#but does xander. that is the real question.

[sieglinde-freud]

do you guys think laslow and peri actually ask/tell xander about going down to nohrs slums and holding group therapy/anger management sessions or did peri just wake up and go “hey lazzy lets go be good guys!” and drag him into the most fearful experience of his life

[robobarbie]

Nightowl Questions again

Is his father an toxic enabler or does he do the same thing that his mother does?

Is one of his favourite bands Red Velvet?

Does he wear fake tan seeing that his skin gets noticeably lighter during the bad end or is it just lighting?

Did Peaches have a different look tonight out in mind or was it completely changed or even slightly changed to make Nightowl?

Seeing from the cameo of Ace and Keldran, does Nightowl like Deliver us Evil?

How did Nightowl get into Twilight saying that his flair is team Edward? 

If his user tag does rep Valentine’s Day, is that his favourite day?

What projects are the posters on Nightowl's bedroom walls?

Who is Nightowls favourite Spider-Man seeing as he dressed as him for Halloween once? (And villain)

What inspired nightowls icon?

Since the boys are associated with each one of the Webtoon characters how come the nightowl being the person that is lovingly obsessed with the player in every way was deemed Damien seeing that Damien is very shallow and only cares about appearance?

What society boy an online relationship? If so was it the online relationship that was referred to in nightowls route?

Where did he learn his drinking habits from? Was it his parents or did he learn them from classmates in his undergrad?

Did he like his professors at school?

Whats Nightowl’s favourite animal? (if it’s an owl im gonna cry/j)

What is Nightowls favourite constellation?

Where is the teddy bear from? Is it a childhood toy?

Thanks Sincerely

⊂( ^ω^)⊃

Is his father an toxic enabler or does he do the same thing that his mother does?

He's pretty quiet. Doesn't make a fuss in one way or the other. It often made Nightowl feel alone.

Is one of his favourite bands Red Velvet?

british ?

Does he wear fake tan seeing that his skin gets noticeably lighter during the bad end or is it just lighting?

It's just lighting -- he's backlit during the in-game portions with a shadow over his front! People often get his in-game skin tone wrong bc of that.

Did Peaches have a different look tonight out in mind or was it completely changed or even slightly changed to make Nightowl?

Wow a Peaches knower. Peaches looked slightly different, with a lighter shirt color, but otherwise was mostly the same. I think there's a picture of Peaches floating around somewhere.

Seeing from the cameo of Ace and Keldran, does Nightowl like Deliver us Evil?

I would doubt that Nightowl ever came across that game on his own, but if he dated someone who did like that game, he'd be real into Keldran. Like, concerningly into Keldran.

How did Nightowl get into Twilight saying that his flair is team Edward?

He had some friends who were into it growing up, and he read the book as a joke -- then got embarrassingly into vampire romance.

If his user tag does rep Valentine’s Day, is that his favourite day?

? british?

What projects are the posters on Nightowl's bedroom walls?

this is from a halloween art (nakedtoaster shown)

this is Damien and Lola from the Blooming Panic webnovel

this is a screenshot from the game "Thursday Laundry"

This is a bit of an art piece from a Karate Kid 2 study

I don't actually remember what this was. Hm.

Who is Nightowls favourite Spider-Man seeing as he dressed as him for Halloween once? (And villain)

..? bri-

What inspired nightowls icon?

Annoying eboy catboys online

Since the boys are associated with each one of the Webtoon characters how come the nightowl being the person that is lovingly obsessed with the player in every way was deemed Damien seeing that Damien is very shallow and only cares about appearance?

It's because we didn't intend them to be perfect 1-to-1 representations with their webnovel counterparts. We wanted them to be different (bc you don't like characters just bc they are like you in reality), but maybe share some style flairs. I mean, Xander (Quest's fave) ends up as Lola's final boyfriend, but that doesn't really mirror who the true route is in game (NakedToaster). Nobody really mentions that little fact!

What society boy an online relationship? If so was it the online relationship that was referred to in nightowls route?

I picture societyboy as an IRL relationship that started online. So, that was the relationship mentioned in nightowl's route (and the common route).

Where did he learn his drinking habits from? Was it his parents or did he learn them from classmates in his undergrad?

Classmates for sure. He had a pretty restricted life at home -- which often leads to an explosion when you leave it.

Did he like his professors at school?

Yes! Liked a lot of them.

Whats Nightowl’s favourite animal? (if it’s an owl im gonna cry/j)

?? bR-

What is Nightowls favourite constellation?

BRIT-

Where is the teddy bear from? Is it a childhood toy?

Yes! He's had it since he was young. It's a comfort in times when he's feeling scared or stressed.

[coraniaid]

It's true that the Buffy writers' answers to the closely related questions "is there a meaningful distinction between a vampire and the human being who was sired to create them?" and "when you get down to it, are vampires basically people?" clearly undergo something of a shift in the second half of the show.

This is a transformation that starts with Buffy's reluctance to stake Willow's vampire alter ego in Season 3's Doppelgangland and continues at pace with the gang's collective reaction to finding out that Harmony has "become" a vampire in Season 4. It's a process that continues as long as Harmony remains a recurring character on the show, until, by mid-Season 5, Buffy (and Buffy) has essentially undergone a complete switch in its view of vampirism. The later seasons handling of vampires are very hard to square with the speeches made by Buffy in Lie To Me ("you die, and a demon sets up a shop in your old house [...] but it's not you") or Giles to Xander [about the late and largely unlamented Jesse] in The Harvest ("you're not looking at your friend: you're looking at the thing that killed him"). Whether this is a change for the better or not is a matter for debate, but that it is a real change that happens is pretty hard to dispute.

It's also true that the writers are obviously increasingly reluctant to show their show's protagonist, the titular vampire slayer, actually going around killing vampires. At least any vampires who've had a chance to establish some sort of personality. How many of the dozen or so named, recurring vampire characters does Buffy actually kill over the course of the show? Not very many.

I make it two in Season 1 (if you're generous and count Luke as a recurring character), one in Season 2 (if you're similarly generous and count Buffy sending Angel to hell for almost three whole episodes as killing him) and ... that's it, right? Somebody other than Buffy kills Darla [=Angel], and Colin the Anointed One [=Spike], and Dalton [=the Judge], and Mr Trick [=Faith], and vamp!Willow [=wishverse!Oz, twice] and Sunday's only-named-in-the script henchvamp Tom [=the Initiative], and Sandy [=Riley], and Spike[=... well, Spike, ultimately, I guess]. Nobody ever kills Drusilla or Lyle Gorch or Harmony, all of whom make multiple appearances on the show and (un)live to the end of the series. And Angel and Spike (and even Darla, eventually and temporarily) all come back after apparently being killed.

Buffy might have a sacred calling to slay vampires, but the show is very uncomfortable about her killing non-human characters who've had a chance to establish themselves as people. Perhaps that's why the show stops having vampiric Big Bads completely after Season 2, and why Season 7 tries to introduce a whole new category of personality-free, definitely-not-people monsters to replace its existing vampires. (Perhaps not entirely succesfully, if we're being diplomatic.)

It's certainly true that the show does not have a consistent take to offer on vampire lore. Like everything supernatural in Buffy, vampires are essentially walking metaphors: and the things that they exist to represent and comment on change and evolve throughout the show's run. Buffy's worldbuilding is not very deep or rigorous.

But what's not true at all, and what I wish people would stop claiming, is the idea that Angel's awkward "well, actually..." when Buffy assures Willow in Doppelgangland that "a vampire's personality has nothing to do with the person it was" represents some sort of big departure from the show's established or implied lore up to that point. It does not. At all.

In fact, it's Buffy's claim that is at odds with everything that the show has been saying up this point. A vampire's personality has always, always been something that the show wants us to believe is informed by the personality of the person who died to create them, This goes all the way back to Season 1.

In Angel, Giles does tell Buffy flat out that "a vampire isn't a person at all", but he also says that a vampire may have "the memories, even the personality of the person that it took over". In the part of her speech from Lie To Me that I elided earlier, Buffy admits that if you're turned the resulting vampire "walks, and it talks, and it remembers your life" [and the clear implication here is that the vampire walks and talks like the original person did, otherwise what is this supposed to be saying?].

If the show's original position was that a vampire's personality had nothing to do with who they were in life, why would Giles have felt the need to tell Buffy (in Season 1's Never Kill A Boy On The First Date) that Andrew Borba had been on the run for a suspected double murder the night he died and rose as a vampire? Why would he have told her in Season 2's Bad Eggs that the Gorch brothers "massacred a village" before they were vampires? Why would he warn her in Season 3's Helpess that Zachary Kralik was a "criminally insane" serial killer even before being sired as a vampire? If the show -- or even just Giles himself -- really did have the position that a vampire's personality has nothing to do with the person they were before death, as Buffy claims in Doppelgangland (and some fans apparently believe), how would any of this make sense?

If we weren't supposed to think vampires inherited at least some part of their personality from their host then why, in The Harvest, would vampire!Jesse still be obsessed with pursuing Cordelia Chase? Why would Drusilla still be driven mad as a vampire as a result of the pyschological tortures that Angel inflicted on "her" when she was a mortal? In Halloween, why would Buffy be trying to find out more about the sort of person Angel was as a human? Why would Willow and Xander still be together in the world of The Wish?

The idea that a vampire inherits the personality of the person whose body they take over [or who they were before "becoming" a vampire, in the later seasons' parlance] isn't any kind of retcon. It's one of the few consistent takes on vampires the show had from beginning to end. Continuity of self; moral standing as a person; capacity for self-reflection and personal growth, whether or not vampires can breathe ... these are the things about vampires the show changes its stance on. But a vampire's personality was always informed by who they were in life, right from the very first pair of episodes.

(Spike and Drusilla being capable of at least some kind of romantic love and mutual jealousy in Season 2 is also not a retcon, incidentally. We saw that with Darla and Angel in Season 1 as well. And even the Master clearly felt emotions and had some sort of affection for his favorites among the vampires that worked for him. Spike and Dru do represent a significant -- and welcome! --change in the tone of the show, but they aren't somehow a walking refutation of what Giles has been telling Buffy (and through her, us) about vampires for the past year.)

I mean, I don't really have a big point to work to here, it's just that I keep seeing takes on my dash about how this particular scene represents a big change in the show's lore about vampires. And that .. just isn't true?

[supahstarrr]

rambling.

i don't know if it's just me but hope peak labeling Xander as an "ultimate rebel" feels soooo insanely shady of them to do and so backhanded. like can i- we just talk about that for a moment. i Think too much. one could argue that they used a term with simpler meaning such as 'rebel' to refer to his activism and revolutionist work for the general public to digest the complexity & heaviness of what he stands for & does while getting the gist of what he specializes in.

thing is that this term has negative connotations which are usually heightened when applied to young adults and teenagers. typically this term is attached to an certain appearance and how the behavior affects others more than what is being said itself. that way when it is applied to people, it is used as as a way to dismiss their genuine criticisms of the status quo. it's assumed they're not justified to feel so strongly about criticizing norms in society because of it's heavy association with young people and as i've mentioned, how it makes others feel when you are critical of norms.

using the words "revolutionist" and "activist" may be uncomfortable but at least it directly tells you the complexity going behind his work and perhaps beliefs. yet using "rebel" is such an interesting word to describe his work, as it appears more like Hope peak is undermining his work & beliefs and calling him a trouble maker at once. even more so as he is a pretty young person himself, it is assumed by the story that he is a fresh adult going into college and finally facing the real world.

if hopes peak is willing to treat his work and activism like this, there is the question to why let him be in college in the first place? why bother accepting a student like this if they're aware that he will be a reflection of the school. hope's peak actions make the title of his more suspicious, specifically their cover-ups. i can't help but interpret Xander's presence in the college being thought of because Hope's peak wanted him into the school hoping that he could be "tamed" or perhaps watched, while taking advantage of his image by making the school appear "progressive" than it is.

there are various of possibilities to why Hope peak even got the thought in the first place, i have a few but this post is going on too long and i need to sleep. i don't know what to end this post at because these are just random thoughts i got.

as much as Hope's peak is very suspicious and calculated, his ultimate title seems unnecessarily damn petty to the point it's kind of funny.

[thefandomenchantress]

We’re all familiar with the Xander-Ace arm wrestling scene. A lot of people cite it as one of their favorite funny moments from the series. And yeah, it is pretty funny when you don’t think about it too much.

The joke is pretty much, “Haha, Ace is such a wimp! He’s totally freaking out about a minor injury like it’s a really big deal!”

I don’t know if it was just me, but I sort of had this internal notion that Ace must’ve mentioned that his hand really hurt or something, and the joke was that he was wimp because it was such a minor injury, and it probably didn’t hurt at all.

But, uh. He never says anything about his hand hurting. Here are the lines he says (not all of which are featured in a text box, since Teruko and Xander are talking over him):

“AAAAAHHHHHH MY HAANNNDDDD!!!!”

*falls on the ground, gets up, screams again*

“OH GOD! You’re gonna put me down like a horse with a broken leg!!!”

“I’d rather die than not be able to eat cereal with my hand!!!”

“I’M NEVER GONNA BE ABLE TO RACE AGAIN!!!!”

Listening to all of the voice lines again, it seems less like Ace is panicking because his hand is hurting, and more like he's panicking because of what may happen to him if his hand is indeed badly injured. So it's less so about the injury itself, and more about what may happen because of it.

He first, of course, panics over Xander being a threat. That's completely expected, since making Xander angry just broke a table and assumedly hurt him in some way or another.

The cereal line is a bit confusing, especially considering his secret. A while back I came up with an out-there theory that he said that in order to try and deflect any suspicion about his secret, since an eating disorder can weaken your bones and if he got hurt too easily, people might begin to suspect something. So he rather clumsily brought up the subject of how he did in fact eat food. If we consider the fact that he's lying here, then him saying he'd rather die than do something makes a lot more sense, since we know he doesn't mean that at all. But in hindsight I may have been overthinking it...Still, I can't think of a better explanation, other than dismissing it altogether as a throwaway joke that didn't have much thought put into it.

The last line is what really makes this interesting. Ace hates his talent and anything to do with it. And yet one of the things he's panicking about the most is how he may not be able to race after sustaining an injury. And I think that this moment probably gives us our earliest insight into just how far Ace will go in order to race. In his first FTE with Teruko, he claims he doesn't do much work at all for his talent, until his performance anxiety forces him to. By saying that, it makes it sound like his talent doesn't completely dominate his life.

But this scene, in the same exact episode of his FTE, quickly proves to the viewer just how desperate Ace is to continue his talent, to the point where his own well-being becomes less important than it. Ace's extreme reaction to being injured isn't because he's a wimp that can't deal with pain, it's because he's spiraling about what this could mean for his career and, therefore, his status as a failure. "What if this injury prevents me from racing?" is the question that comes first, causing him to panic instead of being able to focus on how bad the injury actually is.

...I guess the thing that made me want to write about this scene is just how...Smart it is. It does so much at once. On a first viewing, it's really funny, and it still is on other viewings. Yet in hindsight, it's easier to notice just how distressed Ace is, and that no one is taking that seriously. No one ever takes his fears seriously, and in the end his fears drove him to murder, proving how important they really were. Even if his worries seem silly from an outsider's perspective, they're very real to him. And that's something that no one in-universe could realize until it was too late. This scene does an amazing job summarizing just how the cast's attitude towards Ace helped push him to becoming a culprit.

...Or maybe I'm taking the silly arm-wrestling scene too seriously, haha.

[raisedbythetv89]

No, but like…FAMOUSLY not just in Buffy, but every universe that has spells and magic, real love CANNOT be manufactured or duplicated by magic. Only twisted obsession/infatuation like what we see in Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered.

But in “Something Blue” Buffy literally says once the spell is over and she’s talking to Willow “I loved him, we were betrothed” in a spell whose specifications had only to do with marriage which would only change them from being enemies to allies, which then allowed all their suppressed and ignored feelings to come to the surface that they could NOT act on before when the other person was supposed to bring about their death.

And I’m not saying full deep romantic season 7 and beyond love but they clearly CARE about each other and are extremely attracted to each other, in lust if you will…and must have been for a while. Giving SO MUCH credence to neither of them ever succeeding at killing each other because deep down they genuinely never wanted to. (yeah yeah plot armor but so much of the time when one of them got away it was really WAY too easy like they could have at least made it so both of them were always just BARELY getting away by the skin of their teeth instead of how many times one of them really just lets the other go after exchanging a few punches like 😹 they weren’t even TRYING after a while and to me “Something Blue” proves it’s because they do not want to kill each other because they are crushing SO HARD. Because also in season 2 when they make the truce literally FIVE MINUTES LATER Buffy leaves Spike alone with her mother while she’s on the phone. The amount of trust that demonstrates is actually insane especially when you combine it with the fact that Buffy doesn’t do a disinvite spell after he leaves town OR comes back in season 3 & 4. And plot armor or not, them never killing each other becomes part of the lore and informs the motivation of the characters because that’s just how fiction works! 🤷🏼‍♀️)

I mean just look at these two love sick idiots

I MEAN….Buffy’s face when her immortal and extremely durable vampire just gets tossed across the room?? She goes into slayer overdrive, swiftly taking care of the two demons she was fighting to run over and check on him exactly like she does so many times in season 7 because that’s her vampire!!!

We see them so happy and in love - literally the happiest we’ve ever seen Buffy and then the show tries to tell us “it wasn’t even nice” because what? They bickered?? You mean they actually SAID what was on their minds and talked about it and then comforted the other when they were sad instead of bottling it all up or being evasive of topics that would cause fights and Buffy would tell Spike lovingly to shut up when he was being dumb??? OH NO THE HORROR!!

And what really is the cherry on top for me is the “wind beneath my wings” bit because Buffy blames the spell while her body language and face clearly says it was NOT the spell, that was all Buffy. Which opens the door for us to question just how much was what we saw because of the spell’s influence vs the real Spike and Buffy just completely uninhibited by their status of an engaged couple???

Especially when this supposed engagement to a “bad boy” who was helpful to her watcher, extremely caring and loving towards her in front of all her friends and when xander says something mean spike is SO HURT and he’s like “that’s it! You’re off the usher list!” Like oh yes THE BIG BAD INDEED 💀 but Buffy claims being engaged to a Spike “gets her over her bad boy thing because it wasn’t even nice” ….. GURL you are running for the hills to seemingly “normal” captain cardboard because you LOVED being engaged to the slayer of slayers and that scared the absolute shit out of you and you were like I need to do something to convince myself I’m normal and not the kind of girl who would be into Spike IMMEDIATELY 💀 and then avoids Spike for the next several episodes while Spike is always asking where she is for Buffy to achieve maximum avoidant/suppression of feelings possible 😹😹😹

And the way Spike NEVER teases her about it afterwards like he did with the “wind beneath my wings” bit at the end of the episode to me is so telling of the importance it held for him too that he never used everything he must have learned about her at that time or never even taunted Riley about the fact that the Slayer was all over him when her and Riley had first started dating because let’s be honest that would be SUCH a Spike thing to do. Like???? They have been so into and conflicted about each other for a LONGGG time and I honestly cannot be convinced otherwise 😹

[cassiachales]

Journal Entry Three [And Noticing That Grayson Hawthorne Has Extremely Nice Arms]

note: y'all are so sweet with your comments like sjhfhdgjhs. anyway since some of you guys wanted to be in the taglist, i made one!! taglist: @f4iry-bell, @never-enough-novels, @reminiscentreader

Wednesday– Sunday was the last day I saw Grayson Hawthorne but that does not mean Sunday was the last day he was in my head. And oh my gods that waist. So slutty. ── ���⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Xander crossed his legs from where he was leaning against the wall. “I thought Whiskey Woes would’ve been enough.”

You scoff. “Do you even know your brother? He’d rather drink his and my bottle of whiskey before answering any question.”

You remember how his lips looked on the full glass of whiskey, and how he drank the whole glass without looking away from you.

“If you get turned on by looking at a guy drink whiskey, I don’t even know who to set you up with.” Xander says.

“I don’t get turned on–”

“Don’t even start.” 

“Fine.” You huff. “But why is he so damn hot?”

“We have to make him fall for you.” Xander says, ignoring you. “Fall into his arms.” Xander wags his eyebrows suggestively, and you look away.

“One, I can’t trip on purpose, and two, that will make me look desperate.”

“Everyone’s throwing themselves at him; all you have to do is do it classily.”

You grin. “Like what? Like, oh no, the heat. It wounds my heart, Mr. Hawthorne.”

“That is such terrible acting.” A voice behind you says, and you groan.

Grayson Hawthorne is behind you, and you don’t know just how much he overheard.

And he’s leaning against the wall, sleeves rolled up to his elbows and top button unfixed.

And he looks hot.

“It was meant to be terrible.” You grumble, rolling your eyes.

“No doubt.”

You begin to wonder why someone who talks so dryly has some so close to capturing your heart.

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── He talks as though he’s constantly in a business meeting, and he dresses as though life is business and he’s the chairman. Except for some times where he actually looks extremely ravished. Like today. Gods I just want to run my hands through his hair and mess it all up. ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

“I need to ask, why do you stare so much? Is it just at me, or do you stare at everyone you meet?”

Only the attractive ones.

He raises his eyebrow. “You find me attractive?”

And there comes your habit of saying things out loud. And the fact that there’s no Xander snickering behind you, he probably left.

Traitor.

“You know what, I just realised that I have three essays due. So like, bye.”

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── He probably thinks I’m obsessed with him or something. Maybe I am but he’s never gonna read this journal so. ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

He tilted his head to the side and watched you turn and go the other way before he called your name.

Your name.

Not a “Ms.” and your last name.

Your real name.

“Your car is parked in the opposite direction, in case you forgot.”

You turn around, before shooting a thumbs up. “Totally knew that.”

His lips quirk up, and you can’t help but stare. He looks so infuriatingly gorgeous in his neatly pressed suits and perfectly styled hair and you often find your mind straying to how he would look messed up.

His hair all ruffled and his shirt with slight creases and your lips on his–

Not the last one. That was just an extra thought.

“Would you like me to drop you off? To your car?” Grayson asks, and you feel like he could do anything and you would find him every bit the gentleman.

He could kiss you and make you look ravished and wrap your legs around his waist and even then, he would be perfectly gentlemanly.

You nod. “That would be nice.”

He pushes off the wall, using his hand to show you the way. “Then? I do not have all day, love.”

Your brain is lagging.

He called you love.

And Grayson Hawthorne looks like he knows exactly what that did to you. 

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── He called me love. LOVE. And by god, if that self-satisfied smile on his face means anything, he looks so smug seeing what effect that had on me. Bloody bastard. ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

His confidence doesn’t slip at all, and you walk towards him.

His eyes are maddening.

It’s like a bottle of wine. Heady and intoxicating but you just want more and more even if it could poison you.

The two of you walk towards where your car is parked, and then, you feel as though the universe hates you.

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── Guess what happened then. ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

You tripped.

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── I tripped. ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

On a pebble.

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── I fucking tripped on a pebble. ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

You’re falling forwards, thinking you’re going to smash your nose against the pathway when two really strong arms come around your waist.

Very strong.

You notice how good his arms look when they’re flexed like that, and god, does he look hot.

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── He caught me before I fell, but goodness. I thought his waist was the best part about his body. I was so damn wrong, because man, do his arms look amazing. ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

“Are you all right?” He whispers. You feel his mouth at the curve of your ear, and you shiver.

For a moment, you berate yourself for having such a reaction to just his voice.

“Yeah.” You whisper back.

You can hear the stupid smile in his voice when he says: “I guess you did fall into my arms after all.”

You're too lost in his touch to feel embarrassed that he heard you and Xander talk about it.

He pulls you back, making you stand steady on your feet, before he removes his arms from your waist.

But he doesn’t do it sharp and quick, as though you burned him.

He does it slowly, his long fingers featherlight on your waist as they pull away.

You can still feel his phantom touch.

“Why– How do you do this to me?” He murmurs, so low as though he doesn’t want you to hear it.

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── Then he goes and murmurs about how I do something to him and his voice is gorgeous when he murmurs. I’m becoming one of those fangirls on the internet. ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

The man is seducing you, slowly. Everything about him is slow.

The way his lips touch the glass of whiskey and downs it in one slow gulp.

The way his fingers move from your waist and leaves a phantom touch.

The way he blinks now, leading you forwards towards your car again.

It’s like he knows what he does to you.

Oh, he knows.

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── He knows that I’m falling for him. He knows that when I’m with him, I lose myself. Oh god, he knows. And I love it. ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Journal Entry Two ☆ Journal Entry Four

[1moreff-creator]

thoughts on the "mai posseses monotv" theory? :eyes: like, it explains so much! the reason monotv could go anywhere was because mai was using the flipside!

Hey! Well, it’s certainly a theory with a lot of spirit to it!… I’m not funny. Anyways, it’s an interesting concept, and I can also use this as an excuse to talk about other theories drawing connection between MonoTV and Mai, so let’s see!

DRDT Full CH2 Spoilers. CW: Death, mentions of gun violence

(Also, “flipside” like- like the FNAF term? Did you people check my channel after watching Vivisection or… Certainly wasn’t ready to see it applied to DRDT lol)

Let’s start by the funniest thing about this theory: there’s technically evidence that ghosts exist in DRDT. In the most roundabout, absolutely-not-a-valid-argument way imaginable, but it technically exists. The argument is that DRDT takes place in the same universe as Trigger Happy Havoc, which takes place in the same universe as Ultra Despair Girls, and UDG has ghosts (and if there’s any in THH beyond Kirigiri “hearing the footsteps of death” or whatever I forgot about them). Clearly, the groundwork is there, absolute foreshadowing masterclass from dev-

Alright so obviously that’s silly, but even beyond that argument, there’s technically nothing disproving ghosts in DRDT. We do have semi-supernatural elements already, such as Teruko’s luck, Xander’s strength, Rose’s memory, MonoTV’s disappearance acts, and the whole Eyes situation. Really cool and awesome eyes, wouldn’t have them any other way; also not humans work. And of course, some people believe in a time loop, and that’s a perfectly valid theory, so why not ghosts? 

Well, unfortunately, while the ghosts are weird but not disqualifying, I think the Mai part is also a bit of an issue for me to believe it. It falls into ye old DRDT theorist trap of assuming any unidentified person (or personality, in this case) is Mai, which, let’s be clear, I’ve also dabbled in (see: “Mai is the girl Eden kissed” crack theory), but that doesn’t mean that these things aren’t always a bit of a long shot. 

In this case, probably the big question would be “what does it mean for Mai to possess MonoTV?” Or alternatively, to address the other idea going around, “what would it mean for the personality driver to be based on Mai?” It’s not straight up its identity; even DefaultTV refers to itself as “MonoTV” and “not a human.” 

DefaultTV: Greetings, everyone. My name is MonoTV.

DefaultTV: Perhaps you’ve mistakenly conflated me with a human and thought I have a ‘soul’ that is intrinsically connected to my body. But I am not human.

I mean it even says it doesn’t have a soul. Or, well, if it has one, it isn’t connected to the MonoTV body, but the former is more likely in my eyes. 

Also real quick, voices don’t match either. DefaultTV has the same VA as MonoTV, Artimmiss just has incredible range (and Unnamed Classmate is voiced by someone else). This doesn’t really affect any theories but it’s worth mentioning.

It’s also not personality, as far as we know. Unnamed Classmate is too nice to be MonoTV and too cheery to be DefaultTV, so unless Mai changed significantly in the time between the Bonus Episodes and the time she possesses MonoTV/her personality is used as a base for DefaultTV (which we currently have no evidence for), then the personalities don’t match.

There is, admittedly, one aspect where I could see the argument, and I believe this is where these theories come from. That being DefaultTV’s weird compassion towards Teruko, the implication that it “feels” guilt and grief, and it choosing to stop firing at Levi instead of just killing him and Teruko.

However, compassion and remorse over murder aren’t exclusive to Mai Akasaki, and I find it perfectly reasonable to assume those things are a result of DefaultTV being a “default” driver presumably intended for more general, non-killing game purposes, where those “feelings” would actually probably be nice for the AI to have.

As for not killing Levi, it’s important to remember that MonoTV and DefaultTV are always making the conscious decision of not killing everyone. It’s like David said in 2-12; if you just wanted to murder these 16 people, you wouldn’t need the killing game. Mono/DefaultTV’s stated primary goal is not “kill all these people,” but:

DefaultTV: To run this killing game until the death of every participant.

“Run this killing game.”

The reason letting the attempt to destroy MonoTV go unpunished would go against its purpose is, as I currently understand it, not because it lowers the kill count, but because it would be a threat to the integrity of the killing game. If DefaultTV lets this loophole go, then it sets a precedent that it will always follow the rules to a T, and that encourages the cast to look for further loopholes. Instead, it just needs to show that it’s willing to bend the rules to follow their spirit and not their letter.

That’s why it’s satisfied with warning shots and why it shuts the gun off: it sent the message it needed to send, but DefaultTV killing Levi, who is completely unrelated to the attempt on its life, would go against the spirit and letter of Rule 8, “MonoTV will never directly commit a murder.” Again, always follow the spirit, but show it’s willing to bend the letter to maintain the integrity of the game; “To run this killing game until the death of every participant.”

I hope that made sense :v

Moving on, there’s also logistic problems. Since MonoTV seems to have been created specifically for the killing game, the “possession” theory is incompatible with the theory that the killing game was created in response to Mai’s death, unless we’re pulling a Stitchwraith where Mai first possessed a TV or something and then that got put into the MonoTV body (and that still runs into the issue with the “no soul attached to body” statement). And at this point, one of these seems a bit more likely than the other. 

Speaking of, logistical issues also come with the idea that DefaultTV is based off of Mai. Because why would XF-Ture Tech choose to base their default drivers on, quote Min’s Mai quote, “an average girl with nothing special at all about her?” Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to base it off of someone working at the company or otherwise connected to it, such as altDRDT’s XF or even Min?

… Wait, Min… Possession… Min possessing MonoTV… Alright new theory- /j

(To be extremely clear; Min possessing MonoTV is even less likely than Mai, I’m just being silly :p)

There may be even more problems I’m currently not fully realizing, but what I’ve listed is enough for me to consider both theories discussed as highly unlikely at this point in time. Still cool theories and I wouldn’t mind if they got confirmed, but just very unlikely. Would make for fun AUs though! 

As an extra, I’ll throw in what I actually think this weird compassion is leading up to, though to be clear it’s pretty wild speculation and will probably be wrong.

I explained before that I believe it makes sense for DefaultTV to be a far more morally upstanding AI than MonoTV, as “default drivers” would presumably be made with more general purposes in mind. It’s also been established in the main series that Whit, someone who I currently believe is very likely to survive or at least make it pretty far in, knows about machine learning.

Whit: Machine learning! [Charles and I] both like machine learning!

Now, I’m not sure that this is exactly AI in the way DefaultTV and MonoTV seem to be, but it’s close enough. If this Checkov’s Gun is ever to be fired (and Whit isn’t the mastermind), it’s very possible that, around Trial 6, Whit somehow manages to take out the directives that make MonoTV/DefaultTV dangerous, allowing the more compassionate and remorseful side of the AI to help the survivor cast in some way.

Also Charles could do this too but I don’t think he’s making it to the end so. There's option 2 ig.

Is this completely insane and almost entirely unfounded? Yes! Do I expect this to actually happen? I give it like a 5% chance on the high end. Nevertheless, do I consider this to be the best guess we can currently make as to where both Whit’s knowledge of machine learning and DefaultTV’s compassion are going? Also yes, again provided Whit isn’t the mastermind, which is a pretty large assumption in and of itself. Is it much better than MonoTV being possessed by Mai Akasaki? Not really! But if you’re sending me an ask you presumably want my opinions, and there they are!

Thanks for the ask! Very fun to ramble about this goddamn dog.

[f4iry-bell]

hey responding to your question from my req...

"hii, just to be clear. do you mean like avery and everyone being disappointed that he made his fling casual and didn't let them know or is it smth else? just making sure !!"

I mean exactly that! Avery and everyone is disappointed that he made his fling casual and didn't let them know that it wasn't serious

thx

hii, sorry for the late reply. i hope you like it and it's what you expected 😭😭I'm so sorry if it's not.

Casual Fling

“So no Y/n today?” Jameson asked Grayson who was sitting on the library couch looking over some paperwork as Jameson took a seat next him.

Grayson has been off work for a couple months, which is not bad considering all he does is work. It was nice to see him taking some time for himself off of work and being happy with someone.

“No.” Grayson replied nonchalantly.

“Is she busy?” Jameson asked as he noticed the library door open to find Avery and Xander coming in.

“No. But I am.” Grayson replied without taking his eyes off his paperwork.

“It’s Sunday.” Jameson commented.

“I've been off work for a while. I'm just catching up.” Grayson said finally looking up. “And there won't be anymore of Y/n.” He said with not a care in the world.

“What?!” That was from Xander who was standing in front of him as Avery sat across the couch in which the two brothers sat.

“Should I repeat myself, Alexander?” Grayson's eyes went to him.

“No. But why?” He asked. “From what you've told us she was pretty awesome.”

“She is.” Grayson clarified.

“Then what's the issue?” Avery joined the conversation.

“We weren't serious. It was just a casual fling.” He shrugged off like these past months were nothing.

“What do you mean not serious? You saw her almost everyday for these past few months. And you were so happy about it.” Avery fronwed.

“I was. But I had to get my priorities straight. I have a foundation to run. Zara can't do it all on her own.” He defends himself.

“So you knew that the thing with her was just a casual fling from the first?” Jameson raised his eyebrow.

“Yes.”

“So you wasted not just your time for two and a half months but the poor girl's time as well?” There was a clear disappointment in Jameson's voice as he spoke.

“She knew what she was going to get from me, Jamie. She was okay with it.” Grayson told her from the beginning that he wanted nothing serious. He thought it would only last for a week or two but he forgot himself and got carried away.

“A casual fling for more than two months. That's enough time to catch real feelings, you know?” Xander commented.

“If you're suggesting that I broke her heart I can assure you I did not. When I cut things with her she was very civil about it.” He shrugged again. He was happy that she didn't make it a big deal.

“But do you know how she felt? Some girls don't say it out loud.” Avery told him.

Grayson sighed. “Can everyone stop? I had a fling and it's over. Get over it.”

“You were the happiest during the fling, Gray. It's sad to see you ruin your happiness.” Xander told him.

“I'm perfectly fine. With or without her.” He tried to convince himself more than his family.

“You don't feel anything for her? Are your ‘priorities’ that important?”

“No. I don't feel anything.” He added. “This conversation ends now.” He went back to his paperwork.

“You don't do all the romantic gestures you did for a girl you don't feel anything, Grayson.” Xander said and left the room. There's no point arguing with Grayson in this topic.

[davidchiemcore]

drdt werewolf hcs (can also be applied to mafia but i use werewolf terms)

implied spoilers? but mostly just to stop it from being so long

teruko: always villager. audibly sighs in relief whenever she gets a different card, revealing her immediately. she also accidentially makes too much noise when shes flipping cards and doing her role most rounds, and gets killed immediately whenever she does have a fun role to play. hates the game

xander: pretty good at the game, surprisingly. has a good poker face and trustable attitude, whenever he gets caught as werewolf its bc of a stupid verbal slip up. "seeing" someone was dead during the night when his alibi is supposed to be a non-active role and stuff like that

charles: overanalyzes everything, stays quiet most of the round unless he has something important to say. will suddenly interrupt conversations with realizations about who is suspicious. when hes the werewolf, his tell is becoming more talkative

ace: yells when he dies. when hes the werewolf, he will betray the other werewolves out of fear if pressured. really unreliable minion due to this. Doesn't like to share what he knows but easily pressured into it. Not very helpful, goes along with the majority decision during the voting phase

arei: often gets mistaken for a werewolf due to her attitude. doesnt like sharing information unless it benefits her, even when on the villager team. despite this, very good at being the werewolf. will manipulate emotions to stop people from suspecting her, ie. giving fake tells to throw people off

rose: similarly to charles, very quiet but very analytical and will pop into a conversation to call someone out. helpful asset to the vilager team, only good at werewolf when she has other wolves with her. actually falls asleep during the night phase and misses her role cues.

hu: leads the group discussion and encourages everyone to chip in. her tell as the werewolf is to become more pushy and talk over people. tells everyone "its just a game" when they get upset but actually becomes very heated when she gets accused

eden: not very good at the game... gets indecisive when shes the werewolf amd cant decide who to kill, same with voting for the werewolf. often holds up discussions trying to make everything absolutely clear. however, never suspected as the werewolf and has a really good time when she wins, teases everyone about it

levi: has a good poker face but contributes to discussions well. takes him a while to get used to the game, constantly consults the book for the rules on each role because he used to ask questions outloud and give himself away. once he gets more comfortable, shockingly good at the game, but doesnt enjoy it due to the high tensions

arturo: veronika forces him to play even though he has no real interest. walks away from the table after he dies. good at being the werewolf due to his disconnect from the emotions of the game and doesnt get heated when hes accused. not very helpful as a member of the villager team. gets bored during the night phase

min: gets really invested in the game, tries to appear disinterested. spends her free time reading up on the different roles and asks to try out new ones. very good conceptually and creates a lot of strategies, but often falls apart due to getting agitated and forgetting parts of the plan

david: surprisingly good at being the werewolf, laughs it off as just being a part of the game and really just pure luck, but he actually puts a lot of strategy in. very guiding during the day phase and openly shares what he knows, even when hes werewolf he creates a fake story to fit in. actually enjoys being the first death because it means he gets to watch everything unfold. tries to pick up on peoples tells

veronika: absolutely adores the game. most likely to force others to play with her. offers to be the moderator, has the entire script memorized. gets too into the game and psychoanalyzes everyone, can get fixated on one suspect though and unintentionally lead everyone the wrong way. has a great time whether she wins or loses

j: most likely to point out logical contraditions that other people miss. says she doesnt care about the game but actually gets really invested. gets frustrated when accused of being the werewolf when shes actually not, or when people wont listen to her points. rage quits but then comes back an hour later to see if theyre still playing

whit: claims to be the werewolf every round whether or not he actually is. likes adding silly things to veronikas script. actually really good at being the werewolf because he has no real tells, acts flippant no matter the situation. makes jokes as if hes actually in the game like pretending to snore at night. never spills what he knows until its important

nico: gets really nervous playing as the werewolf and much prefers to be on the villager team. doesnt like sharing what they know. overall uncomfortable with the game concept and prefers to watch instead. relieved when they get killed off

[txttletale]

bundletober #4: lit rpg set

now that's one lit rpg set. am i right. roll to smoke weed. nah the lit in this title is obviously short for 'literary', sorry to disappoint. today's entry for bundletober, (the cool rpg gimmick where rpgs fans post about an rpg they got off an itch bundle a couple years ago and never got around to reading and that everyone does and is like inktober and basically everyone, is doing it, and i didnt arbitrarily make it up at 11 pm on october the 1st this year), is xander hinners' lit rpg set.

okay so this is a very short (two pages!) game. or--as the name of the game implies--set of games! that's right, these two pages are actually four double-sided bookmarks, each containing a game to be played with the text (and sometimes physical paper) of the book you're marking. now i'm often kind of skeptical of ultra-short rpgs but i'm an absolute sucker for this elegant combination of subject matter and form. the bookmark format is not just an arbitrary formal constraint¹ but intimiately bound up² in the subject matter and play pattern of the games within. incredible stuff!

what i love about the games in lit rpg set is that they go all in in being games about books. you play them with books -- picking or redacting or interpreting words from the text are all made into key game mecahnics -- but they all also represent feelings you have about books. subtext treats reading a book as an adventure in a literal, rpg sense--shred treats the anger and frustration of reading a shitty book as a real actual psychic battle against the author.

what i really like about the four games in lit rpg set is that they do the best thing an rpg can do, which is make you think and ask interesting questions--they make you approach books as objects capable of something other than just being read, make you interrogate and interact with the book as a physical object, as a collection of words--or invite you to read actively, to take the passive setting of expectations and make a game of it. it invites you to create new and interesting relationships with books you love and/or hate, and i think that's really valuable. i'm honestly tempted towards an act of guerilla game promotion here--how cool would it be to just print these bookmarks out and leave them in random books in a bookstore? a book that comes with an invitation to play with it? i think it'd be magical tbh

lit rpg set and its free plaintext demo can be purchased as a digital download from itch.io

¹ which can be super fun and lead to really cool things, to be clear! but can just as easily end up being aimless and unfocused

² heh

[wake-me-up-inside-imagines]

Can you do Danganronpa Despair Time Boys Hcs with a Lover who from a large family like the Loud House and introduce There boyfriend to there large family for first time

Sure! Reader in this is gonna have both younger and older siblings so if you're the oldest/youngest, sorry!

DRDT boys meeting S/O's large family for the first time

Warnings: mentions of Xander's eye injury

Gn! reader

-Xander ADORES your family

-He was a little nervous going into meeting them for the first time, but you reassure him that they'll love him (he's super charismatic, he really has nothing to worry about)

-He's really good with little kids given the amount of energy he has, so your younger siblings take a liking to him immediately. Two seconds into the meeting and he's already playing with them, letting them run around him and climb over him like he's a tree. They also think his hair is super cool which is a plus

- He does worry that they'll pull off his eyepatch and become scared after seeing his eye socket, so you make sure they all know not to touch it or pull at it beforehand

-Your older siblings can tell he's a good guy from the way he clicks with the younger family members so easily, so they don't give him as much flack as they were planning (some of them may still tease him though)

-He's more nervous when interacting with your older siblings and parents, but he loosens up a little the more he talks with them. Although, he gets really nervous if they start questioning him even slightly aggressively, he really wants to make a good impression but he thinks he'll mess it up

-Xander may be a rebel, but he's super respectful to your family. He addresses your parents as "sir" or "ma'am" and he helps with anything needed, like carrying food to the table or rounding the kids up for dinner. He really does his best to make a good impression on your family (He's aware that having a sibling/kid who's dating the ultimate rebel may be a bit off-putting)

-He assures you family that you're in good hands and that he'd never dream of hurting you, and who wouldn't believe him? He's proven to be an honest guy (ignore chapter one he was just being silly and goofy) and they respect you're decision to date him

-Your parents tell you later that they think he's a respectable young man and they'd love to have him for dinner again sometime, so it would appear you're family approves of him!

-Oh boy

-You're uhhh... you're gonna have to wait a bit before introducing Arturo to you're family

-You're also going to have to drill it into his skull that he can't insult, snark, or do anything rude whilst visiting your family, which he begrudgingly agrees to

-To be honest, he doesn't really care what you're family thinks. he loves you and you love him, so why should their opinion matter? But he understands it's important to you, so he'll try to be on his best behavior (he does tell you this though)

-Once the meeting date rolls around, he does put effort into looing nice for the occasion, you can even see him try to set his face into a less disapproving look

-Meeting you're parents is the easy part, he shakes their hands and is fairly respectful to them, trying to answer all their questions to the best of his ability. It's a bit awkward, but the real challenge is your siblings.

-He's noticeably uncomfortable with you're younger siblings trying to touch him, but when questioned about it he apologizes and says he's a bit of a germaphobe, that's all. He does try to be nice to them, but he's not great with kids so half the time he doesn't know what to say

-Your older siblings can tell somethings up with him. They fully notice his politeness is unnatural, and some of them begin asking him questions about himself, sometimes making little jabs here and there. Their suspicion makes Arturo a bit defensive, but he tries to keep his snark under control so he he'll match their energy and make little comments back at them.

-It's kinda like a game to them. Who can make digs at the other without being broken first? Stick around to find out!

-He's fairly quiet during dinner, he pretty much only speaks when spoken to, but your parents think he's the more silent type

-He thanks your parents for dinner afterwards and then he takes his leave, but he does give you a quick peck on the mouth before he goes, it's mostly a fuck you to you're older siblings because he sirs afterwards.

-You're older siblings may not like him, but your parents think he's a good kid so they approve your relationship

-Lowkey really excited but nervous to meet your family

-Levi was disowned by his own family, so he's happy he gets to experience the family dynamic again, but he’s also nervous, he really wants to make a good impression

-He’s the type to either take this super seriously and show up in a tuxedo with flowers and some homemade food for dinner or he pretends to be super chill

-Him? Nervous? Nooooo…maybe a little

-He’s surprisingly good with kids, he’s the type of guy to not know how to interact with kids but they still love him anyways

-He eventually gets used to them though, he’ll even start to join in on their little games once he feels he understands them well enough

-Hell totally let your younger siblings sit on his lap during dinner or while he’s talking to your parents, and he gives them piggy back rides if they’d like. He doesn’t mind much, he’s strong enough to carry them around and it’s one of the few ways he can bond with your siblings without it being totally awkward

-I can see him having tea parties with your younger siblings, imagine him in a big hat with a fluffy boa scarf around his neck sipping out a fake plastic teacup

-Your older siblings are a bit put off by him, not because he’s shady but because he responds to all their jokes and jabs completely seriously

-Your sibling: “I hope you take care of Y/N, it would be a shame if you hurt them and suddenly went missing one day.”

-Levi: “Of course I’ll take care of Y/N, I would never hurt them. But why would I go missing?”

-They know he’s a good guy though, he may be too serious sometimes, but he looks at you with stars in his eyes, it’s obvious to everyone in your family how much he loves you

-You’re parents love him, they see him as a respectable, quiet young man who they can have a intelligent conversation with. They hope he visits more often

-And he does! He loves your family, they’re practically his actual family at this point. He can’t wait until they legally become his in-laws!

-Levi’s the perfect gentleman to your whole family, 10/10 would introduce again

-Ace is…reluctant to meet your family, not that he’d ever let you know that (he’s not very slick though, you can tell)

-Ace is a very insecure and anxious guy, he knows what people think of him and he’s been riddled with anxiety about your parents thinking the same once they meet him. Will they hate him? Will they think he’s rude? What if they refuse to let the two of you continue dating?

-As I said earlier though, he pretends nothings wrong, in fact he acts overly confident about the whole thing

-“Don’t worry babe, you’re parents will love me, who wouldn’t? Hahahaha…”

-He’s sweating bullets once you actually get there, he promised to behave but Ace is an impulsive guy, he’s very worried he’ll blurt something out by accident

-He’s very startled by your younger siblings, he has no idea how to interact with them and he’s a little bit freaked out by them suddenly jumping on him the second he walked in the door (he definitely screamed)

-He does try to be nice, but it’s very awkward, and not in the Levi sort of way

-He’s very intimidated by your older siblings, he tries to play it cool with them but the slightest bit of hostility or pressure from them gets him defensive

-He’s pretty respectful with your parents though, he responds to there questions as politely as he’s capable of, although he does stutter a lot when speaking to them

-After dinner he’ll awkwardly offer to help your family with the clean up, he doesn’t talk unless spoken to first, he’s still way too nervous

-It’ll take him awhile to loosen up around your family, give him a few more visits and he’ll eventually get there

-Oh he’s so hyped to meet your family, you have no idea

-This man is one of the few drdt boys who’s not all that nervous to meet your family, sure he wants to make a good impression but he believes that if your truly meant to be it’ll work itself out eventually

-He’s all smiles the second he gets to the house, your entire family falls in love with him almost immediately

-The younger kids adore him, Whit’s super good with children so he has no problem engaging with them! He’ll give them piggyback rides (if they’re small enough, he’s not all that strong) and he’ll gladly participate in any games they come up with (he’s probably gonna come up with his own at some point)

-Your siblings are gonna beg for you to bring him back over after he leaves, he’s just so much fun!

-Your older siblings worry that he’s a player because of his talent and his laid back attitude, but it only takes a few minutes talking to him for them to realize that he really loves you

-His way of winning them over is to joke around with them, he’s got even the most stone faced of your siblings laughing by the end of the night

-Your parents adore him too, Whit loves to joke around but at the end of the day he’s still a respectful guy, especially to your parents

-Whit will loudly announce how much he loves you several times throughout the gathering, it’s really cute to everyone because he says it so casually but so full of affection

-He doesn’t even ask if your parents need help with the cleanup, he just starts cleaning immediately after everyone’s done

-He comes over a lot more after that, your family loves him to death and he loves spending time with them and you so it’s a win win for everyone!

-Does David want to meet your family? No, not particularly. Will he because he loves you? Yes, although begrudgingly. He’s of the same mind as Arturo, he loves you and you love him so why should he care what your family thinks of him?

-But if there’s one thing he’s good at, it’s pretending to have a positive attitude, so he’ll just do what he does for his job: put on a smile and fake it

-When you get there he’s all smiles, greeting your parents with a handshake and telling them it’s a pleasure to finally meet them

-He does his best to be polite with your younger siblings. He’ll play with them and talk with them, but if any of them start climbing onto him like he’s a jungle gym he’ll gently shake them off and ask them to refrain from climbing on him, he’s not strong enough to hold them up you know?

-Your older siblings probably know who he is, so they have a lot a questions about how you two started dating and what his intentions are. Despite how nice he may be on screen, some of your siblings may be skeptical that he’s really like that

-No matter how rude they may be or how many questions they ask him though, he still answers all their questions with a bright smile and polite words

-He acts humble whenever anyone mentions his achievements or his fame, shrugging it off with a awkward smile while rubbing his neck, he hates talking about his career but your parents just think he’s embarrassed by all the attention

-He’ll help prepare/ clean up dinner even if he isn’t asked to

-Once he leaves he’ll try his best to refrain from making negative comments about your family, but he may let a snide comment about your older siblings slip

-It’ll take him awhile to get used to your family, but he begrudgingly becomes attached to them the more he visits

-Charles takes this very seriously, probably the most seriously out of any of the other boys (not that they don’t think it’s serious, Charles is just a serious dude)

-He understands and appreciates the bond you have with your family, so he wants to make sure he doesn’t mess up your relationship by making a bad impression on them

-He’d show up to the dinner all dressed up, hands shaking as he says hello to your parents and gets invited in, he’s trying so hard to be polite but his voice is shaking and he’s visibly sweating so everyone can tell how nervous he is

-Charles does try to engage with the children present, but he’s very awkward and has no idea how to have a conversation with someone considerably younger than him

-He gets along decently well with your siblings, even when they make snide comments at him he refrains from resorting to his natural rude attitude, although he may act slightly colder towards those specific siblings if they do it enough

-During dinner he tries to keep conversation going by asking your parents about there jobs, what you were like when you were young, stuff like that. It comes across kinda uncomfortable sometimes but he’s trying

-Like some of the others, he helps out afterwords with cleanup without being asked, and then he thanks your parents for dinner before leaving

-It may have been nerve racking for him but your family loves him in all his awkward glory. He’s just glad he didn’t fuck anything up

I’m backkkkkk

[roguedruid]

"Oh great druid this humble petitioner asks for your recommendations on fics you did not write but enjoyed greatly I look forward to getting your top 15."

Uhhhh Damn. Hold on. Lets seee..... I can give you eleven- in no particular order- that come to mind with a bit of searching. but questioner- I read so many fics. This is gonna be a crapshoot of fandoms, so hold on. Of Harrowed Hearts by Sable_Scribe: A Naruto fic which is sadly unfinished- but had an awesome vibe and really dives into the characterization of the Konoha 12 and their potential. It does have Naruto/Sasuke vibes- but when it last left off the slow burn was slow and Sasuke was barely realizing his emotions. The Games We Play by Ryuugi: It's posted on Spacebattles origionally- but it's been reposted a few other places. It's massive- nearly a million words. This was my first real 'Massive fic' i followed as it was updating- and my real intro to Space Battles/Sufficent Velocity as fanfic sites. Also- first Gamer fic that went *way* into the power scaling and endgame stuff. Jaune in this story escalates hard as fuck. I'm talking supernatural kung fu, elemental powers, the ability to destroy cities- And his threats are scary enough to match it. This was before Salem for most of the story- but the Grimm that show up are terrifying. Keeping on the forums real fast- Two Quests (Essentially reader driven stories) deserve to be on this list. Xander [Quest] by one Judge Mental is another of those Monolithic kind of reading experiences. it's massive- on a word count I can't even figure out- spread across like 28 threads. it starts as a simple premise- You are Alexander Harris- and you are born as the reincarnation of Ganondorf. Yeah- that Ganondorf. Things only escalate past that point- to where the last i checked we were possibly the strongest sorcerer on earth- and only 12.

"A Geeks Guide: CORE" series by Sage_of_Eyes. Again, monolithic in scope- it's a complete reimagining of the Highschool DXD mythology (yes, the ecchi novels/anime. Yes it's way deeper then it deserves. Yes, it's also metal as fuck)

Swerving back from forums:

A Drop of Poison by Angel Of Snapdragons: Naruto's Shadow Clones are fucking crazy- and if you've ever wanted to see the power fantasy of them escalating non stop- this is the good shit. Drifting by AlphaDelta1001: More Naruto- but this one has some of my favorite 'Kinda Genius' Naruto moments. It mixes up the timelines, throws in a completley revamped Chuunin exam, introduces tones of new characters- and completely revamps Naruto's methods- if you ever got bored of 'it's all Rasengan' in canon- this is definitely a suggestion.

From Fake Dreams by Third Fang: Fate Stay/Night. Supercharged. This is a bit of a controversal pick- mainly because Third Fang is one of those authors who's sense of humor is... off. Just a bit of that old school Shonen Jump Pervert vibe in the background- snarky comments and purile humor creep around the corners of his writing- but FFD is still immensly fun to read. The power creep- already high as fuck in Canon FSN- goes so high. Where recently Shirou isn't fighting Servants- But True Ancestors. Son of the Western Sea by Mac_Ceallach: If you want Percy Jackson going solo on a world-wide adventure- this is it. its after the War for New York, before the romans showed up- and Its got Percy just... being cool vibing. Hitting into other myths by accident. In contrast, if you want some true off the rocker Percy- An Impractical Guide to Godhood by Antony444 It's technically a crossover with A practical guide to Evil- but if you ever wanted to see olympus and the rest of the percy jackson verse just... implode with chaos? This is it. Flooding Hades with the flaming river- beating Ceaser in Gladatorial Events, fucking with the olympians? This goes hard. The Many Quirks Of Phantom Thievery by PsychicBeagle Persona 5, reloaded. Featuring New Game+ shenanagains, plenty of romance and memes, and puns. If you're a P5 fan, I highly reccomend it. It's Time For Another Good Idea, Bad Idea by Haurvatat: This is a weird one- for one it's Solo leveling, so it's fandom was kinda niche. on the other... It's got Cannabilism in it. But! As a Cook? this is a guilty pleasure fic. The cooking scenes are all written like Binging with Babish episodes, the humor is on point, there's actual stakes and emotions- theres closure? What more does a fic need.

[coraniaid]

Some scattered thoughts on rewatching Hush (Episode 10 of Buffy's fourth season).

As I said a few days ago, Professor Walsh would make a lot more sense to me if the writers didn't pretend she was teaching -- or that Buffy or Willow would want to learn -- undergrad pyschology. The opening dream sequence of this episode (much of it, presumably, resembling things the real Walsh might say in one of her lectures, or perhaps is saying in real life while Buffy is dreaming) is a prime example of this. Nothing she's saying has anything to do with pyschology as such. It's explicitly about language and communication ("not the same thing", as the episode is quick to remind us). So make her some kind of English professor! That's the subject you set up Buffy as liking last year and it's also the subject that actually works for the speeches you want her to give! (And yes, it has nothing to do with Walsh's double life as a military officer and demon-dissecting scientist, but crucially neither does rambling about Jung and Freud while pretending to be teaching pyschology).

I also continue to be more than slightly confused about how old Riley Finn is meant to be. He describes himself as "a pysch major" in this episode, which supports the theory that he's an older undergraduate student who happens to be a TA as well. And, bolstering this theory further, at the very beginning of the next episode he'll tell Buffy that "somebody should speak before one of us graduates". So he's a pysch major who's yet to graduate, right? But in that very same episode, Buffy will literally describe him as a "pysch grad student"; and although undergrads acting as TAs and marking papers isn't unheard of, it's something that's far more common for graduate students to do. And I don't really see how Riley could have the leadership role in the Initiative he does unless he's been a member for a while: was he recruited while he was still in high school? (For that matter, how long has the Initiative been going? Are we supposed to think they were active last year, while the Mayor was still around? Or did they only move to Sunnydale a few months ago? I realize these are the sorts of questions you're not meant to ask about Buffy, and yet...)

OK, multiple people get their hearts cut out by grinning monsters while lying in their beds and unable to scream for help this episode, but by far the most horrifying scene is sill the one where Willow goes to the college Wicca group where she'll first run into Tara and tries to talk to its leaders about doing actual magic. It's all very well done (and quite genuinely hard to watch), but it does rather undermine Willow's claim last year [in Season 3's Choices] that she wasn't just going to stay in Sunnydale for Buffy's benefit and that Sunnydale was a particularly good place to learn magic. (And she doesn't even try going to this group until she's been in school for months!) Again, I realize that expecting tight continuity between seasons of this show is missing the point a little, but ... well. Sometimes I like to miss the point.

Speaking of Tara, I'd remembered the scene where Willow insists she's "definitely nothing special" and Tara overcomes her stutter to earnestly assure her that "no, you are". But I'd forgotten it happened so soon in their relationship. This is Tara's first episode! This is their first actual conversation!

Anyway, Amber Benson is great as Tara right from the beginning and I only wish she'd appeared in the show earlier. Does anyone know for sure if Tara only got written into the show after Seth Green's Oz was written out? It certainly seems that way to me, but perhaps I'm wrong. (Supposedly Whedon claimed that one of Willow and Xander was always going to come out this season, but I find that pretty hard to reconcile with what we see on the screen.) It's fun to imagine an alterate version of Season 4 where Willow went to the Wicca group and met Tara as early as episode 2 (and where as a result we got to see Tara in episodes like Fear Itself or Beer Bad or Something Blue). (It would also have been great if Oz had stayed on the show and had to find a role in the narrative beyond being 'Willow's cool and non-threatening boyfriend'.)

Equally I wish this wasn't the last we saw of Giles's "old friend" Olivia (or at least of the real Olivia: the actor comes back one more time for Restless). She's a frustratingly underwritten character in a lot of ways (in part of course because she only actually appears in two episodes) and it's something of a mystery to me how and when she and Giles are meant to have met. But the episode spends a lot of time paralleling Buffy/Riley and Xander/Anya and (to a lesser extent) Willow/Tara as having relationship problems that they struggle to resolve with words (and, indeed, feelings that can't really communicate in words). So it's kind of odd how Giles/Olivia almost deliberately subverts that: Giles has been talking to Olivia and he did try to tell all about the supernatural [and again, note that this very much does not comply with the rules he tries to impose on Buffy; she can't use her calling to impress "cute boys" but this is never something Giles seems to worry about himself] but despite being an "old friend" Olivia just assumed he was making it all up (somthing she was weirdly relaxed about). Anyway, at least the show manages to not literally kill Olivia off, which is honestly better than I'd have expected. (I'm told she comes back in the comics, which would be fun if I thought anything that happens in the comics mattered.)

I know it's mostly just there for a silly and ultimately harmless gag, but Riley and Forrest getting into a secret elevator they know requires voice activiation to work safely (and apparently not knowing the override codes?), despite both of them knowing they can't speak and so won't be able to provide said voice activation, does not exactly suggest they are competent adults who should be trusted with military hardware. Then again, if I was going to list everything that was stupid about the Initiative I'd be at it for years, so let's not even bother.

Overall I think that Hush is a very well made episode and I enjoyed rewatching it. I definitely think it's the strongest episode of Season 4 so far, but I'll confess to not being quite as taken with it as a lot of people seem to be. It wouldn't ever have made my top 5 episode list, and rewatching it now I'm not sure it would have much chance of making my top 10 either. I'm not sure exactly why that is, but I can think of three reasons that all contribute at least a little.

One is that, to be frank, I just don't care about the overall season arc enough to be all that impressed that this episode manages to move that arc along while also introducing and resolving a stand-alone monster of the week plot.

The Initiative were never a good idea and they're still not compelling here (we still don't really know what they think they're up to!). I can't quite persuade myself to care about Buffy and Riley's self-imposed relationship problems. The show still hasn't done anything to convince me why the gang are letting Spike stay with them beyond "Seth Green left so it was imperative we add somebody else to the opening credits as soon as possible ... no, no, we can't add Amber Benson, it has to be a man obviously". And we know that Olivia isn't ever going to come back after this episode, so there's a certain pointlessness to all her scenes with Giles. I guess I'm just not invested in the wider story that's being told here. (Apart from the Willow and Tara stuff, obviously. That's great.)

Another issue is that I think the episode somewhat lacks faith in its central premise. For an episode whose selling point is meant to be that nobody can speak, there's an awful lot of on-screen talking.

Compare this to similiar concept episodes like Season 3's The Zeppo or Season 6's Once More With Feeling, or with this season's own Restless.

The Zeppo's gimmick is that it's a Xander POV episode. And in that episode, immediately after the opening credits, we begin with a scene with Xander [and no other Scooby Gang member around] trying to impress the school jocks with his football catching prowess. The episode only goes back to its usual approach in the final scene, with the rest of the gang talking about how -- in the more usual episode we didn't get to see more than a few partial scenes of -- they closed the Hellmouth and "no one will ever know" how close the world caming to ending, about a minute and a half before the credits roll.

Once More With Feeling is, of course, the musical episode. This is something it keeps up from the (suitably revamped) opening credits to the very final curtain fall. Buffy is singing about going through the motions before anybody's said a word of dialogue. Even after Sweet is defeated, the cast are still singing the question of 'where do we go from here?'.

Restless's gimmick is that it's the dream sequence episode. And, sure enough, everyone is soundly asleep on the couch within two minutes of the opening credits, and they'll only all be awake again about two minutes before the episode ends.

But in Hush? Well, the characters are all still happily chatting away more than ten minutes past the credits. They only lose the ability to speak about a third of the way into the full episode, and not only that but they're all talking again with almost five minutes left to go (time enough for three separate conversations between Willow and Tara and between Giles and Olivia and [at the least the beginning of one] between Buffy and Riley).

It would be more impressive, I think, if people lost their voices earlier, but they can't because the episode still has a lot of work to do to set up its various arcs -- and despite the premise it can't do that without words!

There's a quote I read by Joss Whedon [cited in, among other places, Mark Field's Myth, Metaphor & Morality] where he says he wanted to make "a show where people didn't talk [...] where I would have to tell the story only visually". And, well, okay: by that metric Hush is unequivocally a failure, right? Per J Freedland's data, the average episode of Season 4 [excluding Hush itself] has 762.74 seconds of dialogue. Hush itself has 346.41 seconds. That's obviously a lot less -- less than half as much, even -- but just as obviously Hush is not remotely an episode whose story is told "only visually". It's a story whose second act is told (mostly) visually, but that's not the same thing at all.

Finally -- and this is really the least important element - while the Gentlemen unquestionably look very visually striking and impressive, their big plan is ... not actually very interesting to watch.

Why do the Gentlemen need seven hearts, and what happens if they get them? Why does it take them more than one night to collect them all? Where did the original fairy story about them come from? Well, the show says, it doesn't matter. And it doesn't seem to matter how they get defeated, either. Buffy asks Giles at one point how she's going to get her voice back, and he can't tell her. Then the answer turns out to be "just get Riley to smash that fragile unguarded wooden box you conveniently dreamed about at the start of the episode". No doubt this is all very symbolic of something or other, but it's still a little underwhelming as plot resolutions go. Though honestly I'm not sure what I'd suggest instead except "not that".

[nicnacsnonsense]

16- if you could change anything in the show what would you change?

Salty ask game

(I’m guessing this was a question for BtVS; if I’m wrong you can send in another ask and I’ll re-answer for the correct fandom.)

Okay, so I feel like the spirit of this question is about a specific event or plotline or character arc or what have you, but my real answer is a bit more nebulous. I would want to adjust the show so the the narrative’s perception of how good/nice our core 4 mains and how good/nice they actually act were in closer alignment.

For Willow, I’m generally fine with her behavior, but I wish that the narrative was more aware of when she does cross the line (prior to s6 obv). Like, I don’t necessarily mind that an upset and jealous Willow privately refers to Cordelia as a “skanky ho” shortly after finding out she and Xander are dating, just so long as the narrative framing doesn’t cheer her on for doing it.

Giles and Buffy I would like to be about 10-15% nicer. They’re fine most of the time, but on occasion, particularly when dealing with a character that the narrative has decided is supposed to be bad/unlikeable, they are too judgey and dismissive/mean.

Then Xander needs a huge overhaul in both directions. He needs to tone the misogyny and homophobia way the fuck down, and I want the narrative to also understand him to be the more close-minded and judgmental one of the group. Having him be the more black-and-white thinker who is always pro-killing demons and least willing to consider nuances and the potential personhood of non-human beings is interesting and an important character role to have in the group (though pairing him with an ex-demon is a bit 😬 in that case unless we character develop him away from that over time). It’s just that the narrative needs to be aware that’s the role Xander is filling rather than trying to push him as the relatable, dependable heart of the group.

[direwombat]

OC INTERVIEW

tagged by @carlosoliveiraa, @aceghosts, @finding-comfort-in-rain, @cassietrn, @g0dspeeed, and @simplegenius042 for a little oc interview! making this kind of a part 2 to this oc interview i did a while ago.

“Jesus Christ,” Sybille hisses, sinking into the folding chair set up on the other side of Wheaty’s desk, haggard and weary from six weeks of nonstop fighting. “Are we really doin’ this shit again?”

He regards her, equally exhausted, and sighs. “It’s for morale, Dep. People gotta remember you’re human too.”

“Why?” she scowls. “Aint’ it more inspirin’ if they think I’m Wonder Woman or some shit?”

“Yeah, well, Wonder Woman has literal super powers,” Wheaty says. The attempt at levity falls flat, as Sybille levels him with a glare. “Look,” he sighs, “I know it seems counterintuitive to you, but reminding the people that you’re a person, just like them, will help inspire them to keep fighting against the Cult. Normal life is almost back in the Valley, you know? We gotta remind them that the fight’s still going.” 

She’s silent for a long moment, before ultimately relenting. “Fine. Ask ya damn questions.”

WHEATY: Name? 

SYBILLE: Sybille Marie La Roux. 

WHEATY: Nickname? 

SYBILLE: Was “Sarge” for a while. Mostly just “Dep” or “Syb” these days. 

Editor’s note: Also “Sweetheart/Honey/Jackrabbit” if your name is Jacob Seed. 

WHEATY: Gender? 

SYBILLE: [Rustling of fabric as she shrugs] Female

WHEATY: Star sign? 

SYBILLE: Taurus

WHEATY: Moon and rising?

SYBILLE: What now?

Editor’s note: She’s a Scorpio Moon and Capricorn Rising. 

WHEATY: Personality type? 

SYBILLE: The fuck does that mean?

WHEATY: Y'know. Like. Uh. Your Myers-Briggs or Enneagram type.

SYBILLE: I dunno what any of those words mean.

WHEATY: Y'know what, here. Let me call Xander up and see if he has the quizzes handy.

SYBILLE: The what now?

[A painful half-hour of listening to Sybille take various personality quizzes live on the air]

SYBILLE: [Very slowly] “Lawful Neutral,” “ISTJ,” “Type 8w9,” and “choleric.” [Long pause] Wheaty, all these words are nonsense.

WHEATY: Height? 

SYBILLE: 5'9"

WHEATY: Orientation?

SYBILLE: [Muttering] Jesus Christ. [Louder] I’m bisexual and I ain’t lookin’. 

Editor's note: The rest of the county doesn't know she's taken by this point.

WHEATY: Nationality/Ethnicity?

SYBILLE: American. Cajun French. 

WHEATY: Favorite Fruit? 

SYBILLE: [Sighs wistfully] I’d kill for a mango or nectarine. 

WHEATY: Favorite Season? 

SYBILLE: Spring. But since movin’ to Montana, I understand the appeal of autumn. 

WHEATY: Favorite Flower? 

SYBILLE: Hibiscus.

WHEATY: Favorite Scent? 

SYBILLE: Fresh coffee. Pine. Frankincense. Shit, I dunno, it’s hard to pick just one. 

WHEATY: Coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate: 

SYBILLE: Coffee. Black. 

WHEATY: Average Hours of Sleep: 

SYBILLE: [Long silence] Not nearly enough.  

Editor’s Note: Between 4-5 on a good day; closer to 2-3 on bad ones. 

WHEATY: Dog or Cat Person? 

SYBILLE: [Rustling of fabric as she leans over to pet Boomer] I like both, but overall ‘m more of a dog person.  

WHEATY: Dream Trip? 

SYBILLE: Shit, it really is a dream trip now, ain’t it? Woulda liked to’ve roadtripped ‘round Australia, but I doubt that’ll ever happen, now.

WHEATY: Favorite Fictional/Real Character? 

SYBILLE: Jesus, I dunno. Trinity from the Matrix, I guess. 

WHEATY: Yeah, I can see that. 

WHEATY: Number of Blankets You Sleep With? 

SYBILLE: Depends on where I end up sleepin’. ‘F I can find a cabin or bunker, then one or two. Otherwise it’s just my leather jacket. 

WHEATY: Random Fact? 

SYBILLE: Was on the track team my freshman and sophomore years of high school, before I had to drop out.

this one has been going around so sorry for any double tags, but, tagging: @marivenah, @corvosattano, @trench-rot, @harmonyowl, @fourlittleseedlings, @purplehairsecretlair, @adelaidedrubman, @socially-awkward-skeleton, @voidika, @locustandwildhoney, @testyfestyenthusiast, @strangefable, @inafieldofdaisies, @alexxmason, @deputyash, @josephslittledeputy, and anyone else wanting to do this for their ocs!