#but not every story needs to serve the same purpose. it would be so boring if it did

[bogkeep]

i think reading artemis fowl at an impressionable age makes you immune to the "your main characters need to be relatable and likeable" argument

[intothegenshinworld]

     "An Enchanted Evening" 

Banquets and parties alike weren’t uncommon in the Zapolyarny Palace. Funny enough, you seemed to be getting invites to them nearly every other month. One of the more silly perks of knowing Pulcinella, you suppose.

 ⟡

Like any other event, PULCINELLA would be the one signing his name as the sender of your letter of invitation. With your long standing acquaintance, he can’t help but see you as his adopted grandchild and a possible successor in the future. No matter the event, he’d try his best to involve you. At first he only did so to grant you access to the most elite connections in Snezhnaya and to elevate you to a higher status, but you quickly found your way into the hearts of the other Harbingers as well. From serving glasses of champagne during the annual winter ball as a server, to being seated amongst the most important people in Snezhnaya as a beloved friend. – Luck must be on your side if you’ve swayed all of their hearts, and who are you to refuse their affections?

As another close acquaintance to the 5th Harbinger, it's natural for CHILDE and you to have a close connection too. While you might not share the same lust over power and battles, you're able to confide in him without judgment. He is good company, and he often shares the most epic stories from his adventures and the more wholesome ones of his family in Morepesok. Should you at any time find the banquet to be boring, he's more than up for leaving and sneaking you out. However, be prepared for a scolding from Pulcinella once your missing presences are noticed by the others.

If you decide to sit next to PANTALONE at the banquet, you’ll likely catch his smile crumble at some point during the banquet—it being replaced by a scowl as annoyance visibly sets on his face. When yet another plate crashes or a fight breaks out and chairs get thrown across the room, he unconsciously counts the heaps of mora he’d need to spend on repairs just because a few people are insolent and refuse to have manners. Fortunately, he seems to have a soft spot for you. If you ever happen to break anything, on purpose or not, he suddenly seems to be oblivious to the action. Ask him anything, and he'll get it for you. After all, everything has a price, and what's a few million mora and a couple of favors if he can capture your heart in the end.

After a glass of wine, SIGNORA will start to share gossip with the Harbingers, often causing arguments between others as these bits of news are not in favor of her colleagues. She watches the entertainment from a safe distance, but if you call her out, she’ll try to avoid causing any more chaos during the banquet. Of course, in return she expects you to keep her entertained instead. If you drink, she’ll coax you to drink enough for you to spill your own secrets. And while she doesn’t care about the safety of others' private affairs, she’ll keep yours close to her chest.

As the fireplace crackles in the background, ARLECCHINO will mutter disapprovingly under her breath. The loud arguments, the spilled wine, — she can't stand the lack of etiquette at the table, and the sight of an elemental attack nearly hitting you makes her cringe. So, go on. Sit next to her. She'll keep you safe from the more unruly Harbingers. In the meantime, if you're polite and express genuine interest in her, she might share a few stories from Fontaine — but only if you offer some stories of your own in return. No ulterior motives, she simply wishes to know you at a more intimate level than the others do. 

Between the enthusiastic and annoyed Harbingers, SANDRONE appears to be disinterested. Unimpressed by the stories of her colleagues, she sits in the chair, poking the food on her plate with a bored expression. If you try your luck by approaching her for a conversation, she’ll likely gain some energy. Mention her robots or any of her current projects, and she'll expect you to listen thoroughly for the remainder of the night. Don't worry, if you fall asleep you can rest your head on her shoulder. It's not like she'll be joining any dances or the conversation of the others anyway.

While the fellow Harbingers are captivated by the variety of food and bustling atmosphere, CAPITANO will find a way to excuse himself to take a breather. Often, events like these are exhausting, and as a soldier of war, he’s unable to fully relax or make small talk. Still, as he walks out into the quiet halls of the palace, he hopes you’ll follow him. He doesn’t need someone to check up on him, but your worry warms his heart and he adores it when you fuss over him despite his status and rank. As you approach him in the halls, he’ll tell you he needs some air, and when you hesitantly turn to give him space, he’ll call out your name, holding his arm out for you to take — asking if you’d want to join him on a walk before returning to the ongoing banquet.

The banquet would be incomplete without DOTTORE causing a commotion. Whether it's arousing a heated argument between others or spiking the drinks with god-knows-what, he's up to something and you're forced to keep an eye on him unless you want to be his next ‘experiment’ at the event. There is no way you'll talk him out of it either. But if you decide to cover for him, keeping still as he throws a strange liquid into the drink closest to him, he might let you in on his unconventional ideas of fun, if you can handle it, of course.

While most of the Harbingers try to stir up trouble, SCARAMOUCHE thrives on creating pure chaos and watching the place burn down. He constantly gets into arguments, finding the whole ordeal unpleasant, and yet you see him present during every event you’re invited to. And while the Doctor schemes and gets away with the many pranks he pulls, the Balladeer finds amusement in the anger of others, uncaring of the consequences and keeping things unpredictable as people yell at him for the ninth time that night. Ask why he's never attacked you and he'll tell you that your reactions aren't worth it. But is that truly all? Perhaps the fleeting glances are a sign of something more.

COLUMBINA will go unbothered by the chaos around her. Even as food flies around the room, she remains unfazed. Her serene and enchanting presence seems to be an anomaly amongst the others, but don't be fooled, she has you right where she wants. During the banquet, she'll capture your attention and successfully steal you away from any other conversations. She'll find ways to hold your hand and somewhat sneakily steal food from your plate. You're not sure when the night ended either, time seems to flow weirdly when you're around her. 

PIERRO sits at the head of the table, chatting with the more quiet people that sit next to him as he calmly observes the others in the room. The demands of being the director of the Harbingers have left him feeling drained, making him too exhausted to actively participate in the lively atmosphere during events. Instead, he seeks solace in the quiet moments.  If you're able to slow things down with him, you'll find yourself a permanent seat beside him.  And as you’re able to get to know him better, he starts engaging in more conversations with you. For once, it appears that he might genuinely be enjoying himself.

©intothegenshinworld. Do not copy, repost, translate, or take heavy inspiration from my content. Thanks for reading.

[purple-babygirl]

fallen

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x guardian angel!f!reader

Word count: 1,395

Summary: Steve thought Bucky falling out of that freight train was partially his fault. What if there was another unseen side to the story?

Warnings: angst, crying, mentions of violence including being captured by the war enemy, torture, blood, angel wings snapping, imprisonment, cryo freezing, suffering and nightmares.

A/N: i don't know what i'm doing. I'm sad. i don't even know how I'm gonna continue this story. i have nothing prepared for it. again, I'm just sad. i love you tho.

~

Guardian angels, beings as old as time. They exist and protect without getting bored or fed up. They are there even if people have created too many wars until they have stopped believing in them and in gods altogether.

She was the same, and although she wouldn’t know, she was a piece of art. Lilac hair and eyes, skin softer than silk and a voice so sweet it could melt mountains.

She had no name or age. She had a number. Angel number 11 was who she was. She had no family or friends.

But she had a human.

He was assigned to her and she was made for him. Her only purpose as a creature of the light was to look out for him and keep him safe.

What she wasn’t supposed to do though, was fall in love with him.

Unlike her, he had a name. He was James Buchanan Barnes. This handsome, brave, young man who got enlisted and was about to go fight for his country. He was so kind, so charming and so so far away.

She was very worried, her angelic heart only ever knowing these feelings for him, yet confident in her powers. She would never let anything bad happen to James, or Bucky as he liked to be called.

War or not, she had his back. He could walk through fire and she would get him out of there unharmed.

A

Sadly, all of her planning was burnt to ashes when her ‘superiors’ found out about her latent feelings for the human she was assigned to guard since birth.

It has never happened before. Or at least that was what they had said.

It was all the same with each and every one of them. They get assigned to a baby human, be it male or female, they look after the human all their life until they no longer have one and then they move on to another human.

No angel has ever broken the rules, let alone to this extent.

Why did she think she was going to get away with this? Why did she think she was any different? Who did she think she was trying to carelessly cross the clear boundaries?

The night they were sure she had those forbidden feelings for a lesser being, she was chained and temporarily deprived of her powers, and Bucky was captured by the enemy.

They left her alone to wallow in the dark and cry in worry about her beloved, wishing she was strong enough to get out of her shackles and go be with him in this time of war; in his time of need.

When they kept her there for days to give her a chance to have a ‘change of heart’, Bucky was experimented on and tortured by Hydra.

And when she begged, swearing on all things holy that she was past her silly feelings for him and was ready to go back to serving her part and her part alone, Steve had found Bucky and brought him back with him.

She saw the bruises on his face, the dried blood down his ears and she cried and cried until her eyes were out of diamonds.

She blamed herself for being sloppy with her feelings. She had to be careful if she wanted to stay by Bucky’s side. She had to step on her heart and suppress her emotions if she wanted to keep protecting the man she was in love with.

The way she was unknowingly being monitored, however, ruined everything for her and ended her life as she once knew it forever.

Bucky was being the good friend that he was, going with Steve to fight again, looking more courageous and more handsome than any human ever has.

She was so proud of him and her smile wasn’t missable.

They noticed the focus on her face as she made sure the rope Bucky used to descend on the back of the train held up. They noticed her angel heart and how its beats accelerated with every bullet she dodged for him.

They noticed and they had to stop it.

“You lied,” they said, coming prepared with stronger chains to lock her in.

“He needs me. Please let me be with him,” she begged instead of  finding a way to defend herself.

They didn’t care, hands already on her wings and others on her neck.

“It’s over. He’s on his own from now on and it’s your fault.”

They were punishing Bucky for her mistake. He was going to get hurt and it was all because of her stupidity.

“Please, no!”

They didn’t hear her pleas or her cries, or pity her heart-wrenching screams as they snapped both of her wings off her back at once.

The second she fell to her knees, bloodied and broken, Bucky fell off the train, her last sight of him being him trying to reach for Steve’s hand and failing.

“You’re gonna be in there for at least 80 years, better try to forget because when you’re out, he might be gone.” They advised with little sympathy as they threw her inside the dark cave-like cell.

If this was heaven, what was hell supposed to be like? She can’t be feeling her heart get crushed over and over like that in the one place that was supposed to be void of such bitter feelings, could she?

She cried and cried, day and night. The bright lilac of her pupils turning dim and dull.

Has she just caused Bucky’s death? Did she just kill the one man she was created to protect? The one man that had gotten her heart to beat?

Screaming until she couldn’t breathe, she mourned the man she has known and loved all her life.

Nothing mattered anymore. Not her wings or her imprisonment. Nothing made sense without Bucky. Her life didn’t make sense without Bucky’s.

They let him die. They let her watch him die. Her heart ached with the memory for nights on end even though she could still feel their bond as if Bucky was still there. It was weaker, but it was present.

She became quieter as the years passed, no longer singing or screaming or even talking. The heavens didn’t miss her though, but James sure did. They had too many of her kind, but James only had her. Such thoughts would attack her every night year after year until she would cry herself to exhaustion every night, eventually losing sense of time.

20 years later, she started having nightmares. Terrible, horrendous dreams of her long-missed beloved hurting others.

Her once gentlemanly, well-mannered, kind man was now ending lives in cold blood in her nightmares.

James looked different. His hair was longer, his face grimmer, his eyes darker and his left arm shinier. His warm gaze was replaced by a dead one she never knew.

Had she not known him with her heart before her eyes, she might have not recognized him.

She knew it was her James. She could feel him. She could never forget him even if she wanted to.

Their bond felt strained, weighed down and suffocated. She had no idea what that meant. She thought she was turning crazy, her mind conjuring up an evil version of James to make her fear him or hatr him or leave her memories of him behind for good.

But she would never. Let her turn crazy, she was still going to be in love with James until her last breath no matter what.

Another 50 years and her nightmares have been recurring visions that she was used to, and even waited for.

Any glimpse of James was welcome even if he was acting nothing like the James she had known and loved.

The hardest visions where the ones where she saw him get hurt, his pained screams pulling her heart out and shattering it.

It all felt so real and that made her hate it all more.

It took her a while but she eventually figured out that James was still alive. She didn’t understand how he didn’t age until the cryo-chamber visions came on. Her heart ached for him, bled and sobbed inside her chest for the man who was suffering because she couldn’t be there to protect him; because she let both herself and him fall.

~

Tag list:

@harrysthiccthighss @tinystudentfirepurse @lavendercitizen @tumblin-theworldaway @pretty-pop-princess-hs @lilymurphy03 @idontwannagomrstarkk @glxwingrxse @littlelioncub43 @mathletemadison @canned-rootbear @pandaxnienke @loveisallyouneed1125 @floral-recs @littlemoonkiller @hallecarey1 @vespasianphantom @vicmc624 @winters1917 @ionlyeverwantedtobeyourequal @blkmystery @millercontracting @trappedwriter @am-3-thyst @obsessedwithquinn @sydnielauryn @alittlerayof-pitchblack @olipiaa @peterparkersgirl-blog @buckybarnessweetheart @thealyrs @colorfulbluebirdpainter @stuckysgirl27 @ihavetwoholesforareason @princess-bee0 @pastel-noah168 @steeph-aniie @buckitostan @onthr-dream @123iloveyou456 @ciaqui @lindasweetie @justherefortheficandsmut @xxdiaqiaoxx @morgthemagpie @wintrsoldrluvr @goldylions @serendipitouslife90 @sebastians-love @leelee1234love @tiedyedghoulette @saint-marvel @helenaellie @onceithough @raynelbabe @a-very-fictional-girl @justabeluga @lindababe69 @sapphirebarnes

[shana-silver-fox]

TBOC 2.03 L'Invisible

The title was clearly a callback to Rick and Carol's conversation at how good she is playing undercover detective. She gets it done in this episode.

Lots found this one boring, but for someone like me who likes to over analyze every little bit it was packed with lots of goodies.

Ces Douleurs

Genet: These pains we carry, we women need to learn to let them go. Men seem to have no problem doing that.

Carol: They certainly do not.

Damn. I FELT THAT hard!

we open with Genet's back story and what will be a parallel later to Tinkyl

The purposeful comparison of Carol to the Mona Lisa is just *chefs kiss.

The most famous painting in the world. The most famous lady of The Walking Dead. Both with that hidden secret behind their smile.

This quickly turns into Genet displaying a show of power over a much bigger man by making him eat food off the floor like a dog. There is another scene in the next episode that is very similiar. Would like to hear ya'lls thoughts on the point of this.

The man she humiliates has disrespected the lady who is serving them food. I lost count of the times haters have tried to diminish and disrespect Carol for "just being the cook". Wonder if this was a Melissa note? Genet tells Carol she has no tolerance for bullies, and no one has been bigger bullies in this fandom than the Carol haters.

Loved this. We know Carol wants Daryl in the kitchen with her.

Experiments. Yes we heard about Daryl’s “experiment” from Norman. Just as gruesome. No thanks.

Cordron: I had him and I let him go.

Carol knows what that’s like. Cordron also thinks Carol’s last name is Dixon now.

More talk about coincidences and signs. Look for the signs. 🪧

Remmy let us down, but his line saying Carol would have done the same for HER DARYL is so true.

The symbolism of Carol riding to the rescue on a white horse through a tunnel was beautiful. She was just cut off, unfortunately. So much tunnel symbolism connected to Caryl I could do a seperate post. Even Losang talks about light at the end of the tunnel. “you make the light” “follow my light”

I do love Carol’s reaction to hearing Daryl has aligned himself with a religious group. “REALLY?” Like the fandom’s reaction to this version of Daryl so far 😂

Carol: the war to end all wars? I’ve heard that before.

Shade at Rick?

Calling Daryl Carol’s raison d’être is spot on. It translates to “reason to live”

Tick tock time for the fairytale to end

Conveniently Sylvia dies so Isabelle doesn’t have to confess to executing Emile.

Why did Izzy just stand there and wait for Daryl to shoot walker Sylvie? Was she gonna let it happen? 🤨

I was impressed with Daryl’s action scene. Norman’s stunt double actually got a bit of a break. He made sure to get his Carol knife back!

Losang’s break down of Daryl is amazing….

losang :Simply reacting. A man alone. It’s a sad state. He’s right. Daryl has been just reacting not feeling since he got to France. and he feels totally alone

Only by risking everything can we be sure. Daryl’s so scared to risk everything with Carol

Daryl: What happens if you’re wrong?

Losang: If I’m wrong there would be no point in going on There’s Daryl’s greatest fear. If he risks it all to tell Carol how he feels and ends up being wrong and she doesn’t feel the same way, then loses her friendship, he will think he doesn’t have a reason to go on.

Laurent and Daryl’s cave couldn’t be more Lost Boys coded.

Laurent: Not Daryl. He never believed.

Yes toodles, & that’s why Tinkerbelle dies.

The Leah parallel is just too much

When Isabelle figures out she’s Tinkerbelle 😥

Ok did everyone hear that distinct change in music tone after Tink says ILY? It was fraught, not happy. Along with Daryl’s expression.

Lasong to Daryl :Isabelle has always had an open mind and heart. You sadly are beyond hope

Daryl’s heart has been closed off and he thinks he’s beyond hope 😭😭😭 but hope is coming to open it!

Hope in the form of a tiny woman from Georgia is on her way to save you. Hope is not lost Daryl, she has a map!

The perfect bookend to this episode was Isabelle’s Douleurs Exquise . It’s a very common French phrase that means the pain of unrequited love. Poor Izzy. Getting silence and no return on that ILY was rough. 🥶

From Ces Douleurs , to Douleurs Exquise

Fin

[cherryeol04]

Untouched (M)

➻ Pairings: Minho x Hyunjin x Changbin

➻ Genre: Established Relationship, Romance, Smut

➻ Additional: Fantasy AU, cucking, threesome

➻ Word Count: 915

➻ Warnings:

 ➻ Author’s notes: Fae Hyunjin is at the mercy of Sea Serpent Minho, forced to please the other man while his husband, human Changbin, watches. While being degraded and told how worthless his cock is, Hyunjin is also forced to admit how much better Minho is at fucking him - how good Minho makes him feel. This story is cross posted on multiple sites under the same username!

“Fucking worthless.” Minho hissed into Changbin’s ear at the same time as he slapped his weeping cock, pulling a strangled cry from the human. He had been hard for so long now, time lost within the confines of the bedroom. It had all been his idea - he had practically pleaded with Hyunjin. He never thought it would turn out to be this good. “Pay attention, stupid human.” There was no venom to the words, but they served their purpose nonetheless - another moan falling from Changbin’s lips as he tried to focus his gaze on the other male, vision slightly obscured by his tears.

“Mmm, that’s better.” Minho hummed, his slitted yellow eyes raking over Changbin’s naked form. He gave another slight appreciative hu, but just as quickly as the attention had turned to Changbin, it was gone. Minho’s strong, broad back was turned to him - pale skin glinting a greenish hue as the light reflected on the near translucent scale patches. Human form or natural form, the sea serpent was gorgeous. A perfect balance of neutrality and Changbin’s first and only pick for this game.

The older male made his way back to the bed where Changbin’s equally gorgeous husband, Hyunjin, was laid out for them, cock hard and achingly red, twitching every few seconds with need. Changbin’s eyes moved to Hyunjin’s hole, currently stuffed full with a vibrator. “Look at you.” Minho swatted at the toy, watching it wiggle from side to side as Hyunjin squirmed, back arching as a broken cry filled the room. “Feel good, baby?”

“Y-yes.” Hyunjin panted out, fingers curling tightly in the sheets underneath him.

“Better than what your husband’s pathetic excuse for a dick can make you feel?”

Changbin shifted in his chair, a needy moan leaving him as Minho’s words went straight to his cock. Hyunjin lifted his head towards him, eyes searching and all Chafngbin could do was nod in reassurance. He wanted this - so fucking bad did he want this. Given the green light, Hyunjin’s head fell back on the bed as he nodded.

“Words.” Minho warned, smacking the toy again, and again Hyunjin cried out with a squirm.

“Yes!  ‘S so good.” he whined and as if to prove his point, precum oozed from the tip, slowly sliding down the underside of his cock. “Minho, please.” he begged.

“Please what, darling?”

“Fuck me. Want to cum.” Hyunjin whimpered.

“Aw, poor baby wants to cum. Should let you husband fuck you.” Minho blinked a few times as he stared down at Hyunjin before sneering. “I’m sure he wouldn’t know what to do ith his dick if he was given the chance.” Slender fingers wrapped around the base of the vibrator and Minho began fucking Hyunjin with it. The beautiful fae thrashed on the bed, desperate cries falling from pretty pink lips as more precum leaked from his tip. The sight was intoxicating and it took all of Changbin’s willpower to not touch himself. 

“Look at this, Binnie.” Changbin jumped when the attention was back on him. Minho’s eyes were boring holes into his soul and he felt like prey to a hungry predator. And he was. Minho was a dangerous predator, but Changbin trusted him. “This toy can fuck him better than you ever could.” 

Changbin squirmed, a needy whine escaping him as his muscles flexed with restraint. His cock twitched nearly uncontrollably as it leaked copious amounts of precum. The head was an angry red and Changbin felt like he was at the edge, barely hanging on. “I-I-” changbin started, but the pointed glare Minho shot him shut him up instantly.

“Oh fuck! Oh god!” Hyunjin’s cries of pleasure went straight to Changbin’s dick, eyes locked on the way Minho rotated and grinded the vibrator inside of Hyunjin. Hyunjin’s breathing became shallow and rapid, toes curling as his body arched and jerked. “Minho!” Hyunjin’s body shook as the pleasure reached its breaking point. With one last cry, Hyunjin painted his stomach white with long sticky ropes of cum.

Changbin’s own orgasm took him by surprise, cock throbbing as he came all over his stomach. The rush was hot - breathtaking. His head fell back, eyes clenched shut as he drowned in the ecstasy of his release. Changbin was left a shaking mess as he slowly started coming down from his high, reality slowly coming back to him. As soon as he had enough wits about him, he realized Minho was by his side, stroking his hair gently and his lap was filled with his glowing, needy husband. He dragged his arms forwards, wrapping them around Hyunjin’s waist. The fae nuzzled into his neck, and Changbin smiled lightly, pressing a kiss to his Hyunjin’s head.

“You did so good, baby.” Changbin whispered, and Hyunjin tilted his head up to stare at the other. 

“Really?” 

“Really. So perfect.” Hyunjin beamed at the praise, snuggling himself closer to the other.

“And you did so well for us.” Minho praised, taking Changbin by surprise. His cheeks flushed a light pink, but he tried to ignore it. “Was it to your liking?”

“It was more than I could have asked for. It was amazing.” Changbin turned his head to look back at the other. “You were amazing. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Minho hummed softly as he watched the two. “Call me anytime you want to do this again,” he offered.

“How about next week?” Hyunjin asked with a grin, giggling when Changbin choked on his own spit.

“It’s a date.”

Tags:  @jisungsjheekies@luminouskalopsia@sauceracha@hanjisungismybaby@kiwibaekie@imbonibi@jiwlys@army-of-carats@peachmilkcloud@letterstoskz@lauraneuuh@babyskz@slinekyu@feedthefandoms995@rejemi@halotopicecream @skzmonster @jumunnaa @serendipityryn @eastleighsblog@hydrawaterdragon@3rachasninja@haileybugulug@luvyev

( If you want to join the list, you can find the info here! Also I’m sorry for those listed in the tags but not getting tagged. For some reason tumblr can’t find your blog to tag. I’m hoping it figures it out soon like it did for others.)

[anonymous-dentist]

i'm not sure if this is an unpopular opinion but omg i love that eggs die and feds don't keep them alive all the time, from meta standpoint. like yeah they're cute and everybody gets attached and they have cool personalities and canonically they could bring every one back but. it would get sooo insanely boring after a while. every time an egg gets killed i see viewers complaining about them being "forced" to stay in the fight (i've seen somebody on twt suggesting that empanada was forcefully teleported back to the fight by other admin or something?? what 😭) like it's fully against their will but come on. they're all admins, they play a character and they talk it out between themselves, if they really wanted to stay alive and safe these risks just wouldn't happen in the first place. they can't really kill off players in the same way so they need something else and eggs fill that niche perfectly. it adds tension, it motivates islanders so much, moves entire arcs forward, brings out the best roleplay. when something happens to kids you see their parents and other islanders still referring to it months later and it's shaping their lore so much. and islanders' reactions?? pure cinema, as a fanartist i cherish these moments, they live in my head rent free

Like it sucks every time- I had to get up from the dinner table when everybody had to say goodbye to Bobby (it was sooooo embarrassing for me lol)- but it serves a purpose

In every narrative, there has to be stakes. In the QSMP’s story, the players (usually) can’t die, and that’s important! With no actual threat to their lives, there has to be something else that can be used to pressure them. Enter, Eggs

A lot of people also just either weren’t there for or don’t remember the Code Attacks from April/May because those were BAD. Eggs couldn’t teleport, hence why NINHO had stasis pearls built in. Pomme somehow got like mind controlled to follow a butterfly right into the Code’s grasp during her Very Bad Day.

Yesterday was just like the day Tallulah lost a life to the Codes/Philza. Tbh we should just be happy Bagi didn’t end up accidentally killing her own kid like Phil did that day, that SUCKED

[schafpudel]

Epidemiology of the Raven's Blood

Part 0: Prologue

Realistically, the blood does things because it's convenient to the plot of the anime, and no deeper thought needs to be put in than that. However, while it does explain inconsistencies in its writing, it's boring and not fun to my pattern-seeking brain. I like to piece together coherent internal logic to stuff in fiction, even if I know the authors themselves didn't think that hard about it. It's fun to me!

At the same time, Princess Tutu's meta-fictional conceit does give us some wiggle room to borrow the Doylist understanding and smuggle it back into a Watsonian explanation. So...

In-universe, I think, the purpose of the Raven’s Blood can be understood as a plot device to easily convert a separate “character” and their body into a narrative extension of the Raven; that this is why Drosselmeyer would write it into the logic of his story. Bored of a character you introduced previously and want to heighten the stakes? They're a toadie of the Raven now. And when we go a level down in fictionality...

To the Raven, other living things exist to be exploited. The only use you can have, beyond being a meal, is being a pawn who can get it what it wants – and what it wants is to consume. Like some ancient castle-bound vampire or wicked dragon, its power and intelligence are ultimately in service of a simple predatory desire. If you are neither edible nor manipulable, you are simply a nuisance.

Diseases and parasites will manipulate pain and pleasure, fear and love, the body and the brain. But while a real disease or parasite’s goal in psychological and physiological manipulation is to reproduce, to turn the infected into a means by which to spread itself to new hosts... the Raven's curse is uninterested in this. What matters, to the Raven, is that the cursed becomes a minion and a pawn, who can bring its prey closer to its own mouth.

Part 1: Lay All Your Love On Me

Part 2: Serving Your Heart On A Platter

I’m sure you’ve heard of a sickness that feeds predators their prey. Toxoplasmosis, for example makes male rats as horny and lovesick over the smell of cat urine as they are at the scent of female rats, switching the pathways of fear and desire, to lure them into being devoured. The pathways between the two run parallel, you see. For the infected, every cat becomes a succubus, a siren, a beautiful creature calling its prey to their willing doom. And, if the parasite gets what it wants, this is how the rat dies.

       Why am I talking about this? Because Mytho starts talking about feeding himself to birds literally the day that his symptoms start presenting, in episode 14.

It’s true he’s saying this while antagonizing Fakir, so one could also brush it off as him just Saying Shit to make his roommate as uncomfortable as possible. But also – we know what the Raven wants, in the end.

For most of season 2, however, Raven!Mytho doesn’t continue to talk about feeding himself to crows. He’s mostly focused on seducing sacrifices, manipulating public opinion, having meltdowns about not being loved enough, and being petty to Fakir and Kraehe. His sense of self-preservation (in as much as Mytho has ever had one, cough) seems genuinely intact for episodes 15 through 21. If Mytho is feeling weirdly giggly about getting eaten during that timespan, he’s doing an awfully good job of hiding it.

And then Mytho starts molting into a crow monster at the end of episode 21, and the rat toxoplasmosis symptoms kicks back in.

(We're not told what he's smiling about here in episode 22, but the next episode, episode 23, makes it obvious:)

This does seem likely to be a Mytho-specific symptom; Rue shows no sign of this. The Raven has been particularly invested in eating Mytho’s heart for a long time, after all; Mytho’s job as the Raven’s doordash delivery guy was always going to be temporary even if he hadn’t beeninterrupted every time. It’s entirely possible that other people could end up with this “symptom” too, but we never see it.

The fact that Raven!Mytho proceeds to acts so strangely cuddly after telling Kraehe she’s an ugly fuck (but also that he needs her love) feels somehow related to this enthusiasm for getting eaten by crows. His voice delivery in the Japanese audio for the heart/lips/blood line sounds…  …I hate to say this.

It sounds like he thinks a crow girl ripping out his heart and touching it onto her mouth is really hot.

(Yea, of course she's shaped like an uggo human (and he's in the process of moulting into a majestic raven and he's sosososo excited for that) - but hey, she's technically a crow as far as he knows, and she has black feathers....)

(And while regular!Mytho seems negative to neutral about that in season 1, Raven!Mytho only ever complimented Kraehe for having crow-like qualities.)

Anyways! In Mytho's final state under the Raven's Blood, he immediately obeys the Raven's orders to be devoured, completely ignoring Rue and Tutu's pleas.

...You know, until the Fairytale Confession of Love, because this is a magical curse and it is a fairytale.

Part 3 and Part 4 are not ready yet but are in the works. See you soon.

[lillified]

I remember you saying earlier (on twitter,not here) that the autobots were kind of boring,since they only fit into a few archetypes. I’ve kind of been thinking about that, and I thought they may also have been boring because of another thing: these few personality types means no one really bounces off eachother, and it doesn’t lead up to any interesting conflict.

This may only apply to G1,or I may just be talking nonsense, but compare them to the decepticons. The decepticons have a lot of different personalities , so they contrast against eachother and a lot of the times,disagree with eachother,creating conflict. However, with the autobots, the similar personality problem can come when no sort of conflict,even ones between certain characters,exists, and everyone has no sort of unique opinions towards eachother. And conflict,you know,makes up a lot for a story and characters.

A lot of people don’t care much about the autobot moments a lot, however you don’t really need to scour the internet to see videos and people posting about Megatron arguing with Starscream or skywarp getting clowned by rumble and frenzy, if you know what I mean.

hey!! wow, it is always surprising when people remember stuff I said lol

I’m admittedly just not really a big autobot fan (if I get the opportunity to write the autobots they’d be very messy) but I totally agree with you here—people seem to like the autobots, conceptually, for very different reasons than people like the Decepticons, and it factors into an interesting dichotomy between how different people view characters as a literary device.

while it isn’t a rule by any means, I’ve noticed there are a lot of people who love certain autobots, but specifically like them in isolation. the idea of the character is more important than anything they’ve actually done. pretty much every autobot that exists has a fan, but they could have little, if any, screen presence. this isn’t bad, of course! in many cases, it’s extremely novel and sweet. that being said, I’ve noticed that even the most prominent autobots have this happen—Optimus Prime is more of a symbol than a character, and that separation is a source of comfort.

This also happens with Decepticons, but I’d argue it’s to a lesser extent? They tend to have much more defined and consistent character relationships, arcs, and themes. The decepticons who are viewed in isolation most frequently would probably be Soundwave and Autobot Megatron, which is interesting (I am honestly not a fan of the modern characterizations of either of these, but I totally understand why people are!), in that their interactions, story purposes, and even personalities are flattened to separate them from the underlying narrative. People love the idea of Soundwave, but fail to give it a personality.

Once again, I don’t think any of this is bad! Moreover, isolating characters from the existing narrative and putting them in different places according to where they might better suit a story is a very good thing, actually. I’ve never agreed with the pushback for iterative/adaptive media altering existing characters’ traits or personalities to suit their thematic purpose, because I think it takes away the agency and undermines the vision of the artist. obviously you can dislike certain characterizations (I do that often) but blaming a deviation from the norm is extremely reductive. Trying to stick to an idealized checklist of how a character ought to act instead of recognizing them as a reactive, dynamic story device is how you end up with flat, unchanging characters and a boring story.

To tie that back to what I like about the decepticons, I think the fact that they are so messy is their strength—they aren’t all just different skins on the same archetype, they’re unique thematic elements which adapt and serve a function in the story. You can make them physically and even archetypally unrecognizable, but as long as you utilize them as elements in the story and afford them the conflict and complexity they deserve, it’s much more difficult to go wrong.

thanks for reading, and thank you for the question!! I hope this all makes sense—I wiped myself out last night and I’m still recovering, so I apologize if this was incoherent lol

[forcebookish]

sorry but am I missing something here 😭 the directors/writers have REPEATEDLY said they wanted to portray different types of queer relationships and guess what? topmew are exactly that and also the most realistic which is probably why so many hate them bc it hits a little too close to home for them. believe it or not but most couples aren't just full of fights and passion (or whatever you wanna call it) but actually start out slowly and naturally progress into something more. now maybe that's boring to some but it's the story the writers wanted to tell and it's needed in a show like this. and the only reason things might seem weird at times is bc both we AND top know the dark cloud that is hanging over them but mew doesn't. the way they act in certain scenes is very deliberate. I mean I thought this was like the most basic of logic but I guess not.

yes!!!! i sound like a broken record but they're literally just dating!! they're supposed to be a reprieve from everyone else's drama, an island floating amid a sea of shit - it really is only because of that "dark cloud," (perfect phrase for it btw) that makes their scenes weird to viewers, not what the scene is actually showing. even top thinks about it less than these guys🤣

especially since they were looking for ways to condemn him BEFORE IT EVEN HAPPENED. even when it was obvious he didn't want to sleep with boston!!! do they really think he was lying to boston when he said he didn't want to sleep with him???? ?? ??? ???? for what purpose? to... sleep..... with him.......? lol

i've seen so many people twist scenes that were obviously meant to be sweet to suit their own purposes, either saying that something is "off" because [insert made up thing here lol], the music isn't "romantic" (and not all of it is, sure, but jangly guitar and soft piano isn't romantic now? ok), they're actually playing each other for whatever reason, etc.

the truth is, if you hadn't ever watched the trailer, you would never come to those conclusions. you would have no idea until episode three.

in fact, more people would probably have seen the shower assault scene for what it actually was. oh, the "narrative" (omg one person said this shit to me and i haven't let it go soz) is telling us that top is a """"cheater"""" because... he later sleeps with the guy he doesn't want to sleep with in the first two episodes?🤔 you would never think that if you didn't know that he sleeps with boston in the next episode🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 they'd be like what the fuck top told him he doesn't want to sleep with him and this guy ambushes him in a public shower, what a creep. (AKA THE APPROPRIATE RESPONSE.) the same goes for the actual car scene!

but see, thinking that they have any logic is your first mistake, anon. error 404: logic not found. i've even seen someone who thought that top was glaring at boston in the pool with nick because he was "jealous." like what...

still i'm with you, friend, i'm blindsided every week by the depths of stupidity these people will sink just to serve their own purposes. it's extra embarrassing that the writers (WHO ARE GOOD WRITERS) have to keep explaining the most basic of concepts... and yet they keep doing it...

at least we all have each other <3

thanks for stopping by!!!

[imlostontheinternet]

Ideas for a party scene, where we finally get to talk with everyone's fav bad boy >:). I'm not sure if having no waistcoat is proper for parties, but Red has never been one for formalities. This is probably Ch.4 -5 material, depends on how the flow, well, flows haha. I promise we'll get to the other two boys soon in the text.

((Also Reader loves pearls, hence the abundance in her hair. :3))

[Spoilers] Loooooong story snippet under the cut ✂️

The party was as extravagant as you had presumed it to be, the air quickly warm from the activities on the floor. Feeling quick flushed, you made it your purpose to find a cool marble pillar to lean against; serving as a perfect vantage point to observe the room.

As your heart ceased pounding from the exercise of dance, there was a sudden presence at your elbow. It was to be expected in a room as crowded such as this, although you had wished for a moment longer of peace, that is until you turned your head just so to glance at this new neighbor.

It was one of the gentlemen from the lakeside!

He was leaning on the same pillar as you, perhaps an arms length away, his attention on the room. You noticed a slight sheen on his skull shimmering in the candlelight. Though faint, there was no mistaking the subtle red dusting just under his eye sockets. Dressed rather smartly, he was rather dashing in his attire despite his missing dress coat. The gold watch chain hung loosely at his torso glinted softly with each breath, and you pondered for a moment if skeleton monsters truly needed to breathe or if it was more for show.

During your analysis, the red eye-lights flickered over to meet your gaze. The handsome stranger's once distracted expression quickly morphed into one of pleasant intrigue. The grin which spread on his face was infectious; as your own cheeks perked at the sight.

"I see you enjoy dancing as much you do walking, miss. . .?" His voice was raspy, but not unpleasantly so. It held a warmth like a crackling fire in the hearth, with a slight drawl on his last syllables.

"Reed. Y/n Reed. And yes, I do very much so. The pathways are much less forgiving after the first snowfall, so I would very much like to enjoy it while I can."

"I agree with your reasoning. I must say the countryside is as pleasing as those who inhabit it, and just as beautiful."

"And are you so open with your observations with every young woman you come across, sir?"

The stranger laughed at your parroting tone, offering a mock bow by barely bending his torso.

"Sir" is much too boring a title for a party like this. For a lady such as yourself, call me Mr. Red, if you please. And to answer your query, I am open only to those who are worthwhile to converse with."

[aaluminiumas]

Lyric On His Tongue

This is Chapter 1 of 2. You can find the entire fanfic here.

Astarion was jaded to the core. 

He was so infernally bored that his daily—or, was nighttime a better word?—routine seemed a senseless undertaking he wanted to avoid at all costs. It was all the same, the risible performance of lust, predictability, and humdrum. Gaudily dressed people trying to attain their preposterous goals. Artificial conviviality slithering between the tables. Hideous music thundering in the ears—

Had he been alive, he would’ve called in sick, feigning the worst case of pneumonia known to humanity and staging the ensuing miracle of recovery. Had he been alive, he would’ve concocted a lovely, not-quite-believable story where he saved a cat, a child, or a wizard in distress from an unnamed threat, and the entire city would've fallen for it. Had he been alive, he would’ve said he had his reasons, and no one would incriminate his actions. After all, he was a magistrate. A very respectable magistrate, revered by all citizens of Baldur’s Gate. Well, maybe the Gur were an unlucky exception, but really, who would’ve listened to a bunch of crazy folks who did nothing but deceive the kind denizens of the city by foisting their fortune-telling bogus! He was still better than them. 

Or, rather, had been. 

Astarion huffed and reclined on the counter, gazing into a glass of wine. He had ordered the drink a few hours ago and pretended to sip the Ithbank every now and then, but the crimson liquid didn’t ebb. Gods, how did he want to slough off this rotten task, hightail from this hellish shithole of a tavern, and recede into the gloom, feigning defeat!..

Unfortunately, the news about his smashing defeat did not sound even remotely plausible. None of his carefully cherry-picked pick-up lines was ever nugatory. None of his tantalizing gestures was ever accidental. None of the unctuous notes in the dulcet voice with a penchant for taking a seductive edge was ever misplaced. In short, Astarion was aware of his bedazzling looks, and he didn’t miss a chance to put his charms to good use. 

So, even the dumbest spawn of the lot, Pale Petras, wouldn’t buy it.

Swerving his ruby eyes to the diverse crowd, Astarion idly scanned the throng of people teeming in the tavern, eyeing each visitor with ill-concealed contempt. They all came here to get a harlot. Their intentions were crystal clear. Those who missed Sharess’ Caress on the way to Baldur’s Gate always sought a sufficiently respectable establishment to tend to their physical needs and caprices. Taverns like this didn’t scream brothel, but they very well could be one—such inns only pretended to specialize in food and drinks. If you wanted additional entertainment to go with a bottle of Ithbank, you needn’t even get up to ask for assistance. Maybe all places in Baldur’s Gate were the same. Call it a hallmark, if you wish. Whatever. 

Ah, how he loathed it. Endless strings of people, loudmouthed whores, artificial smiles, whistles emitted by an invigorated lumper, and hackneyed advances of a lame artist. Oddly enough, one of them had managed to captivate Lady Jannath. What did she find in this pathetic idiot? His pitiful attempts at courtship didn’t even look ludicrous—they were outright deplorable. Surely, some women had no taste, and appreciation of art played little role in personal proclivities and preferences. 

Astarion examined the visitors again, this time with a modicum of curiosity. Harlots, wantons, rummies, and lost travelers looking for a place to stay over the night didn’t deserve a mere scrap of his attention; they all seemed so unbearably dull they wouldn’t even serve their only purpose: to be a decent banquet for a true connoisseur. 

Astarion’s lanky fingers circled the edge of the glass brimmed with gold. To hells with it. Cazador had no illusions regarding the spawns’ attitude: if he ever had a good trait of character, it was his relative sobriety. For all his intimidating bluster, he never deluded himself into believing that any of the spawn truly admired him or his teaching methods. He could do nothing about that. He could imagine the most ferocious tortures, contrive the most vicious trials, devise the most ruthless and savage ordeals, but no torment could change Astarion’s or, for that matter, Petras’ mind: Cazador was detested by his own very spawn. He could not be vanquished, true, but he would never be venerated either.

The sad thing was that this fact didn’t afflict him or undermine the current status quo: you couldn’t just inveigle a goblin and offer this lovely specimen on a plate. 

Especially, if you had his looks. Petras might just be the perfect fit for goblins and the like, but Astarion, on the contrary, was too well-groomed, too cultured to attract such foul prey. His victim might not be immaculate, but it had to be good. After all, this victim must please the perverse and exquisite taste of the abhorrent tyrant who always reveled in torturing others. In torturing his own very spawn. 

On a side note, if his today’s target turned out better than acceptable, he might be spared. Maybe even rewarded. Ah, to see Petras’ disgusting muzzle contorted by jealousy and hunger when Master tossed a scant commendation Astarion’s way. What a sight, really. Truly remarkable. One of the few genuinely fascinating things in this moldy, decaying, dismal, and grim castle that needed a monumental revamp ten centuries ago.  

Maybe Cazador would even go as far as offering him a handful of human blood he could savor for days to come, highlighting the peculiar, ever-changing aftertaste sticking to the palate—

Hells. This was unnecessary.

Irked by his wild imagination, Astarion felt the tang dissipating on the tongue, dispersing and morphing into the feeling of egregious thirst he was too familiar with. The mere inkling of the scene he had started to envision was too much for him to bear. 

Luckily, his train of thought was interrupted by a faint squeak of the double doors. A mere mortal wouldn’t have noticed that, and the screech of the old hinges would’ve drowned in the raucous tumult of the tavern, but as someone with a preternaturally acute sense of hearing, this indiscernible sound became a cue—a new visitor. 

A new potential victim. 

Reacting to the creak, Astarion jerked his head to see who was coming. 

He expected another run-of-the-mill drunkard, another adventurer, perhaps, but his eyes stumbled over a particularly unusual sight, practically extinct in notorious Baldur’s Gate, the city of the depraved. The man, faltering at the threshold of the tavern, made a strong contrast to the local vermin. 

The unwritten rule of Cazador’s—never hunt the rich—shaped up in Astarion’s head. Not that the miserable vampire lord cared about the benefits they could bring to the city. The reason was so quotidian it shouldn’t be explained: he didn’t want to leap directly into a predicament. The well-to-do would get alarmed immediately if one of their ilk vanished without a trace. One thing might lead to another, and inadvertently, his vampire lair might be exposed to the public, which would eventually entail a spectacular execution of all seven spawns and their lord at the helm. Therefore, most of the time the spawns were bound to choose the safest option of the unsafe: stray travelers, opulent merchants from overseas, prominent guests visiting local galleries, foreigners, loners with means... In a nutshell, everyone who looked presentable enough and whose absence would not be noticed. Evidently, the young man didn’t fall into the category, but something in his demeanor betrayed a novice. Inert, palsied by the picture unfurling before his eyes, he looked utterly vulnerable, as if he never belonged to the city in the first place. Maybe he was a foreigner, after all. Well, he had bumped into this lovely little nest, so he was either desperate or looking for a crepuscular adventure. 

Either would do.

Consummate seducer, Astarion swept his eyes over the tall, slender figure, dressed in an embroidered doublet. Clearly, an aristocrat; but for someone with his ancestry, the man struck with his baffling innocence. Where the hells was he hiding while the entire city indulged in vices, flaunting them all the way, spurning church and succumbing to repudiation of decency? Was he enchained deep under the dragon’s den waiting for his eighteenth birthday? This outstanding display of chastity looked almost unnerving: magistrate in the past, Astarion dealt with venality and corruption on a regular basis, not always on the side of justice. And for his entire career, he had never faced virtue as a concept. 

Not that he broke a sweat trying to find one, though. Now, Madame Virtue seemed to have found its way into this man’s body and blindsided Her erstwhile servant. The red eyes transfixed on the visitor in a most unsettling way. 

If you liked the extract, please feel free to check out the whole Chapter here:

[aeferkssr]

“good morning, welcome to the shop! how may i assist you today?~”

GENSHIN IMPACT DR SELF

fan page for my fav script🫶 i love you my genshin script🫶

possible cw: soft angst, lots of jamaican references, cianna says box cover😱, cianna calls herself a furry (once), reality shifting terminology, not x reader

CIANNA - POTESTAS DEORUM

a young lady brought to teyvat by the power of foreign gods. embers, reignited again to serve a new purpose

CHARACTER STORY I

long and boring. those were the words cianna used to descibe her days, every day it was the same thing. on weekdays it was: wake up, get ready for school, try and convince teachers to give her an extension on overdue work, feel left out, walk to mommy’s office, get home around five or six in the afternoon depending on the traffic, try to complete homework and study for upcoming exams, hear her father complain about her wasted potential, brush teeth, tie down hair, and sleep.

the weekends were a a little bit better, she would get to sleep in a bit but would still need to wake up early to attend her extra lessons. this continuous cycle of trying and trying but never seeing results wared the young girl down. you would swear that she looked a little bit paler, or a little more tired than the last time you two met, but exams were coming up so that was to be expected.

oh how she dreaded the word. just the mention of the upcoming may-june exams had cianna’s mood drop to alarming levels. she wished that she could just run away from it all, all her unfinished SBA’s, all the teachers who seemed to want to do nothing more than make her life miserable, the people who ignored her for sport, but most of all, she wanted to run away from herself.

the feeling of overwhelming guilt washed over her frail body constantly. you did it back then so why can’t you just do it again? its really not that hard to focus on whatever the teacher is saying, just do it, dimwit! every day that cianna woke up she wish would be her last. maybe when she’s gone people will recognize that she was worth being around. after all, you never need something the most the second you can’t find it.

life wasn’t worth living if you had nobody to live it with.

nobody seemed to give her the time of day anymore. maybe she was too “out there” and made them all uncomfortable? maybe they all hated her from the start but never did anything about it until now? maybe… maybe cianna was unlikeable.

continuing on with cianna’s boring daily routine, she had just received a call from her school’s office that she had just been suspended for something she didn’t do. cianna, who is beyond numb at this point, looks up to the sky trying to delay her tears just for a little longer. the walk in the sun was terrible, as she relied on muscle memory to steer her to her mother’s office. starting the day off with being publicly humiliated by peers and ending the day with a suspension on her record. could the day get any worse?

“do you want to leave, my child?”

great, now she’s delusional.

the same voice continued to call for cianna for the next week, flooding her dreams with epic sceneries and ruins that were overflowing with mystery. in one of these dreams she sat in front of a coldron as it bubbled with unidentified liquid, and in another she soared through the sky on what seemed to be a broomstick. cianna laughed to herself when she woke up, maybe if she told someone about this they would burn her alive… and at the time, it didn’t seemed like a bad idea.

cianna barely pushed through another day at school before having to walk down to her mother’s office for the day. muscle memory took over once again on the short walk as cianna heard the strange voice again. she stopped in her tracks just to check if there was anyone around her, she didn’t want to look as crazy as she felt. with a deep breath, cianna contined walking not before answering the unfamiliar voice with a small “yes”

cianna herself still doesn’t know what happened there because the next thing she knew, she was floating. panicking a bit, she squirms around the pitch black sea trying to gain balance and also looking around to try and find an explanation, cianna wasn’t that smart so a long and in detailed explanation was due.

a light shone from behind her, as she quickly spun (or a quickly as she could) around to meet eyes with a glowing figure. the rather androgynous figure shone with a soft yet bright light behind it. their jet black hair, that rivalled the darkness that surrounded you two, swayed as their pure white clothes did. their grey eyes pitted the widened obsidian eyes that stood before them. as cianna snapped out of the trance that they unintentionally put her in, she speaks up, her voice slightly trembling:

“who are you? and where am i?”

the being simply smiled and answered:

“i go by many a name, but for now you may call me ze█r██ll”

cianna didn’t quite hear the name it said, but pretended that she did and nodded

“and as for where you are” they continued “you are in the void.”

she looked around the so-called “void” with a look on her face that said ‘what kind of hippee, flower-sniffing, scooby-snack bullshit is this?’

it chuckles as if it just read her mind,

“the void is a place that connects all universes and realities. it is the passing ground of those who shifts their subconscious minds at will, and a resting place for those who wish for a moment of peace. it can be seen as what you humans call a bus park”

“but with less wolmerians?”

the being chuckles once more, this time covering its mouth with the back of their palm,

“yes, dear. with a lot less wolmerians”

ze- uh.. ze-something reached into its pocket and pulled out a pocket watch. it looks up to cianna again before turning the long hand anti-clockwise. another source of light appears as it shows a lush forest, briming with both flora and fauna. the little fox-like creatures that run around chasing each other to the grand fir wood trees that housed birds, all of it looked so peaceful.

as cianna looks back up to the deity, whom she has underestimated their height since they basically tower over her, it spoke:

“i have been watching you for a while, cianna. watching you has entertained me to no end, and i am one who repays what is due” they gesture to the portal. “i have traversed through this world once, the people there are unforgettable and are sure to welcome you with open arms. go. experience what it is like to be wanted, to be loved, and most importantly: to have purpose.”

cianna couldn’t see clearly because of the tears that wheled within her eyes. she couldn’t even say thank you, she just looked back at the portal, then to the deity, then to the portal again with her mouth ajar. the tears fell and the only thing that came from her mouth was “thank you.” she has never really understood the term ‘tears of joy’ until now.

with a slightly runny nose, and a dizzy head from bowing down repeatly, she used her arms to help her manoeuvre the void. before she could “swim” through the portal, the psuedo-deity had one more thing to say:

“when you find your way in inazuma, give my regards to the general of the watatsumi resistance and the kamisato clan’s housekepper, if you will.”

cianna nodded, although confused as to what an ‘inazuma’ was, and turned around to say a final goodbye and thank you to ze- …maybe she should really ask them to repeat their name., but ther was nothing their but the void. despite this, she still shouted a quick goodbye before pulling herself into the portal created, awaiting her very first adventure in the land of teyvat.

CHARACTER STORY IV

if you were looking for the girl that, as the adventurers say, fell from the sky all those years ago, she would be found in the favonius library with her nose stuffed in a book. you would think that she would be reading some sort of fairy tale due to her youthful face, but in actuality she is running on pure impulse to look for materials for the spell shes about to cast.

cianna swishes a bubble of air in her mouth before letting it go, she had found the spell she was looking for! cianna quickly gets up, dusting off the sundress she usually wears and jumps around with the book clung close to her chest. she swiftly borrowed the book at the reception and made her way back to her small witch hut.

now, is this the best idea cianna has ever come up with? absolutely not. but! who would dare to bring her down when shes practically skipping through the whispering woods on her way home? cianna even starts to hum a soft tune, something she use to obsess over as an infant. cianna’s really healing her inner child today!

making it home, she takes off her shoes and shut the door quickly behind her. cianna placed the book gently onto her bed, and went to go and find the ingredients for the potion. when she returned, the coldron (which she set to boil prior) was ready to be used. she names off the ingredients before putting them in

“flowing spring water, to dash as fast as a hare, slime condensate, the better to bounce with…”

cianna continues to list off the ingredients one by one. when the final ingredient is added, the caldron erupts with smoke and reveals a portion of the coldran’s interior filled with a light pink substance. cianna squeaks as she runs to find a bottle to hold her concoction in. she comes back with a triangular base flask and scoops up the liquid at the bottom, all of it following itself into the flask

“good thing i made one serving, i would of blown the roof off if i didn’t” cianna says as she looks up to see small water droplets dripping into her coldron, most likely the steam from earlier condensing. cianna takes a deep breath before shouting::

“down the hatch!”

the texture of the slime condensate with the potion made it an awful experience. but, if she was being honest, it really wasn’t that bad. soon after the potion settled, the side effects started. cianna wasnt expecting such instant resulte and was shocked by the sudden headache. the pain was unbearable, she threw herself onto her bed and muffled her screams with her pillow. she couldnt even think straight, why is she doing this to herself.

well, a few hours late (all of those hours cianna has either been crying, screaming or sleeping) the results finally came. a charming pair of rabbit ears crowned her head and a fluffy tail poked out from over her underwear. of course, other features like increased stamina, a bigger appetite and even bigger feet came on later but cianna was beyond happy with herself!

“damn, i look like a furry”

years later, cianna looks at her acheivement as a baby witch with a sense of pride, but also bone-crushing embarassment because why would you actually do this..?

CHARACTER STORY V

cianna has always longed for a relationship. she desperately wanted someone who she could rely her innermost feelings to, and trust wholeheartedly that they won’t leave. she would read all manners of fiction, the main character and their love interest living together happily ever after. but when was it her time to feel such bliss?

where cianna was raised, relationships were bound to end up failing. literal blood was shed because of failed relationships and she wasn’t about to go get herself killed. men were so wicked and lying and deceitful but so were the girls, nobody could win in situations like these. yes, cianna has had her own relationship experience, but burnt herself out because most of the effort was put onto her. both her lovers ended up breaking it off first because they had lost feelings for her, but she struggles to figure out whether she had feelings for them in the first place. maybe it wasn’t a fear of being rejected, but a fear of rejecting someone.

coming to teyvat didn’t make it any easier. the people who were in her age group, at least she thought they were, were too busy seeking out their own adventures, their own passions. thus, cianna decided to dive head first into what she was passionate about, witchcraft. more specifically, metaktisis, summoning magic. her faunal features and the small flying ball of energy she named gabby were all results of this.

cianna was so happy that she could finally see her hard work bloom into fruition. something she could never achieve back in her old world. plus, the people of mondstadt and their affinity to freedom gave her all the reassurance she needs. maybe she doesn’t need anyone after, she i quite content in how she’s living now.

the witch rests her chin in her hands that are placed onto the dark oak stall where she sold her potions, one hand reaching to fidget with the tip of her left ear out of habit. cianna hasn’t known true tranquility for most of her life, so she basked in the fading glow of the sun.

“wakey wakey miss!” a childlike voice brings cianna out from her trance as she faces foreward to be met with flying shoes and a toned abdomen. clearly, the flying shoes didn’t peak her interest as her eyes trailed along the masculine figure from his navel all the way to those bright golden eyes of his.

“woah…”

cianna stared at the boy for a little longer before the flying shoes cleared her throat. quickly snapping out of her trance she fixed her pink dress and straighten her hat before pretending that absolutely nothing happened

“good evening guys, welcome to my shop! can i help you with anything?”

the blonde finally spoke after being in a trance of his own

“well… we wanted to see what this shop had, since we are kind of new here.”

new to mondstadt? or new to teyvat? but cianna knew better than to ask someone she just met their whole origin story.

“well im glad you asked! i sell a variety of potions i make here myself…” cianna starts to ramble off about her potions as the blonde stood there and listened with a big grin on his face. this didn’t go unnoticed by cianna, of course. she had always thought that her potion rambles were boring for those who weren’t witches but he stood there and listened for the whole time. the two had even started talking about completely different topics.

unfortunately for both travelers the sun ha already set and a bright full moon shone down on the pair. paimon had long fissapeared into wherever she goes to leave the two "lovebirds" alone.

"box cova, its a full moon! it completely slipped my mind... and i was suppost to close up early today" cianna said as she ran around the stall picking up her belonginfs and placing them onto a blanket. she 5ook the edges of the blanket, tied them to the end of her broomstick and quickly sprinted out the gate.

aether's smile never left his face and his cheeks were hurting because of it. joy turned into confusion as he saw cianna eunning back to him, broomstick still in hand.

"hey, whats wro-"

he couldnt even finish his sentence before the witch placed a small kiss on his cheek. cianna looked back at aether for a breif moment before fixing her hat and running iut the gate again.

aether doesn't think he's smiled this wide in years, the conversation thag lasted about an hour only felt like a few short minutes. he didn't even know your name, nor did you know his. but little did he know, that won't be the last time he saw you.

a day or two later, cianna set out to help a long time friend of hers run an errand. both of them were in an never ending game of IOU as it was her turn to return the favour. why they had asked her to meet at the church of favonius at midnight was beyond her, but it seems like something he would do.

"hey venny!" she waved, with venti's specific order in a basket she was carrying.

"well, if it isn't my favourite witch! how are you, cia?" he says before returning a quick side hug

"other than curious as hell as to what you need to be invisible for, i'm doing okay"

venti laughs as he jestures to the boy that stood beside him. you gasped when you noticed who it was:

"you're the cutie from a few nights ago!" cianna exclaimed as the so-called "cutie" flushes at the compliment.

"oho? so you two know each other?"

"mhm! he listened to my rant about my potions so of course i'd remember him!"

"but blondie aside," aether flushes once more at another nickname was given to him "what do you need these for, ven?"

venti ushers cianna to come closer as he takes off her hat and watches as her ears stand up. cianna leans down further to allow venti to whisper his plans into her ear. cianna's other ear twitches as venti finishes relaying his plan

"you're going to steal the what.?"

©eenie-teenieweenie

tagging ; @elychee || @0rah-s

zephyrll belongs to @/elychee

[daybreakrising]

HEADCANONS - B.EIDOU'S EYEPATCH

i've wanted to make this hc post for ages and just. kept forgetting. so, at last, here it is-

THE RUMOURS

there are probably many different rumours and stories about why captain b.eidou wears an eyepatch. most of them, as you might expect, involve daring battles in which the fearless and mighty captain clashed with a great beast and, in the process, lost her eye. others may suggest something far simpler: an accident on the seas, perhaps, as often happens.

the captain herself does nothing to confirm or deny any of these stories. if an adult were to ask her directly, she would merely give them a daring grin and answer: and where's the mystery in that? even the members of her crew are tight-lipped on the subject, and no amount of free drinks can drag the truth from any one of them.

she finds every story (even the 'boring' ones) highly amusing. she even keeps a record of each new tale she hears, marking down the mighty beasts she's said to have faced - and it is these stories in particular that she tells to the children who enquire about her 'missing eye'. who is she to deny them the wonder and awe of these fabrications? did she not seek her destiny upon the sea after hearing similar tales?

THE TRUTH

the real story behind it is, however, rather different. there's no daring tale of battle, no tragic accident. the truth is, the captain has two fully functioning eyes. so why then, you ask, does she keep one covered? is it to maintain an air of mystery, to provoke these whispers and tales? is it a part of her image, an iconic feature of the brave captain?

no. it is entirely for practical purposes.

quick disclaimer: whilst this theory behind pirates (in particular) & eyepatches has been widely debunked and lacks any historical evidence to support it (and indeed has a fair few disadvantages to it), i like the concept & there is a slight advantage / truth to the science of it, so i'm running with it-

she wears a covering over her eye to maintain vision when she switches from above decks to below decks. with one eye near-permanently covered and therefore used to dimmer conditions, it doesn't take as long for her vision to adjust to the transition, allowing her a small, but often very crucial, advantage when it matters.

whilst on an average day there is little need for this advantage, she swears that it has made a difference during various dangers the ship has faced in the past. therefore, there are very few situations where the covering is fully removed (she has even been known to sleep with it on).

her crew obviously know that this is the real reason behind the covering. some of them even follow the same practice (though some have also genuinely lost eyes in battles), though the captain herself doesn't prompt them to do so - after all, keen depth perception is also crucial out on the seas, and the need for a quicker transition from light to dark is not so high as to require multiple crew members to follow this practice (the captain herself has trained hard for years to make up for the loss of vision & depth perception).

due to the rarity of situations where this slight advantage is required, many of the crew have never seen their captain's other eye. it is also considered a ritual for new crew members to correctly guess the reason for the covering - usually via a series of clues that can be gleaned from the longest serving members by asking the right questions. very few have ever achieved the correct answer and typically learn the truth after they have proven themselves loyal to the captain and the fleet.

THE AESTHETIC

and, of course, why wouldn't she also indulge in something that is so iconically linked to tales of pirates? whilst her reason for the eyepatch was always for a quicker transition between light levels, the fact that it leaned into the pirate aesthetic was definitely an added bonus.

[scatterbrainedart]

Found a recorded performance of the Frankenstein musical and so naturally I have more thoughts to share about it

(Sort of a continuation on this post)

Like I've said before, the changes they make from canon in the musical always serves a very real purpose for the sake of the medium they're telling the story in, like the origins of the creature. Because, they'd have to have just one guy play him so it makes sense, and I really like how they executed it. It's made in such a way that it doesn't feel out of place at all, or jarring, as some adaptive changes very much can. So that's very exciting!! But it does, however, make him even more tragic. So, ouch.

This part. Just very fun lyrically. The condemned man asking for his creator (God) to claim him before he dies, and then after his execution, Victor does. So simple yet so effective. I love this musical. (Also just the rest of that line as well. The man accepts his death, only wishing for his cruel life to be over. Despite that, Victor continues and prolongs it, and consequently only fills it with more pain and suffering. Will not analyse and reflect on the "I'll trust in you" bit of the line as I believe that would cause me to implode. Thank you for your understanding)

Whoever decided that the same instrumental would play for Your Father's Eyes and Amen (Reprise), I HATE YOUUU. I AM IN SHAMBLES. Not only did they have the line "Forgive this foolish father" in there, but the fucking parallel itself of Victor's father reassuring him vs Victor seeking the creature's grace is gonna be the end of me. Genuinely. I am so so weak for family dynamics, this is NOT fair.

So far I have not found a single Frankenstein adaptation that doesn't do Henry Clerval outrageously dirty. People just hate friendships fr. I get that they change him for drama reasons, and to make him less like the other characters (since they all pretty much serve the same purpose, and therefore interact with Victor the same way. Changing some of them to interact differently with him adds some more dynamic to it all, which I do understand but it still annoys me). Henry absolutely adores him, and more importantly respects and wholeheartedly trusts him. Henry's death plays for the same reason as all the other deaths in the story: to hit Victor where it hurts and further fuel his grief and anger. Which, again, I get why you'd want more drama out of it. But the Clerval slander, man D: The slander.

Where are the adaptations with an overly affectionate Clerval?? The Clerval who cares for Victor in sickness and in health without asking any questions whatsoever, the Clerval who would rather be next to his best friend on his absolute lowest possible point than with strangers who lift him up indefinitely??? The Clerval who is always there when he's allowed, but respects Victor's wishes for the contrary when asked???? WHERE are the adaptations in which Clerval's trusting nature and his affections towards Victor is what makes him the creature's target??????? That CAN make good drama if you're not a COWARD. Oh yes, family bonds broken from the death of William, tragic. Oh no the loss of his romantic love in Elizabeth, how sad. But his friendship with Clerval?? Eh, just do whatever seems the most interesting. It's basically a gap to be filled with anything, really (/s). And, I mean, it could be. And I get it. But every goddamn time?? Friendships aren't boring dynamics. They have just as much love and pain as romantic and familial bonds, again, if you're not a coward. That is my main critique, because they really didn't need to do that honestly. But eh, whateverr, it's finee, I'm coolll. I just wish people would just let men be pals more often. Just let em be bros. Pls.

Anyway. The creature's origins also ties really well into how Victor would get his materials for the female version, since in the musical that whole bit is directly after Justine's trial (and the fem creature is played by her actress, at least in the version I watched, which seems reasonable).

Hm. I wonder if there was a time skip in there. Coulda been since the trial is in very end of act 1 and The Modern Prometheus is first thing in act 2, so the break could have functioned as a time skip I suppose. But if not, that would mean all of his guilty moping, which passed that time in between, in the book, wouldn't have happened in the musical version. Not even off-screen. Which does add up, I suppose, since I complained last time about how that whole portion of the story being overlooked by The Modern Prometheus anyway. Could expain why he was surprisingly easy to convince to make a second attempt at creating life. He wasn't quite as regretful, and the dream hadn't been dead for quite as long. Huh. Well I guess that doesn't matter then. Fair enough.

This specific performance of the musical painted Victor as this particularly selfish, pathetic little man and I'm kinda obsessed. I mean, obviously he kinda is in the book as well, but they really went all out. Especially on this one part (during The Proposition, I think) where the creature just grabs him by the collar, almost lifts him up and then throws him on the ground. Such a small little man. A little guy but slash neg. Short guy energy, but filled to the brink with self righteousness and the aspirations of greatness, mostly just for the sake of greatness. Very hubris indeed (especially as he clearly clings onto that hope of greatness, as showed in The Modern Prometheus). I mean he has enough empathy to feel human and real but man is he a little freak. That's almost peak blorbo material right there.

Also, the musical honestly drove home the theme of hubris better to me than the book did. Like, it was obviously prominent in the book as well, but Frankenstein's hubris in that only lasted for around a quarter of it at most. Then the rest of it was him just cursing himself for it in silence and hoping the world would just take him out of his misery already. Which is also peak blorbo material. But, a musical wouldn't have executed that particular well I don't think, so what they ended up doing was great. Again, adaptations whose main changes are made in favour of the medium are the best kinds of adaptations. The ones that preserve a lot of the story, or emphasize parts of it, while adapting it to fit their way of storytelling. The musical is one of those. It's pretty close to the book but most importantly it conveys the same ideas, shares the same vibes and tells the story of a longwinded book in such a way that it feels as if it always was a musical. And that, in my oh so humble opinion, is what makes it so good.

But ah. Oof. The ENDING. Alright, so- there was a lot of context to stuff that didn't quite land with me until I actually watched the thing, and the ending was one of those. Is it accurate to the book? No. Is it GREAT? I mean, that's a matter of taste, but I would definitely say so. But then again, I am weak to family dynamics. See, I didn't realise The Coming of The Dawn was practically just Victor having a parental epiphany. So you mean to tell me he travelled to the arctic in a haze of rage, and then that all that anger shimmered down into grief somewhere within that fatigue and exhaustion, and he kept going only to apologise on his deathbed?

Ah. Hahahah. Haha.

Yeah, no, I'm fine. I'm good. Especially with how the creature reacted to it, assuming to find his creator in the midst of the cold, forstbitten and crawling his way forwards with nothing but the desperation of revenge. Assuming to find hate and violence, and instead finding a grieving father using his last breath to seek forgiveness where he already knows there might be none. I'm especially fine with how caught off guard the creature is at that, not really sure how to handle that emotion, that sudden, unfamiliar softness. And then the regret seeping in, the grief upon gaining all he truly wanted (his father's love) and losing it just as quickly. And it was his fault, and it was too late to take it back (HMMMM parallels. Victor almost,, turns their dynamic upside down in a way).

Frankenstein still comes to a sort of peace of mind at the end of the book, but not asking forgiveness. He asks Walton to continue his hunt for the creature even. It may not be passionatly said, but it's still his dying wish. That "yeah I'd appreciate to see him wiped off the face of the earth but also, I get that it's kind of a big thing to ask of someone so I wouldn't blame you if you didn't". Then the creature comes, after his death, and talks some of his own sincere thoughts before running off with Victor to die somewhere (which, I would assume, is what These Hands have drawn inspiration from and just moved around. Which is wonderful. It flows better that way anyhow). It's totally not heartbreaking at ALL, I'm FINE, I'm GOOD.

Ahhg. And then the Workings of The Heart parallels and instrumental. Fucking hell. I could go on about that, I feel, but again. Gonna refrain from that as I would probably implode if I were to try.

Victor in the musical goes from being far more selfish and hubris-inflicted than book!Victor, to being empathetic enough to beg at the feet of the murderer of all his friends and family, for grace. Book!Victor is a lot more steady in his emotional journey in comparison (which really does say something), and both versions are great. Ahhg, the musical is such a masterpiece. Honestly.

Alright. As a reward for reading all of that, he's the links to act 1 and act 2, the version I watched, in case y'all wanna watch them too. The expressions and emotions are definitely the highlight :)

[musical-shenanigans]

Show #1

Title: The Supreme Yellow Brick Moon Edition

Release Date: April 28, 2021

I want to be embarrassed by this show, but there are some rather good takeaways.  The sound is not horrible as I would have thought, although once I introduce the third person, the mixes get a little rougher.  Dave is not here (insert your own Cheech and Chong joke), and this is really the start of what would become Musical Shenanigans.

The whole WQRZ thing dates back to 2020 when I was hosting a "radio station" over Teams at work.  We had all been home for longer than the planned two weeks after Friday March, 13, 2020 when the world shut down (and most of us are still working remotely).  I got bored and started playing around with Audacity, mixing in songs, and doing something of a morning show, hence the Cory in the Morning moniker that hopefully disappears on this podcast.  I did manage to get a spot on the local news for bringing music and laughs to my coworkers - and honestly, it was only about thirty people, as it was kept inside our department.  I did different themes for each show and played music.  An mp3 file was delivered through Teams on the mornings I had time to drop them, and a good time was had by all.  So there is the WQRZ back story.  It is long gone, but it served its purpose well, and may it rest it in peace.  There were some great bits on there, by the way.

Boudreau's Cajun Fryer is one of the bits that came from the WQRZ days.  I was having too much fun with creating different voices and characters and every show needs a commercial, right?  Right?  So, I created these fake commercials, and some even had elongated and protracted back stories - I was also adjusting to a world that was literally shutdown and adjusting to being in the house with the same people day after day after day after day.  But, a lot of quality time with my kids came out of it, and for that, I am a little thankful.

Otherwise, on this show, Scott and I went through these picks way too fast.  This was clearly early in the development of what is Musical Shenanigans today, but we had to start somewhere.  And there is the back story of how Scott became the "O" in HELP! 

The Albums, as described by ChatGPT

"The Supremes Anthology" is a compilation album by The Supremes, an American female singing group active from 1959 to 1977. The album features a selection of the group's most popular songs, including "Baby Love," "Stop! In the Name of Love," and "You Can't Hurry Love." The tracks showcase The Supremes' signature Motown sound and the powerful vocals of lead singer Diana Ross. This album is a comprehensive collection of some of the greatest hits from The Supremes and is considered an essential addition to any Motown or classic pop music library.

"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" is a critically acclaimed album by English singer-songwriter Elton John, released in 1973. The album features some of Elton John's most famous songs, including the title track, "Bennie and the Jets," and "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting." With its blend of rock, pop, and theatrical elements, the album showcases Elton John's unique style and musical talent. The lyrics often have a nostalgic or introspective tone and are set to lush and ornate musical arrangements. The album was a commercial success and has since been regarded as one of Elton John's best works. It remains a staple of classic rock radio and is widely considered to be one of the greatest albums of all time.

"The Dark Side of the Moon" is a groundbreaking album by English rock band Pink Floyd, released in 1973. It is widely considered one of the greatest albums of all time and has sold over 50 million copies worldwide. The album is a concept album that explores themes of life, death, time, and human emotion, using a combination of rock, blues, and experimental music. The songs are linked by atmospheric sound effects, spoken word samples, and instrumentals, creating a cohesive and immersive listening experience. The album's iconic cover art, designed by Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis, adds to its mystique. "The Dark Side of the Moon" remains Pink Floyd's most commercially successful album and is considered a classic of progressive rock music.

[slapegg]

Some Thoughts About... SteamWorld Heist 2

Heist 1 was a fantastic game and I’m pretty sure I’ve already talked about it on this site, so track that down if you’d like. But because of how good Heist 1 was, I was coming to 2 with high expectations. But I also thought Dig 1 was a fantastic game and was super disappointed by Dig 2. Can SteamWorld beat the curse of sequels?

Heist 2 makes a bad first impression. The main character is really unlikable and you can’t even use him in battle. Compared to 1 where Piper is immediately cool and has a great class/weapon from the get-go.

One of your partners is interesting because she has a wide-eyed interest in what’s going on, but she’s stuck as a class that has spend a turn to reload after every shot, so she’s useless every other round. The other starting partner and most of those you pick up are very dry or uninteresting, don’t really have have stories beyond some extremely basic “I started as personality X and now I’ve grown”, or are just less interesting rehashes of characters from Heist 1.

The new explorable world map offers nothing and searching around it for something to do is slow and tedious. It almost instantly made me miss the first game’s map that was just a glorified menu. Why overcomplicate things, especially when they worked fine before? I eventually just bookmarked a map from a walkthrough so I didn’t have to aimlessly sail around. Which just extra defeated the purpose of an already bad feature. And as the map kept getting larger and larger, I kept telling myself that surely now was when they would introduce the fast travel mechanic. But it never came. Just so much time wasted sailing through the same empty spaces that are far too large to be interesting.

You can only use a character in a single fight before you have to return to a pub and “rest” for the night. This is a bafflingly bad choice because it just forces you to sail back and forth to the rest stops. It’s just tedium. I’m sure somebody chose this to force you to use all the characters instead of sticking to one loadout, but if I like my one loadout, why are you punishing me? And just story-wise, why would a robot need to rest at an inn to recover? Your ship has furniture, why can’t they rest there? Or make it so characters automatically rest after one fight. That way, you can’t use the same characters in every battle, but you’re also not forced to keep trudging back to a pub and back again.

This leads to encouraging a really bad game loop. Salvage and enemy overworld units respawn every day and they’re a reliable source of currency. Since everything in the game is weirdly expensive, you’re encouraged to sail across the entire map every single day to collect all the currency you can. It’s extremely boring but it’s the only way to afford items early on when you have to buy so many items and accessories for multiple crew members and upgrade your ship. You’re not even allowed to swap equipment after using a character to cut down on having to buy items for multiple teams of multiple characters. Once you use a character that day, you’re not even allowed to add to or remove any of their items. By the end game where you’re sending in 4 or 5 crew per mission, it’s such a grind to max out the full roster that I just stuck to one team of five characters and would rest after every mission. So their whole rest system combined with bad balancing made this grand new feature utterly pointless.

There’s a bounty system in the game that ties into the rest feature, but it feels really forced. By fighting specific enemies on the map and completing missions, you earn bounty coins. You lose the coins when you rest so you have to spend all of them on rewards in a single day. It really only serves to punish you for not sailing around the entire map every day and for resting after each mission, so it really feels like the developers knew the new systems weren’t great but had to make a way to force you to engage with them because you wouldn’t want to naturally do that. It feels like the bounty coins would be a lot better and user-friendly if they were just rebalanced to be a one and done thing. You get coins for beating stages the first time and you get coins for beating the harder enemies on the map but they don’t respawn every day. That still encourages the player to beat every stage and fight every overworld enemy without forcing you to sail the whole map every day to suck up as many coins as you can.

The core gameplay of Heist is good, but they mucked it up with bad level design so you can’t appreciate it. So many stages have alarms and countdowns that trigger new enemies to spawn every turn. Strategy really goes out the window when an infinite number of enemies are only getting more upgrades over time. And the snipers become even more useless because they can’t move and shoot each turn due to needing to reload. So many missions just devolve into judging how much damage you can tank as you dash around the map, using up all your actions each turn only on movement to finish things faster. In one stage, you’re facing enemies that can spawn grunts on a map with multiple hazards that can each spawn grunts, racing against a timer that once it expires, will cause strong grunts to start spawning. It’s overkill, devalues assembling a diverse team, and isn’t fun to participate in or execute a successful run. Heist 1 felt like a tactical game where good strategy rewarded you by letting you get all the loot on the map. This one just feels like a bad smash and grab and really makes you question if the developers even understood what made the first game so good.

The music is... passable? The new Steampunk Giraffe songs are frequently slow or plaintive and the new theme is actually just kind of boring. Compare that to Heist 1 where just the music on the title screen got you jazzed up and excited. It was filled with bangers and I bought the album after beating the game. Here, I never stuck around the pubs to hear the band play and there isn’t a song I’d want to listen to outside of the game. It’s kind of sad but the highlight of the soundtrack is when you visit one pub and it just plays music from the first game instead.

They try to do moments like in Heist 1 where after beating a boss, a new song kicks in, but the song in this one isn’t good and it doesn’t really fit the boss, moment, or environment you’re in. In Heist 1, the song cheering the end of monarchy plays when you beat the Queen, and then it’s such a gut punch after beating the final boss to have that morose song kick in but it’s thematically perfect. And even divorced from the game moments, both those song are great on their own. Everything here in Heist 2 just feels forgettable.

Every character can be every class by equipping a different weapon, which sounds interesting in theory, but changing class requires you to redo your equipment and a good chunk of your selected upgrades every time. Also, all characters have personal skills mostly suited to a specific class. Also ALSO, you gain experience really slowly in this game. And bizarrely, later missions are barely worth any more experience than early ones so your leveling doesn’t speed up as you get deeper in the game (and since early missions are less risky, you’re incentivized to replay the early missions that are now brain dead easy for you). In the end, it pays to mostly just stick with the class the characters start as and once you hit max class level, bank all your experience until you have enough to max out another class, swap to a new class, fight an easy battle as the new class, and use your reserves to max it out. Then just repeat that over and over because the stat boosts and certain upgrades you unlock are pretty crucial to the end game. I think I spent about 50 in-game days just grinding out stages with my core team and even that wasn’t enough to max them out.

Not to harp on this, but the whole system is unnecessary because you can already customize your characters with the three equipment slots. One of the classes is vastly superior to others due to the constant respawning enemies, so most of your team is going to be made of Reapers. Their inherent skill is that if you kill an enemy, you get to take a second action, so unless your characters has a super class-specific personal skill, they’ll probably work as a Reaper and that lets you maximize your kills per turn when enemies are constantly spawning in. You want a sniper, equip your Reaper with extra scopes so that they get a full aim line and now you have a “sniper” that can fire every turn and can kill two people per turn. You want a brawler, equip your Reaper with melee boosts and now you have a “brawler” that’s strong up close and can still shoot while running away.

I do have to give the game credit for some good difficulty settings. You can individually influence enemy health and damage, but also things like their accuracy, enemy spawns in missions, and more. It helps get rid of some of the grind because you can lower the bounty costs to reduce how many missions you have to do every day and you can raise the number of enemies on the overworld but lower their attack to get more currency. I mean, I’d much rather the game not be grindy in the first place, but it’s something.

And finally for the story, Vectron isn’t the villain! That’s not even a spoiler, Vectron is only mentioned in passing and after the franchise has been driving it into the ground, Vectron finally just doesn’t show up. There’s a new faction, and while they have a lousy design and awful motivations, at least there’s a different villain!

There’s a short scene where you meet the main character’s mother, and man, in just those few minutes, I totally wanted the game to be about her! She has an amazing look and design and in just a few sentences, they give her a far more interesting backstory, some serious pathos about the nature of legacy, and her current adventures are exciting. Then you go back to playing as the loser character we get and she disappears...

For as disappointing as the game was, I was ready to do it again with a second loop, but there is no New Game Plus feature. Now that I’ve maxed out a team and done all the grinding and farmed all the bounties and upgraded my sub, it would be nice to actually put that stuff to use. I want to try things at a higher difficulty, experiment with a different team, try different items, and see how quickly I can get through the game. Your reward for getting the maximum rank on stages in last chapter is to double the characters’ experience gain... but that means you’ve basically already done everything in the game (or could easily go back and beat early stages since you’re strong enough to beat the last chapter) so what’s there to use that upgrade for. The item is all but useless because by the time you earn it, you don’t need it.

SteamWorld Dig 1 and Heist 1 are such great games but now it feels like all the talent has vanished from the studio. Dig 2 and Heist 2 are passable at best and I have almost no interest in Quest (the card game) or Build (the town builder) outside of them taking place in this world of games. What happened when the studios merged?! Seeing Image & Form’s name mentioned made me perk up before, but now that they’re the Thunderful Group, I think I’m done giving them chances.