as the birds to hunt down whoever stole you away

He would be furious to the core and rightfully so

The foundation was informed of this and they didn't blame this SCP

And that's because the person who stole you was from the Chaos Insurgency

Both GOIs hated each other's guts so the foundation just kinda let 1678-A hunt down the guy

And he did along with the MTFs

But was met with you standing over the guy's dead body

Then everybody realised that your man taught you how to protect yourself

And you did it so perfectly that even 1678 was intimidated af

Nobody wanted to mess with you and your partner was relieved that he taught you self defence

When his pregnant!S/O gets hurt by accident

This particular 1678-A that just so happens to be your partner, is rather shy and introverted

Nad although he does his 'job' well, he would rather just stay away from any contact

Until he met you and you became pregnant

This 1678-A would be slightly more protective but would let you have some space

And because of this, you managed to give yourself a papercut

Which was met with a furious policeman

But was cooled down when you explained your injury to him

He was giving you a huge lecture about your safety and how not to get hurt because you're carrying his baby

Wouldn't leave you alone ever again

Even if that means he would have to sit by the corner at all times

Would send his mates to come over to check on you if he wasn't there

Meeting a dragon hybrid child fem!reader

Definitely would be curious about you since they mostly interact with Foundation staffs

Probably would try to attack you but instead got burnt

1678-A would definitely notice your strange appearance and that you cry lava

Would feel bad so he'd try and comfort you

This then leads to you both being rather attached to each other

This particular 1678-A would have to bribe the others to keep you

The foundation realising this would happen

Probably would let you stay there for research purposes

They would most likely help level up your telekineses

Treats you like their own child and would be extremely protective

Most likely would have a heart attack every time you show kindness towards foundation members instead of attacking them

Every time you're in danger, the ones attacking you would soon realise that they've screwed up

Because the SCPs can hear you cry which would summon a whole bunch of them

When he accidentally kills you

He was basically chilling with you until some MTF members arrived to take some samples for testing

They were attacked by the other 1678-As and retaliated

This chill guy would lead you to safety before attacking the remaining MTFs

You realising what has happened decided to try and help out

You noticed that one of the MTF members were about to shoot your guy and managed to throw the gun out of his hand

1678-A notices and tries to attack the member but instead killed you

The remaining MTF members flee as he mourns your death

He would be even more vengeful and aggressive to the foundation members

Which does scare off the other Bobbies

Stayed in one of the abandoned houses to cry alone

Yandere!1678 - A x Evil!Reader

I'd say aside from his yandere self and the fact that he's only more aggressive to everyone else aside from you and giving you some scars, he's pretty dense and thicc in the brain

Probably wouldn't notice that you were working on them for a project in the GOC

You were able to get away with a lot of things because of your small stature and innocent appearance

Definitely managed to fool this yandere!1678-A because of your appearance

You could be just as vicious when you want to be

Yandere!1678-A soon realises that you were just using him for some experiment and were angered to the point of no return

Would most likely try and hunt you down

But since you've already got enough information about this SCP, you were able to devise a plan to leave

Manages to catch up to you but you were fortunate enough to know enough self-defence tactics to ward him off

You never came back to him and he was depressed for all of eternity

Trying McDonald's Sprite

You were requested to bring some ordinary food to 1678 as a test

And you've decided that you wanted to bring some Sprite with some Apple pie, mozzarella dippers and pancakes (They're my soul food from Mackies ok? Don't judge)

When you arrived in 1678, that one particular policeman who is attached to you for some odd reason was curious about the food

Of course, he would need to take off the bandage on his head to taste the food but not before some bribery from you

He reminisced about the food since he loved eating them before he turned into 1678-A

Sprite, however, was slightly different

He never tried them and was surprised with how good they tasted

Most likely would ask you to get more for him though

Foundation staff would be rather conflicted but allowed you to reward him with Sprite and some food

Only whenever he behaved well though

When his kid swears at him

You should've seen the look on his face (oh the irony)

You both taught your kid verbal and non-verbal communications with some common sentences people would say

But never have either of you taught your kid how to swear

Kinda just happened and 1678-A was about to go into cardiac arrest (Pun intended)

Would hunt down whoever taught them that depending on the severity

Like if the kid was using a ton of swearing in a sentence and was directing it to either of you, 1678-A would kill the guy

You were more of a chill type of parent

But would recommend the kid to stop swearing sine it's rude

Most likely wound ground the kind for a week tbh

When the reader scares him (Child!Reader)

Well, let's just say you managed to make the policeman play hide and seek with you

And you were the one hiding since you secretly knew that you were a professional at it

So you made 1678-A to find you

And although he's pretty good at catching his victims, he couldn't find you (Cuz y'all be so short)

Like he was literally in front of you and he still couldn't see you and you even giggled

So you've decided to jump on him

And oh boy was he about to scream out for help

But luckily he didn't cuz the others would whoop yo ass

Probably wouldn't give you a lecture but would need a while for his precious heart to not go yeetus the fetus

He would probably yeet you though tbf

When the reader pole dances/aerial silk dance

1678-A probably would have some ideas on what pole dancing is

Maybe not as much with the term aerial silk dancing but would soon understand when he sees you dancing

Probably thinks that you're trying to fondue with him if you're pole dancing

Definitely would be in awe when he sees you dance with the aerial silks

Would have a difficult time mimicking you if he ever wants you to teach him

Has definitely fallen 1000 times while pole dancing and broke his arms while dancing 10 ft off the ground

If the others inside 1678 see you dancing, he'd be in a blushing mess, especially if you were dancing to certain kinds of songs

Would most likely tell you to dance for him privately so there's no peeking

Having a Pregnant!S/O

Would most definitely be on the guard more since you're carrying his child

1678-A would most likely follow you around like a well trained and clingy German Shepard

You'd most likely have to tell him to tone it down because you're pregnant, not some delicate flower

Would most likely do whatever you tell him to do, even if it means hurting himself as long as you're safe and sound

Definitely would make sure that another 1678 would be around you at all times when he's away from you

1678-A would occasionally rub your stomach and sing victorian era songs

Sometimes he would bring you some of your favourite foods

When you try to commit suicide

When he hears the news he was devastated

He literally ran 69 miles just to see you

Would give you a big boi lecture about doing that

Nearly had his heart jump out of his body

Would constantly follow you everywhere after this

He's basically your bodyguard at this point

Would bandage up your wounds

Makes sure that you're fed well and all and would give you random gifts out of the blue

Would most likely ask the other Bobbies to care for you if he's not there and would even give you 1678-B

Asks the Wretches to keep a lookout to make sure nobody hurts you

Having a hopelessly romantic/easily flustered GN!Reader

This particular Bobby would most likely be just as easily flustered and hopelessly romantic as you

I'd imagine him trying to make the first move and you both being in a blushing mess

You both would exchange little gifts every now and again

Everyone else just teases and ships you both

You both loving each other unconditionally and constantly worrying about each other when you're both away from each other

This Bobby would definitely protect you from the MTFs and/or D-classes from attacking you

You would make a deal with the foundation to keep your guy safe and sound

The foundation witnessing how lovey-dovey you both are and just dies of cringe and sweetness overload (but not as sweet as out 999)

[bloededhoine]

world building cause twn doesn't part 12: the hen ichaer

i realize i've been mentioning the hen ichaer without really explaining it, and for that i apologize. but without further ado, let's go

colour code cause i fucking love colour codes - already happened/introduced, probably s2, important background info, stuff that might be in the prequel, extras

series masterpost

general

the hen ichaer is basically a magical gene that originated with the elven sorceress, scholar, and princess, lara dorren aep shiadhal

it can lie dormant or inactive for generations, but when someone is an activated carrier of the gene, they are called a source

sources have an insane capability for magic, it's so intense that without instruction they are a huge danger to themselves and/or others. remember pavetta's betrothal feast? hurricanes should not happen indoors

same thing with ciri's sonic scream.

obviously, the hen ichaer is highly weaponize-able, but it's difficult to put this into theory since the magic is so strong that it can easily kill the person who carries it

most important is that the hen ichaer can open ard gaeth, the gates between worlds. you may remember that the witcher is a multiverse, and the continent is just one of countless worlds

aen elle

the aen elle, elves who live in another world called tir ná lia, controlled at least one gate that they used to get slaves from other worlds

however, this was before the hen ichaer was seriously studied. unicorns are also capable of opening ard gaeth, and were present in tir ná lia, so the aen elle would kidnap them to be used as their world-hopping-genocide key. yeah, the aen elle are seriously fucked

the king of the aen elle was named auberon muircetach, and he was very well known for his wars with the unicorns, who weren't too keen on being enslaved for the purpose of conquering other worlds

the hen ichaer came into play when auberon noticed that his daughter, lara dorren, had pretty intense magical abilities. like, ard gaeth opening abilities.

auberon, lara, and a few other elves began studying the gene and trying to figure out how it works and how to use it.

through this study is how we got the title aen saevherne, which is used to distinguish an elven mage with extensive knowledge of history, science, magic, and, most importantly, the elder blood.

both lara and auberon were aen saevherne, as was lara's husband-to-be, avallac'h, and avallac'h's foster son, caranthir ar-feiniel

ithlinne's prophecy

ithlinne aegli aep aevenien was an elven prophet known for her incredibly dark prophecies that she delivered at totally random times. how dark were they? ithlinne's prophecies were almost exclusively about the death of all humanity and/or the end of the world. she was fun at parties.

anyway, when we talk about ithlinne we really only mean one specific prophecy, aen ithlinnespeath. to be confusing it's usually referred to as ithlinne's prophecy

here's the prophecy itself:

Verily I say unto you, the era of the sword and axe is nigh, the era of the wolf's blizzard. The Time of the White Chill and the White Light is nigh, the Time of Madness and the Time of Contempt: Tedd Deireádh, the Time of End. The world will die amidst frost and be reborn with the new sun. It will be reborn of Elder Blood, of Hen Ichaer, of the seed that has been sown. A seed which will not sprout but burst into flame. Ess'tuath esse! Thus it shall be! Watch for the signs! What signs these shall be, I say unto you: first the earth will flow with the blood of Aen Seidhe, the Blood of Elves...

what does that mean? well, the white chill (aka the white frost) is a massive ice age that has been approaching the continent for years. don't believe me? the white frost has destroyed countless worlds in the past, and it literally cannot be stopped. the only way to save the world is by the power of the hen ichaer.

here's a perfectly frightening visual of the white frost

ithlinne didn't elaborate on the how, but we now know that the only to survive the white frost is by finding a new world and massively evacuating the continent through ard gaeth, which can only be opened by the power of the hen ichaer.

genetics

clearly, the hen ichaer is important enough to literally save, or end, the world, but the aen elle did a famously terrible job of studying it. like, you'd think they'd be good at that, but no. to their credit, it is a bit complicated

first, there are multiple types of elder blood genes, the main gene, the latent gene, and the activator gene. to actually show the powers of the hen ichaer, someone would need to either have one latent and one activator, or the main gene.

let's go back to secondary school biology for a second, remember punnet squares? these fuckers

the letters in a punnet square represent a genotype, or the two alleles that are inherited from the parents. phenotypes, on the other hand, are what you see on the outside. for example, a genotype would be Aa but a phenotype would be brown eyes.

while the main gene is a simple dominant allele (shown by a capital letter on a punnet square), both the latent and activator genes are semi-dominant, meaning that when they meet they create a new phenotype: the innate magical ability that makes you a source.

it gets a little less scientific here so bear with me; this new phenotype is so powerful that it sometimes creates a whole new genotype. so instead of having one activator gene and one latent gene, the two would merge and you'd be left with only one (very powerful) main gene. this is the only single gene that actually has magic and it's a dominant gene, so you only need to have one to have the power.

but, the latent and activator genes don't always combine. you still have the full powers when they stay separate, but it is then less likely to pass the hen ichaer your children.

complicated? very much so. but in practice it's a lot easier.

for simplicity's sake i'll call the activator gene g/a, latent gene g/L, main gene g/m and a regular nonmutated gene g/r. to be a source, the genes you inherit would be g/a g/L, but they may combine to be just g/m. your average person would be g/r g/r and a carrier would be either g/a g/r or g/L g/r.

clearly, this makes tracking it pretty messy, since generations of people can be carriers without having a single source

tracking the hen ichaer

for now, let's do what those elven sages couldn't and track then hen ichaer, starting with lara dorren

eventually, lara met an exceptionally talented human mage, cregennan of lod, and they were lab partners (oh my god they were lab partners) in the study of the hen ichaer.

eventually, lara met an exceptionally talented human mage, cregennan of lod, and they were lab partners (oh my god they were lab partners) in the study of the hen ichaer.

for all the studying, lara and cregennan's own genes have always been something of a mystery. elven mages don't tend to have any issues with using themselves as lab rats, so it's entirely possible that lara and cregennan, knowingly or not, mutated their own genes in their research.

ultimately, it doesn't matter what lara and cregennan's genes originally were. by some happy little accident, the two eventually ended up with at least one activator gene and at least one latent gene between them.

later, when lara and cregennan made their own happy little accident, riannon, she inherited one of each gene (g/a g/L), making her a source. however, riannon's genes did not combine as the elves expected, which made her a little harder to study.

riannon eventually met king goidemar of temeria (g/r g/r), and they had two children named fiona and amavet. i'll start with fiona, who the aen elle managed to figure out had the latent gene, making her g/L r

fiona ended up having a baby with king coram II of cintra (g/r g/r), they named him corbett, and he inherited fiona's g/L and one of coram's g/r.

the aen elle lost track of the hen ichaer when they studied riannon's other kid amavet. see, amavet was kind of a whore. he had twins, muriel and crispin, with the married countess anna kameny. obviously, these children weren't legitimate, and when the angry count kameny murdered amavet a few months later, he was officially childless

the elves did, however, manage to figure out that amavet had riannon's g/a gene and goidemar's g/r gene. anna kameny was just g/r g/r, and crispin ended up being g/r g/r as well. destiny does favour the hen ichaer, but sometimes it's just not meant to be. muriel, on the other hand, did inherit her father's activator gene and was g/a g/r.

let's hop back to corbett, fiona and coram's g/L g/r son. he and princess elen of kaedwen (g/r g/r) had a son, dagorad, who got corbett's latent gene and one of elen's regular ones, meaning he was g/L g/r

muriel married robert of garramore (g/r g/r), and their daughter adalia, the dramatically posed lady right there, had the same genetic combination as her mother, g/a g/r

this is where it gets even weirder

the lovely adalia married dagorad. her second cousin. they shared riannon as their great grandmother. feel better in the fact that it was not intentional, adalia's mother, muriel, was not officially riannon's granddaughter. no one would have even known, but adalia's g/a met up with dagorad's g/L in their daughter, calanthe

for the first time since riannon, the hen ichaer was back, and calanthe's parents genes combined to give her g/m g/r

while it took generations of destiny and accidental incest to make the hen ichaer happen again, now that calanthe had the main gene there was a 50% chance she would pass it to her child, which, of course, she did

calanthe and her husband roegner (g/r g/r) had pavetta, who inherited the g/m from her mother. no one knew about this until pavetta literally created a source hurricane, and was already pregnant

pavetta and duny's (g/r g/r) daughter, ciri, inherited the main gene from her mother and was a source.

sources

it's important to note that a source is not necessarily an incredibly powerful sorcerer, merely a person who has the genetic predisposition required to channel very intense magic

sources, like anyone else, can be bad students, allergic to potions, or just generally averse to magic on all levels except heredity. there is also no way to guarantee that even the most willing source will be good at using magic, in fact it's far more common that they will be really really bad at it. sources are extra susceptible to the chaotic state of magic in the world, and many end up pretty seriously harmed by it.

magical talent tends to make itself known in very emotional situations, like the death of a parent or a war. the same applies for sources, but they have an extra rule: their full powers are off limits until they lose their virginities

now, netflix has not mentioned that rule to be true or false, but i'm going to think of it as strictly book/game/etc canon, because ciri is 10 years old when netflix shows her using her source powers for the first time

the virginity rule makes things even more complicated, as customs about premarital sex are pretty strict in the witcher world (well, among nobility), and the dudes didn't seem to have fast reflexes. what i'm saying is that getting pregnant the first time you had sex was not uncommon. sources couldn't even use, and likely weren't aware of, their powers until they were already passing them on to another generation.

and even still, there is no guarantee that someone who is a source will ever actually show their powers. calanthe had the genetics, but she wasn't a mage. what happened? we don't really know. after calanthe married, cintra was pretty peaceful; there were no invasions or massive upheavals that could put enough stress on her to show her powers. plus, her parents didn't know she had any magical powers, so they didn't give her the training that would develop them, and she was a very level headed person who would likely be unaffected by many of the things that would make another source lose their shit.

[queensparklekitten]

When I was a lot younger, like "elementary schooler playing pocket edition back when enchanted gapples were craftable" younger, I was all the way on the "this is a video game" end of the scale. I would draw Minecraft people and mobs in an entirely square manner with not a single curve or non-right angle anywhere. I developed a third handwriting that I haven't used in ages that was mostly square letters with only a few diagonals to distinguish some letters (R, Q, etc.) that I used exclusively for drawing Minecraft-based comics. Crafting worked in-universe the same way it works on a meta level. Hackers were a thing.

I literally went to the level of having characters not just jump between minecraft worlds but leave the gaming system they were in via heading to the back of it and traveling through the power cord plugging it into the wall to fast-travel into other computers and ps4s and whatnot via power lines so they could access minecraft worlds that existed in a device other than the one they originated from.

Also, at one point when I was like 9 I imagined up a story where me and my brother get trapped in my Minecraft world and I like. Had us continue looking just like people in the real world even though everything else was made of squares. Just two realistic looking kids surrounded by blocks everywhere. And at one point this involved going to a multiplayer server and using the nearby water as a mirror to see cubic reflections, which was how we appeared to everyone else on the server. Interesting in hindsight that I did that, usually Minecraft isekai stories turn the person into squares.

And nowadays, it's like I've 180'd the way I treat Minecraft? I pretty much never make it a digital world now. All my Minecraft fanart is curves and the same detail brushes that I use when drawing other settings. The animals and weapons look like real-world ones. There's divergence from game models (such as bookshelves with more than just books or endermen with water scars and visible pearls) that was never there before. The only remaining element of the old blocky artstyle I used to use is occasional usage of Minecraft font in text and that's mostly just because it's really hard to choose a font for things and this is easier.

I'm cataloguing and coming up with in-universe explanations for game mechanics, something which I rarely ever gave any thought to back then. Despawning is dying of natural causes. An inventory is a pocket dimension. Literally everything relating to the headcanons I formed on magma cube biology after froglights were added.

And I almost never use the word server or talk about updates or the Devs. I have never done Minecraft lore that includes a concept of code. Players with elevated power aren't called admins anymore and griefers aren't banned, they're exiled or perma-killed.

My Minecraft worldbuilding does not take place in a video game, full stop.

That said, sometimes traces of this do still remain. For one, I still refer to players as players half the time, but usually I try to come up with an in-universe reason, and I do give them other names the other half of the time. At one point in one Minecraft-based story I did, the player mentions that the world sings to her (an idea I got from another post) and the pov villager brings up that she sometimes hums along to it, implying the game music exists in-universe, something I never did back in the day. Also, I don't treat newer features as being new in-universe, that biome they added in 1.18 has always existed, but I do have players and only players remember a time before wardens and cherry trees existed, have veteran ones be distinguishable by how they call badlands mesa and dye their beds red, and I don't really elaborate on -or even quite know- what's going on with that.

There's also the time I had a player get really drunk and start rambling about being an avatar for an extradimensional being that created this body in order to project their consciousness into this world, about how this whole world is a game they're playing, and the existence of mojang. When said player woke up the next morning with no recollection of this, they went "what the fuck kinda cosmic horror insanity did I come up with last night".

Despite that being the most explicitly meta I'd gotten in years, at no point in that scene did I ever use video game language beyond calling it a game one time.

I've been scrolling through minecraft worldbuilding and lore posts and it's got me thinking about like... the sort of scale a lot of it exists on in terms of treating it as a digital world in-universe?

Like. You've got people who approach it as closer to a fantasy world, whose lore is full of in-world explanations for game mechanics, everyone is flesh and blood unless they're like a ghost or something, the world existed long before the player(s), and there's little to no video game terminology because that's not relevant here. For all intents and purposes, this story does not take place in a computer.

And then you've got people who use terms like code, server, admin, etc. but come up with their own definitions for them. Or when people make up a pantheon and call them the Devs, with that just being basically a synonym for "the gods" and leave it ambiguous as to whether these gods are actually real. And there's still in-world reasons for things but they'll at times involve, say, whatever mysterious world-forming element is referred to as code, just as often as they'll be indistinguishable from something you'd find in the above take on Minecraft.

And on the other end of the spectrum there's things like using code in worldbuilding without making up a fantasy definition, or outright using the term NPC, or players being able to see their health bar, or that fic I read once where the characters downright take off (and wash) their minecraft skins to reveal that everyone is some kinda humanoid-shaped featureless amalgamation of code or something underneath their appearance

like. the difference between referring to updates as such in-universe and using the version names for them (ex. minecraft people casually talking about how a world was created in 1.17), versus the "world is slowly healing" theories that generally involve it doing this naturally (instead of the Devs being involved), versus "updates aren't happening in-universe the bogged have always been here"

fanart that sticks to a blocky artstyle, fanart that's basically "what might this look like in real life", cube people with round elements in their designs

idk it's just. interesting to think about? the different ways people approach minecraft worldbuilding and how much meta stuff they incorporate into their lore. I've run the gamut of these over the years and i could do a whole separate post about how the area my creations tend to fall on this scale has evolved over the years and also observations i've made in regards to this scale and how other things that vary in minecraft fanworks tend to intersect with it

[sunnysviolin]

i am curious about the violin (soulmate au), so Basil doesn't have that mark and sunny does if so i want to know who is the secret soulmate lol (you don't have to answer if you don't want to)

Hi dearie! I love to answer y'all don't even worry about that! I might not always answer because life kind of imploded on me, but I treasure everything you guys send!! As for this, well it's one of my favorite twists in Broken Melodies, so let's get into it. I'm just really hoping people follow along with me, because this could get misinterpreted. Also TW: Sunny/Basil Fight and everything that comes with it

Romantic soulmates are the most common, but they aren't the only kind of bond a person can have. Platonic soulmates are not unheard of, and in fact well known.

These kind of bonds usually happen between a parental figure and a child, but they can also happen between extremely close friends, or even siblings. There isn't an across the board way of distinguishing one bond from another, but those who share the bond are always in agreement on what kind of bond they have- whether platonic or romantic. Regardless of the type of soulmate, losing them is still the worst pain a person can go through and still live.

There is one kind of soulmark that is extremely rare, a kind that almost never happens- a trauma mark

Trauma bonds are rare because they only happen when a person is in mortal peril, long after a person is born. These types of marks aren't natural, they're created during moments of extreme stress. There isn't a lot of research into how exactly trauma bonds are formed, but these are not the same as other soulmarks.

The unfortunate reality was that most trauma bonds are short lived, as most people who form a trauma bond succumb to whatever had caused enough emotional distress that their soul had linked itself to another.

For those that do survive, the connections between soulmates are stronger than any other type. The link between them is forged not by blood or whatever force there might be, but by a person's trust in the other to protect them. To save them.

That night during their fight, Sunny was more frightened than he had ever been. The night of the concert, he hadn't had time to be frightened, he had been thrust deep into White Space before he could fully process his horror. But seeing Something surrounding him and Basil, having Basil swipe at him with a silver pair of shears...Sunny was completely caught in the icy grip of terror. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't calm, there was nothing but fear. He couldn't begin to think, couldn't even start to try and rationalize what was happening.

Basil tackled him and pinned Sunny down underneath him. Sunny blindly thrust his arms up pushing against Basil who was pressing down on him. Sunny's arms, already weak from years spent doing nothing but lying in bed, were screaming in exhaustion. He was going to lose. He was going to die. Basil kept saying Everything Was Going To Be Okay, but it wasn't. Sunny was going to die. He couldn't save them. He was going to die.

Sunny felt the same feeling he had in the lake, when Something was holding him under, wrapped around his ankles like a vice. It was the same darkness, the same cold. When it had him, Mari had saved him. She had pulled him back into the light. Mari couldn't save him now, he had killed her. He had killed her, and now he was going to die too, because he had made it so she couldn't save him.

Except. Except Mari hadn't saved him. Not this time. He had thought it was her, the arms pulling him up to the surface had felt like hers, but they weren't hers. It was Hero. Hero had saved him yesterday, Hero had pulled him out of the water.

Sunny wanted Hero here. Sunny needed someone else to save Basil, to save him. His wrist blazed in a searing burn, and Sunny gasped, his arms giving out from the strain and the hurt.

At the same time, in the quiet and peace of the living room, Hero shot up with a loud shout, somehow not startling the rest of the house into waking.

He was gripping his own wrist in a bruising grip. The strange fire on his arm settled almost as soon as it had come. Hero blinked through the sudden tears of pain and looked down.

There was Mari's mark, as black and empty as it always was. Her music notes drifting down the back of his hand, limp and lifeless. But under them was something new. Hero flipped his hand over, staring down in bewilderment.

Starting at his wrist and extending down his forearm was a violin. It wasn't a large mark, it was barely as long as his palm, but it pulsed with a throbbing ache. It was a soft brown color, not grey like new marks should be. Hero shouldn't have any new marks, yet somehow he instinctually knew who's it was. There was only person that made sense.

But Sunny didn't have marks. Sunny. Hero looked across the room. Kel was snoring next to him. Aubrey was on the couch, her face uncharacteristically soft and vulnerable.

Hero heard a loud cry of pain from behind him in Basil's room, and his right eye exploded in agony, starbursts flodding his vision. Sunny.

He was up and running before Polly, Kel, and Aubrey even woke up.

[motownfiction]

1-5, 33-36 for steph and will

interesting combination 👀 perhaps i will force them to hang out in a scene soon

for ✨steph✨

1. what common traits do you share with your oc? what about them is the least like you?

i actually think steph is the character i'm least like, weirdly enough. but as for what we have in common, i think it's what we both know exactly what we want, and we find a way to make it happen. steph is much more interested in the physical, material, and experiential world than i am, though. i'm like lucy, who's more interested in the philosophical world 😉

2. do you think you would get along with your oc if you could meet them? what things would you talk about?

i would hope to get along with steph, even though we're very different! she's so nice. i think it would depend on how old we both were when we met. if i were the age i am today (27) meeting steph at the age she is today (55), i think we'd get along swimmingly. we'd talk about art history and music and dancing. but if we met, and we were both, like, 16 or 17, i might find her really annoying just on principle.

3. how competent would your oc be in a survival situation? would they be better off on their own or in a group?

steph would be very competent in a survival situation. she is very aware of her surroundings, and as an artist, she is both handy and crafty with whatever materials are put out in front of her. i think she'd fare just as well alone as she would in a group, but she's more likely to forge her own path even if she's in a larger group. she is the outsider, after all!

4. is your oc a daredevil, or more of a scaredy cat? what is the most daring thing they’ve done in their life?

steph is most definitely on the daring side, which i love for her. probably the most daring thing she's ever done, though, is admit how she feels about katie. she was so scared to do that, but once she did, her life was better than it had ever been.

5. what is your oc’s patience like? when waiting for something, are they able to sit still or do they fidget? how do they fidget?

steph is not a patient person, but she wishes she was. she wants things to happen right now, immediately, in exactly the way she wants them. she will wait, but it will almost kill her with boredom. she's definitely a fidgeter. a knee bouncer, i'd assume.

33. what five objects or things could be expected to be found on your oc’s person at any time? why?

her ID (in case someone wants to flatter her by carding her), a travel size bottle of lotion (so she can be smooth and smell good), her house keys (she's terrified of losing them), tic tacs (specifically the orange ones because they remind her a little of her favorite slurpees), and her keychain for a free frosty at wendy's (mostly because she thinks it looks really cute).

34. does your oc have a pet? if they could have another one or if they were to get one, what would it be? how well could they care for it?

i don't think steph has a pet! she might be the kind of kid who won a goldfish at the parish festival over the summer, but then her mom made her give it away 😭

35. does your oc have any distinguishing markings? scars, tattoos, birthmarks, freckles, etc?

steph's upper lip is turned up a bit. i feel like she has some minor scars on her arms and legs from adventures gone wrong, too.

36. what is your oc’s fight or flight response like? what sorts of things provoke it the most?

steph has a fight response, and she's typically provoked by the potential loss of something important to her. like when sam breaks up with her (all 900 times from 1985-2002), she tries with all might to get him to stay.

for ✨will✨

1. what common traits do you share with your oc? what about them is the least like you?

will and i are both pretty insecure about whether or not we matter to the rest of the world. we're afraid people won't think we're cool or interesting, which we make up for with a lot of bravado and cockiness, even in front of the people who love us the most. but similar to steph, i think will is a lot more comfortable in the physical realm than i am. he isn't afraid to climb the rope in gym, you know? he knows he won't fall.

2. do you think you would get along with your oc if you could meet them? what things would you talk about?

bestie you know what you're asking 🖤 like. ok. if will and i met when we were teenagers, he is the kind of guy who would have had a crush on me. guys like will always have a crush on me. and like lucy (sort of), i would have assumed his affections were part of a cosmic joke because why would someone who isn't afraid to climb the rope be into me? but if we met today, at the ages we are (27 and 55), i think i would think he was a really nice guy. i'd really admire the way he loves his wife and daughters. and he'd think there was something really fond and familiar about me, though he wouldn't be able to quite place it LMAO

3. how competent would your oc be in a survival situation? would they be better off on their own or in a group?

similar to steph, will would be very competent in a survival situation. he understands his physical reality and spatial relations better than most people, so he'd be able to engineer some important materials. he would be better in a group, though. he's motivated by the desire to help others, but he also needs lucy to delegate tasks to him. it's a give-and-take.

4. is your oc a daredevil, or more of a scaredy cat? what is the most daring thing they’ve done in their life?

will is in between these two categories! he is afraid of everything, but he does it, anyway. to will, the risk is always worth it. the most daring thing he's ever done is swipe the millennium falcon from the toy aisle at k-mart, of course.

5. what is your oc’s patience like? when waiting for something, are they able to sit still or do they fidget? how do they fidget?

my sweet will honestly believes he's the most patient person who ever lived. he thinks he waited forever for lucy to fall in love with him. ten years, he says. i waited ten years. what he refuses to acknowledge, of course, is that for a good seven or eight of those years, romantic attraction was kind of off the table for both of them. will isn't patient because will has never had to exercise patience a day in his life. and on those rare occasions when he does? he paces like a fool. i love him

33. what five objects or things could be expected to be found on your oc’s person at any time? why?

his ID (for fear he will die in a disaster, and no one will be able to tell lucy and the girls), a pen (in case he has to draw up a makeshift contract on a napkin), a swiss army knife (to remind himself that he is masculine, thank you very much!), bubblegum (because he is also a stereotypical six-year-old in a pinafore), and his phone (that's where the pictures of his family are!)

34. does your oc have a pet? if they could have another one or if they were to get one, what would it be? how well could they care for it?

will wasn't allowed to have a pet as a child because his parents had six kids and not enough space for an animal. by the time he and lucy had their own place, he still didn't have a pet because lucy and the girls are a little afraid of animals. will is OK with this. he's neutral on the concept of pets.

35. does your oc have any distinguishing markings? scars, tattoos, birthmarks, freckles, etc?

please do not make me admit, on national tumblrvision, that will has heterochromia, even though i guess he technically does.

36. what is your oc’s fight or flight response like? what sorts of things provoke it the most?

will has a fight response, and it gets him into trouble because he literally starts throwing hands. if you make fun of his wife or one of his insecurities, he's coming for you!