#but for plot reasons i cannot spoil more than i already have

[soaps-mohawk]

Oh fuck I'm absolutely not ready for how painful it's gonna be if simon goes cold again on our omega 😭😭 pleaseeeee she's trying her best she's just scared and doesn't fully trust anyone eitherrrr. She's also been forced simonnn just be chill for once oh god!!! I kinda understand a LITTLE but I hope IF that anons guess / theory comes true that he makes it up to her again because she literally has never felt safe once in her life :') even with them the safety wasn't 100% and then the camera thing happened... oh god I'm scared 😱

We've got a while until we get there still. That's the only consolation I can give you. Otherwise...

You'll just have to wait and see 🤭

[respectthepetty]

Pit Babe Colors Ep. 10

I'm challenging myself with this show and seeing how good my color skills really are, so I'm doing my normal thing of watching it double-speed on mute, but now, the captions are off also. It's just colors and vibes here. Also, people stay spoiling this show for me in their reblog tags on my posts, so I know Charles and Jeffrey made a dumb plan but I have no idea what it includes beyond Jeffrey going to Big Red's.

Hand over heart, I think Sonic is really pretty, which is why I haven't fully thought he is a baddie, but I need a reason for him refusing to wear blue! North gets it together every now and then, but Sonic? Boy, quit relying on that face and follow the damn color assignment!

I'm missing something but I thought Charles and Barbara were fine yet here they are fighting, but Charles spidey sense is tingling, so something bad is gonna happen or will he have sex with Barbara like they did last week? And now the glasses are off! They better not have sex on this track.

Barbara is racing?! Dean was racing last week! Was Dean informed of this plot twist? Did Barbara get healed having sex with Charles last week?

You can take the red off the boy but you can't take the red out of the boy. You are acting so sus, Jeffrey! You had a full conversation with Charles and now you are just lurking in the background. Someone spoiled that he and Charles made a plan, but if the plan is murder, he is already failing at not being suspicious.

Another hand-over-heart moment, I have no effin' idea what happened on that race track because there was so many blues then a car went off the track, and I had no real idea who it was, but I do know JEFFREY HAS SOME EXPLAINING TO DO with his suspicious ass!

Big Red lives in the same place he has his cult meetings to show off his superpowered kids? Isn't there a rule of not having cult meetings where you spray your EIGHTY MILLION BONSAI TREES! That seems dumb and contradictory, but I'm not a mega villain so what do I know?

Red is usually an emergency room color, but the red yelling at me as Barbie feels all the bad things that happen in an emergency room is a lot. Charles isn't dead because color-coded boys in love get happy endings, but Barbie is probably feeling everything right now and it probably sucks.

"Don't be suspicious. Don't be suspicious." Jeffrey, you need to make out with Alan quickly to prove you're gay, because you canNOT do crimes, and are about to be in Kentana territory again. Whatever you and Charles planned, it was dumb and Barbie is now crying.

KENTANA! Are you in on this too?!

*Record scratch* Jeffrey went back to Big Red's with the dumb plan he and Charles cooked up involving Charles dying, yes? Yes! Kentana, as Big Red's whatever-he-is, knows of the plan, SO WHY IS HE BEING BEAT UP?! Kentana, break Kimberly out and run away to the beach together. Big Red doesn't even wear red! HE SUCKS! Leave!

Stuck between the blue and the red, I see. A choice has gotta be made, Kentucky Fried Chicken. Wings or Thighs? Legs are not an option. Legs are reserved for the elite squad of Peter, Alan, and Kimberly. You don't get legs! (WHERE IS KIMBERLY?!)

Barbie woke up in black. He has no man, but he has his powers, so either he is about to enter his rich widow era or he is going to go Kill Bill on these bitches.

Horrible take. Awful take. The WORST take, but . . . if Waymond didn't decide to be bad, he would have been the perfect person to comfort Babe and ease Barbie's pain, pero . . . he had to be a little bitch instead.

Oh, NOW you wanna follow the color assignment, Sonic. NOW?!

Well, Jeffrey picked up your mantle with his not-all-black outfit and bright ass white-wrapped flowers. This isn't a wedding, Jeffrey! IT'S A FUNERAL! Jeffrey, a note from The Sign's Dr. Chalothon - FAKE IT! Sir, that empty grave is supposed to be your roommate and partner-in-dumb-crime, yet I haven't seen one single tear from someone who just lost their buddy. You're more sus than the entire cast of Dead Friend Forever. How does Barbara not suspect your ass with his spidey senses?!

Damn you, Saltburn!

KIMBERLY! AND HE'S IN BLUE! *sliding down the wall and sobbing on the floor* MY BABY HAS RETURNED!

Wait! Pause! *squints* Why did Jeffrey bring Kim? And why to Alan's house? What in the Chuck E. Cheese is happening?!

Alan, Jeffrey's roommate is quote-unquote "dead" yet you are living your best life. Can you try to be sad too or are you in on this plan and this is why Kimberly is now looking beautiful on your couch?

The blue is between y'all, but just like Charles and Barbara having sex on every surface when Kimberly was being held hostage, do y'all have no shame? Making heart eyes at each other immediately after burying an empty coffin that was supposed to be Charles. Shame! At least pretend that Charles is dead! Or fill Barbie in on this dumb plan.

Vegas' Hedgehog, you pretty bitch. I hate you.

Barbie is watching the crash, and Jeffrey and Alan are playing footsie over Charles' quote-unquote "grave." But I already know I'm more upset for Barbie than he will be for himself because he'll forgive everyone for this bullshit lie in less than two minutes.

Does Barbara think Waymond killed Charles?! He might be shitty, but he is backed by the blue. He ain't guilty! Go speak to your boyfriend's roommate and his new boyfriend, Barbie!

Oh shit! I wasn't expecting you to actually go talk to them! Hold up! Is that blue on Jeffrey?! Does he actually not have anything to do with Charlie's quote-unquote "death"?

SONIC IS WEARING BLUE IN THE BACKGROUND!

Like I know shit is going down right now because Decanus sabotaged ANOTHER car *Pikachu face* but I don't think he is in on the dumb plan to "kill" Charles so . . . Kimberly wore blue this episode and Sonic is wearing blue (even though I think there is a shimmer of red there), and I'm crying in the club because this is all I wanted, and sorry to all of y'all, but the show could end right here, and I'd be happy.

Oh no. My man is crying. I am no longer happy. I am in pain. Why is he crying so hard? Was Dean his best friend? His brother? This feels personal. Jeffrey, come give our man a hug! Right now! RIGHT FUCKING NOW, JEFFREY!

Seeing Alan cry hurt way worse than anything else that happened. Charles isn't dead, so I'm just upset that Barbie has to cry and more upset that Barbara is going to be cool with whatever dumb plan Charles made without telling him, but Alan's tears were unexpected.

However, Sonic is back on his bullshit next week, so I can't stay in my feels too long.

And I get to see Peter while someone fully commits to the blue.

Oh, and we get to see the dumb-plan-that-made-Barbie-cry in more detail. *Arthur fist* Be upset at Charles for just one episode, Barbara. Just one damn episode, please. He didn't try to assault you like Waymond, but Charles has played with your emotions several times, and I just need you to knock 👏🏾 his 👏🏾 ass 👏🏾 out 👏🏾 too 👏🏾.

[bringthekaos]

Gunna take a break from Arcane for a moment to talk about Our Flag Means Death, because I am extremely disappointed and I have to put these thoughts somewhere. Putting it under a cut, because I myself forgot to filter the OFMD tag while I was working and got it spoiled for me. So ye be warned, OFMD SPOILERS AHEAD.

That ending was genuinely one of the worst I’ve seen in a long time. The only other time I can recall being this sickened and angry about a show’s ending was Game of Thrones. And it’s not because I’m sad or mad or confused by Izzy’s death, yes that’s partly it, but because a character who was experiencing massive change and character growth was ONCE AGAIN rewarded with death. I am so goddamn sick of rooting for people to do better, to be better, and then FINALLY get that catharsis only to have it thrown away for shock value.

What did this add to the story? Narratively, I mean. If this is indeed the end of OFMD, and it doesn’t get renewed, what the absolute FUCK kind of message does that send? Izzy was postured as some kind of obstacle between Ed and Stede in Season 1, but in S2, he was allowed to grow outside of that weird and fucked up love triangle (term used incredibly loosely, because his love was pretty much one-sided, and most of the time it was selfish and toxic). In S2, he went on an incredible journey of coming to terms with the fact that Ed would never be his again, not in the way he wanted. Even if it was never romantic or sexual (I do not see it), he wanted Ed to himself, and he had to accept that it would never happen. And he fucking DID, that’s the pisser. He learned to see the value in Ed’s transformation, the good that Stede was for him. And he learned to appreciate it and even start playing with it and teasing the two of them. And the worst/best part was that he embraced the crew, put them into that hole in his heart that Ed left. His speech to the Prince about them being family, and that you give up your wants and dreams for them, because being a pirate is bigger than any one person alone. GOD, his fucking character growth was incredible and heart-wrenching all at once.

And then to just throw all of that away, for what? To remove him as an obstacle between Ed and Stede? He already did that himself. To make the title of the show mean something (that the flag truly means Death?). That is just so fucking cheap and backhanded. Oh, Our Flag Means Death, but no one has died yet, better kill somebody; quick shoot Izzy Hands. How about you just make the word ‘death’ a symbol for change? The death of who you once were, the death of old biases, the death of toxicity and selfishness.

Because what would have been the problem with making Izzy the new captain of the Revenge, and letting Ed and Stede go off and do their thing? In the grand scheme of the narrative, why did two characters’ happy ending have to come at the cost of another’s?! It cheapens that happy ending, puts an asterisk on it. Especially when Izzy had JUST come to the realization that that crew, those people (no matter how ridiculous and soft they were) were his motherfucking family and he would do anything to protect them. He should have gotten to, and I just… I cannot forgive that. I’m not saying you can’t kill off characters, we shouldn’t expect anyone to have plot armor. But for god’s sake, at least make it make sense, give it a reason beyond shock value.

If OFMD gets a third season, I may or may not watch. It’s more than likely I won’t. And not because I don’t love the Stede/Ed story, or any of the other beautiful ones on that ship, I do. But because I’ve lost faith in the story.

[miningforheart]

i went to a character tag and got annoyed &my hand slipped and i ended up writing like 700 words of a character study of shen jiu so. don't mind me just putting it here.

i feel like people are so focused on the trauma plot of shen jiu in the question of whether or not he could lead a happy life (which is to begin with a strange question in itself) that they completely dismiss the reality of his situation. i always say that i love sj's "whatever you've heard about me believe it and leave me alone" stance because it's funny but i only now noticed that readers completely miss why he behaves like this at all? or rather, they talk themselves in circles of his psychological flaws while the most obvious reason is that he simply knows he will not be believed. he has no actual background he can refer to beyond his life at the peak. more than that, everything that he says about his life before can point to the truth of him having been a slave. and this is obv a dangerous thing; knowing he was a slave, it could be easily found out that he murdered his owners - and in that case he would most probably lose everything.

which is all to say that readers clearly forget that our justice standards do not exist in that world. the general public learning of his past would not make them more sympathetic and the abuse he withstood would not be taken as justification for his actions. it would just humiliate him and perhaps even land him in prison. for all purposes it is better that his trips to the brothel are taken to be "whims of a spoiled promiscuous rich master" as opposed to visits to women that he once was closer in social status with and an escape from his current environment where he does not feel safe because he's afraid of men. of course there are other situations when he could have been truthful -- irt lqg's death, for instance -- but when you think about it, he is already isolated by then and yqy's opinion's is already known: while yqy has this pitiful little endeavour to keep sj safe going on, he does always assume the worst about shen jiu anyway.

and speaking of, it's not like yqy ever offered sj truth himself. who's that person that sj is supposed to offer veracity too? with whom is he supposed to be vulnerable?

above it all there is the simple notion of sj's shame and the explicit statement that he believes himself to be one of people who were just 'born bad'. but it is also not like he never tried. there is even the radical moment when he is gifted the name 'qingqiu' and he thinks that from now on, he will be a 'new person.' and yet, the ironic strike of luck (or the opposite) that made the peak lord choose this name for him tells us all we need to know: that sj can never be free of the qiu family. it's not just some inherent character flaw nor his desire to wallow in misery that are a downfall of his reputation. sj is not stupid. he knows there are things that cannot be said.

the fact that it is not obvious is tbh baffling to me given the title of the novel, its general premise and the fact that one of the first questions asked by shen yuan as he's looking into mirror is 'why are you like that?!' shen jiu cannot answer this question because he is dead. he could not really answer that question when he was alive either. but while sj is merely haunting the narrative, we learn that nearly every single thing said about him was a fabrication -- and it is quite clear in the extras where he actually appears that every single time he tries to do something right, it is taken to be malicious. so to say that 'he did all of that to himself' or some variation is reductive given that this is the initial assumption about him in the book that gets reconstructed and debunked??

[thewriterowl]

More dark din head canon? I kinda missed ut

I love Dark Din Content! I've needed to sit back and think about this because I haven't touched it in a while...I need to get back to my horrible, feral roots of making everything terrible with this.

So, let's see...what about Dark Din who doesn't fall for Luke at first? Like how I was tempted to do with Blooms but it didn't quite go to the level of Dark I wanted cause I felt like it wouldn't have matched the story to that point and wouldn't have been fair to Luke/Readers/The Plot?

I've considered doing another multi-chapter story of where Din is like a dark (but still good) king of Mandalore and he has to work together with a Force-user to rescue Grogu...but he makes it clear he hates this guy and would gut him if he could except he needs him. Luke is just vibing along as normal. Then he just makes things click in Din's head of "oh, I can never let him leave me"--like now it's a Blooms meets Little Bird type of situation

Once in love, Din would be feral over Luke. He would plot to keep Luke trapped on Mandalore. There would be an unspoken law that Luke Skywalker can never leave the world or there would be absolute hell to pay.

Luke would just be going about enjoying his time, thinking all of this is temporary, and wow it is weird his ship keeps having trouble, and he'll be sad to leave but he needs to do stuff and this family needs time to themselves, and Mandalorians still don't like Force-users...all the while there is a marriage being plotted and he has no idea.

Now, the things this Dark Din does:

-slowly begins to replace the few pieces of clothing Luke has with prettier and things of better quality. It starts off with just tunics and pants that are more like gifts and to help him fit in and have things that are just nicer in general. But then they become prettier, more feminine, and something that just common civilians of Mandalore would wear...even better than Clan Leaders or noblemen would have.

-is trying to slowly erase his connections, as few as they may be, to anything outside of Mandalorian space. No one really needed to know of Luke Skywalker and he did not need any reason to ever try to leave.

-tries to spoil Luke rotten; wants most everything Luke owns to be something he provided for him. He wants everything to make Luke think of him and as a reminder to others and Luke himself that this is all Din's. Din did this. Din provided for him. It was all Din and everyone needs to be aware of this.

-Luke has mostly free reign of the palace but cannot set foot outside without explicit permission from Din only and needs to be accompanied by someone. It seems over the top but he doesn't have much argument. This wasn't his homewold and things got a bit...messy and now he was potentially a target of enemies. But it still felt a bit overbearing.

-does have Luke followed and will try to be the one who follows him if possible. He normally can't, cause he's king and all that, but that doesn't stop him. He gifts Luke a cute little droid as a pet (Artoo hisses at it) that rides Luke's shoulder/head or floats next to him and gives Din all sorts of updates and live feed (he is a creep, but this is dark Din and we can go all out)

-has warned Luke that there are consequences to actions. he will be very lenient with Luke and most things but in regards to his safety, things are non-negotiable and he needs to listen and follow instructions (it takes time but eventually spanking is brought in)

Honestly, my brain is just bringing up delicious lead up to one of my favorite dark Din dinluke stories of Ni Ceta Ni Alor by @aureutr--cause can you imagine the slow breakdown of Din's sanity and his need to own, protect, and control Luke. The lead up to where we get to in that story.

Because I adore stories of Din already the victor, of him already losing his mind and heart to the darkness and succeeding where Anakin didn't--I love that SO much. But I also thrive on the build up, of how did he get his victory and how did he lose himself to the Darkness to the point Luke was swept up as well?

Ugh, love it so much

[the-english-student-studyblr]

Book Recommendations (from a lit grad student)

So, as I have come to the end of my MA in world lit, I thought I should give you a list of some of the best books I've read, or learnt from. I ignore established canon and give to you recommendations from across the globe and across all genres. Books that defined their genre, or made an impact, or are just really cool and enjoyable to read. This list is not all dead white men.

I have split the list by era/year of publication primarily for easy reading. A lot of the sections are arbitrary. Some of them are not.

Note: This list is not conclusive! This is based on my own readings, and my own, personal, opinions. You have the right to your own opinions and preferences. If you have any suggestions, add them on below.

Classic lit (pre-1700)

Aristole - Poetics (c. 335 BCE)

As much as I hate it...this one is actually pretty important. I know I said 'contributions to literary canon don't matter', and here I am, immediately doing the opposite. But! Aristotle's Poetics is the earliest treatise on literary theory that has survived to the modern day. You want to know where our ideas of comedy and tragedy come from? Poetics. Three act structure? Poetics. Plot and character? Poetics. Key terms like catharsis, hubris, hamartia? Poetics. We had to read this for creative writing, and did I hate it? Yes. Am I a better writer for having read it? Also yes

Plato - The Republic (c. 375 BCE)

Plato is quite easy to read, of the classical philosophers. His works are mostly dialogues between characters, which makes them more engaging that some other dry philosophy texts. I wrote out a longer post with an explanation of Plato's Republic specifically here.

Genji Monogatari (pre-1021)

The first novel ever! Originally written in Japanese, be careful of your translations because most are of questionable quality. I've only read the first one by Suematsu and that's uhhhhh Bad™ but I think the current waterstones edition is decent?

The Völsunga saga OR The Vinland sagas (early 13th century)

Ah, how to choose just one Norse saga? These are both pretty solid examples of their style, and short (always a plus). The Völsunga saga was the inspiration behind Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (famous for the piece The Valkyrie), and most likely Tolkien's works. The Vinland sagas supposedly have an anime/manga series inspired by them, though looking at the synopsis I cannot see where the inspiration was other than time period. Norse sagas - especially the Icelandic ones such as Vinland - are actually pretty good guides to real historic events, which is very cool. I could go on for hours about this, but I'll spare you the rambling.

Thomas More - Utopia (1516)

Lovely little sarcastic book about tudor politics and human nature all wrapped up in the original 'utopian text'. Surprisingly funny for something written so long ago, and very easy to read. I wrote a longer post about it here

Aphra Behn - Oroonoko (1688)

Hated it, but the themes are interesting and wow did the author lead an interesting life. Widely considered to be the first novel written in English, deals with colonialism, slavery, and honour, and Aphra Behn was a spy? I'm sure some of you will eat that up. Be warned, very 'noble savage'-y book, but less racist than it could've been so cool, I guess?

Early Modern Drama

Christopher Marlowe - Edward II (1592)

Gay. So gay. We're not supposed to call it gay (because of a whole host of reasons that I can and will explain if anyone shows up in my askbox complaining about academics) but it is a very very queer play and Kit Marlowe was too which is even better. Also our one and only history play on this list. Anyone who already knows how Edward II died (thanks horrible histories) do not spoil the ending.

Shakespeare - Twelfth Night (1602)

As with any Shakespeare, watch a performance if you can. I highly recommend the National Theatre version that was up on youtube in 2020. Very gay, no one is cishet. Lots of singing and dancing. Prime example of Shakespeare's comedies with added gender shenanigans.

Shakespeare - Hamlet (1609)

Yes I'm basic. Yes I like Hamlet. In the same way that Twelfth Night is a great example of Shakespeare's comedies, Hamlet is a good example of his tragedies. Mostly, though, I'm recommending this because the castle it's set in in Denmark (Elsinore) a) actually exists and b) does an amazing educational programme, with live actors performing scenes all across the castle! Watching the 'to be or not to be' soliloquy in the banquet hall just adds a whole other level to the experience of reading the play.

Shakespeare - Measure for Measure OR The Tempest

Shakespeare's problem plays. I couldn't pick just one, because they're both fantastic in different ways. Measure for Measure features what can only be described as the early-modern version of an ace protagonist - Isabella - who I adore. The Tempest has a really interesting portrayal of early colonialism and slavery. The reason they are 'problem plays' is they check all the boxes for a comedy...but they're not funny. At all. And they also check some of the boxes for a tragedy. They're certainly interesting reading

Ben Jonson - The Alchemist (1610)

Just a really good, solid play. Very funny. Bunch of con artists set up an elaborate scheme to rob rich people. Also very good for showing class structures of the time. Shakespeare gets all the recognition for this era but Jonson is just as good really, and definitely as clever.

Regency and Victorian lit (1700-1900)

Jane Austen

Literally anything by Austen. She is just so funny, so witty, and I wholeheartedly believe she'd be a feminist today. Master of the female gaze in literature, but beyond that she is basically credited with the invention of free indirect discourse, which is super cool. I have only read Pride and Prejudice, but I have heard good things about most of her books, so I don't feel bad recommending all of them.

William Blake

There's one poem by Blake about a London street urchin that breaks my heart every time I read it and that is the sole reason behind this recommendation I hate Romantic poets.

Mary Shelley - Frankenstein (1818)

You knew it was coming. First sci-fi, gothic horror, teenage girl writer. Gotta love Shelley.

Frederik Douglass - Narrative of the Life of Frederik Douglass (1845)

You know those books that are horrifying because they're real? That's this book. Doesn't shy away from the horrors of slavery and for a reason. This is an autobiography. It is not fiction.

Gowongo Mohawk - Wep-ton-no-mah (1890s)

My favourite play of all time. You will need to do a trip to either the British Library or the Library of Congress to read it because there are no other copies, but I did do a whole podcast episode about it because I'm apparently the expert? You can find it here.

Bram Stoker - Dracula (1894)

I know here on tumblr we adore Dracula, and for good reason. It's horrifying, it's got a blorbo, if you haven't read it already, go with a dracula daily read-through or @re-dracula for the best experience. (Re:Dracula also has episodes where they get scholars on to talk about things like racism and gender and queer theory surrounding the text which is SO COOL as an ex-lit student I love listening to those episodes.

Post-1900

Oscar Wilde - De Profundis (1905)

We had to read a snippet of this for A-Level and I wish it had been more because wow. Most lists like this will recommend Dorian Gray because it's a novel, but De Prof is so heartfelt and beautiful and sad and deserves to be read.

Baroness Orczy - The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905)

First masked vigilante/superhero! If you like comic books or superhero media, this is where it all started (funny how all the firsts so far have been written by women 🤔)

Erich Maria Remarque - All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)

If you only read one book in your life about WW1 make it this one! It is heartbreaking and beautifully written and makes you feel so many things. It was banned in...a lot of places for being anti-war (especially as WW2 came closer) and also because it was written by a German who was anti-war which was apparently impossible to comprehend. The prose is truly something to behold.

Modern lit (Post-war era)

George Orwell - 1984 (1948) OR Animal Farm (1945)

Which one you should read depends a lot on how long your preferred book is and how metaphorical your tastes are. Both are very good explorations of corrupt governments. Animal Farm is an easier read and shorter and is much more allegorical. 1984 is very in-your-face about how much authoritarian governments suck. Do not discount 1984 just because Winston is a terrible person. Everyone knows he's terrible. That's the whole point. He is a normal terrible person, not a cartoonishly evil terrible person, or an angelically perfect revolutionary. All the characters are realistic for their situation.

Maya Angelou - I know why the caged bird sings (1969)

Another one with some beautiful prose. She's a poet and you can tell. It's an autobiography, plus there's a lot of clever stuff going on with how it's written. You could write an essay about this. I did.

Ghassan Khanafani - Return to Haifa (1969)

A short story by a Palestinian author - we were given this by our Palestinian lecturer as an intro to the conflict and the terrible things that colonialism has done to the region. Additionally, there are notes throughout that help explain the significance of things and background and all that jazz. There is a play version that is probably easier to find because it was published more recently but it's not as good.

Ben Okri - The Famished Road (1993)

I did not read this book for uni and I think that may have influenced my opinion of it slightly but I still credit it as one of the reasons I got interested in world lit and translation. It's a really beautiful exploration of Nigerian mythological tradition and its effect on family and politics in this kind of fascinatingly weird style that's both magical realism and modernist? I hate modernism but love magical realism more so.

Carmen Maria Machado - In the Dream House (2019)

What a book oh wow. It reads like poetry. I cannot think of anything coherent to say my brain is screaming. The novel explores abuse in queer relationships, which is something people don't normally talk about, through some very interesting motifs and I love it so much. It is hard to read, but very rewarding.

[retropobor]

Ladies, Gentleman, and All Other Colors, I present to thee: Deltarune Parallels

So about a week ago, I put out a poll asking when I should reveal this little project of mine, and with an overwhelming 2 votes the people said I should release now, so I am pleased to announce the existence of the one and only

(It's currently in a very early stage, so not everything is fleshed out, but here's what I have so far)

Parallels is a little side project of mine which takes the current deltarune world, and focuses on a different cast.

The Human: Terro

Terro is an adventurous person. They're often very quiet while in public, but completely change when alone or with friends, becoming drastically more social and friendly.

The Monster: Ruby

Ruby is a jack of all trades when it comes to knowledge. If you have a question about just about anything, she probably at least knows where to guide you for answers. Above all else however, she loves gardening and nature

The Neighbor: Jack

Jack is a simple monster. If someone gets scared, himself included, he's happy. Scaring runs in his family, and he's happy to keep up the tradition. Although being Hallow entails far more than just scaring. After all, a halloween scare contrasts sharply with holiday spirit

The Prince from the pmdw: MT Pqge

Mgfaymfaz Tqxbqd Pqge, mxea wzaiz me MT Pqge ad vgef Pqge, ue m pmdwzqd ymotuzq yqmzf fa meeuef xustfzqde ftdagst ftq pmdw iadxp. Tq ue puefuzofxk xqee radymx ftmz tue oagzfqdbmdf, ngf efuxx nqxuqhqe uz yqdok mxx ftq emyq.

The story would occur during the story of regular Deltarune in hometown, however, instead of playing as kris, you instead play as Terro, accompanied by Ruby on your search to find out what happened to Kris and Susie

Now then, with all those introductions aside, you're probably wondering where this will go. That is a good question, I do not know, but I have some options, which is where you come in. Either:

A Game

Pros

-The intended experience for parallels

-Will probably be the most enjoyable

-Gives me an excuse to finally get into game design and begin something big

Cons

-Will take forever (Look no further than UTY taking 7 years)

-Requires me to learn music design, and game design

-Unless someone actively asks to join, I have no clue how I would expand my team

A webcomic

Pros

-Frequent Content that still follows the plot

-Follows the plot most accurately without being the game itself

Cons

-I cannot draw well and I don't have any art creation software other than aseprite (There is a reason I went into sprite art)

-I'm not sure how I would write this, and I don't think it will turn out that good

You can submit asks, and the characters will answer

Pros

-Can exist alongside other options freely (honestly depending on what happens with my question box, it will probably just come with whatever other option is chosen)

-Takes basically no effort on my end

Cons

-Barely gives any plot

-If used alone, makes certain characters forever unknown

Or I release the info doc I have on this thing

Pros

-Easiest option on my end

Cons

-I genuinely cannot think of a more boring option for all this lore to be revealed. Like seriously, this doc just lists everything out that I have

-Locks out all other options from being usable as it spoils the entire plot and everyone's character -Immediately all mystery is thrown out the window, and the majority of headcanon formation is squashed

Multiple of the above

Pros

-Any Pros of the components

-Gives more depth and interest to the story

Cons

-Any Cons of the components

-Combines the time of the individual parts

I now place the option in your hands, but I should note that if this doesn't get much attention, I'll probably just drop this all, because I already have a lot on my plate (Idk if this is greedy of me to ask, and I guarantee this will never happen in a million years, but just so everyone can have a concrete number I'll guarantee making whatever comes of the result I can get 3k notes on this post if the poll is still active, 5k notes if it's not, at which point I'll repost the poll so all the new people can vote).

Anyways, I think that's about everything on the topic, thanks for reading through this mess, you may go back to your regular scrolling.

oh hey you're still here. Have some art

Okay, that's all for real

U eqq kag mdq dmftqd pqhafqp fa gzpqdefmzpuzs ftue fqjf. Kag dqyuzp yq m xaf ar ykeqxr, pqmd dqmpqd. Bxqmeq, oazfuzgq fa pa ea itqz iq yqqf msmuz. Kag iuxx ruzp sdqmf geq uz pauzs ea.

[liil-ee]

I GENUINELY WISH I NEVER DECIDED TO CATCH UP ON THIS SERIES BECAUSE WHAT THE ACTUAL HECK DID I JUST READ AJSJSIXJEJK

⚠️Chainsaw Man Manga Spoiler warning⚠️

okay so the other day I got volume 9 of csm, little did I know, that’s where all the drama begins cause what in the worldddd

(I was planning on reading volumes 1-11 via physical volumes but I couldn’t wait to buy volume 10 so I decided to read it online but I ended up catching up on the entire series ?? 🙂🐸)

So here is my genuine reaction to chapters 70ish thru the current chapters

ok first of all, the character development Denji AND Power have gone through is insane. I didn’t think they could get this close, which genuinely breaks my heart that they didn’t have this for long 💔💔

They both matured for sure, there’s no denying it.

I also wanted to point out the bath scene, I haven’t really seen anyone talking about it enough, but the fact that Denji didn’t fall for selfish desires and actually helped Power bathe instead of making the situation awkward, was so sweet omg 🥺🥺

again, here we can see the difference in how he has matured, before he wanted women for his own desires but now he starts to realize that he is able to have platonic relationships with women like Power

OKAY BUT THIS WAS JUST CRUEL. IM GOING TO START BAWLING WHEN THIS GETS ANIMATED LIKE WTH

FUTURE DEVIL DID 👏NOT👏STUTTER👏 THIS WAS THE WORST POSSIBLE DEATH OMG.

I didn’t think he would die THAT quickly, this chapter literally crept up on me SO FAST

okay, and I had also gotten spoiled on this scene too but I didn’t know the context of it but now I’m sobbing 😭

Denji and Power’s relationship is literally so heartbreaking wth 💔💔 and the fact that Denji was already mourning Aki’s death made this 10x worse

Okay but this page HIT FR

(Ngl makima’s strategy was actually so smart)

ok and then this made me laugh fr I was crying like WHAT IS THIS 😭😭

Kobeni’s short return was so funny for no reason 💀💀 Like my girl is TIRED of dealing with devils, give her a break Fr 😭👏

BUT THIS HAD ME THINKING ALL. DAY. WHY IS NOBODY TALKING ABT THIS???

when I saw this page ⬇️ I was like NO FREAKING WAY… and I turned out to be right 😭😭

BIGGEST PLOT TWIST OF THE YEAR FR 😭

I literally had no idea she died, I guess I wasn’t spoiled too much for this series but yea I was kinda laughing at this tbh like WDYM HE CONSUMED HER ??

also I had no idea that this was all one big arc…

When it said “part 1” I was lowkey shocked

ok and here’s where I start talking about the second arc/current arc

Okay, for starters this arc is honestly a lot more interesting than the first one, (I love the characters in the first arc more tho) I literally love the whole idea behind all the tension between Asa and Denji, Asa is a little confusedwhen it comes to her feelings and is convinced that she doesn’t have any feelings for Denji OR Chainsaw Man but which is honestly really funny considering Denji’s personality. And Denji is just as confused as she is. 💀💀

Also I’m loving the whole idea of the alter ego dynamic where Asa’s main obstacle is the War Devil, something she is constantly battling, and is the complete opposite of, Fujimoto wrote her well imo

Also Denji being straight up blunt abt his desires was so funny to me, he is the total opposite of Asa who for the life of her (literally) cannot be selfish

I mean… at least he’s being honest BUT I think I know where this is going…

From the beginning, Denji has never truly understood love, all the girls he “fell for” were just using him, and he only wanted them for their looks, bodies, etc. but now when we bring Asa into the picture, I think she’s definitely going to change him for sure, just like Power and Aki did. I think they’re definitely going to be end game, with Asa he doesn’t really have feelings for her *yet* but I’m sure he will catch on and realize that there’s more to women than just their looks, and Asa will humble him. I cannot wait for this duo to get more and more chaotic 💀💀 I’m living for them fs ❤️

🗣️🗣️SHOUTOUT TO MY GIRL NAYUTA, ABSOLUTE ICONIC QUEEN ❤️❤️

ok and this was literally so funny for no reason

he was so real for this 🤭🤭

I cant believe Asa wouldn’t let him see the penguins 🙄🙄 Smh

Ok but after all this I can finally understand why Csm fans are bawling their eyes out! Thank you for taking me on this experience with you!! 😍😍 😭

[saetoru]

No but tee ur so right about the struggle to move on from sumeru. Like I’ve already played the whole archon quest to avoid getting spoiled and it’s been pretty good so far. But everything about sumeru and its story/character building was just so top-notch that Fontaine falls a little flat in comparison. *Mild spoilers warning* like the traveler meets focalors and I was just immediately hit with this immense longing to see nahida again. Like no archon will ever be nahida!!! She’s truly the peoples archon!!!!

And they’re definitely trying to set up a big mystery in the plot but for whatever reason even though the stakes seem like they’re supposed to be higher it just doesn’t hit with the same intensity as all of the absolutely insane shit the akademiya had going on. *Mild spoilers again* It probably has to do with the fact that it’s in relation to the people of Fontaine specifically and the traveler cannot be affected. Like it just doesn’t feel as personal. And given that it doesn’t feel as personal, there’s also not as much room for close character bonds to develop over a shared sense of urgency.

Sorry tee this ended up being a really long ramble but yeah ur so right ur feelings are so valid Fontaine just isn’t the same (at least rn) and I miss sumeru sm too

i think out of all the nations sumeru was my fav (altho the cultural representation aspects made me a bit upset) bc the story objectively was the most intriguing in this one but ALSO !! just the way the characters relationships were all built and connected was just rly nice and special to me. like even tho u hardly see much of candace she means the world to dehya and dehya means a good deal to everyone in sumeru city so like when candace comes to visit she’s still not rly out of place !! and it’s like 🥹 everyone is just connected to everyone and it’s a big family 🥹 and nahidas the mostttt endearing archon i think her story was my favorite but also her relationship with lumine was just more special than the other archons. i think the only other nation where everyone is close to being family like this is mondstadt with like kaeya and amber and eula and jean and klee—they’ve all had history in the knights and as kids so they’re all endearing too and that’s also !! why leaving mondstadt made me so upset !! and why i revisit so frequently just for the heck of it :,) and i think venti also has a slightly cuter relationship w lumine but idk like zhongli and raiden are lovely i liked them but they didn’t have that. idk. ig friendship that nahida had with traveler AND ALSO nahida tries so hard to rly connect w the ppl in sumeru she’s just the best archon i love love love her.

but i loved sumeru’s plot the most i think mondstadt was a bit boring until diluc showed up (lol) and liyue was fun but also a little less exciting and inazuma had so much potential but it was longgggg and tedious and also the miko training thing TOOK ME OUT. but sumeru was so fun and i enjoyed it thoroughly AND IDK IF ANYTHING WILL BEAT IT even the limited events in sumeru were so good sobs i AM RLY SAD WE ARE LEAVING. and also sumeru story quests are all my favs. dehyas was amazing and cynos was too and so was al haithams and i loved nahidas w the lore drops and even tighnaris had me emotional

i think i just have a bias LOL

but anyway I WILL FINALLY PLAY THE NEW QUEST just because i don’t wanna be spoiled so i might as well get it out the way BUT i’m glad someone shares the sentiment with me 🥹 sumeru will always be the best nation to me :,)

[evangelifloss]

one piece

(Send me an anime and I'll tell you why it sucks)

You really went there huh, asking me about One Piece when the fans are completely fuckin rabid... thank you for the opportunity.

Ironically, I am a HUGE fan of media pirates. I LOVE pirate centred franchises/shows/movies, and you can bet that I have huge brainrot over the first 3 pirates of the carribean movies (anything after that is terrible and I don't consider canon). I even have a period accurate, hand made pirate get up I use to go to festivals... so why don't I like One Piece? By all accounts it should be my no.1 anime but well, let's get into it.

One Piece sucks for a multitude of reasons and while yes, the main known problem is the art regarding the women characters and I am on this team, I also have other opinions on why I won't ever continue the anime. To sum this first gripe up: WHY THE FUCK DO MALE CHARACTERS GET KICKASS CRAZY DESIGNS OF ALL SHAPES WHEN EVERY WOMAN CONSISTS OF : Pretty face, massive honkers, zero stomach, big hips, and long legs.

THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE BIG MAMA'S FOR FUCKS SAKE. Also why did the only uniquely designed female villain involve her making babies... like c'mon. Do we always have to add reproducing as a major plot/character defining trait for a woman?

With that said, onto the other issues.

For starters, it's completely inaccessible for the new fan. Unless you started watching when it was only 200 episodes long, which generally speaking, is already a commitment to some, as of right now you cannot expect someone to want to watch a series that has over 900 episodes that is still ONGOING. For a newbie, this is not only daunting, but it isolates them from engagement with the community. EVERYTHING is spoiler-town, and blacklisting one piece spoiler tags won't work because what is a spoiler for the newcomer, is old news to the fans. It is incredibly lonely to be unable to engage with the community because of how far behind one is. A huge character death related to Luffy regarding someone whose name starts with A is so well known now that I found a t-shirt with the panels of said death smack bang on display. For me, that was a MASSIVE spoiler... and i couldnt be angry because it happened a long time ago.

Now, I don't mind long animes, and a pirate anime with an obscene amount of eps should be a dream come true, but with the age of the series and length, ive been indirectly spoiled so much that i pretty much know all the important bits anyway, and with that onto my next gripe.

Anime isn't accessible any more because streaming has become incredibly regulated. I live in Australia, so my choices are already limited and I can't pirate the old animes due to every site being nuked. Do I support pirating anime? Not really, it's not my go-to but I don't have access to even trying out a "classic" any more. Luckily with one-piece, it's popular so it is available on a legal, paid subscription service. With that said, I'm not the wealthiest so for me, I can't afford to have a subscription. Ergo, I can't even watch one piece if I wanted to.

Which leads to the alternative: read the manga. Now this is possible, I can in fact do this and I have! I read pretty far and enjoyed myself but... I got bored. Nami's fish people story, Sky arc, alabasta, now those were bangers. Everything else was meh enough where I legitimately don't remember anything other than those three arcs. I don't expect every manga to have phenomenal arcs the entire time, but since one piece drags the hell on (anime more guilty of this) none of the other story arcs spoke to me. There was a formula to the story and it got repetitive. Frankly, I quit because I was bored.

With a 900+ ep anime following an even longer manga, whose entire narrative is based on finding the One Piece, no matter what the One Piece is, it will be massively disappointing. All this build up, mystery and hype regarding on what the treasure actually is cannot be resolved in a manner that fans will find satisfying. I can guarantee you that if the One Piece is the "friendship we made along the way" type deal, the fans will probably lynch Oda. If the One Piece is an actual treasure, which, compared to the intensity of the series as a whole, the fans will also probably riot. Basically since the whole story is so long and the mystery of the One Piece is over 20 years old, no matter what the treasure actually is, it cannot live up to the expectations anymore.

Also as far as I'm aware, there's no queer rep. I can forgive alot of it due to the fact One Piece started in 1997, but it's 2023 now and with the sheer volume of characters, world, countries, lore, I find it strange that everyone featured is GENERALLY ambiguous with an obvious leaning towards hetero. Do I want zoro and luffy to become gay? No! That's not what I'm saying. Do I want romance to be in this series? No. Not as a focal point. Do I think that there should be some diversity in the world the straw hats explore? Yes, absolutely. It's incredibly weird to me that with the massive universe of one piece, there isn't a single canon presence of queerness.

And don't get me started on early one piece racist caricatures. Again, started in 1997, not exactly a progressive time especially not in Japan. It is however, still a problem to me.

Also I miss Nami and Zoro's melanin.

[idyllic-affections]

HI THERE! IM BACK FROM MY TRIP! And holy moly i didnt missed a lot???? (i think..? I’ll have to read back your post but i want to send an ask now!)

First, love the new theme btw. Yaoshi is also my fav aeon from the aeons we currently know! They are so pretty and divine and i did have a huge stupid smile when Yaoshi kissed us in the simulated universe THEY JUST WANTED US TO STAY SAFE!!!!!!! I sometimes wonder if Hoyoverse is just building them up to be someone you should hate just to make plot twist that turns out, them just simply doesnt know the horrible results their actions does. They do it with good intention but didnt know the results would be bad. But i honestly like their ambiguous morality that hoyoverse have for most of the aeons because well they’re aeons they’re gods ofc they wont follow human morality.

Second, your second oc you have rn is pretty interesting. So i have QUESTIONS!

1. What do they look like? Ik that you said you’re not finished with their design but are they like in a child/teen body but has the mentality of an adult? (Something similar to bailu i guess)

2. What are their element?

3. What does the other aeons think of Ambrose? Like ‘why the hell does Yaoshi have a little human with them’

4. Is Lan and by extension the Xianzhou Alliance aware of Ambrose’s existance and special connection towards Yaoshi? since their relationship with the said Aeon isnt the typical relationship an emanator and aeon would have (i hc that Yaoshi is known to particuraly have a good relationship with their emanators but Ambrose is noticably their favourite one child)

Thirdly, can i just say something? Since i get busy a lot, I dont get to instantly play the new update which sadly leads me to be easily spoiled. Case in point, Tingyun infamous neck snap. I was just casually scrolling on youtube when i saw ‘Tingyun neck snapping in 4 languages’ Like wth youtube!? I try to just forget about it but the mind could never. By the time i do get to play and get to play the quest, i already knew her fate and just keep giving her the side eye. Ik her fate but idk the reason and stuff leading up to it. It was an interesting experience to say the least

Lastly, i am proud to say that i have FINALLY done Dan Heng IL companion quest and have researched enough that i can FINALLY continue on the brainrot i keep talking about, i might finish it this week if i can manage my time better but we’ll see. So keep your eyes wide open!

I hope you have a lovely day/night, now i should go to bed as im tired like hell.. BYE

- 🐱 Anon

HI BELOVED HELLO <333 oh i am SO excited to talk about ambrose. they are so fucking RRRAHGHG i love them....... pleasmelejldjd......

i agree!!!! you cannot call an aeon "good" or "evil." none of them are either of those things. good and evil are just human perceptions of morality, and divine beings like aeons cannot be placed into those human boxes (which is why i think the xianzhou's attitude towards yaoshi is so. odd. bro it was YOURRRR ancestors who looked for THEM!!!! THEY did not look for YOU ALL!!!!!! YOU GUYS looked for THEM!!!!! and hyv really wants me to think yaoshi is the "villain" here HELP AKJSJSGJUFBAJ) AND YAOSHI KISSING US CRIES SOBS SCREAMS they have such a gentle and nurturing soul in my brain. it is so hard for me to look at them and think "yeah that's a villain" THEY'RE NOT CRIES

i don't know if i prefer the idea of yaoshi being completely 100% aware of the consequences of their blessing, or being completely unaware and being so consumed by their path that they cannot see the harm they're doing. i think both interpretations have their own appeal. the second one is definitely more agonizing, though. either way, i do not see the abundance as a villain personally. aeons are not human. human morals cannot be applied to them.

and as for ambrose--

ambrose is, physically, a young adult! a very young adult. think eighteen or nineteen. i want them to be chronologically older than most people on any of the xianzhou alliance's ships, though, so i am working on an explanation for why their mara is less severe and has not completely consumed their consciousness.

i think they're either physical, fire, or imaginary. i haven't decided yet. i'm open to suggestions.

this is SO funny and i love thinking about this. i think most of the aeons were like... what the fuck. What Is That. why does yaoshi have a little human. what the fuck. i think nous would get along w/ them despite nous' involvement with the xianzhou; ambrose sought to be freed from the limitations of mortal comprehension in order to learn more and see beyond their home world, after all. and really, i don't think nous would give a FUCK about the conflict between the hunt and the abundance. they don't fucking care bro they are more concerned with other things LMAOOO. ambrose clashes really badly with nanook because they have a deep set love for humanity and the universe, whereas nanook... does not. the child of abundance, ambrose, does not like the destruction at all so they are ALWAYS going around and eliminating the antimatter legion when they can. IX could not care less about them rip..... IX's apathy is a stark contrast to ambrose's infinite kindness and passion for existence. in general, ambrose doesn't seek out any of the other aeons except nous. nous and yaoshi are the only ones they really talk to.

I AGREE I AGREE i think yaoshi is one of the aeons who really likes their emanators! ambrose in particular is like an extension of themselves (perhaps this could contribute to why their mara is less severe? ambrose is but an extension of their aeon, after all. their aeon's power probably does not hurt them as bad as it does to those who do not share that kind of bond with yaoshi; i think yaoshi can literally FEEL when something is not right with ambrose and vice versa. like, they share a sort of metaphysical bond). lan knows about this, and therefore, so does the xianzhou alliance. ambrose is regarded as an enemy, a thing that needs to be eliminated from the universe... even though they did nothing wrong. ambrose honestly doesn't care because fuck it, you know? there is no point in lamenting the loss of potential allies when those potential allies seem to vehemently hate their parent... but ambrose has learned from yaoshi to have love for every living thing in the universe, so the hate is very one-sided. they are not just a pathstrider. they are an emanator. they cannot emanate their parent's will and strength if they are hateful. so, they have a gentle and tender love for life and that does include the xianzhou alliance. the alliance sees their softness as patronizing, unfortunately. ambrose avoids lan like the fucking PLAGUE because they know that lan would absolutely take any given opportunity to remove them from the universe, and yaoshi would absolutely come to their aid if they sensed that ambrose was in danger. and ambrose cannot be responsible for aiding the hunt in eliminating the abundance. if they survived, and if yaoshi happened to... not survive, they would not be able to live with themselves. so they don't bother trying to make amends with the xianzhou or lan.

NOOOOOO YOUTUBE SPOILERS ARE THE WORST. THEY ARE SO UNAVOIDABLE. TUMBLR SPOILERS? THOSE CAN BE AVOIDED BUT YT.......

ahh that's awesome! i still have to do it HSKNKHSBGKA but you're welcome to brainrot in my inbox whenever you'd like to <3

rest well!!!!

[romaritimeharbor]

Hey, can i ask you something Aph? So idk if you saw my last ask but i just started playing Genshin impact again and just finished the first two chapters of the Fontaine Archon questline. As you know, Arlechinno was confirmed to be in the next banner. Now i didnt watch the livestream out of fear of spoiling myself since i havent met Arle in the Archon quest yet and was afraid to get spoiled of her true nature or something. So can you tell me what her kit is? Is she worth wishing for? She looks cool but other than that i dont have much reason to get her because im already comfortable with the characters i have.

(Also my first impressions of the Fontaine Archon quest was pretty good. I like the plot we were given for the first two chapters, although from what i heard, the rest of it will be much more. Hope i can find the time to play it since im very interested to see what’s actually going on with Furina, something about her.. makes me wonder on who reallly is she)

- 🐱 Anon

hi dear!!! i can definitely tell you what i know <3 i'm biased, so of course i think she is worth wishing for, but it ultimately depends on you and what you want/need. if you find youself liking her character and you are in need of a fun pyro dps, i would say pull for her. i DEFINITELY need a pyro dps so my pulling for her was never a question.

arle is a polearm user and seems to be a pyro dps that scales (partially? or somewhat at least; i know that one of her skills does seem to scale off of hp) off of her health & attack, which--i think--makes her pretty easy to build. i think i'm going to put thr crimson witch of flames artifact set on her personally.

she has a unique mechanic called bond of life, which seems to be exclusive to her at the moment. from what i understand, this mechanic makes is so that she has something of an additional red hp bar (which is attained by using her charged attack or elemental skill i think)--when she has this bar, however, she cannot heal her original green hp bar at all while she's on-field (i believe a healer like kokomi can bypass this mechanic bc kokomi heals off-field characters with her burst). once this bar reaches a certain point, all of arle's damage becomes pyro damage that overrides all other damage types. and i believe her elemental burst resets the bond of life.

DON'T QUOTE ME ON THIS THOUGH there was a reel on instagram that explained it really well but i CANNOT find it so i'm trying to restate what i recall about it. i don't think my memory 100% accurate but i know that, at the very least, it isn't COMPLETELY wrong hehe

[randomnameless]

I forgot to comment :(

I keep remembering Ingrid is dead 😭 And we forced Shamir to join us by threatening Catherine 😭

Keep remembering then, because those plot points will be, uh, totally relevant later on. I mean, as relevant as anything can be in a BE route.

Why, though? Edelgard just said in her support with Balthus she intends to conquer all of Fodlan. Does she see Claude as the least threatening? I’d like to know why Claude thinks it’s a good idea too.

No she’s just after Rhea!!!

Given how Claude accepted to side with her - instead of being folded - it seems like a good move on her part, but remember who we’re talking about, the lady only had one supply line :)

I’m having Shez be such an ass. He turned down sparing with Holst and made things awkward.

Holtz is a disappointment looks and character wise, so I don’t think Shez is being an ass here lol

Edelgard just called it an “invasion” too. So at least she’s honest.

But only because they took RhEa in bcs she’s BaD and the reason why the war started!!!

Surprisingly enough, this isn’t only parroted by die hard edelstans :(

I love how Hubert is spinning Dimitri wiping out the Western lords as some evil thing. But, like, those people organized a genocide.

When it comes from Hubert, it’s hilarious because Papa Vestra was killed off-screen for, uh, reasons we will never know, and we’re not supposed to care. I love how Hubert brings out the double standard in his routes (remember the Dimitri BaD in CF bcs he didn’t came to salute them before fighting to their deaths in Tailtean?) - but if he is the one supposed to play it straight, the game didn’t get the memo that, hey, it’s Hubert. He isn’t supposed to be the most, uh, neutral narrator out there!

Claude, Edelgard, Linhardt and just about everyone else is bemoaning all the people who are going to die in the war. for daring to … defend their lives But my girl Dorothea is the only one who seems to realize that her side is the cause of the bloodshed. Not the people who would never have to fight if Edelgard didn’t force them too.

Mhh. Did you get her support with her beloved leader?

“When people think someone is after what the possess, they respond with fear - even if the thought is all in their head.” - Ferdinand. Except, it’s not?

Ferdie and Caspar were really butchered to make sense in Nopes as characters who cannot defect, so now Ferdie acts like, say, someone making statements that are completely wrong about everything.

IIRC he has a line in the game where he mentions the Kingdom values CrEsTs more than the Empire, and that’s why there are more crested generals/peons in the Kingdom than in the Empire... Except that someone compiled the data for the npcs, and lo, the Empire still has more npcs/generals with crests than the Kingdom lol.

Edelgard openly wants to rule their lands with absolute authority. She’s already stolen everything from one of her enemies, why should the Kingdom believe they wouldn’t get the same treatment Rhea did?

I will not spoil, but... no, I won’t spoil!

I wish the game would make it clear what Edelgard would do to Dimitri and co if they did surrender. Because, like, does anyone really think Hubert would leave them alive? Or Edelgard for that matter? If she wants to rule the Kingdom, Dimitri and most of the Blue Lions would HAVE to die. Wouldn’t she throw Dimitri and his supporters out of their homes and replace them with Empire nobility at best? It’s not in their heads.

This made me think, in CF, Edel specifically asks for Dimitri’s death.

Hey, at least this is the first interesting thing that’s happened in SB since the prologue lamo. I hope it’s not just back to CF now except Claude is now Edelgard’s toady.

Mmh.

The ending is particulary awesome too, very shonen-esque.

Weird support. Ferdinand is getting respected and admired by a Black Eagle instead of being the butt monkey. Caspar is thinking and questioning having something in his life other than furthering his reputation via killing people. I like it.

Well... Given how Caspar was retconned to be the dumb bloodthirsty muscle, this support sort of works, even if I suppose it would also have worked in FE16, but with a different setting.

He wants to defend Edelgard because her promoting him changed his life.

Remember how he sort of chewed her out for starting her war in the C support? But now, Shez only looks after his own hide and thanks her for giving him a promotion. It’s way more down to earth and sort of materialistic, but Shez is Shez.

I’d like to hear your opinions about him when you’ll finish all routes!

Sorry, but this was boring af. Never thought I’d say that about a Hubert support.

Imagine if Hapi discovered Hubie was in cahoots with Cordelia, who experimented on her - oh wait, this is a BE route.

Instead of tackling the elephant in the room, let’s talk about coffee instead.

I honestly really don’t like CF!Caspar, but SB!Caspar seems even worse, like he’s just his dad’s little killing-happy puppet.

When you remember in FE16 his paralogue was all about him leeroy jenkins against the Death Knight, who captures and kills (?) young ladies - Caspar used to be the stupid shonen sidekick raving about justice (remember his catherine support?) but now he dgaf and wants to kill with daddy. Yay.

Have you done their paralogue? It’s very, uh, interesting meritocracy wise.

Randolph is still a little shit. He WANTS to invade the Alliance. IDK, I just cannot fathom wanting something like that of any country let alone an ally

Randy is a weird case, we hear all those things about how great and nice he is supposed to be, but when we see him, he wants to invade his allies, and disses on Edel’s army that is made up of commoners...

Lamo, Edelgard literally just said might makes right.

What can you expect from #Nemesisdidnothingwrong and #Nemesiswasachampionofhumanity ? Might makes right was his motto (completely with the hypocrisy of defeating a sleeping/comatose Sothis, but hey)

Hilda legit just asked Claude why he’s made a strategy that limits casualties. Are people from Faerghus the only ones who don’t love killing people? She is doubting the Empire at least. She really doesn’t like Edelgard, lol.

Eh, Hilda is a character that is... complicated, to say the least.

She is doubting the Empire, so that’s cookie points for her, but wondering why Claude is limiting casualties... is it because she doesn’t care about other people dying? I think it’s developed in one of her supports, but I’ll wait until you unlock them in GW!

Not seeing Ingrid with the others hurts. They’re really out here just trying to stop everyone else from trying to murder them

#toxicmasculinity #chivalrybad

They’re BaD for not accepting Adrestian rule!

See this is why Dimitri’s the best one - “The old ways must die - with that I agree. But shove that down the people’s throats, and you risk breaking the very land you’re trying to rule.”

To some people, this line means Dimitri doesn’t want to change the status quo thus is centrist, or some other thing.

But it takes an entire new meaning when we realise Dimitri might be talking about Lambert, he died because he tried to push reforms, and some people in Faerghus planned for a regicide, effectively breaking the land (until he came)...

Anyways, Faerghus BaD. Don’t forget it, it’ll be important later on in this route!

I’m guessing Jeralt gives Byleth his sword in every route

:)

Let’s say Good Ol’Jerry forgot to return Rhea’s sword when he bailed out some years ago.

I can’t imagine this is going to be anything but nauseating.

:(

Ohhh, wow, they really went there. Edelgard tells Monica to her face that she only rescued Monica because it suited her, didn’t plan on it, and would let Monica die if it helped her goals.

And of course, just like in CF, when she reveals she had been using people and planned on letting them die to reach her goals, she is met with opposition, distrust, anger and maybe people bailing out on her?

Learning this changes exactly nothing about Monica.

At this point idk if it’s a thing about Monica, or the games not being able to write a character being angry at Edel and having face the consequences or backlash of her own actions without Hubert acting as a proxy

In case you didn’t read my GW reaction, I was quite pleased to see Byleth actually pissed about someone almost hurt their dad given how little they ask Edelgard about her involvement in that in CF.

That’s why I was talking about with the “Hubert proxy”, Edel promises Billy to tell them more about the agarthans, but it’s Hubert who does, in his paralogue. Not Edel, never her, of course :)

The Byleth plot is very interesting, as you might see in other routes, because it opens another can of worms that was, sort of, retconned in FE Heroes!

I love how they go from celebrating the deaths of Faerghus to lamenting their own loses, without any acknowledgment that THEY are responsible for all of this or that the people they killed were just as “alive” as they are.

:)

:’)

Scarlet Blaze Ch 10

I don't remember if there's 13, 14, or 15 chapters per route in this game, but here we go with SB Ch 10.

STORY

I keep remembering Ingrid is dead 😭 And we forced Shamir to join us by threatening Catherine 😭

Oh, boy, Claude just became Edelgard's bitch boy. Can't say I didn't suspect this.

Why, though? Edelgard just said in her support with Balthus she intends to conquer all of Fodlan. Does she see Claude as the least threatening? I'd like to know why Claude thinks it's a good idea too.

So I take it this time Claude is getting shoe-horned into Edelgard's story rather than Byleth's? I wonder if we'll see this in AG and GW too. Or if it'll be a bit different.

I'm having Shez be such an ass. He turned down sparing with Holst and made things awkward.

Is Claude still king in this route?

"We'll be invading Fraldarius" no 😭😭.

Edelgard just called it an "invasion" too. So at least she's honest.

I love how Hubert is spinning Dimitri wiping out the Western lords as some evil thing. But, like, those people organized a genocide.

DOROTHEA, my beloved!!! THANK GOD.

Claude, Edelgard, Linhardt and just about everyone else is bemoaning all the people who are going to die in the war. for daring to . . . defend their lives But my girl Dorothea is the only one who seems to realize that her side is the cause of the bloodshed. Not the people who would never have to fight if Edelgard didn't force them too.

"Whatever our intent, we're the instigators here. We can't expect the enemy to do anything less than defend their land with tooth and claw." Dorothea is queen. A hypocrite, but at least the game realizes who's really at fault.

"When people think someone is after what the possess, they respond with fear - even if the thought is all in their head." - Ferdinand. Except, it's not?

Edelgard openly wants to rule their lands with absolute authority. She's already stolen everything from one of her enemies, why should the Kingdom believe they wouldn't get the same treatment Rhea did? I wish the game would make it clear what Edelgard would do to Dimitri and co if they did surrender. Because, like, does anyone really think Hubert would leave them alive? Or Edelgard for that matter? If she wants to rule the Kingdom, Dimitri and most of the Blue Lions would HAVE to die. Wouldn't she throw Dimitri and his supporters out of their homes and replace them with Empire nobility at best? It's not in their heads.

Hey, at least this is the first interesting thing that's happened in SB since the prologue lamo. I hope it's not just back to CF now except Claude is now Edelgard's toady.

CASPAR & FERDINAND A SUPPORT

Ok guys, for anyone who's curious, this is where I picked up after finishing FE Engage. Feels a lot less daunting knowing I'm already a good numbers of ch into every route.

Weird support. Ferdinand is getting respected and admired by a Black Eagle instead of being the butt monkey. Caspar is thinking and questioning having something in his life other than furthering his reputation via killing people. I like it.

Ferdie called himself a master of none and admired Caspar back.

LINHARDT & DOROTHEA A SUPPORT

Wasn't this B support the one where we learned Edelgard had a single sole supply line? Lamo.

Dorothea's not going to keep taking notes for Linhardt lol.

She got hurt, so Linhardt took notes for her. She's surprised, but pleased.

She told him he had his own charm, and he's like "please, no." I love him.

I don't think this support really showed a new side to the characters, though. It felt like an emptier version of their OG one.

SHEZ & EDELGARD B SUPPORT

Shez wants her to trust him. She says she does now.

He feels purposeless and wants to be her bodyguard.

Lamo, one of Shez's response options is "stand there slack-jawed." I forgot how much I liked Shez.

He wants to defend Edelgard because her promoting him changed his life.

HUBERT & HAPI A SUPPORT

Hapi is trying to make nice with Hubert.

They're bonding over coffee.

Now they're having coffee and talking about it. I'm more of a tea person, tbh.

Sorry, but this was boring af. Never thought I'd say that about a Hubert support.

CAMP + SIDE BATTLES

Dimitri took Cornelia down in this route too. Badass.

Ashe is so miserable, poor dude. Mercie isn't happy either.

I honestly really don't like CF!Caspar, but SB!Caspar seems even worse, like he's just his dad's little killing-happy puppet.

Randolph is still a little shit. He WANTS to invade the Alliance. IDK, I just cannot fathom wanting something like that of any country let alone an ally.

Lamo, Edelgard literally just said might makes right.

Shit, I just remembered that Ingrid's dead in this timeline.

Hilda legit just asked Claude why he's made a strategy that limits casualties. Are people from Faerghus the only ones who don't love killing people? She is doubting the Empire at least. She really doesn't like Edelgard, lol.

Not seeing Ingrid with the others hurts. They're really out here just trying to stop everyone else from trying to murder them.

See this is why Dimitri's the best one - "The old ways must die - with that I agree. But shove that down the people's throats, and you risk breaking the very land you're trying to rule." If Edelgard had her way, there'd be nothing left to rule except the Empire.

Yeah, the reason you can't work with the Empire, Dimitri, is that Edelgard wants to rule all of Fodlan. Her alliance with Claude has made it really clear that the Empire still intends a hostile take over of even their own allies. Which, honestly, I do appreciate SB for being a bit more honest than CF.

I really don't want to fight Rodrigue. I do think it's funny that your enemy always hires Jeralt though.

I'm guessing Jeralt gives Byleth his sword in every route.

SHEZ & BERNADETTA B SUPPORT

Starts with her screaming and shrieking about something.

Anna showed up! She's selling something to Bernadetta that will help her with her shyness. Also sells her something shifty. Or tries. Because Bernadetta assumes Anna's up to no good (probably true) and buys nothing.

Shez calls her judgmental lol. He's not wrong.

BERNADETTA & FERDINAND C SUPPORT

This is their only support. Kinda weird given their past history.

She's eating plants. Ferdinand is concerned she's eating bad stuff. Ferdinand wants to have a competition over who collects the most edible plants.

Poor Bernie. His "competition" really reminded me of those guys who are like "oh, prove it, name xxx!" when I say I like this sport or that fandom because I must be lying to impress them or some shit. (except I don't think Ferdie is being sexist here, just annoying af).

Bernie gets hurt and one of Ferdie's plants can help fix it.

Also, he lost.

EDELGARD & MONICA B SUPPORT

I can't imagine this is going to be anything but nauseating.

Haha, Edelgard just said in another world they may have lost Monica forever (to TWSITD).

Edelgard says she only saved Monica because it was the best move lol. And like, we know this is actually true because, well . . .

Ohhh, wow, they really went there. Edelgard tells Monica to her face that she only rescued Monica because it suited her, didn't plan on it, and would let Monica die if it helped her goals.

I know a lot of times people play off Edelgard's harshness as "oh, she's just insecure and saying that!" But here you can't really make that argument because it happens in Houses lamo.

She literally didn't rescue Monica because she needed TWSITD soldiers.

Learning this changes exactly nothing about Monica.

It added some stuff to Edelgard, but Monica is still horribly one-note.

FERDINAND & DOROTHEA B SUPPORT

I know a lot of people like their Houses support chain, but I kinda don't? It's drama over something really silly.

Edelgard is here. Ugh. I want Dorothea, not her.

Oh, good grief, it's going to be about the same annoying thing. Ferdinand is remembering seeing Dorothea and being stunned by her beauty.

(like, imagine getting pissed off that someone stares at you when you're butt-ass naked in public and dripping wet)

Dorothea's a lot more reasonable this time, getting flustered hearing this.

MAIN BATTLE

Every time I log back into this, I remember that Ingrid's dead :(

Oh, God, please tell me that I'm not killing Rodrigue and Felix now.

They go from "oh, bummer, we have to kill people to! Let's go Empire!!!" Bit of a whiplash, but Dorothea's the only one who seems to realize they're killing people and not NPCs lamo.

Same conversation between Shez and Arval. Guessing I'll get it in AG when it's time for recruiting Byleth too.

Ok, like with Golden Wildfire, I'll try to unlock Byleth. But unlike with GW where I reset and tried a few times, I'm only trying once. Because I really want to finish this and get to other games. AG is the only route where I'll put in real effort to get Byleth because I care more about those characters getting a fully happy ending than the rest.

I think I failed again lol. It changed from a side goal to the main goal to fight Byleth. I didn't move around the map fast enough.

God, I love Rodrigue.

Rodrigue died. I'm guessing if I recruit Byleth, that doesn't change? How many other Blue Lions does SB force me to kill?

Cut scene time. So who dies in SB?

LAMO, it's Randolph. OFC it's Randolph. This guy is just allergic to surviving.

Is it bad I'm more upset that Rodrigue died? He's a WAYYYYY better person than Randolph.

In case you didn't read my GW reaction, I was quite pleased to see Byleth actually pissed about someone almost hurt their dad given how little they ask Edelgard about her involvement in that in CF.

I like how they expect us to care about Randolph. Like, Judith, makes sense. She's close to Claude. She's cool. Randolph is really unlikable and has no special connection to anyone except Fleche.

Does this mean Fleche will cause a level where she goes crazy against Byleth?

This conversation falls so flat compared to the GW one. Because in GW, you were talking to Claude. Here, it's . . . Fleche. In GW it was actually an emotional moment (and made me feel a bit guilty). Here, not so much.

I do feel bad for Byleth and Alois though.

Ok, the Sothis-Byleth merging happening.

I love how they go from celebrating the deaths of Faerghus to lamenting their own loses, without any acknowledgment that THEY are responsible for all of this or that the people they killed were just as "alive" as they are.

Haha, even SB lets you recognize that Randolph means very little personally to you or any of the main cast.

xxxxx

[wickedlyqueer]

i've been thinking of starting the wicked novels. have you read all 4 novels? are they worth the read?

I have read all 4 novels, yes. And whether they are worth it or not... heavily depends on what you want to get out of them tbh.

WHAT TO PREPARE FOR:

dense prose that clearly has its roots in post-modernism. If you're not willing to read long sentences that begin with a deep analogy for racism and end with some sort of sexual innuendo or disturbing event, this is going to be a hard read for you.

Just. So much sexual stuff. which ironically enough you can also easily read over. (The second time I picked up on it sooo much more than the first time reading it. but in my asexual defense, how tf should i have known what "dragonsnaked" meant).

Similarly to the bullet point above: you can easily read over incredibly important plot points. This is because Maguire sometimes doesn't bother to elaborate; skips years within a single sentence; and is unforgiving to the mind who wanders while reads. There's a reason my notes look like this:

No consistency in character arcs whatsoever. This isn't your average fanfic or even YA novel. Just to put it into perspective: the book is called "The Life And Times of the Wicked Witch of the West". Which is just "Elphaba's Life". But Elphaba barely focalizes (her point of view), and when she does, it's at a point in the book where she's starting to lose her goddamn mind, so there's always a sense of an "unreliable narrator". So just know going in that the politics of Oz have the center, and especially in the later books all characters start to blend together, with a similar tone of voice and sense of humor.

Maguire—bless him and may god help him—cannot write women. He tries, he really does, but anything about the women anatomy is so unappealingly written and I was not the least bit surprised to learn he's gay lmao. He also has a tendency to turn women (especially when they get older) into "waifs". When in the fourth book he describes Glinda as being sad she never got kids I wanted to scream and rip my fucking hair out. Glinda Upland of the Arduenna Clan would never want to be a mother. She'd fucking hate it. And I'll forever hold it against Maguire for ever having suggested otherwise. (He also did something similar to one of my favorite side characters in the second book; Sister Apothecaire. She gets an absolute character assassination by the fourth book).

The biggest "reveal" in book four was literally spoiled by the family tree in the beginning of the book. 🤦 so there's a built up for like 300 pages and all the while you're like "WE KNOW!! WE ALREADY KNOW!!" which made book 4 a particularly frustrating experience imo.

WHAT TO LOOK FORWARD TO:

Understanding fanfics and other fan work much better. A lot of fanfic is based on a mix of musical and book ("booksical"). Even minor characters like Pfannee, Shenshen, Milla, Crope & Tibbet, will make an appearance, even when a fic is more musical based. This was the reason I decided to read the books too back in the day.

Also understanding (popular) interpretations in fanfics better. Like. I tend to write Elphaba as intersex, non-binary and bisexual. That looks very out of the blue when you only have the musical's context, where Elphaba is played by mostly feminine women. But once you read the book you look at those same headcanons and go "word".

Delicious gelphie (sub)text is there, if you want to look for it. But you do have to look for it (twas written in the 90s, lads).

Very queer, actually! And not just in the sense of like "there's a lesbian couple" like we see nowadays in media, but it's just... present. This is written by a gay man, and it shows. You can see queerness popping up everywhere. There's a lot of sexuality and gender stuff going on. And even though nobody goes "I am a trans man" or whatever, you sometimes read stuff and go "that's gender dysphoria babe, idk what to tell ya"

Once you get used to Maguire's writing style... he actually can write some pretty gorgeous prose and he writes with a lot of wit. I like his sense of sharp (dark) humor.

WORLD BUILDING! I honestly just read the other three books for world building for my own fics, more than anything.

FINAL VERDICT:

I do generally recommend reading at least the first book. Especially the first half of the book is just so solid. There's a reason why "Shiz Era" is so beloved in this fandom. Easily the best chapters out of the entire series. It gives so much more backstory to the musical (and bigger Oz lore). The latter half drags on imo, but that's also kinda the point?

The other three books..... depends. I read them for my world building in my fanfics. And I honestly found the second book to be rather cathartic, because it really goes through the motions of mourning Elphaba and that's what I kinda needed after the devastating ending of the first book, but I've heard other people say book 2 was their least favorite.

Basically. If Maguire hasn't utterly broken your spirit by the first book, the other three books still have plenty of joys in them. (For instance, I fucking love Nor. and whenever Glinda shows up in the sequels, it's always the biggest joy ever!)

Usually I describe the novels as such: "I didn't enjoy reading them, but I sure am glad I've read them."

[apollostears]

COLLEGE CONFESSIONS [ jjk ]

↬︎ anime: jujutsu kaisen

↬︎ featuring: nanami kento, suguru geto, fushiguro toji, choso kamo, & satoru gojo

↬︎ warning(s): swearing, college!au, all characters are 18+, mentions of blood

PLOT. in new girl style, you become roommates with five men from your university.

ADVISORY. reader is black and female, unless stated otherwise.

college series

➟︎ meeting the boys was simultaneously the best, and worst, thing that could ever happen to you.

➟︎ on some new girl shit, you ended up rooming with them bc rent was cheap and it was close to campus.

➟︎ nanami, choso, toji, geto, & gojo all lived in this huge penthouse a few blocks down from university (shoutout to them niggas having money). it was two penthouses put into one and it was home to some of the biggest hoes you had ever met.

➟︎ it’s complete chaos.

➟︎ you share a bathroom with toji, whose nonexistent most of the time bc he’s out doin illegal shit (underground fighting) or fuckin random girls.

➟︎ none of them are completely messy, but there has been several times where you have tripped over shoes and slipped on socks because of them.

➟︎ it’s very rare that all of you are in the house at the same time other than to sleep.

➟︎ choso takes you to campus with him since he goes the same time you go. nanami is the one that’ll take you home. or geto. but they will not allow you to ride public transportation.

➟︎ partially because they’re bougie and also because they know how unsafe it is alone on campus.

➟︎ toji owns a small tattoo and piercing shop that choso and geto work at when they aren’t doing internships.

➟︎ besides geto and nanami, nobody cooks. everyone uses the ninja blender though and the air fryer.

➟︎ sometimes, on wash days, you guys will combine shirts and pants to save time but wash everything else separately. everyone but gojo is allowed to wash bc he will fuck up y’all’s clothes.

➟︎ there is a weekend out of every month where you guys just do whatever you want to do. either together or alone.

➟︎ it usually ends up with geto cooking sunday breakfast and all of you watching some movie. maybe even going to a frat party or watching toji fight.

➟︎ they’ve come to like you more than they thought they would. honestly didn’t plan on interacting with you but you grew on them. now they’re your unofficial, official, sugar daddies without the sugar. (although…😉)

➟︎ pls don’t ever buy anything with your own money and let them catch you. they will reimburse you plus interest, for no reason.

➟︎ honestly, you have yet to figure out why they even spoil you the way they do.

➟︎ nanami is a business major with toji. choso is an art major with a focus in architecture and history. gojo is pre-law and geto is a bioengineering major for healthcare services.

➟︎ toji scared the shit out of you at first, all broody and shit. but y’all really bonded after he came back late from a particularly brutal fight and you were up finishing an assignment when you saw him. he looked like he could barely stand and after that, y’all just grew closer.

➟︎ you and gojo have a strong love-hate relationship because how can someone so smart be so dumb?? has gotten you caught up several times.

➟︎ nanami helps you study and it’s so nice because you don’t even ask most of the time, but he’ll hit you up and ask if you have anything you need help with.

➟︎ geto practices his sketches on you all the time to see how it will look.

➟︎ choso and you will use his architecture skills to draw up your dream home 😭. he’s went through ten sketches already.

➟︎ you hang out at the tattoo shop anytime you’re free. sometimes you’ll go there after classes and just do homework until someone comes to the front desk needing help.

➟︎ you cannot play any games with any of these niggas because they ALL CHEAT!

➟︎ choso almost got to scrapping with gojo over a game of chutes and ladders.

➟︎ i feel like nanami likes reading and if you like reading, you guys have your own little book club.

➟︎ gojo takes you on shopping sprees. but it’s literally because he likes going out and drags you with him cause no one else will go.

➟︎ fairytale shit aside…living with these niggas is like fighting demons.

➟︎ nanami got a headache every damn hour bc of gojo so then he snappy like denzel in fuckin training day.

➟︎ toji moody af and releases that anger by having relations almost every night with a new bitch. you can never get sleep and almost always end up sleeping in choso’s room.

➟︎ geto has such a slick mouth, he be causing riots at five am cause he called choso’s mama a hoe. choso don’t play about his mama.

➟︎ gojo will have girls over for the night but never kick them out. so then y’all wakin up to some rando, wearing geto’s shirt that gojo stole and eating nanami’s meal prepped breakfast.

➟︎ you silently escort her out before she witnesses a murder.

➟︎ and ALL five of them purposefully bother you at all hours of the day.

➟︎ talkin to a man? oh, not on geto’s watch. now your ‘boyfriend’ shows up to take you home while threatening the guy you were talking to.

➟︎ you in the shower with the door unlocked again? toji’s coming in to take a shit and gojo’s going to turn the lights off and throw some rubber animal in the shower with you.

➟︎ they both, rightfully so, get they ass beat by you and nanami.

➟︎ thinking about going grocery shopping for the apartment? you better pray to god you leave before them otherwise they will try to tag along and end up adding more shit than necessary, into the cart. y’all once had an $800 grocery bill.

➟︎ gojo stay wearing yo wigs. you don’t complain much bc he’s the one that buys them, and he buys the good kind, but if you see him saying ‘stiff where?’ in the mirror ONE MORE TIME!

➟︎ living with them is a nightmare dressed like a daydream literally.

↬︎ join the taglist: @rubinocore @nyxeclipse @sweeneyblue1 @knjkitten@namjoonswifeyy @sunrayyellowhalo @pimpnameyannie @brownmochi

[gertritude-art]

Progress Update...?

I mentioned this a while back, but here is the aforementioned progress update on the visual novel I’ve been working on!!  I wanted to get more done before I wrote this up, but college unfortunately keeps getting in the way (I have a month and a half left until I graduate, and I’ve been very busy because of it).  

Anyway, I still don't have an exact measure on how fully complete the ENTIRE thing is, but here is what I have done so far.  I've split the game up into the five broad sections I've been imagining it in my head (they are not equal in length):

OPENING 

This section covers the entire set-up of the game’s premise.  All of it takes place out in the woods.

writing: 50% complete, but fully planned - this percentage used to be larger until I had to scrap most of what I had written and start again :’) Honestly, it probably is more than 50% complete, but I’m giving the low estimate since I have a tendency to scrap large sections of writing in the editing process.

backgrounds: 100% complete!

CGS: cannot say until I’m fully finished writing it, unfortunately :(

MIDDLE

This section features Mordred running around his school’s Homecoming dance and meeting lots of odd characters.  Most of it takes place in the school, but you can visit the woods if you want to.

writing: 70% complete - this was the section I was trying to fully finish before this update, but school got in the way :’) Should be done by the end of next week, though!

backgrounds: Only one left to complete, which I have been putting off for months.  Please lend me your strength.

CGS: There are none in this section!  So I will call it 100% complete :^)

CLIMAX

A relatively short but very important section where lots of little pieces come together.  Can’t say anything other than that.

^ non-spoiler image that technically spoils this section but not in the way you would think 

writing: 50%-ish done; it’s quite short, though, and will probably only take about two days for me to write, once I sit down and focus on it.

backgrounds: This section re-uses backgrounds, but makes heavy use of the one I haven’t drawn yet.  We’ll call it... 40% done for this reason.

CGS: There are quite a few in this section, but I only have three done.  We will see how many more I need...

ENDGAME

Cannot describe this section without massive spoilers, but i can basically say it’s like:

mordred sowing: ha ha, yeah, this is so epic

mordred reaping: hey what the fuck is this

Including this story section of the game has granted me a massive amount of extra work, but I will force myself to do it if it means that the story will be stronger.  Anyway

^ spoiler-free image that describes this section

writing: ???% done - I made a massive change to its structure recently and now I need to see how much extra I need to write and how much I can keep

CGS: 0% done... this is a CG heavy section too, I imagine, so I can feel the pain already

backgrounds: either 0% or 50% done, depending on whether I go with one specific plot choice...

Most of the uncertainly in this section has come from me knowing exactly what plot elements I need, but struggling to find the best way to have these elements come together.  This will probably be the section I put off the longest.  I have to include it though because it has one scene I started writing back in october and god damn it i WILL have this scene finished

EPILOGUE

writing: 40%-ish done - this is a pretty short section, though, so it won’t take me long to finish it once I fully dedicate my time to it! backgrounds: 50%-ish done; this re-uses backgrounds from the middle section, but with characters drawn in different places - so, it won’t take that long to do, once I finally do it! CGS: 0% done.  The good news, though, is that I only need one CG!  I just haven’t drawn it yet :)

------

OTHER STUFF

SPRITES

- There are some edits to be made, but all the base sprites for the characters + many of the expressions are basically done.  At the moment, all that’s left is to draw some expressions for the characters, and then fully implement them into the game once everything is written.

ITEMS

- all drawn B) I still need to implement most of the point-and-click sections, though!

SOUND DESIGN

- leaving this until the end :(  I'll probably spend, like, two weeks straight on it lol ;w;

MENUS

- I will be honest.  I’ve been putting these off until the very end.  Literally the lowest on my list of priorities.

-----

IN CONCLUSION

This story has gone through quite a few changes since I had the first idea for it back in July.  At the moment, it’s only about 22,000 words long - although, I imagine I’ve written at least double+ that, if you count everything I’ve written and then rewritten/cut out from the final product.  I honestly don’t mind all the revisions I’ve made - I think they were necessary to figure out the best way to tell this story, and what words I’ve kept, I’m incredibly happy with.  

I had this lofty idea of finishing the game by the time I graduated (which, as of now, is in exactly six weeks), but it seems that this, unfortunately, will not be the case.  (This is an unfortunate habit I’ve always had, called “I have literally no idea how long things take and what I assume will take an hour will actually take, like, five days or something.”)  

I am still going to try to get as much as I can done by that time, though.  Hopefully, things will be a lot more complete by then :’)

Anyway, thank you to anyone who has stuck around to read this.  I appreciate your support of my creative adventures, even when it has taken me so long.

See you later,

- Gert