#but i'm the only one in my D&D playing friend group with a fully open schedule at all times

[boatswainscall]

Nothing makes me feel immediate overpowering resentment and envy like hearing about people who have D&D campaigns that last years. Meanwhile every campaign I've ever done with my friends has choked and died four sessions in due to schedules getting too fucked and tangled to maintain ANY kind of consistent play schedule

[papermonkeyism]

hullo, hope you've a good morning! i wanted to ask, are there any ttrpgs you're into besides d&d, and have you looked into online play via voice chat or text? :) could be a good way to keep playing when the party can't come together irl!

My IRL friend group plays DnD, and that's the only one I know how to play.

I did try online RP with a friend of mine through this discord group once, that's what the tabaxi monk was for. Will probably play there again in the future.

Though, playing online is less fun than playing IRL. I have pretty severe ADHD, which comes with both focus and audio processing problems. Chat only playing risks me getting distracted, falling behind and losing my train of thought, and turns out I can't tell people apart when playing via voice chat. I mostly avoided talking to people because I had no idea who I was talking to. There was also one or two times I had to force myself to pay attention after noticing myself slipping. So it's doable, but not as enjoyable.

(I'm also an introvert. I don't have the spoons to open up fully unless I know the folks I'm playing with, and maintaining certain level of mental distance lessens the fun. At one point my character was healed by a cure wounds spell delivered via a slap on the butt by a male character played by someone I didn't know, and that's usually a sign that being openly queer/nonbinary would be a Thing™, and inciting a Moment™ and possibly an Explanation™ or at worst an Argument, and it was late and I just didn't want to deal with it so I just slid into a "surrounded by straight people" - mode to maintain emotional distance. I had fun, sure, and I'll be happy to play again, but it's not gonne be just relax and let go -thing. Sometimes I just don't want to deal.)

[lacklusterhero747]

An Experiment in Guided Character Creation

Because of schedule changes with my work, and people being busy with life, I found it hard to keep up some of my local tabletop gaming opportunities. But I have also found that it gave me the option to do something nice for one of my coworkers.

Graciously, a friend of mine who's really never played D&D at all decided he wanted to start running a 5e game for me and several of our other coworkers, and with my sudden surplus of time, I offered to alternate games with him on Sunday nights after work so he could also have the chance to play, which of course he jumped at. So I polled the group and asked what they would want to play and they all selected Curse of Strahd.

A choice they may yet live to regret.

Regardless, since several of the players are relatively new, and the last time we made characters as a group for his game, I did a lot of the heavy lifting of helping everyone make their characters, I decided that for my game I would do a sort of guided, narrative infused character creation process, inspired by Adventurer's League packet for Ravenloft: Mist Hunters, going full production value on it with some excellent background music provided by the YouTube channel RPG Music Maker - Travis Savoie.

The process involved a series of read aloud sections designed in part to turn character creation into a sort of Bethesda RPG-esque (or maybe something more akin to Larian Studio's Baldur's Gate 3) character creation screen that could keep everyone working on the same steps at the same time, but also a method by which I could convey the tone of the world and genre that the players had chosen to exist in. I also featured a fair number of questions to prompt the players to think about their characterization in this process as well, hoping that I could urge them to create and deepen roleplaying hooks that would be useful in the game to come.

Though a lot of the text is lifted and adapted from the Mist Hunters packet, several of the questions I asked are purely my own, and I'm still proud of the results. The script I used follows:

You find yourself seated at a small table in a cramped, smoky teahouse. Thick, tallow candles shed dim light—the only light—throughout the room. An intricately patterned bone teacup and saucer is nestled atop a delicate lace doily. At the center of the table, steam curls from the spout of a silver kettle decorated with etchings of ravens in flight. At first, you believe the table is set for only you, but slowly, you realize you are not alone. X (x being the number of players + 1) other chairs like your own ring the table, and all but one of them is occupied by an indistinct shade of a person. You imagine them to be likewise confused and taking in their surroundings in a way not too dissimilar to how you are now. Slowly, your fellow travelers begin to resolve, transitioning from shadowy impression to fully realized being, replete with form and color.

Here, I had each player give the basic physical description of their character, specifically their species/lineage, but also their fashion and any other distinguishing features they wanted to highlight, while allowing them the brief chance to react to the strangeness and roleplay if they wanted to, but reminding them that the remaining aspects of their characters, such as their class and background could be revealed in due time.

A moth-eaten curtain on the far side of the room opens, and a shrouded being enters the room carrying a human skull, gilt in silver and glass. They peer at you from beneath their cowl with eyes like glowing points of amber and consider you quietly before approaching the table. "Welcome, travelers. How fortunate you are to find yourself here, in the place betwixt." They gently lift the top of the skull away—revealing the dried tea leaves and a slender silver spoon contained within. In turn, they scoop a measure of dried leaves from the skull with practiced grace and sprinkle them into the teacup in front of you before filling the cup with water. “This tea is special; indeed, a rare treat,” the otherworldly tea-monger says. “To those who can appreciate it, it can—nay will—provide the answers to many questions—even those that you don’t know you have.” “Smell the tea…lean over and breathe in the steam. It’s likely that the tea will smell differently to each of you as it sends your sleeping mind into its past.” The scent is pungent but not unpleasant, unique to each of you. As the aroma teases your nostrils, your mind stirs and suddenly you feel more aware of the whole of your being than perhaps you ever have before.

At this point, I had each player roll for their ability scores. Typical 4d6, dropping the lowest, and assigning them as they pleased before assigning their modifiers (+2 to one stat of their choice, and +1 to another, per the method described in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything). Still, I did manage to inject a bit more theatricality into the process by obligating them to roll with the dice provided:

“Now, my friends,” the being whispers, “drink deep of the tea and let the mists of your own past reveal their secrets. You cannot know where you are going without first understanding where you are from. You cannot welcome others without first accepting yourself. You cannot prepare for the future without first facing the past.” For a moment all seems normal as the flavor of the hot tea lingers on your lips. And then your mind is sent reeling. For a moment you feel as though you are trapped in a sort of peculiar gravity, your body at once leaden and yet weightless. Up and down, forward and back, become meaningless distinctions. An unknowable period of time passes. Seconds or minutes, perhaps even hours, but eventually the fog in your mind begins to coalesce, images and memory dancing across it like the light from a stuttering projector, guided by the shrouded being’s haunting voice. “What seed was planted in your youth that grows now to fruition? What is your background?” 

Here I helped them choose their backgrounds and mark down their skill proficiencies, tool proficiencies, and languages (if any) they gained from their background, as well as the background’s Feature and starting equipment. Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws I told them will come later. And while we did this, I also had their mysterious host pose them some questions to consider:

What is the world you hail from like? What was the culture you were brought up in like? (Anything between typical medieval fantasy and Jack the Ripper’s London was acceptable. Steampunk and Magic punk style settings like Eberron were also acceptable. After all, Ravenloft can steal its heroes from anywhere.)

In your earlier days, before you became an adventurer, what was it that motivated you? Did you have a profession? 

How did the condition of your existence define you? Did you love to work, or did you work to live?

Do you have a family? Who are they? Do you still keep in touch or are they long lost to you?

After long moments locked in the theater of recollection, the voice continues, urging you through the veiled halls of the decrepit crypt that unfolds within your mind. “What event transpired that led you to choose a different path? What is your class?”

At this point I had all them pick out their character classes and mark down their starting hit points, class proficiencies, starting equipment, and level one class features. Also, during this process, they were given more questions to consider:

What catalyzed you to begin your life as an adventurer? How did you view becoming an adventurer? Fated? Hopeful? Pragmatic? Reluctant?

Your peers know of you because you possess a Feat that places you above the rank and file. What is it? Was it talent, naturally gifted, or is it a skill you developed through training? (This question exists specifically because I have a house rule where I grant every character, not just variant humans, a free feat at level one and it seemed as good a place as any to put that step of character creation in play and help them choose.)

Have you had a noteworthy previous adventure? How did it go?

Did you gain any fame or notoriety beyond your immediate circle early on in your career due to your abilities or talents? Did it earn you a moniker?

Have you witnessed any great horrors in your adventuring career? If so, how have they left their mark on you – physically, mentally, emotionally? How do you cope with it?

More time passes, as visions churn in your mind, emerging from the mist like specters before collapsing back into the fog. Again, the being speaks to you. “Reflect upon your demeanor, your motivations, desires, and dreams laid bare. Insights are never possible through the stories we tell ourselves alone in the present. Allow the tea to continue to illuminate you.”

Finally, we reached the point where I wanted them to pick out their Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws, and told them they could use the tables from their backgrounds to inspire them, but first, I wanted them to pose some more questions for them to consider. Help them shape what those other answers might have been in their own way, rather than what was in the book if they felt so compelled:

What makes your skin crawl? What can turn you from a hero into a whimpering babe? What is your seed of fear? (Seeds of Fear are a mechanical idea introduced in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft and play directly into the expanded role of the Fear Condition and Stress mechanics which we decided we would use, as well as offering them something they could potentially gain inspiration from in game by roleplaying it well)

Though we might struggle against them, many a creature is as much a product of the better angels of their virtue and the darker demons of their vice as they are of their willful choices. Which virtue best describes you (Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Kindness, Patience, Humility) and which vice? (Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Envy, Wrath, Pride)

Are you rational or passionate? Do you take considered action, driven by logic? Or are you led by your heart, leaping before you look?

How self confident are you? Do you stride boldly forth, self assured in your choices, or do you constantly question your own motives?

Are you sophisticated or superstitious? Do you fancy yourself to be well educated and experienced? Or do you rely on homespun wisdom, informed more by ritual and folklore?

What is your greatest love? For what or whom would you make sacrifices? Anything? Nothing? And would you sacrifice yourself? Or would you rather sacrifice someone else?

What is your greatest regret? Do you have any memories that haunt you at night?

What fascinates you and draws your interests? Art and Philosophy? Magic or Monsters? Swordplay and Warfare?

What are your habits? Do you have any patterns in your life? Rituals which you feel compelled to enact?

How strong is your faith? Are you the sort to go only on high holy days or are you truly pious? Or do you instead believe that the gods care little for mortals and you are on your own?

Do you have a hope or a dream? Something that you want or need? What desire, hidden or not, continues to drive you.

Questions posed, I think had them turn to their ideal, bond, flaw, and personality traits, using the chosen background and their answers for inspiration, or allowing them to simply roll if they preferred. I also told them that their personality traits could be changed or added to whenever they found a good reason to do so. These elements were not necessarily locked in stone as people are allowed to grow and change.

Finally, the fog begins to fade completely from your mind and you find yourself in the dark, smoke filled tea house once again. The being, seated in the Xth seat (Again, number of players +1), closes a tome, one you had not been aware it had even produced, in which it had been writing and recording your meditations, and returns quill to ink pot before it spreads its arms wide, indicating that it speaks to all of you. “The tea has shown you what it believed you needed to know. You have learned about yourself today, but your journey has only just begun.”  The shrouded figure motions to you to look down at the table before you, where you see that both tea cup and saucer have been replaced by a small package, wrapped in black paper and topped with a ribbon of frayed, yellowing lace. Next to this sits an envelope, likewise of black paper, gilt with silver and sealed with red wax. “Take with you the treasure you find within, and mind the invitation you have been given..."

Here, finally, I had each of them roll 1d100 and consult the horror trinkets table from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Just a funny little something for them to carry with them into the game... but something I fully intend to find a way to weave into the narrative if I can manage it.

Ready or not, your lives are soon to be forever changed, Mist walkers…” Its final words spoken, the being rises from its chair to retreat back behind the curtain from which it emerged, taking it's heavy tome along with it. Somewhere in the gloom around you, a grandfather clock chimes 13 times as one by one the candles in the room flicker and go out, guttering as a chilling breeze sweeps through, bringing with it a rising veil of fog. When the last candle is extinguished and all is cast in darkness, you suddenly awaken with a frightful start in more familiar surroundings, still resting wherever it was that you laid your head when you fell asleep the night before. Clearly the vision must have simply been a nightmare… a hallucination of bad food or too much drink… but no… As you take in your surroundings you see it... your eyes catch sight of a small box, wrapped in black paper, torn open and its lace bow discarded, and the unopened invitation, still sealed with red wax…

When it was all said and done, the players had a great time and they had completed characters, set and ready to step into the mists of Ravenloft and set out to tackle the Curse of Strahd. We probably wont actually get to play again for a couple more weeks, but that's fine. It will give them more time to ruminate on their characters and me ample time to prep.

I think, rather than running them as level 1 characters through Death House, I will instead use The House of Lament from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. I think it will give them more chances to really experience the haunted house vibes the setting can offer, and more time and ease of getting used to the Fear and Stress mechanics we will be layering onto the game.

Either way, I am very excited.

[wixelt]

I change my mind. Addendum to the Gem and Iskall ask.

Using some fae tricks, a smidge more accessable for her than the others now due to some training with Valandria, Gem manages to stay a fixed distance ahead of the chasing False, some speading up to dissapear into the spontaneous fog before appearing again deeper into the woods may also play into it.

But they're defaulting to the same events.

False's thoughts track roughly along these lines:

don'tgodon'tgodon'tgoi'msorrydon'tleavepleasedon'tleave I'M SORRY

Meanwhile, Maybe if it were just Stress, she could handle it but both Stress and False here and now she's doing it again you've learned nothing you're a coward you just can't help abandoning everyone who cares about you can you I hope you're proud-

And it's False's gut wrenching, hopeless, begging apology, and it's the way Gem freezes, and how quickly she turns around, and it's the tears streaming both their faces and it's how natural maintaining that insurmountable gap felt and it's Gem's double life in another world and it's how False treated a member of Gem's second family.

Amd maybe they both think it's their own fault, and maybe they also blame the other, and maybe Stress tries to convince them it wasn't either's. And maybe they have a lot they need to work through.

(and maybe there's shouting from two parts of the mountain, and Anne gets just a tad more impatient)

(Later Stress realizes the stone isn't fully charged but from what she can tell, that shouldn't effect much at least for simple uses, which she doesn't actually know if anything would count as that in this case but she assumes it's fine)

(Maybe I thought we could do better than maintaining canon levels of angst)

And now the second part to this. :D

Valeriana's better grasp on the thing locking down everyone's powers gives Gem a remarkable advantage. Though her usual, vital power's still lost to her, some of the other tricks she's picked up - especially those of the fae-perception variety - become a little more available.

So she manages to keep ahead of False & Stress so they're distracted for almost the entire temple trial, but as she sees False's expression slowly become that of recognition & the blonde grow desperate & panicked - her cries ringing in Gem's ears - Gem's heart breaks for her friends.

And that little inner voice that chides her every time she world hops to escape a dangerous situation - all the lies to save embarassment that have built up over time - gnaws at her resolve. She could've bore the emotional pain if it were just Stress, but with False as well - or even False alone - it's a different story.

So Gem falters, & turns around.

And all the stuff that went down between the two - Gem's double life, False's treatment of one of "Other" Gem's friends (False's own sister, she'd later learn), & at the root of it all that happened with the Moon - comes crashing down.

Both False & Gem blame themselves for their own failings, but that tiny mote of anger at each other also bubbles beneath the surface no matter how much Stress has help her gal pals patch things up. Not enough to affect their friendship in the day-to-day, but with the isolation & the uncertainty & now the chase, emotions run wild for a moment.

So you can forgive Anne & Val both for getting a little peeved at the shouting match going on in the background. :P

Thankfully, despite the angst, getting all this out in the open was only a net positive, & by the time everyone groups up again, False, Gem & Stress are hugging it out.

And though Stress notices the incomplete charge, she probably doesn't comment on it. If she did, Anne would tell Marcy, who'd tell Andrias... & you can guess how that'd--

...

...Hmm. Actually, there's a thought.

Hey, anyone ever read this Amphibia fancomic before? (I've been dying for a follow-up, but right now its giving me food for thought.)

(No worries wanting to up the angst. As has been said, the Hermits presence isn't entirely a positive & this is probably roughly the time the signs of the escalation & hazards its caused start to show more.)

[handsomethrowrug]

4, 10, 12

Questions for the Mun! ( @musemelodies )

-

10. what genre do you most enjoy, whether in roleplay, or fiction as a whole? (fantasy, period, superhero, etc.)

In RP, I've mainly written in a somewhat ordinary slice-of-life with a hint of fantasty/sci-fi in recent times. The main fandom I've been in aside from here isn't overly active, so there wasn't huge potential for me personally to work on stuff (also being busy never helped). I do enjoy fantasy settings, like royal AUs... But in a slightly ironic sense, I'm not actually interested in things like D.nD.

I think I like it because it opens up the possibility of virtually anything. Truthfully, I have tried making AU verses to interact with others, especially on other blogs... Let's just say that I put a lot of thinking effort in for writing partners who actually didn't care because they got their "aw yeah I got someone into this" boost before jumping to something else entirely and never actually... doing anything? I used to know some very impulsive people. (thankfully, I stopped writing with those people a long time ago and cut ties with them completely for other reasons)

-

12. what roleplay trends do you remember from the year you started tumblr rp? how did you feel about those trends?

Yeesh, that's going pretty far back. When I started, private group rps on t.umblr were on the go, and they ran pretty well. The main one I was in stuck together for a good four or five years, and even though none of us write together anymore nowadays, we've still got our little d.iscord group where we sometimes chat. It's really nice. But the big difference was that even though there were still ads and the "we want these characters!" posts... People in the groups were reblogging the ads to try and promote it too. It wasn't just a constant onslaught in certain tags.

On a less nostalgic note.... Finding art/ a gif set of your character and either responding IC or roleplaying in the reblogs. That used to be more common and I'm mortified that I took part once (that I remember).

-

4. which muse of yours is your all time favorite? if you stopped writing them: why?

Okay. Anyone who has known me for a long time knows I'm a notoriously picky mun. If I take on a muse, I'm taking them on for a long time. They're getting overthought headcanons! They're getting a whole-ass backstory. I spent a YEAR writing out a backstory for one of my muses in two parts. I swear I am not exaggerating when I say it was over 30 pages on g.oogle d.ocs.

This is because I'm personally not a fan of "I watched/played this thing, therefore I must take on this character that I liked". It doesn't work for me when it comes to writing inspiration. I prefer to go with what I call a 'three day rule'. If the urge to write the character lasts for at least three days (up to a week), I take the plunge. The last fully brand new character I took on was... End of April, 2023. Once they're on my roster, they're usually there for good Even if my inspiration moves, the potential is nearly always there. I mean, look at this blog! It was set up in 2017 and I disappeared for a few years!

However, I will be honest and say that Scar isn't my favourite character to write. Don't get me wrong, I love him and I'm hoping to push myself more with him, but there are others that are more in my 'comfort zone', so to speak, and that I've written longer/more consistently. Scar is still a challenge for me, at times.

-

I'm flip-flopping between a few, but I think the honour has to goes to Y.ancy.

He's from 'A H.eist with M.arkiplier', and one of the only characters I broke my own golden rule for. I wanted to take him on as a muse the day the production came out back in 2019 (all available for free on Y.outube :D ), and I would have if I hadn't been out of town to visit a friend that same day.

... oh my god I'm writing him five years at the end of the month.

For those who don't know, I suppose the easiest comparison of his personality is sorta, but not really, along a similar track of a certain C.entipede, even down to the accent (except my guy isn't actually from the area). Y.ancy is a tough greaser, and a convicted murderer (oh yeah, he's an incarcerated person), but he's also a loyal friend. He's got a small group of trusted friends, and he's absolutely no longer the man he was when he committed his crimes. He's hesitant to apply for parole because he's been chewed up and spat out by the real world. He needs to see the changes that have happened out there. (Though I do have a post-parole setting where he's adjusting to the normal world)

Oh. And you are literally introduced to him by a musical number. That's not a joke.

Admittedly, I've wanted to do some sort of crossover setting with him, but it's a fandom that was slightly taboo for the longest time (he's a fictional character but it's juuuust to the side of Y.outube R.PF). I did find an animated FC for him but... I wasn't sure, you know?

I'm already going on a ramble so I'll cut it off here. Y.ancy's a lot of fun because he's the ideal target for being the normal guy in a weird scenario.

Honourable mentions go to W.ilford W.arfstache (cartoonish at times, yet can do a 180 and hit with feels) and J.ack S.kellington (my actual longest muse, tbh. I took a break for other reasons and never really got back into the swing of things over there.) I'm literally restricting myself here because I will list off every muse that is either active or dormant.

[shytastemakerthing]

Hii!! I would like to request a romantic matchup for enstars! :D

Starting with the basics : I am 158cm (5'2), I'm an INFP-T, my favourite colour is pink and I love penguins! Some of my hobbies include drawing, shopping, fashion, dancing, and playing video games!

I am a very socially anxious person, so I would need someone who is understanding and patient with me because it will take a While for me to come out of my shell. HOWEVER, once I do open up I am a ball of energy and chaos. I love joking around, making people laugh and overall being super lighthearted! The jokes I make are usually weird or obscure, or describing funny anecdotes that happened to me!

On the topic of energy, I am quite active. I like to dance and jump around at random times haha. Although I tone it down when around most people, It would be nice to have someone who likes that side of me.

I LOVE DRESSING UP. It's rare that you will catch me wearing a boring outfit. My style in fashion varies a lot, but I typically lean towards wearing colours (though I love an all-black outfit!) and cute / feminine styles. I love makeup too!

I'm an introvert, but I love hanging out with people I'm close to! Whether it's going into the city, shopping, chilling at someone's house, I'm down! Even when the occasion doesn't fully interest me, if I'm invited I'm going 🤣 (like when my friends invited me to see Fantastic Beasts 2 in cinema and I went, even though I hadn't seen the first one or any Harry Potter movie aside from the first one. I just like the company of my friends!) You Will catch me sleeping as soon as I come home however.

Now, due to my social anxiety I can be a bit pathetic when it comes to communication and get SUPER nervous when talking to strangers. I'm not assertive and I fear conflict (especially with loved ones). I'm a kind and accommodating person deep down, but people's first impression of me is probably that I'm kind of aloof and reserved and VERY quiet. I would also say I'm not that great at comforting people, I want to help but I struggle with thinking of the best things to say to them.

I can also be quite sensitive and take things personally a lot so I don't particularly like when people tease me about things such as what I'm wearing or how I look because I get insecure.

My love language is probably words of affirmation and receiving gifts. I like being reassured and encouraged and it's super sweet knowing that someone is thinking about me even when I'm not with them by giving me gifts! Even small things matter to me, I still own rocks and little origami that my friends have made due to the memories they hold.

I am a weird mix of optimism and anxiety. I think I have underlying abandonment issues and tend to lower people's expectations about me and my abilities in fear of disappointing them. Yet I also have a very carefree view on life, very much a "go with the flow" and "whatever happens, happens" type person who doesn't like being tied down by strict rules and constraints.

Sorry if I wrote too much, or it's a bit all over the place! Thanks so much!!! :3

Hello and thank you so much for your request and your patience while I work through the remaining ones! I hope that you enjoy it and have a wonderful day/night!

Request: Romantic Enstars Match-up

I match you with........

Hiyori Tomoe

Knowing that you love to dress up and go shopping, this man will absolutely take you to the best places that there are, money is really no issue to him

Granted there are times where he might get more for himself than for you but you both have fun regardless

Giving gifts is something that he will certainly do, he wants to spoil you in a way that only he can

Will certainly bring you to meetings that the Pretty 5 will have, you are absolutely perfect for their group!

Not to mention, they all love you as well

He loves that you enjoy the company of your friends! It's a rather rare sight to be able to see, to enjoy the company of others, truly enjoying their presence

In any moments where you are feeling more insecure over things, just know that he will be there in a heartbeat

He can't have his beloved partner feeling so down now, can he?

He will be at your residence with movies, snacks, blankets, and anything else to help you feel better

There are also times he will bring his unit mates or club members along

Make a date out if it

Just know that in the end, he will see you as his everything and will absolutely treat you as such. He may have his moments form time to time, but know that even then, he will be here for you

Thank you for your request!

[gamecrag]

Growing up as a gamer and a bit of a tech wiz, you'd expect me to have loved anime for a long time. However, only in recent years have I started indulging in these animated stories, and it is quite tough for me to become a fan of a new anime show. You'll likely be able to tell what kind of anime fan I am by simply going through this list. I prefer the fantasy styles, in worlds full of creatures or magic. This list will detail my 10 favourite anime shows so far but note; that I don't read manga so please don't judge me. :D As a side note, can someone tell me why 1 or 2 series of certain animes are produced and then no more? Some of these entries could use an extra season, but they don't seem to get one! 10) Vox Machina Favourite character: Grog Loosely based on Dungeons & Dragons (which I've never played), I went into Vox Machina with an open mind. It follows a group of dysfunctional members of different races and classes, as they simply try to put food on their tables. Over time, their exploits become greater, and they end up making a name for themselves. But this doesn't come with too much financial reward, so they must keep going. We're currently waiting on a new season as the previous one ended with a bit of a cliffhangar. There's lots of charm and wit, it's certainly enjoyable and worth watching! 9) Grimgar Fantasy of Ash Favourite character: Ranta Many individuals are transported to a fantasy realm and given the task of defeating creatures or completing quests to earn a living. The art style is quite unique and different to what you usually see. The action is fun but very grounded, and there is little humor. Despite the lack of fun, Grimgar Fantasy of Ash has plenty of heart and is a great series to watch if you enjoy the "hero's journey". Watching these young souls go from struggling against a goblin to battling huge bosses is something you don't get with a lot of fantasy series. 8) Sword Art Online Favourite character: Kirito SAO was the first anime I watched, and it got me hooked. I thought anime was just a different style of children's cartoons but this all changed when the plot of Sword Art Online was revealed. Hundreds of players using headsets get stuck in their virtual world. If they die in the game, the headset kills them in real life. The main character (Kirito) is a bit of a loner, and that resonated with me a lot. I much prefer to play games solo, rarely playing with friends. While other players are looking out for each other, Kirito trains by himself and makes considerable gains throughout the series. I can imagine you're already fully aware of Sword Art Online if you're reading this article with genuine intent. Although a lot of anime fans stick their noses up at this anime, I think it was the perfect introduction for me, and it holds a spot in my heart as a result. 7) Demon Slayer Favourite character: Inosuke My most recently finished anime, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming Demon Slayer movie. Quite a serious anime with a powerful storyline and strong plot points, the characters are incredibly unique (especially Inosuke). While Demon Slayer provides a gripping storyline with heartbreak and action, it also gleefully provides a perfect balance of humour and optimism. The only reason it ranks so low is due to a fairly picky reason. Sometimes during fight scenes, it will cut out to some emotional backstory of one of the characters, and it throws off the pacing for me. This is not a common complaint from Demon Slayer fans, and is purely my own opinion, so you might be OK with it! 6) How Not to Summon a Demon Lord Favourite character: Diablo It took a while, and there are a fair few questionable scenes, but How Not to Summon a Demon Lord is a fun anime that doesn't take itself too seriously. The main character (Diablo) is a super powerful Demon Lord who is teleported into the world of the video game he has been playing.

Inside this fantasy world, he is a tough, super-powerful being. However, on the inside, Diablo is an introverted mess who has no idea how to socialise. This all adds up to a comedic storyline with some very awesome action scenes. 5) Darwin's Game Favourite character: Shuka A short but sweet anime, 4) GATE Favourite character: Rory GATE has one of the most epic scenes in anime history, when the modern military enters the Gate into the fantasy world. Just imagine you're a simple peasant, watching warriors and wizards walk by. Then suddenly a group of Apache helicopters fly overhead. It's a fun combination for sure, and goes about as well for the fantasy world's citizens as you can imagine. What you get is a mixture of modern human technology and fantasy magic. There isn't much heart but there's plenty of fun. 3) Seraph of the End Favourite character: Guren Based during a post-apocalypse settings, Seraph of the End is an anime about Humans vs Vampires. And the humans have been losing for a while. Vampires pretty much rule Japan, and keep many children hostage to use for blood. As a result, humans are forced to make pacts with demons to power up their equipment and bodies so they can fight back. What you get is a grimdark anime with some of the best action you'll find in any anime. 2) One Punch Man Favourite character: Genos My friends were telling me about One Punch Man for some time, but I could never look past the "bald guy with cape" character. Until one day I gave it a try, and it was one of the best things I've ever done with my life. In a world full of demons of various shapes and sizes, heroes battle to protect humanity. Some of them are very funny, such as the fabled Mumen Rider. One Punch Man contains some amazing action scenes to boot, with Genos in particular boasting some scene-stealing moments! Don't take it too seriously, just enjoy the humor and you'll never regret watching this anime! 1) Re:Zero Favourite character: Rem In my humble opinion, Re:Zero is the best anime I've ever watched - by far! Subaru (the main character) is just a guy. No real special powers, no OP weapon, no huge muscly body. He's just a person trying his best to look out for others. One of the few powers he has is the ability to "Return by death". If he dies, he wakes up at the start of the day, ready to go again. Subaru faces dozens of horrific, barbaric deaths. He doesn't do this to further his own gain, instead he does it to ensure his friends stay alive. Over the episodes, the story goes even deeper. I won't spoil too much, but the lore and characters that get introduced will grip you completely. Genuinely, it gets a solid 10/10 from me, and I really hope they create the next series in my lifetime!

[howtotrainyournana]

da capo no-longer-quite anon here lol! eyyy 🤝 with you and all we do anon sleeping at last is great!! your fics do definitely have that sort of energy :D north & Saturn are lovely songs (I haven’t listened to sun or taste) before. I have a really big soft spot for Neptune, and it gives me big da capo energy - “I’m only honest when it rains, an open book with a torn out page, and my ink runs out, I wanna love you but I don’t know how”

omg hiiiiiiii!!!!!! It's so nice to have so much Sleeping At Last joy lighting up my inbox, I frequently have them playing at work on my speakers lol

and oooooooooooo you make a REALLY good point for Neptune having big da capo energy - that quote you picked from it is going to be really fitting for the next three chapters of al coda, and specifically for this next chapter. I am doing my best to get it finished, but the brain fog is thick this winter. Be that as it may, I will still try.

Not da capo related, but as a treat for you lovely anons who have lit up my day (and night), I'll give you a little excerpt from a different dsmp fic I'm working on - another installment of Schrodinger's Ghost, set after the ending of the first fic in the series. Snippet under the cut.

Enjoy!

. . .

"The next five or six people get settled just as easy; they're strangers that you don't know, names on a piece of paper and thimbles in the shop you work at. They are fleeting glimpses of fully lived lives cut short, desperate hands reaching out and catching yours on a bridge that isn't a bridge. You try not to think about it too much, don't let it bother you. It's meaningful work, but it isn't personal.

Until Tubbo slams down The List on your table at the library.

"Good news!" Tubbo chirps, giddy at success, "I have names. Bad news? Our town is like, super cursed and there are so many missing or dead people on this list."

Ranboo has a sandwich halfway to his mouth and pauses. You know food isn't allowed in the library but you also know that literally everyone is afraid of Tubbo, so you all can get away with it.

"Okay, that's- huh. Not actually that surprising," Ranboo frowns, like the thought had never occurred to him. Oh, to have a pretty head full of nothing.

Tubbo rolls out a map next to the list. It's nearly indecipherable through all the red ink marking it.

"So I decided to make a map of all the sudden or violent deaths in our town, as well as last sightings for missing people. I have concluded that no one should live here."

"Well," you remark, "that would explain why the goddess of death lives in the woods around our town."

You run your finger down the list of names - they're divided up into categories. Accidental deaths, intentional deaths, and disappearances.

You pause halfway down the list of disappearances. It's the last name that catches your attention - niggles at something in the back of your mind. You don't recognize the first name, but you think that's probably because you never actually used his first name - he always went by a nickname. Dream and his friends never called him by his actual name, because most of that friend group have weird names and even weirder nicknames.

You didn't actually know he was a missing persons.

Halo stands out stark and bright in Tubbo's messy scrawl, next to a date from three years ago. You remember your brother, seething mad, storming home after an evening spent out with friends. You never got a clear answer on what happened, just that there had been a huge argument and that Bad was leaving and Dream wasn't going to say goodbye. You tried to ask Sapnap about it a few weeks later, but by then Bad was gone and even if they all wanted to reconcile there wasn't any way to do so. Bad's phone was disconnected, he didn't leave a forwarding address, and he never called or got in touch with anyone. You remember the pinched pain in the corners of Sapnap's eyes, the sour hurt as he shrugged and said that sometimes people just decide they don't want to be part of your life anymore and leave.

No one liked to bring him up, so they didn't, and he lived on as a ragged, unmentioned wound in the fabric of your collective lives.

Now you see him listed next to the names of people you've pulled from a forest river and brought back to life and you think maybe it wasn't that simple. You think maybe he wanted to come back but couldn't. Think I could try. I could try. If I don't, I'll never know, and I'd be a coward.

You know that Tubbo noticed your pause. Tubbo knows basically everyone you know, and there's no way that the name on the list flew under his radar. Your mouth is dry.

This is personal again."

. . .

[dreamboateddie]

Save me Eddie,Part 1

Summary- You've known Eddie since childhood but became estranged when your parents moved to a different neighborhood. Eddie did loads of changing in Highschool and it just shoved you both in different groups. Eddie was your elementary bestfriend and the only person you can trust when a new man enters your life to stalk you since all your friends seem to be on their own wavelength these days.

Warnings- 18+ only smut, Eddie X Fem Reader, stalking, fear, heavy petting, D/s play, biting, Unprotected sex, cream-pie

Author's note: I do take requests for storylines if you like my writing style! These stories are 18 plus, no minors interact!

You've never felt fear quite like this before,  it was the kind of fear that sunk deep in your chest,  the kind of fear that made a person freeze in one spot and struggle to breathe. You knew Brandon was close by the way his boots clunked against the asphalt while he was looking for you "Y/n" he sung out as he searched the bush nearby, and you had to dart in the opposite direction before he reached your hiding place. You had to think quick and knew Eddie's friend was nearby, from there, he could give you access to your old friend. He was hopefully what you remembered him being intimidating and slightly off his rocker. Brandon was not too far away, that looming figure of his closing in from behind. You round the house, slip into the backyard the best you can and let yourself in, definitely breaking into this poor guy's house.  You hear the thrum of guitars echo from nearby, you paw around the house and you enter the garage where Eddie and his friends are rehearsing. The Garage door is open so you hastily shut it since Brandon is probably lurking nearby waiting to do god knows what to you. You swing around to meet the confused gaze of them each but yours falls on your old best friend, staring at you with those deep, brown eyes. He sets his guitar aside and sighs "You're interrupting a VERY important set, how did you get in here?" . Your finger flies in the direction of the back door, this was your chance to explain EVERYTHING "The back door, you guys really need to start locking stuff around here. Listen, Eddie...". A thick, ringed hand shot up "Whoa, whoa... you know me?". You nod, "I do, we were close in elementary school, I'm Y/N. Listen, Eddie... I have this guy from my job stalking me. I need to stay here for a while". Eddie started to scratch his chin "So wait... you pretend I don't exist for the longest time and act all uppity with your newspaper and cheerleader friends and now you're needing my help" those sweet, dark puppy dog eyes bounced from one of your eyes to the other, you could tell they were filled with a little bit of hurt. "Please Eddie..." you whisper out, pleading hands gathered before you. You knew his nature, so you were sure to get your way with some good ol' begging. He sighs, and motions for you to enter his buddy's kitchen "We'll be back ,guys". It doesn't take him long to press himself to the window nearest you both "Jesus, Y/N... is this Brandon? He was a quarterback last year...". You join him, pressing yourself at his side, and a bit behind him in case Brandon lunges at the window. He smelled different than you remember. He always had that dirt, rock and cigarette smell. But now he smelled like old spice... you're almost too distracted by his closeness and that sweet, sweet smell that you nearly didn't answer. You breathe out, fingers coiling around Eddie's bicep "Yeah. After he graduated he started at the shop I work at, so he could make some college money. He started hitting on me and well... started following me around. I didn't know what to do but come here and you're a little scary. So... I just... put two and two together" . Eddie was shaking his curly hair and you could tell he was a little scared of that large, stalking frame outside...he wouldn't fully admit to that, so he took a shaking breath and stood up, got a bat from another room and reached out a hand in your direction " We have to get you home.. we'll wait until he's up the street a little and make a run for my car" you take his hand but coil yourself to his arm " Please don't leave me, ok?". ( part two because of post length

[oumakokichi]

Do you think that Kokichi had any remorse for Gonta during trial 4 or did he actually not care? I've seen a lot of people saying different opinions from both sides of the argument. But I'm really confused because there was a moment where after Gonta was executed, correct me if I'm wrong but Shuichi asked Kokichi if he could reveal the secret of the outside world (?) But Kokichi replied with something like “I don't want to....” and seemed generally upset? But then a few moments later he snapped out if it and began acting like he had no sympathy whatsoever. I just really wanna know how Kokichi actually, truly felt about Gonta and if he regretted manipulating him. Sorry if you've already been asked this and have already given an answer, thank you!

Hi anon—I actually wrote a pretty big master-post on chapter 4 not too long ago which I think more or less sums up my thoughts on Ouma’s behavior in the post-trial! You can find it here if you want (it’s pretty long and I tried to answer a whole bunch of questions about Ouma in chapter 4 specifically, since it’s the chapter I get asked about the most).

More specifically though, I’m afraid that there is no easy, definitive answer to that question. I can only share my personal opinions about how I believe Ouma felt in that scene. And personally? I do think he was genuinely upset and distraught about Gonta’s death, that he even momentarily considered giving up all his plans and being executed alongside him, and that he cared about Gonta and deeply regretted using him as a sacrificial pawn in his plans.

I’ll discuss what I mean in more detail, but it’ll probably get pretty long, so I’ll put the rest of this post under a cut as always!

The thing is, though, I’ve shared my personal thoughts about the chapter 4 post trial many times, including my reasoning and all of the textual evidence that shows how much Ouma cared about the rest of his classmates. But ultimately, there will probably always be some people who disagree, because their reading of the text will always be a little bit different. Unless we ever have an interview from Kodaka in the future where he directly says, “this is what Ouma was thinking and feeling at this exact moment,” there really won’t ever be a way to know what was going through his head with 100% certainty (and I do feel like leaving it open-ended is something of Kodaka’s intention, anyway, especially since Ouma is supposed to be a very polarizing character).

That being said, I do think it’s worth analyzing the text and drawing your own conclusions, because ndrv3 is a game that changes a lot depending on how you interpret it, and Ouma’s character is included in that. It’s really easy on a first playthrough to get wrapped up in what Ouma says or does without really looking at why he says it, or at his underlying motivations. Going back through the game on a replay though, I do personally think it’s possible to guess at what he might have been feeling during those super conflicting scenes in chapter 4.

In my opinion, I think Ouma did truly care about Gonta as a friend, and that his guilt and remorse over what he did was genuine. Not only did Ouma and DICE have a very strict taboo against killing (mentioned directly in his motive video in Japanese, though the part about it being an actual rule was stripped from the localization), but we don’t see Ouma’s façade crack like this very often. Most of the time when he does his trademark “crocodile tears,” it’s with his very loud, exaggerated crying sprite, and he bounces right back to acting normally within a moment or two.

There are a few exceptions to this, of course—he uses the “crocodile tears” sprite to cry at Kaede, Amami, and Toujou’s deaths, but it’s still very likely he was shaken up by seeing them dead). Nonetheless, we don’t see his much more subdued crying sprites more than a handful of times, particularly in the chapter 4 post-trial just before Gonta’s execution, as well as in Momota’s flashback in chapter 5 when he talks about how Ouma actually hated the killing game the whole time.

I’m aware that some people simply brush these moments aside and assume that Ouma is lying though all of them, but I personally just can’t agree with that interpretation. Assuming that Ouma is lying whenever he shows remorse or guilt or hatred for the killing game means assuming that he’s telling the truth in pretty much every other scene—which doesn’t make much sense, given that his entire character is centered around the concept of lying, as well as moral ambiguity and subverting expectations. Assuming that Ouma actually means what he’s saying 100% of the time unless it just happens to involve showing any kind of guilt or remorse turns him into a very boring, predictable, uninspired character (none of which are words I would use to describe him personally).

Ignoring those moments where Ouma shows genuine attachment to his classmates and distaste for the killing game also means ignoring several key pieces of evidence and clues about him that we are directly provided in the game, including his motive video and Momota’s flashback in chapter 5. Personally, I don’t feel like there’s any reason to include these scenes at all unless it’s to help shed light on Ouma’s motivations and provide players with a clear reason to try and go back through the game again to look at Ouma’s actions through a new perspective.

I also feel that Ouma genuinely cared about Gonta because to put it simply, there was no incentive for him to lie in that scene. He got absolutely nothing out of it—and considering he turns around and starts playing the villain on purpose all of 5 minutes after Gonta’s death, he definitely wasn’t trying to earn sympathy points or trick the rest of his classmates into trusting him. In fact, he could’ve easily tried to make himself look more sympathetic by putting all of the blame on Miu for trying to kill him, or even on Gonta. But instead he fully admits to coming up with the plan to kill Miu and spends the entire post-trial trying to convince everyone not to hate or blame Gonta.

If he was truly as sadistic and horrible as he pretended to be, I think he would’ve pulled a 180 and started throwing names and insults around while Gonta was still alive to hear it, not after he was already dead. If he didn’t care at all about Gonta’s feelings, he had no reason to try and take all the blame on himself while insisting that none of what happened was actually Gonta’s fault. If anything, revealing himself to be this horrible, evil villain who enjoys seeing other people suffer or die would’ve really been adding insult to injury, and probably would’ve crushed Gonta completely, even before his execution started.

But… Ouma doesn’t do any of this. Despite having every opportunity to either portray himself as more of a victim and fling all the blame on Miu and Gonta, or else to completely embrace being a villain who loved seeing people suffer, he doesn’t do either of these things. The way I personally see it, Ouma waits until Gonta is already dead, and when the rest of his classmates begin pushing him for answers about the outside world and demanding to know what Gonta saw, that’s when he finally snaps and resigns himself to acting like a villain in order to make everyone hated.

You could argue that trying to make everyone hate him had a twofold effect: it helped set the stage for him to pretend to be the ringleader in the next chapter, which he clearly wanted, but it also was a way of taking things out on himself and shows just a small glimpse of how much he hated having to dirty his hands in chapter 4. After all, Ouma even says it himself: that the “role of a villain is perfect for him,” because he’s already made everyone hate him. We see Ouma occasionally tease or antagonize the rest of his classmates plenty of times throughout the game, but it’s true that he doesn’t really step into that “villain” role until the end of chapter 4, once he’s crossed a line that he can never come back from by manipulating both Miu and Gonta to their deaths.

None of this is to say that what Ouma did to Gonta is okay, by any means. I think he definitely did care about Gonta and even thought of him as one of the few trustworthy people in the killing game, even someone close to a friend, but that doesn’t mean that manipulating him and using him like a chess piece was okay in the end. I just also think it’s important to realize that there were plenty of extenuating circumstances that led Ouma to act the way he did��including the fact tha he knew Miu was going to kill him, that he already suspected she had measures to prevent him from fighting back or killing her himself in the VR world, and the fact that he did not want to die or get everyone else killed in the trial.

It’s possible for people to care about others without necessarily treating them the best or doing the right thing. A huge part of Danganronpa, something that’s been evident from the very first game, is that sometimes characters can and do hurt each other, even when they care about each other or wouldn’t be a threat otherwise.

It’s the existence of the killing game itself that causes so many characters to go to extremes that they normally wouldn’t, whether it’s Maizono trying to frame Naegi in dr1 despite caring about him a lot, Kaede deciding to try and commit murder under everyone’s noses despite trying to unite the group and wanting everyone to trust her, or Ouma using Gonta as a pawn to kill Miu in his place because he didn’t want to die.

At the end of the day, people are still probably going to have very polarizing opinions about Ouma and the things he did in chapter 4, and that’s honestly okay. In my own opinion, Ouma definitely isn’t a completely flawless, innocent baby who “did nothing wrong”—he absolutely is manipulative, cold, and calculating when he wants to be, and it’s a fact that he got two people killed, even if he didn’t want things to reach that point. But I also personally don’t think it’s fair to write him off as the exact kind of “evil villain” he pretends to be; not only is it a shortsighted interpretation of his larger motivations, but it also completely ignores any replay value and completely shoots down the appeal of trying to interpret Ouma’s thoughts and actions because “he was lying about feeling bad anyway, what’s the point in analyzing him.”

Tl;dr: I do think Ouma cares about Gonta, that he probably even thought of him as the closest thing he had to a friend in the killing game, and that what he did to Gonta in the end wasn’t okay. I think he really did respect Gonta for being such a sweet and kind person, but that he also knew Gonta was extremely naïve and that he would be one of the easiest people in their group to manipulate, hence why he decided to rely on him instead of anyone else. Their friendship is an important part of both of their character arcs, but it’s definitely not what I would call “on equal footing.”

I understand why Ouma’s actions might make some people really resent him, but I also believe that kneejerk reaction of anger and dismissal is exactly the point: Ouma does feel terrible about the things he did, but he doesn’t want anyone’s sympathy or forgiveness, not even the player’s. This, in my opinion, is why he starts embracing the villain role so completely from this point on, and why he’s never quite able to make the same sort of cold, calculating sacrifices in chapter 5 that he did in chapter 4.

I hope this helps answer your question, anon, along with the other chapter 4 post I wrote! Thank you for all your support!

[letters-from-eros]

Pairing: Kirishima Eijiro x Fem!Reader

Genre: Angst To Fluff

Form: Oneshot. Songfic

AU: Hanahaki disease.

A/N: I had to edit this so hard for me to like it at all 😭 I hope you all enjoy.

Thank you.

You laid down, sprawled out on your bed with flower petals surrounding you. You think they're petals from a rose but they could just be stained in blood. You honestly didn't really understand how your condition worked, even though the extensive research you did and the consults with doctors. What you did know is that you're grateful that you haven't started coughing up blood, which is a side effect of progressed Hanahaki; AKA you're conditon/disease. It was obvious you had bigger and better things to worry about than Kirishima (the cause of the suffocating disease) but the petals were a constant reminder of him. You wonder if he thinks about you at least a tenth of how much you think about him.

The only people who know about your... Condition, is Jiro and Mina, your two best friends. Jiro is there to comfort you, though she can't quite understand why you would go through so much pain just to hold feelings for someone, Mina's there to try to make Jiro understand the importance of love and to make you happier about the situation. You couldn't ask for better friends, honestly.

The lump in your throat starts to form and come up and you take a deep breath and let the cough come, sitting upright, expelling the flowers. After the coughing fit is done you're left panting but there was something that didn't have the petals just fall out of your hand. You look at your hand that you coughed into.

Blood. It was laced on the flower making it oddly stick to you're hand.

You quickly went to the bathroom to flush the petals you just coughed up and wash the remainder of blood off your hands before rushing back to your room to call your two support units. You fumble with your phone before you manage to start a group call.

One ring, Mina is in.

"Hey, what's up?!" She asked in a cheery tone

"One second..." You hoarsely respond, waiting for Jiro.

3 rings, Jiro picks up.

"Sorry, couldn't hear my phone over my music, what's up you guys?" Jiro says in her usually monotone voice.

"I... I coughed up blood, guys," You confess to them.

"Y/N..." Jiro sighed, you could practically hear the head shaking and facepalming.

"It's time to confess, hun. And if he doesn't reciprocate it you can go get the procedure," Mina said in a fairly sassy tone, referencing the procedure I could take to make sure I would never cough up flowers again but that would iradicate my feelings for Kirishima.

"Yeah, I know. I'm not a blinded by love idiot," You respond, matter of factly.

"Thank god.." Jiro scoffed and you and Mina chuckled.

"So how am gonna ask him out?" You ask your polar opposite best friends.

Timeskip

You see Kirishima and Bakugo argue over... Something, at Bakugo's desk that was on the other side of the classroom than yours. You watch the clock tick for a few seconds before you start writing your note.

'Meet me at the auditorium,

                                             -Vines'

That was his nickname for you, vines. It referenced your quirk called the same thing. Oh the irony that you can sprout vines from your palms and control plants then you get a disease to cough up flowers.. The doctor who you went to to consult when you first starting coughing up the petals actually said that your quirk had the possibility to make the condition worst.

The bell rang and Bakugo and Eijiro continued arguing. You quickly left class and slipped the note into his prior to hurrying to the Auditorium.

Once you got there you found Mina adjusting her stool for the drums (Bakugo taught her how to play them) and Jiro tuning her bass. They both faked illness at some point of class to go set up the stage.

"Hey there, lover girl," Jiro said into the mic as you threw your backpack into some random chairs on the back row.

"Aren't you supposed to say check one two?" You snarkily replied. Once you got on stage you adjusted the height of your mic stand so that the mic was at your mouth.

The plan was great. You're gonna sing a cool love song that was playing in your earbuds when you first met Kirishima. You hope to god he doesn't have the memory of a goldfish and remembers the fact, especially after already telling him multiple times prior to conceiving the idea to sing to him. It was your favorite song because of that reason..

Two plants were on both sides of the door, you focus your quirk to move the plant vases to the middle of the main aisle, curling the branches into an intricate design that ultimately formed a heart.

"Pretty~" Mina spoke up in awe, staring at it. It was somewhat rare for you to use your quirk for something other than combat and it can be forgotten you can do cool, small things like this.

The door starts to creek open as Jiro and Mina start playing the beginning instrumentals. You start to sing the beginning verse as Eijiro fully comes into the auditorium, already awe struck.

Eijiro Kirishima's POV

"All I wanted was you," Y/N strong yet smooth voice sings, bouncing off the auditorium walls. I've get to hear her sing on rare occassions and I don't think I love anything more, well except for Y/N herself but unlike her singing I have to keep that love to myself...

I take a few steps further down the isle as an instrumental sounds off. Her quirk is so cool to add this beautiful and manly arbor, I doubt anything like this could be bought at a store.

I try to focus solely on her voice, but the thought keeps ringing in the back of my head onto why am I the only one watching? I know this song held significance us, but this seems so sudden. I am a man for spontaneity yet something like this seems random nonetheless. I should just focus on her singing.

Your POV

The ball starts to form in your throat towards the end of the song, you try to surpress it but your voice cracks just slightly, which is so embarrassing.. Which makes you focus on how stupid you're probably looking out of embarrassment which leads to you not focusing on the flowers which make them launch out in coughs. You pull the microphone away as weakening coughs expell the roses.  After your coughing fit theres a bed of rose petals, each one dotted with at least a little blood.

A pair of strong arms make you stand up straight before entrapping you.

"You have Hanahaki?" Kirishima questioms softly, barely above a whisper. Apparently he's heard of the disease. Didn't he do a very botched project on it once..?

"Mhm..." You confirm. He nuzzles his forhead into the crook of your neck as you hug him tighter.

"Because of me?" He questions again, sounding guilty, it took a second to process that if it was him, it meant that you reciprocated his feelings. The question was fueled by his instant assumption to blame himself.

"Mhm..." You respond, a bit to anxious to respond in full words, let alone full sentences.

"I'm so sorry.. I had no idea.. Y/N," He says, drawing away and looking into your eyes, hands moving to either side of your face. "Y/N.. I love you so much, I'm so sorry I didn't show you sooner.. I never meant to hurt you!"

How unmanly was the only word that Kirishima could think of to describe his cowardice to tell you how he feels, only to see that it left you with a painful disease. The supporting grip on your waist tightened, and the man in front of you looked like he was about to shatter into a thousand pieces.

"Its okay! There was no way you could've known!"

"But-"

"It isn't you're fault, please don't blame yourself.." You empathetically started to mirror Kirishima's feeling of guilt and sadness and your smile slowly turned into a dejected one.

Strong arms wrapped completely around you in a tight hug, causing you both to wobble a bit.

"I'm so sorry.. Uh, d-don't I need to kiss you? To get rid of the.. The flowers, I mean," A warm tint that complemented his hair flushed across his cheeks as he thought back to his botched project on Hanahaki. Requited feelings was enough to keep the disease at bay.

"Not if you don't want to, Kiri," You smiled warming at the flustered teen in front of until a rough collision of lips against yours. It was filled with anxiety and awkwardness from the redheads behalf with this being the first time kissing anyone, let alone someone who he loved as much as you.

"Woo!!" Jirou catcalled, exiting the auditorium with a playful smile

"Yaaaasssss!!!" Mina cheered.

They were already gone by the time you both had pulled away from the kiss, leaving you both at a complete and utter loss for words.

You relished in the feeling of breaths unclogged with suffocating flowers, the feeling on Kirishima's soft, lingering hold across your waist that he didn't even know was there. There are no words in the english dialect to describe this moment of blissful clarity. It was hard for you to even come up with words to say.

So many feelings to express, but all that came out was a soft, grateful, "Thank you."

[lastnightatrfa]

Hi I'm not quite sure what this is. I found your account on accident but, whatever it is it's fricking awesome. I'm assuming from the format it's some sort of game??? If it is could you please tell me what it's called, if not then I'm sorry for bothering you lol thank you 💕

Message here!

Hello new friend! =D First of all, welcome to our little corner of internet! Second of all, please take a huuuuuge chunk of the stuff you see here with a grain of salt. (as technically, none of this is canon and uh, my apologies as there are spoilers all over the place;; )

This blog combines two things- the otome game Mystic Messenger (heads up, this game is Big so have room!) and Texts From Last Night. We use the shaorankun chatroom generator to make the texts look like they’re actually from the game but they’re not actual, real, in-game content!

Now that we’ve established that, here’s a fast newbie’s guide to Mystic Messenger (aka, Mysme for short):The basic plot for the game is pretty simple to understand. Due to some wacky hijinx, you’ve become the party coordinator for Rika’s Fundraising Association: a group of people who host really fancy parties for charity! And you have this neato messenger app to talk to everyone! Everyone here being several handsome guys and the sweet, perfect angel that is Jaehee Kang. Your job is to get to know the RFA and get guests to come to the party. Easy, right? The story’s a tiiiiny bit different in another story, but we’ll get to that later. Depending on who you showed the most favor to and what “story” you’re in, on day 5 you’ll lock into a route and away you go on the fun part~

So that’s the basics. Here’s some other need-to-know info.

1. Mysme plays in real time. Yep, like Animal Crossing, events in the game can and will happen without you! Don’t worry, though, if you miss a chat you REALLY wanted to take part in you can pay Hourglasses to reopen it. And you will miss chats. (a common meme in the fandom is cursing the 3am chats in particular;;)2. There are two psuedocurrencies in this game- Hourglasses and Hearts. Hearts are obtained by making the right choices in chats. Say things characters approve of and they’ll become more close to you! That gets you hearts. The only real use of hearts is to buy hourglasses. Hourglasses are used for replaying chats and getting into the Deep Story/Another story, and you can also buy them with real money if you like!3. You can only do certain routes in certain stories. Casual Story has Jaehee, Zen and Yoosung. Deep Story has Seven and Jumin. Another Story has V and Ray. You cannot do a route outside of its story- ie you can’t get Jumin in Casual Story and you can’t get Zen in Deep Story. 4. The Deep Story (which has Jumin and Seven’s routes) and Another Story (which has Ray and V) aren’t immediately available. You need to pay 80 hourglasses to open the Deep Story and 550 to fully unlock Another Story (300 HG for V’s Route and 250 for Ray’s). Keep in mind, Another Story is sort of the unofficial “hard mode” of the game imho and EVERYTHING costs more. If you miss chats, it will cost you! Make sure you have time for things!5. Bring tissues. This game aims for your heart and then punches you in the feelings. It will hurt.6. You want to aim for 60% of a day’s chats at minimum on average. In Ray route it’s better to go for 80%, but any lower and you’re risking a bad end.

And lastly, here’s some extra tips!

If you need hourglasses, Zen’s route gives the most and is the easiest route to grind for them on. If you really wanna go completely free to play, Zen’s route will be your bread and butter.

Save yourself the trouble and just pay for Another Story. You can probably get it easily if you do a run solely consisting of the bad ends and don’t spend any hourglasses (fan favorite is Jumin’s Bad Story End 2) but that’s a lot of time investment! If you want to get into the AS and don’t want to do the bad ends (ie. you are me) you may as well just buy the routes from the get-go.

YOOSUNG IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED IF YOU WANT JAEHEE OR ZEN DURING CASUAL STORY. That boy is so starved for affection that getting hearts with him is super, super easy so if you’re going for LITERALLY anyone else in Casual mode make sure to miss a few of his chats or he’s almost guaranteed to relationship ninja you.

If you see the chat “Do Not Drink Coffee” MAKE A POINT OF PARTICIPATING. It’s probably the best chat in the casual route and hands down worth it. It’s hilarious.

You can get the Normal and Good ends in the same run. Once you have answered all 3 emails from a guest, don’t open their confirmation until the last day. After you open and confirm 10 guests are coming, save and go to the party to get the normal end. Then, load your save and open the rest of your emails to confirm the other 20 guests you need for the good end.

Speaking of the emails, here’s a guide that tells you all the correct answers. You’re welcome!

Ray’s route, day 8/9, can be triggering for abuse survivors. I won’t be able to say why without spoilers but keep that in mind if you are one. I will say otherwise it’s a very good route, though!

I said bring tissues up there but I’m saying it again.

Jaehee Kang is an angel and if you disrespect her I’ll come to your house and flood your basement with gatorade. :T

[mannequen]

i need to talk about the shitttt that went down today. D and i finally were alone and ofc we took the opportunity.. and we didn't do anything crazy but. jesus i forgot how much i missed that shit. but also no one ever tells you how Hard it is to do that shit while restricting. i had to take a break every couple minutes cause the heavy breathing was making me faint and nauseous... and also cause it was lowkey overwhelming cause i hadn't done shit in over a year. but ANYWAY can now confidently say i Like dîck. like jeez. and let me say he has a nice one. ofc i don't rly have much frame of reference but Got Damn. lolol and this man being "only a sûb" was complete bullshitttttt. not that i mind cause i'm sûb leaning anyway rip. we didn't actually Woohoo lol but i'm just excited cause i've liked him for a long time and this is my first experience with an amab. lol the whole weekend we were Hella Flirting but couldn't do shit cause i also had a bunch of other ppl over. my godddd when we got hîgh it was soooo tense cause like we Needed to do shit but we Couldn't. and finally seeing It after weeks of just playing with it over his pants and stuff ISTG IT FEELS LIKE A FANFIC EVERY TIME WE DO ANYTHING!!! it helps that i love him and he's so great. he's so gentle and silly that whenever he does something Dômmy it's just UGHHHHHH!! omg i forgot but my younger friend walked in on us shfahfhsgd. what happened was everyone left the room for a bit. i was chilling but ig i turned him on too much cause he basically got on top of me. it was so weird like not him at all it's like he just lost control. i liked it like i wasn't trying to stop him but i was also like chill there are people around. right as i was telling him to calm down (he was still on me) T WALKED IN I FELR SO BSD. we were fully clothed and everything but i just feel bad for D he was so embarrassed... i didn't rly care that much tbh. our group is rly open and we do that shit all the time. dîcks feel so weird. it was so soft?? and i knew they're muscles but i didn't expect it to Feel like it but i don't know what i expected. and i thought getting hàrd just meant it stood up not it actually got Physically Hàrd. and sometimes is just Twitched??? ahdhahfhs so weird..... i love it!!! i had a good day until the shit with my twt account but i'll survive. i'll just get rly hîgh tonight so i don't feel any feelings

[m34gs]

Thank you for the tag, @suknas! Always happy to join in when I am able :D

01. How did you find out about anime?

Ironically, I watched anime as a young child before I knew fully what it was; it was only much later that I found out about it and the actual range and variety that could be found. Found out about it from a friend in junior-high. Unfortunately, we are no longer friends but I do have to credit her with informing me on what it is and kick-starting my fascination.

02. What’s your favorite anime?

Ah gee, this is a tough one. I have many that I love, and not too sure I have an overall fave. But I can list a few that I really really like: Akudama Drive, Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, Sword of the Stranger (a movie I have watched so many times), Bleach, Fire Force, Psychic Detective Yakumo, Ghost Hunt, The Rising of the Shield Hero, and many, many more.

03. Do you have a favorite J-music/K-pop group/singer?

Hmmm. I really like fade (Japanese-American band), was introduced to them through Deadman Wonderland, since they are the ones who played the opening One Reason. I also enjoy Kalafina, the artists responsible for Magia in Madoka Magicka and Lacrimosa in Black Butler.

04. When is your bday? And how old are you? Not answering the first one, just assume I sprang into existence fully-formed and bearing surprising intellect like some sort of Isekai protagonist; I'm 24

05. Currently, what is your favorite fandom anime?

Like I said, I have lots I enjoy, but probably the ones I enjoy fandom interactions in the most right now are Bleach and Blue Exorcist. I like JJK but I'm not hugely in the fandom part of it (most of my fandom participation for that one is what my friends send me or create). I participate in BNHA but there are many in front of it for title of 'favourite' tbh. I mostly like what my friends create/send me for that one as well.

06. Despite the ups and downs of Tumblr, what motivates you to stay here today and do your best?

Friends. Also, I feel like @kimium would kick my ass if I left because it would be so much harder for her to send me things since tumblr is a funny site and doesn't always let you view things properly if you aren't on the site itself. (Love you tons, friend)

07. Finally create it yourself in this picrew:

(link in original post above)

This is about as close as I could get it :)

Tagging: @kimium, @sailormew4, @isaustraliaathing, and anyone else who sees this and feels like participating. No pressure, and have fun!

TAG GAME (づ˶•༝•˶)づ♡

Let's get to know our Animanga Fandom mutuals/followers better? 💞

Tagged by my sweethearts @hanae-ichihara and @gojosattoru

01. How did you find out about anime? Not entirely sure but I started watching when I was a kid some anime on TV and from there on I discovered others that I could download (it was the worst thing tho) I still remember waiting forever for it to download.

02. What’s your favorite anime? Though one… I’ll go with bleach and one piece as they were the first anime that I really got addicted to.

03. Do you have a favorite J-music/K-pop group/singer? I used to have tons of favorite jrock groups. Now the ones I still listen to are Miyavi and One Ok Rock, and sometimes the Gazette. For k-pop groups I also used to like a bunch, but I don’t listen to any anymore.

04. When is your bday? And how old are you? 10/19, 31

05. Currently, what is your favorite fandom anime? I don’t think I have any new fandoms I take part in, so the current favorites are jjk, kny and bleach (as always).

06. Despite the ups and downs of Tumblr, what motivates you to stay here today and do your best? I can meet so many nice people here and I’ve made great friends too! No other social media made me feel like “I belong” and allowed me to be close to my followers.

07. Finally create it yourself in this picrew:

Link

Tagging: @backwardshirt @m34gs @missmeowzers @childeapologist @upperranktwo @giyyu @tameshrimp and anyone who wants to do this

[stillebesat]

Writing Based Question: Any tips on how to write Logan and Roman dialogue? I can get down Logan's internal monologue like straight off, but I'm worried about his dialogue and I'm worried about making Roman too much... Just wanted to see if you had any advice! Thanks!

()_() Oooo Difficult Question…let’s see…. 

*ponders for forever* Alright, difficult because I don’t quite know the scene or background of this story you’re working on, because often, the setting and situation of the story will influence the character…

But general wise… and this is just my personal opinion. 

Logan speaks rather normally, all things considered. 

He’s just a bit more…formal in his speaking. He’s like…that first email you send to a teacher/boss sort of formal. He’s reserved, he’s polite. And if it’s in face to face conversation he probably tends to listen more than he speaks at first because he’s gathering ‘data’ to better understand how he can join in on the conversation and keep the conversation going. 

He tends to shy away from slang words and while he loves learning them, will withhold using them unless he’s a) confident he’s using it correctly or b) he’s comfortable enough around the people he’s with to not mind being corrected.  

He’s also well read. So Logan will every now and then use a different word to describe how he’s feeling because he has that word bank at his disposal. (Synonyms are your friend here.) So like it could be he chooses to use Solanum lycopersicum instead of ‘Tomato’ or he would use “melancholy’ instead of ‘sad.’ It’s not because he’s showing off his ‘knowledge’ it’s because he knows enough words to know that one word will better describe what he wants to convey than the other. 

Logan is also more likely to take things literally at first. He’ll take words at face value, and only upon thinking it over or having it pointed out to him will he realize that the words weren’t meant to be taken so ‘on the nose.’ 

And because he tends to take words more seriously, he doesn’t always realize when people are a) teasing him or b) trying to flirt with him.

He’s kinda the person that will assume you have a problem, and he’s just there to help you solve it and give you the answer. 

Since he is Logic, he often uses Logic based thinking. If A happens then B must also happen in order to get C as the result. That doesn’t mean that he isn’t emotional though. He has feelings, he has passions, he’s just less likely to show them to a stranger than he is with his best friend. 

But as he relaxes in a relationship he is more likely to be….more dynamic? There’s always going to be that slight ‘formal’ air to him. But he’d be more likely to toss nicknames (You Malodorous Centurion!) or be more descriptive “Flames on the side of my face. Seething. Seething fire!” with those he’s close with/ comfortable with as oppose to an acquaintance. 

There’s also his passions. If he’s talking about Space or the Ocean or even Crofters, he’s going to have a ‘geek out’ override. Where he’ll just…go all out ‘gaga’ over the subject he’s passionate about. “PLUTO SHOULD BE A PLANET!!” “Crofters. The only Jelly I WILL PUT in my Belly.” “But what is at the bottom of the ocean, can you imagine? We’ve explored more of our solar system and know more about our MOON than we know about our ocean. Who knows what could be lurking down there undiscovered!” 

Honestly…if you have any friends who are the Zodiac sign of Cancer…(which I am of that sign) Logan will most likely fit into this category rather well. He has a shell, and doesn’t often let people see his emotional turmoil because he doesn’t want to get ‘shut down’ or ‘hurt’ because people aren’t ‘interested’ in him and his problems. So his dialogue will reflect that, at least at first. He’ll come across as uncaring, but he probably cares rather deeply, once he’s confident that investing in another won’t lead to heartbreak or problems.

Roman….

He can be similar to Logan in the fact that there is a ‘wall’ you need to break down when you’re first getting to know him. 

Except where Logan is formal, Roman is…dynamic. He’s going to be more vocal about his emotions and show them more readily…at least the emotions he wants you to see. He’s often going to try and put the ‘best face’ on things. So He’ll take the more optimistic outlook and downplay any hardships. “Pssh, this hard? Ha! I’ve fought a Dragon Witch and THAT was hard.” He’s a wall of confidence hiding his insecurities. His wondering of “did I do good?” “was that good enough?” He gets a lot of his value and self worth from the feedback others give him. He’s an extrovert for the most part. (he does have his quiet contemplative moments)

Where Logan would be quite happy to spend all day alone with his books, Roman will thrive in a crowd. If he’s in the spotlight he’ll thrive even better. It’s not to say that he craves popularity, he just loves being around people. He’s an entertainer. He loves to make people smile, to laugh, to move them to tears with his performances. 

So with those he doesn’t know well, he’s going to seem like that ‘popular kid’ the one who’s always loud, always drawing attention to himself, always making a scene. The one you go to if you want to be entertained, find a smile.

But with his close friends, he’s probably really sensitive. Caring. He’s a Prince after all. (So he’ll often use Knight/Prince-like dialogue. “Well of course, my good sir!” “I’ve successfully completed your quest! Here are your nachos!” *flourishes box of nachos and goes down onto one knee to present them* )

He’s going to be on the lookout for opportunity to give …’gestures’ like “romantic gestures’ or gestures of ‘good will.’ He’ll be the one to give you his coat in the pouring rain and laugh off the fact that he’s going to get soaked. He’ll hold the door open for you, go on a midnight run for snacks if you’re not feeling well. He’s going to be that movie buddy where you could either sit in silence or throw commentary throughout the movie. Though getting him to not sing along to the songs is next to impossible. ;) 

And if he’s comfortable with the other person, perhaps then they’ll see his insecurities, his quiet moments, his moments where he let’s his “popular Prince” persona drop and you just get to see “Roman.” Roman who quietly plays the piano, who will tear up at the end of a movie, who will hug you and make you feel safe without needing to say a word. 

So…. 

Dialogue. 

A Beginning/first meeting between the two would possibly go something like this: 

Roman straightened, raising his hand to gesture to Logan. “What’s this! An interloper in our midst?! Hark. Who goes there?”

Logan paused, placing a finger on the page to mark his place as he looked up with a slight frown. “Is this not Room 334A? There is a scientific mee–” 

“Ah, A lost wanderer from the Nerd Squad.” Roman smirked and bowed. “Alas, your group needed the larger auditorium this evening, that’s room 449 if you’ve never been there, while us poor stage performers were shunted aside to this dank and dark quarters to do our run through.” 

“So…I need to go….to room 449?” Logan asked glancing for a sign on the door to show that this over exuberant man was telling the truth. 

“Yes, didn’t I just say so?” 

“Perhaps,” Logan mentally marked the page of his book, shutting it fully as he turned away. “It was difficult to acquire the knowledge necessary through your flowery monologue to know for certain.” 

While a more ‘relaxed’ ‘close friends’ meeting would possibly be like. 

Roman sprawled on the bed, head hanging upside down over the edge as he stared at Logan, a contemplative look crossing his features, fidgeted with his cuff sleeves as Logan finished the spiel. “Well, Lo, I don’t see what you have to worry about, it sounds like you know the material.” 

Logan huffed, slumping into the desk chair, pulling off his glasses. “But do I sound like a dying whale is the question? Is it too boring? Will the Kids think I’m…Lit… or a talking corpse?”

Roman snorted. “You are more articulate than a Zombie, Lo, and while you may not be Lit” his eyes twinkled. “Coming across as the Man isn’t a bad thing in this case.”  

Logan made a face, sticking out his tongue. “It is if I don’t want to be booed off the stage.” 

“Nah, that’s my job to be booed off stage.” Roman winked. “You’ll be fine, remember, you’re facing a bunch of other Nerds. They came because they want to learn, as crazy as that sounds.” He sat up, twisting to face Logan. “You’re not in Shakespeare’s time, the crowd isn’t going to have tomatoes to throw at you if they don’t like your presentation.” 

“If…you say so…” 

“I do say so! and hey, you’ll have at least one supporter there.” 

Logan blinked. “Who?” 

“Me!” Roman grinned holding up his hand dramatically. “I will be there, my dearest Microsoft Nerd, bouquet of roses in hand, ready to sweep thee of thine feet the moment thine performance has concluded!” 

A slow smile spread across Logan’s face as his cheeks took on a pink tinge. “Well…that’s…ah…Thank you….Roman…” 

I hope that helped at least a little Anon!! ^^;; 

Let me know if you have further questions or if there’s anything I can clarify. :D 

[reviewsbyracine]

I SAW AN EPISODE OF LAW AND ORDER: SVU: “Babes”

With everything crazy happening in the world, it is important that we still depend on the little things that make everything feel right. For me, I know that I can always depend on classic episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit to help me feel at home. There's something strangely soothing about Benson and Stabler working together to solve a sex crime. (And yes, I know that Christopher Meloni left the show nine years ago - as far as I'm concerned, the Stabler episodes are the only episodes that matter.) When it comes to rewatchable episodes of SVU, I always come back to “Babes," a season ten episode. So with nothing better to do, let me tell you why it is possibly the best episode of SVU ever created.

"Babes" starts with our usual fake-out cold open: characters just trying to enjoy a night out before stumbling on a gruesome crime scene and then we never see them again. This time, it's the last diners at a restaurant. Despite holding holding up the kitchen staff from going home, the gentleman on the date asks to order desserts (despite the fact that they seem to be eating salads) and suggests flambé because it's "exciting." The irate waiter tells them that "the only thing that's flaming is the maître d'."

Just then, a man on fire can be seen screaming and waving around just outside the restaurant. Yes, that's right: SVU set a man on fire and made a visual gag out of it. A poor bus boy throws pitchers of water on the man as he collapses dead into the restaurant.

Stabler and Munch arrive at the scene (Benson is at a conference for… some reason) and meet up with M.E. Warner, who shows them that our John Doe is not only charred to a crisp but is also missing his private parts. When Munch asks where the victim came from, Warner tells them with a straight face to "Follow the bloody brick road."

Someone give SVU's joke writer a raise because John Doe's not the only one who's on fire tonight.

Back at the station, Warner rehydrates his fingerprints (what?) and discovers his identity is that of a homeless man named John Galli. They visit Galli's father, played by Michael Badalucco, a man who hates cows more than coppers. Mr. Galli informs them that his son had been targeted by "Street Cleaners," a vigilante group that runs around beating up homeless people and posting videos of their exploits online. Planning a sting to catch the Street Cleaners in action, Tutuola suggests they "introduce them to the laziest, filthiest bum they've ever seen."

Smash cut to: Munch pretending to be a homeless wacko screaming conspiracy theories into the night. No joke, this edit is hilarious.

Anyway, the Street Cleaners run out to beat up Munch and are quickly arrested. The detectives take off the perps' ski masks and one of them is a girl. The music treats this reveal like it is the most shocking thing that could ever happen. Obviously, they didn't kill Galli - SVU always throws a red herring at you in the first ten minutes and this episode is no different.

Returning to the station, Stabler and Munch find a blowtorch that was found at the scene and can be traced back to the science lab at Blessed Heart High School. Their guide at the school is Max, the president of the school's chastity club (remember this for later), who informs them that the only student who has access to the lab after hours is senior Alec Bernardi. Stabler and Munch spot Alec, who immediately looks guilty and tries to escape the cafeteria. Munch tells Alec that he looks like someone lit a fire under his ass.

"Fire?" Alec asks, sweating. "I don't know anything about a fire."

Smooth, Alec, real smooth.

He's got a burn on his hand so it's obviously him. They bring him to the station for interrogation, where Benson returns from her conference just in time for Alec's mother Peggy to burst in. Peggy is played by the incredible Debi Mazar, so even though the episode was cruising along at a comfortable seven or eight, the energy level has now been dialed up to eleven. Alec is proud of mutilating and immolating Galli and reveals that he did it because Galli raped his little sister Tina and got her pregnant.

Benson speaks with Tina, who vehemently denies being raped. However, she is pregnant. Turns out, she seduced Galli to get pregnant on purpose because she and her friends are in… you guessed it… a pregnancy pact! That's right, this episode's ripped-from-the-headlines story is the Gloucester High School pregnancy pact, where a bunch of teenaged girls got pregnant on purpose.

Benson tells the girls that they are stupid. "What's the big deal?" one girl asks. "That vice president lady's daughter is gonna have a baby. Why can't we?"

The pact's ringleader is Fidelia Vidal, who is excited that she and her friends are "totally gonna be the hottest MILFs on the block." Her father, Not-Bobby Canavale, wants Benson to leave because she is scaring Fidelia with some truth talk. Suddenly, her boyfriend bursts in, having just heard the news of her pregnancy - and it's Max, the chastity club president. Oops. Fidelia's baby daddy is not Max but is instead a twenty-two-year-old rapper named Dizzer.

Let's talk about Dizzer. In an otherwise perfect episode of SVU, Dizzer is a straight-up garbage character. Dizzer is a white rapper who works at a place called Skribble Skratch Records. His motto, airbrushed on his shirt, is "reckin' decks 'n' gettin' sex" and he attempts to get a fist bump from Tutuola, calling him a "brother." Again, this guy is white and he is trying way too hard.

Stabler hands him a court order for a DNA test and the detectives leave to let Not-Bobby Canavale know that they're actually getting stuff done this episode and everything's going to be alright. Not-Bobby Canavale goes to Fidelia's room so they can go get the amniocentesis done and make a DNA match, but her door is locked. Stabler shoulders the door open because he's an animal and the parents and detectives are met with a disturbing sight:

Fidelia, dead, having hanged herself on her ceiling fan.

Obviously everyone is distraught and it's a genuinely shocking moment. Not-Bobby Canavale comforts Max, and Michael Badalucco is spotted moping in the crowd to remind us that he is still in this episode. Fidelia's mother lets the detectives know that someone online was calling Felida names like "slut" and "whore." The email address leads them back to Dizzer, but he denies having sent the harassing emails. His alibi is that he was taking part in a threesome in Brooklyn and reminds the detectives of his motto/airbrushed shirt. Tutuola looks ready to punch this man. The detectives take his phone into evidence and thankfully we don't have to deal with Dizzer ever again.

Tech agent Morales proves that the IP address actually came from an internet cafe and holy shit the culprit turns out to be none other than Peggy Bernardi, seen in some seriously unflattering ATM camera angles. Peggy proudly shows off a onesie for her new grandbaby that says "My grandma is a GILF" and high-fives Tina. When Stabler and Munch confront her about her harassing emails, Peggy goes off on a warpath about how Fidelia ruined her kids' lives and kicks the detectives out of her house. ADA Greylek suggests that they hit Peggy with criminal impersonation and reckless endangerment, among other charges, and Munch reminds the group that Peggy only used words against Fidelia and to arrest her would go against the first amendment. Good ol’ Munch, always a voice of reason. Before they have time to commit to what exactly they're arresting Peggy for, word comes in that a mob has formed outside Peggy's apartment, led by Not-Bobby Canavale. Stabler and Munch arrive to rescue-arrest Peggy.

On the stand, Peggy says that sending harassing emails to a hormonal teenaged girl was "just a goof." A large television is presented so that Peggy can awkwardly read her fake-teenage bibble-babble to the courtroom. We get to learn what "OMFG" and "STFU" mean. In her last message to Peggy, Fidelia writes that her "fath is knocking," implying that their conversation was ended because Not-Bobby Canavale was at the door. However, Tina suddenly comes to a realization and informs the courtroom that "FATH" actually stands for "first and true husband" in some dumb chastity club lingo.

Stabler and Munch realize that Fidelia's "FATH" was Max, who comes clean: when he realized that Fidelia had cheated on him and didn't love him, he killed her and faked her suicide. Case closed.

Max and Alec are put away for their crimes and Peggy is let go. ADA Greylick gives Peggy some unnecessary attitude and Peggy goes fully ballistic, strangling Greylek and screaming "I'm a good mother!" Greylek tells Stabler to "collar that bitch for assault" but Stabler sees poor Tina in tears, having witnessed everyone she knows and loves fall apart in front of her. Mr. Galli offers to take Tina in, given that she is pregnant with his grandchild, and promises to help her raise the baby. The episode ends on a rare moment of kindness.

So what makes "Babes" the best episode of Law and Order: SVU? The episode features a lot of "ripped-from-the-headlines" moments, from the Gloucester pregnancy pact to the the suicide of Megan Meier. There are some genuinely funny moments in the episode and the performances are pretty great, especially Debi Mazar. And while Benson isn't featured all that much, it's a pretty heavy Munch episode, and he's always great. The episode starts with a homeless man on fire with his penis chopped off and still somehow finds a way to get more crazy by the end. "Babes" is a season ten episode, which means it's SVU in their bonkers prime, a few seasons before Stabler left but long enough into the show's run for them to feel blindly confident in what they were doing. If you are able to stream this episode, I highly recommend checking it out - it will almost definitely improve your day.