#but for evil reasons like corrupting them with memes

[syrips]

'you wouldnt like villain blorbo if they were officially redeemed/romanced because the excitement is in the mystery and how canonically it wouldnt make sens-'

wrong.

ravenloft i10 (1e). DoD (2e). VRGtR (5e).

thank u

[diamonddeputy]

Okay I put this together for a buddy who couldn’t make it so I may as well put it here too now that I have it all in one place

All the dev commentary I picked up from the UTY anniversary stream

PLEASE REBLOG WITH ANYTHING I MAY HAVE MISSED

• It apparently took them FOREVER to solidify a design for Decibat. One of the early concepts was a literal baseball bat with wings and I enjoy this fact very much

• They originally had an idea that Dalv would accidentally try and move into Martlet’s house after leaving the Ruins LMAO

• They expanded on this piece of concept art that had been floating around: there were never really plans for the Feisty Five to be evil, they just made their own wanted posters to inflate their own egos LOL

• I didn’t really write any of the specifics down, but listening to them talk about the Flowey fight was so interesting because they were all chiming in about who worked on what parts and where the inspirations were from and where they sourced their materials. Some details I remember off the top of my head:

- Flowey’s voice lines were pulled from the same McDonald’s commercial as his canon ones

- The audio for the scene where Martlet melts before Meta Flowey was a combination of a stock laugh and a clip one of the devs just so happened to have, when they used to edit for a YouTube channel, and the file got corrupted and just randomly made that sound

- The heartbeat monitor sound that plays during the Organic speciman is taken from the frequency of an actual human heart. Don’t remember the story about how they acquired that one

- The graphics for the Polygonal speciman were inspired by PS1 horror, Ben Drowned and that meme that went around in the late 2010s of a gif of a bug that made it look like a bug was on your screen (in specific reference to the little Flowey gremlins that crawl down the screen)

- They originally had plans to include a spectrogram in the fight, but decided it would make them seem too tryhardy

• There were plans for an underwater segment that were scrapped extremely early in development, something about a bridge in Waterfall breaking

• The comment Starlo makes in the Wild East about there being a fourth mission that was scrapped from the regimen is a reference to a literal fourth mission that the devs cut because they felt like it killed the pacing, where Virgil would kidnap the Feisty Five and tie them up in places around town and you had to go rescue them and it was a stealth game type thing

• - The designs for the Feisty Five have a lot of funny inspirations

- Ed was originally designed to be a normal monster, but they liked his design so much they used it for something more important

- Initial concepts of Moray’s design had them in a fisherman’s cap or a paper boat hat, to show how unserious they were about this. Also, they weren’t originally designed to be Angie and Gillbert’s child, a playtester just made that assumption and they were like y’know what sure we’ll roll with it

- Mooch’s design originated from a Minecraft RP OC that one of the devs had that she never got to use. Which is iconic tbh

• Mo was inspired by this lil dude, who showed up and had babies in one of the devs’ attic. Additionally, while coding the game, there were little variables they put in for fun like a timer. One of them was a number that just incrementally increased, and was labelled “Crimes that Mo has committed”

• The fact that sparing Dalv doesn’t abort Geno, that everyone chalked up to being a genius narrative decision, was AN OVERSIGHT??????? It was a coding error caused by the fact that they were initially gonna make everything that happens in the Dark Ruins not count towards any route, like Flowey implies in his dialogue, but they went back on that decision and fixed it for everyone except Dalv. They made a comment on stream like “we should really fix that” and everyone in chat was like PLEASE don’t LOL

• There were never really concepts for a Geno Starlo fight. And a lot of it is the reasons the fandom talks about that he’s a coward before his character development and it makes more sense for him to back out in the face of real danger. But also because in terms of power level, it didn’t make sense for him to stand a chance. And also because they were making all the routes at once and designing the boss fights at equal times and this was the first chance they got to make a boss fight for Ceroba LOL. But the plan was already set by that point that it was gonna be her instead of him

• No one truly knows the origins of the super faded silhouette standing in the background of the UG Apartments shop in Geno. Apparently the dude who made the CG just. Put it there

• We got more insight into the Martlet transformation animation. It was made with SO much purpose. If you look closely, she starts to melt and the determination puddles underneath her, but then she gains control of it and the puddle ABSORBS BACK INTO HER, then shoots out in a burst when her first wing transforms. THAT’S SO COOL

• Additionally, they also canonized that Martlet took the determination before Alphys had any of the fallen-down bodies, and that she had no idea what it actually WAS, other than that it had something to do with the human SOULs. Which makes this even MORE impressive because she wasn’t intrinsically prepared to control determination, she just DID it

• Additionally, they also canonized that Martlet took the determination before Alphys had any of the fallen-down bodies, and that she had no idea what it actually WAS, other than that it had something to do with the human SOULs. Which makes this even MORE impressive because she wasn’t intrinsically prepared to control determination, she just DID it

• The dive-bomb attack Martlet does in her first-phase Zenith fight was inspired by Dyna Blade, as a Kirby fan that fact just made me happy lol

• Retribution was the last song made for the game, and was composed in just a couple days, which is WILD to me

• We got confirmation that Flowey is still in control of saves after defeating Axis in Geno, and Clover’s text in the overworld/after dying is just them being so focused on their mission that they’re drowning out everything else

• CANNOT forget The Jincident

[mortalityplays]

This is a very good illustration of the increasing susceptibility to conspiratorial thought patterns I've been seeing on the left lately. Just because you don't believe there are space marines on Mars doesn't mean you're immune to building imaginary connections between aesthetic or emotional data points and mistaking them for evidence. A lot of well meaning people in my circles have been sharing this story, buying uncritically into the first narrative they encountered. I want to break down why:

Jones' twitter thread was extremely emotional and extremely urgent. The idea of a child being ripped away from his frantic mother and a ticking clock to decide his fate both helped the story to bypass analytical scrutiny. It sends the message 'act now, before it's too late, it's the only compassionate thing to do'.

Her connection to an existing conspiracy (a concerted effort by the state to cover up Covid statistics) creates a strengthening association with the idea that this is also a conspiracy. The thread offers no positive evidence that her son's arrest was a conspiracy, and no positive evidence that his arrest has any connection to her prior experiences.

Jones' allegation that the arrest was retribution for her actions as a whistleblower implicitly identifies her in the reader's mind. A lot could be unpacked about her dispute with the DOH but it doesn't really matter because I don't think most people who circulated this story knew much about it either way. The point is that it anchors her identity in a few key concepts: 'whistleblower', 'covid scientist', 'concerned citizen'. None of these qualities are relevant to the events detailed in the thread (or evidenced in the thread, if we're being really rigorous), but they unconsciously prejudice the reader's assessment of whether to trust or side with her. Simply put, if you are concerned about how covid was handled and/or inclined to support whistleblowers, you are more likely to assume she's credible.

If you dislike and distrust cops, you are primed to accept a narrative in which they are doing something straightforwardly evil. Don't get me wrong, fuck 12, but I say that armed with an enormous preponderance of cases in which we have positive evidence of police acting out of self interest, cruelty, corruption, racism, misogyny, etc. Allowing ourselves to be seduced by the fantasy that they are always always without fail breaking rules and fashing it up in broad daylight only makes us easier to delude and manipulate.

She repeatedly made the point that her son is autistic. Again, if you are autistic or sympathetic to autistic people, you are more likely to be 'warmed up' by this detail and inclined to take her side. I'm not going to say it's irrelevant to the idea that he was being unfairly targeted, but it is overwhelmingly emotionally weighted. And again, it is not evidence that he was unfairly targeted. It's another weight on the scale that tips you to judge the truth value of her story without reality checking.

The example of a meme that she shared is characteristic of a type of online humour that is at least familiar to most of us. If you or your friends make edgy jokes and share tasteless irony memes, or if you've been online for more than like a week, you understand that they're mostly harmless. The idea that this meme could be used as evidence by law enforcement to detain you is ideologically threatening in an immediately relatable way. It evokes a reflex defensive impulse — that's not fair, the cops are wrong, the kid is innocent — bypassing the process of verification. Is this meme the reason he was arrested? Is it the only one he posted? Is it the only reason he was arrested?

All of these factors create a gut-led constellation of information that quickly forms a picture. Because it is being pieced together from multiple subconscious feelings and prejudices, it feels as if it has been evidenced. Because the thread was highly emotional and highly urgent, readers were pressured to jump to rapid conclusions and ask "what can I do to help?" (and the answer, as it almost always is, was 'donate money, quick').

I want to be really clear that I am not saying Jones manufactured any of these effects on purpose. It would be completely within reason that having a young child arrested would send anyone into an emotional tailspin, grasping for reasons this might have happened, leaping to his defense, rallying resources to fight on his behalf. I am not in any way ascribing malice to her actions.

What I'm interested in is the effect that this emotive kneejerk appeal had on people who were unknowingly predisposed to believe that the state of Florida would kidnap a child to punish a scientist for disagreeing with the department of health about covid statistics. That is a baseless conspiracy theory, and a huge number of people in my immediate circles reflexively amplified it.

Personally, I think arrest is a godawful way to respond to a child having a mental health crisis, even if they are seen to pose a violent threat. That still doesn't mean the cops did it at the bidding of a mad dictator in waiting. In the hypothetical parallel universe where it turns out Jones was right and this was all a conspiracy to punish her, it still would not have served the situation to jump to that conclusion on a gut feeling.

Pausing to identify relevant, verifiable facts before sharing a story like this is always warranted, even if you think the person telling it is 'on your side'. The more you worry that questioning the narrative wastes precious time or makes you a bad person, the more you should scrutinise why you are being made to feel that way. Accepting unfounded conspiracies into your worldview is not benign, even if you think the 'targets' deserve it. It erodes your critical perspective and turns you into a vector for the people around you.

tl;dr: you are not immune to baseless conspiratorial thought

[halfratsalready]

The Unhinged Jack x Wanderlust Conspiracy Board Explained

A few days ago I posted this silly conspiracy board I made for a slideshow night with my friends where I talked about how Ubisoft loves to deny Jack x Wanderlust and everyone seemed to like it so here’s an in-depth (and I mean in-depth) explanation of everything on it.

We start, of course, with Si’ha Nova and the Traveler, and Wanderlust wearing his dad’s cape at the beginning of Canned Heat because it’s super cute.

And you can’t talk about this ship without the moment from Majesty that perfectly mirrors the moment from Save Your Tears because genuinely why would they do this if they didn’t want people to ship these two? (Rainbow flag added for ✨flavor✨)

I also thought it was worth mentioning that the only time we ever actually hear any of these characters speak across all 14 lore playlist maps is literally Wanderlust calling out Jack’s name.

And now it’s time for the part that I like to call Ubisoft’s crusade against a monster of their own creation (because look at those last two points and tell me they didn’t do this to themselves. You can’t.)

Now in making this I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Ubisoft isn’t being as harsh on the ship as we’ve been thinking, because “they’re such good friends” and “best friends” with a thumbs up automatically reads as very sarcastic and joking to me, like all the memes about “historians will say they were close friends.”

Then there’s the infamous in’s and out’s New Years post, but what I hadn’t picked up on until I saw this screenshot from Twitter is that the inclusion of “normalize being evil” on the in’s list is rather suspicious and that, according to Just Dance, “this was posted by Night Swan’s army.” So I feel like that’s worth mentioning, because it casts a different light on all the other things on the lists. As in including Jack Rose in the in’s list since he’s the only one she didn’t corrupt yet and she wants to do that this year? And putting stanning Jacklust on the out’s because she’s evil and doesn’t want us to have nice things? Not too sure but hey, if someone better at analyzing things wants to look into that, I’d be down to read it.

(I also think it’s worth mentioning that “worrying about getting a Megastar” is included in the out’s list when the tweet just before that one is encouraging players to get Megastar on Zero to Hero, so some more contradictions there, but that might not mean anything, given that Night Swan’s whole thing is perfection and I feel like she would definitely be in favor of worrying over getting Megastar.)

Plus there’s the pretty popular belief that they’re just pointing out how stupid of a ship name Jacklust is, but I’m personally not at all sold on this being the reason, even if Jacklust is a stupid ship name. (I told my friends the ship name during this presentation and one of them said “Really? Wanderrose was right there.”)

Lastly, I threw Night Swan in there because of the theory that Ubisoft is denying Jack x Wanderlust because the Traveler is Jack’s father. Now, I have opinions about this theory and I hope it’s not true for obvious reasons, but I feel like if it is, it’s a serious oversight on Ubisoft’s part.

Firstly, if they’re half siblings why did they recreate the move from Save Your Tears in Majesty? Seems odd to have half siblings recreate a pretty iconic romantic duet moment.

There’s also the fact that we can clearly see that Wanderlust takes physical traits from each of his parents - his mother’s blue skin and his father’s dark hair. If the Traveler is Jack’s dad, why don’t they share any physical characteristics? At the very end of the beta for Sweet Dreams (spoiler?) we see Night Swan with green eyes, unlike the yellow eyes she has in the rest of the dances we see her in. (While this could just be an older design choice, I personally interpreted this as meaning that her eyes were green before she went evil and then they turned yellow.) In all of his character artwork, Jack’s eyes are green, which I take as meaning that this is a trait he got from his mother. So I personally feel like it only makes sense for his father to have red hair (and we’ve got plenty of options to pick from with that criteria).

But hey, that’s just a theory… I don’t need to finish that part, you’re already thinking it. Thanks for reading my insane ramblings!

[whiteboardartstudios]

Goodbye, Gendaen

fan art for @mtqcomic

Thoughts and LONG ramble under the cut! (includes spoilers!!!)

A while ago (like last week maybe?) I realized that I've been following this comic for almost a year, and I still haven't drawn Mysta yet! I figured that with the recent end of Chapter 3 and that *huge* lore drop (I was NOT expecting that oh my goodness the theory wheels are turning in the void that is my brain) now would be a pretty good time to draw her! So that's where this came from! :D

I thought that it would be fun to draw Mysta looking sort of like a knight? Partially because it makes for cool posing and composition but also because I think that if she was in D&D she would be a paladin due to the whole "Hero sent by Destiny" thing (I considered sorcerer or warlock as well, but her moveset is mostly melee at the moment so I thought that paladin fits better. Plus this opens up the possibility of Gendaen being an Oathbreaker paladin, depending on how that whole situation with the Crimson went. (also now I kind of want to put the main cast of mtq in D&D even though I don't actually know a lot about D&D ToT. I think Eth would be a ranger maybe multiclassed into something magic-related, because rangers have a favored enemy mechanic that gives them advantages on fighting a certain type of enemy, which could be Crimson enemies for D&D Eth. Yele is (kind of obviously) a druid because of the whole dryad thing, and Zaïl is definitely giving rogue energy to me.)) Anyways, D&D-related sidetrack aside – hello??? End-of-chapter-3 lore drop? (/positive) I have SO many questions. First of all, what happened to convince Gendaen to switch sides? For someone who allegedly spent his entire life trying to cleanse the Crimson, it would've taken one heck of a worldview-upending revelation to get him to join it. With the information we currently have, it seems pretty clear that Gendaen isn't mind-controlled or corrupted or anything – not just because of the reasons Eth gave in page #169, but also because from all the interactions we've had with Nelun Soma'o/Gendaen, he seemed to be pretty chill? I pointed out in my first fan art post that it doesn't seem as if Nelun Soma'o is being built up to be a villain character and is instead more of an antagonist with a slight mentor role, and I think that still kind of holds up now. Gendaen definitely wants Mysta to help him and/or the Crimson with something, and as Yele said in that recent comic, things aren't really adding up. I'm still slightly suspicious of the Order of Learning as well (insert person pointing at conspiracy theory board meme here lol), since you would think that if Gendaen and Eth are really close then Gendaen might have told Eth about the whole Crimson situation, right? On Page #250 (which is marked as 150??? probably a typo but idk) Gendaen says that he didn't want Eth to be roped into this whole situation, which could be a reason for keeping him in the dark – though if he knew Eth really well then he might have suspected that Eth wouldn't just let him disappear and would go searching for him. Another possible reason (in my theory) if the Order is evil or something and Gendaen learned something that he shouldn't have learned, maybe he knew that Eth wouldn't believe him because of his loyalty to the Order? I may just be connecting random dots and calling it a picture here but *something* is going on and until we get more clues on what that may be, I'm sticking with this theory lol :P EDIT, I was rereading Gendaen's character sheet and it says there that he has a strong code of honor and fights for the underdogs (not the exact phrasing but it's close). 👀 does that mean the Crimson is in some sort of underdog position? 👀

Anyways back to the drawing a little, I gave both Gendaen and Mysta a sort of braid-like element in their designs to sort of tie them together a bit visually (Mysta's is on the sides of her head, which is kind of hard to see so I added a little ribbon to show that parts of her hair is tied back, and Gendaen's is in his golden hair accessory thingy). I think that there's definitely some sort of correlation between Gendaen's disappearance/switching to the Crimson and Mysta being sent to Sol Ybberia, and I also think that both of them are going to play an important role in whatever happens in the future, hence the braids (to show that their destinies are kind of intertwined, as the two Heroes of Sol Ybberia). I also thought that it would be fun to put Gendaen in a stained glass window instead of actually physically being present, because up until the Nelun Soma'o reveal, all the things we know about Gendaen are basically all from Eth's recollections of him, which for me definitely paints a bit of a "Character haunting the narrative" kind of vibe. I also think that with the Nelun Soma'o reveal, the somewhat glorified (for a lack of a better word – I think Eth might be a little biased when it comes to Gendaen, considering that Gendaen has been missing for about 5 years, if my math is correct? 5 years feels like a long time to me and I think that if a person important to me has been missing for that long then my impression of them would definitely start warping to how I want to remember them/who I wanted them to be and I might start unintentionally ignoring the things that doesn't quite match that image in my head. Speaking of/case in point, Eth's reaction to the Nelun Soma'o reveal!) image of Gendaen that we had got thrown in a metaphorical blender with our idea of the Crimson at the time, and it just makes things a whole lot more complicated in a very interesting way. (If you look at the bottom right of the image you can see Nelun Soma'o's cloak coming out of stained-glass Gendaen's cloak, which I thought would be a fun little detail to include). Hence, the stained glass is kind of the "perfect Hero who disappeared to advance the plot" Gendaen and we can see Mysta kind of splitting the glass with her Rotted Fork from a composition point of view, referencing that huge lore bomb she dropped a couple of pages ago and how that changes our (or at least my) perception of Gendaen as a character entirely. I really do like the plot twist, as I think it makes Gendaen a more 3-dimensional character with more complicated motivations and narrative significance, as before I mainly knew him as "predecessor to Mysta" and "one of Eth's sources of motivation", but now he my understanding of Gendaen also extends to things about Gendaen himself and not just about his role in relation to other characters (for example, "Gendaen is helping the Crimson for reasons currently unknown" or "Gendaen is planning something that involves Mysta??? and he's in the Void??? And apparently Mysta is supposed to jailbreak him out at some point in the future?" He definitely has something planned behind the scenes, I don't know what it is and I want to find out).

MORE THINGS about Gendaen (can you tell that he's my favorite character at the moment ToT), what's up with those last words? If I'm correct (and I think I am, I scrolled all the way back to the page where the gods were introduced just to check this ToT), Nomù is Compassion? How is compassion related to Gendaen's alliance with the Crimson? I mean, when you think of the Crimson, compassion definitely is NOT the first value that comes to mind. Right now it seems that to me, Gendaen's plan with Mysta and the Crimson and the Void is connected to Nomù somehow? (the "I won't disappoint you" is definitely interesting). I don't have a lot of thoughts or theories on where this might be going, I just thought that it was something interesting to metaphorically chew on for the next while. It definitely seems like it has some sort of narrative significance, at least.

There might be more things that I wanted to talk about, but I can't really think of them off the top of my head right now (it might be due to the fact that it's currently quite late in my time zone ToT I am sleepy) so that's all from me for now :D (Also dropping the version of the drawing with just the lineart here because I think it looks really cool)

I hope you have a really nice day and/or night! :D

*a starry rift in space opens up in front of me and I faceplant into it like it is a mattress* (gotta make that dramatic exit!) [Image ID: The first image is a colored and rendered image of Mysta from the Mysta's Terrarian Quest webcomic standing in front of a stained glass window of Gendaen. She is holding the Rotted Fork spear from Terraria, and she has a determined expression on her face. The stained glass shows Gendaen with his back turned to the audience, and one closed eye is visible. His cloak is flowing to the right of the image, where it emerges out of the stained glass as it fades from green to dark grey. Crimson vines, green trees, and white clouds surrounds Gendaen in the stained glass. Outside of the glass portrait, real crimson vines are creeping along the stone walls that the portrait is on, framing the portrait and Mysta in the middle. A red light source is shining down from the upper right corner of the drawing. End ID.] [Image ID: The second image is a work-in-progress version of the first image without any color and only some minimal shading, with all shades being in monochrome. Mysta's lineart is noticeably darker compared to the line art of the background. End ID.]

EDIT: Forgot to add image ids, they're here now TwT

[holymaccaronii]

uh so I forgot which post this was now but you know the one where you were talking about developing the lore and you attached that one eggman meme where he says ,"I miss my wife tails, I miss her a lot" or something like that, and it was said in reference to how AM is in your AU

Is it in reference about AM towards BE or Ellen, Benny, Gorrister, Nimdok and (somewhat because dude got slugged) Ted? I can see it being both because I swear you've joked(?) in some posts about them being spouses, but I can also see it being about those five if he were to see BE's five and miss his.

My pea brain cannot understand which or neither it may be, too much Madcom hyperfixating slaughtered my brain and then IHNMAIMS came along and finished it off

(p.s - is it agreed that Ellison made - or at least had some involvement since he voiced AM - AM so cunty in the game, like the way AM calls Ted sweetheart and baby screams cunty)

Oah an ask I receive about this au :,], I'll gladly answer what I understood was asked! This au is still a wip, thus why I keep mentioning everything as a 'concept' , so thing's may change later.

First off, this AU is based off the ending where both all the original survivors (except Ted as he gets slugged) and the two other allied mastercomputers die. It's basically a continuation of what will happen with the Luna colony and AM in his considerable solitude, BUT with the addition of my Ocs.

The eggman post made reference to a route where AM slowly gets convinced by BE's survivors to reconcile with her, as the story itself is divided into a prologue (that explains the background of the moon colony, how BE escaped to Earth, met AM and eventually kinda had a relationship going on with him before their eventual separation), and the main story (where the humans arrive, this route OR the others happen, each leading to a different ending).

[More yapping below]

AM feels jealous towards BE's survivors because of two reasons: they resemble his just like you said, and they are being treated just like he once was by BE. So AM basically has a mindset of: "oh these humans that look just like the survivors I spent 109 years torturing are living in paradise AND being treated nicely by my ex (that a part of me still loves), how can this hell possibly get worse".

I'm not sure if this explanation was clear enough, as there's SO MANY details I didn't mention for this to make complete sense, but that's the idea the au follows so far.

In conclusion: evil computer fumbles his only possibility of a romantic interest ever, gets replaced by 5 young humans (ALL WITH MOM/DAD ISSUES) that help their new mom get thru grief + are given the chance to live their biggest dreams and be free in return. After a few years the evil computer reaches out to them, n they are given the chance to either help him with his evil plan, help him get his 'wife' back or act against him.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk and thank you for asking :3c. If something still doesn't make sense feel free to ask!!

(Also YEA AM IS DEFO CUNTY AAHHH!!! I know that it may seem like my AM is mischaracterizing the original, but since his program gets corrupted in the au to the point of letting him express love a bit easier, I envisioned him as a cunty, stressed and sassy villain that still holds all his original hate inside ofc. Harlan was so real bc of those lines 😩)

[unifi3dtheory]

ZALGO HCS

Its hard coming up with a base for a character who can really just be summed up with “evil meme wants to destroy humanity” but I tried because he is my husband and I Iove him dearly.

Zalgo feeds off of chaos, destruction, and corruption. He emits this aura that makes people easy to charm, or irrational and angry.

Yes, Zalgo occasionally directly ruins, influences, and corrupts people for fun. But it would not be accurate to point at every single sign of evil and blame Zalgo for it.

Rather than making people evil, or corrupt, or a bully, Zalgo focuses on tormenting the already tormented.

Zalgo just pushes people over the edge.

Where there is chaos, violence, evil, corruption, Zalgo is aware of it. He isn’t “there” spectating the ordeal with a ghostly bucket of popcorn, but he is aware of it and he feeds off it.

He can take a look at one person and know exactly what they have went through, and what has shaped them and ruined them, and he credits himself for it and uses it to his advantage. This is what I mean when I say Zalgo is aware of all the horrible things that happen.

Does Zalgo deserve this credit he gives himself? Most of the time, no, but it makes him feel good and his ego is too massive for him to acknowledge the truth.

There are many factors that led to creepypastas like Jeff going insane and Eyeless Jack turning into what he is now, but Zalgo just claims that he is the reason why they are what they are and takes pride in it, even though his claim is false.

Zalgo can be only closely described as a “force of nature” only when he is confined to or trapped in the UnderRealm. When confined to the UnderRealm, Zalgo is unable to manifest himself and become tangible. He is nothing but a voice in people’s heads, trying to mess with their thoughts and/or an invisible force fucking with people’s emotions and rational.

This is where the “corrupt media” part of him comes in. Zalgo corrupts media, messes with people’s minds and emotions to gain more influence, to cause more chaos, so that he can manifest himself into a physical form where he is much more powerful and influential.

The UnderRealm is not a tangible place, you cannot go there, you cannot take a step in there, it is not a place, just a state of existence, you are dead, but also alive at the same time.

Obviously being non-existent and existent at the same time sounds extremely conflicting and unpleasant, so no wonder Zalgo does all he can to keep his influence to prevent himself from being banished back there.

Please feel free to ask stuff. I find it easier to come up with stuff when I have an actual question I can focus on answering. ​I’m writing this very late at night so it might not even be that good.

[slime-sandwhich-nom]

Back in this fandom for the fourth time, will be giving headcanons.

> The snatcher wasn't always evil, he was once a very sweet guy. And i don't mean the prince, even as a ghost, he was once a very sweet guy! It's after eating souls and actually participating in the "monster" role that he found out he had a particular liking to bring suffering to others.

> Deep down, he still loves vanessa. The sweet, caring and beautiful Vanessa that somehow got replaced by that possessive monster roams around the manor now. He just can't look at the current one and say "yeah, that's my girlfriend" no, it's not. It's vanessa. Not his princess. That's the queen.

He's hurt by her, very hurt. But he wants to be his prince again, well, he wants to be his princess's prince again.

> the snatcher is chaotic neutral. He's that type of guy who never actually goes a certain direction, he only does whatever HE wants and whatever will grant him the advantage. He's here for the DRAMA. but he doesn't wanna be involved in it. He wants to watch it.

He can be both good and bad, as long as he gets entertainment in return.

> the snatcher is aware that he's in a game, hat kid isn't. Whenever he talks about "icons" or regular stuff that appears in games (example: "all of the minions who are awaiting mail, will have an icon above them, once you're done, come back here, and "clock out", get it?") hat kid is always left confused, but always knows what to do for some reason.

the snatcher also knows about memes. He knows about Twitter and everything, and will joke about it, despite hat kid not getting it.

> The snatcher always joins whatever hat kid is doing, why? It's fun. He always goes around as another hat kid because it's easier to move, since he's not a big noodle.

> Since he was a kid, the snatcher was always a bit mischievous, a little silly, if you will.

> Vanessa wasn't always an obsessive and possessive person, which made her turn into the monster she was now, it somehow..was her mother passing that struck a nerve. She was a good person once.

> snatcher dosen't really hate his minions. He acts like a goofy villain who has these little guys helping him and always tells them his secrets and plans, and they enjoy it!

> Snatcher eats the souls, the minions take the goods and throw the bodies in the swamp.

> Snatcher is literally those sassy Disney villains

> both Vanessa and the prince had powers. Ice and fire. Both had to keep their cool to keep it under control, which wasn't too hard, but even a snap could lead to at least one room frozen. Or worse.

Vanessa usually had her feet frozen and ice spreading slowly the more she got angry, but the prince? (aside from hardly ever showing anger, he was the literal definition of joy.) He would get on fire like hades does in the Disney movie.

It never hurt the two royalties, the ice never gave Vanessa any sides effects or the fire ever hurt the prince, but if it got out of hand, it could corrupt them.

> Somehow only royalty (by blood) could reach power such as magic (ice, fire and all), so they had several lessons to keep it under control. It's a little special thing that only these specific people had, no one else did.

> The prince had the habit, and still does, to brush aggressively his hair with his hands until he would accidentally rip his own hair whenever he was stressed or upset. Bad habit.

> Vanessa instead always touched her hands a lot and fidgeted, or paced whenever she was alone.

> the snatcher always had that booming laugh of his.

> The snatcher can sing. (Reference to his VA)

> the snatcher is Italian, Vanessa is German. Subcon is somewhere in Europe, specifically in Germany (the prince comes from a kingdom in Italy, but he started living in Germany with Vanessa in subcon)

The conductor is Scottish.

Mustache girl is British (meaning the land mafia town, is in England, but the mafia is not British.yet. I gotta decide.)

[Need to figure out the others]

P.S. technically speaking, all the characters are from different places, so they don't really speak the same language or English (aka: the prince and Vanessa technically would speak German (and Italian, for the prince)) aside from who is from England, Canada, the united states ect. But for the sake of everyone (to understand what they are saying) the game is in English and everything will be said in English.

plus everyone at least KNOWS some English, to communicate with everyone around the world, so everyone (when they figured out that hat kid didn't understood them) kinda spoke English to hat kid. Helped a little because everyone spoke the same thing, but as an alien she had to force herself to understand.

> the snatcher has always greeted people with a "why hello there!", Rather loud too, but in a cheerful manner, rather than the current one.

> the snatcher didn't have a big scary change or transformation, he just can shapeshift, and thought the form he uses in the game is scary (it's not. It's rather cute in my opinion.)

> The prince has the little habit of always standing and stare at Vanessa from behind whenever she would brush her teeth or hair before bed, and always gave her a little scare by just letting her realize that there's someone behind her by looking at the mirror. He enjoyed doing this a lot and always gave a few small chuckles without waking up the entire subcon with his loud laughter.

And as much of a scare Vanessa would get, she would laugh along.

> since the prince didn't spoke German, and only communicated in English, he was a silent character for quite a while. Once he actually started speaking some German thanks to Vanessa, he started speaking more. He was always the talkative type, he just couldn't be understood.

> the snatcher has a bush cat as a pet. Y'know, those little cats with a bush as their bodies? Yeah that.

He treats it like this

But he loves the little feline.

[stillresolved]

gaesaekki for the URL meme 🖤

@geaesaekki / send a url and i will answer the following...

Do I Follow Them?: yes i do!! if i am not pls assume my evil twin ( that i am not aware of atm ) has taken my place–

Why Did I Follow Them?: i was already following ur main blog and so if there is a chance for more quality interactions and dynamics I SHALL TAKE IT NO MATTER THE RISK ( that and i love evil/morally grey women so of course i had to investigate :3 )

Do We Role Play?: *gestures to the 4823940820 plots, dynamics & unfinished threads we have JFKLSDJFL :'D*

Do I Want To Role Play With Them: again if u ask me this question and i say no, assume i have been locked away against my will–

An AU Idea For Our Muses: HMMMMM well rn we've already got the celebrity verse, crime verse, and the thg verse BUT WHAT ABOUT...vampire verse? or a furuba verse 🤩

A Song For Our Muses: for our favorite pair of lone wolves– canada by lauv ( ft. alessia cara )

Do I Ship Our Muses?: maram? maram. i never actually thought there would be someone who could like? slip past ga-ram's exterior but i guess mara is the exception– I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THEM IN ACTION MORE :DD ( also u know that if i make a muse that ends up being compatible with gaya....i will be knocking on ur door 👀 )

What I Think About The Mun: lynnie u are an ICON to this hellsite i can't 🐝lieve you've only been around here for like a little over than a year...i love the passion and care you put into your characters but also their worldbuilding and also the devotion you put into your partners' muses, u would not BELIEVE how hard it is to find partners who do both :'D i also admire that you are honest not just with your partners but also to yourself. if a character, for example, is not speaking to you any longer, you're not afraid of dropping them or doing the necessary cleaning....something i think i could definitely get better at ^^'

Overall Opinion: a beloved and corrupting influence on all of ferre's blogs aka the reason more and more of my characters are stepping outside of the good bean arena <3

Blog Rate: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | this scale does not adequately measure my love for lynnie and if that is case then i will create my own: this is level infinity |

[strawberryraviegutz]

Oh and another thing, forgive me if this rant is too long, but I’m sick and tired of those stupid ass memes of Steven Universe and Jack Horner about Steven screaming and Crying for Jack Horner to change into a good person, mischaracterizing the hell out of Steven. It’s so damn annoying. Most of these people most likely have not seen or watched the damn Steven Universe movie and or show.

Steven was less of a pushover when he grew into a teenager in Steven Universe Future. Heck I don’t even think he was much of a pushover to begin with. Steven just likes being nice to people which eventually caused him so much stress due to his constant need of wanting to fix things and not wanting to end up alone.

HE WAS A CHILD. AND EVEN THEN HES STILL A CHILD IN FUTURE! AROUND 16-17 YEARS OLD. YALL ACT LIKE THERES SOMETHING INHERENTLY WRONG IN TRYING TO SEE THE BEST IN PEOPLE. THE REASON WHY STEVEN SAW GOOD IN SPINEL IS BECAUSE HE SAW THAT SHE WAS HURTING THANKS TO HIS MOM ABANDONING HER FOR 6,000 YEARS!

And no Steven didn’t forgive the “space Nazis.”(kinda find it funny when people call the diamonds that and claim that Rebecca’s telling is to forgive our bigoted oppressors/Nazis when Rebecca themself IS JEWISH). He never completely forgave the diamonds. When they wanted him to come live in the palace with them, it made him extremely uncomfortable and he also felt a bit on edge around them when he went to go see them a second time.

Not to mention he almost shattered white diamond by smashing her head into a pillar when he was controlling her because of the fact that he wanted revenge for White diamond pulling Steven’s Gem out. And no a hug didn’t “fix everything” either at the end of Steven Universe future. When Steven went back to normal after being corrupted her didn’t “get better” he was a bit emotional even though he calmed down a bit. Like literally we get it you hate Steven and or the show Steven Universe in general. You want a cookie or something?

I’m tired of people using Jack to put down other types of villains especially sympathetic ones like lmao these are the same people who said that the whole “evil just because they love being evil” (especially Disney) trope was overdone and wanted something else. And when people were finally given something new like tragic villains or generational trauma(WHICH IS AN ISSUE THAT PEOPLE SHOULD TALK ABOUT) now it’s all like”What ew we don’t want this.” “The twagic villain twope is overdone.!!!11!!1 it’s been awhile since we’ve seen an actuwal evil viwain.” DUDE the evil just because they love it is a trope that has also been ran into the ground. And this is coming from someone who likes both villain archetypes. AND FOR GOODNESS SAKE STOP SHITTING ON TRAGIC VILLAINS OR GENERATIONAL TRAUMA LIKE IM SO TIRED. DISNEY ONLY MADE TWO MOVIES ABOUT GENERATIONAL TRAUMA AND YALL LOST YOUR DAMN MINDS. YOU ACT LIKE TRAUMA DOESNT CAUSE SOME PEOPLE TO HATE THE WORLD AND OR PEOPLE AROUND THEM CAUSING THEM TO WANNA GET REVENGE OR DESTROY THE WORLD OR SOMETHING. LIKE YOU CAN LITERALLY CRY ABOUT IT. Just gives people like me more comfort characters to relate to, to help us deal with our own issues along shitty people like you.🙃(not saying Disney doesn’t have their own flaws as a company though.)

LIKE IM DONE, IM FUCKING DONE

Im tired of people mischaracterizing other characters for the sake of a stupid meme

Im tired of others using Jack to put down other villains archetypes

I’m tired of people using Puss in boots to put down Turning Red

AND MOST OF ALL IM TIRED PEOPLE MAKING THOSE DUMB EDITS OF JACK SAYING THE N WORD

YOU ALL MAKE ME GAG LIKE BE QUIET! SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH!

[kithpendragon]

Ok, since Tumblr doesn't seem to want to let me respond to this post

I'll start a new top-level post to explain myself. YOU CANNOT SILENCE ME! (ahem. it looks like something got corrupted is all.)

The original post was a complaint about the cinematic trope of the good guy being indicated by blonde hair. By extension, we tend to see the good guy dressed and lit more brightly unless someone deliberately goes out of the way to subvert that trope. There are a number of reasons this is bad, not the least of which is that perpetuating the "dark=bad / light=good" meme does people with darker skin no favors.

I added a further complaint about the villain often being cast as a redhead. I was brief in my gripe, and got asked about redheads who happen to do bad things in more nuanced situations.

And to that I say bring it on! I love morally ambiguous characters making questionable decisions because they needed someone to remind them about Uncle Ben! What I'm not thrilled about is these guys:

These are just the first three I thought of, but I'm far from the first to notice the trend.

I really just wanted to clarify that I don't think redheads shouldn't be flawed characters, only that this trope of making them irredeemably bad should be added to the same pile of kindling as "light=good / dark=bad".

Give me a nuanced character with clear, understandable motivations who sometimes (or even frequently!) makes bad decisions but is basically just trying their best. Then I won't care what color their hair is.

[st-just]

oh did you want long angry rants for the unrecommend ask meme hm. oh I know. I unrecommend yu/wu (余/污) it's this chinese bl webnovel and...

look on a moment to moment level it's really fun to read, there's chekhov's guns set up in the first 10 chapters that are set off in the last 10 the whole book is very dense with reveals etc and parts of the character work was very compelling. but like. once you finish it and actually start thinking about it the whole thing is just so, so thin. everything is internally consistent within its own logic yk.

like first the entire book focuses on how rotten to the core the nobility of Chong/hua is how awful, selfish, fake everything there is... aaaaand the entire climax was a "yeah the nobles squabble in peacetime and all but when faced with an existential threat they all band together and work like a well oiled machine :) :) :) oh you expected the ending to have some resolution to this conflict? fuck you we've installed a new emperor that's shown throughout the story to also be corrupt but we have a threat to keep them in line. they'll slowly reform the system :) :) :) we have to go with this though bc the new emperor's the best option possible... if we keep to the made up rules about only being able to choose from the imperial bloodline. even though this existential threat has shaken up the country enough that you can probably get away with someone else. or not having an emperor at all. you know" (poking at the worldbuilding [or like. anything not on a character level] of romance webnovels is an exercise in frustration but I keep finding myself doing it)

(there's a reveal involved with the new emperor that could be read as transmisogynistic but it was such a nothing reveal - happened at the end of the story so there's not much done with it - that there isn't really anything interesting to say about it)

+ one of the main protagonist's motivation is literally "he was born as a slave and wants a better life for his fellow slaves and to prove slaves are just as competent as nobles in xianxia!fighting" so you'd expect it to yk. do much of anything about it. or at least not fumble it given the focus. but like later literally all the major + powerful characters ended up having noble blood and all 3 of the non-noble characters who were subtextually positioned as "see they're also super powerful and they don't have noble blood".... ended up having noble blood. from the top noble families no less. which. yeah not a fan!

also this is likely unintentional (I think the author just likes writing about dubcon/noncon relationships which I mean all power to her) but there were 3 mlm relationships in this book and every one of them except the main couple involved one sexual abusing (or otherwise predating on) the other so. yk. don't like that.

+ a major source of conflict between the two leads is "the protagonist that was born as a slave finally couldn't stand the cruelty of Chong/hua and defected to an evil empire, killing a bunch of the Chong/hua's soldiers, stabbing the other protagonist in the chest, etc."

but like the way that was resolved is literally "oh turns out he didn't do/had a Secret Good Reason for doing/isn't the one at fault for All That" which. let him have done some bad things for christ's sake I mean first saintlike perfect characters just aren't all that interesting to me but also why did he have to be perfectly innocent and not at fault at all to not deserve all that was done to him. couldn't he have done everything he's accused of and still not deserve how he's treated dammit.

also I said the amount of chekhov's guns are supremely satisfying and I stand by that but also it makes everything loop back to the protagonists which makes this whole-ass kingdom feel so goddamn claustraphobic this is an entire country why is there only like ~20 actual people in here

(tbf on a purely character level most of the folks that actually get characterised are characterised pretty well but the number of those are... small considering the scale of the story. also this doesn't help how flaccid the slave plot ended up being considering there's close to no slave in the plot that is given interiority. there's an entire army full of them but they're treated like a collective)

and there's the typical chinese ableism towards the mentally ill/etc (background radiation of my life) + distasteful genre tropes but I came in expecting that so

(although I would argue the Ontologically Evil Empire's effects on the story is notably worse than average)

plus like I love melodrama but even with me the prose felt so cloying and exaggerated I can't articulate it but I was getting a toothache reading it. although I see folks talk about how gorgeous the prose is so hey maybe it's a taste thing.

+ this is a neutral judgment but whenever I start doubting I'm asexual I think about this book and immediately am sure again. the thirst is like some gravitational force that everything in the story bends towards itself which. glad other folks are happy not my thing though.

anyway yeah *offers this rant like a raccoon* there's other stuff but that's mostly nitpicking. generally I describe it as "really fun in the moment-to-moment if you're the target audience but once you start thinking about yk. everything else it's just more and more. why was it like that. why was it written this way."

tbf a fair amount of my dislike is "dead dove do not eat / I don't know what I expected" but in my defence the way I was sold it vastly skewed/overinflated my expectations (picture the way folks sell atla/pjo/etc. as so much more than it is)

(I'm self censoring with /'s bc ik there is a decent fandom for it on here)

Excellent rant thank you very much. And also, like, not exactly familiar with the genre but that sounds deeply painful, yes!

That said,

+ one of the main protagonist's motivation is literally "he was born as a slave and wants a better life for his fellow slaves and to prove slaves are just as competent as nobles in xianxia!fighting" so you'd expect it to yk. do much of anything about it. or at least not fumble it given the focus. but like later literally all the major + powerful characters ended up having noble blood and all 3 of the non-noble characters who were subtextually positioned as "see they're also super powerful and they don't have noble blood".... ended up having noble blood. from the top noble families no less. which. yeah not a fan!

This or something like it happens so often in every fucking type of fantasy and I loathe it with every fucking fiber of my being.

[enquiringangel]

Ooh, could I get a DVD commentary on Sacrilege?

You most certainly can!

From this meme here. The fic in question is here.

Sacrilege

The idea for this one was born from the single image of David and Michael doing the nasty in a church. This in turn was, at least subliminally, inspired by a scene in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime where Ryou Bakura is trying to escape from the evil spirit that frequently possesses him by running into a church. In that scene the church utterly fails to offer him protection just as it does here.

The last time Michael had set foot in a church was for his grandmother’s funeral years before. He’d been eleven. 

This is based on a throwaway line by Lucy where she says her mom died eight years ago. As Michael is meant to be going into his senior year after the events of the summer, he's eighteen. Also from dialogue in deleted scenes trips to visit Santa Carla may have happened while he was a kid, but the Emerson kids and Grandpa are very much strangers to one another.

Michael is by his own admission not even a religious person and neither am I, though faith as a topic fascinates me. There are a few pieces of imagery I put in like Michael turning away from the cross and the 'sad-faced saint' that are meant to reflect this and the futility of the whole endeavour.

David's shadow covering up the altar was maybe a little heavy-handed of me, but the devil in folklore (who is not quite the same figure as Satan) is usually depicted as the Man in Black. In Robert Eggers' movie The Witch, he also appears wearing spurs, so the detail of David's spurs jangling was one I had to include.

His mouth was curled in a faint smirk—Caught you, again those lips seemed to say—but the look in his eyes was one of bitter disappointment.  

David wants Michael, but it's not enough to have him. He wants Michael to want to be there, of his own volition (because the devil doesn't just take souls, you have to surrender them to him) which in this AU where I imply the vampires won and killed his family, is not something that is likely to happen. They are, as my tags warn, in a deeply dysfunctional relationship.

“You know,” David began conversationally as he plucked a cigarette from behind his ear and lit it. “My folks were Catholic. Went to mass every Sunday, confessed away their many sins. Never did either of them a blind bit of good. Or me.[...]"

This is venturing into entirely made-up headcanon backstory stuff. I pictured that David's grandparents were Irish immigrants fleeing the Potato Famine by coming to America. You will note that while he says his parents were Catholic, he doesn't consider himself to have been so. This is also for backstory reasons that David was largely on his own from a young age and was too focused on surviving to bother about going to church. (Unless it was to steal money from the collection plate.)

The discussion about the church's ineffectiveness at keeping vampires out is a bit of worldbuilding based on a few things. My assumption is that it is the power of faith that gives holy items their sting, rather than Christianity having some special claim to vanquishing evil. But also on a vaguely remembered piece of apocrypha to the effect of 'no building of wood or stone' being necessary to house god because god is everywhere (I cannot for the life of me remember where this comes from and google is failing me). But it's also inspired by the demon BlueFangs in Netflix's Castlevania adaptation, who taunts the corrupt bishop by saying: "God is not here. This is an empty box." (cw: gore)

My cw against misrepresentation of religion is for the discussion of Wicca, where David and Michael assume all Wiccans are women and that they always practice their religion naked. Neither is true, but they are (mentally at least) teenage boys content to indulge in the fiction of conventionally attractive white ladies dancing around ritual bonfires in the nude. Plus it's the 80s and Wicca is an 'alternative religion' and not something most people are likely to be well-informed about unless they have either researched it or dabbled.

The lead up to their coupling is violent with Michael actually maiming David by tearing a lump out of his throat, because I feel like this is how vampires roll, especially if they can heal very quickly. I don't subscribe to the trope that vampire bites feel pleasant per se, at least not to humans. It's more a case of "Hmm, how kinky are you".

Which in Michael's case here, is very.

And of course the closing image is David mocking the very idea of a god who could keep him from Michael.

[nut-in-me-jojo]

If I may keep complimenting you, i just wanna say your Gyutaro feels really spot on.

You made him exactly how he should be, his entire flow chills me in all the ways demons should act in their audience's eyes; a demon, someone ruined. Who's only means of coping with abuse is fierce hostility, and in the poor environment Gyutaro was born in, it's not unexpected to turn into a violent and mean individual as a result of extreme abuse and discomfort. Especially when it comes to the ways of survival, the world stomps on the weak and poor masses, it never cared for him and/or his sister. So why should he give a rat's ass?

He's cold, he's cruel, he's mean and incredibly demeaning to the degree where he uses insults heartlessly thrown at him as a youngling on other people (I'd argue it isn't only for evil sadist's sake, but also a coping mechanism). The very people he viewed as monsters, he became worse in canon.

You know that meme where it says, "when you see a dude write a character differently than how you see them"? I adore writers, as a developing writer myself I maintain a massive respect for them. And i ain't gonna shit on them for their own thoughts and fanon (It's called headcanons for a reason. Bloggers can do whatever they like, it's their blog, their content after all), but when someone makes a society-abused literal demon like Gyutaro all love hearts and sweet like candy for little to no reason it makes me die a bit on the inside.

As I mentioned, it's their blog and all. I won't tell them how to run their shit, as it's not my place. But I never understood why anyone writes or reads OOC!charas. OOC just takes all the attractiveness of that character and...makes them not that character.

When you search up writing for a character you expect to read that character to act the way you've seen them. The reason why people read/follow certain characters it's because their traits are appealing, personality or otherwise. Not to say the characterization and research has to be totally 100% spot on or the writer has to mentally and/or physically understand the character. There are flaws in everyone's writing, perfection only exists in practice. But when I read a character, I do expect the writing to understand what their role was in the story.

I love Gyutaro but from a realistic standpoint, I utterly despise him. Tanjiro gave him and Daki exactly what they deserve, death. Why? Because Gyutaro is clearly written as a terrifying villain. A demon, corrupted by inhuman blood, who takes great joy and excitement from the fear of unfortunate victims. Gyutaro plays with his food, like cats do to mice; he canonly admitted more than a fair number of times he actively enjoys bringing torture and will absolutely give chase if it'll strike even more fright in their hearts. And Daki is only worse because of how picky, entitled princess she is. When I read villainous dudes I expect/want to read villainous things, and when there are lovey-dovey things there has to be corresponding reasons for it. By all means it doesn't have to be justified because in villain cases it almost never is, but it does have to make sense, needs to fit.

Yeah, I know. Love don't need to be complex, but complexity should be expected in characters written specifically as complex, right? KnY is deep in it's subjects. It's a demon-filled world, the demons are the bad guys of its entire story, so when love and demons mix you know it ain't anything normal or easy.

(Douma for example, is canonly stated as emotionless and psychopathic. Love in his demonic state seems down-right impossible, but should he ever 'experience' it, I'm pretty sure he's gonna be real awkward about it in standard Douma fashion. A stream of confusing and whole stage of denial following suit, seeing he grew accustomed and content with "nothing" for so many centuries despite a broken upbringing.)

Connecting love and villains together is fun for the same reason why people adjust their emotional connections for the consideration and comfort of other people. Because villains often want almost nothing to do with it. They are dark, selfish and very unnerving, predictably becoming of their lifestyles. True villains are distant-hearted, to the degree that distance directs how they act to themselves and other people. Unfeeling and unmoving even in front of opposing forces.

Gyutaro is a mega-asshole and romance stories with him are fascinating to explore, as stated above, because he's a villain (And because we all love a sleazy man done right).

So once more, I clap and throw hearts at your story. The gremlin man is green, mean and the proud owner of this poor woman's soul. I'm truly excited to see what you plan next in general. Don't mind me just gonna eat up all your other stuff. I' am more than honored to be a follower (And you're following me too?? Like whATT?) and enjoyer of this sweet sweet content.

so sorry for rambling i just really love your shit ok, just lemme know whenever i get to be too much.

Let me start by saying this is very incredibly sweet and totally made my day. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a nice review! Also, I could never ever ever get tired of people telling me how much they love my stuff, the encouragement is wonderful fuel for inspiration. So definitely don’t worry!!

I’m very glad you can appreciate my take on Gyutaro’s character. Yes, yes, yes, a million times yes to everything you said. You’ve listed off every little thing I’ve always strived for in this series which is a pretty big ego boost ngl lol.

But yes, I watched the entertainment arc as it aired and I got this idea for this story pretty much immediately before there were many fics for Gyutaro at all. But I knew most people who WERE gonna write for him would probably water him down and make him all fluffy like most people do with villains. Which I mean, nothing really wrong with that of course. I’ve certainly been one to enjoy those before.

But I wanted to have a story where he’s portrayed as the monster he really is. I wanted people to remember my fic as, “that one really fucked up one.” Lmao. Because as a reader, I feel like I’m always looking for a fic that has the true villain I actually signed up for, with all or most of their complexities in tact lol. So I wanted to deliver that to my dear readers.

I’m so very glad you’re enjoying the ride. Thank you again for the kind words! Ily5ever🥹

[gardensandtaverns]

When Players Commit to the Bit

My last post talked a little about player buy-in, and its impact. Again, as far as game design goes, my experience is limited to personal experience playing games and the experience I have as a Game Master for tabletop RPGs, but especially in those varieties of fiction, player buy-in matters. I'm going to address two particular games where this made all the difference.

To start with a group of players that has really knocked my socks off, I'll tell this first story from the players' perspective, as I was one in this rare occurrence. Any D&D5e veteran knows that the system was built for medieval power fantasy; the existence of the spell fireball is enough justification on its own, but should you need a few additional examples from a DM's perspective:

The 1st-level spell heroism completely negates the frightened condition, regardless of its source, and is available to any divine caster at 1st level. At higher levels this is the solution to fear effects from creatures like dragons, who often have DCs that creatures lacking the appropriate save proficiency could never succeed on.

The game itself has a terrible exploration and social interaction system, just look at the memes. There's a reason the homebrew community is so strong when it comes to additional or revamped mechanics.

The game also has a terrible inability to run Battle of Helm's Deep-esque situations because it is precariously balanced in the system of action economy - assuming that players will always be up against enemy groups of similar size and strength to their own.

This problem is further exhausted when specific genres, like horror or survival, come up. That's because, again, the game is balanced in the player's favor by default. Nothing should be scary until it is a definite loss for the party. Not to mention numerous background features and low-level spells immediately negate the concern of finding food, water, or medicine - as well as treating diseases and poisons.

So, dear reader, you may find it interesting when I say that my favorite experience as a player was in a modified version of the Curse of Strahd module. Curse of Strahd is a survival and gothic horror module that was heavily influenced by Bram Stoker's Dracula, for those unfamiliar. As I've already stated, the system of D&D5e is not well-suited to these types of challenges without using tactics that severely cripple players and their abilities. However, in a combination of excellence on the Game Master's part and the buy-in of all of the players, this game has been one hell of an experience.

Not only did every player come to the table with a self-motivated and layered, perhaps even somewhat corrupted, motivation - but those motives and characters have been well-played by the players in response to the appropriate types and levels of pressure applied by the DM, both on the characters in fiction but also on the players at the table. Every session ends in a cliffhanger, which only helps preserve the mindset from week to week of being in the game.

We also are tolerant, as a group, to making less-than-ideal decisions. Our characters may flee, even if nothing mechanically compels them to do so. They may make hasty decisions, or even evil things, and the characters themselves may create and relieve tensions throughout the group. Curse of Strahd has become gothic horror done right in D&D with this group because we as players let ourselves be afraid, be invested in our character's survival, and follow a narrative that is always changing and reacting.

Not quite in contrast, but certainly from another angle, I have had my best experiences and pride in my work as a DM when my players truly invest themselves in the world and connect with it. In my most recent, and possibly last ever, 5e campaign I had built a world that was embroiled in a continental war, specifically over the use of magic. At the outset of the game, I informed my players that this conflict had gone on for quite a long time, with many tenuous peace treaties over the decades, so the nation of origin for these characters would vastly influence how they perceived the world, due to various levels of propaganda, so they would have to choose together what nation they were loyal to, though that loyalty could change over the course of the campaign. The final composition of the party was a cloistered cleric, who would have had little opinion were it not for a raid on their church; a soldier, who deserted after being hunted for breaking laws regarding the use of magic in an attempt to save their ill father; a commoner, who knew little of the outside world but had grown up in a nation where the use of magic was free and unrestricted; and an ex-assassin, who had served in the interests of that same nation of free use of magic until they fell in love with a political target of a rival nation.

Now, they did not find their loyalties to change over the course of the campaign, but the beauty in this story was that none of the characters died (except for the time the wizard decided against the clear indication that this was a death wish to proceed). The players themselves asked for death to be uncommon and meaningful, and I was happy to comply. What this required me to do as a Game Master, however, was to find other means of motivating the party to action, as few of them had a moral or personal obligation to take any side in this war. For this, I used two strategies:

Threats to Security. I used the proximity of their home to contested territories to motivate their actions to protect their sense of security. Not only were some missions mandatory service, assigned by the local legislature, but there were also night raids from across the border that directly threatened the characters, and those they wished to protect. Which brings us to

Exploiting Relationships. I also used the NPCs the party cared about, most famously the two children of their patron, to drive direction and urgency in the narrative. In retrospect I used kids in general a lot to pull at heartstrings, but so does UNICEF and a number of other relief organizations.

To the players' credit, they went all-in and there were not only excellent inter-party relationships, but various party members had differing opinions on the societal needs in the future that were derived from their experiences and the NPCs they were most involved with by the end of the campaign.

I can't say I have a great way to close this one other than saying that sure, this is my experience and ymmv, but player buy-in can make a massive difference in gameplay and the options available to a designer to make a truly immersive and memorable experience.

[khorren]

Thank you @mystery-salad for the tag. muah. much appreciated :)

Associations meme - I picked AU Aoife for this one.

seasoning: garlic, onions

Weather: Cold, clear mornings with a slight breeze.

color: Dark blues

sky: clear blue with light cloud or mist

magical power: bunch of dead dudes in her head giving her weirdo powers

plant: edible ones. Finding carrots out in the wild is always a plus

Weapon: Partial to blades of any style, but happy to take up anything and whack people with it.

school subject: Old languages

social media: She’d be the sort of person to have a very small private discord group with like 4 people, but then a public facebook page where she posts like once a year.

makeup product: eyeliner/eye makeup

candy: Zhaitaffy

fear: She nearly got corrupted by Jormag which was a terrifying experience looking back. Anything to do with evil forces wanting to corrupt and use her as a tool for the wrong reasons. She knows she's powerful. Even without juiced up Aurene powers. Even without the echoes. She's someone you want on your side. And people will try to manipulate her to fight for them.

ice cube shape: Giant icecubes for ice sculptures. She’s not good at it, but loves watching artisans work on them.

method of long-distance travel: Airship. She doesn’t get to travel on them often, and it usually ends in disaster when it does. But she has taken a few that didn’t end in chaos. It’s quite calm really.

piece of stationery: Good paper. She writes a lot of letters to her family, and finding good quality paper that will survive the journey makes her happy.

three emojis: 🐉 ⚔️ 🌙

celestial body: The moon. Means she got through another day.

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Tagging @margonite-seer @konig-varorson @crim-o-lin and @neverloseguy to do this for one of your blorbos. muah <3 And as always, anyone else that wants to do it :)