#anyway ye!! i think that has the basics as well as some extra tidbits i hadn't mentioned before!!

[crazypossumman]

So I am writing a novel loosely inspired by Dante’s Inferno. I’ve been working on it since eighth grade when I first read Inferno and became utterly obsessed. Anyway, I was very fucked up the other night and then found this in my notes:

“Why My Atheist Ass Loves Dante’s Inferno:

My first point to this argument would be the fact that it is basically self insert fanfiction. My boy Dante really went, “but what if me and Virgil, my favorite poet uwu, had to travel through hell together on a long, sentimental journey in which I am able to learn from him as a pupil does from his master,” and everyone was like, “ok yeah let’s here him out.”

On a more serious note, this text (looking at it individually within the divine comedy) has such a powerful meaning behind it. Dante is traveling through the dark forest (life) and is trying to get to the top of a hill (enlightenment, paradise, nirvana, what have you), but he is stopped by three beasts (the three types of sin). But his end game is still to get to paradise and be with his beloved or whatever. So he still wants to go to the top of that metaphorical hill.

Ipso facto, when Virgil leads him through hell, he is leading him THROUGH the beasts. It’s not some round about way where he skirts these sins. He goes through sin after sin in Virgil’s company, and in beholding the punishments for said sins—which, being an ironic twist on the sin itself, reveal just how ugly the sin itself is—being enacted upon figures he associates with the sin, he is essentially traveling through life while learning from the mistakes of others. That’s as simple as the story is!

But instead it is taken and written in to prose, woven between Christianity and Greek mythos, stretched into a fascinating adventure that captivates and shocks the mind. It was heavily associated with political and religious figures of the time period, which caused it to stick in the minds of its readers (think: if you read that Pope whoever was seen burning in the whatever circle of hell, every time you hear about that pope from then on out, you’re like “oh yeah isn’t that the guy who—“). It integrates well known biblical figures, which created that same association but with something ancient and sacred. Not to mention that, being one of the few religious texts written in the common tongue in its time, it became super wide spread (I mean, their reading selection was limited).

And my third reason would have to do with the amount of classical art and literature it went on to expire. It’s a lot. There’s a painting or two for every critical scene of the inferno, and it is a widely referenced piece of literature in media day-to-day life (think phrases like “stuck in limbo” or “abandon all hope, ye who enter here”). There are also so many translations of the Inferno, originally written in Italian, and most of them contain footnotes, translation notes, interpretations, references, and research tidbits relating to that author’s specific translation. Meaning. Every time you get a different translation. There is whole knew stuff to learn. Base points are always the same, but I love a good fun fact or someone’s individual analysis on a certain piece of symbolism.

Point four: It’s so much extra Christianity-lore. Like sure it’s a headcannon but it reads like official content.”

Writing Tag ↓ | Pinned | Writing Masterlist | Kofi | Etsy

[i3utterflyeffect]

AAAAA I love what I've seen of the AU so far I just haven't gotten to see enough to ask questions abt it ;w; ANYWAYS do you have any favorite tidbits for it? Who's the user? Any favorite designs?

ok so!!! i originally made this a while ago after i got the idea of ‘what if spork was the restrictor?’ and mashing up some of my favorite role-swap ideas!! 

forzen is the user, gordon and joshua are browsing buddies, tommy is the desktop assistant, g-man is the operator, benrey is the firewall, bubby is the music guru, dr. coomer is the virus, and Spork is the restrictor!!

admittedly i'd prefer to change Bubby and/or Forzen’s roles, since i’m not really the hugest Forzen fan (i usually forget he exists actually--) and there’s already an au w Music Guru Bubby (@ccy2k, also a cool au!), but i’m very happy with everyone else’s positions--! 

i am making my take on music guru bubby much different (at least aesthetically) from ccy2k bubby though so i think as long as i try to keep this bubby seperate from theirs it’s ok--!! aiy2k bubby does have a much more punk look though--

i am a bit worried abt Forzen, since i feel like i might-- even now-- forget he exists at all, but i think it’s good that i’m trying to explore a new character! and hey, I’ll probably be ok!!

.

as for designs, a while ago I did upload some designs for aiy2k!! imo, though, the designs are rushed and didn’t really turn out the way i wanted them to at all-- i was actually designing the first drafts w/ a friend, @/stars-with-citrus, but although their designs are cool i don’t think our styles of design exactly meshed, unfortunately :’0

my favorite beta design, is probably a tie between Spork (link) and Coomer (link), though Joshua’s design (link) scrapes in at a close second!!

There’s also a masterlist at the bottom of each of the beta posts, but Bubby never got finished bc I ran out of fuel before i could get his design done-- ;w;

as for my favorite final designs.. for what i have thus far, I think that Gordon and Sweet Search, aka infected Gordon, are going to remain my favs-- although i think Sweet Search is my favorite of the two, i can’t share the final design yet, mostly bc I wanna keep the surprise--!! i do have this draft of Sweet Search tho--!! (link) 

.

and random tidbits... i’ll give one random thing about each of them!! some will be random, but some might end up being important later--!

Forzen: He has multiple scars! most of them are motorcycle crash scars, but he has one big scar that’s actually from a mountain lion!

Dr. Coomer: He has his own ‘HELLO, Gordon!’ equivalent for Forzen! Instead it’s “Hello, user! You have (1) unread message!”-- i’m not sure if it’ll be used quite to the degree of his canon catchphrase, but he does repeat it every now and again

Benrey: Instead of fire, he uses his sweet-voice to encase programs that are causing any threat to the computer! like a clam making a pearl!

Tommy: Tommy was a fan-favorite among the original AIY2K programmers; but he was also very shy at first, so he’d usually be hiding!

G-Man: The user can choose for G-man to be hidden, but the AI doesn’t disable and continues running!

Gordon: He really wanted a cat because the programmer had one that looked very soft. The AIY2K director said no :(

Joshua: He’s in charge of a lot of accessibility settings as well as the browser! He is on by default and has captions. He used to be in charge of volume management too, but he liked to prank the developers by turning the volume up and doing his ‘foghorn’, so no more volume responsibilities for Joshie-- (Bonus fact: he’s the only one who knows The Restrictor!)

Bubby: A lot of people meeting Bubby for the first time (before Benrey) thinks he’s the firewall, because he still likes the fire theme. (he’s not, he just likes arson)

Spork: Like Spork, like Josh. In other words, Spork sometimes used to sneak out from the Restrictor’s designated area and do harmless pranks, like rearranging the desktop and watching from behind the scenes as the user loses their mind.

Darnold: he’s there, i promise!! i will say though, he isn’t in the computer--

Sunkist: unfortunately, Sunkist was cut due to already having way too many characters to manage... but i do have a seperate idea where Sunkist is actually the restrictor!! i am not making an ask blog for that one though-- or not atm anyway-- bc i’ve already commited to AIy2k ;w;

ok!! i will stop talking abt it for now but ty for asking!! i LOVE infodumping abt my aus...

[leias-left-hair-bun-again]

As per the DIY blorbos post you recently reblogged from me, I gather you have OCs. Please, tell me ALL about them? Especially the random little things that you just. LOVE

!!!!!! yES OHO YES BLESS YOU THANK YOU THIS IS THE MOST EXCITING ASK EVER I MAy have spent the entire day at work watching the clock 'til i could get home and answer this slkjkfdsf but here are tidbits about some of my blorbos!!!

Bracer: a very nice man, a Corrie medic who secretly ends up a husband and father - though he never gets to meet his child D: but we wont’ talk about that; he’s a little younger than Kix and was basically mentored by him on Kamino - Kix is his ori’vod and up until deployment, his best friend. They don’t get to talk much after that, but they keep in touch as best they can, and Bracer ends up thriving on Coruscant. His trainer knew he would and pulled some strings to make sure he was sent there; Bracer dreams of becoming a real chemist and hopes to take classes when the war is over, in the meantime he gets to mess around in a lab and also with a sticker machine. He loves kids very much and always stuffs his pockets with stickers and candy for those that hang around the Corries’ headquarters. Sometimes they draw him pictures in return and he’s working on getting a sleeve tattooed that’s bits and parts of all their drawings put together. Oh, and he got his name bc he is an absent-minded darling who doesn’t always think things through and decided to sedate his trainer while he was on Kamino in order to make him take a nap. It...did not end well for him and his face is permanently lopsided now, but the sedating part itself worked quite well so he does the same to Fox almost immediately after he arrives on Coruscant. Also he keeps pictures of his daughter’s ultrasound images in his armour and his wife lives in perpetual anxiety that he’ll accidentally leave them somewhere, but those are the one thing he never loses. They’re just too important to him.

Knack: works in the medwing with Bracer, is a mix of medic and mechanic - he’s one of the clones in charge of maintaining the medical droids and equipment. So named bc he is Salty (NaCl) and usually looks annoyed with life but he’s a very loyal friend and a caring one, once you look past the Perpetually Annoyed Eyebrows. He knows about Bracer’s marriage and as-of-yet-unborn daughter and secretly looks forward to being an uncle and then he has to tell Bracer’s wife about Sad Things and ends up trying to fill the role of father figure instead but anyways

Ulya: a smol girl, a little child. She’s Fi and Parja’s daughter and their eldest, she’s got Fi’s eyes and Parja’s hair and a personality all of her own; most of the clan thinks she takes more after Fi but Fi sees Parja’s steadiness and selflessness in her. Ulya is just the happiest little girl, always giggling even though she’s not very talkative, and often shy. She takes longer than her cousins to start talking at all and she has the crooked spine/lung issue combo deal that some children are born with and eventually grow out of; she will too but in the meantime her family (specially Fi and Kal) goes rather easier on her than usual for a mando child cause she just can’t keep up and also they are extra protective of her. She loves music and Fi takes her out for trips in their speeder just so she can listen to the radio with him and dance in the front seat while Parja’s not around to say it’s dangerous. She’s very much a daddy’s girl really; sometimes Fi has bad head days or just plain drowning-in-bad-memories days and has to go be quiet away from everybody else except his girls, and Ulya always seems to know and searches him out to give him cuddles and sit in his lap until he sends her away to sit with Kal instead, or make cookies with Ny, or help her uncles with their chores. She clashes with Parja sometimes cause she always wants to do what Parja is doing in the shop and doesn’t like to be told no, she can’t play with power tools and sharp bits of metal, but she admires Parja greatly and always has to have her hair done exactly like her mum’s. She especially admires how brave Parja is around Mird, Ulya is more than a little afraid of Mird. But Parja lets Ulya hold her hand whenever Mird is around and tells her uncles off if they start teasing her about hiding behind Parja, so Ulya thinks someday she might be okay with Mird - maybe when she’s a little bigger and looks less like a strill-sized snack.

Versie: a senator’s aide, a dramatic darling, an idealistic nuisance with warm gold eyes and delicate freckles and soft black hair and a deceptively porcelain-doll-like appearance - in reality she’s stubborn and passionate and yells a lot, though she’s very short so her voice gets high and squeaky very quickly and it’s hard to take her seriously. Especially for the clones, who can all easily pat her on the head or swing her over their shoulder without warning (which they very often do, esp Jaing). Versie finds out secrets she is not supposed to know and is hunted down by one of the commando squads; luckily for her it is Omega Squad and as soon as she sets eyes on Niner she thinks ‘yes I can trust this man’ and tells him absolutely everything, which is in hindsight a bad idea but turned out well for her. Niner “duty is my middle name” Skirata does not like the idea of Treasonous Things going on in the Senate and takes her to Kal, who thinks once she’s given up her information she can be dropped off on some nice remote planet with a new identity but nooooo Versie is not about that. She will not leave and she sets out to make herself useful, in the meantime she falls head over heels for Niner because who wouldn’t and oh boy is that a struggle cause this is Niner we’re talking about - esp after Certain Events in which he does not come home and Versie just about loses her entire mind. But everything ends alright of course bc i am a Sap and can’t actually write angst without immediately making it better XD

...there’s more under the cut oh gosh slkdfjdsf this is getting so long but -

Kythiree: a cardigan-wearing, insect-loving, ex-Jedi padawan accountant who works for the GAR’s finance department and is specifically in charge of the Coruscant Guard’s bookkeeping. She’s very good at forging handwriting (don’t ask her why, she won’t tell) and does sneaky little math tricks to give the Corries new caf machines and potted plants and nice new mattresses whenever they need them, she keeps Fox company during long nights of paperwork, and she rattles on about butterflies and beetles to him until he falls asleep at his desk - which she doesn’t mind in the least, it’s kind of her goal XD She knows her mother was a Nightsister and she assumes her father was a human, but she doesn’t know anything about them - she was found in a spaceport wandering around by herself when she was a toddler and taken to the Jedi temple cause she’s got mild Force abilities courtesy of her mother, but she wasn’t really good enough to make the grade, so when she found out it was AgriCorps or nothing, she chose nothing and left the Order to go to school instead. She’s still on good terms with the Jedi, though; she collects specialty tea for Obi-wan in exchange for unusual insects he finds on his excursions, and she gets her former best friend and Jedi knight Indra (who’s very good with animals) to come tour the Corries’ kennels with her once in a while. She also partially inherited her mother’s grey-white skin and she’s got the usual pale grey eyes, and then thanks to her dad she has hair slfjdssj naturally it is sort of blonde-ish, but she loves colour! So she dyes her hair bright bright red, it hangs in a sheet down to her knees and has about a million beetles and replica flowers braided into it at all times. And she’s always got layers and layers of colourfully patterned clothing; long dresses and tunics on top of those and cardigans on top of those.

Fiddler and Pins and Pens: i need to develop them further but - Pins and Pens are besties, Fiddler was part of their squad on Kamino and their friend but he got assigned to the Guard and Pins and Pens got assigned to the front lines. Pins is so named bc he is entirely disorganized and scatters hair pins wherever he goes, Pens is so named bc he wanted a name that matched his best friend’s and also bc he always has a stylus stuck in his bun. Fiddler is an artist and just the most warm-hearted of lads, Fox adopts him on sight after he attempts to fend off a mean senator.

Nibbler: a literal toddler, a baby clone, a menace. The bane of Alpha-17′s life, but also a ray of sunshine in it. So named bc he likes to bite people, or furniture, or soap - it’s all the same to him, if it exists, he’s going to either lick or bite it. Has seemingly endless energy and is honestly a very good-natured toddler, if you ignore the aforementioned energy and biting and general penchant for mischief.

....that was really long i beg your pardon!!! but those are my most beloved DIY blorbos...thus far XD i am in the process of fleshing out an entire happily ever after AU for repcomm which means there are going to be about a thousand children D: and even more wives D: and i am starting to understand why the author did  not let them all have a happy ending if simply for her own peace of mind slkdfjdslkf anyways. anyways for now, these are my beloveds <3

[commentaryvorg]

THANK YOU!!!!!

Thank you so so much to everyone who’s been reading this commentary! I cannot express how much it’s meant to have other people along for this ride with me. I started writing this for myself and would have kept posting it just for the sake of putting it out there even if nobody had been responding to it at all. But having other people engage with it and enjoy it has turned it into so much more to me than it already was. Writing and posting this commentary has been such a huge part of my life for this past year, so the knowledge that it’s been even a small part of even a few other people’s lives makes me so happy. That big smile that I drew Kaito with here? That’s also me, smiling at you.

Special shoutouts to those people who made a habit of liking every post once they read it, by the way! Not that I have any problem with anyone not giving the posts a like when they read, as I know different people have different standards for when they give a post a like – if I was following and enjoying a similar blog, I wouldn’t have given each post a like either. But it meant a lot to have a small handful of people whom I could know had read and enjoyed a post once it’d gone up. I started to get this warm fuzzy feeling of “the gang’s all here” whenever I’d see all the usual people’s likes pop up on a new post, which, yes, I always kept an eye on. If you’ve ever made a habit of regularly liking my posts here, whether you kept it up through the whole thing or not, you are part of The Gang to me and even if you’ve never directly interacted with me through ask or otherwise, I love you more than you know.

(If anyone whom I don’t think of as part of The Gang because they have different post-liking habits wanted to let me know that they’ve always been reading too, I would be absolutely thrilled! I imagine that a decent amount of my followers were reading, but I can’t be sure all of them were since people drift in and out of things on tumblr, you know?)

And extra special shoutouts to anyone who sent any kind of ask that gave me a chance to say even more words about this story and helped me feel that people were really engaging with what I had to say. I know most of you were anons, but based on writing styles I’m pretty damn sure that it was quite a few different anons, so I love you all as well despite not even knowing your names. I’m still totally open for any more asks about anything I’ve talked about even though posting of the commentary proper is officially over. Just saying.

So… what about the future?

You might have noticed that this blog’s name doesn’t specifically refer to DRV3. This is because I was always planning for this to not only be a blog for this one specific commentary, and that I’d maybe also start doing similar things for other works of fiction once this one was done. That was just a tentative plan at the start, but after how much I enjoyed doing this, I really would like to keep doing something along these lines for the foreseeable future.

Whatever it is, though, it won’t be more Danganronpa – I like DR1 and 2, but not nearly enough to commentate on them in this much ridiculous depth. And I understand that basically everyone who’s following me right now was here specifically for DRV3, and you’re not necessarily going to be interested in whatever I move on to, which is absolutely fine. If you want to unfollow this blog now, or at some point in future whenever I’m posting something new that isn’t DRV3, I will not be offended in the least. Honestly, I’m going to be more surprised (in the best possible way) if anyone actually did want to stick around just for me and my commentary on something that they probably won’t be familiar with.

That said, there will still always be the chance of more DRV3 tidbits on this blog here and there, as I will still thoroughly accept and answer asks related to my V3 commentary at any time, even after the blog’s main focus moves onto something else. (That means you, person who’s just finished reading my V3 commentary way in the future even though this hasn’t been actively a V3 blog for ages – send me asks about it anyway! They might take me longer to answer, but I will still care!) I’ve also been vaguely toying with the idea of making a few small posts with little addendums to the existing commentary – I reread this thing a lot, and occasionally I see a point I made in the past that I feel like I could significantly elaborate on or clarify now, since I keep gaining an ever greater understanding of this story the more I think about it. Maybe that’ll happen, but again, that’ll only be minor tidbits here and there. Up to you if you want to stick around for those or not.

Also, while I’m basically done with commentary-style stuff, that’s only because there just isn’t anything else left to cover. I still haven’t yet run out of ideas for DRV3 content in general, so do keep an eye on my main blog for that! I am hoping to get out not one but multiple more rambles about Kaito, some essentially summarising things I’ve talked about here and some not. There’s also a bunch of AU scenarios I’ve had floating around my head for ages that I want to get out somewhere. Plus arts, of course. The V3 bug (or I guess more specifically the Kaito bug, let’s be real here) has not left me yet, and I still don’t quite want it to.

On the off-chance anybody is thinking of sticking around here not just for potential DRV3 tidbits but for a whole new commentary (and, again, I am not expecting this of anyone), well… it’ll be a while. While I have a couple of ideas of what to do, I haven’t started writing anything yet, and since I really appreciated being able to schedule things twice-weekly, I’d like to have a decent backlog built up before I start posting anything so that I’ll be able to do that again. So I’ll only officially announce the new commentary here once I’ve built up said backlog and feel like I’m ready.

But whether you’ll be here for the next ride or not, again, thank you, so much.

[irlmic]

hmmms SO I napped a little today and while I was in and out I thought about a hizashi working with nedzu to catch the traitor and the plan included making mic a plausible person to frame! so basically going out of his way to get the rest of the staff to dislike or even hate him—Some aren’t hard, they aren’t good enough friends to really have anything built up. some are more difficult, people who are too kind to think poorly of others.

and then there’s shouta— and he knows this will hurt the most, but he needs everyone to dislike and doubt his intentions—and he knows all of his buttons, so there’s no one better for the job!

(And the thing is, shouta knows that there’s something going on, that the behavior is intentional. It stung the first few times, but when it kept happening it started to come clear that it was intentional— well, shouta starts to try to figure out why he’s doing it. He watches helplessly as hizashi becomes more isolated from his peers, shunned in places he would flourish. Even Nemuri is calling him annoying, lately)

(he’s horrified when snipe suggests he’s the traitor and he’s just getting antsy.)

(read more for discord discussion of the plot with some writing tidbits)

fish:  (Shouta stares helplessly from his desk as Nemuri steps and stands like a wall in front of Hizashi, blocking the door. He can see the way Hizashi responds, hands creeping up to rest on his hips and head cocked. He doesn’t need to see his face to know that there’s a sharp grin.

 “Mic,” Nemuri starts, Hizashi showing no obvious flinch at his hero name or the tone, “you need to either take a vacation or quit.” A moment of silence passes, enough to attract looks from the rest of the staff.

 Snipe looks pissed, his body set in a hard line. Ectoplasm’s mouth is set in a frown, eyes staring into Hizashi’s back. Even Toshinori is shuffling, rubbing his arm absently. Most are of the same.

 “And why’s that, Midnight?” Hizashi finally asks, issuing a challenge in his voice. Shouta can’t remember the last time he heard it and it didn’t sound sharp and so uncharacteristic for his friend. 

“You’ve been upsetting the students—“ 

“Well, they haven’t been doing a good job, yeah? Can’t quit and leave them with no English teacher when they’re falling this far behind.” Hizashi interrupts, jabbing his finger into her space. That’s two of Nemuri’s biggest peeves, and her face darkens in an answer. 

“They certainly don’t need a dick for a teacher, either.” She says, voice carefully in line. “In fact, it just so turns out that you’re not the only one who speaks English fluently on staff.” Hizashi makes a show of scoffing. 

“Right, the teacher who gets his techniques out of a book. Don’t make me laugh, it’s not April Fools!” Hizashi barely wastes time to shoulder past Nemuri, leaving the room deadly silent. Toshinori is hanging his head down, eyes squeezed shut. Nemuri’s doing breathing exercises, rubbing at a temple. 

Shouta has a sinking feeling.)

@balentay :  shouta watches quietly, uneasy and unsettled.  He catches Hizashi's unguarded moments when his shoulders slump and he seems down.  But then he catches himself and its back to his act

fish:  yes— and he doesn’t know how to approach hizashi without having the man pick through him cruelly, try and cut him away from his space

he would think that maybe found out about his feelings and was disgusted but he can’t, not when hizashi is being standoffish to everyone else as well

(Hizashi knows how to hit at every one of his insecurities. It takes his breath away when he’s called emotionless, punches him in the gut when he’s called a poor friend. yet shouta knows— this is not hizashi. It is him— shouta used his quirk once when his back was turned, fearing that he’d turn into a small, sharp-eyed girl or fall away into liquid across the floor, only to find that he remained just the same— but this is not who hizashi is. He’s just got to bare through it, find the common thread behind the sudden behavior.)

@balentay : so he watches.  he watches the man alienate the staff slowly but surely.  he watches as slowly but surely each face closes off and hardens whenever hizashi enters the room (he swaggers now, a cruel and confident smile curling his lips that sets Shouta's teeth on edge.  this is not Hizashi, he reminds himself.  he has to be doing this for a reason.  but what?). 

how even thirteen, amiable , friendly thirteen eventually grows sick of him and leaves him alone. 

he alienates the students too.  this is...  not okay, but shouta cant confront him without playing his hand or forcing hizashi's.  not when he doesnt have all the facts

fish:  (He doesn’t even realize that they weren’t communicating at all outside of UA, not even to share their patrol times with each other until two months into the charade. He recognizes the fear settling low in his stomach, a cold anticipation weighing him down. 

It’s realized when a meeting at UA is called with specific instructions not to inform Hizashi in any way. When Snipe suggests that Hizashi is the traitor, he feels it in the way that he’s the only one ready to object. Even looking at Nemuri, she has a thinly veiled irritancy marking her face. When another teacher mentions that Hizashi is pushing for information he wouldn’t normally have, the room breaks out into murmurs— except for shouta, who is dead silent and afraid. 

He thinks he understands now.)

@balentay : its hard to breath when he realizes what hizashis doing.  its like the weight of the world is crushing down on him all while the realization hangs suspended and crystal clear.

 (he still watches his friend for days afterwards, hoping against hope he's wrong.  that his friend isnt being stupidly, nobly self sacrificing.  but what other answer is there? 

he approaches hizashi when he's absolutely certain, catching hizashi's car door when he swings it open to go home.  hizashi, who's been so absorbed in his own world, startles and stares at him with wide eyes for a moment before he recovers and arranges himself against him car so he can lounge and smirk.

 "eraser"  he practically purrs.  he lets his eyes roam up and down shouta's body in a way he knows his friend hates.  shouta feels his lips press together, but he refuses to rise to his friends' taunt.  "what can i do for you?" 

"hizashi, we need to talk.")

(and hizashi?  is still too pathetically gone on his best friend to say no.  they get in his car and they drive off.  shouta doesnt let him take him home.  hizashi doesnt offer. 

instead, they drive out of town and to the middle of nowhere.  where shouta can safely demand answers.

 that doesnt mean hizashi is expecting him to.  later, he'll wonder why hes so surprised shouta worked out what's going on or saw right through him)

fish:  (hizashi, who hates that he's hurting everyone in his immediate circle.)

 (who fears that even after his intentions are revealed after the true traitor is captured that his friends will never see him the same way again.) 

("Shouta," Hizashi says, his voice a stuttering mess. The talk hadn't been pleasant, pushing Hizashi to the edge of tears. He's a people pleaser at heart, and to be hurting everyone and alienating anyone he cares for-- well, it's too much. "Shouta, you've got to treat me horribly, Shouta. It's the only way this will work." He's aware that he keeps repeating Shouta's name but-- he's got to get it out of his system, clinging to what little time he has to be himself. 

"Hizashi, you don't need to do this--" Hizashi cuts him off with a jerking shake of his head, grounding his hands on Shouta's shoulders. He slumps, and breaths out. 

"I've got to, Shou. I'm the best candidate. Nedzu will start a private investigation and find me guilty with planted evidence. I'll go to Tartarus.  It'll give you and Nedzu the time you need to catch the real traitor.")

(Shouta rapidly inhales. Hizashi, in Tartarus-- for crimes he didn't commit, to give everyone else an opportunity to catch the traitor getting cocky.  Shouta can feel a tremor in his own body, and while he's not on the cusp of tears like Hizashi, he wouldn't be surprised for his eyes to leak tears. He feels stupid for not realizing sooner what Hizashi's plan was. He feels like a failure for not catching on sooner, for not having a better alternative that doesn't leave his friend caged like an animal with some of the most notorious villains of their time.)

(Shouta is not okay.)

@balentay :  tbh the only way this could possibly be better is if the car scene ends in a confession and a kiss and then theyre both expected to just go about their lives pretending hizashi is the traitor and shouta hates him

fish: oh tru

@balentay :  ("hizashi.... i love you."  shouta says, pleads in a rare moment of desperation.  hizashi's eyes well up with tears and his face twists.

 "please don't do this to me shouta."  he begs.  the tears spill down his cheeks.  "not now")

fish:  (Recognition flickers in Shouta's heart and it hurts to find out his feelings are reciprocated now.

 "I need to tell you--"

 "No, you need to hate me, if you don't they may just kill you next time--"

 Recognition flickers in his mind and now? It makes crystal clear sense.)

ANYWAYS there u go i was told to post it and posting without the context seems weird so here u go, discord angst hell time,, i may write it but if anyone is Extra inspired feel free

[biaswreckingfics]

Forsaken: Part 9

Author: biaswreckingyourlifefics

Pairing: Chanyeol x Reader

Genre: Angst

Word Count: 2.8k

Previous Chapter  |  Next Chapter

Chanyeol: Can we talk? Please?

You had been rereading that message for nearly 7 hours now. At first, you were surprised he texted you, and then you were annoyed. You were so beyond over the drama. You just had to decide if that meant you were over Chanyeol also. Never responding to the text, you were surprised when another two pop in an hour later.

Chanyeol: I know I keep fucking up, and that maybe I don’t deserve you in my life but let me explain everything to you.

Chanyeol: If you’re willing to hear me out… Meet me at the park in an hour. I’ll wait for you.

You glance up at the clock after you read the last message. 7:05 P.M. Was this going to be it? Were you finally going to get down to the bottom of this? Or were you going to make up for a couple of days and then have some more bullshit happen? You really didn’t think you could be tugged along anymore.

You sat on the couch and thought about what you would even say to him if you saw him. You also debated for a long time if you would even go. When you next glance up at the clock, it was already 8:15 P.M. Over an hour had passed. Was he there waiting for you like he said he’d be? After arguing with yourself, you decide to go and hear him out. Throwing on a hoodie, you head for the door, wondering to yourself just how long he’d be willing to wait for you.

By the time you got to the park, it was 8:28 P.M. A half an hour later than he said. You took note of the fact that it was slightly chilly and wished you had grabbed something warmer than a hoodie. You almost felt bad for making him wait. Almost.

When you finally find him, he’s sitting on a swing, rocking it slightly. You look at his back for a moment before finally heading over to him. He must’ve heard you approaching because his head snaps toward you before you reach him. He stands up when you get closer to him.

“Y/N, you came…” He says in amazement. “I mean, thanks for coming.”

You nod and sit down on the swing that was next to his. Chanyeol sat back down as well, and you took this opportunity to look at him. He was wearing a black hoodie and pants, with a cap on his head. You noted that his eyes were bloodshot and puffy like he had been crying. You also noticed the tip of his nose was red from the cold.

“I am so sorry for putting you through all of this bullshit… For basically everything that has happened since I went on tour. I wish I could go back in time and change… well, everything.” He looks down at his hands that were nervously twitching in his lap. “Daeun told me everything… I’m so sorry for blaming it all on you. I should’ve realized it was me.”

“Well, it was kind of both of us.” You finally speak.

He smiles sadly. “It wasn’t you, Y/N. It was really all me.”

You stare at him, waiting for him to continue. When he notices you’re not going to say anything, he sighs.

“She knew I had feelings for you, even before that night on the balcony. I guess she’s known for a while, but hearing it out loud is what helped her make a decision.”

“Wait, why would she think that before the night on the balcony?”

“Little things I did, I guess. That night at the bar, when we both kind of ignored her. When we were hanging out in my dorm room, and she walked in. The countless times she caught me attempting to type a text good enough to send to you. I don’t know... Apparently, there were a lot of things.”

That tidbit of information surprises you. You had no clue about the unsent texts, but you also hadn’t realized how all these things combined would look. In hindsight, it would appear that more was going on between the two of you than either of you would ever admit to her.

“But that night on the balcony, you said you loved her more…” Your eyes start to burn as the unwanted memory pops back into your head.

“I lied.”

You nearly give yourself whiplash when you turn towards him before whispering, “You what?”

He finally turns toward you. “I lied to you. I never loved Daeun more than you.”

Your heart was beating triple time in your chest. He said it plain as day, with zero hesitation. “Chanyeol, what are you saying to me?”

“I only told you that because I didn’t want to admit to myself what I really wanted. That I was in love with you still, and not in love with my girlfriend. That I had spent the past few months with the wrong girl, and that I played with both of your hearts.”

Not believing what you were hearing, you almost ask him to repeat himself. Your heart was beating so loud that it was causing a whooshing sound in your ears, and you were almost sure that he could hear it.

You quietly ask, “Why?”

“I knew I couldn’t be with you after what happened while I was on tour. I’m not a good enough guy for you... but you were all I could think about. No matter how much I threw myself into music and shows, you were always at the forefront of my mind...” He pauses like he was getting lost back in those memories before taking a deep breath and continuing.

“When I met Daeun, she quieted those thoughts. I had to move on from you for my own sanity, and I did like Daeun. She was funny and smart, but as soon as I got you back in my life, that all went to hell. You were all I wanted, but I was already with Daeun. I felt so guilty for wanting someone besides my girlfriend, so I tried to make it up to her any way I could.”

“By telling me to stay away from you?” You quietly ask.

He nods. “That and all the other shit. When she broke up with me, I didn’t want to admit that everything was my fault. That I’m such a fuck up, and I can’t make anyone happy.”

As he spoke, a tear slid down his cheek. When you saw that, you felt your heart break into millions of little pieces.

“Chanyeol, you are not a fuck up. Yes, you made some mistakes and some incredibly stupid decisions, but you are not a fuck up.” You turn his face towards you. “Do you hear me, Chanyeol?”

As more tears slide down his face, he whispers, “I am so sorry…”

You pull him into a hug. “It’s okay, Chan. I forgive you... Please quit beating yourself up.”

The two of you stayed wrapped up in each other’s arms. Both of you ignoring the weather as it became colder and neither of you willing to move for a long time.

-2 days later-

Wanting to escape all the drama, you decided to host a dinner and movie night with all of your friends. You wanted and needed everyone to reconnect. There were too many arguments and hurtful words thrown at each other over the past few months, and you just wanted to rebuild the bond you all had.

You planned on cooking a nice dinner, and by cooking, you meant ordering most of it from a restaurant. However, when you told the boys about your idea, Kyungsoo and Minseok immediately invited themselves over to help. Apparently, they really were keeping track of your kitchen fires. You told them countless times you didn’t need any help, but they showed up an hour early anyway. It was like they didn’t believe you.

“You are NOT kicking me out of my own kitchen, Kyungsoo!” You shout at the younger man.

“Fine, but at least sit off to the side or something.” He tries to push you over to the edge of the kitchen. You stare at him in disbelief, and he sighs. “Okay, okay. Will you put the stuff from the restaurant in the oven so it doesn’t get cold?”

Confused, you ask, “Do I turn it on?”

Kyungsoo looks at you exasperatedly. “No, you don’t turn it on! The containers will melt.”

Fighting the urge to whip him with the towel you spotted on the counter, you put the containers in the oven. Secretly, you were super happy they had come over early to help. You had been slightly worried you’d mess something up, but they didn’t need to know that.

“Sooo… Y/N….” You look over at Minseok, who was staring at you intensely. “You and Chanyeol, huh?”

“No… There was no ‘me and Chanyeol’. Not really… well, kind of, but… never mind.”

“Come on! I’m like your older brother! I’ve known you since you were a geeky little teenager. Tell me….”

You stare at him with mock outrage. “Excuse you! I was not a geeky teenager! Besides, there’s nothing really to tell.” You meet his eyes and notice him giving you an amused stare. “Okay. I liked Chanyeol, and he liked me, but we were never together.”

Both of the boys stay silent until Minseok says, “Continue. I know there’s more.”

“Really… we just used to make out and – “

“Stop. Please, stop. My ears are going to start bleeding.” Kyungsoo says from your right.

Rolling your eyes, you say, “I wasn’t going to talk about that! I just… I loved him. Love him.”

The boys stare at you with wide eyes. You watch as Kyungsoo drops the spoon he was using to stir the rice into the bowl.

Minseok slowly turns toward him. “Did you know about this?” Kyungsoo stays silent, shaking his head no. “Since when? For how long? Who all knows?”

Minseok kept bombarding you with questions, so you tell them about all the stuff they had been apparently oblivious to over the years. After you tell them everything, you can see that they are slightly sad they were never told about your feelings. This was confirmed when Kyungsoo’s voice deepened, signaling he wasn’t joking around any longer.

“You could’ve told us, Y/N.”

“I know, but I technically didn’t tell anyone. They all figured it out on their own.”

“Remember when we used to be close? When you actually liked and talked to us? When we meant something to you?” Minseok dramatically says while putting his hand to his chest, feigning hurt.

Kyungsoo sighs and looks up at the ceiling like he was asking for patience to deal with Minseok acting extra.

A while later, after everyone showed up and ate dinner, the alcohol was pulled out, and the movie was turned into background noise. Everything had been going really well. Chanyeol had been sitting next to you, and the two of you had been having a really good time, laughing nonstop.

The more and more everyone drank, the more obnoxious they became, which was completely normal for them, except for one. Baekhyun had been getting quieter and quieter, which was completely out of character for him.

You knew something was wrong, so you quickly get up and go sit next to him. “Hey, why are you so quiet?”

“Just not in a party mood.” He replies quietly, not looking at you.

Wondering if it was because of the kiss, you start to ask him, “Baek – “

He interrupts you. “I see you and Chanyeol have made up. That’s good, Y/N, really good.”

You watch as he takes a giant gulp of his drink. His words and actions were confusing you. “Baek, are you okay?”

Finally getting him to look at you, he turns toward you and smiles. “Yeah, sorry, just in a mood. Go and talk to Chanyeol. He looks lost by himself.”

You glance over at Chanyeol, who was talking to Minseok before turning back and searching Baekhyun’s face. “Chanyeol looks fine to me…”

“Really, Y/N, I’m not in much of a mood to entertain people right now.”

You slowly nod and say okay. Deciding to give Baekhyun his space, you went back over to the other guys, who were talking about girls from their trainee days.

“Do you guys remember Jisoo?” Jongdae asks the group.

Yixing remembered her, which surprised you a little. “Oh yeah, whatever happened to her?”

“I don’t know, but did you know Jongin kissed her?”

You whip your head to the left to look at Jongin, seeing that his eyes were nearly bulging out of his head as he stares at Jongdae in shock. Jia, who was sitting to his left, slowly turns her head toward him, trying to decide if she was going to be mad at him.

“That was like 7 years ago! Why are you bringing her up now?!” Jongin shouts at the older man.

Jongdae smirks at him. “No reason.”

You quietly laugh to yourself and shake your head. Jongdae was such a little shit sometimes.

Jongin attempts to get the attention off him, so Jia wouldn’t be mad at him any longer. “Yeah, well what about Sehun?? He kissed her sister.”

Jongdae chokes on his drink. “He what?! How come I didn’t know about this?!

Sehun, who had been minding his own business, yells at Jongin. “Yah! No one was supposed to know about it!”

“Sorry. If I go down, you’re coming with me.” Jongin says as he shrugs his shoulders.

Sehun, not to be outdone, takes it a step further. “Okay then, I guess I’ll point out that Baekhyun kissed that trainee that idolized Taeyeon.” Now it was your turn to choke on your drink.

“Minah? When did you do that?!” Junmyeon asks, surprised.

Baekhyun completely ignores everyone and acts like he never heard a thing.

“He just doesn’t want to own up to it.” Sehun laughs as he looks over at Baekhyun to see if he can get a rise out of him.

Baekhyun turns his head to stare at the youngest member before nodding. “Yeah, I kissed her. Just like I kissed Y/N.”

The room goes completely silent, and it takes a moment for you to process what you had just heard. You could physically feel Chanyeol go shock still next to you, but that wasn’t something you could focus on at the moment.

Everyone starts looking between you and Baekhyun, but you can only stare at him. Your heart was beating extremely fast, and you thought you were going to cry. Everything was finally going well! What the fuck was he thinking?

You see the moment when Baekhyun realizes he messed up. He looks up at Chanyeol, his face changing to one of horror. “Wait. That’s not what I meant!”

You look over to your right to see Chanyeol standing up from the couch while glaring at Baekhyun.

“Chanyeol, let me explain. It was an accident.” He stands up from his seat. “It was me, not her.”

Before anyone could move, Chanyeol had gotten across the room and punched Baekhyun in the face. Everyone quickly sprang into action after that, a couple of the boys grabbing each man to stop them from escalating the fight.

You go over to Chanyeol and grab his hand to get his attention. “Chanyeol – “.

He rips his hand from yours, not even looking your way. You felt helpless as he pulled out of the arms of the other boys and walked out of your door.

“Chanyeol, wait!” You stare at the door, not believing this was happening.

When you turn back around, you notice everyone looking at you and Baekhyun for an explanation.

“What did you do?” Junmyeon breaks the silence.

Baekhyun immediately answers him. Not letting you take the blame in any way, shape, or form. “It was me. I kissed her the other day.”

“Why?” Minseok asks quietly.

Baekhyun sighs, prodding at the new cut on his lip. “Chanyeol was right. I like her, but she doesn’t like me back. I thought if I kissed her, maybe she could move on from him, but I was wrong. This is completely on me, not her.”

“Well, why the hell did you bring it up?” Sehun angrily asks, pissed off that they were falling right back into the same bullshit routine.

Baekhyun was quiet for a moment. “I guess I was just bitter... I’m upset that she doesn’t feel the same way, but I didn’t mean to blurt it out. I really have no idea what I was thinking…”

Junmyeon sighs. “Well, you’re gonna have fun explaining that to Chanyeol.” He sits back down on the couch and drops his head into his hands. “This is a mess.”

“I’m sorry, hyung. I’m sorry to everyone…” Baekhyun turns to look at you with tears in his eyes. You grab his hand and begin to take him towards the bathroom.

“Let’s go get you cleaned up.”

“I’m really sorry…”

“I know, Baek.”

[themelodicenigma]

Do you think Tetsuya Nomura has any significant influence over supplementary Kingdom Hearts material like the novels and manga, and if so, do you believe we can figure out any deeper meanings or future plot developments by what we see in them?

Ultimately yes, as in the "can" of it all. I kind of have to mention certain things for perspective, however, in what people should know when looking at the extra works.

First things first, this is mostly about the novels, considering that the KH manga's functionality is a more comical, loose depiction of the KH canon that is befitting of the manga medium (this doesn't apply to all manga's produced by SE, of course—this is the case for KH definitely). The novels and Kanemaki's involvement with the series as an author is a bit more like how Square Enix handles most of their supplemental stuff.

With that said, Kanemaki's novel adaptations are written as legitimate alternate sources of the canon story (to the point they almost basically serve as “recaps” + additional context), as opposed to completely being their own thing and far removed from its source as an adaptation. So it's really more of a thought of how much influence/involvement does the game staff have for anything considered new (not including character introspective stuff that is just par the course for the writing medium). We've been able to see the cases where certain information—like details about the heartless/nobody + revival lore, UX plot threads, and more—were introduced in the novelizations first—so your second question has happened already before in some form. One might think that Nomura or the given scenario writer for the particular adapted game would've given her the ideas—but that could also not be true as said ideas could've been initiated by Kanemaki, actually. That's where the "can" comes in retrospect of Nomura or the other scenario writers of the particular game. Rest assured, however, that Kanemaki reasonably has the support and involvement of those who work on the game at the very least.

SE has a thing for making supplemental material for their games and directly hiring writers to create this content—all the while representing said content in a way that is official and given significance towards the particular series. 9/10, the writers work with the team who made the game (if anything, were recommended or chosen by them specifically), and the team will be in a supervisory role, be a part of the creative process, and even approve of the author's own creative freedoms for the product—this has happened for many of SE's series, KH isn't an exception. There are several examples where eventually these writers consistently work with that team for not just one, but a plethora of official stories (like Jun Eishima for Nier), or, as an addition to that, will also eventually get to the point they work directly on a game—Eishima for XIII-2 and Kanemaki for KH Days. Hek, there's even the supplemental works created by the actual game writers themselves—FF7, FFXIV, FFXIII: LR, and FFIV are good examples, and of course Yoko Taro made stories alongside Eishima for Nier too.

SE loves it and represents these things well, and thus it's noticeable when they don't. There is a wider conversation to have about Canon and authorship when it comes to specifically SE's products as well, but that's a whole different (but correlated) thread.

Anyway, within this creative process for this material, while it's true you have involvement from official parties, some details may have actually just been the ideas of the external writer themselves and thus implemented officially either in that material or even later on regardless. Which would make sense. Not that I'm necessarily saying for a fact that Kanemaki came up with all the new stuff introduced in novels and then later fully told in the games, no, but it's very possible for certain tidbits. It's kind of a precedent for these materials. For KH, we've already seen that happen as Nomura had once mentioned using ideas from Kanemaki's story from the KH Another Report booklet, which this also more than likely applied to Days and not just KHIIFM+, given the interview conversation relevance.

This could easily apply to the short stories as well. Nomura once mentioned that short story ideas (whether in manga or written form) are usually suggested by those authors, and the team is careful about these ideas not covering something that will conflict with future developments. Outside of screening that potential issue, the game team's involvement absolutely could extend to actually supervising or working with the authors on what's included if what's represented in the short stories is somewhat important, like that of the short stories by Kanemaki in the Character Files book (especially that of Luxu's or those from UX).

So we definitely can figure out things from what Kanemaki writes, because what she writes and her standing in the pool of authorship for the series is pretty solid through the company, but that doesn't guarantee everything there will show up in the games. Some things don't really need to.

If it's something really super important and hint-ish of future events, I'd definitely keep note of it though.

[for-the-fel-of-it-blog]

Roleplay Tips; Blood Elf Weddings

Hello there! I bet you’re going ‘oh no it’s this twat again’ but I’m back by popular demand. Well if one ask is popular demand. So, my RP friends, do you roleplay a Blood Elf? Are they tying the knot? Well, I’m here to help. First off, let’s start with what we know about Belf marriage;

- Absolutely - Sweet - Fuck - All

That’s right folks, there’s absolutely nothing as far as the eye can see. That being said, we can draw some conclusions based on common sense and other General roleplay knowledge;

- The Sin'dorei are Elves, once High Elves, once Highborne and thus, once Night Elves. Thus we can conclude that their marriage ceremonies are something akin to Kaldorei weddings, see here; https://for-the-fel-of-it.tumblr.com/post/168603610848/roleplay-tips-night-elf-weddings - We also know that the Blood Elves are also very extra. Anything less than a hundred and ten percent isn’t good enough. So, addressing the question 'do they even get married?’ I think yes. Their past with other Elves and their very over the top culture would suggest to me that they do have wedding ceremonies and they are a very big deal. - With all of their Noble heritage, houses are very important to the Sin'dorei. So I think a union between two Elves of important houses would be a sort of must attend social event among the elite of Silvermoon. There’d be lots of guests, fancy food and most definitely some form of entertainment. - That being said, I don’t think arranged marriages would be common or even a thing. While less so than their Kaldorei cousins, females are very important. I wouldn’t go so far to call it a matriarchy the way I do Night Elves, but both genders are considered to be of equal value. - In fact, drawing a little on Tolkien, I think that the custom would be much akin to the Elves of Rivendell. A parent cannot actively tell their child who to marry, but they can make requests of the fiancé(e). While these requests don’t legally need to be fulfilled, it’s considered rude not to and in Silvermoon, no one wants to be called unpolite.

So there we have our basic dos and don’t of a Blood Elf wedding. That’s all well and good but how exactly are you meant to turn random tidbits into a ceremony? Well, however you like really. Personally, if it were me;

- A friend of relevant and significant social standing would be asked to conduct the ceremony. Perhaps, the matriarch or patriarch of a respected house or an Arcanist of the Kirin Tor. - There would of course, be the happy couple. It occurs to me in my Night Elf Wedding Tips I only ever referred to the couple as male and female. Bride and groom. But it might well be two brides or two grooms. For Kaldorei I don’t think they care. The Blood Elves however might. Not because they’re homophobic, per se, but most of them got obliterated during the desecration of the Sun Well. In interest of the race not dying out, I think that Sin'dorei might be pushed to have many children. An issue like this might easily be remedied by a same sex couple adopting one of the numerous Silvermoon Orphans. - Being the Blood Elves and being so extra, I don’t think they’d have a maid of honour and a best man. No. They’d have MAIDS of honour and best MEN. Multiples, for those that didn’t catch my meaning. Maybe as many as three or four, depending on how popular they are. - As like Kaldorei ceremonies, I’d have the guests assembled in a circle. - After the guests are settled, the friend conducting the ceremony who we will call the MC enters. Behind him the bride and groom and any bridesmaids and best men. While again, based entirely off of the Kaldorei ceremony, I do like the idea of the couple, MC, and their parties entering mounted on Hawkstriders. After all, Silvermoon loves their colourful ostrich mascot. - The MC, at this point, would give a speech about the couple and each of their houses and what the joining of these houses would represent. - The bride or groom with the greater social standing (the one with the better house) would give their vows first, promising themselves to their partner and inviting their partner to join their house. - The partner with the smaller social standing (the scrub house) then gives their vows, and accepts the invitation to join their lover’s house. - The brides maids and best men are then consulted; each of them pledge their own houses approval and blessing to the couple’s Union. - Afterwards, we’re done here. Time for a Sin'dorei reception, which you know would be absolutely lit. Music, live entertainment, beautiful venue, loads of guests, dancing, the works. Everything. - I don’t know why, and I have absolutely no basis for it; I think Sin'dorei would have the tradition of a first dance. They are a very elegant, graceful race and dancing embodies that entirely.

And there we go, there’s the facts and what my idea of a ceremony using those facts looks like… But where exactly are you going to hold this wedding? Well;

- Silvermoon, Eversong Woods. The Sin'dorei Captial. One of the oldest surviving cities in Azeroth. Despite being a little… Broken by the Scourge onslaught, the city is still gorgeous and the hub of Horde RP on most RP realms, so let’s just invite EVERYONE. Besides, the mobs that occupy the ruins are low level scrubs, so no where is off limits. - Eversong Woods, in general. There are so many perfect locations in Eversong as a whole, that it would take me forever to list them. Not to mention it is THE Blood Elf zone and is gorgeous. Sure, there’s no flying but who cares? I’m sure you’ll have plenty of fun discovering the perfect spot here, given how spot on the zone design is. - Dalaran, Wherever the fuck Dalaran is. The magic city itself. The Sin'dorei love magic as much as Kaldorei like trees and Shal'dorei like silk (if Legion taught me anything). To many it is a second home, and many live there full time anyway. Northrend Dalaran is mostly quiet these days, with plenty of taverns for a reception afterwards. - Goblin Resort, Feralas. Or maybe you’re the life of every socialite party and your wedding HAS to be the talk of the town FOREVER. Why not pay some slightly shady goblins and have a beach wedding in Feralas? It would certainly suit the attitude of many Elves, but perhaps without the historical ties of significance. - Nagrand, Outland. Nagrand is gorgeous. Always. The Blood Elves have an interesting past with the shattered world and their fallen Prince. Perhaps not Nagrand in particular but Outland nonetheless. The lush open plains are sure to make up for any exact direct link, and if in doubt, just remember no one will question the choice anyway. After all, it is widely acclaimed as one of the best looking zones in the game.

And that’s it. As usual, I probably didn’t make total sense to anyone but myself, but in my defence; someone asked me for my opinion this time.

[mcwriting]

A Day Without Coffee

     Ayyyyyy guess who’s back again!! So I decided to wait on the pt 2 on A Flight to Remember and write the other story I mentioned in the a/n in AFTR. So, once again, Tom Holland x Reader bc I’m extra. Also this is literally the longest, most paragraph-y thing I’ve ever written soooo… Btw written in a sort of first person and slang text so if certain things don’t sound descriptive enough it’s because I’m trying to mimic regular-type speaking.

Fandom: (As always) Marvel bc Spider-man

Ship: Tom Holland (Sleepy!Tom) x Reader

Setting: Atlanta/An interview room

Word Count: 1,848 (wow that’s a lot my bad)

Warnings: Probably none other than one “cuss” word and Tom acting like an idiot lol; also this isn’t really a warning but it’s a little wordy (hopefully y'all are into that)

Rating: K+ (Maybe? I never know how to rate these lol. Rlly only bc I say the one word at the end)

Background: Reader was cast in the Spider-man Hoco sequel and recalls a story about when Tom made a fool of himself in front of you while in an interview. Reader began dating Tom at the end of shooting the movie.

---

     Aside from the blinding lights, fake enthusiasm, and repetitive questions, you quite liked the whole “interview process.” Since you were new to the Hollywood scene, no one really knew much about you, so fans and interviewers were continually learning new facts and interesting tidbits about you that most people didn’t know.

You were on your seemingly billionth interview for the upcoming Spider-man sequel you had surprisingly been cast in.

You had gone into the audition as a fan, thinking you were only there for the experience. You never knew that only a month later you’d be on set in Atlanta, Georgia, surrounded by well known celebrities (and all around hottie, Tom Holland) while living out your dream.

“So, y/n,” the interviewer’s words cut you back into reality.

“Do you have any crazy or funny stories from filming that you can share with us?”

You laughed and thought about the question for a moment.

“Are you asking about before or after Tom and I started dating, because that’s definitely a factor…”

You gave a fake chuckle and smile. 

When you and Tom met, there was an instant friendship, along with the rest of the cast and crew. Though you had good off-screen chemistry with everyone on set, yours and Tom’s was different. Maybe it was the fact that you had walked in with the biggest crush on him, or just that fact that the two of you could play off each other and bounce off of one another’s jokes. Even Harrison joked occasionally about his jealousy towards your playful friendship. 

It really was no surprise to anyone, aside from you, perhaps, that Tom asked you out during the last week of filming. In hindsight, you should’ve seen it coming, from his stolen glances during the three-and-something months of shooting to the way Harrison and Jacob (who both knew of Tom’s intentions prior to you being asked out) prodded at Tom in the week leading up to that special day.

“Well I feel like all we hear about anymore is the post-dating gossip. So how about something from before you two got together, huh?” the woman’s inquiry once again snapped you from your thoughts.

“Haha well there was this one time. We were about a month or so into shooting and, as some may already know, I carpooled with Tom and Harrison to work since I was staying so close to their rental house…”

Since the first week of filming, you had been driving from your place to theirs, where you ate breakfast with the two every morning at six-or earlier if one of you needed extra time in hair/makeup/wardrobe that day-before getting into the (incredibly nice) car Tom was leasing and making your way to the studio. 

Tom didn’t quite trust you to drive.

“Y/n, I’m the older, and obviously more experienced, driver. It’s fine”

“Tom, you aren’t even from America. You literally drive on the wrong side of the road most of the time.”

“Well I’ve had to drive in this city every time I’ve been here. If I’m not more experienced in America, I’m at least more experienced in Atlanta.”

That’s where the argument had ended, because he did have a point.

Plus, his place was closer to the studio and big city traffic was never your favorite. 

“… and one day I got a call from Tom at like, I don’t know, four thirty? And he goes ‘Oh my God, y/n, I’m so sorry but I completely forgot that I’m supposed to be in early today for a certain scene we’re doing today. I would’ve just gone alone and left Harrison to go with you but he’s still sick and the cold medicine you got him has left him with a bit of a hangover.’ So I get up and let him know I’m on my way, right?

“So it’s so early that I literally just forgo changing or anything like that because I’m in a rush and need to get to Tom’s place. I literally got in my car wearing this super old, way too big t-shirt and and then a pair of sweats I’d been sleeping in the past couple of days and just drove away. I totally forgot shoes and went in my socks.”

The interviewer interjects a “No way!” before you continue.

“I know right! So anyways, I rush over there, totally ignoring speed limit signs to get there, pull in the driveway, and just burst through the door from the garage into the house. Thankfully I had left a pair of slides at the house that I could just slip on before grabbing Tom. Harrison had come down with some flu or awful cold the day before and there was no way he could come with us, not that I’d let him of course. I mean, it was the works: he was coughing, could barely breathe, hardly able to function. 

“Unfortunately that also meant that we didn’t have anyone to make breakfast, because I think anyone that follows Haz knows he’s a bit of a cook. Most days I’d come and he would have cooked bacon, gotten he and Tom eggs, and me a muffin, since that’s literally what I live on. While the two of them would sit down with a cup of coffee, I always drank a cup of, I know, I know, iced tea. I mean, to them it’s like, a cardinal sin, but I can’t get enough of the stuff.

“But anywho, I grab my shoes and toss Tom the keys while grabbing a couple of granola bars. Here’s where you see the mistake: Tom didn’t get to drink his coffee. Now, usually, this wouldn’t be a problem, I mean, there’s always coffee on set. Except for today.”

“Oh no!” the interviewer exclaims, trying to keep the story lively.

“We get to set and it turns out that the coffee maker, like, blew out or something and we were so close to being late that Tom was immediately sent to wardrobe and stuff, and of course the only way he can drink while he’s in the suit is by shoving a little tube in a hole they cut in the suit and letting him drink. Problem is, he can only have water since they don’t want him to mess up the suit.

“Fast forward to like, ten thirty that night. They never replaced the coffee maker and Tom was allowed to take off the mask once just to scarf down a quick lunch at midday. He was literally so exhausted and kept falling asleep everywhere. Thank God he wasn’t doing major stunts that day, because he probably would have hurt himself or worse. 

“Anyways; ten thirty p.m. and they finally let Tom go, so he gets the suit peeled off of him and stumbles toward the bathroom in his robe, holding his clothes to change into. He was so tired that it took him almost ten minutes just to slip on his usual joggers and white t-shirt. I had to help him tie his tennis shoes! It was wild. 

“I grabbed all of our stuff and Tom tried to reach for the keys and I was like ‘uh what are you doing?’ and he starts going on this whole ‘Well I’m not letting you drive my car’ thing. I mean, I had driven his car before. Of course, it was in a Walmart parking lot just to prove that I could drive it, but still. It counts. So I bring that up and assure him that, ‘yes, Tom, I know where I’m going and how to get there.’

“He finally stops fighting me and crawls into the passenger seat. I turn on the car and before we even left the parking lot he’s dead asleep. I hoped the fifteen minute drive would at least get him enough of a power nap to get himself in the house once we arrived, but I was so wrong. I had to make my way over to his door and basically drag him out of the seat and into the house. Thankfully Harrison was still awake, and visibly much better from that morning. 

“Harrison asked me what was going on as he came up on the other side of Tom to get him to his room and I briefly explained the situation. We get Tom into his room and I pull his things from his pockets and plug in his phone while Harrison tugs off his tennis shoes. Harrison went into the hallway and left me with Tom, who was babbling like an idiot.

“He kept saying things like ‘Y/n, where are we?’ and ‘No I don’t need sleep’ and all, and so I just sort of awkwardly whispered ‘Tom, I think you should get some rest… I’ll see you in the morning… Uh.. Bye?’ 

“I started to walk away and he just grabs me out of no where and pulls me into a hug. It caught me off guard because he was laying down and I was standing, so I just sort of fell over him. He mumbled into my ear ‘Thank you so much, y/n’ and I quietly reply with a ‘Oh no problem. Happy to help’ type thing and he just keeps thanking me and suddenly he starts kissing my face. My cheeks, forehead. It was strange. 

“I immediately stood up and quickly blurted out ‘UhgoodnightTomseeyoutomorrow’ and rushed out the door. Of course Harrison saw the whole thing and was laughing his butt off while I rushed out.”

The interviewer is laughing as well at this point and shaking her head.

“And the thing is, I come back the next morning, six o’clock as always, and Tom’s already on his third cup of coffee for the day. When I brought it up Harrison winked at me and Tom explains that ‘man I was just so tired yesterday I need it’ and then he goes ‘hey thanks for driving me last night, I don’t remember much of what happened after getting in the car. How did I even get to bed?’

“So I look up at Harrison and stumble through a shortened version of me driving his car home, without any problems you know, in the hopes that he’ll let me drive it more, and how Harrison and I carried him to bed. I totally omitted the parts after that and he never mentioned it again. Though he did let me drive the car a lot more after that…”

“Wait, he doesn’t even know about this?” the woman exclaims.

You shake your head with a grin.

“Nope. I guess I’ll have to send this interview to him when it releases! He’s gonna be so pissed. I can’t wait!”

You wave to the camera while chuckling.

“Love you, Tommy… Hope you still love me after this! You’re the best!”

“Well folks, it looks like we just got the inside scoop on y/n y/l/n and Tom Holland’s pre-dating relationship!” the interviewer began.

“And I’d say that if we learned anything today, it’s that Spider-man himself can’t live a day without coffee.”

---

A/N: Well that was a trainwreck and way too long. I promise Pt. 2 of A Flight to Remember will be much better than this and will hopefully be out by tomorrow. Hope you like reading this as much as I enjoyed putting this together in my head 😂

[helmes-deep]

Unpopular Opinion: Axl x April

This is kind of random, but I was cleaning out my drafts and came across this saved text post. Originally, I meant to post this in response to some other post about the relationship between Axl and April from The Middle, but alas, never got around to it (like all things I start on Tumblr :p). Since the last season of this show is about to release soon (see what I mean?? The first episode of Season 9 already came out on Tuesday, October 3!!), I thought I might as well post this as a random opinion before we get to see the end to all of the love-related drama surrounding the Heck children :33

This post is mostly about Axl/April and Sue/Sean, with a tidbit of my updated thoughts due to Tuesday’s kick-off episode.

Contrary to everyone else, I didn’t mind Axl and April as a married couple. Yes, April was a complete and utter ditz, and yes, those types of characters usually drive me up the wall. But, while I didn’t LOVE April as Axl’s newly-wedded wife, I did like the possible development she could have brought to Axl – and likewise, the show. Yes, April was dumber than a rock most of the time (which was what also made her pretty funny!! lbh), but there were also definitely some moments of true, genuine awareness displayed by her. Distinct instances (at least two?? come to mind) where she and Frankie shared moments of real, mutual understanding between each other. One of them is in Episode 3 of the previous season – I believe it’s during the Halloween episode – when I think Frankie is having an emotionally bad day because none of the Hecks are giving her any attention/expressing their love and appreciation for her when in comes April – again, having been portrayed as a totally ditzy character up until this point – and tells her after all the festivities that she told Axl to be nice to Frankie because “we only have one mom” and “moms are pretty great.” The comment basically brightens up Frankie’s whole day and considering how heavily this show is based on showing how Frankie struggles as a middle-class mom trying to raise three kids, I thought that scene was pretty touching and significant. It just felt like at that moment, we as the viewers were supposed to see that even though Axl is a total knucklehead (and that he might be motivated a little bit too much by only looks), that he sees in April what we all have failed to see in her up until this moment – that April is actually a really sweet, caring, and mindful girl, especially where it matters most. April’s few moments of genuine care and mindfulness, especially to Frankie, might seem insignificant to some, but I don’t know if any other of Axl’s previous love interests have really shown that level of empathy and understanding between themselves and his mom.

I also thought that April had a very good potential to help Axl grow as a person – both in terms of finding his future job and emotionally. April’s presence as Axl’s now very real and present “wife” would have propelled him to develop a more realistic and grown-up view of life, thus encouraging him to go find a job to support him and her, as well as help him realize how hard it is to take care of a family. (I’m not saying that marrying someone is ever a good idea to find one’s life purpose, dream job, or whatever – it’s definitely not – but come on, guys, this is a TV show it doesn’t have to be 100% realistic.) April’s existence as Axl’s life partner starts to help him realize the responsibility of growing up and functioning as an adult – you can see a hint of him learning that right here in this video at 1:34. It’s why I was sooooo disappointed when they quickly (and in a rather contrived matter) annulled Axl and April’s marriage. It was like the show was finally going to give Axl some much-needed character development (after having him basically wander around for the past few seasons) by allowing him to taste a bit of what it’s like to grow up into a responsible husband, son, and adult. That possible character development was just broken off wayyyyyy too soon for him, imo. 

I really wanted April to stay because I’m also just kind of tired of Axl jumping from girl to girl lol. I mean tbh, he’s not exactly “jumping” from girl to girl like the ultimate playboy. And I’ve got nothing against any of his past girlfriends, really (I’m actually okay with and kind of like all of them, tbh). It’s just that his lack of a steady girlfriend robs him of some much-needed character development (same with Sue, btw) that has been making his arc very repetitive and boring lately (and by default, taking away humor from the show). I think the same situation has been happening to him and Sue (and to some degree, Brick) for about the past 2 or so seasons: none of the writers knew how to deal with the kids being grown up. Brick is no longer the cute little book boy we’ve known him to be, Sue can no longer get by with being the most unlucky dork in the world, and Axl by this time needs to get his act together. Those dynamics just no longer work when both Sue and Axl are in college and Brick has already had his first year of high school. Perhaps they were going for the realistic (and I will admit, I can definitely relate to Axl’s post-college life struggles), but for a TV show, especially a comedic one, it has to move in some direction. Because nobody wants to watch (too much of a) mundane life on TV. Because while it’s realistic – and somewhat relatable – it’s just… boring. So anyway, yeah, I would have liked April to stick around a little longer to better develop Axl’s character lol. Caveat: I have a feeling that the writers of The Middle did mean to have April stay a while longer (same goes with Sue’s story arc with the 2 or 3??? guys she was trying to get with this past season), but I guess upon hearing/deciding they were going to end the show after the ninth season – and considering it was wayyyyyy too soon for anyone to accept April at that point and I’m pretty sure we can all kind of agree that the cab-guy was probably not the very best pick for Sue lololol – that they just decided the best way to tie things together and give the characters and audience the ending they deserved was to quickly jump ship now and axe April and the cab-guy (was it Trevor??? Or Trey???) in preparation for the last and upcoming season. (Sidenote: Tbh I think The Middle had/has jumped the shark, but I do think it could have/can last for a few more seasons if the writers ACTUALLY KNEW WHAT TO DO WITH THE GROWN-UP KIDS NOW OR BEFORE IT WAS TOO LATE!!!!)

SIDE PARAGRAPH: Lexi’s all right, but a tad boring imo. She’s very vanilla, which is probably good for Axl, but ehhhhhh for me….. Also I’m still mad about how Axl might have been into Lexi when he was still dating April lol.

Probably the last reason why I thought April would be a good addition to the show was because of her ditziness lol. Sure, it was kind of annoying half the time, but April’s completely air-headed comments definitely brought back some much-needed humor to the show. Of which The Middle has been severely lacking lately, because of, you know, the lack of character development for the children (and maybe to some degree Mike and Frankie, but we won’t get into that rn :p). Here we have two kids (Axl and April) whose families kind of really dislike each other, which could have added some pretty epic and funny Romeo and Juliet-esque moments/tensions and comedic relief/humor back into the show. If there’s one thing that’s been missing from The Middle lately, it’s the lack of a few tertiary yet delightfully peculiar characters that provide the extra comic relief to the show through their contact with the Hecks. The most recent instance of such characters are probably Mike’s brother Rusty and Sue’s friend Brad (who is kind of over-used at this point imo). I would have loved to see Frankie and April’s mom at “civil” odds with each other due to their children having been wedded, or maybe Mike and April’s dad actually forming some kind of bond. But alas, both Axl’s – and Sue’s – love interests have been added and dispensed of far too quickly for us to get any type of secondary characters that were as funny as Darrin or the Glossners.

On a sidenote, I’m just as frustrated with how Sue and Sean’s relationship was executed this past season. Again, I think The Middle’s current lack of humor goes back to them not letting Sue get serious with a steady boyfriend to develop her character (by this point, I would have liked Axl to be married or at least be in a steady relationship with the girl who’s supposed to be his future wife/have a fiancé, while Sue should at least just be beginning to find her steady boyfriend). I’m just tired of seeing e v e r y relationship Sue’s ever been in get curbed by some unforeseeable plot device. That being said, again, I do think they rushed Sue’s and Sean’s feelings for each other due to the reasons I’ve already stated above in regard to Axl (aka they had to end the show). I don’t really love, love Sean (there might have been a time earlier in the Middle’s timeline when I might have thought Sue and Sean would have probably made a cute couple, but then it seemed those random “Sue x Sean” hints were completely dropped, so then my feelings kind of passed but maybe they’re back again??). Again, I haven’t necessarily disliked any of Sue’s past boyfriends, except for maybe that hyper-hippie college dude. I probably also love her earlier love interests more because they were more interesting (aka had definite quirks/personalities) and each gave her some character development. But I do think Sean’s a sweet guy and somewhat of a perfect match for Sue. Like Lexi, the guy probably would have warmed up my heart if the show had given him more time to break down his feelings for Sue so that I could get a better idea as to why Sue all of a sudden subconsciously loves Sean and Sean subconsciously thinks a lot about her lol. So yeah, even though I wasn’t a huge Sean fan (or anti, for that matter), I was SO UPSET (albeit a bit conflicted) when Axl’s selfish butt blocked him and made him throw away the snow globe :’c (Update: I’ve since re-watched Sean and Sue’s interactions for the past couple of seasons and oh my word DID YOU SEE HOW DISAPPOINTED AND/OR SAD HE WAS THE SECOND AND THIRD TIMES SUE SAID SHE ALREADY HAD A DATE TO THE PROM/DANCE AND THEN LIKE DURING THE SHOW’S NINTH SEASON PREMIERE I WAS ALL IN WHEN HE SHOWED UP AT HER DOOR HAHA HE LOOKED SO NICE AND THEY WERE SO CUTE AND AWKWARD WITH EACH OTHER AND IF THEY DON’T END UP AS OTP FOR THE END OF THIS SHOW IMMA HAVE TO CUT SOMEONE LOL :’PP) But yeah, long story short: his development was rushed, too leol.

Feel free to reblog this and respond before next week’s episode!! (or perhaps after :pp) I just really needed to write and say all of this lol. While I’m not too excited about Axl and Lexi just yet (hold on a sec, I think I just realized a kind of alliteration between Axl and Lexi and Sean and Sue??? O..O), my only hope is that Sean and Sue get together and become an item early on so that I can see them be a cute couple for the rest of the season and show’s run :’33 ❤❤

[airlock]

so, a few of you might remember when I tried to turn the results of the FE Heroes pre-release poll into a semi-typical FE roster, and soon enough I’m sure most of you will be wishing I’d shut up about it, but alas, I’ve got news on that front

after tinkering a lot with the expected mechanics that would go with that hypothetical roster and rethinking a lot of picks and whatnot, I’ve ended up with a new set of rosters! still mostly the same characters, but I think it’s looking a lot tidier now

(plus I’ll try to ramble a little less this time. just a little!)

first things first, a reminder of the ground rules in this exercise, but a little shorter

names are all from the poll or further official releases, still not giving a shit about namewank, etc

only playable characters are in the rosters, so no NPCs or antagonists (at least, no one who was never playable. and even some playables are out if they were, well, bullshit playables). although sufficiently popular antagonists still could easily be the ones to clash against these rosters...

Akaneia, Valentia, Jugdral, Elibe, Magvel, Tellius, Ylisse, and Fates are all in this exercise, along with a few... extra characters, so to say, on each build. series with bigger rosters got to include more characters, series with smaller rosters got to include less characters.

I still have not played Gaiden or Fates, although I’ve been liberally spoiling myself on some tidbits Echoes: Shadows of Valentia information so that might tidy up my decisions a bit further!

these builds might have a few more popular-unpopular characters, but there’s still not a chance in hell I’m including Tharja

and, of course, once again, the lowdown on how the lords work for these builds. I’ve split them into two sets, the hypothetical player picks one lord from each set and ends up with two. there’s a few more lord options on these builds than before, too, specially since I’ve now added lance lords to the class tree. the groupings are still semi-arbitrary, although I’ve been trying to think up a better approach to that as well

it’s also worth mentioning what the biggest change to the mechanics was, as that’ll be readily visible on the rosters: where the previous build used a Radiant Dawn all-segregated magic system, I decided that this was a cumbersome approach to a series-wide roster, and since this is already a sort of Heroes-themed thing, I decided to instead make it run on Red-Blue-Green magic tomes. (the “dark mage” class type listed on the rosters is just a red tome using class with different stats, almost akin to how the “riding healer” and “cleric” class types are just different kinds of staff-using class)

aaaaaaand, without further ado...

Build #1: Tight

this one’s a fixed, straightforward 50-character build featuring as many as possible of the most popular characters in the poll while keeping the numbers at least close to what an average Fire Emblem roster is like. to make it so, I set down a few goal numbers first, then used the rest of the assigned slots as “blanks” that I could assign to any class, provided I didn’t do it too often for a single particularly competitive class.

available Lords on this roster are:

A: Marth, Seliph, Leif, Roy, Lyn, Lucina, Corrin(F), Alfonse B: Alm, Sigurd, Eliwood, Eirika, Ephraim, Ike, Chrom, Sharena

and the remainder:

this time, I’m less inclined than before on maintaining classic roster archetypes at the cost of including popular characters, although they’re mostly still there if you squint (I mean, Cain and Finn may not be red and green, but Finn is basically an Abel personality anyway!)

the primary issue I have here is that I wrapped this up with one freebie slot and one Tellius slot... and I have two equally good ways to fill this in. Haar is the more popular character, but Sothe basically counts as Radiant Dawn representation and would potentially be a more interesting choice in terms of hypothetical game design. and of course, being the only one who can prevent this build having an all-3DS thief lineup helps too.

Build #2: Draft

this larger build has as many as 80 characters in the listings, but the catch is that you’d only get to recruit half of them, making a total of 40 playable characters alongside the 2 lords. in a hypothetical game, this would be a setup where Askr and Embla race to bring heroes to their cause -- and perhaps, the ones you don’t get will go on to be your opponents. unlike the tight build, I didn’t set aside any freebie slots for this one, as a downshot of getting to input that much more characters per category -- the effective rosters would actually be even tighter!

the lords are the same as listed in the Tight build, as such:

A: Marth, Seliph, Leif, Roy, Lyn, Lucina, Corrin(F), Alfonse B: Alm, Sigurd, Eliwood, Eirika, Ephraim, Ike, Chrom, Sharena

and the sum of everyone potentially available would be like this:

you might note that FE6 and FE7 have the same amount of characters within Elibe, while FE4 appears to have more characters than FE5 within Jugdral. actually, two of the characters listed on the FE4 end also appear on FE5, which brings it up to 5 characters per Jugdral game and 2 that are shared!

as for the doubt with the Tellius character above, that could promptly be solved, but now the issue is that, as you delve deeper into the poll, you start getting a lot of characters that are hard to make an effective decision between. I’ve already made an amount of difficult choices here, but a few remain. put in Arthur as a thunder-ish mage although he’s a really a wind-ish mage (even when not sired by Lewyn), or settle for slightly less popular but more mechanically appropriate Tailtiu? does Lon’qu count as more popular than Owain when you consider that Owain has more votes if you add them to Odin’s? Severa is more popular than Inigo, but is she sufficiently disliked to make Inigo the less generally grating option, as with Tharja and Henry (albeit on a much lesser scale, to say the least)?

at least, those indecisions still only have a minor impact on the roster, so far, so I think I can still afford to put some of those off.

Build #3: Worst Emblem

this poll has also given us some insight on which are the least well-remembered characters across all FE, so, trying to make the most obscure possible roster makes for an equally interesting endeavor!

this one has the same rules as the Tight build, although this time, I’ve trimmed down on the lords. the two that you get are preset, and they’re Alfonse and Masked Marth. now, who else are you stuck with in this hell build?

as before, I aimed for a diverse roster over necessarily including the absolute least popular characters. sometimes, this involved reaching for a character who isn’t ranked that low among their cast, but is ranked very low for their class type (eg Niime, Jeanne). much more often, this involved trying not to take the easy way out and always go for the consistently unpopular types, such as prepromotes, FE4 substitute children, and FEBS characters. I even managed to keep the prepromote total in this cast below 50%, and actually closer to 33%!

this one has a couple of indecisions to crunch, too. is the extremely forgettable, technically less popular Macellan worthier of a spot than the somewhat dislikeable Roger (thus making them a reverse of the Tharja-Henry and Severa-Inigo situations above)? and as for the Awakening characters, only including one of Basilio or Flavia is good to avoid the prepromote overload, but which of them should be dropped in favor of a similarly unpopular unpromote of the same class type? (noting that the unpopularity ranks there go Basilio < Flavia < Vaike < Gregor, so I’m basically picking between two relative extremes of unpopularity or a balanced middle).

and that’s that! I’m figuring that this time, including an overall listing won’t be necessary since I’m now screenshooting the overall listings on each build. however, I can cap this off with a now pretty much operational class tree!

if you’ve enjoyed this exercise, then here’s a few things you might get to look forward to in the future: a skill system, a weapon list (including personal weapons for everyone! yes, even the Worst Emblem team!), and a support system!

[kileygoestobschool-blog]

12 Months isn’t THAT long...right?

Remember back when I would apologize profusely for not posting for a few weeks? Yeah, me either. Please just picture me in the human-equivalent position to a dog with her tail between her legs but an incredibly endearing look on her face so it’s impossible to be actually upset. Perfect.

So, yes; it’s been...over a year since I last posted. Which makes sense, given how uneventful the past twelve months have been (I know it’s been a while, so you may need some time to readjust to my humor. While you do: that was sarcasm). In fact, all that’s happened since May of last year is:

1) Jon and I graduated from Tuck.

2) I got a job. In Portland.

3) Jon and I meandered our way across the country.

4) We leased an apartment. In Portland.

5) I got another job (at the same company). Still in Portland.

6) Jon got a job. In Seattle.

7) We bought a house. In Seattle.

So clearly nothing to update about there. The sleuthiest among you may also sense some geographical dissonance in the list above--very astute, dear reader. Things are indeed complicated, but what follows is a cliff’s notes of all of those highlights and an attempt at explaining how we live in two places at once (no, no metaphysics involved). You may want to go to the bathroom first...this could get long.

1) Jon and I graduated from Tuck:

This one’s pretty self-explanatory, so I won’t waste precious eye time. Suffice to say they gave us diplomas and sent us on our way. Fun extra tidbit: our graduation was outside during one of the more aggressive rain storms I’ve experienced in North America. We looked really, really good in our photos at the end.

2&5) I got a job. In Portland. Then got another job (at the same company):

(Before I start, I have to record this. I just forgot the “r” in Portland and realized how incredible and appropriate it was.).

A little less self-explanatory. Here are the key takeaways (what? You don’t summarize your life steps with key takeaways? You can take the girl out of the business school…):

Company: Brandlive They make a live video platform (read: software) for companies (mostly brands, e.g. Nike, adidas, etc.) to use for training and commerce events. Think of it this way: instead of flying 500 sales managers around the country to train 20,000 shoe salespeople in Nike stores around the country, Nike can have ONE of those sales managers host a live video session and ALL of the salespeople can tune in. In other words, scaling human interaction.

Role: first, Director of Operations; then, Sr. Dir. Operations & Customer Success. I know. It’s a lot of words. Basically, Operations means do all the little things that need to happen to make the company run and start thinking about all the other little things that will need to happen when the company gets bigger. Customer Success is a techy term for Account Manager.

The story gets a bit...proprietary, so I’ll keep it high level. If you’re dying for the juicy details, you know where to find me (tip: pour a glass of wine first. Or whiskey. Yeah, probably whiskey.).

Summary is I was hired to do Operations, which I love. I also have experience in Customer Success from my time at MuleSoft. The person who was previously heading up Customer Success was reassigned and I added that role onto my original one. It entails leading a team of four account managers, ensuring our customers are happy so they stick around and buy more things from us.

3) Jon & I meandered our way across the country:

We took two weeks driving from upstate New York to Portland. Highlights were visits to friends and family: Nana & Bompa in Wisconsin, Jon’s friend XXX and my fried Liz in Denver, Lauren in Taos, New Mexico, and stops in four national parks Badlands, Bryce, Grand Canyon, and Zion. And, of course, the highlight of ANY cross-country road trip: Wall Drug (not really, that place is pretty underwhelming after the 200 miles of signs leading up to it). Oh, and I got a job along the way, which was good, since we were already halfway across America and really needed a final destination. Also, we broke down and bought a selfie stick. It was awesome.

4) We leased an apartment. In Portland.

Also pretty self-explanatory. The apartment is on Mississippi Avenue, a trendy commercial street just on the east side of the Willamette river, in NE Portland. We absolutely love the neighborhood, and compared to SF and DC, the rent is pretty awesome too.

6) Jon got a job. In Seattle.

Here’s where we start to get a little geographically challenged. After consulting for an east coast company throughout Tuck and into the fall of 2016, Jon was looking for work here in Portland, but I also encouraged him to expand his search to Seattle, since we knew we wanted to end up there eventually (hello, free child care). Well, turns out fate wanted us there even sooner than we’d planned; Jon got a job at a startup called Dataminr and officially starting working there in February. Since then, we’ve been swapping weekends between Portland and Seattle, generally trying to go with the flow and pretend this is how all couples live. (Spoiler alert: it’s not. It sucks. Don’t do it.) Other than the 200 miles it puts between us, Jon’s job has been great. He’s learning a ton about startup life and the tech industry while doing what he does for fun anyway: reading the news. It’s kind of ridiculously perfect for him, actually.

7) We bought a house. In Seattle.

Soooo, that whole “we’ll end up in Seattle at some point” thing is pretty much happening in real time. After about 36 hours of working in different cities, we realized it wasn’t going to last. We knew Seattle was the long-term plan, and since rent prices in Seattle are absurd, we knew we wanted to buy (and because we have incredible families, that was actually an option). So after three months, one rescinded offer, one (barely) losing offer, and one or two miiiinor fights, we finally did it. The house is in Greenwood, just north of Green Lake, and we are very, very excited about it. We’re still in escrow, but should be moving in before the end of the month (also our lease in Portland is up May 31, so we kind of have to). Pictures coming soon!

And there you have it, people. Twelve months in two pages (tumblr doesn’t have actual pages, so you’re just gonna need to trust me on that). There’s a lot left out, of course; a lot of memories, laughter, tears, whiskey drinks, and ikea furniture to fill you in on, but it’s a start, and it feels really, really good to be back.

[petitprincess1]

A Stupid Warrior Fanfic Idea

I cannot stress this enough, please, leave a comment to know if this is a terrible or good idea. Also, if you have anything to add, let me know.

I have this really stupid idea for a fanfic and I just don’t know if it’s good or not. So, if it isn’t good, please tell me because this has been bugging me for a while and I just need to get it off my chest.

Anyway, I have this idea where it’s still kind of Warriors, but it take place in like a Zootopia-ish realm. For example, it has the whole anthropomorphic animals, but it doesn’t take within the city Zootopia. It takes place in it’s own town (that I’m gonna blandly call The Clans, unless you have a better name). Everyone is still divided in their own faction, but they all still work together doing their own separate jobs (like RiverClan is in charge of trade and/or marketing, ShadowClan would be in charge of the Judicial system, or ThunderClan is charge of police and/or military (because they literally take care of everyone’s crap)). Also, the Dark Forest and StarClan do exist, but I’m unsure if I want them just to stay a religion or somehow secretly have control, these two, of course, butt heads over who’s in charge. Although, I’m not sure if I want that or the DF and SC to just be wealthy/poverty districts. What do you think?

Although, despite everyone being divided, people do have free reign to leave from their faction. Now, is there still conflicts between the clans? ...Of course! It wouldn’t be Warriors without it! It’s just more civil than bloody, in spite of that, blood still is spilt. Not as much, so there tends to be a bit of a panic when it happens. Also, because of this, there are cats who are in relationships from other clans, and, unfortunately, they are met with a lot of prejudice. Sometimes, it’s gone as far as they can’t come back to their original territory (that’s until the head knows of that prejudice and starts kicking some behinds...though that doesn’t mean that they are for interrelationships).

Also, within the clans, the cats that reach 6 moons (not sure if Zootopia did human ages or not, I’m still thinking this through) can either go to a school for about 6-12 moons (and whatever it is they are studying for, they’re stuck with it) or they can, just like the books, become an apprentice and basically job shadow, for those who don’t know it’s basically where you learn the job and walk through that job as a “shadow” for a worker. Although, with this job shadowing, it’s a lot longer and you do a bit more work. Sometimes, if they feel like they’re ready, they can get right into their job. As long as it anything too dangerous, like catching a serial killer or performing surgery.

Now, what about other cats like loners, kittypets, or even BloodClan? Well, they still exist, just not exactly the same as you think they are. Loners are more-or-less entrepreneurs, like Barley actually own his own farm or Purdy owns a knick-knack/artifact shop (because yes).

BloodClan are, what else, druglords. I mean they hang out in alleys…..and that’s the only justification that I have. Look, blame Klarikatt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCOSgFmwGDg). Of course, Scourge is the kingpin. Also, instead of drugs like cocaine or meth, they sell catnip (nicknamed “Nip”) or cat treats (like Temptations) or even deathberries (if diluted correctly, it can get you high (if you call feeling a death-like numbness a good high)).

Now, kittypets, I can see it going two completely different ways. One: They can be an upper middle-class, but utterly despised by the clans because they are too lazy, almost never do their jobs, and, some, flaunt their riches. Some would say a conspiracy is going on and others just want to outdo those slimy snobs. Two: They are slaves. Of course, we all know that collars symbolize ownership, and due to the fact there aren’t any humans in this AU, they are owned by the people that loathe them. They absolutely want nothing to do with them. ...So, what do they do with the kittypets? Well, I’ll let your mind wander about that. Which do you guys prefer: Slavery or Middle-class?

Extra tidbits:

Their currency is done through tails/coverings of preys. So, like mouse tails,  squirrel tails, vole tails, bird feathers, fish scales, and, rarely, fox tails (this is in order from lowest to highest).

Prey are still “devolved” in this society, so, don’t be alarmed at them killing them.

Prisons are nicknamed “Shelters,” “Kennels,” or “The Cages.”

The Moonpool and Mothermouth exists, but just like the books, only leaders can go and medicine cats.

The Gatherings still exists, but it’s held annually instead of once a month.

Some events from the stories still exist, like the dogs from the first series, sorry Brightheart…

There are social networks like: Mew (Twitter), Pawbook (Facebook), Swipe (Skype), Kit (Kik), and other ones that I’m too uncreative to come up with.

There will be straight, gay, bi, poly, and ace relationship. Yes, you can be in love and be ace. No trans because I feel like I’d insult someone so quickly.

Some cats that are dead will be alive in this. Just to name a few: Spottedleaf, Snowkit, Hawkfrost, Tigerclaw, Brokentail, Bluefur, Talltail, Jake, Raggedpelt, Yellowfang, Mosskit, Thistleclaw, and Snowfur (This is just a few, also note how I’m not using -star).

Why no -star suffixes? No one is truly leader of their territory, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ones who keep a close eye on the residents.

SkyClan is in here, but I’m not sure what to do with them, especially since I haven’t read much about them. Should I leave them out or…?

That’s all I have at the moment or at least what I can recall. I know it’s not completely well thought out, but it’s a start. I do have some plot points, but I don’t think it’s ready to be a story. If this gets some likes (like even if it gets ten), I’ll post up a list of characters, traits, and some relationships.

Sorry that this isn’t what I normally put in, I’m just desperate, I guess.

[airlock]

there’s been a lot of interesting discussion about Fire Emblem on my dash today! this...... isn’t really it, but hey, if you enjoy my ridiculous AU roster/mechanics tinkering, this one might be the most ambitious of them yet!

see, I was thinking about whether I could pull off making a fairly typical FE character distribution using the characters that got the most attention in the Heroes poll (proportionally, of course, otherwise that’d just entail making the Awakening roster again), and the results may or may not shock you

(fair warning: this is very rambly)

so, first of all, ground rules:

I am using the names from the poll and am not interested in namewank to go with this more general wank

I’m working off a class tree I designed during my first attempt at this and only tinkered with slightly; it’s rather bulky and I won’t bother putting up with this post, but I’ll be delving further into the mechanics of this whole mess (whether still through posts or just by sending shit directly to what few people might be interested), and that’ll be when showing that tree off becomes more relevant

I have only used playable characters for this; no NPCs and no antagonists, not even the ones who are popular enough to rub shoulders with the heroes. those breakout antagonists are sure to be organized into the hypothetical opposition you’d be up against, however...

all eight series (Akaneia, Valentia, Jugdral, Elibe, Magvel, Tellius, Ylisse, Fates) have been included in this exercise, but a little bit of extra weight was taken from the ones with the least characters (Valentia, Magvel, Ylisse) and given to the ones with the most characters (Jugdral, Elibe) -- this isn’t me being biased, it’s me understanding that trying to use the same cast size for all series makes everything too loose for the series with smaller casts and too tight for the series with bigger casts. incidentally, if you happened to notice that I’ve taken from more continuities than I’ve given, it just so happens that the last missing tidbits have gone towards...... certain special guests who aren’t bound by continuity, to say the least.

I’ve also tried somewhat, but not entirely, to give roughly equal to representation to all titles within a series. this implies different things in different series -- Jugdral and Elibe have drastically different casts across continuities, which forces a little more effort into that exercise, but close continuation titles like Mystery of the Emblem and Radiant Dawn can usually do with less effort towards including their exclusives.

don’t be surprised if characters who should be prepromotes aren’t (or even, more rarely, if characters who aren’t prepromotes become so), as I’ve taken quite a few of those down where it was important to keep the numbers relatively balanced; or if characters from games with less subdivided types of magic find themselves in completely arbitrary places in this build with both a trinity of magic and a trinity of anima; or if characters who are trainees are found either in classes that play similarly to their trainee base class, or in classes that tend to be favored by the player when choosing a promotion

I have not played Gaiden or Fates. this may make my decisions weird on either front, but I’d suspect moreso for the former.

my usual indecisiveness shines here, so don’t be surprised by the occasional situation where I’m listing together two characters who are close in popularity (or otherwise in a sort of paralellism) but only planning on settling on one of them

I’ve tried to avoid significantly controversial characters, no matter how much votes they got; this led me to two notable of exclusions of characters who did well on the poll. fortunately, both them are easily replaced -- the first because there’s more than one Ylissean dark mage, the second because I’m not featuring a lot of manaketes on the rosters anyway. you can probably tell who I’m indirectly referring to. (it’s tharja and nowi.)

last but not least: on all the rosters, there’s a special rule about how the lord characters work. there’s a bunch of them, but you only get to have two of them at a time in your actual roster; you’d be choosing those at the beginning of the “game”. I’ve also split them into semi-arbitrary rows (that mostly dovetail into the class tree that I’m not showing you, which includes two possible promotions for lords), such that you only pick one lord from each row. and finally, not every character who is a protagonist or even a lord per se has been put into this system instead of the general unit pool (mostly, lords who don’t use swords went into the general unit pool, because I didn’t want to make exceptions in the class tree for them).

I’ve actually organized three rosters through this exercise -- and so, without further ado...

BUILD #1: TIGHT

this first roster is a pretty strict build; 50 playable characters total (including the 2 lords that you can use, but not the 12 lords that you can potentially use), with the first 44 or so forming a pretty typical (if somewhat adjusted) Fire Emblem roster of classes, while the other 4 or so were loosely used to provide just a little more breathing room in the classes that proved most competitive.

because the priority is to give every series a mostly equal shake, some of the more unpopular games ended up getting leverage over even some absolute superstars; this is why, for example, you’ll be seeing a lot of myrmidons with astonishing breakout popularity, but not the most popular myrmidon (although one character more popular than her did end up classed as a myrmidon).

the lords for this build are:

Alm, Sigurd, Eliwood, Eirika, Ike, Chrom    (pick one) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Marth, Seliph, Leif, Roy, Lucina, Corrin(F) (pick one)

and the build proper, divided in class groups:

(*asterisks denote prepromote status)

don’t think too hard about which classes got boxed together, it’s just for the sake of saving space

mostly, I ended up with a lot of magi, since subdividing the magic types let me get away with blowing a majority of my bonus slots on them. (and still there was no room for Nino. sob.)

you may also have noticed that I insisted on hitting upon a few of the franchise archetypes. note the red cav and green cav (even if the green cav in question is something of a red cav in disguise), as well as the fighters with opposing personalities (although that was also somewhat sheer serendiptity(sp?)).

one of my indecisions appears here; Severa has a decent margin of votes over Inigo, but as far as I can tell there’s also more people who dislike her than Inigo, so that’s a bit of a toss-up.

aside from the major magical glut, though, this one carries itself just fine as a Fire Emblem roster... but there’s certainly a large amount of absolute superstars that couldn’t place. I did think of a little something to alleviate that matter, for anyone who might find it concerning...

BUILD #2: DRAFT

this version of the roster basically has twice as many units of each class as you’d normally be recruiting -- and the catch is that you’ll only be using half of them, thus bringing you back down to the amount you’d normally be recruiting. the vague idea there is that you’d be playing drafts with an opponent, perhaps even having to battle what units you didn’t take for yourself.

lords notwithstanding, this build has a total of 70 characters, of which you’ll be using 35 -- adding up to 37, with the lords.

this one uses the same lords as the first one, but here’s a refresher:

Alm, Sigurd, Eliwood, Eirika, Ike, Chrom    (pick one) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Marth, Seliph, Leif, Roy, Lucina, Corrin(F) (pick one)

and the deeper delve:

(that’s Jaffar and Matthew abbreviated on the Thieves section, incidentally)

this one’s actually a much tidier build, both in terms of what the cast you actually get looks like and in terms of which characters got included. this somewhat belies the absolute nervous wreck that was required to string together the last ends of this shindig, but I think I’ve pulled it off, at least. mostly, though, it’s just disappointing that you only get 2 cavaliers/lance knights -- I was intending for 3, but the series just doesn’t have 6 such unpromoted characters with enough star power to themselves.

most characters from the previous build are in this one, with a small exception: Akaneia having more slots gave me room to put in Abel, so I could achieve that coveted red/green cav duo (even if I had to do it with an already existing one) while also using Sain’s slot for someone more popular (sorry, Sain! Elibe slots are very competitive...).

and yes, that’s Ced on the light magi list, and not the wind magi list. on the one hand, technically, if you don’t make Lewyn his father in FE4, he only starts out with a Light tome and equal ranks on all of the Sage’s weapon types. but for real, honestly, up-front, I am bullshitting my own system, because wind magic was competitive but not enough for 6 slots, and light magic was too competitive for 2 slots but couldn’t fill up 4 without a little helping hand. ultimately, sometimes, the main weakness of this build is having to put everything into even numbers. but I managed to work around it when it most irresolvably came up, so hopefully that worked.

another toss-up appears here! jaffar has more votes than matthew, but the difference is very small, to the point that it can’t be considered significant when you account for all the things that made the Heroes poll a... non-exact endeavor.

it’s worth noting now that at some point in this exercise, I entertained the idea of throwing Glade into the roster, just having him go right up there with all the superstars. this ultimately didn’t happen (you’d be surprised by how competitive Thracia 776 slots get), but by the time I was in a position to make it happen, I had an even better idea, anyway...

BUILD #3: WORST EMBLEM

... which was, how about I also try to make a cast with the least popular characters ever?

I tried not to pick on the same few things too often here -- I can make an entire zero-popularity roster out of BS Akaneia and FE4 substitute kids, but what’s the fun in that? in fact, even if I did still end up with a lot of prepromotes, I’ve tried to avoid overincluding prepromotes, and tried to snag unpromoted units whenever I had good cause to.

aside from the total switching of polarities, this was built similarly to the tight build: the skeleton of the roster was salvaged, and the bonus slots, reapplied into places that seem to have more bottom-tier material to work with.

the lords for this one are.... a little different, and two of them stand as my sole exceptions to including only playable characters:

Masked Marth, Ruger[that miniboss who impersonated Chrom] (pick one) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leif the worst Lord, Kana(M) (pick one)

and now, let the “who the fuck is this”ening begin!

surprisingly enough, even here I have some indecisions. this is in keeping with the aforementioned spirit of avoiding prepromotes -- I don’t want to include both Basilio and Flavia, so the one who gets spared will be replaced by a sufficiently unpopular Ylisse character of the same class type. it’s somewhat of a happy coincidence that this particular stretch of the unpopularity order basically goes Basilio->Flavia->Vaike->Gregor.

also, notable mention to Lester -- his substitute may be the least popular substititute child of all, sure, but I feel like the non-subsitute self deserved a special place in this hell for being significantly less popular than even many substitutes!

what’s most interesting to me, though, is that this isn’t a bad cast at all. sure, you can basically play Fire Emblem trivia with the ability to recognize everyone here; nonetheless, many actually interesting characters have ended up here, and there’s a pretty diverse cast. mostly male, sure, but you have characters of all different kinds of ages and backgrounds and personalities... maybe ending up on this listing isn’t such a bad thing after all; maybe with a little polish, it’d bring out the best in everyone.

to sum this up nicely, here’s a list of characters who got into the exercise, sorted by continuity.

(linked for long ass)

solid blue background is for lords (in tight/draft), white background is for the tight and draft builds, pale red background is for the tight build only, pale blue background is for the draft build only, and pale brown background is fort he worst emblem build.

feel free to give me a shout if you’re interested in seeing where I’ll be taking all this next, mechanically!