#carl's tie game is so good

[footnoteinhistory]

"I have great respect and, well, appreciation for the Catholic Church. How could I not? After all, I'm a Jew. You made one of ours almighty!" JOHN LARROQUETTE as Carl Sack BOSTON LEGAL 4.19 "The Gods Must Be Crazy"

[grimesgirll]

the first time you saw rick in his constable uniform, you thought you were going to have to go to your room to cool down.

clean shaven, hair trimmed, iron pressed uniform clad rick grimes was a sight to behold. having known him just as he was a mere week or two ago, you wouldn't have expected him to be an officer of the law.

truth be told, you found that version of rick wildly hot. he was passionate. he was protective of not just you but judith, carl, the group. purpose looked great on him however it manifested.

but you also loved this domestic version of rick. watching him feed judith at a marble countertop was surreal. you hadn't known him when he was a clean-cut suburban dad, just as a survivor. rick really brought out your thing for men in uniforms though. you'd thought it was a one off thing when you'd hit on a state game warden after he came to dispatch the deer you hit with your car in the past but constable rick had him beat.

you never thought you'd see rick in a tie. you think about how he would've looked at your sorority formal as he brushes past you in the kitchen, immediately knowing what's up when your eyes don't leave him as you start to plate the brownies you just pulled out of the oven.

"like what you see?"

you smile. "yeah." you hold up a freshly cut brownie. "rick, can you try a bite? let me know if they're still hot? i don't wanna burn my tongue."

rick takes a step closer to lean in and take a mouthful of your brownie. "mmm," he hums. "delicious. not too hot. not for you." you gleam at the praise. "thank you, darlin'," he whispers huskily to you.

"you're welcome, officer."

you watch something shift in his eyes as he pops the rest of the brownie into his mouth. "i thought you didn't like cops."

"i never said that," you attest. "i've never said a bad word about a constable in my life," you swear, putting the plate of brownies down to step closer to rick, who begins to play with the buttons on your cardigan.

"really?"

"mhmm." you run your hands along his tie. "i enjoy the uniform."

"do you?"

you nod, hands working up to his chestnut curls. "did they give you handcuffs?"

rick chuckles at you. "those are for official constable business, not playin' around."

"i'm not playing around," you whisper in his ear. "what's it take to get a girl arrested around here?"

not much apparently because all you had to do was start pulling on his tie to get dragged to the upstairs bedroom and thrown on the bed. with a hand cuffed to the bedpost, all you could do was squirm as alexandria's newest constable stripped you from the waist down.

"how many do you want?" rick asks once he's gotten your pants down and he's running his hand on your ass.

you shrug. "you choose, officer."

"bad choice," he remarks and pulls you over his lap to get a better angle. "actually, i think you'll like this."

smack!

you wince. you can't remember the last time you were spanked but you know you're gonna remember this for sure, if not purely by the memory, then by the handprints that were already forming on your plush ass as rick gives you another round.

as you twist and writhe in his grasp, rick starts to get impatient, wishing you were squirming on a specific part of him. he lowers his lips to your ear. "are you ready to be a good girl?" he asks.

you nod your head up and down. "i've always been your good girl," you breathe, slightly tensing when you feel his hand on your bottom again.

"good."

with that, he flips you back face down onto the bed and you hear the metallic clank of his belt buckle. it's not ten seconds later that you feel him against your wet hole. as you feel the cold air on, you realize how wet you are; rick's behind you drawing circles in your slick with his dick while you whine into the duvet.

"rick," you start, voice low and needy.

"what do you want, sweetheart?"

"i want you, rick." you answer with an exhale. "i'm so wet for you."

"i can see, honey."

"then fuck me!"

"maybe ask the constable nicely."

you can hear the smugness in his voice and it goes straight to your cunt.

"constable grimes," you croon. "can you please fuck me?"

you don't have time to hear his answer because the wind is knocked out of you - there it is. you're knocked halfway up the bed as the constable fucks into you roughly.

"how do you like that, sweetheart?" he inquires, breath warm against your neck as he keeps pushing all the right buttons inside of you.

"mhmmm," you murmur. "feel so full."

"good."

you were so developing a thing for men in uniform.

[sam-loves-seb]

i just need a least a little bit of easter!married gallavich from sam

meant to get around to this yesterday but the day got away from me. i hope you had a good easter anon!

ian and mickey don’t really give a fuck about easter. at least, not from a religious standpoint.

but it’s an excuse to get the family together—like they need a reason—so when debbie starts blowing up the family group text about what time to come over for lunch, they tell her they’ll be there and they’ll bring dessert. they pick up a cake with bunnies on it from some westside bakery that ian picks up donuts from sometimes on the weekends.

debbie cooks, because getting together was her idea, and because no one else wants to do it. all the gallaghers go. franny’s wearing bunny ears and perpetually has chocolate on her face for the entire day. fred’s wearing a little bow tie that won’t stay clipped to his shirt for the life of him.

it’s almost too cold to be outside, but the kids are hyped up on candy and sugar so mickey volunteers to sit on the front porch and watch them run around and tire themselves out. debbie’s place is cramped and he can only spend so much time in the same room as lip.

ian spends the first hour catching up with his brothers and bothering debbie in the kitchen. eventually he finds mickey outside and sits on the porch with him, listening to fred ramble on about what the easter bunny brought him. franny nods along dutifully, even though she hasn’t believed in the bunny for a few years now.

they cram a folding table into the living room and squish as many people around it as they can. they eat ham and potatoes and roasted carrots and whatever else debbie decided to make. carl passes out beers and tami pours wine and they eat family style with plates and bowls passed around the small space.

later, mickey ends up wearing franny’s bunny ear headband, one of the ears bent at an angle. ian tries to sneak a picture, but mickey flips him off in every single one. they’re perfect.

sunday holidays are weird, and by the time they make it back to their apartment they’re tipsy and exhausted. they tell themselves that next year they’ll remember to take the day after easter off. (they never do.) they have a pound of leftovers ian slides in the fridge.

ian untucks his button up shirt from his jeans and undoes the top few buttons. mickey rips off his sweater the first chance he gets, and collapses on the living room couch with his tank top and jeans with the button undone. ian falls into place next to him, a bag of reese’s eggs open and ready to be devoured sits between them.

they catch the tail end of the white sox game and mickey passes out almost immediately. ian eventually grabs the blanket off the back of the couch and throws it around both of them, sliding down until he’s horizontal and mickey’s curling into his chest in his sleep—but not before he posts the bunny ears picture to his instagram story.

[aurheatum]

toa anniversary mun day

under cut

Name: 

Nel, i mean it’s Sarah technically, but once you start getting multiple notes in the mail with Nel on them I think it counts. Nelfes works too. I respond to most anything tbh

Pronouns:

she/her or they/them

Birthday (no year):

Dec 6th Saint Nicholas Day : )

Where are you from? What is your time zone?

Chicago. CST [GMT-5].

Roleplay experience:

Over ten years, started on Neopets and other forums. Moved to Gaia Online and then Tumblr indie space some time in 2011.

Got any pets?

Baby boy

Favorite time of year:

Springtime or Autumn

Some interests and things you like:

I’ve always been super into mythology, all of them. I used to think that Carl Jung was onto something with the collective unconscious but then Anthropology and the reality of multilineal evolution ruined that for me (college will teach you things); but that’s alright because humans their ability to create and interpret their surroundings with equal parts love and fear is still pretty cool.

Some funfacts & trivia about you:

-Agnostic but i work in an occult library (it’s pretty quiet; the new age bookshop across the street has all the events)

-One time on Gaia Online I was kicked out of an Okami RP bc I didn’t make my posts aesthetic enough, and I thought it was just the most heart wrenching thing -I’m not sure what people stand to gain back in Ye Old Runescape luring new players out into the wild and PKing them but I was gullible enough to follow some other players at like 7 yrs old and this would have happened to me if i wasnt SUPER good at clicking my mouse and running out of there. Surviving such a harrowing experience made me think i was truly invincible.

-I was supposed to write my final paper for my Japanese Buddhism class on… surprise, Japanese Buddhism but I really wanted to talk about Kenji Miyazawa’s writings instead so I spun it through a lens of his Nichiren conversion and its impact on his poetry. My prof saw right through me but I still got an A.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play?

Tales of RPG series raised me as a person so u know. I like Persona 1-2 era SMT though I’ve played Nocturne and IV as well. What else? Okami, LOZ: Twilight Princess, farm sims and visual novels. Genshin, on and off.

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon:

Psychic; wooper family (clogsire im so glad u joined us)

How did you get into Fire Emblem?

My neighbor would bring over Path of Radiance so I could play it on my gamecube with my own save back in the day

What Fire Emblem games have you played?

Tellius duology. Sacred Stones, FE 13-16; currently doing Blazing Blade. Archanea one day.

First Fire Emblem game:

POR

Favorite Fire Emblem game:

Tie between 3 Houses and Radiant Dawn

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 

It’s rhea okay. I wont lie and i wont pretend it isnt evidence of my spectacular taste either

If you’ve played the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: Tiki (first S support was olivia bc i wanted a pink haired kid)  - Fates: honestly i’d have to revisit, i know i first married niles as m!corrin - Three Houses: I married each lord on their route tho it’s much funnier if you dont i think (First route was Crimson Flower but I saved at the split so I could marry Rhea first lmao) - Engage: Saphir 🥰

Favorite Fire Emblem class:

War Cleric or Qi Adept

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class?

I’d be the mage you have to drag around and treat with baby gloves only to learn like a single good spell I think

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation?

Leicester Alliance tbh

If you were an Engage character, which Emblem would you Engage with?

Based purely on mechanics bc i love them all prob Soren dlc, Sigurd, Celica, and Lyn.

How did you find TOA?

End of 2020/beginning of 2021 I was really trying to get back into rp but couldn’t get into the various systems on discord. One community that I was trying was affiliates with The Officer’s Academy and an active tumblr community rly caught my interest. The rest is history!

Current TOA muses:

Rhea 3H, Micaiah Radiant Dawn, and miss Hortensia engage

Who was your first TOA muse? If you don’t have them anymore, could you see yourself picking them up again?

This blog right here! I put her down for a bit and probably will again but. It��s not like she ever leaves, instead of brain there is Rhea u see (i bear this burden so u do not have to)

Have you had any other TOA muses?

I played Sephiran for a hot sec and Ingrid for around a yearish iirc. Both very fun

Do you think you have a type of character you gravitate towards?

Not really? I need to be able to connect with them on some level obviously, and I tend to prefer characters who have like a clear childhood or background for why they are That Way. Micaiah was actually p difficult for this reason but being able to really shape her based on what little we know also made me ever more fond. ♥️ I love to stare at pegasusknight and serenesforest supports pages late at night tehe

What do you believe you enjoy writing the most?

I don’t particularly plan ahead but I really love when threads reflect past character development whether in a thread with the same muse or different. TOA extended universe… I’d like to do that more I think but first I have to actually make a support page huh? Since Rhea’s back she’s made more bonds though and that makes me happy.

Favorite TOA-related memory: Definitely Unlocked 2021! It was my first event after really starting to warm to the TOA community and i was an awe of the scope of the events. The mods thought this far ahead?! We can do this?! Every event since has just been even more fun but the surprise and intrigue i felt then really stayed with him

*How do you pronounce TOA?

Toe-uh. Like Dee-En-Dee. you know.

Got any delusions that didn’t see the light of day that you’d like to share? 😉 

I think I mentioned I muse Hubert before, and also that I can't really seeing myself maintaining a blog for him? So other than that, no. I do think Nimh could be quite a bit of fun though *laughs*

[power-rings]

Tom and Maddie's Announcement: Baby Wachowski

For the next several weeks, and month to follow were filled with appointments with Maddie's prenatal care practitioner to keep her updated on the baby's growth, and on Maddie's health as well. It was starting to become scary, as it would be for any expectant mother. Once they started seeing scans of the baby forming in her womb, the couple was given an option about whether they wanted to know the gender of the baby. Unlike the popular trend of gender reveals, the couple decided to just simply tell everyone that the baby was in fact a girl.

Maddie was growing exhausted, and started to waddle everywhere she went. Maddie was determined to work until baby Wachowski was close to her appearance, but her body refused to let her. After a scare working at the vet's office, her job was interrupted with false labor pains. After a visit her doctor, she was told to take an early maternity leave. For the next 2 months, Maddie was stuck at home. She was determined to work on the nursery. She was already gifted a crib, a bassinet, rocking chair, and some various hand-me-down's that her family held onto since she was a baby herself.

Her sister Rachel was in charge of the upcoming baby shower, that was a huge surprise for Maddie and Tom. Family came far to celebrate the new addiction to the family. Friends, coworkers, and yes even Crazy Carl came. Rachel did a great job picking a theme for the shower, with the help of Jojo of course.

Upon entry to the shower, there was a table spread with diapers and pens available- encouraging the guests to write something funny or a a sweet memory for the couple. In the corner, there was a bench with pink, and white balloons hanging above with a "oh, baby" balloon in the middle of the arch. In another room, gifts were being piled on another table.

Food was laid out on three or four tables, most of them were finger foods, ranging from some meat, cheese cubes, crackers, grapes, and plenty of sweet treats at the end of the table. This was were Sonic was sneaking a bite or two of different items that interested the short hedgehog. Until Tom shooed him away, asking him to help Jojo with some things in another room. They had a few more things to finish up before Maddie would be showing up. With Jojo, Tails was helping her hang up some items, while Knuckles struggled with to tie up some treat bags for the guests. Jojo was setting up the dining room, placing down reservation cards, napkins, and utensils. She asked Sonic to help her pass out some pamphlets that was supposedly a Baby shower emoji game.

Maddie soon arrived, and greeted with warm hugs. Excitement started to fill the room as guests started lining up behind the Wachowski's. Sonic grabbed a handful of pigs-in-a-blanket, and piled on the sweets and chips. Tom ended up taking a good portions of desserts off of Sonic's plate, knowing too well that Sonic would be up all night with that amount of sugar. All of them gathered in the dining area, several guests talked with the couple, and congratulated them. After everyone cleaned their plates, Rachel made some announcements, gave an emotional speech before some of the games started. It wasn't a lengthy duration of games, so everyone was encouraged to mingle, and then return to the lobby area where the couple would be opening gifts. Some of the guests did end up departing early because of other events, and their own children were getting into trouble, or needed to sleep some of that sugar off.

Tom, and Maddie soon sat at the bench as Jojo helped hand out the presents. Eventually, Tails helped too so Jojo could document which guest brought what so they could send them thank-you cards, while Sonic occasionally would peak and wonder why a baby needed so many wipes! How boring!

Not only were there a lot of wipes gifted, but plenty of diapers as well. Among the gifts, they received a car seat, a stroller, some toys, and lots and lots of clothes. The couple were so grateful to everyone. Soon enough, all the gifts were opened, and everyone begun to help clean up. Knuckles and Wade helped load up the vehicle, while others gathered to get some snapshots together with Maddie, Tom, and Sonic as well.

That night...

Baby Wachowski couldn't wait any longer. At about a week before Maddie reached 38 weeks pregnant, she was being rushed to the hospital by Wade - with her husband in the back seat of the cop car, comforting her, as contractions got more intense. Maddie was wondering why on earth Tom asked Wade to take them... he was known for not handling emergencies well, but at least they got to the right hospital and safely. It didn't take long for the couple to be took to a room. The baby was coming and very quickly. By 5AM that morning, she was welcomed into the world. Weighing in at a healthy 6 pounds. Tom and Maddie embraced, as Maddie held her newborn daughter to her chest, tears of joy falling down her cheeks. She never knew that she could love something this much until she arrived.

After a much needed rest for the couple, the nurses kept a check on the newborn's vitals, and when Maddie woke up once more they checked her over. They were doing so well. The doctor even said that they mom and the baby could be discharged that evening. Tom and Maddie could not wait to bring her home to meet her bigger brother.

When they arrived, Sonic was pacing the floor, the family's golden retriever also anxiously waited at the door for the couple. Tom came in first so Ozzy wouldn't jump on Maddie, Sonic came rushing over shortly after. He was mad that they didn't wake him up. But, Tom knew better to take Sonic to the hospital in such a situation. Maddie stepped inside with her bundle of joy, she kneeled down to Ozzy's level so they could meet, and then encouraged Sonic join them on the couch so he could meet the new addition to the family.

"Sonic, meet your baby sister... Eliana." Carefully, Maddie helped Sonic hold her properly.

The weeks to follow, Maddie and Tom would discover on the baby camera that Sonic kept watch over Eliana occasionally throughout the nights. Maddie knew for sure he was gonna be the best brother to Eliana. She was concerned because of his immature tendencies- but she had to remind herself that he was still a kid, but he took big brother role so well. Why should she doubt? When he was so good with Tails, who also looked at Sonic like a brother. Boy, what a interesting family Eliana will be growing up in. But, Tom and Maddie wouldn't trade it for the world.

---

Sorry it was short, but this won't be as huge as my other fanfictions. Just a sweet little story. I may or may not write more. We shall see!

But, I think after Eliana arrives Sonic is gonna mature a lot more, and boy that hedgehog is gonna be super protective over her which Maddie and Tom are already seeing.

Oh, and of course Eliana's first word will be "Sonic".

[dedalvs]

Fiat Lingua Top 10 for 2022

It's been a good year over at Fiat Lingua, the once-monthly conlang journal that's been posting steadily since September, 2011. I created Fiat Lingua over ten years ago with the idea that it could be something like the Rutgers Optimality Archive: A place where conlangers could post work that either they wanted to showcase, or work that was in progress. We've had tons of contributors over the years, and some standout work I'm really proud of.

Behind the scenes, we have a number of metrics available to us, and one of them allows us to know what the top posts are over a given amount of time. So, for fun, here are the top 10 visited posts for this year (though, note, the numbers for the December post will be down a little bit, since it didn't have a full month. Still, though, it's incredible, so if you get a chance, take a look at this full novel Jim Hopkins wrote in his language Itlani).

NUMBER 10

We have a tie...

"Moya Abugida" (June, 2022) by Carl Buck: A detailed description of how to write the unique abugida of the Moya language.

"Die Wichtigkeit von Conlangs in Medien" (November, 2021) by Jonah Behring: A German language article on the importance of using authentically created conlangs in films and television shows.

NUMBER 9

"Wóxtjanato: A grammar" (January, 2022) by Jessie Sams: A conlang by the amazing @quothalinguist about a culture whose planet has suddenly and unexpectedly acquired a second moon.

NUMBER 7

We have a tie...

"Names Aren't Neutral: David J. Peterson on Creating a Fantasy Language" (March, 2019) by David J. Peterson: This was an article I wrote for an online magazine, but then the magazine went under, so I reclaimed it and put it up on Fiat Lingua. It's about why coming with "random" names for sff can often prove problematic.

"Tone for Conlangers: A Basic Introduction" (April, 2018) by Aidan Aannestad: A lot of conlangers are interested in having tone in their language, but don't really know how to go about it, and this is a great introduction.

NUMBER 6

"Afrihili: An African Interlanguage" (April, 2014) by William S. Annis: Afrihili is an a posteriori auxlang from the late 60s that uses Bantu languages as its source, and it is fascinating! One of my all-time favorite auxlangs, and William provides a wonderful introduction.

NUMBER 5

"An Itlani Wedding Blessing" (August, 2014) by James E. Hopkins: A lovely wedding blessing Jim wrote for, if I remember right, a friend's daughter who was getting married.

NUMBER 4

"Dothraki & the Nostratic Super Family" (February, 2015) by Charlotte Peak: For her MA thesis, Charlotte wrote a paper on how Dothraki could fit into the theoretical Nostratic super family. A fun read!

NUMBER 3

"Patterns of Allophony" (April, 2015) by William S. Annis: Definitely one of the most popular papers on Fiat Lingua, William illustrates graphically a number of very common sound changes.

NUMBER 2

"Slides for Linguistics 183: The Linguistics of Game of Thrones and the Art of Language Invention" (September, 2018) by David J. Peterson: In the summer of 2017 I taught a class on language creation at UC Berkeley. I uploaded all the slides I used in that course as one massive .pdf to Fiat Lingua.

And now for the top viewed article for 2022 on Fiat Lingua...

NUMBER 1

"A Conlanger's Thesaurus" (September, 2014) by William S. Annis: This is consistently the most accessed article on Fiat Lingua, and I don't expect that to change. The article is relatively short, compared to the information and use you can get out of it. William Annis details ways in which languages relate words to other similar words. For conlangers who struggle either with coming up with words that are different from English in meaning, or who struggle with coming up with words at all, this reference article should prove very useful. Using the word maps in this article, you might be able to come up with words you never dreamt of before, but words which could exist in some language. A great resource for conlangers who are desperately trying to break out of the influence of their L1 or L2!

* * * * *

And that's it for 2022! I'm looking forward to posting more conlang articles next year. If you are a conlanger, a conlang-researcher, or conlang fan who has something to say in .pdf format about a conlang or conlanging in general, please consider submitting something to Fiat Lingua! We take any and all articles related to conlanging in whatever form you have them. I'm also happy to help you think up ideas, or refine those ideas you have. There is no strong review like in a fancy journal: I just want to get what you have up. I'm especially in interested in hosting personal conlang stories—stories about how or why you started to create a language, or your experience creating your own language��personal stories that are often lost, but are so vital, as there is an absolute dearth of literature about conlangers! If you think you have even the seed of an idea, please get a hold of me! I want to share as many stories and ideas as I can.

[thiriumhound]

heya!! for the fandom asks: 7 + 16!

dang you were quick! (yeah i saw u send this in like RIGHT after i rbd the post but uhhh yeah i took a min ^^;; sry 4 the wait!) aaaanyway ok!

7 (your favorite tropes to read/write/draw) - ohhhh boy it's gotta be like. angst. angst galore. whump. hurt/comfort. if there's no pain there's no spice. i don't typically like interpersonal drama too much tho (as much as i praise it out loud sfkld) bc it gets to me xD i like when a character is hurt, hides it, then gets support in the end (or it's too late...) anyway yeah no pain no gain 🤘 i swear i have other tastes i just forgot rn ngl SDLKFJS

16 (a tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate) - uhhh off the top of my head the fact that connor loses his tie for no reason after cyberlife tower! to me that implies he doesn't actually like it/it's connected to his life in cyberlife for him. it also could've just come off in whatever conflict got blue blood on his jacket tho (yeah it's there if u look w freecam). also not a tiny detail but if everyone could notice connor's usage of words like "gonna" it would be epic- WAIT NO I HAVE A BETTER ONE. EVERYONE ACKNOWLEDGE CONNOR'S EYEBROWS RIGHT NOW THEY'RE SO IMPORTANT HE EXPRESSES SO MUCH W THEM IM CRAZY IM INSANE im so sorry every other character in the game i have a connor addiction. uhhh also markus actually basically never smiles after leaving carl iirc why don't we pay attention to that too <3 i don't have any kara fun facts except salty ones so oop... ah is it okay i gave u 50 fun facts instead of one l o l man i feel like i didn't choose good ones either 😭 might come back and scream some more if i remember smth good. tho tbh uhhh actually i can think of 50 more but theyre all just "look at this microexpression connor made in scene 235" and that's. a bit pathetic LOL

anyway the ask game if anyone else wants to send me more <333333333 https://thiriumhound.tumblr.com/post/747618958223540224

[i-arch-my-backula]

I have a Daryl Dixon request if you feel motivated to write it! :)

Platonic father figure!Daryl x teen!reader where reader is part of the group because he lost his parents at the start of the end of the world. Since then he’s just been a bit closed off and quiet, but so is Daryl so reader takes more of a liking to him. One day Daryl decides to teach reader how to hunt or something and they start to bond. (Maybe reader is also besties with Carl because they’re around the same age and just get each other y’know)

I’m breaking a rule of mine because this is too good to pass up. I feel like this could also be good angst practice, as well as platonic writing practice. I took a bit to write this because I wanted to kind of explore some different things with this. Reader and Daryl are already kind of close before this, so this is more like reader gaining a new father figure in a way. This is set at the prison because I’m still on season three.

You're a great kid

Warnings: Talk of death, kind of angst, hurt/comfort, Daryl is kind of a dad, reader and Daryl are hunting so animal death

It’s a warm spring day. You’ve been somewhat keeping count of the days as they pass and you assume it’s now April. You’re outside with Carl, in a sheltered area keeping “watch”. You’re really just screwing around with a deck of cards you found in the prison. You two don’t know much card games but you’re figuring it out.

“I’ve always wanted to learn how to play poker. A friend of mine said they’d teach me awhile before this all started.” You say.

“I think my dad knows how to play poker. If not him then Daryl does.”

“Daryl’s teaching me to hunt today. Maggie and Glenn found a bow and arrows in the woods and brought it back.”

“You still need proper shooting lessons you know?”

“Yeah well I thought Rick didn’t want to waste bullets. Or attract walkers.”

“I’m sure we’ll find a place to do it sometime. But Daryl’s been talking about taking me out and practicing with my bow again,” You’d first got that bow and arrow set at nine years old from your dad. Not for hunting, but for fun. Your practice shooting with him since then and now eight years later you’re pretty good, still rusty since you’ve been using knives more than your bow since this all started, “I should probably go ask him when we’re done.”

“Why not ask now. We’re not doing anything important.” You and Carl pick up the cards and head back inside. You spend the next ten minutes hunting down Daryl. Eventually you find him.

"Daryl, I wanted to know if we could go out hunting like you said we could. I need to practice with my bow."

"I don't see why we can't go. Get what you need and tell Rick we're leaving." You nod and grab your bow and arrows. You pick up a gun just in case. Looking around you quickly find where Rick is.

"Daryl and I are going out hunting! We'll be back before dark!" You call out to him not waiting for a reply. If he really didn't want you leaving then he would have stopped you from going. Meeting back up with Daryl you double check you have everything you need.

"You ready to go?" He asks. You nod and make your way out of the prison.

--------------------------

You've had a pretty peaceful hunting trip so far. Daryl's shot some rabbit's with his crossbow and you've killed some walkers with your knife. Now you're staring down a rabbit, bow in hand and arrow pointed right at it.

“Alright now, keep a steady arm and shoot.” Daryl tells you. You take a deep breath and let go of the bow. The arrow goes flying and hits the rabbit in the head. You lower your bow and smile.

“Great shot. Now let’s grab it.” You rush in front of Daryl and grab the rabbit by the neck. It’s dead but still warm. You pull out the arrow and put it back in your bag. You wrap some rope around the rabbit's neck and tie it to your bag like Daryl does with his.

“Pretty good aren’t I?” You ask.

“You’re alright, nothing to get cocky over. Let’s aim for a few more before we head back." You two start walking deeper into the woods. A comfortable silence settling over you.

“How long have you been hunting?” You ask. Daryl shrugs.

"I've been hunting since I was a kid I guess. I've been doing it for a long time. Maybe you'll get good at it too."

"I hope I get good at it like you are. My dad always talked about taking me hunting, but he never really got the chance." Your tone shifts when you start to think about your parents. Daryl can see you getting more emotional and he spots a fallen tree near a creek.

"How about we sit down for a bit," He suggests. You nod and follow him over to the log. You two sit there for a few minutes in a comfortable silence. You thinking about your parents and Daryl trying to think about what he should be doing, “You know if you ever need to talk Rick or someone else, they’re willing to talk with you.” You roll your eyes at his comment.

“I know that. Y’all are always trying to get me to talk.” You say picking up and smoothing over a rock.

“Maybe it’s because they care.”

“Maybe I don’t want to talk about it.” You say throwing it in the creek.

“That’s fine, that’s fine, I’m just saying that’s what they wanted you to know.”

“I don’t need to talk about anything. You rarely talk about you and you’re fine.” You pick up another rock and try to skip it.

“Maybe I’m not fine. I just don’t talk much because I don’t like people knowing my business,” He pauses, “I know how hard it is losing your parents. Carl does too.”

“He’s told me about his mom. We both understand that. But I don’t really think anyone else understands what it’s like to really be alone. You still have your brother, Carl has Judith and Rick, I’m alone.”

“You’re not alone alright?” He pats your shoulder a little awkwardly, “I’m here for you. I’ll admit my parents weren’t the best but I still loved them. I’m sure you loved your folks.” You nod and feel tears sting your eyes.

“Well yeah. I loved them a lot. My parents were great parents. I still do love them a lot,” You pat away the forming tears and pick up another rock, “If I could get a new dad I’d like him to be you. You’re really cool and stuff Daryl.” You’re trying to play off how emotional you’re feeling right now. Your heart is thudding loudly in your chest, so loud you’re worried Daryl can hear it.

“I think you’re pretty cool too. If I had to chose someone to be my kid I’d pick you.” You smile and feel the tears form again.

“I don’t really like to talk about what happened. It’s hard to think about and it makes me feel so awful,” You sniffle and tilt your head back to try and drive away the tears, “I just don’t want to get too attached to anyone anymore because they can disappear at any time you know?” Sitting back straight you look over at Daryl and something inside of you breaks. For a moment he looks like your dad. Before you can stop yourself you throw your arms around him and begin to sob. It's like something inside of you just broke in that moment. Months of being shut off and trying to keep to yourself has worn you down. You've been desperate for any chance to really let your emotions go as much as you didn't want to admit it, and now was just that time.

Daryl sits there with his arms raised, unsure what to do. If it was anyone else he would push them off of him. But because it’s you, he’s not sure what he should do. Slowly he lowers his arms and wraps them around you too, staying silent so he doesn’t mess something up. He wants to scold you a little for being so loud and attracting walkers. But truth be told he’d kill anyone or anything that tries to interrupt this moment.

"I just remember them screaming and the sounds of their deaths. I couldn't look at them while it happened at all. I never really got to say goodbye either. I just... I just... I don't know." You sob out. Daryl simply listens. Partly to comfort you, partly because he doesn't know what the hell to say.

After a good ten minutes you pull away from him and wipe your face free of tears. Your nose looks irritated and your eyes are red, cheeks dewy from all of your tears, “I’m so sorry Daryl. I didn’t mean to do that.” He pulls his arms away and back to himself when you start to pull away too.

"No you're fine Y/n. I'm sorry what happened to your folks and all. I'm not the best person to talk about it with though. But uh, if you ever wanna go hunting again I'm happy to do it with you."

"Thank you Daryl. That means a lot to me."

[suchagallabitch]

Fandom Tag !

i was tagged by the lovely @auds-and-evens & @vintagelacerosette thank you stinks 🥰

Your Name: Elle 😸

Your First Fandom(s): The Hunger Games and Percy Jackson

How did you first get into fandom? I was like 11 so forgive me for not remembering all that well but I honest to god think it was Wattpad 💀 I had always likes to write and I saw that people were writing stories about the books i loved and i was like yeah i gotta do that and now here we are nearing a decade since 😭

How long have you been engaging with fandom spaces? I think I was still in 5th grade when I started reading and writing fanfiction so sufficed to say quite some time

How often do you read fanfics? honestly not very often. I am horrible at consistently reading and like if i have the spare time i would rather write than read BUT i am trying to read more to support my lovely stinky friends and their amazing work 🫶

Top 3 characters from your current fandom(s): Ian Gallagher ofc my favourite man, Mickey That also does without saying and my main woman the woman the myth the legend SHELIA 😩😩😩😩😩😩

Have you ever written a fic for a fandom? if so, shout it out! I have 46 published shameless fics so go read them stinkies 🤨 I will shoutout my favourite(s) though if anyone is in the mood for some galladads

- wasn’t it beautiful running wild till you fell asleep before the monsters caught up to you?

- now i send their babies presents

- but we can patch it up good

- it was as good as our song

Have you ever drawn fanart for a fandom? if so, shout it out! I cannot draw to save my life 😭

Share a personal headcanon that you feel very strongly about: A silly one is that Ian Gallagher is obsessed with SVU idk why thats a constant in my fanfics it just is. An actual serious one I have and I love so dearly is that Carl becomes a social worker. I feel like it makes sense because he wants to help his community out and he went through DCFS so he knows how it feels to be one of those kids. It just makes SO much sense to me especially since it seemed Carl was getting tired of being a cop but still wanted to help. How he passed school? I have no clue. I say Lip and Bryn (my gf oc for him) helped him cheat online school because that feels topical. OH also a fave headcannon is that Ian and Mickey have many many chickens thank you Mel ( @gardenerian ) i am forever obsessed with the chick crew

You're trying to convince a friend to get into your current fandom(s) with you. what episode, clip, or scene are you showing them? That’s actually a funny question for me because once i talked about random shameless plot lines to ky friend for like an hr and she was genuinely so traumatised she couldn’t believe it. another time i showed random clips to a group of my friends i also definitely traumatised them. but then my other two friends started watching the show hc of me. I always say im a plauge on everyone bc we usually end up watching shameless. Bonus my amazing breathtaking spectacular friend had started rhe show a long time ago and is now actively trying to finish it because she wants to read my fanfics 😭😭🥹🫶. I realise i didn’t answer the question but i would show Ian stealing Yev and the sorry im late scene i feel like that encompasses the show pretty well and is enticing

And finally, what does fandom mean to you? This feels like an essay question prompt lol. Idk man a bunch of cool people coming together to make some cool things and consume media together and you know what?? we shlay 🫶

second tag….

name: smelly ellie at your service

age: a year older next week 😇

Where in the world are you? Florida (derogatory)

The meaning behind your UR: Im a gallabitch what can i say i also had this user before i joined the server so maybe im a psychic too

Your second favourite color: my favourite colours are all in a tie with one another so pink yellow and burnt orange are simultaneously my first second and third favourite colour

any pets? my son chidi who is definitely a human inside a cats body

favourite season? Winter! It doesnt get cold here but i can pretend

Last thing you read: The 7 husbands of evelyn hugo i DEVOURED that book i read it in like a day 😭 if anyone wants to chat about this book please come forth

Last song you listened to: (you) on my arm

What are you wearing right now? my work uniform lol i am actively currently not doing my job

A hobby of yours: writing ofc and i would say bitching us also up there. That said i need more hobbies and really wanna (re)learn how to crochet

and finally, what are you up to today? I wish I could say nothing ☹️✊. Gotta finish my shift and then do some school work unfortunately maybe i’ll write a lil who knows!

I’m gonna try and tag some friends i don’t usually in the spirit of fandom ! play along if you please 😌😊

@imikhailo @sam-loves-seb @babygirlmickey @michellemisfit @magnificentcollectivehurricane @secret-gallavich @rereadanon @damnnmilkovich @takeyourpillsbitchh @mickmilkowitch @tear-soaked-cheeksdonteverlast @twinklyylights @milkoviched @firecrxtch @milkovetti @chicanomick @mickeys-been-staying-at-ians @gallavichlover19 @nyhmeriah @ianstummy @mickeys-notebook @filorux @mrmillagher @mixkeymilkovich @too-schoolforcool @adakechi @ian-galagher @tsuga-of-mars @mikhailoaleksandrmilkovich @gallavichgeek @lesbiangallagher @milkovichs @flamingbluepanda @ianspettyagain @callivich 🫶🫶

[returntothefalls]

Behind-the-Scenes of Return to the Falls

I did a post like this once before covering the first two chapters, so it seems about time to do another one covering the next four chapters!  I like to think I’ve got a few interesting tidbits here at least:

IQ-tie

The working title for this chapter was “Mabel and the Smarty Pines”, which never quite sat right with me, but I had a hard time thinking of something better.  What would become the titular pun was originally on Mabel’s sweater, which said “IQ and QT”.  But then when I was trying to think of a better title, @immaplatypus told me the similar pun – that Mabel was an IQ-tie – and it immediately stood out to both of us that it would be a much better title.

Is Trivi-o’s a lame name for a cereal?  I debated about it and decided yes, it is, and that is good.  A lame name for a lame cereal.

I did a lot of second-guessing myself about the logistics of the Sfinx and her very existence, but I’m glad in the end I didn’t let myself overthink it too much.  I’m really happy with how she turned out.

Much like the previous chapter, I wasn’t totally sure of how the heroes were going to turn the tables at the climax, and then when I separately thought up Carla’s “It’s for … arson” line in reference to her lighter, then I decided that’d be a good ole Chekov’s gun to bail them out.  But there was an early draft in which Carla piloted McGucket’s sphinx robot like an anime mech to beat the crap out of the Sfinx herself, so that’s fun to think about.

Challenge of the Hunt

The theme of the chapter always centered around the idea that there are more ways to win a challenge than simply playing along, but the finer details of the plot went through some major changes.  In one particularly bleak version, the Hunt was the ghost of a child who was abandoned in the woods and was misguidedly trying to protect Dipper and Mabel from their Grunkles, but that never felt quite right to me.

Skull Kid from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask was a major visual and behavioral inspiration for the Hunt, though they ended up being very different in the end.  My original sketches of the Hunt even included a very Majora-esque mask.

Originally instead of having a pet wolf, the Hunt was going to transform into a giant wolf-like beast themself during their chase.  I later decided that having a pet wolf to help would add to the huntsman theme, plus it just didn’t feel like a very sporting ability for the Hunt to have themself.

On a related note, if the joke wasn’t obvious, the Hunt’s wolf is named Virginia as a pun on the author, Virginia Woolf.

Originally instead of taking trophies from the losers of their game, the Hunt was going to just straight-up murder them, with it being implied that the Manotaur from the beginning was killed, but that was darker than I wanted and made it feel harder to let them off scot-free at the end, so I’m glad I had the trophy idea instead.  Plus that led to some fun Stan dialogue, so it’s a win-win!

The chapter didn’t originally feature Candy and Grenda but I was really itching to write for them and already had other side characters to focus on in upcoming chapters, so I threw them in here.  I’m really glad too, got some great material out of their inclusion.

Grenda’s middle name being “Papercut” is, of all things, a Kick Buttowski reference, where Carl Faruolo, Grenda’s voice actor, voices a former wrestler named Papercut Peterson.

The original version of the “Grenda tramples the Hunt” scene instead had her and Dipper being ambushed by the Hunt and her instinctive response being to pick up the Hunt and throw them like a shot put.  I really wish I’d found a way to incorporate that because it’s such a hilarious image to me.

The whole bit of dialogue in the pit with Stan rambling about digging out was graciously provided by @immaplatypus

I had various different ideas for the Hunt’s “trophy room”. The first was going to be something Dipper and the others stumble on while fleeing that really gets them freaked out about what the Hunt can do, but I struggled to organically fit it in and thought things were getting kind of long anyway, so instead I made it the sight of the climactic showdown with the Hunt.

For anyone not catching the joke, Stan calling the Hunt “Helen” is a reference to actress Helen Hunt.

The Carla and Soos subplot was born from this being one of my oldest chapter ideas, at a point in which I hadn’t even added Carla to the story yet, so I realized much later on that I just completely forgot to ever add her to this chapter.  And since Soos wasn’t a part of the family camping trip, then that all worked out perfectly to pair him up with Carla.  And I’m really glad it did, because their scenes were some of my favorites I’ve written so far.

Scrapped line from Soos, reassuring Carla about her place in the Shack: “Rudeness is polite in this house!  It’s just like Mr. Pines always says: get off the premises or I’ll shoot!”

There’s not really any significance to the Hunt being a deer-fox.  I wasn’t drawing from any particular inspiration, it was just two animals associated with hunting that I thought made a good aesthetic, and I think I’d been watching Hilda (which also features a deerfox) around the time I was initially sketching them.

Some other possibilities I considered for the ending cryptogram:

YOU JUST LOST THE GAME – if you get this, you’re liable for a senior’s discount

IT REMINDS ME OF THE HUNT – an obscure Fairly OddParents quote I think of daily

THE HUNT HUNTER HAS BECOME THE HUNT HUNTED – the word “hunt” really just gets used a lot in this chapter

The Sorceford’s Apprentice

Once again, Robbie’s song was spur-of-the-moment spit out by Jessica. Everyone go love up on her and her extraordinary talents.

Instead of a possum king, Dipper and Gideon were originally going to deal with a squirrel king that is defeated because Gideon is a true southern gentleman and always carries cashews in his pockets.

Supernatural Speakeasy

Here’s one passage from the town meeting that I had to cut for pacing but nevertheless love a lot:  “I’m still temporarily deprived of my wealth,” Preston Northwest said.  “And my pyramid scheme – I mean perfectly legitimate business – needs buyers. And I’ve already ripped off – I mean marketed to – almost everyone in town.”  He leaned over to the Pizza Guy sitting beside him.  “Hey, chum, have you heard of essential oils?”

Demusa is 100% voiced by Susan Egan.  She’s gotta be dripping with sultry like Meg from Hercules.

Pacifica was going to be obnoxious BFFs with C-Beth but then I had the idea for Gideon and C-Beth’s interaction and the concept of Demusa came to me.

A scrapped subplot would have had Mabel claim to be over the dating game, but Dipper is afraid she’ll fall back into old habits, so he tries to make her oblivious to any “dateable” creatures, which is difficult since there are now swarms of them in the Shack, and he doesn’t want another Norman situation.  I got rid of it because it just wasn’t working out smoothly and was just enjoying all the other minor conversations, but it persisted slightly in the existence of the Wolf Boy.

There are a few vague allusions here to a scrapped chapter that would have focused on Multi-Bear and his backstory.  It never worked out great and it felt shoehorned in as a continuation of old plots (namely that of Dipper vs. Manliness), so I never did much with it.  It would have involved a Russian ringmaster creating a circus of freaks and capturing the Manotaurs, forcing Leaderaur to team up with Multi-Bear and Dipper to save them.  I don’t remember my exact backstory for Multi-Bear but it was going to involve Mayor Befuftlefumpter of all people being the adoptive brother of Multi-Bear, and Leaderaur as a childhood friend of both.  It was all really weird and it’s good that it was thrown out on the curb where it belongs.

The ending cryptogram is a reference to a quote from Sgt. Frog Abridged on Youtube.

That’s all for now, hope some of you found this at least a little amusing!  Thanks so much for reading and sticking around!  And keep your eyes peeled for the sneak peek of the next chapter!

[dhowellafisheromen]

AL returns to All-Star glory with comeback win over NL

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Speedy Jarren Duran describes himself as a player who keeps his head down, works hard and never thinks of himself as being better than anybody else.

Duran turned some heads in his first All-Star Game, hitting a tiebreaking two-run homer for the American League and being awarded the MVP trophy named after Boston Red Sox legend Ted Williams.

"That's an honor. Who else would I want to try to follow in the footsteps of besides a guy like that, who is not just a great baseball player but a great human being," Duran said after becoming the fifth Red Sox player selected All-Star Game MVP. "That guy was awesome, and I'm honored to be able to have his award."

The decisive homer came in the fifth inning Tuesday night as the AL beat the National League 5-3 for its 10th win in the past 11 All-Star Games.

Pittsburgh rookie Paul Skenes pitched a hitless first for the NL, twice hitting 100 mph, and Shohei Ohtani also went deep in Texas with a three-run homer for a 3-0 lead in the third.

Juan Soto hit a two-run double and scored on David Fry’s single to tie the score in the AL third, and Duran went deep off Cincinnati’s Hunter Greene.

"It's a surreal moment. So I'm just thankful to be here," said Duran, who was one of 39 first-time All-Stars this year.

Oakland right-hander Mason Miller got the win after throwing a 103.6 mph pitch, the fastest in the All-Star Game since tracking began in 2008. Hard-throwing Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase struck out two in the ninth for the save.

The 22-year-old Skenes, who has pitched only 11 big league games since being the No. 1 overall pick in the draft last July, became the first rookie starter since 1995 and had the fewest games played for any player to make an All-Star team. The right-hander threw a hitless first, with a two-out walk to Soto before his Yankees teammate Aaron Judge grounded into a forceout on the next pitch.

Skenes threw 11 of 16 pitches for strikes, with seven fastballs up to 100.1 mph.

"Frankly, I wish I'd had a few more pitches to do that today," said Skenes, who has a good mix of pitches to go with the hard stuff. "It's cool to bring eyes to the game."

Ohtani, who has gone deep 29 times in the first season of his record $700 million, 10-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, pulled a 400-foot drive to right off Tanner Houck. That came after the Boston right-hander allowed singles to the first two batters he faced: No. 9 batter Jurickson Profar and leadoff hitter Ketel Marte.

"I haven't really hit well in the All-Star Game, so I'm just relieved that I put the ball in play," Ohtani said. "I just focused on having a regular at-bat as if I was in the regular season."

When Ohtani went against Miller in the fifth, he struck out on an 89.2 mph slider well inside and out of the strike zone. That was after twice taking strikes on fastballs of more than 100 mph.

Ohtani’s first All-Star homer made him the first Dodgers player to go deep in the Midsummer Classic since Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza in 1996. Eleven days after his 30th birthday, Ohtani was an All-Star for the fourth time — his first with the NL.

Baltimore’s Anthony Santander, after taking over for Soto in right field, had a two-out single in the fifth before Duran’s 413-foot homer to right-center after he had replaced Judge in center. Duran took a 95.9 mph fastball before going deep on an 86 mph splitter.

"I knew he threw really hard so I was just praying he would throw me a first pitch fastball so I could see how hard it was. After that, I was hoping to get a pitch up," Duran said. "He happened to leave a pitch up. I happened to put a good swing on it."

The last Red Sox player to be the All-Star MVP was J.D. Drew in 2008, following Pedro Martinez in 1999, Roger Clemens in 1986 and Carl Yastrzemski in 1970.

Duran was voted by his peers as an All-Star after being the first AL player to go into the break with at least 100 hits, 10 triples, 10 homers and 20 stolen bases.

The AL has a 48-44-2 record in the All-Star Game, and had won nine in a row before the National League’s 3-2 victory last year in Seattle.

AL starter Corbin Burnes arrived in Texas the morning of the game after spending time at home with his newborn twin daughters. The Baltimore right-hander allowed a walk and then a two-out double to Bryce Harper before getting out of his inning on a comebacker by William Contreras, his catcher last season in Milwaukee.

After his underhand toss of the ball to first base, Burnes had a big smile on his face when he kept jogging and wrapped his arm around Contreras on the baseline.

Quick game

Played in 2 hours, 28 minutes, it was the shortest All-Star Game since 1988, a game that the AL won 2-1 in Cincinnati that took only two minutes shorter.

Won in both leagues

Bruce Bochy of the host Rangers became the first manager to win World Series titles and All-Star Games in both leagues. Bochy is now 2-3 as an All-Star manager, leading the NL to a win in 2011. He won the World Series three times with the NL's San Francisco Giants in 2010, 2012 and 2014, then led the Rangers to their first championship in his debut season with them last year.

Up next

The MLB regular series resumes Friday when 14 games are scheduled, with Milwaukee and Minnesota the only teams that won’t play until Saturday. Philadelphia (62-34) has the best record in the majors and Cleveland (58-37) has an AL-best .611 winning percentage, though Baltimore and the New York Yankees also have 58 wins. San Diego (50-49) is set to become the first team to play its 100th game, at the Guardians on Friday night.

[dirty-droid]

Playing more again today! So I almost never walk Markus past the protesters because they're stupid and annoying and I'm just trying to get through the first few chapters, but it's been so long and I got a wild hair up my ass so I checked them out again, it was just as stupid as it's always been, but ohhhh Carl's line when we get home.

"They think they can stop progress by roughing up a few androids?"

DAMN that's out of touch. TBH every time I think about dbh's android-hating culture, all I can ever wonder is why no one is protesting for something like universal basic income or guaranteed housing, which would be the logical thing in a world where robots can do every and any job, but I digress, because, damn, Carl, the word choice, "progress."

Someone else can probably give better thoughts on that than I can but it did rub me the wrong way. Did remind me of Joyce Messier from Disco Elysium though, and some metas I've seen about her, I think her and Carl play similar roles in world building.

Either way, Markus just looks both so comfortable and uncomfortable simultaneously in this chapter, like this is his routine and he's used to it, but he's not looking super comfortable with anything that's happening in his day to day life, and Carl is... Pushy. Especially about the painting thing, it's kind of an awkward scene, it's really rushed which is probably my main complaint.

I think I'm still trying to decide if he would enjoy painting in the future, after the events of the game, or if it's just not going to be a fun reminder of his time with Carl, for better or worse. I think I'm just spending this playthrough trying to sort out what I can glean of his thoughts and feelings about things and I have no idea what kind of conclusions I'm coming to but I'm having fun at least trying to analyze his ass. He's still such a cutie, trying to make Carl happy and just not quite putting two and two together yet.

Hankcon time tho, THEY HAVE MET YET AGAIN and we're making fun of Connor for stopping in the middle of the road to flip his dumbass coin and fix his tie, when he could have been on the sidewalk or something 😅

and damn, this is such a meet cute, I stg. Connor walks up talking like he's reading the terms and conditions, Hank is just trying to get his drink on, he's not intending on doing shit tonight. I kind of think buying Hank a drink and him not really inspecting much at the crime scene kinda go together in a way. He's just had like three shots of whiskey in the timeframe that we see him in, and he's just... Here to observe his new lil' android do his thing.

"be a good lil' robot," gets me every time, I can't BELIEVE he says that, that's kinky, I love it. They just, harass each other until they develop a taste for it, it's great.

Even though Connor does NOT answer his ass once Hank finally asks him about the crime scene, my fiance was just making fun of his dumbass little look that he makes in response instead of responding. He really thinks the intro and outro is awkward and dumb lol

Started a dbh playthrough again, haven't played in months at least, if not a year or two now... Connor doesn't look like how I've been picturing him 🤣 and God, he really just Talks Like That doesn't he?

Also-sidenotes- Alice is actually a really good artist for a kid her approximate age, y'all ever pay attention to that shit?

Also also- I don't know if I still feel like characterizing Markus as a sub right this minute, I was so sad when he got assaulted, boy is REPRESSING some anger right there. I'm sure I'll change my mind as I get deeper into the game again but I saw that and went, "damn, he'd HATE submission, actually." So, Dom Markus headcanon set, I guess.

[frigidlyauthorial]

the fact that there are so many unanswered questions about the lore of dbh vexes and haunts me

[ravenadottir]

hiii im so happy youre back!! i hope your doing well :D i was wondering how the lis would celebrate mc’s birthday with her?

thank you so much! i won't blab too much here.

bobby. he wants to cook her meals and make sure it's a surprise, enough to beat the buttercream the day before when she's not around. making her favorite breakfast, lunch and dinner are a given but to top it all off, he arranges table for two in the living room, very romantic, very intimate. her present might be something really cool like tickets to see her favorite artist.

carl. he's not a cook so he's taking her out to her favorite place, because he will burn everything down, including the kitchen. limo, a new dress, flowers. in the restaurant, after the meal, bubbly and dessert, and her gift when she gets home. it's always something extravagant because he loves shiny things. unless that's not mc's style he will give her something diamonds.

elisa. glamour surprise birthday party, every friend invited, black tie, sophisticated food and place but absolutely cool music. she pampers mc with a new dress and shoes and sends a car to mislead her. a room waiting for them at the end of the night where elisa gives mc her present, something gold like a necklace or bracelet engraved with an inside joke.

gary. surprise party with friends, the barbecue type of party, possibly asking chelsea to help out. there's music, presents, the friends playing drinking or card games, but there's one room where they can go to be alone for a second, where the gift comes out. it could be a thousand things but i'm betting on trip for two.

henrik. mini vacation, possibly somewhere warmer and more reserved. if it's winter, somewhere with a fireplace. he will spoil her with food, massages, his gift, which i think it might be a token from somewhere they visited together but couldn't get it at the time.

ibrahim. getting a private plane to a place where they can share dinner and a present. he's done it before, imagine what he would do if he loves the girl! it might be a different country and they might spend the weekend. the present is as ostentacious as the trip there. i don't doubt he would stir into the rich when planning something.

kassam. a really cool concert he might mislead mc saying he couldn't get the tickets to because it has to be a surprise. definitely 4 am food on the way home and her gift waiting to be unwrapped, possibly something practical that she really needs, like a laptop or tablet. he loves giving things he sees people using all the time.

lottie. whole-day-date, starting by shopping and spa, then having mc's favorite food for lunch. a movie later she wants to take her to a hotel for the night. lottie being so imaginitive and planning something for a girl is endearing, because she wants everything to be perfect. her gift might be something mc really wants to splurge but doesn't want to because it's too expensive and she would feel guilty.

lucas. he's moving things on his schedule because it's gonna be big. a whole weekend kind of deal, possibly taking her to the beach, where is warm, no matter where that is. there's new clothes, shoes (that he picked), extravagant meals, everything to spoil her.

marisol. loves planning things, especially for her girlfriend. i reckon a dinner party with their friends, entrees, main course, dessert, drinks, the whole shebang! she struggles to pick a gift so she goes with what she knows mc needs at the moment.

noah. two for dinner in his place all the way. he's cooking everything, he's picking her up from work and drawing her a bath while finishing the meal. they have dinner and he gives her the present he chose. it's always heartfelt, and it could be something from mc's childhood, like a plushie toy she really wanted, or a book that was a big part of her life growing up.

priya. step aside because the fancy birthday dinner will end up in shambles, in a good way. the best way to celebrate a birthday, according to her, is to have fun with your loved ones, so she's taking mc and everyone else to an afterparty in a club. there's music, drinks, all types of shenanigans because bobby and gary will be present. she wants it to be unforgetable.

[h-worksrambles]

Carl’s good ending complete! It was a pleasure to read your thoughts on this conclusion and if I may I’d like to add some of my own. Full spoilers and canon typical content warnings below (seriously I wanna impress that as we’re getting into some of the more screwed up territory now):

-The tension quickly mounts again as Chase takes note of Jenna’s unusual attitude, ‘vacant, dull’ expression and the change on her voice (a change in voice in particular was an especially obvious sign of Carl’s possession too). When Jenna again raises her suspicion that Carl knowingly burned the clue that could get them out of here, that stress level only builds further.

“I just have a problem with the way he acts. He could do a lot if he put his mind to it.”

-An important thing to note about Jenna’s possession is that, like Carl’s, it’s one that plays into the conflicts and ideas her character has already established. Just as James functions as the embodiment of Carl’s pressuring family legacy, his desire to relinquish responsibility, and lack of faith in himself, John Begay becomes a catalyst for Jenna’s repressed anger. Here, she repeats many of the same frustrations with Carl she raises during the birthday party, particularly her belief that Carl has never even tried to improve himself as a person. As a person who has to fight for every good thing in her life, this greatly aggravates Jenna in ways that trump her common sense. As Chase points out, her experience with psychology means she should be more understanding of Carl’s headspace than anyone.

However, as is further explored in her own route, Jenna’s resentment of Echo, the people who live there, and even her old friends, runs exceedingly deep. Beneath her rational front is a quiet rage at a town that has given her nothing but grief. So it stands to reason that her anger begins to blur with the bitterness of John Begay, whose anger rooted in suffering mirrors her own. There’s also the fact that Jenna, like Carl, has her own complicated relationship with her family legacy. She had cut herself off from her abusive parents, but takes pride in her Meseta heritage, which she associates much moreso with her grandmother. In this route she is nearly swallowed up by a family name she has previously tried to free herself from, but also becomes something of an avenger for the past injustices inflicted on the indigenous peoples of Echo by James and others like him. While this concept of possession from long dead townspeople is not really explored in other routes (outside of Samuel and even he is an odd exception in many ways), it mirrors the way that mass hysteria is used in other routes. Supernatural happenings that reflect and exacerbate the faults, fears and trauma of the main cast.

Admittedly this does tie into a criticism I have of the route. Looking back now, with full context of Jenna’s character across ever route, I can make these points about John Begay and his relevancy to Jenna’s character development. But a lot of this is not going to be very evident to players doing Carl’s route the first time through. Especially since he is the recommended first route, and Jenna has had relatively little screen time in the route to build up her personality and her conflict with Carl pre-possession. A lot of nuances are only evident to me looking back at Carl’s route in the context of the whole game, and who’s to say how much of that was even planned at the time, given how much earlier it was finished? On my first playthrough, I didn’t really know Jenna very well as a character as I hadn’t been given the chance to. So a lot of this nuance went over my head. Again, this route is not above criticism.

-Chase notices Carl just after he suffers another panic attack. As OP has already pointed out, we already we are seeing consequences to the choice we made. Not letting James take over Carl was the right decision, but it places much more pressure on Carl to cope with an incredibly difficult situation without that crutch. In many ways, this is a test of character for Chase. A moment where he has to really listen and support Carl in the way he needs. Not non-commitally like he did at college. Not by pushing too hard like he did with the job interview, but by really listening. It becomes a mark of Chase’s character growth over the route, his newfound selflessness and willingness to accept and deal with difficult emotional situations rather than shying away from them. Incidentally Chase insisting that he doesn’t believe in ‘the strong one’ in a relationship is another sign of his maturity. Since he was previously in a relationship that did have a defined ‘strong one’ (that being Leo) and where he himself was very passive and uncommunicative. But he seems to have learned from that in his interactions with Carl.

-Chase ironically shrugs off the idea that he too could be possessed. Though that does tie into an interesting point that Chase seems fairly resistant to the effects of the hysteria in most routes. He doesn’t lose himself in Carl, Leo or Jenna’s route, even as his friends do. It’s not infeasible to suggest Sam’s influence is somehow protecting him. He’s already been affected by Echo so it can’t twist him further. In fact, the only route in which he does give into the hysteria, TJ’s route is the one where Sam is ousted from his subconscious. The later encounter with James and John makes this more explicit.

The stove:

-Jenna is attacked by another creature as she tries to pull another clue from inside the stove. It attempts to pull her into the stove using ‘black tendrils’. There’s definitely a lot of room to interpret what this creature actually is, and OP provides some compelling theories. But given how Jenna/John addresses the creature directly, I personally interpret this to be James’ doing. He is determined not to let Jenna find his fabricated evidence, knowing that she intends to destroy it. Incidentally the one to save Jenna from James’ violent outburst is Carl. After making the decision to reject James’ influence, after wallowing in the fear that this is his fault somehow, Carl takes action, saving Jenna despite arguing with her all week, unknowingly defying James in the process. This makes for another very crucial step forward for Carl in his arc.

-Jenna’s first instinct is to burn James’ note. And is only narrowly stopped from doing so by Chase. This escalates into a full blown fight between Chase, Jenna and Carl, until Chase and Raven are forced to keep Carl and Jenna separate. Since the letter is revealed to be from James, implicating John in what are actually his crimes, it’s clear that John wants to destroy James’ deceitful account of their history. And because Chase and Carl, unaware of the full situation, attempt to stop him and Jenna, he believes them to be on James’ side and working against him (he says as much later on in the route)

-The group are now able to pass through the door somewhere new, and in the process, Chase and Carl are pursued by the smoke monster until they reach a bonfire and pass out. If I’m correct in my assertion that the smoke monster is John, then this likely reflects John’s belief that Chase and Carl are working with James. So he has marked them both out as enemies. Chase has another paralysis induced dream, this time hearing the sounds of an angry mob before awakening.

-Chase awakens back in the maze of hallways from earlier and returns to the room with the rotting deathly smell when he hears Jenna’s voice. He finds her hanging from the noose from earlier. Chase’s dream was likely him hearing the sounds of the lynch mob who killed John Begay. And now, Jenna, as his host, is forced to suffer the same experience. It’s unclear which supernatural entity set this up, but the thematic point of Jenna living through John’s suffering holds true regardless.

-Unable to help Jenna and fighting off the pain from his ankle, Chase well and truly gives into his panic. Only for Carl to arrive, saving Jenna a second time. Chase’s previous dynamic with Carl has been well and truly reversed. Carl has now been the one to find Chase overwhelmed by a panic attack. But this time, he is the one to to help Chase. Learning that he is strong enough, physically and emotionally to support Chase, as he has been throughout much of the climax, is pivotal to Carl’s final epiphany that he doesn’t ‘need’ Chase the way he thought he did.

Jenna’s possession:

An important thing that was pointed out to me when reading interpretations of the Carl route online. Jenna saying that she doesn’t know who John Begay is, is straight up untrue. And I don’t just mean that John is lying through her. Runaway confirms that Jenna does at least know about James and John’s sodomy scandal and that it was a coverup for James’ own crimes. She might even know (or have guessed) that James is the real killer. In this scene, Jenna tellingly says “Our family doesn’t have records like yours, Carl.” Using the pronoun ‘our’ sets up her solidarity with James. It’s unclear who of the two is speaking. But either way, Jenna seems to align herself with John here. Is this Jenna speaking, another bit of her class fuelled resentment of Carl coming through? Or is it John, venting his anger at the Hendricks family for James’ actions? Carl brings up another point, that Jenna has a much stronger mind than Carl does, and is more than capable of rejecting John…which implies that she consciously isn’t.

This raises a number of questions about Jenna’s motivations if she is indeed consciously allowing herself to be possessed. Perhaps, if she is already somewhat aware of James and John’s history AND has John whispering in her ear, she is personally motivated to let John stay in control to uncover the truth. If she is more aware of the injustice done towards John than she lets on, then it shines her attitude towards Carl earlier in the route, and her actions while possessed in a completely new light. If she is indeed aware of the atrocities the Hendricks’ legacy is built on, of course she carries a resentment about it. Jenna has a direct motivation to relinquish control to expose an injustice she’s known about for years. For Jenna, a character who thinks fondly of her Meseta heritage, and who is especially disillusioned with Echo as a place that takes away ‘everything that’s good’ this is some small victory for her over the hell that is Echo as a town. As for her violence while being possessed, perhaps it simply feels good to give into her anger at Carl, at Echo, at rich bastards like James, at her life in general? Jenna’s bad ending stands as proof at how far Jenna’s bitterness can go when it runs unchecked. It’s during that scene that Raven speculates that James is stopping John from trying to say something. This causes Jenna briefly snap out of it, (her sprite changing expression to make the change even more apparent) before muttering that she doesn’t know. It’s a moment of vulnerability that suggest that, if Jenna is letting John posses her, she’s clearly in way over her head, and feeling the stress of the situation far more than she’s letting on.

-“Some things should just be left alone…Every single person here…You will never escape, you will always come back…You’ll always be running in circles.”

After the group pass through the door, Chase dreams of Echo as it appears in the past, these cryptic remarks from Samuel appearing as his attention falls on the mine. There is definitely a significance to Sam’s simulation mocking Chase for trying to uncover the secrets of James and John’s past, when he himself has guilt and secrets that he himself is trying to bury. And of course, doing so while focusing on the mine, a place with its own bloody history, reminds us that the curse of Echo runs are deeper than the conflict between these two men. Perhaps it’s reminding Chase that doing all of of this will not fix his problems. Helping Carl won’t resolve his trauma. He’ll still be running in circles. In the context of Carl’s route being the first route, we are reminded that, for all we delving into Carl as a character, the history of Echo, the feud between James and John, there is far more to Chase himself than we the player currently have any way of knowing. There is definitely truth to the fact that, perhaps due to a change in direction, Carl’s route can feel somewhat peripheral, as if it no longer reflects what Howly’s vision for the game became. But for a first route that suggests the horrors we’re seeing are only the tip of the iceberg, that ends up serving the game’s themes in a way, even if it may have been somewhat accidental.

“It feels so close to being home, but none of it is home.”

Ironically, despite how wildly out of step its supernatural aspects are with the rest of the game, Carl’s route does manage to hit very similar emotional beats. Taking the sense of nostalgic familiarity and twisting it into something unfamiliarity and dangerous as a way to explore how trauma can poison those memories. Even if in Carl’s route that trauma is cultural (the legacy of colonialism) rather than personal.

-The group finds the decaying corpse of John Begay hanging from a tree. He hangs there with an account of his experiences in his mouth, a fairly clear metaphor for how the truth about him was silenced through his death. Considering John later swallows the paper, it is heavily implied that this is another false piece of evidence from James. Thus, he is quite literally putting words in John’s mouth.

-It’s interesting to note that, even without James’ influence, Carl still slowly builds more of an animosity with Jenna. Except this time, it is over her refusal to talk, and her willingness to keep Chase in danger, coupled with the implication from earlier that Jenna is willingly letting herself be possessed for her own reasons.

Chase converses with the ghosts:

-James’ defence for his actions is rooted in the idea that the truth is somehow subjective, that ‘my truth’ somehow recontextualises the reality of the situation. As John points out, this is mere ‘delusion’ but it does reflect James’ ability, as a wealthy coloniser, to rewrite history and replace it with his own ‘truth.’

-It is here that we are first introduced to the idea that there is some entity beyond James and John. One they refer to as ‘it.’ James gives us more insight into it ‘Why does it create these places, let us do small things then take it away? It’s a game, my life, my reputation is a game to it.’

The Echo entity’s motivations are never spelled out explicitly (as expected for a cosmic horror). But you could certainly construct a meta reading around the idea that the entity treats these characters’ suffering as a game or source of entertainment.

John also makes explicit his belief that ‘the otter works with you’ explaining why he has been so hostile to Chase in particular, both in dreams as well as in his forms as the smoke monster or Jenna. Incidentally, James’ remark ‘You are but smoke…you and your fucking lies’ ties back up my previous assertion that John, who only wanted to expose the truth, has been turned into a literal smokescreen, a tool used to keep secrets buried.

John unknowingly cuts to the heart of Carl’s route in his next line: ‘you are stuck here because you cannot see the truth.”

- Chase is blind to the truth of his past actions because accepting the reality of it was too traumatic, and he now carries a piece of Echo with him in his head that keeps him tied to the town. In addition, his arc in this route specifically comes from his inability to see how deep Carl’s issues run, and learning to better empathise with his old friend.

- Carl cannot accept himself for who he is. He cannot overcome his self doubts about himself. He is slow to come to terms with his sexuality. He too, cannot see the truth: that he is not as useless as he thinks he is.

- Chase and Carl’s own relationship is marred by an inability to communicate what they really mean to each other, and James’ influences exacerbated that inability to separate what is real and what isn’t. Which reflects that the entire climax of the route is about sorting out the truth from the lies.

- You could perhaps argue that every major character in Echo is somehow lying or denying something to themselves, blind to their personal flaws. Leo obsessively clinging to the past. Jenna’s sense of self superiority and attempt to convince herself she is ‘over’ her past. Flynn’s fixation on Sydney’s death. TJ trying to hide his pain with optimism. Every character is on some way ‘blind to the truth’ and will only grow once they accept it.

-The dream ends with a flashback to Chase seeing a vision of John’s hanging body when he was 10. In TJ’s route, we learn that this happened shortly after Sydney’s death, and as where Chase’s struggles with his mental health started in earnest. It also serves as more evidence for my earlier point. As he carries Sam’s influence within him, as the town is reacting to his trauma in particular, Chase is uniquely connected to the supernatural forces of Echo out of all his friends. It’s perhaps why he is more resistant to the hysteria, why he can meet with James and John when the others can’t. Chase can’t lose himself during the week, because the truth is that Echo got him a long time ago…

-The account from Trisha Hendricks which seemingly incriminates John, appears, torn in half and then put back together, in the corpses’ pocket, a fact which visibly angers Jenna. This follows up on the ghosts’ remarks that they can ‘create small things’. There is something of a tug of war going on where in this realm, John destroys one of James’ fabricated or inaccurate accounts only for James to repair. The two are manipulating reality back and forth.

-The potential bad ending is striking to me, because this could have so easily have just been a quick game over death scene. But Howly instead uses it to lay even further dread as to what’s going on in the rest of the town, as one of the last thing we see is Duke’s mangled corpse. Even as our protagonist is lying in the dirt bleeding to death, the game implies other things even worse are going on all around him…

-As Carl is completely overwhelmed by these events, he runs into the distance, causing the world around him and Chase to morph into something else entirely. Without the safety net of James, the constant, unending exposure to the stress of these visions pushed Carl to his breaking point.

Carl’s epiphany:

-Chase finds himself back at college, during the winter of his first year where he and Carl were still roommates there. In many ways, you can see something of a template for what the mass hysteria would become in other routes. Having run out of the bounds of James’ and John’s ‘realm’, Chase and Carl find themselves in a vision that reflects their guilts and insecurities. For Carl, it was a time that represents when he most felt out of his depth, the time he most felt like a disappointed to everyone around him, and the last time he had Chase around him as a support, but it was also when that relationship began to fracture, as Chase was unable to help him fully, culminating in his return home and that fateful crash that truly crystallised Carl’s issues. For Chase, it was his first time really getting away from Echo, but one that also cemented that he couldn’t truly get away from it or his own baggage. And that is bolstered by over his guilt over how he handled his relationships at this time he was still figuring out who he is away from Echo, most notably how he let down Carl (when you have context from Jenna’s route about what little interactions he was having with Leo at this time, that just bolsters the reasons Chase would have to feel guilt about this time in his life). Another example of characters hallucinating entire locations like this, would be the end of Flynn’s route, where his hysteria vision has him see himself in the Smoke Room.

-It might seem strange that, of all the things Chase had experienced over the years, that the town would use…the time he was a bad friend to Carl, in order to hurt him. But in the context of Chase desperately chasing after Carl, how much his guilt towards Carl had been resurfacing over the past few days, it probably is one of the main things on his mind right now.

-When Chase hears Carl’s voice, it sounds ‘crackly, and muffled, like when it was coming through a phone’. This is the same manner in which Shadow Chase is described in Leo’s route. It really does seem like this is the closest Chase comes to succumbing to the hysteria in any route except TJ’s.

“You want me to be there for you?” -

-Chase finds Carl in a hallucination of their old room. Carl, having wandered through this warped reflection of his memories. Like Chase, these memories embody things regrets he’s kept that hidden. That he’s still somewhat resentful of Chase. That he feels he can’t take care of himself. But after all the different stages of development he’s gone through over this route, this week, instead of the hysteria breaking him, he finds clarity. This sets the base for how other characters overcome the hysteria. Self reflection and healthy connections with others. In Jenna’s route, we see Leo and Jenna free themselves in similar ways from their delusions. And of course Flynn, in his own route, tragically fails to escape his.

-“And that I’m sick of feeling like I have to do something important, that I need to be someone important.”

In this moment, Carl comes to terms with both sides of his arc, ones that I have discussed previously. He learns not only to rely on himself, but to not feel the need to be more than he is. I’m his own words, he is finally able “to feel comfortable in my own skin.”

-“…then one time I dropped acid and thought I’d killed you.”

This references the events of Trip, which is in many ways Carl’s lowest point. It consolidates his belief that he can’t do anything right, that he can’t even go outside without messing everything up, and that he’d go to pieces without Chase. And that cocktail of horrible realisation causes Carl’s anxiety and depression to escalate. But once Carl confronts his issues, once he comes to terms with who he is, understands what he needs to do to be better, the hallucination dissolves. He effectively breaks out of the hysteria. And the two are able to see that they have simply been wandering around Echo this whole time.

-Of course, this raises worrying questions about what other characters have been going through, what they’ve been seeing over each the course of these past few days. As Chase and Carl arrive back at the house, they hear the pop of a shotgun. Howly litters Carl’s route with all these little hints that Chase and Carl are far removed from the full extent of the hysteria’s horror. That for as many awful things as they’ve been through, they are merely on the fringe of something far worse. Something you’ll only see in the other routes…

-Chase sees plates in the kitchen laid out with drywall and a cup that implies that yes, Chase accidentally drank urine earlier. Cursed moment aside, it’s a lurid and darkly comic pay off to show just how out of touch the characters were from reality while all this was going on.

-Chase finally recovers the article Carl/James tried to destroy earlier. The one that implicated him in the abduction, abuse and murder of five indigenous children.

-Carl and Chase find Raven tied up inside the house. This moment helps to crystallise what John’s motives actually are. While he is much more violent to Chase and Carl, who he believes are on James’ side, instead of hurting Raven, he simply leaves him with letters revealing the truth of what really happened. John seems to see Raven as a neutral third party who he can reveal his story to. Raven’s separation from the whole conflict makes him less of a threat to John. He’s the one person John has let be consistently around Jenna. Because Raven has nothing to do with James. Perhaps out of the three, he sees Raven as his best chance at getting the truth out.

The final confrontation with Jenna/John:

-With Jenna’s reappearance, Chase accepts there’s no waking Jenna up, and even begins consistently referring to her as ‘John’ or ‘he’. It’s also a moment that cements Chase’s growth. Despite the continued injury of his leg, the thing that made him dependent on Carl throughout this entire climax, Chase makes a desperate bid on his own to find the last letter and ‘end whatever this is’. It’s a striking moment if selflessness as Chase risks his life to save his friends, and acts as the culmination of his arc over this route. Chase even thinks to himself that he wants Carl’s help right now, but also doesn’t want him to catch up. Chase can’t depend on anyone else right now because doing so would put other people he cares about in danger. And in doing so, despite being in terrible pain, he’s able to reach the tree, recover the last letter and talk down John.

‘Jenna’s hands go to her mouth, staring at the knife, staring at me and Carl before she screams.’

Jenna’s horrified reaction is natural enough, but if you read more into Carl’s prior assertion that Jenna was letting herself be possessed, it adds a painful layer of meaning. Jenna, who knows at least some of the history between these two, allowed John to take over her body in order to correct an atrocity in Echo’s history, to strike back just a little against the town that hurt her. In doing so, she got in way over her head and ended up hurting the few people in this town that she cares about. It almost feels like a mirror to her character arc in her own route. She confronts her own anger and learns she isn’t as smart or above it all as she thinks she is. But the way she learns it in this route is brutal. We end on her screaming in horror as the full weight of what’s she’s suffered AND what’s she’s done, hits her.

Epilogue:

-Chase ruminates in his project on the fact that for all he saw over those few days, the truth of what happened between James and John, can never be fully proven. John’s false accusation and lynching is an atrocity that can never be satisfyingly resolved because he is dead and gone. His tragedy is just one of the many pieces in the colonialist history of both Echo and America as a whole. But it’s something that still has ripples and consequences to this very day. It’s a thesis statement that reflects how Carl’s route places the horror of Echo in a wider social, historical context. As we watch the traumas and horrors the characters undergo route after route, we can see their experiences in a wider tapestry of suffering and human capacity for evil. It reinforces why it’s so important to try to learn and be better. It’s still worth it for Chase to explore this history even if he can’t undo it. Because those who fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it. To keep moving in circles.

-‘Everyone handles trauma differently.’

And indeed, Chase, Carl and Jenna each find a different way to cope with what they went through. Carl keeps the promise he made to himself during the hysteria, and it allows him him to emerge as a better, happier person, in spite of what he went through. Jenna behind studying ‘shared psychosis’ at college. Her words to Chase ‘that she hasn’t forgiven herself, that she should have been stronger than that’ seems to reinforce that she really was somewhat aware of her own possession and had some agency in her possession. Which in turn causes her to confront her flaws by seeing what she was capable of when she was out of her depth. She gains a handle on her trauma by seeming to rationalise and understand it. And Chase attempts to better understand Echo and its history, so that he can better understand what he went through.

-Yet, as hopeful as this ending is for Carl, Jenna and Chase, there’s a dark shadow left by what was unsaid, or unresolved. The full extent of what ‘Flynn, Leo and TJ…poor TJ’ went through, is left worryingly ambiguous. The friend group will clearly never recover. Chase has become better person, but he has not one, but two, permanent physical reminders of his traumatic experiences. The tragedy of Sydney still affects these characters’ lives and no one has reached any closure. It’s a hopeful but purposefully inconclusive ending. And, as I have repeatedly stated, that makes sense with its position as the first completed, and first recommend route: the metaphorical tip of the iceberg. It adds a strikingly meta element to Chase’s resolve to visit Echo again: ‘I realised that there are a lot more stories to cover over there, and I plan to uncover them.’ He even echoes Sam’s opening lines: ‘guess I always end up back there eventually’.

-Here we also learn that Chase and Carl didn’t end up together. And this is yet another case of Echo wearing its dating sim subversion proudly on its sleeve. While the route has demonstrated Chase and Carl’s chemistry, it’s also been just as clear why they probably shouldn’t be together that way. Carl coming to terms with his dependency on Chase is pivotal to his character arc, and, as we have had glimpses of already and as we will see over multiple routes, Chase’s propensity to hook up with his friends may be doing more harm than good. Instead, they manage to foster a healthy friendship that will allow them both to grow as people. You don’t have to end up with the cute furry boy to have a happy ending. Instead, we end on a heartwarming reversal of their prior dynamic, with Carl urging Chase to come outside and meet people, showing how far he’s come. It’s a positive final note to probably one of the most genuine and touching relationships in the game. You’re right OP. He really is best boy..

And that brings us to the end of Carl’s route. As I said previously, this route, while it has its fans, is often pointed to as the weakest route. Mostly due to early instalment weirdness, some pacing issues in the climax and a general sense that it doesn’t quite reflect the qualities that nest represent what Echo eventually became. A slightly rough and experimental, but still enjoyable, Season One so to speak. And while this re read has reminded me of some of my criticisms, I found myself also walking away from this re read with more respect for it. Carl’s character arc is excellently handled and there’s so many well crafted little steps on that personal journey that I was able to take better note of this time. And while certain elements seem a little weird compared to the other routes, it still captures so many of the themes that make Echo so brilliant to me. Like OP says, its themes of identity, self acceptance and the contrast between toxic relationships and healthy connections with others are all on point. But it’s also an indictment of the cycles of violence that run throughout America and beyond. How the after effects of trauma and cruelty can carry on for years afterwards and why it’s so important to learn from them. It sets Echo’s story in a wider context and it does so very effectively. And even if Howly may not have had quite the full scope of the story in mind when he wrote this route, it stil slots along what came after in such a way that it feels like a worthy piece of the larger narrative.

And of course, we’re not even entirely done because we still have Carl’s bad ending to go. And I look forward greatly to seeing OP’s take on that. Thank you for another excellent post.

Furry Visual Novel Book Club: Echo Week 8 SPOILERS

Hi everyone, here is the SPOILER FREE discussion post for “Echo - Carl’s Route A Ending”  

Links: Previous - Next - Original - Spoiler Free Version

Feel free to respond in reblogs/replies/or asks :D

Keep reading

[sumoattack-gooddog]

DBH Hugability from least to most huggable:

Zlatko - would not touch with a ten foot pole. if androids didn’t exist, he’d be torturing people. literally something out of the lalaurie mansion which traumatizes me to this day.

Perkins - has the most punchable face i’ve ever seen. would not be able to avoid smacking when he’s within range.

Todd - we do not stan abusers. he needs some serious therapy and rehab, asap

Captain Allen - listen bud, you’re also on pretty thin ice with that punchable face of yours

Amanda - i feel like she’d whisper passive aggressive shit in my ear while we hugged, and the hug would some how both be threateningly tight and loose and impersonal. also i cheered for few things louder than that “betrayed” pop up so you know my heart wouldn’t be in that hug.

Leo - severely needs rehab and therapy. how dare you disrespect your father. also has a punchable face.

RK900 (undeviated) - scary. would not hug back.

Ben Collins - i think the hug would be fine but i’d be a little uncomfortable that collins would hug me to begin with. i don’t think we’d have a friendship that’d warrant that.

Fowler - i think the hug would either be very pleasant or very awkward, no in between

Kamski - i think he’d be better at hugging androids over people. we’d have to have an intellectually stimulating conversation prior to the hug to make him feel warranted in not half-assing the hug

Jerry(s) - one jerry? good hug. many jerrys? scary hug.

Simon - would be lackluster, imo. i don’t think i’d really remember the hug after the hug.

Adam - would only offer a reserved side hug until he works out his issues

Ralph - if he put down the damn knife, it’d be a good hug.

RK800-60 - would hug me to trick me. the hug would be nice though.

North - would be a three second hug unless she was talking about her past and then it would be a minute long, very emotional and cathartic hug

Gavin - needs a hug. would need me to pretend that i needed a hug to actually hug me back. would be very emotionally cathartic. also needs some therapy pronto. but i think that hug would just be so intense and powerful.

Chloe - frankly, i think chloe’s would be programmed to give great hugs and adapt to give even better ones after deviancy

Josh - would do a very passionate one armed hug. ya know the kind, where you just pull someone in with one arm and hold them to you.

Kara - good tight hugs. would give a tight squeeze and rock back and forth.

Connor - would start a little stiff, but would keep giving hugs as time moved on to “improve his technique” and definitely NOT because he just wanted hugs. they’d be warm and firm.

Markus - this is a pretty close tie with connor, for me. i think he’d just give such genuine heartfelt hugs though that i ranked him just above.

Hank - you know this man gives good hugs. beginning of the game he definitely wouldn’t be admitting he wanted a hug, but the second i would embrace him i just know he’d do a big ole bear hug. he’d only hug the people he really values, too, so if you’re getting a hug you KNOW it’s because you’re special.

Carl - would give GREAT hugs, they may leave me covered in paint but he’d be asking all about my interests and creative pursuits during the hug.

Alice - what more can i say other than duh. she would melt the coldest heart with a hug.

Luther - those strong arms would lift me off the ground in a bear hug. i’d never feel safer.

Rose - how could she not give the best hugs? and i know she’d smell like coconut, coffee, and fresh soil.