#case 1-4 was so interesting already knowing the twist

[gotta-get-back-to-hatchetfield]

Help! I loved Nerdy Prudes Must Die and am curious about Nightmare Time but don't really have time to commit to watching it all... (a handy guide)

For those of you who don't know Nightmare Time was a series of Hatchetfield one shots that starkid wrote and recorded during lockdown, all of which are of course available for free on YouTube. They go a lot deeper into the lore than the 3 Hatchetfield musicals, including explaining and explore the characters we know and love in more detail, sometimes including shocking revelations.

They also introduce new characters to the Hatchetfield universe, including Stephanie Lauter, Grace Chasity and Pete Spankoffski, who we first met in a Nightmare Time episode.

As they were filmed in lockdown the recording quality is somewhat variable, but Season 2 has a much higher production value than Season 1, and in Season 1 Episode 1 in particular they were very clearly trying to find their feet with it. That being said the actual scripts and content of the episodes is solid throughout.

I've decided to put together this handy guide of which Nightmare Time episodes people might want to check out if they want to learn more about certain things we saw in NPMD.

1) Nibbly - Honey Queen (season 2 episode 1)

If you're curious to learn more about the Lords in Black each of them (bar Wiggly) have an episode of Nightmare Time devoted to them.

For Nibbly, Wiggly's hungriest and pinkest brother that episode is 'Honey Queen' in Season 2 Episode 1.

It explores a very entertaining rivalry between Linda Monroe (from Black Friday) and Zoey (the annoying barista from Beanie's in TGWDLM) that naturally turns very very dark. We also get to meet Linda's husband Gerald who she spends most of Black Friday on the phone to.

As a heads up Nibbly doesn't appear until, shall we say, the end of the episode (with Hatchetfield there's always a twist) and he's not in the super sexy form from NPMD but it's a very strong episode and does give a bit of background to Nibbly's deal.

2) Tinky - Time Bastard (season 1 episode 2 part 2)

If you're curious to learn more about this yellow motherfucker played by Curt then you're in luck because he's in my personal favourite episode and one with a lot of interesting lore surrounding it.

If you're curious about what he means when in NPMD he says 'I could add another Spankoffski to my set', Time Bastard is focused around Pete's brother Ted (from TGWDLM) and the dodgy dealings of CCRP.

It's an extremely clever episode, with lots of really fun twists. It's unfortunately season 1 so has slightly lower production quality, but in terms of raw scripting is just outstanding and has some really interesting reveals about people in the Hatchetfield universe who may not be who we think they are...

Also worth noting that this is in the same episode (Youtube video) as a different Nightmare Time episode 'Forever and Always'. Most episodes work like this where you have two different stories per episode, they absolutely can be watched independently but usually have some sort of thematic link (in this case it's the things we do for love and how they will inevitably be thwarted by CCRP being sketch).

3) Blinky - Watcher World (season 1 episode 1 part 2)

And if you're curious about the one who's always watching you, he's actually the first Lord in Black we meet through Nightmare Time, in the very first episode when Bill and Alice Woodward (TGWDLM) go on an ill fated trip to a spooky theme park.

Again this is from the first episode so production quality is low but it's a really solid episode and a very interesting look into these characters.

While this is our first meeting of a lord in black in Nightmare Time, I don't believe he's actually referred to as such, and the concept of the Lords in Blacks being introduced as Wiggly's brothers comes in at point 5 on this list.

4) Pokey - Yellow Jacket (season 2 episode 4)

You've already met Pokey through TGWDLM (yep that was his blue shit that destroyed the world!), but you won't truly realise how fucking scary he is until you meet his incarnation 'Otho' in Yellow Jacket.

A solid episode exploring Lex, Hannah and Ethan in a lot more detail, and in a world and lives where (at least at the start of the episode) things seem to be a lot more stable for them than in Black Friday.

And yeh as I've already mentioned Pokey is fucking s c a r y in it. Also you remember James Tolbert's character, Charles that gets a little cameo in Hatchetown? Well he's the main human antagonist of this episode!

We also learn a lot of lore about 'the gift', the thing that makes Hannah able to do magic.

5) The concept of the Lords in Black generally - The Witch in the Web (season 2 episode 3 part 2)

If you're curious about why everyone's been posting pictures of those evil teddy bears and now even more confused that you've met them all as fucked up high school students, the Witch in the Web is the episode where we're first introduced to the 'they don't care bears' as a set.

This is a really cool episode, again about Lex and Hannah, but it also exploring Uncle Wiley (from Black Friday) in a lot more detail.

We also first meet two characters called Duke and Miss Holloway who together form the ship Holloduke that if you were following any of Starkid tumblr during lockdown you will definitely have heard of. They're really cool!

Here we also meet Webby, Hannah's imaginary friend in Black Friday, who turns out to be the lord in black's sister: a queen in white. And she's dope.

6) Pete Spankoffski, Stephanie Lauter and Grace Chasity - Abstinence Camp (season 2 episode 2 part 2)

We first meet the now beloved characters of Pete and Steph and the slightly less beloved character of Grace in an evangelical abstinence only camp. The episode centers entirely around these characters and plays excellently with tropes of the horror genre.

It also has the best song in all of Nightmare Time and it's up to you to decide if I'm talking about 'oh my god it's the axe-man' or 'virginity rocks' (it's both, the answer is both).

That's pretty much it in terms of Nightmare Time episodes that cover things from NPMD, but in case you're curious here's a quick run down of what the rest are about:

The Hatchetfield Ape Man - season 1 episode 1 part 1. Hidgens makes Ted pretend to be a Tarzan style half monkey, half man thing to con Angela Giarratanna out of her inheretence.

Watcher World - season 1 episode 1 part 2. See bullet 3 above. Alice and Bill Woodward go to a theme park and shit hits the fan.

Forever and Always - season 2 episode 2 part 1. Paul and Emma get married. Things are not as they seem (there are robots). One of my personal favourites.

Time Bastard - season 2 episode 2 part 2. See bullet 2 above. Ted fucks with time travel and things end very badly for him. Best episode imo.

Jane's a Car - season 2 episode 3 part 1. Turns out the soul of Tom Houston's ex-wife Jane, who died in a car crash, transferred into the car. This somewhat complicates his budding relationship with Becky Barnes.

The Witch in the Web - season 2 episode 3 part 2. See bullet 5 above. Hannah Foster's having nightmares and somehow a witch and Uncle Wiley are involved. Luckily a good witch (Miss Holloway) is there to try and help.

Honey Queen - season 2 episode 1. See bullet 1 above. Linda Monroe and Zoey Chambers compete to win the Hatchetfield honey queen beauty pageant and things spiral wildly out of control. My personal favourite episode from season 2.

Perky's Buds - season 2 episode 2 part 1. Emma's finally achieved her dream of owning her own pot farm. Just her, her non-binary farm hand Ziggs and some very evil birds.

Abstinence Camp - season 2 episode 2 part 2. See bullet 6 above. Pete, Steph and Grace go to a retreat in the very creepy woods to learn one way or another about the perils of pre-marital sex.

Daddy - season 2 episode 3 part 1. Remember Sherman Young (Jamie's weird creepy guy from Black Friday)? Turns out there's something very weird going on with his mum. We also learn a lot about Frank Pricely (owner of toyzone from Black Friday) in this episode, who turns out to be a very interesting character.

Killer Track - season 2 episode 3 part 2. Miss Holloway must take extreme action to save a young girl and then the whole world against an evil song that kills anyone who listens to it. We learn a lot more about Holloway as a character and she is soooo cool. Another favourite episode of mine.

Yellow Jacket - season 2 episode 4. See bullet point 4. Hannah seeing her sister struggling to provide for them financially decides to find a way of using her power to earn some spare cash.

Hey Melissa - episode aired only on a livestream, type it into youtube and it'll come up. If you've ever found yourself asking 'what if Mariah's secretary character from the start of TGWDLM was really into dom pup play and Paul Matthews was her little pup bitch and she was also a horrific out of control serial killer?' then a) are you Matt Lang because if not I'm concerned? and b) by god this is the episode for you!. I personally really enjoy it I think it's super funny, but obviously heavy trigger warnings for abuse and sexual content warnings (there's a reason they didn't put this in the real series). Fucking excellent tho.

[legalandnotease]

One claim I often see Tony fans making is that Steve was being selfish for not "considering children born during the Snap" in the team's desire to bring everybody back.

This is obviously a form of emotional blackmail After all- how could *anybody* want to erase *billions* of children?

Well, this claim is wrong for a number of reasons

1: There is no evidence of large-scale births or an increasing birth rate during the Snap. Tony fans often say that there must have been millions and milions of children born during the Snap, but this makes no sense because, as a general rule humans do not simply "get over" losing their entire family an "move on".

Even losing one child can be an emotional blow that person never recovers from. Clint Barton lost all 3 of his children, and we know he did not simply "move on" and start a new family.

People do not simply recover from such things in a few years and create new families. It almost never happens.

Furthermore, population dynamics come to play: some planets lost as much as 3/4 of their population due to Thanos pre-Snap genocides.

Even for those who lost "only" half though this would mean half of all birthing females and existing children snapped.

Fewer birthing females means..... a lower birth rate. Also take account of things like infertility and the fact that some women who lost thier children would have been beyond childbearing age: notable case - Queen Ramonda.

Even assuming people were interested in relationships and reproduction (and most were not) the birth rate during the Snap would have been expontentially lower then it was before.

Real life disasters and catastrophes also reveal that it takes a long time for the population to recover. The Black Death killed 1/3 to 1/2 of the population of Europe in the Middle Ages- and it took something along the lines of 3 to 4 centuries for the population to reach the level that it had been before the plague struck.

Literally: it can take HUNDREDS of years for the population to recover. The idea that the world would have returned to normal after only 5 years is ludicrous.

2: The children killed by the Snap.

Half of the human race were snapped. This would have included children. Potentially hundeds of millions of children were killed by the Snap. This is far more than the number who who have been born during the Snap.

There's another issue however: many children would have died after the Snap.

Sick children whose parents or doctors were snapped and were unable to get the medical treatment they needed

Young children whose parents were snapped would have died within a few days if nobody found them.

Children in poorer countries would have been the first to succumb to things like famines and food shortages caused by the Snap.

However, children in rich countries would have followed. Food shortages and the breakdown of intractructure would have caused problems witht the availability of food and medical supplies. Diseases would have become more common without the medicines to keep them in check, and poor sanitation.

In other words, potentiallly hundreds of millions more children would have died after the Snap in addition to those who had been Snappped.

None of those children would have been bought back by Bruce's Snap in Endgame. They would have stayed dead. All because of Tony's selfish insistence that he "didn't change anything from the last 5 years".

So, no matter how Tony fans want to try and twist things: Tony Stark was quite prepared to sacrifice *hundreds of millions* if not billions of children for the sake of his desire to preserve his personal paradise.

He did not, in fact, "save everybody" at all. He saved only those bought back after the Snap and ... not really even them as they had to contend with years of social and economic problems.

You know what the most interesting irony of it all is though? Tony fucked over all those people for nothing. Pepper was already pregnant before the Snap, so reversing it would not have erased Morgan anyway.

[graceisslillayy]

Since no one asked, I'mma yap about my au

(idk why I'm putting this here but just in case anyone gets confused: (name) = reader)

pt. 1 pt. 2

pls ignore how bad the pic is 🙏🏾😭

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

In this au, it takes place somewhere in the middle/end where the events do happen but there's a twist:

Bee is a whoops baby

(name) and Optimus already have a kid of their own

Elita-1 and (name) have slight beef with each other

And in this post, I'm gonna break this down and explain as best as I can.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

I'm gonna start with:

"Who is Striker?"

Striker is the kid of Optimus and (name).

"Why'd you give them a kid?"

To try and make the story sound a little more interesting(???). And as I was making this I thought "hmm, wouldn't it be nice if reader and OP had a sparkling so that way the drama was a little bit more complicated?"

"What is Striker's gender/ what do they look like?"

Well I'm glad you asked! even tho I can't draw, Striker is a femme that took more of (name)'s personality but mostly has Optimus' frame (and colors but Striker has (name)'s optics).

"How'd you come up with the name?"

I came up with it as I was making the picture and after like 30 minutes of thinking "alright, fuck it we calling 'em Striker"

"How old is Striker?"

I would say that Striker is about 4-5 (or 6) during the events while only being one year older than Bee.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

"What is the beef between (name) and Elita-1/how did it start?"

After the events in the fic (name) is angry at Elita because:

She never knew one of her closest friends would be in a secret relationship with her supposed lover

(name) believes that its mostly Elita's fault for allowing Optimus to just swoon her into dating him.

On Elita's side of the story:

She really doesn't do anything about it because she knows those things are true and now their relationship is strained because of her actions (same thing with Optimus).

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

"What is Optimus' relationship with Striker and Bee?"

even though after the whole incident and basically divorcing w/ (name) Optimus decided that even though they split, he still wanted to be part of Striker's life and at least try to be a father figure.

As for Bee, he's mostly there with him more than he is with Striker (but he doesn't realize that because he's trying so hard to be a father figure to the both of them) and it makes (name) really upset making them think that he's only with Bee because it's his and Elita's kid.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

"Does (name) stay with the Autobots?"

Even though she is angry at Optimus and Elita (name) decided to stay with The Autobots and doesn't join the Deceptions for the sake of Striker.

"Does (name) end up being with someone else?"

Yes and No. After the incident and everything happening, (name) doesn't focus on finding someone else, they focus on Striker and being with The Autobots but they sometimes do get a bit flirty with Ratchet.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡'𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝐼 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑟𝑛 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑎𝑢!!! 𝑙𝑚𝑘 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑔𝑢𝑦𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘!!! :)

[azulawriting]

Destroying Amphoreus - Or why I should stop caring about Hoyoverse writing - Part 4: When ret-conning feels like gaslighting

Link to part 1, Link to part 2, Link to part 3

Ret-cons have their time and place. Sometimes it’s a necessary move to integrate part of the lore, other times, it’s just to modernize a game’s story. Although some fans may disagree, writers don’t change the lore in bad faith. Usually. I think HSR is one exception.

The ret-conning in Amphoreus is very much made in bad faith. It happens almost from one patch to the next. It's too fast, and also too blatant. Honestly, it feels like gaslighting. There are two prime examples of this.

The plot-twist of 3.2 never made sense. It makes even less sense if you consider 3.0’s secret/bad end.

Anaxa’s entire “theory” only holds up if you ignore what the entirety of 3.0 established about Gnaeus.

So, let’s tackle the first point because not every player might’ve chosen the “secret end”.

“You’re already dead!” What?

When Oronyx talked and said that Caelus’ life was “cast away [from the moment he crossed the sky]”, I thought it was an interesting choice. It definitely sparked a tiny sense of wonder in me. It’s quite an abrupt, game-changing revelation. But then, there’s the conversation with Dan Heng that activated my memories of 3.0.

Really? You just didn’t even react when you saw Caelus being fine; no checking for injuries, no asking “how’s the bleeding”, not even an “we need to have a physician check you ASAP,” or an “I’m glad you’re fine now.”… nothing?

Now, the game wants me to believe that while Caelus was allegedly bleeding out in front of Dan Heng, our dragon boy sent this text message to the Express.

Dan Heng: Caelus is bleeding to death, and the cart is up in flames, but they don’t need to know that part.

This chat made me raise an eyebrow in 3.0, but it wasn't a deal breaker. 3.2’s reveal makes it a deal-breaker.

I mean, really. There's no reason Dan Heng—as a character—would tell the rest of the Express nothing’s wrong while he knows that’s not the case at all. But, as I've already said in part 2, the writers stopped seeing Dan Heng as a character.

And I wish that the OOC complaint was all I had against the plot-twist.

Do you know what the worst part about this plot-twist is? That I played the “bad end” of 3.0.

Now, I call it a “bad end” because it leads you to a game over. In every game that has them, bad ends don’t break the overarching narrative of the good/true end of the game. They're just scenarios where the protagonist fails in some important way. Usually through death. But in HSR’s case, death isn't part of the secret end.

It’s something that essentially kills everything that comes afterward.

Leaving Amphoreus resurrects you, apparently

In 3.0, after Aglaea tries to kill you (but not really, because we can’t have anyone seriously posing a threat to Caelus unless it's the final boss of the patch), Phainon apologizes and gives you the chance to leave.

The game makes that choice a little harder for you. Still, you can do it if you insist on leaving after receiving death threats from those in power. So, how does that part go?

Wow. It was that easy all along?

Well… that just messed up the 3.2 plot-twist more than Dan Heng’s rather startling lack of concern.

This is illogical, completely incompatible with 3.2, unless we're willing to assume that Amphoreus is such a metaphysical anomaly that, if you died entering the planet, you resurrect when you leave it.

At the very least, this creates a logical gap that the game doesn't even try to address. If Caelus was already dead, his soul trapped in Amphoreus’ River of Souls, and only Castorice could retrieve it… why can we leave before solving that entire problem?

The other problem that arises with this “bad end” is that 3.3 keeps making a point about how Aquila is the only thing preventing us from leaving, let alone communicating with the outside world. How Dan Heng “feels powerless the more he finds out” because he can’t understand the “curse from beyond the sky”.

Meanwhile, if we had kept looking for ways to regain contact with the Express—which should be priority number 1—, we could've just asked Lygus about it.

We could've left at any point, or we could've at least re-established the cart as a functioning base, if we had talked with Lygus. Something that Phainon could've helped us with long before 3.3. If we asked, of course.

Had we at least gotten a functional base, we could've had contact with the rest of the Astral Express and gotten some updates on March. But again, I suppose that the writers really need that padded runtime and make the search for a link between outer space and Amphoreus completely one-sided.

Which it shouldn't be, if Dan Heng and Caelus were characters acting on intrinsic, internal motivations instead of just plot devices going along with whatever plot point the writers want them to go through.

But, speaking of characters, maybe it’s a good thing that the writers don’t make many characters feel like one. Their attempts to do so with Anaxa were not even worth it.

Anaxa—When you're wrong about something, it actually proves you were right all along

Writing smart characters is hard. There’s a reason the Bleach community clowns on Aizen and his “All was part of my plan” schtick. Smart characters can either be smart and act like it, or they can be an accumulation of plot contrivances that only happen because they have to be ahead of the pack. To prove their “smartness”.

I think you can guess, by the title of this section, where I think Anaxa falls.

Does Anaxa even know what the Flame-chase journey is about?

What exactly does the Era Nova prophecy tell us? Well, in 3.0, Phainon explains it to us. The Chrysos Heirs must shatter the pillars of the world, meaning the Titans. A Chrysos Heir must hold each Titan’s authority (their “seat”). Doing so will give the Chrysos Heir divinity, making them demigods. This divinity will last until the Era Nova comes. AKA: 12 different Chrysos Heirs reclaim all the 12 Coreflames. Then, the miracle happens. We don't know more than that from him, but I can deduce what the miracle is from the rest of the story in that patch.

Remember Gnaeus? The whole Kremnos quest in 3.0? I do.

I remember Gnaeus became Nikador. Does the game tell us that? No, but it’s the only logical inference I can make.

When we see his soul again in the Vortex of Genesis before Phainon takes the trial, Trinnon tells us that’s Nikador. For that to be true, Gnaeus’ soul must have fused with that of the Titan. He must have fully ascended into godhood and taken Nikador’s full divinity. Even before that moment, you could argue that if one mortal man can hold a fraction of a god’s soul (as the game tells us), then this mortal man’s soul is inherently divine.

Thus, if we add this knowledge to Phainon’s explanation of the Flame-chase journey, we can conclude that yes, one can fuse a human soul to a Titan’s and thus make that human soul ascend into divinity. That's the miracle and the beginning of a new cycle.

Anaxa doesn’t believe in the Flame-chase journey, so what exactly does he believe in? What is his theory on the soul that he wants to prove, no matter the cost? Let’s see…

Oh, so just like Gnaeus did. Just like the prophecy implies.

Do you see the similarities?

It aligns so well with what we know of the prophecy I have to question whether he knows what the Flame-chase journey’s goal is. Does the idea of becoming a demigod with a Titan’s Coreflame not give him any clues? Apparently not.

He dies laughing, saying that he alone will ascend into godhood, but, I mean, why would that be the case? Every Chrysos Heir will do so. That's what the prophecy is about. It's not his theory, and yet…

Anaxa steals the credit for the prophecy that he didn’t believe in

Let's look at one of Phainon’s dialogues in 3.3.

The writers want to make Anaxa seem like an intellectual, and in some ways, they succeed. The way he talks and interacts with the rest gives the right characterization, but his “theory” doesn't hold any water as a “ground-breaking discovery”. It’s just the prophecy they’ve all been following from the get-go.

I could chalk this up to the writers being clueless about how to make Anaxa's hypothesis feel like it's actually ground-breaking and insightful from the perspective of someone who doesn't believe in the Era Nova.

Ockham's razor, as some might say. This might just be incompetence.

I don't think so. I think it’s gaslighting because we see active ret-conning in the very summary of 3.2 before we launch 3.3’s quest.

Anaxa “broke free” from Aglaea's surveillance. Or did he?

The 3.2 recap has this extremely bold claim about Anaxa. Reading it like this, I would forgive anyone for thinking Aglaea actually tried to imprison him, or spied on him, or limited his movements, who he could talk to, and he—being the genius that he is—broke free from her grasp.

In 3.1, there's a conversation between Aglaea and Tribbie, which happens while Caelus is still exploring the Grove. Aglaea says that she will “try to keep [the Black Tide crisis in the Grove] under wraps” otherwise, the Council will use it as ammo against her. Fair enough. We don't want people to panic. Aglaea has every reason to silence any survivors from the Grove.

So, what is the first thing Caelus and Castorice do with Anaxa once they're in Okhema? Let’s look at the quest dialogues straight from the wiki for the sake of saving space.

The quest goal immediately after this is to talk to the bereaved. So much for preventing Anaxa from talking with the victims, am I right? Her inaction towards Anaxa leads to the very thing she feared. It’s not Anaxa outsmarting her, or doing things outside her knowledge (which, realistically, he never could if Aglaea used her powers like she should).

Throughout 3.1 and 3.2, after his return, Anaxa is free to roam the city, talk to whoever he wants. Including Caenis. Let me remind you of what Lygus says when he goes to meet Anaxa.

And what does Anaxa say to this generous offer?

So, tell me, at what point is any of this “breaking free” from Aglaea’s surveillance? Not that her surveillance means anything, mind you, but for the game to be so bold and claim that Anaxa broke free from “the surveillance of the golden threads” and sought refuge in the Council… it’s not an exaggeration to say that it’s gaslighting.

They’re lying about their story to manipulate me into perceiving something that was never there.

I think that making the quests over 7h long and being mostly made of dialogues is part of the tactic. After 4-5h where I spend 80% of the time hearing people talk and still having 3-5h of the same thing left, yeah, I think the intent is to have me turn off my brain. The dialogue, especially, being so convoluted instead of being straight-forward only adds to the need to stop trying to make sense of it and just go next.

It’s therefore easier to take the summaries at face-value, or the simplest dialogues at face-value. But when everything is made intentionally to be long, confusing and tedious, I have grown very wary of the rare moments where it’s not. For good reason. I can’t trust these writers being honest about their own story.

Final part.

[iamnmbr3]

From what I recall about the incident with Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop, all we know for certain is this:

1. Amy and Dennis said they went into a cave with Tom and refused to say anything else.

2. Tom insisted they had only gone exploring.

3. According to Mrs. Cole, "Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop were never quite right afterwards." How exactly they were not quite right is not elaborated on.

4. When Dumbledore met Tom, Tom insisted he never did anything to Amy or Dennis, and that they would back him up on that.

5. When Dumbledore and Harry go to the cave that, supposedly, was the same cave Tom, Amy, and Dennis had explored, Dumbledore says you would have to be an expert mountaineer or a wizard to reach it, and this is certainly true by 1996.

What we can conclude from this information is that something definitely happened, both on the journey to the cave and likely within, and that something was inexplicable and not expected to be accomplished without magic. What exactly that was is unknown, nor how much Tom is to blame. It's unclear if Tom actually did something bad to Amy and Dennis, whether by accident or on purpose. Since Tom didn't understand that he had magic or why he could do strange and odd things, it's unclear if he even understood what he did if anything. Perhaps he didn't harm them at all, but Amy and Dennis were so much more shaken by the experience that Mrs. Cole suspected Tom did something.

And who's to say that whatever inexplicable thing happened was caused by Tom? Sure, as the only person with magic that we know of who was present, the case is very against him, but with a secret society of wizards, there's bound to be a bunch of magical hidden places. Tom's presence may have merely deactivated wards preventing Amy and Benson from noticing the cave. Perhaps during their trip the cave it was more accessible before Tom repurposed it as an adult. Maybe there was already something magical and/or inexplicable in there, and Amy and Benson decided to never speak of it lest people think they’re crazy like Mr. Claims He Can Talk to Snakes.

All that is to say, my crack headcanon is ALIEN ENCOUNTER, and there's no canon information that disproves me!

hahahahaha I thought this was going in a totally different direction and then bam! I got hit with a plot twist in the last line. Go write the crack fic.

Something that strikes me about item 5 - which is where I thought you were going with this - is that if what Dumbledore says is correct, and anyone who wasn't a highly trained and equipped mountaineer would need magic to get up that cliff, and even more crucially DOWN again, then Tom not only brought Amy and Dennis to the cave with him. He also brought them back.

He could've easily left them to die and claimed ignorance of their whereabouts since I doubt anyone would've realized they left together. But he didn't. Even though they said they went into a cave with him and he consequently got blamed for them being off. So I think whatever happened to them wasn't full planned. And clearly he wasn't just a purely murderous psychopath who just always liked torturing kids for fun. Because otherwise he would've left them. But instead he wanted them alive and he brought them back. So at that age anyway he wasn't a killer. (And maybe as an adult he would've turned out the same but maybe if he'd gotten any guidance or acceptance or love from any adult in his life ever, he could've been different; instead thought he was treated with harshness by every adult he ever met and no one ever showed him that power can be used for anything other than to oppress and control. I think "there is only power and those too weak to see it" is so interesting because it shows he views himself not as someone inherently powerful but as someone who made himself powerful so as to no longer be under the thumb of others. But I digress.)

What I think happened is that Tom performed magic. Either in front of or on Dennis and Amy but he went too far. He obviously lives in terror of being institutionalized so he tried to make them forget what they saw (either intentionally or just unintentionally out of stress) by using a memory charm. But of course he had no wand and wasn't trained and didn't really know what he was doing. And he was probably trying to make them forget something pretty big. And it caused permanent brain damage making them a little "off" just like Bertha Jorkins was. And that's why they never say what happened. Because they didn't remember.

This is pure headcanon but I like the idea that maybe they were a little more friendly to him than the other children were. Perhaps they were a bit younger than he was and were a bit in awe of him and thus followed him willingly.

I like the tragedy and drama of the idea of him ending up in situations that lead to him destroying anyone he gets close to. So I imagine first he ends up mind wiping Dennis and Amy, the closest thing he has to friends - and doing it too extensively so they also forget any positive feelings they once had towards him. And then he gets kind of friendly with Hagrid at school since they're both orphans and both there over all the holidays. But of course he ends up getting Hagrid expelled to cover up Myrtle's death. And then I like the idea that Snape was his only follower that he truly liked and, well, we know how that turns out.

[mochidoodle]

First, I want to say that I love love love arisa ❤️‍🔥 I rarely care about other people's OCs because they are basically strangers to me (lol) except for a few I think are good. And you are one of them. Arisa is so pretty and I definitely can see her with hibari together.

Second, I kinda want to ask your advice/opinion (?) but it's pretty weird, so sorry in advance 😭 How would you feel if khr were to suddenly announce a spin-off and in there hibari has a s/o? Very unlikely tho because tsuna himself still needs to sort out his love problem, but let's imagine it for the sake of my question.

I have an OC that I crafted well in my imagination (I can't draw nor write haha) to pair with a male character from another show which has ended. But because I ship them so hard, I start getting irrational fear that if the show had a spin-off focusing on the said male character, he would be given an official girlfriend by the author (since one of his characteristics is tightly related to romantic stuff). It's really weird, like why would I want to gatekeep a character from his own author 😭?

It's just that I've never been interested to create a canon x oc or canon x y/n with characters who are officially in relationship in the story. I know I don't make sense but I just can't fully be immersed in the romantic scenarios while knowing the canon characters are taken... Wait why did I make it sound like I'm cheating 👁👄👁

So uh, do you have any advice so I can enjoy my own OC's lores without minding about the canon material? I guess you might be able to help me since you have a well-made OC 🥹

Omg first off, thank you for enjoying Arisa! I've only posted a little bit about her but to receive so much love... I'm honestly shocked (in a good way) and so appreciative!! 💙💐

Honestly, I've thought about the same question you're asking, and I also have mixed feelings. I'm very passionate about adhering to the worldbuilding that the author has created, out of respect for the work and to keep my creative interpretations "realistic" to that world. But at the same time, I feel you -- what if the author creates something that derails my personal idea completely?

For that, I can think of a few different routes. (Putting it under a read-more because it got a bit lengthy lol) ⬇️👁️👄👁️

#1

I stay delulu 🤪 I think it's so important to be able to curate your own experience in every environment. In fandom, if you don't like someone else's idea, simply wash it out of your brain and overwrite it with your own. In canon, if a character dies -- we pretend they didn't. I think the same can apply to OCs. If the character got married in canon... no they didn't. :) Your enjoyment comes first, even if no one else is on board. You're the captain of the ship!

#2

I overwrite ✏️ Sometimes I take what the author has already given me and I overlay my idea. Character got married? Sure! Now I take my character, paste it over whomever they're married, and voila. I often think about one of my childhood crushes, the rich snobby chara Tora from Maid-sama. He gets an arranged fiancee in the post-series chapter, but I just... pretended it's my OC from when I was 11. Same scenario, very little else changed, but I just put my vision on top of the author's.

#3

I fabricate reasons 🤔 Let's say the character did something that suggests romantic relations. In that case, I try to justify it while staying in-character for them. For example, TYL Hibari holds Chrome in an oddly intimate way while she is sick. I like to imagine a) he's mostly just obsessed with using her to get to Mukuro, and thus needs her alive as a tool, or b) idk, maybe Ari is fond of Chrome and would be sad to see her die. Whatever reason I can think of to redirect the meaning of a scene helps me feel less like I'm changing or twisting canon to fit my needs. I'm just working around it.

#4

I choose (fictional) violence 😈 In your most desperate hour, you have the power to simply get rid of them. Either they never existed, or they died in this timeline, and your ship is canon now. That being said, it's never nice to slander a character for the sake of your own preferred ship, or disrespect someone's past love (real or fictional), so option 4 is my least taken route. But it's still possible!

---

Not sure if any of this helped, but I hope I was able to express how I enjoy fandom OCs! I used to feel really shy and guilty about my canon/OC ships because of reasons very related to what you mentioned, but we are all just here to have fun! It's like playing dolls...and kids playing dolls have the most freedom in the world. I aspire to be like them and enjoy my little made up people in my made up world because we all need reprieve from the real world (girl, the tariffs!!)

;v; Thanks for reading all the way!

[cookieandbread]

hi Lucifer fandom, idk if you're still alive but I have a complaint

so I'm watching Lucifer for the forst time (technically I had already seen the first 3 seasons a long time ago, but my memories of it were blurry) and s4 kind of doesn't make sense to me???? (keep in mind I've only watched up to episode 4 when I write that)

like, the whole "Chloe wants to send Lucifer back to hell" feels more like "oh we don't want them to be together because that's what most people are watching the show for and we don't know how to write people being together (as shown by them killing Charlotte as soon as she gets with Dan, breaking up Amenadiel and Linda instantly, and developing as little and badly as possible any romance Chloe has outside of Lucifer) so we're scared we'll loose all our audience" than really Chloe dealing with knowing who Lucifer truly is.

don't get me wrong, she totally is allowed to freak out (who wouldn't?), but it makes no sense to me why she would go fully "let's send Lucifer back to hell!". She's been working with the guy for 3 seasons (so ≈ 3 years cause I suppose 1 season = 1 year), not only that but they are friends.

They've proven to each other many, MANY times that they can trust each other despite everything that they don't know about the other, Lucifer has shown her that he cares quite a few times (in eccentric ways most of the times, but still). Not only that but Chloe has also been living with Maze for quite some times without anything bad happening to her or Trixie because of it (the exception being the time when Maze comploted with Cain, but at the time Chloe doesn't know that). Plus, Lucifer has alwas been honest with her about what he is (and even tried to show her a few times but she doesn't know that). At the very least she would give Lucifer (& Maze) the benefit of the doubt.

And an argument could be made that "oh but she was being manipulated", was she? She broke pretty easily out of that manipulation if you want my opinion. The way she was manipualted (at least what we are shown in the show) also doesn't convince me tbh. It could have been a very interesting storyline, criticizing how religion can sometimes be twisted to manipulate people who wants to do good but are a little lost (Chloe) and ostracize and hurt those who do not fit in (Lucifer), and the angst would have been absolutely heartbreaking, but it was executed pretty badly and in a way that doesn't make me believe in it (which is kind of the most important in a manipulation plotline. I'm not asking the show to make me believe Lucifer is bad (it couldn't without destroying his character), I'm asking the show to make me understand why Chloe would believe that, why she felt like she had no choice but to listen to Kinley).

But what bugs me the most is that Chloe didn't even try to talk to Lucifer!!!! On their cases, she insists on talking to the suspects (if she can), even when it's 100% sure that they've done the murder, just to get their side of the story and understand fully the case. Her need to understand the bigger picture and her attention to details is what leads her multiple times to uncover things that all the other chatacters miss. We also see that she is able to put on hold her emotions to at the very least fully understand the situation (as shown with the guy who murdered her father, where despite years of anger she accepts to try to see the case in a different way, leading her to uncover the true murderer.) She prioritizes proofs and facts over hearsay and things written by God knows who hundreds if not thousands of years ago. She's also shown (LITETALLY 2 EPISODES BEFORE SEASON 4) to be accepting of Ella's "ghost" thing, despite clearly not understanding shit about it.

Chloe cares about her friends, so much so that when everything points to Maze being a murderer she still doesn't believe it. There's literally a footage of her taking the knife from someone's chest and Chloe goes "no, she did not do it." AND SHE'S RIGHT! Chloe cares about her friends and believe in them no matter what. And you're telling me she doesn't even try to talk to Lucifer? Seriously?

I love angst and slow burns, but NOT when it ruins a character as good as Chloe Decker.

[flashphotograph]

Can I Keep It?

@spicycinnabun and I's contribution to steddiebang 2023! ❤️️ | Chapters: 1/12 | Rating: M | Read, kudos or comment on ao3 | We have a playlist. ❤️️ | Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Chapter 1: Have You Ever Been Arrested?

Robin had the night off. Band practice or some shit. Steve was so bored. It had been dead in Family Video all day until finally, finally someone remotely attractive came into the store: Christina Kelly, a blue-eyed, bright blonde-haired Hawkins High cheerleader. On some girls, the uniform looked frumpy, but on her, the shortness of it skirted nicely over her ass. Steve’s eyes roamed up her mile-long tan legs and settled on it. She was drop-dead gorgeous.   He licked his lips and continued to watch her browse the shelves for a minute. She must’ve come from practice or a game. Steve remembered her instantly. Hard to forget a face and body like that. Damn, sometimes he really missed high school, even if it was just for the eye candy.   Once he got a good, long look, he approached her with a warm smile. He welcomed her to the store and introduced himself. While he remembered her, she didn’t remember him at all. Even after he told her he was on the basketball team, the one she had cheered for all three years they had gone to school together.

Whatever. 

The bell above the door tinkled as Eddie swaggered in. It was 6 P.M., and he was fully prepared for the campaign on Friday night, so he figured he would rent a few flicks to watch while he struggled through his trig homework due tomorrow. You know, be a responsible student. Maybe some entertainment with his studies would deter him from giving up and smoking the superb grass Rick had supplied him earlier that week. Eddie had already sampled more than he was technically allotted. It was just too good to keep his sticky fingers out of.    Nobody was at the front counter to greet him, but Eddie spotted a tuft of styled brown hair bobbing by one of the shelves and a blonde ponytail with a green scrunchie he recognized as belonging to one of the Hawkins High cheerleaders. Steve was thrilled—not only to have someone to talk to, but he was still trying to find the one, and Christina? She could be it. Smoking hot and unsure of what she was looking for, damn if she hadn’t come to the right place. Steve turned the charm up to eleven by taking the liberty of showing her around the store. The sections of the store were clearly labeled, but he still guided her, asking if she liked comedies, romances, or thrillers. Not pegging her as a horror fan. Eddie rolled his eyes with a smirk. He had half a mind to jump in and yell BOO! to interrupt whatever heterosexual mating ritual was happening between the romance and action movies. Instead, he headed towards the horror section one aisle away from the pair, gaze flitting over the titles. When one caught his interest, he picked up the empty case and turned it over to read the premise. 

Night of the Creeps, where alien space slugs turned people into sorority girl-eating zombies? That sounded pretty metal.   For every suggestion Steve made, Christina took a video off the shelf to consider it. That made him think that she was totally into him. By his last suggestion, The Legend of Billie Jean, she had an arm full of tapes. He went into a brief synopsis, explaining it was about a brother and sister on the run from the police, which prompted a sly question. He paired it with his most devilish smile.

“Have you ever been arrested? ‘Cause it’s gotta be illegal to look this good.” 

The voice of none other than Steve Harrington nearly made Eddie choke on his spit. He hastily reshelved the movie. How had he not recognized that famous hair? Eddie’s fingers clamped onto the top of the shelf as he stealthily peeked over it. He felt a giggle bubbling up in his chest at the schmoozy smile plastered on Steve’s face.   The cheerleader backed up a step, expression twisting. “Ew, I have a boyfriend.” She dropped the movies from her arms, shoving past Steve towards the exit. “Creep.” 

Eddie covered his grinning mouth with his hand, rings clacking against each other gently. Steve Harrington had zero skill when it came to the babes. Eddie always figured he tossed his hair, and they flocked to him. What a pleasant surprise.

Christina’s reaction was so bad. There wasn’t even a laugh at the fun cheesiness of it. Of course she had a fucking boyfriend. How many times was Steve going to go barking up the wrong tree? He groaned when the tapes hit the floor, and his smile instantly dropped. His concern was more about damage to the tapes that Keith would take out of his pay if they were broken than his bruised ego from Christina calling him a creep. Which hardly was the truth.   The bell jingled as the door closed. In the ensuing silence, a giggle finally escaped. Eddie quickly ducked out of view when Steve turned in his direction. He poked his head around the corner before coming out, starting a slow clap. “Wow. That was epic, man.” 

Steve was just about to bend down to pick up the tapes when he heard a laugh. The fucking laugh he wanted Christina to laugh. He hissed and flushed briefly with embarrassment, of course, because what was worse than striking out? Having a certified freak witness it. “Yeah, well, I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a chick on your arm, Eddie. Can’t blame me for trying, man. I’m just not her type.” 

Because she had a fucking boyfriend. Steve was beyond annoyed—he was humiliated, and the tapes were still on the floor. He sighed softly and bent down to scoop them up. 

“You wouldn’t,” Eddie replied, not missing a beat. “My arm is for me only. I keep all my foxy ladies back at my sweet, sweet bachelor pad.” 

From Steve’s bent position over the videotape, a piece of hair had fallen into his eyes as he looked up at Eddie. His brow furrowed, but he didn’t say anything. Just looked completely puzzled by the comment.

He knew Eddie was poor and lived in a trailer at the trailer park, but even he could get chicks to hang out with him there? Or was he keeping some women there against their will? Eddie wouldn’t admit that to him, would he? Even if he was a freak like everybody said. 

Steve shook his head and huffed inaudibly. He wasn’t sure if that was the truth, but still, he didn’t like hearing when other people were successful in their romantic pursuits.

The last time Eddie had a chick on his arm was in nineteen-seventy-eight at a Burger King birthday party when Jeremy Jenkins dared Heather Drew to kiss him. She’d tasted like ketchup and strawberry Lip Smacker. Eddie had spent the entire excruciatingly long three-second kiss staring at the cardboard cutout of the king standing behind her. Eddie’s grin widened when he spotted the red on Steve’s cheeks. He held back from further mocking purely for Dustin and the other kids’ sake. According to his little sheep, Steve might as well have hung the fucking moon, but Eddie still saw him for what he was: a bully. Plain and simple. The guy who would call Eddie names in the hallways along with his dumb jock friends. Eddie's back was well acquainted with bruises from being shoved against lockers, and his face had taken many a beating by the dumpsters. It might never have been Steve’s particular fist in his face, and Eddie had never taken anything lying down (fuck no), but he knew Steve’s kind. And he wasn’t a Harrington groupie. 

“You could help,” Steve griped when he saw one of the tapes had gone as far as three feet, right where Eddie was standing. 

Eddie toed the movie closest to him with his sneaker. Molly Ringwald’s pouty face stared up at him from the cover, which was cracked right down the middle. Eddie crouched on his knees to grab it, his pants pulling uncomfortably tight from the stretch. 

While leather looked punk rock as hell, it wasn't the most forgiving fabric, especially when it was actually cheap pleather. 

Steve stood up with the tapes and set them on the counter while Eddie picked up the last one.

“Yeah, this one is busted,” Eddie said, popping open the case to reveal an identical crack down the tape, one of the inner reels poking through.

Steve winced. That hurt.  “God damn it,” he said softly, coming over to take it from him and looking it over himself.  Yeah, it was broken. 

“Sorry, Molly, but if it's any consolation, your movie was probably shitty anyway.” 

“Actually, it’s a pretty good movie, man. It was really popular, too. We just got it back from being rented for a while. I’m going to get questions about it all week. Who knows when we can get another copy.” Steve walked it over to the trash and threw it away. “I think you might’ve liked it. It isn’t all about her. She’s kinda annoying in it, but there’s a guy, Bender, who kind of has… your fashion sense and disposition.” 

Steve chuckled as he discreetly checked out what Eddie was wearing. Eddie’s leather jacket and jewelry were pretty similar to that character’s. Steve returned to the counter and looked over the rest of the tapes. Luckily, they were fine. 

Eddie rocked back on his heels in surprise, starting a slow walk around the circumference of the counters as he eyeballed Steve. He hadn’t expected the guy to keep talking to him. Still, here he was, going on about Eddie's fashion sense, his disposition?  Was that an insult? Eddie didn’t know what to do with this. Why was previously reigning King Jock giving him the time of day? Why wasn’t he busy admiring his reflection in the window?   God, this job must’ve been boring as hell for him to actually do it. 

“Were you looking for something specific? Seriously doubt you came to witness me striking out with Christina Kelly. You just got lucky.” 

It was kinda funny now. It got Steve smiling and shaking his head at himself. 

The store was still empty, and he was still lonely, so he could at least do his job and help Eddie find a movie since that was his reason for coming to the store.   “Um…” Eddie crossed his arms. Uncrossed them. “Nothing specific. Something to keep me from faceplanting from boredom into my homework.” Or lighting up and spending the rest of the night floating like ash on the wind. 

“Definitely don’t miss homework,” Steve replied while he took the tapes off the counter and started putting them back on the shelves where they belonged. As Eddie continued to walk around, Steve noticed a little jingle from his wallet chain as he paced the store.

“Something spooky, maybe?” Eddie wiggled his fingers with a playful smile to cover his discomfort. This unexpected turn of events piqued his curiosity, so he didn’t mention he had already found a movie.  

“Something spooky, huh?” Steve asked with a playful smirk, though he was turned toward the shelves so Eddie couldn’t see it. 

Of course the freak was into horror. That wasn't a surprise. Family Video had a stellar horror collection. While the last couple of years had been horrific in Hawkins, Steve still enjoyed the fictional movie version sometimes. Most of the horror movies he had seen triggered his memory in a good way when it came to making weapons and fighting off Demogorgons with them winning. “Well, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve got lots of horror here. Although, if you’re a fan… which is safe to assume?” Steve asked Eddie when he turned back to face him, raising his eyebrows.  He knew it was true, so he smiled when Eddie nodded a bit. “Alright, we’ve got Fright Night, Day of the Dead, Return of the Living Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street two and Friday the 13th, part five.” 

Surely, one of those Eddie hadn’t seen. Eddie met Steve back at the horror section, popping his hip against a shelf as Steve read the newest releases. You’ve come to the right place, Steve said. Had he come to the right place, or was he actually in an alternate reality where a jock didn’t tell him to return to the Hellfire he came from? Why did Harrington keep smiling at him? 

And why did he smell so good? Was that coconut? He should have smelled like old pizza and dirty gym socks like most guys their age. Eddie knew he was rocking cigarette smoke and not much else, himself. It would be very unchill of him to lean in and get a bigger whiff of that coconutty paradise. 

To Steve, horror movies weren’t all that bad. A lot of them were funny and cheesy. Totally entertaining enough that doing homework during them was probably possible. 

Horror movies made him adamant that the group stay together and stay put instead of getting involved, but no one ever listened to him. They wanted to go, get involved and split up, which were the worst horror movie tropes. Their lives had become just like the people in every horror movie he’d ever seen. There was no convincing his babysitting crew of that, though, so he took the lead every time.    “Vampire, zombie, deranged burn victim with knife fingers, murderous goaltender…” Eddie went through the list. “What flavor monster goes best with trigonometry?” Eddie pinched his chin with his fingers as he pondered it. “I wasn’t too thrilled with the first four Fridays. Not much to those plots. Not nearly enough razzle-dazzle." He graced Steve with jazz hands this time instead of spooky fingers. “Elm Street had a lot more going for it. Maybe I’ll take the sequel. Thoughts? Got a favorite?”   If Steve had even watched any of them. Though Eddie was a fan of most things horror - the more outlandish, the better - he didn’t watch them all that often. He didn’t have the patience to sit and focus for a long time without help from his favorite herb. It was good background noise, mostly. 

At least with D&D, he was actively participating. He didn’t have to sit still. He could move around, and he got to use his wickedly colorful ideas, feeding off of other people’s imagination and making a story come alive. 

Some things, like math homework, were so fucking stifling he wanted to shoot himself. 

It was hard for Steve not to notice Eddie’s jazzy hands. His fingers were adorned with a plethora of shiny rings. He was talking animatedly with them about the different movies. The shininess of the rings caught his eye, especially with the extra movements. 

Steve hadn’t been into movies before he got this job. (Robin was the one who really got it for him, talking Keith into it somehow.) Back then, he could only name two movies: Animal House and Fast Times. He’d come a long way since then and had a lot of downtime in the store since they were only busy on evenings and weekends. 

When he and Robin worked together, they always put a movie on or had one going. They’d gone through most of the horror. He’d entertained Robin to no end when he’d talk back to the TV, putting his hands on his hips and yelling, “No. No, don’t go in there! What are you doing? No!”  

Steve looked down at his watch. Still an hour and a half was left of his shift. Also, the closest thing to jewelry he wore was his watch, but Eddie’s rings did seem… dare he say… cool. Maybe he could pull off a ring or two.  

“I agree they should’ve stopped with the first Friday.” He didn’t really have a favorite. “They’re all pretty good for what they are, but I think you should go with the sequel, yeah. You already have an idea of the characters, so you don’t have to pay too close attention and can get your homework done.” 

While Steve was checking his watch and probably wishing for his shift to be over, Eddie was dragging his heels. He was surprised to find he would’ve been okay hearing Steve talk more about movies. He didn’t sound particularly passionate about horror. It made Eddie wonder what he did like. Probably some predictable slapstick with lots of boobs, like Porky’s. 

“Joy,” he replied, thinking of his homework waiting for him and almost letting out a whine. 

Steve grabbed the movie off the shelf and headed towards the counter so he could get Eddie checked out. 

“Guess that’s that,” Eddie added in a mutter Steve couldn’t hear. Eddie followed him, drumming his hands on the countertop as Steve pulled up his account and started typing away.

It was best that Eddie left before he decided to do something like lean in and smell the guy on purpose this time.    While he waited, he sifted through the snack selections, unsettling all the organized displays. He stuck his hand in one of the round glass jars, dislodging the loosest ring from his finger as he rifled through it for a fistful of fizzy candies. The ring fell to the bottom of the jar, unnoticed by Eddie, who slapped the sweets on the counter. He also grabbed a box of Nerds, a bag of Skittles, and a Big Hunk bar on impulse. Steve smiled a bit because usually, it was only bratty kids begging their moms for candy that got it from them. Steve didn’t mind that Eddie was getting more than the movie. When he saw everything he was getting, though, he couldn’t help but judge some of it. Most of it was the real sugary stuff. The Big Hunk bar was the only thing he could get behind. 

“These are addicting,” Steve said about the Big Hunk bar. He could feel his mouth starting to water just looking at it.

Likes Big Hunk bars. Eddie filed that information away in his head without really knowing why. It wasn't like he’d need to use it later. 

“I'm gonna need a bag,” he informed Steve. These pants did not have usable pockets. 

“Of course.” Steve nodded, swallowing his spit as he started bagging everything up.  

He wondered if Eddie was high. All this candy made him think that he had the munchies or was going to later. Most of the kids at school got their weed from him, so it wasn’t a stretch. 

Ah, he could remember the last time he got caught getting high. His dad had accused him of being on drugs. He could remember just saying he wasn’t and that marijuana wasn’t drugs. That hadn’t gone over well. 

Once everything was rung up, Steve told Eddie the amount, took the cash and got him his change. He handed over the bills and coins and pushed the bag of candy and movie toward him. “Enjoy...” 

“Thanks, big boy,” Eddie said, grabbing the bag with a tongue click and a wink.

He left the store, mouthing big boy? to himself in a split second of internal embarrassment before he shrugged it off and hopped in his van, taking off down the road towards the trailer park.  

Steve’s eyebrows rose and then furrowed. A shiver ran through his body like an electric shock, unsure what that was about or what caused that reaction in him. 

Slowly, he realized. Maybe there was a reason he’d never seen a girl on Eddie’s arm.

Steve stood there for a few minutes, perplexed by what had happened, until he snapped out of it and started straightening up the store. There probably wouldn’t be any more customers tonight. While Steve was re-organizing the candy Eddie had disheveled, he saw that one of the jars was low, nearing empty. He grabbed some candy to refill it when something shiny caught his eye. 

He reached in and pulled out a large skull ring. Eddie must’ve left it behind by accident.

Only when Eddie was settled in for the night with his homework open, the movie on, and his candy pile rapidly dwindling did he notice one of his rings missing. 

“Shit,” he swore, looking at his naked finger where a fanged skull used to be. That one had been his favorite. 

He looked around inside the trailer and outside of it with his uncle’s flashlight, but nothing shiny turned up in the beam.

Steve thought about calling Eddie up and letting him know he could come get his ring, but then he put it on and looked it over, smiling. He could totally pull off a ring like this. 

He’d try it out for a day or two, then give it to Dustin to give it back to Eddie when he saw him next. They were good friends now, to Steve's dismay. He wasn't jealous of anything. 

Eddie didn't seem too bad... for a freak.  

[dastardly-imbecile]

Not the Dungeons Pt. 4

He has not been so content as the warden of this place to never look towards the sky, reach a hand out towards the lushness of the forest and try to snatch a leaf from the tree, a tuft of fur from a roaming wolf, hold it in his good hand and never let go. --- Interesting conversation. More interesting dreams.

---

Introspection, exploration, more introspection.

Wordcount: ~2700

Pt. 1, 2, 3, 5

---

“We can leave,” the person upon the bed says, so delightfully naive that, for a moment, he wonders how they have survived so far. Of course, he saw—or, rather, felt—it all happening, but still, he must look down at himself and back up in disbelief. Down, at the thick wooden club sprouting from a shoulder, at the chest scarred from a thousand battles, at the beak always in this vision, crosseyed with the effort of capturing it. 

And up. Up at them, still sprawled out, leg wrapped as well as his clumsy hands were able, flickering between a thousand forms at a time. He is unsure whether they are male, female, neither, both—it’s hard to tell both from the merit of a dirt-smudged face, bulky armor, nondescript hair, and from the twist of his eyes. Unused to evaluating anything besides how many hits it would take to kill someone. Still—that doesn’t matter, not much. Same sentiment either way. Same falsehood. 

Slowly, he shakes his head, and they tilt their head, mouth—mouth, lips, not beak, so soft, so pliable—curving downwards. “You want to leave.”

Nod.

“We can leave.”

Shake of the head. A flicker of fear, deep in the eyes—he’s not sure why he registers this, and not gender. Perhaps he’s seen it so many times that picking it out has become second nature. “...We aren’t leaving?”

This one takes longer to consider. Eventually, he shakes his head again. It’s the we that’s the problem here. They can leave. He cannot. Tied to this dungeon, tied to the swollen guards, tied to the things that scream and things that crawl and things that do worse than that.  

It seems that the explorer understands as well, because finally, they say it. “I can leave?”

One final nod. To imagine it is to blaspheme in some way over the ephemeral things that rule this dungeon, but he can’t help it sometimes. Sky a shade so blue that it scorches the eyes, air clear and sharp with dew and flowers, a palace too far away and a man within that. 

…A man?

A knight. A… he stops in place, though he was not moving much in any case, and tries to think. A wall. He remembered this, he knows this, but already the memory is a tattered flock of crows soaring away, dropping a trail of feathers down upon the ground to follow. He picks one up, and then another, but by the time he reaches the third, the wind has already blown the trail all askew. 

Someone important, in any case. He cannot spare much more thought for this—there are two things that he must know, right now. You are not the dungeons. 

And, connected-

Keep the person safe. 

If he loses one, he might lose the other. At the moment it is…. Unsure why this is quite so important, but if he doesn’t remember now, then he did at one point—and, hopefully, he will again. For now, hang onto two points, and solely that. 

“Why not?” They ask, and then shake their head, forbidding his answer. “I apologize. Yes or no. Rudimer. Rudimer?”

Nod. The name hurts, burns, sparks some hidden, dried-out husk of kindling deep within his heart, but that is good. That is the same feeling he got when he studied this person, back before all this, when he knelt over their bed and counted the space between breaths. The burning, the purpose. 

“I… heard of you,” they say, “vaguely. Before I entered, people talked—whispered, more like. About the dungeons’ danger. Said it had taken you and many others. Trortur, Isayah. More, unimportant.” 

He knows them, if not by those names, then by a cobble-together of memory and personal experience. The man who inspires odd irritation in him, and who he took delight in beating down during their singular fight. The one with a mask and a hand disfigured—kindred?—who talks, in his sleep, of maps. And the rabble—the ones clothed in yellow, who follow the bodyless man, the dark-robed rats who crawl into corners with piles of books and glut themselves on blood. 

He is still thinking, recalling, when they finish their sentence in a whisper. “...Le’Garde too, I suppose.”

Blonde man—at least at first. Favorite of the priestess. Victim of the irritating one. His companion’s… whatever he is. 

Jerkily, he nods, unsure of what else to do. It’s true. The man is dead. Another life taken by the dungeons—another one in a line of deaths, one-by-one-by-one. Well- perhaps the others are not dead, including him, but he’s sure that this is worse somehow.

A moment of silence. He certainly cannot break it, not unless he wants to screech incomprehensive words to the heavens—or the hells—so it is upon the only one with a functioning tongue. “I can leave. You’re saying, yes. You… the dungeons? Are they keeping you? Rudimer?”

A part of them seems to delight in saying his name, and he cannot say that he minds completely. Perhaps it reminds them that he was human once, that he is not all hulking brute painted in scars and blood. Which is, of course, what he is, but humanity is comforting in ways that he cannot describe. 

Response—what to respond? He deliberates for a long moment, turning the question about in his mind. It is not… well, he cannot say that it is not a physical bond, because it is, in a way. He has not been so content as the warden of this place to never look towards the sky, reach a hand out towards the lushness of the forest and try to snatch a leaf from the tree, a tuft of fur from a roaming wolf, hold it in his good hand and never let go. 

Always, however, always, there is something that stills him, catches his foot before it crosses the threshold back out. Chirps and chittering behind his eyes, improbably throbbing in the wood of his arm, phantom pains from flesh that no longer exists. 

The memory of… something. Someone? The man in the palace? He is dead now, he must be dead, or he must be something worse than that, but just as he thinks this, it occurs to him that he has never lingered on his presence beyond this moment. 

For, always, he’s been simple vermin, been one of the many pests that come in and do not come out again. If he crosses paths with one of them, he will fight, as is his duty—duty from whom? From what?—but, usually, he puts little effort into seeking them out. 

But it is not impossible to find. In his mind, floating somewhat suspended in a mire of half-eaten memories, is a vague awareness of the dungeon. Crude at the best of times—he is not able to pick out a stone from thousands, to track the lumbering patrol of a single guard—but it guides him when he wanders through the labyrinth, alerts him when trouble comes. 

There are guards in the hallway outside. Above and below, for many floors. The deeper he goes, the larger they get, the darker their presence in his mind, until they’re indistinguishable from tarry feathers and subtly-shifting wings. There is nothing of note on the upper floors—a few of the quieter denizens such as the Pocketcat, casting his own sort of shadow, but outside of that, the only humans present are unremarkable and small. Even Le’Garde, infirm as he was, had a stronger presence. 

So deeper. Blackness in his mind, and the chirping grows louder, and the beaks stronger, first cartilage and now bone, scraping scraping scraping. 

So deeper. Even the crows shy away, now, and he has never attempted to extend his dominion so low—even in the days when he was not this god-touched creation, he’s sure he never ventured down here, never laid eyes on whatever rests in the depths—but he goes, keeps going, and still has not reached the edge. If he attempts to extend too high above, into the uncursed world, then he will scarcely get a touch of brightness before the crows start up a racket and begin smashing their heads upon the walls of his skull. But below, below, they are quiet—almost as if even they are afraid of drawing attention. 

So deeper. He realizes somewhere, dully, that someone is calling Rudimer, but he’s unsure if it’s happening below or above. Maybe both. Maybe neither. There are monsters down here, scuttling in the darkness, away from his reach, but he does not know them as he knows his guards, even tremulously. Other things too, things near-indescribable, darker than the Pocketcat and brighter than Le’Garde both, and if he focuses upon them for too long, then he feels them begin to focus on him—so he does not do that. 

So deeper. Finally, he feels something that is neither of those two. Small—not human, but not completely beast either. Familiar in a way that he barely remembers, in a way that floats just out of reach. It’s what he is looking for. He’s what he is looking for. 

And then, he withdraws himself from those dark places whip-fast, and the idle movements of brutes and monsters in the lighted world is almost a relief compared to whatever roams down there. 

As is the face before his, wide-eyed. In that first moment of return, confronted with the visage of a human, his mauler twitches and he half stands, but with a vicious wrench of his mind, he quells the motion completely. 

You are not the dungeons.

He is not. 

“Rudimer,” they say, and the thought resurfaces that perhaps it was them calling a name. His name. “Are you…” 

He blinks. Is he? 

Still, they have not flinched back, even with his initial early movement. Impressive, he’d say, except maybe it’s foolhardy instead. 

“The dungeons,” they repeat. He remembers the question—still unsure how to answer it though. Eventually, he settles on a tilt of his head, neither a nod nor a shake, and they sit back. 

“You do not know? Do… do this if you do not know.” They make a motion like the rolling of one’s shoulders, up-and-down, and he copies them, feeling the energy within those corded muscles, eager to bash. Not here. Not now. Soon? Perhaps. If he wishes to go down…

“The dungeons,” they say once again, “stopping you?”

He does the motion. Slowly, they nod, taking the information in. 

“How?” They look down, searching for chains, maybe for evidence of some sort of pact. He almost laughs. If it was a voluntary contract that led to this, he would have learned how to break it long ago. 

Not a question answerable by yes, no, or shoulders, but there’s another motion he can make. 

He points-

Down. 

To where all things go eventually. Always, he has been too wary of it to go fully, but he supposes that this prophecy must come true eventually as well. 

Down he goes. 

“That’s where…” they say, and then stop, shaking their head. “What’s down there?”

Roll of the shoulders again. Quite the useful motion. Struck by inspiration again, he raises his hand and points at his head, shakes it, rolls the shoulders, and points down again. I have impressions, but I do not know much. 

To their credit, they seem to get it almost immediately. “So that is what keeps you here.”

Nod. 

“We will set out tomorrow, then,” they decide, and he hesitates. Again, the most important of all those words is we—both of them? Slowly, he points at them, and then up. Out. Freedom. They asked him whether he wanted to leave, is that not an implicit indication of their own desires?

“No,” they say, “or not now, perhaps.”

He tilts his head. Inquisitive—it comes naturally. Perhaps it is the influence of the crows. 

“I came down here for Le’Garde. He is…” they hesitate, shake their head, “he is no more. He wanted to find what lays below. Thus…”

He draws back, regards them, all of them—disheveled and dirty, armor the slightest bit ill-fitting. Fought through seven levels of creatures, survived here where few do, at least in the open. 

They are not naive nor foolhardy, he realized, but insane. As all the living in here are. It should have been obvious, but he has not analyzed the mind of anybody in a long time, not unless ‘mind’ counts gray matter splattered against the wall. 

Slowly, hesitantly, unsure whether it is the right thing to do-

He nods. 

***

The last part of the day is uneventful, all things considered. Not after the mental foray into the darkness, not after the plans sketched out to travel below. Painstakingly as well—in the end, all that could really be confirmed between them was kill all monsters and keep each other alive. 

Good enough. More than anything he’s had in years. 

They sleep. He doesn’t. Not to keep guard—the monsters don’t breach this safe zone, not besides him, but because he doesn’t sleep. 

And perhaps because he likes watching. 

Force of habit. They fall asleep as they always do—slowly and with fluttering eyelids, a leisurely relaxation of their body, so out of place here. Soon, come the dreams, the faint twitching of limbs, the movement of their eyes behind the lids, flicking back and forth. He is used to it all, able to recite the steps in his own sleep, if he both slept and had a voice. 

Tonight, though, something changes. They roll over completely, unusual—they are not an animated sleeper, not usually—and then, the movement behind the eyes grows quicker, grows frantic. 

Moments later, the first sound. A cry, quiet, like a hurt creature, the noise that all things make when they die, monster or human or something else entirely. Momentarily, there is a brief flicker of excitement—is this the moment that it happens? The moment that the crows have found them? He watches, waiting for the beak, for the feathers and the transformation of limb to weapon, but it doesn’t come. 

Only more sounds. Struggling sounds, hurt sounds. Thrashing—enough to throw the thin sheet thrown across their body off, onto the ground. 

Eventually, the excitement fades, enough that he’s sure that tonight is not the night for them to become one like him. Perhaps, then, they will be able to talk, caw and croak in a language only the two of them understand, and the parts below will shake as both descend upon them, swinging and killing in tandem-

But, again, it is not the night. 

Something else… he leans closer, looms, watches. There is another feeling in his chest beside that of excitement. Should he muffle them, in case this does attract some wandering creature? Not by force, surely, that feels counterintuitive, but…

He reaches out a hand. Draws it back. Extends both, and then brings the mauler down so quickly that he scratches himself. Not that. Only one good hand anymore—remember that. 

One hand, carefully, so uncertain of the strength needed, upon their arm. That is all—he does not dare to squeeze, for fear that it will be the strength he uses to crush skulls. 

The sensation is unfamiliar. Cold metal against colder skin. He cannot remember if he’s done this before—not touch metal, but touch a person with such calculated softness. 

Perhaps he has. Not since the dungeons took him. 

The thrashing stops, but the sounds continue—quieter though, at further intervals apart. He can’t help but feel it’s because of him. Is this pride? It’s the same bubbling feeling as when he communicated his words with nothing but pointing and jerks of his head, the same feeling he got when he bashed his mauler into Trortur’s head and sent the man stumbling away. 

Must be. For however long it is, he’s content to sit there and watch, wait with a single hand upon their arm. 

All the sounds thus far have been incomprehensible, simple noises of surprise—wordless exclamations. 

Right before they awake, however—as he can feel the beginning of sunlight barely warming the dungeon stone in the highest level—there is a word. Or at least an amalgamation of letters that sounds more like a word than anything else. They jerk harder than they have since he put a hand upon their arm, and from their mouth comes an exclamation of, “Ma’habre!”

[seafoamstatice]

Some season 4 thoughts!

Not gonna lie, while I really liked a lot of the character moments, twists, and jokes from this season but some parts of the plot... didn't really make sense to me.

Something interesting to me is that in every season but this one, it's always established 1) why the police can't be trusted to investigate the murder and 2) why Charles, Oliver, and Mabel are making a podcast about it. It's used as set up for why the audience should root for them. In season 1, the police think its a suicide so the close the case. Oliver needs the money from the podcast, Charles is lonely, and Mabel has a personal stake in the mystery. In season 2, the police think its the trio. They make the podcast to prove to the public that they're innocent so they can move on with their lives. In season 3, the police arrest the wrong guy and close the case. Mabel drops the first episode to exonerate the guy and get him out of jail. In this season, its specifically stated that the feds are investigating, and while the trio has a reason to look into what happened, they don't have a reason to record and release a podcast about it (other than force of habit). In fact they have good reason not to do that: their first theory is that it was a case of mistaken identity and Charles was the intended target. If they think the danger isn't over, it would be ridiculously irresponsible to tell the public (and potentially the killer) where they are in the case.

Charles' and Oliver's story arcs were great! I especially liked Charles learning to open up about his feelings, and coming to terms with Sazz's death, it was really sad yet heartwarming. But! Mabel's arc is kind of baffling to me. I was really glad to see season 4 set up her developing her career, but it kind of felt like it petered out at the end? What was the point of setting up Animal Jobs and Mabel feeling bad about using Howard like a disposable lackey if they were going to go on to forget about the whole thing and treat Howard the exact same way? Mabel learned to see herself as a podcast producer, she flexed her creative muscles and started drawing again, but at the end of the season, she says that she doesn't belong in the entertainment industry??? She was inspired to make something of herself using her life rights money but the story she pitched to Bev Melon at the end of ep 10 is very clearly just season 4 of the omitb podcast- something she already had the means to do! (I will say, Bev's second phone call implies that this storyline may not be over, so I'm fully prepared to eat these words after season 5)

The trio's danger handling skills are so weird? When they realize someone is watching them they rush out of the Arconia in a panic. Some people call them out for not noticing loose ends. They come back to confront the supposed culprits and find out actually, they weren't responsible for the cameras at all. And so, still not knowing who it was and whether its safe to do so, they fully drop the issue and go right back on to live there? (This plot line might also be brought up again, so idk, if they can come up with a good explanation for why they did this, then fine)

I think it's super fun that Sazz was investigating things all on her own. It reminds me of that joke from season one where Jan complains that the trio trust Sazz, who randomly showed up, to investigate, but not Jan herself, who was Charles' girlfriend and Oliver says something like "Sazz is a stunt double, so I think she knows what she's talking about!" But I think it's so out of left field that Sazz is a really good screenwriter. Sazz is an extremely successful stunt double who comes from a family of stunt doubles and dreams of opening a school for young stunt doubles. Why is she writing rpf so good that on her first try it's blockbuster-movie-with-famous-celebrities worthy? It feels kind of unfair to the audience... If random characters can secretly be insanely skilled at random things that don't fit their previous characterization, then how could anyone ever guess motives for murders or any given character's capabilities?

Same with Marshall/Rex's skillset. He's introduced as a nerdy, anxious writer, but it turns out he's also a prodigy marksman who angsts about whether or not he's a violent person and secret former stuntman who's great at parkour? Ok?

I don't wanna nitpick plot holes, but I think it doesn't make sense for Marshall to kill Glen? The day Sazz confronts Marshall is the day before the opening night party, and she says then that they are the only two who know the script was stolen, meaning while Glen knew about the ronkonkoma incident, he would likely have no clue about Marshall stealing the script. In the omitb universe, coincidences like 'a group of people conspiring to cover up a death happen to know the trio's movie's directors, and also happen to live right across from Charles' are seen as reasonable. Sudden drastic career changes like genius stunt double to genius first time (!!) scriptwriter are seen as reasonable. So even if Glen did end up recognizing Marshall as Rex, it wouldn't tie him to the murder, it would just be a fun coincidence. It's possible Marshall just panicked, but that would be strange because he was very calm when the trio chased him and interrogated him. He managed to pretend that he was relieved they were asking him about the murder and not the rewrites! I'm not sure if I'm missing something here, but...

Admittedly I don't know much about trash incinerators, but from what I can tell, Gravey leads the gang to a chute that leads to the incinerator and then they go down to the basement to check what's in it. If Marshall put Sazz's body in the chute, why did he need to bring the vest? Do you have to wear flame resistant clothing just to turn on an incinerator?

Helga says that Sazz said her protege messed up badly and started harassing her. But in the flashback we see that they remained friends post stuntman career. Marshall tricked Sazz into giving him the script and she confronted him right before going to New York, meaning that their relationship was only antagonistic on both sides for like a day. So Marshall was harassing Sazz for at most one day. When did Sazz talk to Helga?

Are the westies... gonna be ok? Since the police know dudenoff is dead they can't really keep the rent control scheme going on, can they?

Ok this last one is really stupid but is the omitb movie just gonna go with Sazz's original screenplay? Didn't it need a bunch of rewrites lol?

All in all, I still really did like the season. It was a super fun watch, with exciting twists and the comedy and acting were still great! And who knows, maybe they'll revisit some of this stuff in future seasons! I'm already looking forward to season 5. I'm actually surprised they picked Lester, poor guy! I was thinking it would probably be someone new so they didn't lose too much of the supporting cast too quickly. The new character, Sofia, looks super cool, and I'm excited to see Olimabel (the Charles is silent) take on organized crime after dealing with four cases that were all about interpersonal drama. And I'm definitely excited for a mystery that seems very much tied to the Arconia.

[eaterofpi]

Nintendo Direct 3-27-25 Reaction Post!!

This is it.. The last Direct focused on the Switch 1...

Stating off with Dragon Quest? There's been a lot of 2DHD games this console generation.. I find the style a bit weird.. Oh.. HD-2D..

The Direct that will happen next week... The Switch 2...

I feel like people would know, isn't Dragon Quest III a remake??

Robot Girl!!! The Anime voice at the beginning was kinda jarring, I thought it was going to be one of them new Indie Horror Games

A Classic I never heard of.. many such cases.. AWOOOO!!!! It's like the SMTs (Never played)

It's that "Pac Man" game from the Game Awards!! Puck... Dark Twist....

OH!!! Patapon on da Switch?? I wouldn't have expected this, I thought they would've been locked to like.. Sony platforms.. Perhaps Loco Roco could come to Switch as well..

A New Story of Seasons? The Farming Sims are back!!

Metroid Prime 4.. It's been so long for them Metroid Fans.. I feel bad for them.. This was kinda what I was expecting to appear in this Direct.. Psychic powers? Oh.. That release date.. It may come out after the Switch 2..

I don't think I would wanna buy that game, I already have enough restaurant sims

Chucklefish game? I remember playing Starbound a long time ago

Oh? Is this Ducktales without the IP?

Gradius? I'm not much of a Shoot 'em up Pi..

Oh! This Necrodancer game!! I saw a friend stream it!! Celeste and Pizza Tower??

Tamagotchi?? From Mario Kart Arcade?? A Minigame collection?

Is this the same footage of Pokemon Legends ZA from that Pokemon Presents? Doesn't look like it.. I'm kinda surprised to see it in a Nintendo Direct.. Seriously.. Battle Royale?? A Wish?? I feel like that might be too much for a simple tourney??

NO WAY!!! New Rhythm Heaven?? Now we are talkin'!! I wouldn't have just minded a port of Gold.. Groove.. 2026?? Switch 1 still getting life after Switch 2.. Hey.. That's the guy from Warioware Gold!!

Game Cards? What are you talking about? Virtual Game Card? Sharing with a friend?? Family Group.. That means the Squad can share games?? 2 Weeks Trial.. This is a very interesting feature.. But I feel like I will still buy physical Switch games!!

There's so many RPG remasters..

Like that one art piece...

Golf!! The character designs are nice!!

A Beat 'em up...

The Finale...

TOMODACHI LIFE?????????

Now we are TALKIN!!! 2026 lookin good..

???

I guess that's a game I GOTTA get...

Another Final Announcement??

Nintendo News App?? And we will get cute animations??

Okay!! That should be it!!

Good direct

[4lbon]

Tbh I’m not even a Logan fan but what you’re saying about the crashes I think has set the final bar for me that I’m not gonna bother watching lol. Like I was already mad at so many critical points of last season being excluded, Franco being excluded and then hearing how they basically turned the whole series into the Horner apologist show…yeah, nah. I’ll just wait for the good clips to come to tumblr. This season had so much potential to revive DTS from the dead cause in all honesty, it’s been pretty slack since like season 4 or 5

i have SO MUCH to say bc i have been a long defender of dts. i got into the sport through dts and i think it does well to introduce new people to the sport, even if it's not loved my more veteran fans. and the show has been accused of creating false narratives but i've never really felt like that was true until this year.

for example, in season 5 i think, i remember seeing a complaint that a scene with lando and daniel running through a car park late for a meeting was from [x] race, but the show made it seem like it was at [y] race. this is technically creating a false narrative, but it's unimportant. if the episode is focusing on the monaco race and netflix squeezes in a funny moment from monza WHO CARES. they're putting together a fun episode and there's no harm in it in those cases.

HOWEVER. episode 3 they're setting up this redemption arc for george and they start focusing on spa and i'm like. oh no. spa. what a high and low of winning and then getting disqualified. but then they just ???? don't mention the disqualification at all??? they use that "win" as narrative to cement george as the #1 driver next year. and that, to me, is really alarming lying to the viewer.

as a dts fan i wasn't like, upset to find out xyz was cut from the season or that like, the clip of daniel looking mad after the baku crash was actually from a different race. i would super confused to get into dts from this season only to learn that i was lied to about a race winner. that seems like too big of a yoink and twist for narrative purposes.

i know your ask was about logan i'm sorry but to watch that episode and then next episode see logans crashes misrepresented was like GEEZ and i'm gonna be biased with logan. that should be obvious. but in that case it simply feels lazy. you don't need to misrepresent logan's career to get the point across. james wanted to drop logan early, obviously. if you didn't have enough examples early in the year you can take from last year, THAT'D be more honest. clearly james was trying to find someone else since way before most of logan's 2025 crashes.

i also have strong feelings abt the williams storyline being cut which like. i KNOW they only have so many storylines they can tell. but alex crashes and gets logan's car in australia AND its his birthday??? rumors of driver-TP beef stretching the whole season until he gets dropped. franco colapinto is tv DREAM material. i know dts has chronically ignored williams but this story was too fucking juicy to ignore IN MY OPINION.

(tbh i think there ppl behind the scenes pointing netflix in the direction THEY want. so rb wants a sympathetic show of christian, they don't want to get into the checo shitshow (apparently, i havent gotten that far yet), maybe williams have an interest in not having their dirtiest laundry aired. who's to say that's my impression of what ive seen so far :)

[chibi-celesti]

EXEC_ZENVA=RYUSSE >> FLEUR_CITY: Wassa Masquerade ag cremia LYAarhou_Siance(Let's go to the Glorious Masquerade!) (pt. 1)

Pt. 2 Pt.3 Pt.4

Summary: The Tales of the Glorious Masquerade with a Twst. Tone. spice added to it! Meryu, after Grim’s moaning and groaning withered away at Crowley’s resolve, can now travel to other cities with her friends for the First Ever Arcane School Trip. This trip will take her to a beautiful city where the prestigious Noble Bell College resides: Fleur City, aka the City of Flowers. And her group’s chance encounter with the well known Student Council President Rollo Flamme will change the outcome of the entire school trip.

A fic paying tribute to the Glorious Masquerade. I was thinking of doing a lot of the events from TW within Twst Tone, but for now I will start small with my personal favorite event of the Game. Some things that happen here aren't tied to TT’s Canon! (Side note: I altered Meryu's Reyvateil placement for this story, but don't worry. This too isn't tied too much to TT's canon either! In addition, this Event takes place post Book 06!)

~Twisted Tonelico~

Part one: Start Up(Preparations)

~???~

A lone boy sat alone in his council room, gazing directly at the fire. This boy was of 17 years of age, his emerald eyes that looked fatigue stared off at the dancing embers, his hands linked together as he appeared lost in thought. He looked down at the documents on his desk; each one containing information regarding his ‘visitors’ coming to his domain for a special arcane trip. “Soon…the day of retribution will be upon them soon,” A shady grin formed on his lips. “I will see to it that you fall, Malleus Draconia!”

His eyes then focus onto one face within the pile of Night Raven students, rereading the name and memorizing down to the finest details of her face. A magicless prefect from another world: Meryu Ptrapica Melenas. He picked up her file with care, caressing her photo with fondness of a protector.

“Fear not, my dear. For I will save you from those wretched demons!”

~Night Raven: RTG~

“The First Ever Arcane School Trip?”

“Yes./ You betcha!”

Dr. Marmalade leaned back into their work chair. “Interesting. What do you think, kiddo?”

Meryu is unsure of what to think. Ever since Crowley made an announcement about this Trip offered by another school beyond the borders of Sage’s Island, everyone didn’t really care for it at first until he selected 11 lucky(or unlucky in Idia’s case) students to represent Night Raven College. Sadly, both she and Grim didn’t make the cut because their names were not chosen. Something she didn’t mind, but Grim on the other hand couldn’t stand it. He rather they go out and see what the world had to offer since he they were always cooped up on the island.

Well, except for that one incident, but we don’t talk about that. Anyway-

The feline pestered the Headmage so much, the birdman fae conceited to allow the both of them to, with a catch: While also representing the school with her classmates, she is forbidden from revealing her Reyvateil status to ANYONE at Noble Bell College nor the people of Fleur City.

“I don’t mind it. But I do wish Mr. Crowley didn't have to lie about my status to Noble Bell.” Meryu lamented.

“Given the current condition of the World, it is a safer probability to ensure your safety.” Gamma told her.

Dr. Marmalade voiced their thoughts on the matter, though mostly agreeing with their assistant. “Birdy’s got a point. After the fiasco back home, the last thing I want is for my nephews’ folks to mess with you anymore than they already have.”

“That’s true…”

“That being said,”  They continued on: “Those who are going, do they know to carry their back up toys for emergencies?”

“Deuce and Epel? Yes.”

“And Zigvolt?”

“Loud mouth still refusin’ your gift despite us telling him to take it!” Grim said, annoyed that once again Sebek is ignoring his call to service because of his odd sense of pride and servitude to Malleus Draconia. “Why did we even botha makin’ him his own back up weapon?!”

“He’s an honorary Guardian, Grim. That's why.” The Reyvateil told him. “But I do wonder how Midori-kun feels about this trip?” Meryu does feel bad that her Princely friend will not be able to go. She wonders if there is anything in the mythical city they’re going to has any flower seeds or other trinkets he might like.

Her thoughts were soon interrupted by the Tin Man himself. “Meryu Melenas. Before you depart, there is one form of maintenance we must perform.”

“Hmm? What dya mean, Gamma-sensei?” Grim asked the former Charon.

“He’s saying that we should make sure she can survive the trip. She’ll be far away from the Dark Mirror, so we need to be prepared for when the time comes.”

“Prepare Minion with what exactly?”

“We need to craft her a [Ryusse] Song, followed by a Flip Flop conversation to whatever can act as an SH_Server in this City of Flowers.”

This confused Meryu a bit. “But I thought the Headmage would help us with that…”

That earned an eye roll from their mentor/ Counselor. “Even if he says that now, nine out of ten it'll be us doing the dirty work.” They moved to pat both Meryu and Grim on the head before heading to the Grathmelding workstation. “Come on. Let's see what we can Meld together while the boys are busy.”

“Hai!/ Gotcha, boss!” The Ramshackle duo ran to the nearest cabinet and started gathering everything they needed to produce the [Ryusse] song. 

Grim began loading some ingredients to the cauldron when his friend brought another important question to discuss. “Should we also make some Tranquility Crystals, too, Dr. Marmalade?”

“I don’t see why not, but we have plenty in stock for you and the others here, too.”

“Like you said, you can never be too careful! I’ll make sure to give some to Deuce and Epel just in case! Maybe I should give them to Mr. Zigvolt as well…”

“Knowing him, he’ll throw them out and claim you’re weak for needing them and your Life Extending Agents!”

“Who said what now?”

The group turned to see the first year Guardians in question arrive in the RTG. “Hey, boys!” The girl greeted. “Grim was just talking about Sebek’s denial as a Reyvateil Knight.”

Ace laughed at the allegation, knowing that would be something the Diasomnian student would say. “Not surprised. It’s been, what, 8 weeks since he joined us.”

“He could be nervous about this new position he was given.”

“That’s possible,” Deuce mentioned. “I know for me, Ace, and Epel it was a surprise from you and the Headmage, Doctor.”

“Still, better now than never. That’s how I see it anyway.”

“Oh we know,” Jack quipped. “By the way, what are you all making today?”

“Tranquility crystals.” Grim answered him. “Meryu wanted to have more while we party at Fleur City!”

A record scratch could be heard as the Guardians were trying to process what the dire beast said. “...Come again?”

“Grim bullied Crowley into letting us go…”

…

“WHAT?!/ No fair!” Jack and Ace cried.

“Calm down, guys! I’m still as shocked as you are!”

“Lies! I bet you’re secretly hyped about going on this trip!” Ace said angrily. “You probably helped set up Crowley with Grim from the beginning! OW!”

Gamma whacked the boy on the head with his fan. “INCORRECTION! Grim was the only perpetrator responsible! I have the tapes to prove it.”

Epel giggled, muttering a ‘Serves you right’ behind his hand. Deuce, on the other hand, tried to reason with him. “Let it go, Ace. Besides, you won’t have to put up with Houswarden Riddle for the next few days.”

“I would if it weren’t for Trey and Carter-senpai still enforcing the rules while he’s gone.”

Meryu turned to Jack after making sure she added a sprinkle of Minnow fins into the cauldron. “What about you, Mr. Jack? Do you have to do Mr. Ruggie’s chores while he’s away?”

“Yes, but nothing too major. I can handle it no problem!” He pumped his fist, ready to take on any challenge.

“That’s a relief.”

“Final Reminder for all: Keep your Symphonic Gear on hand for Emergencies!” 

Gamma’s announcement spooked two of the boys going to Noble Bell. “Our Symphonic Gear?! But what if we-!”

“Relax, you won’t,” The teacher assured them. “Remember, we specialized them to be as less noticeable as possible. They won’t bat an eye at their appearances, so you and Deuce will be fine, Felmier.”

“R-right…” Epel still felt new to this whole Guardian thing. He doesn’t mind it at all since he can prove himself to be strong, even if it’s not as physically buffed as say Deuce and Jack. But his nimble nature and ‘Lovely Charms’ have gotten better thanks to Vil and Marmalade’s teachings.

That said, he also noticed something off about the supplies being used in the Lab. “Um, Doctor. This is way more than the normal amount needed to make Tranquility Crystals.”

The rest caught on quickly when they saw what the Pomefiore first year pointed out. “Yeah, you’re right. Hey, Doc. What’s the deal?”

“One word. [Ryusse].”

“[Ryusse]? !!!” The boys picked up on the word quickly. “What do you mean by that?!”

“We’re working on a [Ryusse] Song. In case Crowley doesn’t keep his end to help us out!”

“What for?”

In a serious tone, their friend gave them all a straightforward answer. “So I can request for whatever resides in this Fleur City to be my [Ar Tonelico], and ensure I make it there safely.”

Meryu’s answer threw them for a loop, until some of them recalled how complicated things were when she strayed away from the Dark Mirror for too long. “That makes sense…” Jack admitted. Last thing anyone wants is to remember that fiasco again. “When do you guys think it’ll be done by?”

“Estimation is three days before their departure.”

“Who calls dibs on Downloading it?”

“Trappola…” The Doc warned.

“What~ I’m just asking. That way we know who’s responsible, that’s all.”

“Hmmm,” He wasn’t wrong. And they know she hasn’t planned that far ahead yet. “We’ll discuss it the day of the Download.” They chuckled at how Ace deflated at their response. Granted it seemed that all of them were bummed about not knowing who’ll perform it. “Don’t be so glum, kids. Be happy she’s going at all, AND that she is in good hands with you and the others.”

“Hai, Doctor.”

To lighten up the mood again, their Charon assistant asked a simple question: “Anyone hungry for Potato Donuts?”

“ME! ME!!” Was the general consensus.

~Nighttime, Ramshackle Dorm: Meryu’s Room~

Once they produced enough Tranquility Crystals, packaged some Life Extending Agents, and workshopped some ingredients to add on to the [Ryusse] Hymn Crystal, Meryu, Grim and the rest of the First Years retired for the night. Evening with the names of the people chosen, more still needed to be done from taking whatever simple clothes and garments they needed on hand. For the Housewardens going, they made sure that their Right hand commanders were given any and all information and to record anyone who may have broken a rule(Riddle), to manage the dorms nicely and uniformly without anything catching fire(Jamil). Meryu and Grim were lucky it was only them, with the one rule she asked from Alphonse, Benedict and Connor being that they keep the place nice and clean until they come back.

Speaking of said Reyvateil, the nervous jitters kept her awake, nearing into the Midnight hour. I can’t believe I’m actually going to another place this month! And to this Fleur City! Oh, I can’t wait to share this with Lady Frelia and Shun! Thinking of them suddenly caused a wave of heartache to bloom. If only there was a way to show them beyond simple photos…

Slowly, she rose from her bed and headed towards her bedroom window, peeking up at the Ethereal Full Moon in the sky. She began humming her lullaby again to herself, until she spotted the green glow of fireflies outside. He’s here?! Meryu pressed her face into the glass, and lo and behold, her prince was outside Ramshackle!

With a rush of joy, she left her room(making sure not to disturb Grim in the process) and outside into the cool Autumn air. “Midori-kun!”

“Meryu,” Malleus greeted her as she ran and hugged him fiercely. He laughed while hugging her back before letting her go to hold her hands in his. “You seem excited, my dear.”

“I am! I haven’t seen you all day, and I was worried because-” She paused before asking: “You heard of the Headmage’s announcement, right?”

“I have from Lilia. Something about an Official Arcane School Trip,” She nodded at his answer. “To be honest, I wish I was there when the Headmage had spoken about it.”

“He still hasn’t worked on that…” They both jokingly question how the ‘wise and generous’ Mage still kept forgetting to inform the Prince of such occasions. It’s a miracle he hasn't become roasted crow yet.  Shaking away such musings, Meryu went back on topic. “Anyway, I was hoping to see you to ask you a few things.”

“Things?”

“You see, Grim pestered Crowley into letting us go as representatives with the others.”

Malleus’s eye widened. “He has?” She happily nodded, oblivious to the shadow of a smirk that disappeared faster than it appeared. “Interesting. Are you excited, Inferiare?”

She blushed at the nickname. “Yes. This will be my first time proper, so…”

“I know,” He leaned in to whisper this to her. “To tell you the truth, I never told anyone this, not even Lilia, but I, too, was nervous to leave my home to come here.”

“Really?!” A simple nod was given. “You never came as someone who gets anxious.”

“You would be surprised. As Prince, I must refrain from expressing too much of my emotions less I make my people worry. However, what I say is the truth.”

She looked down at their hands, lamenting about her friend unable to travel with her. “I wish you could go. This city sounds beautiful…And I think you would adore the sights and sounds,” She felt him pat her head gently before tilting her face towards him. His eyes glimmering like the stars above.

“Fear not, Melenas. I’m sure Fate will allow us to journey together someday.” And those words alone were enough to ease some of her sadness and worries.

~Morning, Night Raven: Headmage Office~

“Splendid news everyone!” Crowley cheered, facing his group of tired first years. Well, all except for Sebek, who seemed more energized than tired. And Ortho, who isn’t usually tired given his state of being.

Once more the Headmage had called upon his “High Achieving” Students, aka those in the know of the RTG and the two Teachers overseeing the project. He claimed that he had something of importance he wanted to share with them. Super early in the morning. Before regular classes begin, and three days before they were to leave. Oh what fun…

Grim yawned before he asked the same question that was on most of their minds. “What news?”

“I have located the perfect source of an SH_Server!” The neurons in everyone’s minds shot them wide awake right away.

“Seriously?!/Really?!/ That’s Amazing, Sir!!”

Gamma turned to face his creator. “How do you prefer your socks, Marmalade? Fried, or marinated?”

“Not now, idiot!” They told him through gritted teeth.

Crowley was confused about the context. “I beg your pardon?”

“Doc said they’d eat their own socks if you didn’t keep your end of the deal,” Epel told him.

“Ah! Well, I told you I would aid everyone in this endeavor, didn’t I?” The damn fool was gonna enjoy his ego high after this.

“You did, after Grim violated your eardrums for hours.”

“I digress!” Crowley shouted. “Where was I? Oh yes. I have located somewhere in Fleur City that appears to have the same potential as the Dark Mirror to be an [Ar Tonelico] for Ms. Melenas. Tracking down its address was no easy task given the circumstances, but I managed to do so with due diligence!”

Most of them doubted it, but they didn’t dare voice it aloud again. Sebek, however, wanted this meeting to finish swiftly. “What is this new [Ar Tonelico] which you speak of?”

“The Bell of Salvation.”

“Huh?”

“Bell of Salvation?”

“That is a history lesson I do not have enough time to discuss at the moment, but yes,” He leaned onto his hands on his desk. “This is the temporary Song Server for you, Ms. Melenas.”

“I see…”

“And as far your project has come along, have you all completed this newer Hymn Crystal?”

“Yes sir! We finished purifying it yesterday!” Deuce said.

“Splendid. I take it this also means we can install post haste, no?”

“We can. But these idiots keep bickering over who should do it for the umpteenth time despite Melenas having the final say more than them.” Marmalade jested. “Who knew getting to chant in Hymmnos would get all their attention to focus in class.”

Crowley looked at the boys in disappointment, shaking his head at the information he was given. “You all must decide on who does it by the end of the day, or I’ll do it myself.”

“Mr. Crowley. About that…”

“Hmm?”

“I was wondering…” Meryu twiddled her hands before making her request. “If I could decide on who I would like to do this?”

“I see. Will you have your answer by day’s end?”

“Actually,” She clenched her hands together to disguise her nervousness. “I know who I want to do this with.”

~After school, Night Raven: The ‘Singing Hill’~

The group all gathered at the school’s ‘Singing Hills’ as they promised, waiting to perform the next steps needed for the safe travel ahead.

Before Meryu stood Malleus, whom she had given the Hymn Crystal [Ryusse] after she requested him to meet her after lunch. He was ecstatic to hear that she wanted him to help her with this task. As if he couldn’t feel more jubilated about the fact he was cordially invited to go as well, now his Beloved Siren is asking this of him. He felt like he could die happy to have so many good things come his way. 

Despite Sebek’s protests about him going through with this-combined with his insistence to do the procedure instead-the Prince’s resolve was firm. And to do this here before they depart… he felt honored to help his Reyvateil even more.

“Are you ready, Meryu?”

“Whenever you are, Midori-kun!”

“Very well,” He moved the Hymn Crystal in front of himself and Meryu. The moment it began to glow, he started the incantation.

“Was yea ra rre crushue Hymmnos.” Rings of light in the form of Hymmnos glyphs began to take shape. This did not deter anyone, not a single soul.

He continued on. “ADDR:0x02:04:1938:1113:1940. MA zweie ra flip 1x01110000 MERYU_FEHU_EOLIA_ARTONELICO <=> ARTONELICO=DARKMIRROR_PHANTASIA.”

*Whoosh*

“Rana 1/1x10 enter > hyzik sphilar >> Meryu exec DRONE=RYUSSE.”

*Whoosh*

“Grandus harr zenva tes ADDR: 0x06:06:1996:0316:1831, [BEATA=MARIA] der zuieg GRANDEE=MALLEUS_DRACONIA.”

The final ring of light vanished indicating the end of the rite. “Are you well, Melenas-san?”

“Yes,” she told him, then looked towards everyone. “I’m ready for Fleur City, everyone.”

~EXEC_ZENVA=RYUSSE >> FLEUR_CITY; Tes Biron~

[swordofsuns]

IM BACK BABY!!!!!

to be honest I was still on tumblr a lot of the time so it wasnt really gone. but. I now have time to present to you:

DND!

ARC 4!

CONTINUED!!!! (explosion sfx in the background) (guitar riff) (bald eagle screech) (in case you cant tell I have been waiting for this all week)

small recap for where we left off: Ira and Braxton left to get to Axum to try and kill the Flesh Baron and kidnap some of our NPC friends who got kidnapped. We all jumped into the feywild to follow them. not sure if I mentioned this but we met up with a half fey shapeshifting druid (Actaeon killed his parents on accident)(it was a whole thing), and he joined up with our party. Turns out Red's crazy ex girlfriend has gone on a slight murder spree. We met up with some old friends. we learned some lore about the immenent end of days. we accidentaly gave another one of our friends a magical mind connection with an evil appocalyptic eldritch god (oopsies). Red's magical protection amulet broke in her sleep.

(oh also for context everything that is about to go down happened in the course of a single, increadibly hectic session)

Red doesnt know her amulet is broken, only suddenly feels her conciousness pulled from the blissful dreamlessness shes had for only a month, back into the all to familiar almost-reality of dreams. this time, however, she does not find herself in a forest of black pines and snow, or in the blood and fire of her past, but instead in a very different corner of the feywild. and this time she isnt even in her own body, or even her own mind. Currently she has her mind mixed with that of Manti, as her vision doubles between her bed in the walking castle and of a slaughtered chapel, with its last resident begging for mercy. Manti, pauses, right before delivering the killing blow, as it seems the connection between the two of them goes both ways. suddenly, without a word, she turns, and gives chase.

Back in the castle, Max has realized what is happened and is quickly casting as many protections as he can around Red, eventualy managing to block out the power of a LITERAL GOD, though by then Manti has figured out where we are, and is on her way. We try to come up with a plan, and realize that despite practicaly everything Manti is interested in being in the material world, shes spent practicaly her entire time in the feywild, even though she has interdimentional portals at her fingertips. we come to the conclusion that because of her fey ancestry, she probably either straight up cant get into the material plane, or at least would be extremely weak after doing so. We also realize through a tracking spell that our other two party members have already made it through to Axum.

Our plan is pretty simple: step 1, leave the castle. step 2, remove protections on Red so Manti is able to follow us, and doesnt go after castle. step 3, make it to the portal to Axum before she does. step 4, meet up with Ira and Braxton, and if she can come through we fight her on home turf and if she cant then were all safe.

we hop out of the castle and make run as fast as we can for the portal to Axum (though it is several miles away so its more of a "hike quickly" than a run). We manage to make it to the portal in time, but right before we pass through, Manti appears out of nowhere and closes it, though in the process Ira and Braxton get swept through the portal and we all reunite.

At this point Manti barely resembles anything even vaguely human. she is approxamitely 15 feet tall, with a chitinous and segmented body, twisted features, and two twisted unnatural portaling sickles melded into her hands. She offers the party the option to give her Red, and in return they all live, but we say no and a fight breaks out. Absolute chaos breaks out as portals are opened everywhere, reality itself begining to crumble at all of the wholes in it, as well as having several extremely powerful adventurers, some of whom have literal gods as pets, effectively warping the fabric of reality like a black hole.

We manage to do some good damage, but Manti is also the vessel of a god so the fight is long and painful. Around halfway through the fight, with a single swipe from a sickle, Manti cuts Iras broom in two, sending her plummeting to her death.

Manti lets out a horrifying shriek, though whether from victory or from horror we cannot tell, and Red, uninjured, falls to the ground unconsious. Actaeon rushes to her aid, but he she is already somewhere else.

(this right here is my favorite scene in the entire campain)

Red wakes up in an all too familiar forest. the pines are black and the snow is thick underfood. this time, she finds herself in a clearing in the trees, without a cloak, and with only a rusty iron sword as a weapon. the snow in sprinkled in drops of blood, and, all around the clearing, she can sense the Leech circling around her. she cant see him, aside from the occasional insectoid leg, a glint on one of his many, many teeth, and his seven gleaming red eyes. his true form is massive, easily 100 feet long, easily encircling her and bringing his circles slowly closer and closer. and then he begins to speak. (Now listen brief side not but I dont think that I have properly communicated to you just how much Red and The Leech absolutely fucking despise eachother. their first interaction had Red threaten to kill herself just to ruin his day, and it has only gone downhill from there. basicaly any time one of them mentions the other it is followed by a series of insults and curses. its made even funnier by the fact that everybody else is great freinds with their godly patrons, while Red is continously willing to do whatever she possibly can just to spite him. but I digress). The Leech just begins absolutely ripping red to shreads (metaphoricaly), pointing out how all of her acheivments and victories were because he was rigging it to give her a confidence boost. how she claims to fight to avenge the people she lost, and yet, cannot even remember her parents faces. how in the end, every adventure she has gone on has only lead to more death. after all, she released the Lost Brother, she made a deal with Benny for her own sake, she gave Manti everything she needed to free him, She shot Kraka, she led Manti to them, and in doing so got Ira killed. how even after everything, all her supposed growth and change, the reason that every time she finds herself in the forest she appears as a child is because a scared child was all she has ever been. In fact, he offers, why not embrace it. She has always wanted power, and now, he can offer it to her. She and Manti can be his two knives, breaking this world she has always hated in two, and creating her own world, a new world all of her own. (Red cant quite tell how far away he is still, but he has certainly grown closer) Red takes a breath. She calms herself, and prepares to deliver her elequant and informed rebuttal: "FUCK YOU YOU BLOODSUCKING COWARD! IM GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!". The Leech snarls in anger, and simply responds "you are free to die trying", before he closes in, fully encircling her. Only 10 feet away. then 5. Hes fully encircled her now, and she has nowhere to run. She swings her sword down at his side, but it simply brakes against his chitin. she tries to punch him but only gets a few broken fingers in return. He lowers his titanic almost-face down to hers, showing her his thousands of clistening, sharp teeth, and his 7 glowing red eyes level with hers. "do you have any last words". Red doesnt respond, but reaches out in anger and panic, grabbing hold of one of his eyes. with all of her strength (and a nat 20) she tears out his largest eyeball. The Leech SCREAMS IN AGONY, and back in the fight with Manti, she suddenly collapses on the floor in pain. With the last of The Leech's power, he lunges at her, attempts to devour her very essence for daring to defile him, but, (with another nat 20)(the dice were insane that day) she survives the assault of a god through shear stubbornness and spite.

Back in the real world, the fight with Manti has taken a bit of a chaotic turn, as, right in the middle of the battle, she collapsed onto the floor, and then, suddenly, all of the transformation on her body begins to dissolve into a black ichor. Red suddenly wakes up, and finds that Manti has returned to her origional form, though her hands are still portal sickles. she considers just killing her right there, but decides that even if she doesnt forgive her for what she did she still was being manipulated by the literal god of manipulation, and was later sorta fully mind controlled, so decides to let her live.

We also remember the fact that oh right Ira died, and decide to try to kill two birds with one stone (or I suppose save 2 birds with 1 castle) by taking both of them back to the castle to try and heal Manti (she is practicaly mortaly injured now that all of her magical protections are gone) as well as trying to see if they have the ability to revive Ira, who is now been dead for too long for us to revivify. We go back to the walking castle of Cisero and King, and beg them to pretty please help us again. they agree the heal up Manti and deliver her to our little village for Diana and Brandon to take care of her.

However, they tell us that they have no way of reviving Ira, as they just aren't powerful enough for that. Thing is though, Kings old teacher, The Duke of Thorns and Fruit (I mentioned him briefly in my recap of the second arc), does have the ability to do that and is located nearby, though King warns us that he will probably just kill us on sight. In the end she sends us off with a signed note from her telling him that we are freinds and to pretty please help us and not kill us. We make it to his corner of the feywild, which is a giant thornbush maze, though the thorns sometimes grow these juicy red fruits, that kit decides to snack on as we travel, though nobody else does. Finaly, we make it to the center of the maze, where we meet the Duke himself. hes this weird regal deer man, who does try to kill us on sight, until we prove were friends of King, to which he decides that hes not going to kill us instantly, but, because one of us stole one of his fruit, he will still kill us unless we do him a favor.

Each of us must tell him our greatest regret, or we will be killed. he also promises that he will revive Ira, but that will come with its own price. Braxton goes first, and admits that his greatest regret was finding The Bear for the first time, but, instead of the words leaving his mouth, the world around us shifts, as Braxton is forced to relive finding The Bear as a child, chained up in cold iron. how he took pity on the animal and chose to free it. how his body changed and was morfed into something unfamiliar. how his parents through him out after they saw what he had become.

second is Kit, who admits that their greatest regret is stepping through the portal he found when they were a child, and relives them and their best friend finding the portal, stepping inside, and seeing it close behind them as they became trapped in a dimmention of infinite everchanging light, blinding and maddening.

Red is next, revealing her greatest regret to be that she is still alive, though everything she survives always kills everyone around her. she sees herself surrounded by every person who has ever died from her actions, or who she has been unable to save, which at this point includes her entire extended family, 2 small towns, an adventuring caravan, Kraka, Ira, a major city and a good portion of the feywild. The worst part is, she cant even remember any of their faces. she simply curls up into a ball on the floor and cries.

Actaeon goes next, hesitentaly admiting that his greatest regret is that Red had him as a father, and how he was only able to fill her head with imposible dreams and fail her in the end. he also reveals that he is getting old and is probably going to die in about a year.

Acris (that one druid who was with us that I mentioned) says that his biggest regret was leaving home to travel the world, seeing as the second he left home Actaeon immediately showed up and accidentaly murdered his parents in cold blood (im not going to explain this its a whole thing)

Val admits that his biggest regret was running away from home, but leaving his sibling behind with his parent who was doing human/demon expirementation on them.

The Duke of Thorns and Fruit accepts this as payment for trespassing and stealing, but says that in payment for him reviving Ira, one of us must give up our Happy-Ever-After. whoever does this will permanantly lose the ability to have a happy ending to their story and their life will be endless heartbreak and tragedy.

Everybody goes dead silent and refuses to accept, until Red steps foward, claiming that at this point she has nothing to lose, and shakes the Dukes hand. The image of Red living a comfortable life, in peace, with no paranoia, no threat of violence or death around every corner appears, before crumbling and being consumed by the Duke.

with that he takes a fruit and squeezes some of the juice on Ira, instantly reviving her. he opens a portal for us to Axum, and cheerfuly bids us good luck. As we all step through the portal, however, he pull Val aside and reveals to them that he knows that they're part demon, and that if they meet again he can help Val "reach his true potential".

Actaeon also tells Red that with the eye that she gouged from The Leech, she could use it as a sacrifice to the Huntsman, who would almost certainly reward her by turning her into an Ent-Jaren, or that she could use it as a powersource for her Bloodhide Cloak, which would unlock its magical potential. at this point shes extremely depresed and has given up on all of her dreams, and uses it to complete the cloak, giving her a bunch of nifty power ups and blood magic.

wow this is long. this was probably the most insane and chaotic session of the campain, but also definitely my favorite. I cant properly convey it to you but Red and The Leech have a absolutely perfect dynamic so any session that allows them to bicker with each other is always great. plus we get to give Red turbo deppression. hooray. I love hurting my characters.

to be honest I am very tired and Im not sure any of this even makes sense to anybody who is not me. I wrote this in a state of pure manic energy (really not sure what came over me) and it is all gone now.

HOLY SHIT

Oh

Red no.

Red no

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Dangancember 2024 - Danganronpa Top 24 Class Trials - Number 7: Danganronpa 1 Case 4

//I think you all knew that this one was going to make it into the Top 10 somewhere, whether it was in the upper echelons of the degree or not.

//The fourth trial of the first Danganronpa game is, to this day, infamous with how interesting the emotions are at play, as well as how engaging the mystery is.

//And it also culminates into what is widely believed to be one of, if not, the saddest Class Trial in the whole series. And with the first game managing that, a game which one could argue hasn't aged especially well compared to the rest of the series, you know that means something.

//So let's talk about it.

//The fourth trial of Danganronpa 1 stands out as one of the most emotionally charged and narratively complex cases in the series, largely thanks to its unique character dynamics and structure.

//The victim of this case is Sakura Ogami.

//The culprit of this case is...also Sakura Ogami.

//This case is, in short, the only suicide case in the main series where the victim kills themselves, and it's a twist the game never revisits in later installments, the only one of these games attempting it besides this one being SDRA2 with its fourth case. And as I already said, Shinji's suicide, while definitely impatful, is not as impactful as Sakura's here.

//Which as I said then, is probably WHY the team never attempted to do a suicide case again. It keeps this moment distinctive and ensures the first game has a signature trial that fans remember. Sakura's suicide is so powerful and emotional that trying to pull that twist and bring those emotions off again would have little but negative reprecussions.

//The tragedy of Sakura's suicide packs a heavy emotional punch, and the reveal is heartbreaking once the truth comes to light. Monokuma, ever the stickler for his own twisted rules, considers any death during the killing game a "murder," regardless of the cause, as long as it doesn’t result from someone breaking the rules, or dying of natural causes. By this logic, Sakura’s self-inflicted death makes her both the perpetrator and the deceased, an outcome that feels disturbingly poetic in the context of her struggles.

//Sakura’s pivotal role in this chapter isn’t limited to her shocking death. Monokuma drops a bombshell halfway through the chapter that Sakura has been a spy all along, secretly feeding him information about the students' actions since they arrived at Hope’s Peak Academy.

//This revelation sets off a wave of paranoia and tension among the group, further isolating Sakura, who was already grappling with guilt and inner turmoil.

//It’s revealed later that Sakura wasn’t spying for Monokuma out of loyalty but because she was being blackmailed, forced into an impossible situation where she had to betray her friends or face dire consequences. To make matters worse, Monokuma ordered her to kill one of her classmates to keep the game going.

//However, in a move that highlights her strength and selflessness, Sakura chooses to defy Monokuma’s cruelty in the only way she can think of. The person she decides to kill is herself.

//Her decision is a tragic attempt to protect her friends from being forced into another cycle of killing and betrayal. And it's a case that is both heartbreaking and thought-provoking, raising moral and philosophical questions about agency, sacrifice, and the destructive nature of Despair.

//It’s a rare moment where the game slows down to let the emotional weight of its story sink in, and for good reason. After all, how do you "solve" a case where the victim is also the one who made the ultimate choice?

//But it's how the case is built around the suicide, as well as how Monokuma manipulates the events, that makes this trial an amazing mystery on top of an emotionally charged sequence of events.

//Much like the previous chapter, the revelation that Sakura is a traitor casts a long, heavy shadow over the group, deepening the rifts and tensions already brewing among the students. At this point in the killing game, trust is a rare commodity, and paranoia reigns supreme.

//Every interaction feels like it could spiral into disaster, and the suffocating atmosphere of confinement only magnifies the stress. The knowledge that someone among them could strike at any moment leaves the characters constantly on edge, and this chapter uses that tension to its fullest effect.

//This is where I think the tension in the first Danganronpa game truly hits its zenith. The group isn’t just fractured, they’re practically splintering apart, with every small conflict threatening to ignite a larger explosion. All of the characters are so scared to find out that Sakura betrayed them that none of them really stop to ask why, and it's enough to turn Byakuya, Hiro, and Toko against her.

//It’s not just the looming fear of death that weighs on everyone but the soul-crushing realization that they can’t fully trust anyone, not even the people they’ve fought beside and shared moments of vulnerability with. When it comes to group dynamics, this chapter takes the concept of every man for himself and runs with it, right into a brick wall.

//A standout moment that underscores just how volatile things have become is when Toko nearly kills Hina. The event is a grim reminder of how close to the edge everyone is.

//It’s one of those moments where you realize the killing game isn’t just about murder. Junko's reason for doing this isn't simply to get people killed. It's to break people, grinding down their humanity until all that’s left is raw, frayed nerves and bad decisions.

//For Sakura, this incident becomes a turning point. Watching her friends unravel under the pressure, and nearly kill each other over her, is the final straw. It’s the catalyst that drives her to take action, not out of despair, but out of a deep and selfless love for her friends. She sees the group spiraling into chaos, and despite being branded a traitor, she shoulders the responsibility of protecting them in the only way she can think of, and sacrifices herself to put an end to the violence and distrust.

//As a bit of a side note, you might notice that I'm using a lot of ScreenCaps from DR the Animation in this analysis as well, and that's actually a point on its own.

//I know that The Animation is a very mixed bag of feelings for people, and yeah, it's nowhere near as good as the main game, but this is the one time I want to talk about it, because this Chapter is by far the best arc of the original animation.

//Sakura is animated INSANELY well throughout most of her appearances in this part of the story, and Rachel Robinson REALLY sells the pain in her voice.

//The irony of this chapter is almost comedic in a dark way. On paper, it’s a murder game, but at this point, everyone’s so stressed out that murder isn’t even necessary. They’re practically at each other’s throats already. Monokuma barely needs to lift a paw to keep things entertaining.

//And yet he still manipulates the events so that a Class Trial happens anyway, but we'll get to that.

//Even before the Class Trial happens, what I love about this chapter is how it balances these intense moments with quiet, heartbreaking ones that remind you just how human these characters are, even as they fall apart. The tension might peak here, but it’s Sakura’s ultimate act of love and selflessness that lingers long after the trial ends.

//Speaking of the trial, what about that, eh?

//The investigation into Sakura’s death is one of the most fascinating, and chaotic, parts of Danganronpa 1. Not because the mystery itself is particularly well-crafted, because it’s actually pretty straightforward, but because of how poorly the surviving students handle it.

//The real intrigue comes not from the clues, but from the dysfunctional behavior of the group as they stumble through the case, weighed down by their mistrust and personal grudges. The tension and emotional baggage from Sakura’s traitor reveal bubble over in this chapter, and instead of working together, the group is a powder keg of suspicion and finger-pointing.

//And that to me, is by far the most important part of analysing this story, as well as a statement on how masterful the villains of this game are at taking advantage of the students Despair.

//Put simply: if the students had been even remotely united, they could have figured out almost immediately that Sakura’s death was a suicide. It's only because they were so insistent on being at each others throats that this Class Trial even happened.

//The clues were all there, but the toxic group dynamic completely derails the investigation. The only person who knows the truth from the start is Hina, but she chooses to keep it a secret for reasons that become clear later.

//Instead, she insists that Sakura must have been murdered by one of the people she invited to meet her and talk with, effectively setting up a trap to punish everyone for their perceived role in driving her best friend to despair.

//Hina’s plan is reckless, dramatic, and downright dangerous, and it's definitely her lowest point in the game. But honestly, can you blame her? She’s grieving, furious, and trying to make sense of an unbearable loss.

//What makes this trial so memorable isn’t just the sadness of Sakura’s sacrifice, though that’s a major factor. It’s also the pure messiness of the investigation itself. Monokuma’s earlier reveal that Sakura was a traitor fractures the group even further, with only Makoto and Kyoko recognizing it as another one of Monokuma’s manipulative motives. Meanwhile, Byakuya, Hiro, and Toko fall for it hook, line, and sinker, turning against Sakura and treating her as a dangerous enemy.

//The atmosphere becomes so toxic that Hina, in a rare burst of anger, punches Byakuya, an act that leads to Toko (or rather, Genocide Jack) retaliating by seriously injuring her. It’s pure chaos, and when Sakura finds out about this, it’s the final straw for her. In a fit of rage, she threatens to snap Toko in half before Hina manages to calm her down. It’s a shocking moment, but one that underscores just how much pressure Sakura has been under, and how desperately she wants to protect her friends, even from themselves.

//In an attempt to mend fences, Sakura arranges meetings with the three people who distrust her most. Unsurprisingly, Byakuya rejects her outright because, well, he’s Byakuya. The other two show up, but things don’t go as planned.

//In a comedic yet tragic twist, both Hiro and Toko end up attacking Sakura out of fear, each thinking she’s about to kill them. Hiro whacks her with a bottle, and Toko, switching into Genocide Jack, follows up with a blow of her own.

//The best part? Sakura survives both attacks because she’s fucking Sakura Ogami, and a blow to the head like that wouldn't kill her, let's be completely real.

//But the resulting trial features some hilariously petty back-and-forth between Hiro and Toko, as they each try to pin the blame on the other, only for the investigation to reveal that neither of them actually killed her. Their mutual incompetence is almost endearing...almost.

//And then there’s Hina, who, after Byakuya announces that Sakura was poisoned, outright confesses to the crime, claiming full responsibility.

//Her confession, however, isn’t what it seems. Hina’s goal is to ensure everyone else dies during the class trial as punishment for driving Sakura to suicide.

//It’s a reckless, grief-fueled gambit that shocks the group...and leads to one of the most satisfying moments in the entire game: Byakuya Togami’s glorious breakdown.

//Watching the usually smug and insufferably arrogant Byakuya lose his composure is nothing short of cathartic. For once, he’s caught completely off-guard, his carefully crafted image of superiority crumbling in the face of his miscalculation.

//As I said in the literal previous placement, one of the things that I loved the absolute most about Trial 4 of Another 1 is just how Tsurugi and Rei are completely unable to COMPREHEND the idea of someone sacrificing their life for another, and it hits them so hard that not only does Rei completely stop being so stand-offish, but Tsurugi straight up passes out from the stress.

//But Byakuya coming to this realization is just as satisfying, if not moreso, when you look at how he acts through the whole game. And I'm not just talking about his chronic smug sense of superiority.

//Byakuya falls headfirst into Hina’s ruse with the poison and protein powder because his worldview revolves around the belief that people act in rational self-interest. From his perspective, it’s entirely plausible that Hina was either faking her friendship with Sakura from the start or snapped under the pressure and killed Sakura as a way to escape the killing game.

//What he completely misses is that Hina is not a rational, calculating person like himself; she’s deeply emotional and driven by her feelings, which don’t fit neatly into Byakuya’s cold, logical framework. Hina manages to completely fool him because her motive IS irrational; something Byakuya simply can’t account for in his worldview.

//Meanwhile, Makoto and Kyoko see right through her act because they recognize how much Hina valued her friendship with Sakura. They understand that, for Hina, betraying that bond was far less likely than committing murder-suicide to avenge her fallen friend.

//What makes Byakuya’s misstep even more ironic is that throughout the game, he’s the one constantly lecturing everyone else about the dangers of assuming other people think the same way they do. Yet, his biggest mistake in Chapter 4 is falling into that exact trap.

//He’s all too eager to assume that Hina betrayed Sakura because he would have no qualms about pretending to be someone’s ally only to betray them later. But Hina doesn’t operate that way. Unlike the cold, pragmatic Byakuya, Hina is fiercely loyal to the people she cares about, and her emotions drive her actions, even when those emotions lead to something as extreme as a murder-suicide plot.

//In this case, her overwhelming grief and desire for vengeance against those she blamed for pushing Sakura to her death clouded her judgment to the point where she was willing to sacrifice herself to take them all down.

//It’s a brilliant moment of narrative irony: Byakuya, the self-proclaimed master of strategy and logic, is undone not by a lack of intelligence, but by his inability to grasp the emotional depth and complexity of someone like Hina. His arrogance blinds him to the fact that not everyone operates on the same cutthroat principles he holds dear. Meanwhile, Hina, who he probably views as one of the least strategic players, manages to outmaneuver him entirely, using her raw emotions to create a scenario he never saw coming.

//And this actually ends in an unexpected, but not unwelcome way, because this actually GETS to Byakuya. He accepts his own shortcomings as a person, redeems himself a little by declaring to Monokuma that he’s done playing the killing game. It’s a rare moment of character growth that makes you grudgingly respect him, albeit only a little. But as the rest of the series shows, he goes nowhere but up from here.

//And two things that really sell this whole scene is 1) Jason Wishnov and Akira Ishida's Voice Acting in both dubs, and the way the voice cracks to show his perfection falling apart, as well as Kyoko absolutely ROASTING THE FUCK out of him!

//This is largely why I absolutely love Kyoko, because this is one of the moments where you see that she's not some perfect, stoic, unbreachable person who's on a whole other level to you.

//This is very clearly her holding a grudge, and as she slowly picks apart the flaws in Hina's confession, which causes Byakuya to break down, she is SMILING the whole time.

//I just...love this woman.

//Going back to Hina though, the climax of the trial comes when she reveals her motive: a suicide note left by Sakura. However, in a cruel twist of Monokuma-brand villainy, the note turns out to be a forgery.

//Monokuma deliberately swapped out the real letter with a fake one to manipulate Hina’s grief and fuel the group’s chaos, and personally, I think it’s one of the most despicable things he does in the entire series, and that’s saying a lot.

//When the truth finally comes out, Hina breaks down, and the group is left to reckon with the consequences of their actions and the weight of Sakura’s sacrifice.

//In hindsight, this trial is deceptively simple. The actual mystery of Sakura’s death isn’t hard to solve. It’s the group’s infighting and emotional baggage that complicate everything. If they’d just taken a step back and communicated like rational people, the case could have been resolved in record time.

//But where’s the drama in that? Instead, we get a beautifully messy, tragic, and oddly humorous chapter that showcases the worst, and best, of the surviving students.

//Honestly, there's not an awful lot I can say about this trial that hasn't been said already countless times, but they key reason why it's so integral to the Danganronpa series as a whole, even outside of this game, can be summed up in one word:

//Impact.

//The impact of this trial is MONU-FUCKING-MENTAL on the series, and here's some of the reasons why:

//At the heart of this case is Sakura's tragic decision to take her own life. And her choice is an act of Despair but also of warped Hope.

//She believes her death will end the hostility among the group and give them a chance to unite against Monokuma. Her self-sacrifice is devastating because it underscores the extent of her love for her friends, even as they struggle to understand her.

//And it really highlights the fragility of human connections under pressure. And I think there's only one other case in the game that does this just as well. By process of elimination, you probably already know what that case is by now, but we'll cross that bridge when we burn it.

//Sakura’s case is a turning point in the game, where the game’s tone pivots from its earlier reliance on shock value, dark humor, and clever mysteries to something more profound and emotionally powerful.

//The previous trials, while dramatic, often leaned on the outrageousness of the situation or the cunning twists in their conclusions. In contrast, Case 4 delivers a narrative that delves deep into themes of trust, betrayal, and sacrifice.

//This trial doesn’t just unravel a mystery, it confronts the players and characters alike with the raw consequences of the killing game’s emotional toll. By doing so, it signals the transition into the darker and more introspective final act of the game, setting the stage for the heightened stakes and moral dilemmas to come.

//Largely the reason why I marked Case 6 down much lower than this is that Junko really broke the established tone of the final chapters that Sakura so expertly set up here.

//Case 4 stands out as the emotional low point, but narrative high point, for the main cast, giving each character a moment of significance in the narrative.

//Hiro and Toko find themselves as the initial suspects, adding levity through their bickering while also showcasing their survival instincts. Byakuya faces his first real moral test as he grapples with the nobility of Sakura’s actions, forcing him to reconsider his own cutthroat philosophy. Hina, the heart of the group, finally succumbs to her grief and lashes out at the others in an emotionally raw moment that highlights the depth of her bond with Sakura. Meanwhile, Makoto and Kyoko are at their best, working together to guide the trial to its resolution.

//This is the only non-finale trial in the series where every character plays a meaningful role, creating a tapestry of perspectives that makes the case unforgettable.

//But besides Sakura herself, the most integral characters to the narrative of this case are Hina and Byakuya. They CARRY this trial.

//Hina's emotional breakdown is one of the most memorable aspects of this game, showing how deeply Sakura’s death affects her. Overcome with grief and guilt, Hina lashes out at the group, blaming them for driving Sakura to her demise, and her overwhelming pain pushes her to extremes, almost resulting in a false conviction that would have doomed everyone. And thanks to Monokuma's fuckery, Hina doesn't realize that this isn't what Sakura would have wanted.

//This moment not only emphasizes the profound friendship she shared with Sakura but also serves as a harsh reminder of how easily grief can cloud judgment. Her vulnerability makes her one of the most relatable characters in the game, as her raw emotions contrast sharply with the cold logic often required to survive the killing game.

//And as already stated, for much of the game, Byakuya is the embodiment of arrogance and detachment, viewing others as tools or obstacles in his quest for survival. However, this trial marks a subtle but significant shift in his character.

//Confronted with the selflessness of Sakura’s actions, Byakuya begins to show cracks in his icy demeanor. Though reluctant to admit it, he acknowledges that her decision to sacrifice herself was noble and honorable, challenging his cynical worldview. This moment doesn’t transform Byakuya overnight, but it lays the groundwork for his eventual growth, showing that even someone as callous as him isn’t immune to the weight of Sakura’s sacrifice.

//This trial is also one of the key moments of this game where we really see how much of the group anchor Makoto is, and one of his standout moments in the series.

//Makoto role in the trial is pivotal, as he takes it upon himself to rebuild the fractured trust within the group. His determination to honor Sakura’s legacy and prevent further division among the students is a defining moment for his character. In his final speech to Monokuma, he emphasizes the importance of unity and mutual understanding, directly confronting the despair that the killing game seeks to cultivate.

//And this ability to inspire hope and empathy becomes the cornerstone of the group’s survival moving forward.

//And probably the thing that really got me in the feels with this trial was Sakura's suicide note. The real one that Monokuma reads after he ditches the fake one he gave Hina. In the note, she expresses her unwavering love for her friends and her wish for them to reconcile and survive together.

//It’s a powerful message of forgiveness that Toko, Hiro and Byakuya kinda don't really deserve, but Sakura refuses to hold any resentment toward those who doubted her, instead urging them to come together against their true enemy: Monokuma.

//This final gesture elevated her to one of the most respected and beloved characters in the series among the fanbase. Her note serves as both a farewell and a call to action, leaving a lasting impact on the group and the players.

//And in short, the reason why Case 4 is so integral, and so impactful to Danganronpa as a series, is how it highlights a central theme through the series, and conveys a life message to people for them to live by:

//Fear and mistrust is destructive.

//One of the central themes of Sakura’s case is how fear and mistrust can corrode relationships. Despite Sakura’s selflessness, her status as a traitor leads many of her friends to suspect her of harboring malicious intentions.

//Monokuma exploits this fear, turning the group against her and amplifying the isolation that ultimately drives everyone to Despair. And the case serves as a commentary on how paranoia can blind people to the truth and cause them to hurt those they care about most.

//By the end of the trial, the characters are forced to confront the consequences of their actions and realize the importance of trust...a lesson that becomes vital as they face the challenges ahead.

//And with all of that in mind, that's why this is one of the best trials in the series, and why there's no way I could put this any lower than the Top 10.

[crescencestudio]

VELOX FABULA: A TALE OF DELUSION AND MEMORIES

So… I’ve been keeping this relatively DL on this side of the internet. Twitter got a couple of sneak peeks, but in case you all didn’t know, I participated in Velox Fabula, a game jam where we are given a community theme and have 10 days to make a full game.

And when I say I participated, I mean I Participated.

Before I get into things, let me just say that as a disclaimer… I had Every Intention to enter this jam as an Extreme Sideline Supporter.

Shall we get into a “post-mortem” of sorts?

Let’s set the scene, shall we?

Crescence has just finished Intertwine and Otome Jam. They are feeling Good and Creative. Alaris has made good progress in the month of July and starting weeks of August! Crescence Sees Velox Fabula, and while wanting to participate, decides not to because they’ve just done one jam, they want to focus on their main game, and maybe they’ll touch grass a little. Who knows?

Enter about 1-2 weeks out of Velox Fabula, and people are posting their teams. Crescence gets FOMO. Many besties are involved in Velox Fabula. So Crescence reaches out to a team that’s pretty big and offers to do just QA! Help with brainstorming, scoping, narrative design, etc. That’s not too bad!

Another friend reaches out.

This is someone Crescence has always wanted to work with. Crescence will just be a writer! Again, that’s not too bad! Why not!

So now, come VF Jam, and Crescence is on two teams (I was originally on three actually LOLlxoap).

First 24 hours go off with a bang. The theme is Unreliable Narrator. There's lots of brainstorming, throwing ideas around, refining, and eventually we land on two ideas.

On team one, we have an otome game inspired by [REDACTED] that will feature and MC who is [REDACTED] and a character who [REDACTED]. The game ends up having three love interests and is Deeply Ambitious but with 10 people onboard we decide to push ourselves.

On team two, we have a point-and-click game with a rich story that explores MC's background and a narrative twist where [REDACTED]. It's fantasy-inspired, because bitches know me and fantasy. And has MC choose to cherish or forget their memories through the ingredients they decide to add to a potion.

Both of the stories are fun and relatively different compared to what I've done so far. One, while still fantasy, has a writing style that is more vivid and emotional compared to my usual more grounded writing. The other is, well, Horror. Which I have no experience writing.

And so the Jam begins

The first third of the jam is a blur of frantic writing, editing, narrative design, and more. It's a hodgepodge of ideas on how the script and gameplay will go together. What's the visual identity? What is the Story we're telling? What's the Mood? And how do we unite all of these things to elevate the atmosphere of the game itself?

Enter the second third, and I'm wrapping up writing on team two. I get asked to do GUI for potion team, which I hadn't anticipated. But hey, I'm feeling inspired. Plus, I want to learn how to code all of these GUI features in for Alaris. Why not use this as a learning experience? So I agree. Horror team needs some help writing, so I jump in as well. I've never written horror, but there's already an outline. How hard could it be?

In the span of maybe 3-4 days, I end up writing about 15k words and editing maybe 10k worth of words. Somewhere during this time frame, I've also made progress on Alaris

Enter the last third of the jam and these games needs to be Made. I code the GUI for potion team. I reformat both scripts for both teams to Ren'py format to ease the burden on coders while they figure out other game features.

Enter the last 12 hours, and I am still coding and QAing both games. Not even caffeine runs through my veins anymore; it is straight adrenaline.

Enter the last 30 minutes. Horror game has submitted. I am still QAing for potion team. Are the labels getting called correctly? Is the dialogue showing up when it should? We submit with less than 5 minutes to spare LMFASODLIJ

i still laugh at this

As I come out of the Jam haze, I feel two main things:

Proud of myself. Like I fckn did that. Considering the context of how I had come into these roles (as an NPC if u will), I contributed pretty heavily to these games. And I think not having to be director made me see the skillset I've slowly built up as a game dev. It was that moment where you step back and fight that imposter syndrome a little bit, which has been a Heavy companion with me throughout my game dev journey.

Tired but (Creatively) Rejuvenated. I think this jam was surprisingly what I didn't know I needed for Alaris. After Otome Jam, I definitely made progress and was excited to get into Alaris. But after this jam, where I feel like I am Done and 100% satisfied, there's no longer any temptation for any other project. Like I feel solely focused on Alaris, which is extra exciting because the next couple of routes are some I've been most excited to write!

At the end of it all, I feel like I learned so much from so many talented people. And I think my writing, GUI, and coding skills have come out for the stronger because of it. Something I like to do with my games is integrate every component together (biggest example is Intertwine and how the GUI plays a part in the narrative itself). Watching people who are exceptional at coding, GUI, etc. helped me learn different ways to approach my own creative process. And I am so unbelievably excited to bring all of this into Alaris! Velox Fabula was an unforgettable experience---it was cracked, fun, delusional all in the best ways. And I'm honestly pretty proud of the products we've made from it! If you haven't gotten a chance to, please feel free to check out:

A "beautiful and melancholic" game that explores the power of memories, emotions, and more in a fantasy potion setting:

And an eerie horror game with twists and turns that lurk around every corner, only to be interrupted by Cute Love Interests