#clive being bad at puzzles

[vampire-cookie]

more fanart of this fic, specifically chapter 6. this doesn't happen in it but i like to think it does

[theintrovertedsculpter]

I need podcast recommendations, here is a history of my likes and dislikes when it comes to podcasts.

Malevolent: 10/10 love hearing Arthur's life get worse every episode.

Midnight burger: 1000/10 found family? Caspar getting roasted by Ava? The WOLF LADY GLORIA?? amazing.

Red valley: 8/10 poor Gordon. But listening to Clives life fall apart was a treat

The mistholme museum: 6/10 ran out of places to go and the author I feel lost the passion for the project and just wanted to end it. I feel like it went too big too fast and could have benefit from a slower plot progression.

TMA: 7/10. I'll be honest it didn't really leave an impact. John being a paranoid idiot every episode made it more funny than anything else especially since he was half wrong about everything.

Desert Skies: 4/10 really cute podcast, the writing is not my cup of tea.

Welcome to nightvale: 5/10 I really appreciate everything that it has done for podcasts as a media but this is one of those rare times when I feel like the series is too long and the overarching story gets lost. I can't even remember if there was one.

Tower 4: 3/10 why am I hearing this man's internal dialog? I did not like it. Great dialog and voice acting but I couldn't do it.

Death by Dying: 7/10, loved the first season. I tried the second and I feel like the story was pretty complete already so the second felt pretty meh, but that's just me.

The slit verses: ?/10 cannot rate because I didn't finish it and I don't want to give a bad rating. I listened to the first episode and a half and felt very confused and lost because they kept talking in code If anyone can tell me if things clear up I would greatly appreciate it.

Wolf 359: 8/10, I listened to the first hour of the finale and noped out because I recognize death flags and no. Nope. Absolutely not.

Limetown: 8/10 loved the story and the puzzle clicking together. Loved the twist at the end, loved how the characters felt real. Lia Haddock deserved better.

[another-clive-blog]

I know that I already sent an ask earlier but I haven't decided on a request then. I have an request of a fanfic being about Clive and co hanging out at the bookstore. Like maybe Clive and Luke are looking at some puzzle books together as a way to see who could solve the most.

Thank you so much !! That's such a great idea too !!! The siblings ever ;^;

Alright so this one is longer than usual ! It starts with light-hearted fun, then gets a bit angsty, and then a bit fluffy at the very end. Featuring Clive, Luke and Flora having a puzzle competition and talking a bit about emotions !! (Yes Clive does try. He's less mean here than I usually write him ahah)

It takes place at the library in Chinatown. Layton, Clive, Flora and Luke take a break there before heading to the towering pagoda =)

"This has been nice, but we should go back to our investigation now," Big Luke said politely, although these distractions were starting to be quite the bother. Could you blame him ? All of them were wasting precious time with people and activities that didn't matter, unlike his plan- which was exactly why they should focus on the investigation and quit running around in that stupid library.

"Stop being such a partypooper," Little Luke pouted, "you're giving me a bad name."

Big Luke almost choked. A partypooper ? Him ?? "I beg your pardon ?"

"Well, you're me." Little Luke explained, as if this was somehow the concept Big Luke was failing to grasp.

"That's not-"

"Which means," Little Luke added with a smile, "that I know you love libraries. Because I do ! And the professor said that we could stay here for a few more minutes, so we should take a look and have fun !"

Of course the professor had said so. He was probably busy borrowing hundreds of books he would never be able to return.

Apparently, Little Luke had decided to be annoying today. "Well, that's what I'm gonna do anyway. If you want to stop looking so miserable, you can always join me." He didn't wait for an answer, quickly leaving with a wide grin.

"Wh- miserable ?!" Big Luke- scratch that, Clive was offended. He was not miserable : he was just... standing right outside the store. With his arms crossed. And a frown on his face.

Because they were all annoying !! Not because he was a partypooper. And he would prove it to that brat ! "Alright, you asked for it. Hey Little Luke, I have a fun idea !"

Luke's face brightened with joy when he saw his future self join him among the rows of books. "Yeah ? What is it !"

Oh, Clive would absolutely wipe that excited smile off his face. "Let's see if we can find a book about puzzles. Maybe we could have a competition !"

Luke was practically jumping up and down now. "I'll look in this pile of books !!" He said before immediately diving in.

Wow, the kid was... really into puzzles, uh ? And here Clive thought that he was following the professor around solely for the title of apprentice : maybe there was more to it than a kid trying to feel important.

It- eh, it didn't matter. He was absolutely going to beat the brat at his own game.

Big Luke started looking among the books right in front of him. He didn't know any of these books- he didn't even know if there was a book about puzzles here. He had only supervised the city's construction : he had asked for a library, not what was inside. Who had decided on that ? Dimitri ? The books were mostly about science, so Dimitri probably had-

"What are you looking for ?"

Big Luke almost screamed, but he didn't. He was a twenty three-year-old man, a criminal, a gentleman, and most importantly- he was in a library. "Can't you keep your voice down and behave a little ?!"

Flora giggled. "Oh, I'm sorry. It was just too tempting, but you're right. I shouldn't have surprised you like that."

Clive took a deep breath and pushed away the seven first replies that came to mind. "No, it's quite alright. I'm sorry too. What was your question ?" Big Luke asked with a barely strained smile. Why were they all testing his patience today ? They -purposefully ?- made it incredibly hard to keep up the act.

"It's fine !" Flora smiled. "I was wondering what you were doing. Little Luke seemed very excited, and he only ever acts like this when the professor gives him an especially difficult puzzle."

He... did ? "Uh. We were- we were looking for a book about puzzles. To have a puzzle competition." Big Luke stammered like an idiot. Very uncharacteristic, she was definitely about to call out his bluff now.

"Really ?! Can I join you two ?" Flora's voice was maybe a bit loud, but Clive decided to let it go.

Big Luke smiled serenely. "Sure, why not ! But we have to find that book first."

Flora enthusiastically nodded, a delighted smile on her lips. "I'll go look this way !!" And with that, she left a confused Big Luke behind.

Alright, that was... weird. Either these kids loved puzzles to a concerning amount, or... or what ?

Maybe this was a trap. They were trying to get him to slip up, reveal too much by acting so weird around him. Maybe they were glad he gave them a way to figure out if he really was Luke, because there was no way these kids weren't going to beat him- they were basically fed puzzles since birth. He was going to get absolutely destroyed.

Well, it was too late to back down now. All he could do was try his best at the puzzles and not act suspicious : and if this whole thing turned sour, he could always escape and get to the mecha first. He knew this town better than they did, knew all of its secrets.

Alright, alright, get it together. It didn't have to come to that. Maybe they wouldn't find the book before the break was over. Maybe there wasn't even a book to start with-

"I found it !" Luke yelled from the other side of the story and quickly apologized when gently hushed by Layton, busy reading a huge encyclopedia.

Oh, great.

-_-_-_-

"Yes ! Another win for me !!" Flora celebrated, and Luke shot her a nasty look, trying his hardest not to pout. With this victory, Flora and Little Luke were back to a tie.

And Big Luke was one puzzle behind.

It wasn't catastrophic. His opponents had far more experience and the greatest mentor anyone could have asked for, while Clive had none of that. He was doing pretty well, given the context.

But he needed to do better.

"Alright, that was well played," Little Luke finally smiled. Flora's joy was contagious, and he was having fun anyway. This puzzle competition was a great idea !

"Thank you," Flora said before turning to Big Luke with a grin. "Your turn !! Here is your puzzle, Big Luke..."

Clive frowned, staring at the page. It wasn't an easy one- of course it wasn't. They had deliberately chosen the hardest section of the book, these little brats. 'So that we get a bit of a challenge,' according to them.

Clive was already dealing with far too many challenges- for example, him pretending to be Big Luke. That one was going just great. What were they going to think, if he couldn't solve that puzzle ?

Because he couldn't, despite how much he tried. None of his attempts worked, none of the hints helped. He was going to fail. What should he do now ? Maybe-

Little Luke and Flora shared a concerned glance, before Luke suddenly closed the book.

Big Luke startled, looking at him in confusion. "I wasn't done," he pointed out.

Little Luke didn't say anything, only avoiding his gaze, so Flora did. "You're not having fun," she simply explained.

"What ?" Oh, he was done for. Luke loved puzzles, Luke wouldn't stop a puzzle competition because he wasn't having fun. "Of course I am. I-"

Flora held her hands up, interrupting him. "It's fine ! With Luke, we thought that... erm..."

"You're really struggling," Luke finished. "...It's because of the Professor of the future, isn't it ? You don't like puzzles anymore."

Clive just stared.

"It's hard not to notice differences between you and Little Luke," Flora gently explained. "But you seem... less enthusiastic. About puzzles. And... us, too. So we thought..." She got quieter and quieter, before she stopped speaking entirely.

Something finally clicked in Clive's mind. "Oh no- no no no ! It's not- I'm not- It's okay."

"Is it ?" Little Luke asked in a small voice. "You don't look okay."

"Things have been-"

"Are you okay ?"

Clive fell silent. Why were they asking him that ? They truly believed he was Big Luke, which meant that he didn't matter to them. The narrative here was that they were trying to keep this future from worsening and then they would go back to their own time. Big Luke was supposed to disappear, one way or another.

Maybe... maybe that's what scared them. The idea that things would disappear, that change was unavoidable- that familiar and pleasant things would become a source of pain. It was- it was a lot for a child, Clive realized.

He remembered things being a lot as a child.

"You will be," Clive gently told him.

"You didn't answer," Flora pointed out. Now that he really looked for it, Clive noticed that she sounded quite unhappy too.

They really were worried and scared.

Clive didn't know how to handle this. He wasn't really big on emotions and feelings or whatever, and why would he be ? It's not like stupid Dimitri and him would talk about their lives around a nice cup of tea.

But he couldn't just brush them off. "Listen," he sighed, "I don't know. Things are a bit crazy right now, so it's hard to say. We'll know in a few hours, I guess."

The kids still looked sad, but nodded nonetheless. Great, so his job was done. "How are you two doing ?" Clive asked, for some reason, although he had decided he was done.

Probably to make his whole Big Luke lie more believable.

"I'm... a bit scared," Flora admitted. "Well, not scared- I know the professor will fix everything. But things here are still... concerning. And sad."

Clive nodded before staring at Little Luke : the latter kept his head down. "I'm not scared. We're going to fix everything here."

Well, that sure sounded familiar.

He was supposed to answer, wasn't he ? What would someone who wasn't him say ? "It's... okay to be scared. It's a lot to deal with, and no one expects you to fix it all on your own," Clive said. Constance... used to tell him that. Why was he only remembering these words now ? "But whatever happens, you'll be okay. My life kinda sucks, but yours don't have to. Change the things you can change, learn from people's mistakes, talk to others, I don't know. Just don't let it end that way." Well, that part was not Constance's.

Flora laughed. "You're still very bad at comforting people."

"Hey !"

Clive smiled. "Some things never change."

"I'm very good at comforting people !" Little Luke protested. "I can prove it ! Bring me someone who's feeling bad !!"

"I'm good," Flora said, and she sounded genuinely happier.

"Well, Big Luke ?" Little Luke stared at him. "You did say that your life... uh..."

Clive scoffed. "I'm not asking a 13 years old for advice."

"You're just scared I'll be better than you, again," Little Luke smirked.

Clive crossed his arms, mocking his friend. "No, I'm not. And you know what ? Let's redo this puzzle competition. I'm going to beat you this time."

Flora hesitated. "Are you sure ? The professor-"

"The professor is busy," Clive replied. "What, are you two scared of losing ? That's pathetic, truly-"

Little Luke was already opening the book, looking for a new puzzle. "Alright, but you asked for it. If the professor wants to ground someone, I'm not the one who started this thing." He seemed even more excited than the first time.

"This is so much fun !!" Flora clapped her hands, waiting for the first puzzle.

Surprisingly, Clive found himself agreeing with her.

[dundunny]

Final Fantasy XVI

Final Fantasy XVI completed, and wow, I think it's my favorite Final Fantasy since IX, and I'm surprised more people aren't talking about it (focusing on VIIR2?). It's not a perfect game and has some glaring flaws, but I haven't had this much fun playing a Final Fantasy in a long time.

I'll start with the issues, and I think number one is the items, which affects the game twofold. First is there's a completely fucked up weapon upgrade system. Literally after I get a shiny new sword, barely an hour later I've gotten another one. It's like Square didn't track when a player should get trying out something new. The second is the rewards for exploration or epic battles don't matter. There are maybe a dozen different upgrade materials in the whole game, most of which you get pretty early on. So I'm literally running around the final area and finding fucking sharp fangs, which I started collecting way back in the beginning when Clive was like fifteen. Yeah, (some) bounties have good drops, but I literally defeated Bahamut and got forty bloody hides, of which I already owned hundreds. None of the accessories felt like game changers either, so opening up treasure chests felt like meh. You need a sort of nice reward for effort. If I'm gonna walk across the map for some distant treasure, it better not be five of what I already have hundreds of. It's annoying because they put so much effort into everything else, so literally hiring one dude whose sole job is this I feel shouldn't've been hard.

Then there are regular battles. Let me say this first: boss battles were amazing and I was completely satisfied with them. But XVI suffered from the same issue as Hogwarts Legacy: too little variation in enemies and you're way overleveled early on. There's no incentive to fight regular enemies on the map because you're not getting much EXP since you're already way over, their drops are pointless like every other item, so they're more or less just an annoyance you avoid. I didn't put any effort in trying basic encounters, and I beat the game one level below max. So what's the point. Given how much effort Square put into the battle system, it's a shame they didn't let me flex my muscles with it more often.

This is a personal preference but I think others would agree: I'm a big environments fiend, and you don't get to explore any of the major cities. Hell, you never see the Iron Kingdom's capital even in a cutscene. The cities are just dungeons, so you're basically there as a continuous fight so you don’t have time to appreciate the surroundings, and when you do everything is in the process of being destroyed or already is. You don’t even get to visit what should be a moderately sized town, Port Isolde, and even Northreach felt like a minor checkpoint before the capital moved. All that's left are small towns or even just hovels. I wonder if they were trying to save resources on environments; Oriflamme looks amazing from the outside, I can't imagine having the render all of that.

That being said, dungeons are following the trend of a linear path with perhaps a quick diversion for treasure. There's no puzzles, no thought (although a good portion of the time the dungeons are mid-battle of a large attack so there isn't time). XVI isn't alone in this; I've noticed most RPGs in recent years don't do the puzzle route as much anymore.

Another minor complaint is at times they would shove the point down the player's throat until it became fantastical. Yes, slavery is bad and people abuse slaves. However, I cannot imagine even in the cotton-picking South some person would purposefully have other people's slaves be killed by a giant wolf. That is someone else's property. Slaves to that extent are safe from others besides the master. Some dude is not going to go out and start murdering slaves randomly because even the law protects the master's possessions. It just doesn't make any sense.

Now onto the good things: pretty much everything else. The plot is solid and feels like Final Fantasy returning to form. Big crystals that need to be destroyed, kingdoms falling, a higher power controlling things behind the scenes... One thing I appreciate, and I think many recent games have lost this, is XVI had many sidequests that had us check in on friends we've met along the way and continue with their subplots. You never really forget these people and it shows how a network of connections and bonds is maintained. Even Eastpool, which was massacred fairly early on, rises up again much later on.

Another factor that I think is important is I just like Clive a lot. He's also my favorite Final Fantasy protagonist since IX. Don't get me wrong; I did like Lightning but if I ever had to work toward a common goal with her in real life, I probably would punch her in the face. I have no idea how she was ever in the military because she has zero sense of teamwork, and she acts like an asshole to even people who are actively trying to help her. Clive in contrast is very mature, has strong leadership abilities, not overly angry or obnoxious or lonerlike, and is just trying to do good in the world. He does make mistakes, but they're reasonable ones that happen because he didn't have all the information or there were circumstances he couldn't've foreseen, unlike other protagonists who do things you know are wrong and stupid but they do it anyway for the sake of plot. He makes the effort to play with the kids even though he isn't great at it, and they admire him for that. Even when he's angry in the beginning of the game, he's still respectful toward Cid and says, "Thanks for saving me, I have nothing against you or your group, I just have my own path I need to take." He recognizes his own weaknesses, and in such situations seeks assistence or delegates to others. He feels like an actual, filled-out human being, and kudos to whoever wrote him.

The other members of the cast are great too. Jill is very badass but a bit quiet and subdued, but given her time in the Iron Kingdom that's understandable. I thought Joshua would just be a plot point, but he really grew into his own. Cid was fun to be with, and I was sad when he was gone. Gav as always was cool. The enemies were great too. Benedikta died early on, but they threw in a great backstory with the little time they had. Kupka was an idiot and not deep, but you could feel his love and pain. Dion's path was surprising and I never knew what his next step was.

The battle system is definitely the best in the series. It was cool to experiment with each of the summons, and really it can be tailored easily to your style. No one I've asked equipped the same three summons. It feels like they were trying to reach a God of War level of combat, but simultaneously they fumbled on the actual fights. Again, bosses were amazing, but regular fights were just meh. I guess that's why they threw in so many boss fights so frequently.

In terms of music XV was definitely better, but I wouldn't stick my nose up to this. As with many aspects of the game, there were a lot of throwbacks. Prelude and the Final Fantasy Theme came up repeatedly, but also On the Shoulders of Giants had the traditional Final Fantasy regular battle opening. And also randomly for one of the times you fight Ultima, it's the FFI world map theme. I've definitely heard better, but I could listen to this OST on its own. The lyrics however are stupid. From what I'm understanding, they tasked the English translator to provide them, and considering this is the dude that wrote out "such foul attaint may not be sublimed through gainstanding," you can tell where this is going. I'll give a few examples:

A sickle forged of adamant To server the man from his hooded past No more a slave to sorrow's gloom In onychine eyes burn chthonic doom An evil hidng from the sun Blinding, he screameth eschaton immanent Now in its wake yawned lightless abyss Yon gaping maw his circumfix

I feel like this written by a high schooler who believes using as much SAT vocabulary they just learned makes them sound more intelligent. I don't know why anyone would compose this.

Visually it's all right. XV had a prettier environment, but this wasn't bad, especially when you're walking around Rosaria. I touched on how you never explore epic architecture, but the nature is beautiful. Unfortunately in the second half of the game when everything goes to shit, the world gets this haze over it and nothing is appealing to look at (which isn't unusual; other Final Fantasies, especially VI had catastrophic situations in the second half of the game). I guess that's kinda the point; the Blight is wiping out everything and actually Clive's efforts could ultimately be for naught and it's too late.

Which is how I'm going to end: It's a very depressing game. There's a lot of death, a lot of tragedy, a lot of loss. Clive lives a totally fucked up life, and he's not alone. The fact I still enjoyed this never-ending sadness demonstrates how well it was done. Totally recommend, play it as soon as you can.

Also... can we address that whole Barnabas and his mom thing? They had literally one scene with that and never mentioned it again. What the fuck was with that?

[shittyclive]

brief overview of my post UF/LF comic idea. thing. if people were interested. sorry if this is hard to follow i have disorders !!!

basically. i wanted to give extra character development to flora (and clive!) (i really like clive! sorry! you cant. you cant avoid him. i made this blog ABOUT HIM.) because as many people are aware. floras writing. is Bad.

i thought i could probably fix this by having flora and clive butting heads for an entire investigation (with flora actually pretty mad at him and clive feeling guilty but unwilling to drop his shitty guy facade) and also in general giving flora a spotlight! luke is in america but he sends letters to the professor and flora (and clive. i guess.), and he also gives them a phone call from time to time now that layton finally got a god damn phone in his office.

"why is clive not in fucking jail???" uhhh shenanigans. what if he just got sentenced to 2000 puzzles (this is more than all the puzzles in each mainline game combined) and layton volunteered to keep an eye on him. thats pretty much what i'm rolling with and i think its funny. clive Hates this arrangement, he thinks its Stupid and that he should be given much harsher punishment. which is true. i can give him so much guilt. anyways. basically he does jobs for the professor (paperwork, going through letters, tidying up) with flora.

the professor is There. i would like him to realise hes been hurting flora by leaving her out (even if thats technically for her own benefit). he has been pressured into letting her go on his latest mystery solving trip to Snowsburgh, a little town in laytonverse scotland that i made up. theyve been having weird robberies and the police (incompetent) cannot figure out whos DOING this. so someone sent a letter.

layton also brings along one of his students, my oc/self insert vincent (pretty much uses any pronouns). WHY? vincent is from snowsburgh and layton would rather not be a lost little bitch on this particular outing also i have to introduce gay people to the laytonverse with my blue hair and pronouns ass guy. okay. vincent is majoring in psychology but is also taking layton's archaeology class. for fun! vincent is really interested in this trip because its been a while since he's been at his hometown, and he is fascinated by the professor's autism. he is Also a fan of trying to get into the heads of known criminals. which is a cool and scary surprise for him when he realises "ohhhhh. ohhhhhh thats fucking clive dove."

while layton focuses on the main mystery, that being the snowsburgh robberies, flora begins to notice. some strange things about the town. footprints that dont lead anywhere, the sillhouette of a very... ratlike? figure? slinking away without a trace. anecdotes about some people who recently moved away, and someone who's been missing for a few months now. and that vincent is Really Weird.

she figures she should Probably bring up her concerns with the professor but... would he even listen to her? she had to get CLIVE, A CRIMINAL, to vouch for her to even GO on this trip. she figures that she'd probably have an easier time figuring out the Secrets of Snowsburgh on her own :-) (clive and vincent would later join her investigation because they kinda figure itd be a bit fucked up to let a 15/16yo wander around in an unknown environment on her own (but they largely let her lead the investigation))

do i have character designs? yes. i have to redo them digitally. give me. some time to do that... though we Have drawn vincent on this blog before!

[foxingpeculiar]

Ff16 blogging: doin’ shit before going to Origin. So, spoilers for basically everything but the ending.

Okay, IIRC, I left off after Barnabas kidnapped Jill. So I tracked him down and fought him—the whole “Odin splitting the ocean” was pretty cool, I gotta admit. Then Clive and Jill (finally) had some sexytime on a beach and I got the Shiva skills, which are pretty cool, but I don’t feel like they’re the best for my build/how I’m currently playing. More on that in a minute.

Medicine Girl—Kihel—finally did something plot-relevant in saving Dion. It seems like that might be it? I dunno. I wanna analyze this game more thoroughly once I know how it ends.

Finally though, after Ultima’s little tour through the Dimensional Rift, I finally feel like I have a real grasp on the situation, or at least its basic core: who wants what, the ideological stakes, etc. I’m still curious about what Ultima is, exactly—it said it came from some other place to Valisthea and that it once had a “fleshly body,” so it must’ve been something mortal/physical at some point. Are they gonna address that? What happened with the Fallen and the Final Sin? It’s mostly in focus now, but not completely.

The run through Waloed was fine. I like that Gav has a girlfriend now, apparently (which is another very GoT touch—Jon’s scholar friend and the wildling girl). Barnabas (again) was a bit of a challenge but not that bad. And then I got Odin.

So I’m currently rocking Phoenix/Bahamut/Odin. Cos both Rising Flames and Flames of Rebirth are handy attacks for either a quick punch or to clear a room. Then… I forget the name of it, but the one that sends out orbs that attack enemies for a minute—that attack is great for stacking damage, and the number of times I’ve shouted “Gigaflare, bitch!” at enemies has been very satisfying, and it recharges quick for an ultimate. (Plus, Megaflare is also useful for room clearing). Odin has taken me a little bit to figure out how to use effectively, but I think I’m getting it now.

But damn, both before and after Drake’s Spine, it’s fuckin’ sidequest city out here. Gotta go around and put a little button on everyone. I’m doin’ em all, but it’s kinda killing the tension. When I finish, I’ll post some overall critical thoughts cos… yeah, I have some (both good and bad).

Random, smaller observations:

I wanted the bit with the scales and finding the clue in the Orchestrion to be like… an RE style puzzle. Remember when JRPGs had actual puzzles?

Should’ve guessed Harbard was a thrall, what with the name Slepnir.

I guess we’re not going to Ran’Dellah? Or the Northern Territories? Maybe they’re saving that for DLC?

I love that, when you lose to Odin/Barnabas in the ocean, you get the boss victory music, but instead of “_____ slain” or whatever, it says “Clive Bested.” Like, “Congratulations! You got your ass handed to you!”

After like 4 quests about how we have to take care of Blackthorne’s feelings, I’m starting to think we should get him a therapist.

“How come her nut hasn’t cracked?” —Gav being sensitive as ever.

WHY is Leviathan lost? Like that doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that should be able to happen. And why is Phoenix not part of the whole mural/Circle of Malleum business?

Have cleared everything that’s showed up on the hunt board. Is there gonna be a crazy last one? Where is my superboss, dagnabit! *bangs fists on desk* Although, I have encountered some doors I can’t open (there’s one on the way to Barnabas’s tower, and one in Stonhyr itself, at least), so maybe there’s hope?

Anyway, all that’s left is to finish the 4 or so more sidequests in the hideaway, then the Alliant Reports from… around. And then go do the thing.

[justkillingthyme]

Mkay so I said I’d respond later and then totally forgot oops

I think it would be very difficult for him to hit someone. (If he was younger, esp pre university I can see it more but still it’s a circumstantial thing)

He adheres strictly to his code of being a gentleman, and the arbitrary rules keep him from committing violence directly, and he doesn’t condone it (especially as a victim of assault, being in the position where he’d actually hurt someone would be rare). He’s known to be alright with hurting people to get his way (see the cutting rope puzzle in UF) and be alright with it done in self defense/protection (Emmy beating people up in LS/ED/AL).

If he gets into fights, he’s almost always on the defensive, besides AL. Even then, him attacking Descole was a mix of the betrayal and needing the keystone back.

Is he opposed to harming others? Yes and no. Objectively looking at some of the things he does, he is willing to let other people be harmed to get his way. Does he say that he doesn’t want people hurt and try and minimize damage to innocent people? Yes.

We see him directly hit someone once (Clive). Though that is an exception, because it was a highly emotionally charged moment, and he was doling what he though was best in the moment.

My conclusion is that it’s very unlikely that he would ever hit someone. The only scenario that I can see is if there’s something that has really thrown him off balance (deep betrayal/confusion/annoyance) and he needs to be emotionally driven and riled up enough that he loses his composure. Even then, he has very high control of his thoughts and actions (I imagine he mentally self-censors and suppresses ‘bad’ thoughts/emotions, etc.). I believe if he were to hit someone, it would be a one time thing, and not an instance where he’d start a full on fight or beat anyone up. Once it registered that he laid a hand on someone he’d probably snap back to himself and try and isolate form the emotions and situation to regulate. Essentially it goes [event that riles him up] ->slap/punch/other kind of physical contact -> recoil -> shutdown -> escape/isolate

In terms of what could tip him over the edge, the only thing I can think of off the top of my head is someone disrespecting Claire. With most events in his life (Randall falling, Descole faking his death, etc) he feels some measure of guilt and responsibility that would make him internalize the feelings rather than cause an outburst. And while I imagine he has some (unnecessary) feeling of guilt over claire’s death, he wasn’t directly involved. Disrespecting her memory, especially when it’s a key component to his current demeanor and personality could bring out rage.

Sometimes I like to think about what it would take to make Professor Layton ever hit someone. Like how far does he need to be pushed? Or would he never at all?

[summercourtship]

Hi, could you write a nsfw oneshot or something for the Cenobite with a shy and modest fem survivor reader? Possibly include some fingering and using his hands. Thanks if you do!

I'm sorry this took so long, I obviously got a bit carried away. I have such a bad habit of needing SO MUCH exposition even for tiny one shots (or at least what are supposed to be tiny) but I’m not going to stop. I’m also not sure how well I fulfilled the idea of a “shy, modest” reader, but I think I managed to have elements of it without it becoming a stereotypical mess of stuttering and blushing.

summons [nsfw, 18+]

Pinhead (The Cenobite) x Reader | warnings: NSFW, reader could be interpreted as being a virgin but it’s not explicitly stated, I somehow made the Lament Configuration solving erotic (it’s what Clive Barker would want) | 3121 words

It was always unnerving to realize that a killer remembered you. To notice that shift in their expression as they placed your face to a memory, to an action that had made you stick out in their mind. Some killers seemed to remember everyone while others only recognized a select few. Some didn’t seem cognizant of doing either.

Luckily, you had always managed to fly under their radar. Even the killers that had memorized every survivor regarded you with an air of disinterest, preferring to go after the overtly obnoxious survivors (which was probably part of those survivors’ plans- Nea really hated fixing gens). Some could say that it was because you were boring, at least in the way of prey. You didn’t necessarily agree, but if killers thinking you were boring kept you alive you wouldn’t argue about it.

However.

There was one killer who seemed… overly interested in you because of this. Somehow your reserved nature was more intriguing to him than that of the unafraid or blatantly uncaring survivors. You didn’t understand it, but you also didn’t want to.

You didn’t want anything to do with it.

The Cenobite was an oddity among oddities- barely even touching the survivors and treating your suffering with a cold grace. In the few moments you’d been able to observe him, he seemed unaffected by anything, continuing his hunt seemingly without a care in the world.

When you were one of his designated playthings for a trial, you avoided the Box, even if it meant your continued survival. You couldn’t handle the thought of possibly summoning him, bringing the being you knew was somehow fascinated with you directly to your location.

You just did your damnedest to finish repairing gens and move on to the next trial with the usual indifferent killers, taking extra care to stealth when you knew he was coming. Because if he caught sight of you, he wouldn’t stop pursuing you throughout the trial, preferring to torment you than spread the pressure amongst your teammates.

But, despite your efforts, not every trial with him could work out this way, as was the case for the trial you found yourself in now. You had been just barely surviving through your stealth tactics when it seemed that the survivors were rapidly downed, one quickly falling after the other.

You rushed to pull them off hooks or patch them up enough to stand, only briefly hesitating when you felt your own safety was in danger. You pushed it aside, putting your team’s survival over your own sense of sanity. They would eventually pay you back in kind, and the cycle would continue.

But it seemed that luck was not on your side.

One, two, three survivors were all hooked for the last time, their cut off screams piercing the night air.

And suddenly, you were the only one left.

Somewhere, both too close and impossibly far away, a bell tolls.

You’re frozen in place, too on edge to even contemplate searching for the Hatch. You’d been in similar situations before, but this time felt different- it was as if the air was electrified from your nervous anticipation.

And never before had you been left alone with him.

Before long, the consequence of your hesitation becomes clear- the chains that he summons from nothing have started seeking you out, the few that reach you embedding their hooks in your skin. You hiss, jerking back into life and unhooking yourself, trying to be as careful as possible to not rip your skin off.

It would not be the worst pain you have felt in this place.

You set off, struggling through the terrain of the Macmillan Estate until you reach one of the smattering of brick walls that litter the Entity’s realms. Here, at least you would have some protection from the chains, giving you time to figure out what you were going to do next.

Find Hatch or wait by the Exit Gate, hoping he closes the Hatch with enough time for you to slip out? You’re debating the two options in your head, knowing full well it’s not the best use of your time but feeling unable to make a decision and get your feet moving.

You’d just mentally circled back around to the option of booking it for Hatch that you realize you were being observed. And he wasn’t even hiding like some of the others would, no crouching behind the brick or staying by the tree line. He’s simply standing there, as if waiting for you to realize he was there.

You look up at him, wondering how you hadn’t noticed his presence before. He blocks the only other exit from your shelter that isn’t a window, something you note with a growing sense of dread. No prey likes feeling cornered.

But he hasn’t moved to attack, just standing and staring at you. You take a moment to observe him back, noting the impassive expression on his face. He doesn’t move, even once you’d been made aware of him. You narrow your eyes and glare at him, ignoring the thwacking of the chains hitting the ground and walls behind you, already tired of whatever game he is playing, not in the mood to be toyed with.

“What do you want?” You ask, willing your voice to stop wavering. For once, you wanted to seem like the brave, outgoing survivor, willing to stand up to the killer for nothing more than the satisfaction of having done so.

A beat of silence, and you almost think he won’t answer. But he does, and his response is more confusing than clarifying.

“You.”

“I- I don’t understand.”

More silence.

Then, a crackling draws your attention downwards, to the small, unassuming box that lay on the ground in the space between you. The very box you had done your best to avoid touching, even looking at. You wonder, briefly, if it had been there the entire time.

“Solve it.” His voice is commanding yet gentle, coaxing yet sinister. There’s power behind it, a power that isn’t being utilized at the moment.

“No.” It’s an easy answer for you. There are few things you are sure of in the Fog, but not touching anything that belongs to a killer is one of them.

“Aren’t you curious?”

That was not what you had been expecting him to say. Suddenly, you were no longer sure about the subject of your conversation. The Box still lay between you, ready for your willing hands to run along its smooth surface, finding the small grooves that would lead you to further unlocking its mystery. But while you had been focusing on the Box, his eyes had never left you.

Because he knew that ultimately, yes. You were curious, and always had been. About everything, but you’d always been too shy, too afraid of other’s thoughts about you to try anything even mildly risky. Better to stay on the safe side and hear about other’s exploits instead of experiencing your own.

“Yes.” It comes out as a whisper.

“Then…” With a long fingered hand, he gestures to the Box.

Your hands shook as you reached down to pick it up, finding its smooth surface both warm and cool at the same time, its weight heavier than you had anticipated.

You looked back up at the Cenobite, ignoring the faint tinkling of a music box’s tune that you could now hear coming from the Box.

“What do I do?”

You were sure it couldn’t be but so difficult- less intelligent survivors had completed its puzzle under significantly more stressing circumstances than you. But you couldn’t bring your mind to command your hands to begin, some invisible wire holding your muscles back from taking action.

Maybe it was because he was standing in front of you, watching you intently.

He moved closer and you barely resisted the urge to move backwards, your grip on the Box tightening as if afraid he would take it from you. He stopped just before you and reached out, not to take the Box but to guide your hands. But instead of placing his hands over yours as you had anticipated, they hovered barely a centimeter above your skin.

“There is a force in this realm that makes solving the Lament Configuration child’s play.”

You look up at him, wondering if he had just delivered a thinly veiled insult. If he, in saying that solving it should be easy, was implying that you were too unintelligent to figure it out. You open your mouth to begin defending yourself.

“I-“

“You’ve refused it,” He continues as if you’d never started speaking, “even when it is to your detriment. But the Configuration is meant for those who seek to heighten their senses, for sensations that the earthly world cannot provide. Opening it is not supposed to be easy.”

You look down at your hands, at his.

“For those who summon us must be sure that it is what they want, for once we are summoned we cannot leave without a charge. It cannot be helped.”

He places his hands over yours now, guiding them along the edges of the Box (the Configuration, you correct yourself). Your hands are seemingly electrified from where his skin meets yours, though a sizable portion of his hand is covered in leather.

“Here it seems that, although alone, I work under different rules. The Box was made simpler and perverted into a means to assist in feeding this Entity.”

With his guidance, you are able to find the minuscule lines in the surface of the box, pushing and shifting the pieces until they form a completely new shape. But before you are able to push the final piece into place, thus completing the puzzle, he releases his hands and steps back.

“There is no need to finish it.”

You blink, feeling like you’d just woken from a hazy waking dream.

“But why did I do it in the first place?”

“I won’t have to hunt you down the next time we find ourselves facing each other. It is very tiresome when you hide from me constantly.”

He turns around like he’s about to go, either to finally kill you or let you scamper off to find the Hatch, but you aren’t ready for him to leave yet.

“Is that it?” You blurt out and almost take it back when he turns his head, indicating that you have his attention once more. But you swallow your fear and continue on, holding your chin higher. “You just wanted me to solve this box? To what? Prove to myself that I can, so that you don’t have to do as much work the next time you’re going to kill me?”

He whirls around, but there is barely any change in his expression from before. He was near impossible to read, you were quickly learning.

“I don’t get it- if you’re summoned for those who want pleasure or pain or whatever, why are you so interested in me? I don’t want any of that.”

“You don’t want pleasure?”

Your face heats up, any bravery you had felt in delivering your speech gone. You look down at your hands, still holding the almost solved Lament Configuration.

“The rules of this place may be different, but I am still obliged to answer the summons.” His words, at first, make no sense.

And then you realize what he is implying, and your face must be on fire for how hot it feels. If he was summoned for those who want whatever version of pleasure or pain he provided, then you solving the Configuration meant that he could…

Ohhhkay.

You turn from him, fully intending to put the box down and sprint for the Hatch and think about this encounter later at the campfire, but the quiet, nagging voice in the back of your head stops you.

Aren’t you curious?

Before you can rationalize and deny the urge, you act on impulse for once and press the final piece into place on the Box, the tinkling music stopping abruptly.

While you’ve had your back turned, he must’ve crept up closer on you, because you suddenly feel his hand on your shoulder.

You gasp, both from surprise and the sensation of his touch once again on you. He slowly ran his hand down your body, from your shoulder down your arm, before making its way to your front. Your breathing was picking up, hitching in the back of your throat when his other hand snuck around and plucked the box from your grasp. It’s gone when you turn your head to look at it, and you’re too focused on his touch to really ponder what happened to it.

You reach out and press your own hand against the brick wall in front of you, using the rough texture to ground yourself in reality, as much as you could in the hellish purgatory that you were trapped in. But the reality of this moment was that he was touching you in such a simple way, barely vulgar at all, but you felt as if you were being lit on fire with the way his touch seared your skin, even over the layers of your clothes.

His fingers dance over the hem of your pants, toying with the button. You’d always liked that the Entity put you in pants most of the time, their practicality better for your environment than the potential fashion statements you could’ve been making in something else. But now you wish that the Entity had decided to put you in one of the nonsensical outfits the others occasionally donned, if just for the easy access a skirt provides.

Nonetheless, he deftly undid the button and continued his journey down your body, not bothering to even pull your pants down. He completely ignored your underwear, apparently not in the mood to tease you over the fabric. You weren’t complaining, wanting whatever he was going to give you as quickly as possible.

It was now that you fully realized how cold his hands were, which only made you more aware of every centimeter of your skin that he ran his fingers along. Down over your stomach, a feather light touch that was approaching where you needed it the most.

The Cenobite found his way in between your legs with little fanfare, finally exploring the part of your body that, unbeknownst to you, he had thought of whenever he saw you in a trial. He toyed briefly with just running his touch up and down your slit, causing you to shudder and drop your head. But before long, he ended up at that sensitive bundle of nerves, flicking it just to hear you moan. His finger circled around your clit, applying just enough pressure for it to register in your mind but not enough to really scratch the itch that had been building since he’d placed his hands over yours to solve the box.

He was silent behind you, but you didn’t think he wasn’t actively enjoying what he was doing to you, if the way his teasing touches would briefly speed up when you let the little sounds building up behind your lips escape was any indication. Or the way his breathing, though quiet and low, would hitch when you would whimper, groan, hiss.

He finally moved lower, teasing at your entrance. You whimper again, closing your eyes. But he didn’t do anything aside from dipping his fingers in, for barely a second, giving you just a taste of the pleasure you needed. He teased more than you would have expected, but you also wouldn’t have expected him to want to fuck you.

“Please,” your whisper is broken, your mind hazy and unable to compose a more elegant plea. You curse under your breath when he does it again, moving back up to your clit to circle it a couple more times.

“You can do better than that,” He says, and you, in your fuzzy mind, think you detect a hint of humor in his voice.

“Fuck- please.” You roll your hips, as if to entice him to finally get to it. But he holds fast, your (pathetic) attempt to seduce him into giving in to your whims failing. He pauses in his movements.

“Fine! Please, please, please, please fuck me, put your fingers in me, I don’t care just please make me cum!”

You wonder, briefly, in the back of your mind, if the Entity is watching.

Two of his fingers finally slip into you, and you barely hold back a curse, forgetting whatever inane thought you had before. All you could focus on was the fact that he was finally giving you what you wanted, that he was finally done teasing.

He thrusts his fingers in and out of your pussy, dragging them along your walls and hitting every sensitive spot that you didn’t even realize existed within you.

“For such a shy woman, you make delightful sounds,” He mutters, almost too quiet for you to hear over the heartbeat pounding in your ears. Whether it’s yours or his, you cannot tell.

Quickly, much too quickly, you feel your climax approaching, and any sense of the amount of time you’ve spent at his mercy is lost to you. All you know is that he is touching you in a way that makes you feel like no one has ever made you feel and that you want to reach your peak now.

As it builds, you release a litany of pleas, begging with broken words and fragmented sentences.

You finally finish with a sharp, drawn out and shuddering gasp, his fingers curling into the spot that makes your toes curl, sharply punctuating every ripple of pleasure that your body rides.

And then, just as quickly as it started, it is over.

Taking a moment to catch your breath, you turn to face the Cenobite, who looks as unaffected as he had before. He examines his glistening fingers not even looking at you when he tells you to find the Hatch. If you’re stung by his sudden disinterest in you, you don’t show it, opting to add it to the growing mental list of things to think about later.

On shaky legs, you comply with his demand, stealing one last glance back at him as you leave him. You had no idea if this would be a one off occurrence, or if he would regularly find his own way to answer your summons, if he would make good on his statement that he is summoned for those who wish for pleasure and pain.

The only way to find out would be to summon him.

___

ao3 link

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

Thirty One Days of Horror Movies! Day Eight :D

:D

I mean you all guessed it had to be this one today, right?

HELLRAISER :D

When recovering addict Riley and her boyfriend Trevor rob a container belonging to the wealthy and sinister Roland Voight they end up with more than they bargained for when a certain puzzle box ends up in Riley’s posession...a box that once opened brings her to the attention of the infamous Cenobites and puts her and her friends and loved ones on a path to horrors beyond imagining...

Proving that 2022 is a year of good surprises as well as bad, this year delivers something I thought I may never see again in my lifetime...A GOOD HELLRAISER MOVIE. After years of in-name-only sequels and one very terrible earlier attempt at a reboot that was so bad Clive Barker insisted they take his name off it, we finally have a movie that can stand alongside the first three films as being genuinely ACTUALLY good

The film has an excellent cast and I most of all have to gush about the utterly incredible Jamie Clayton. Anyone who had doubts about someone else being able to fill Doug Bradley’s shoes can put those aside as her performance here as the Cenobite Priest (Or “Pinhead” as the fandom likes to call them) is fantastic...returning the menace the character had in earlier films mixed with a strange otherworldly seductiveness that suits the themes behind the Cenobites as beings that embody the absolute extremes of pleasure and pain. She’s clearly loving getting the chance to play such a horror icon here and she’s fantastic <3  

The plot is well written with some enoyable twists and turns along the way, one of which I genuinely never saw coming and with scenes that return the movie to the disturbing, visceral and horrific roots of the franchise after years of “Sequels” that felt more like low budget slasher movies than true Hellraiser films

The practical effects are fantastic and the revamped designs for the Cenobites are incredible. They truly feel like they could have been plucked right from Clive Barker’s wonderfully warped imagination here

While the film has some nice nods to the first movie this also serves as an enjoyable story in its own right...and I’m very glad that despite this being a reboot they decided to tell a new story here rather than attempt to remake the first film

I would say if your a horror fan and especially if your a Hellraiser fan you are going to absolutely love this movie and personally I hope that this film will just be the start of a new chapter in the franchise with more movies to come

Give this movie a watch

IT HAS SUCH SIGHTS TO SHOW YOU :D

[multiversal-madness]

I’m putting together arsenals for the Professor Layton characters in the Slinging Puzzles Au and I’m considering how ghouls should factor in with certain bad guys.

I don’t think Don Paolo would use ghouls, Anton definitely wouldn’t (he’s a confused old man, not a bad guy). Targent would absolutely use ghouls, perhaps being the biggest supplier. Perhaps Dimitri or Clive would use ghouls, though I’m still unsure.

The character I’m still on the fence about is Descole.

On one hand, he is more than willing to use Targent’s methods in canon (kidnapping, threatening families, manipulating, etc) so him using ghouls and supplying them for his underlings wouldn’t be that big of a stretch.

On the other hand, he may be against them because of how much they link to Targent. Like plenty of evil organisations or people kidnap, threaten and so on, but ghouls are so connected to Targent he may want to avoid them. His slugs are also the only family he has left, adding to his reluctance to ghoul them.

[riotseas]

❝ The Undying. ❞ Joshua spits, stricken with a guilt that gets him quiet.

He tries to not speak ill of the group, even after being gone as long as he has. It felt like a bad omen on a good day, and on the worst it felt as though they were lurking in the shadows, waiting to get the jump on him. In the end, they were the ones that pulled him from the rubble. Who knows what could've happened were he taken by someone else or left stranded.

Cid bristles at the mention of the name too, in a less physical way, but still with a hint of loathing. ❝ Better off not knowing about them. Not out here, anyways. What would you say, Joshua ? It's been about a year ? Couple months at least ? ❞

Joshua hums, ❝ Something like that. Though, it's not so much traveling as it is doing all his dirty work. ❞

That drives a laugh from Cid, who has all intentions of defending himself until Clive asks about the Veil.

❝ You don't know about the Veil? They never take you there ? ❞

It's an innocent question, really. Clive doesn't know any better; but it sets something off inside Joshua, who's mood is already soured with the earlier Undying mention.

❝ Not everyone is a regular like you, old man. ❞

Cid doesn't flinch, doesn't notice Joshua's sudden internal turmoil.

❝ It's a whore house. Thinking about going, Clive ? ❞

It's a joke, though not a particularly funny one. Joshua wants to rip the damn fool's head right off. He doesn't, but he thinks really hard about it, so caught up in the fantasy he bites down on the inside of his cheek. The pain washes away the sudden bout of anger, leaving him slightly puzzled. What is it his business if Clive wanted to go?

They've finally crossed over into the deadlands, where green bleeds gray and the stench of decay blows ash. It gets easier to deal with each passing day, but the scent lingers, even with the help of salts and herbs.

The ruins blend in with the muted colors of its surroundings, stretching far into the mountains and breaking off into the sky. Where the Blight has pushed people out, it's invited them in, keeping the spot under lock and key as life thrives.

❝ Up there—That's our Hideaway. Built from hands of fellas just like you. Well, save for the ruins n' whatnot. You get the idea though. ❞

It's that last question that sends them stumbling, not exactly a casual conversation piece. There's a time and place for everything and they're not sure when or where that's supposed to be for this. Cid, the bastard, mumbles something about grabbing a few others to help with Jill and runs off with Torgal in tow, leaving Joshua to fend for himself.

He sighs similar to Clive, as if it'll let the dread out.

❝ I'm sorry, Clive. I don't have any answers. I hardly remember that night, let alone waking up five years later. I wish I could tell you more, I do. ❞

Though not entirely untrue, he still feels guilty for lying. He's never lied to Clive before, never had a reason to. But this is a matter of everything—him, them, their relationship—he can't ruin what he has when he just got it back.

Nothing more than Cid? Clive has a really difficult time believing that - the man carries himself in a way Clive recognizes. Carefree as he may seem, a soldier recognizes another soldier. However, the man isn't from the Imperial Army nor does he seem to be part of any army now. Former soldier, then?

Ran away when he got the chance? Thirteen years have come and gone since that awful night, so just when did Joshua run away? And run away from who? The answers he's being given is only giving him more questions. "Found by who? How long have you two been traveling together?"

Oh, that place sounds.....interesting. What kind of business names their place The Veil? "What's the Veil?"

Clive snorts when Cid says no offense to his comrades. "They're not my comrades." He sounds bitter and it's because he is. None of those people had become friends, he didn't feel safe with a single one of them. More like tormentors and abusers and people who mocked him. He'd been all too happy to turn his blade on them.

Pretend. Is it pretend or is Cid or Joshua or even both of them to be considered his Master now? After all, he's branded, and branded are not seen without a Master. "I suppose that'll have to do. Branded aren't exactly allowed many places without a Master and it wouldn't be the first time a branded soldier found himself a new Master." If said branded soldier was lucky, that is. Most of them end up dead.

"Where are we going anyway?" Wherever it is, if the army can't find them, it's got to be decently hidden away. Which begs the question - why is it hidden? There's more to this whole thing than he's currently being told, Clive knows it.

If he wasn't so desperate for answers, he doesn't think he'd be firing off questions one after another so quickly but can he be blamed? His whole world, everything he's known, is being turned upside down in the blink of an eye.

"What happened to the second dominant of fire, then? Did he assume you were dead and just....left?" He pauses, heaving a sigh that has his shoulders rising and falling with the action. "I know I'm asking a lot but I need to understand. For thirteen years, I was led to believe you were dead, Joshua. This is confusing, to say the least."

[another-clive-blog]

clive has pica and he eats dirt

SILLY CLIVE AND DIMITRI FIC !!!! CLAP YOUR HANDS IF YOU'RE EXCITED FOR THE CRACK FIC ABOUT MY FAVOURITE PLATONIC COMEDY DUO !!!!

No TW for this one !! It is a crack fic but the humor comes from Clive and Dimitri's personalities clashing, not the dirt eating (it's mostly just mentionned here). Dimitri is just trying SO HARD to understand the situation/context and Clive is NOT helping lol x) Without further ado, the fic !

"Clive. What are you eating ?"

Clive sighed. Leaning back on his chair, he put the dirt back in its box. "Cocoa powder, obviously."

Dimitri narrowed his eyes, clearly unconvinced, and Clive closed the box nonchalantly, as if this conversation was over- as if Dimitri had not just witnessed his colleague eating dirt.

Clive groaned as Dimitri walked up to the table, and the younger man instinctively held the box closer to his chest.

"Can I have some ?" Dimitri asked in a disinterested tone.

"No, you can't," Clive snapped. "Go buy your own with the money I'm giving you."

"They don't really sell cocoa powder down there," Dimitri pointed out. "Where did you find some anyway ?"

"I built this town, Dimitri. I could create a cocoa shop if I wanted to. I'm going to do that actually. I'll get everyone to work on it so that it'll be done in, what, ten minutes, and in ten minutes you'll leave me alone and go bother someone else."

"Alright," Dimitri calmly nodded, answering this rant with the blankest face in the underground game, "In the meantime, explain to me why you're eating dirt."

Clive pressed the box against his chest : he looked frankly annoyed, groaning at his colleague's perseverance. "I'm not."

"There are leaves in there, Clive."

"It's called aromatic plants. These bring flavour, not that you know anything about good taste."

"The rocks bring flavour too ?"

"Can't you ever let it go ?!" Clive suddenly stood up, making his chair fell to the ground. Dimitri didn't move as Clive smashed the box on the table, spreading its content everywhere. "There ! You're happy now ? Got your little dumb hypothesis proven right, hurray ?!"

Dimitri only stared. "There's dirt on the table."

"There's going to be dirt on your face-"

"Wait," Dimitri sighed, and he pinched the bridge of his nose when dirt landed on his white coat. "Why are you even eating dirt- would you stop that."

Clive threw a fourth handful of dirt before reluctantly stopping. "Leave," he commanded, "I'm not talking to you, you're annoying, we're not sharing secrets like two middle schoolers."

Dimitri wiped the dirt off. Well, this was going to leave a stain. "I'm not a middle schooler, but I do need to know why you would even eat dirt."

"Why ? You don't care about my well-being."

"We're associates. You're paying me to work on this project. You're the one who has control over the clock shop. I would be pretty impacted by your sudden and predictable death."

Clive rolled his eyes, scooping a handful of dirt. "I'm not dying. I've been doing this for years now and I'm fine."

Dimitri narrowed his eyes.

"Don't look at me like that," Clive added, eating some more.

This time, Dimitri looked more puzzled than anything. "Isn't this bad for you ? You should be getting sick, right ?"

Clive shrugged. "Well, sometimes I am, sometimes I'm not, you know how it goes. I haven't died yet so it's fine."

Dimitri took a deep breath, trying to wrap his head around whatever had just happened. His associate ate dirt. It sometimes made him sick. He'd been doing it for a long time now.

Well, he couldn't just... keep him from doing it. Even if he tried to, Clive would still find a way to do as he pleased : he was weird and annoying like that, always making his life harder just because he could. It was maybe best to just... let him do his thing. He was... handling it, somehow, and disrupting this inconceivable harmony would just cause more problems for Dimitri.

Problems that Clive would deliberately inflict on him, and these would be far more upsetting than this guy sometimes eating dirt.

"I just need to know," Dimitri insisted, staring at Clive who had quite literally cleaned the whole table. "Why do you do that ?"

That question was an admission of defeat, and they both knew that.

Clive smiled smugly, that same insufferable expression which always caused Dimitri to look away in irritation : he was so so glad and proud of himself that Dimitri almost decided to leave without an answer. He didn't care about it that much, to be honest, and it would spare him this infuriating demonstration of 'I have won' that Clive would most certainly top with some irritating remark.

Before he could turn away, though, Clive opened his mouth. "I don't know. Why do you keep working on this time machine ?"

[pyrrhiccomedy]

DM Stuff: “Stealing”

I got an ask recently, and I’m not going to post it because it had some personal information in it, but the asker wanted to “steal” a character from an old TV show to use as an NPC in their campaign. They felt really bad about it, and laid out their whole argument: the character would be perfect for the campaign, including them would provide a jumping off-point for a really cool idea they had, they could change the character’s name? None of their players had ever seen the show? Would it be okay, or was it still plagiarism? Did I think - 

and I was like WHAT, NO. STEAL. STEAL STEAL STEAL. STEAL IMMEDIATELY. SHAMELESSLY, EXTRAVAGANTLY STEAL, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT.

1. You are not making any money off of this. You’re not writing a book. You’re telling a story for your friends in your living room, nobody is going to sue you. Put Kylo Ren in your campaign, who gives a shit. If you decide to write a book based on your campaign later, yeah, maybe change some names and stuff, but that probably won’t ever come up.

2. Your game is already probably not creatively ‘purely yours.’ Unless your setting is totally homebrewed, aren’t you already using creative material written by other people in your campaign? I didn’t create clan Tzimisce, but I sure used them in my last Vampire: the Masquerade campaign. 

3. There are no original ideas anyway. I thought I was ripping off something from a Clive Barker book for an element I intend to use in the game I’m running now, and it turns out Clive Barker stole it from Thomas Aquinas, who stole it from some Greek guy. Civilization is a marketplace of ideas, embrace it. What does Clive Barker care if I have my own take on a thing he also wrote about, he’s making a Slenderman TV show on HBO, I’m not a part of his experience. I stole some stuff from Cultist Simulator, too, because I wanted to run a game about cults, and Cultist Simulator did a lot of the work for me on gamifying cults. But “gamifying a cult” isn’t an original idea. The Kult RPG did it before Cultist Simulator. And White Wolf had a ton of rules about secret societies and cryptic magic in its Vampire and Mage lines a decade before that. It’s my turn now.

I see a lot of angst, both among DMs and players, about not being “original enough,” which I find puzzling, because nobody actually cares if your thing is original, they just care if it’s good. If something inspires you, use it. If somebody says, “Hey, isn’t that from Dragon Age?” say “Yeah, I took that from Dragon Age.” You took it. It’s yours now. You’re going to do your own thing with it. 

The player version of this is players getting angsty about re-using their characters or character concepts. And like. Are you still inspired by that character? Great, then fuckin go for it. Writers re-use the same protagonist in book after book after book. If their stories happen in different settings, they often create a new protagonist who is very like their previous protagonist. That’s just the character they like. You have a character you like. Do what inspires you.

[cry-stars]

Clive and Luke friend pairing with...Eternal Diva AU please?

Thank you! I really love your Eternal Diva AU so I was really excited to write this ^^ I based it on this drawing and explanation of yours.

...

“Are you okay, Clive?”

Luke’s quiet voice breaks through the pain clouding Clive’s mind. Clive blinks, refocusing his gaze on Luke’s worried face. 

“Oh, I’m fine,” he says lightly, shrugging, not sure whether he’s being sarcastic or not. He immediately regrets the action--pain shoots through his injured arm. Biting his lip, he turns his face away from Luke, disguising his grunt of pain as a cough, and focuses his attention on the professor and Ms. Quatlane.

The two of them are constructing some sort of a helicopter from various parts scattered throughout the shed. Clive watches them with frustration; he should be helping them. He can see exactly how the pieces should fit together in his mind’s eye, and yet, he’s unable to help, his arm hanging uselessly in the sling the professor had wrapped around it only moments before. 

If it wouldn’t hurt too much, he’d laugh at the ridiculousness of this situation. He--the heir to millions of pounds, master of the Dove estate and of a subterranean city, injured and trapped in a tiny garden shed with an opera singer, an archeology professor who’d saved his life years ago and doesn’t even remember him, and a boy who looks eerily like his past self...

“Are you sure?” Luke’s voice cuts through Clive’s racing thoughts once again. “If I can help at all--”

“I already told you that I’m fine.” The words come out more sharply than Clive wanted them to, but, really, why does Luke keep asking? It’s starting to be a little difficult for Clive to assure Luke that, yes, he’s fine, when in reality, he’s in pain, and he’s trapped here, far away from his underground city, and there’s so much work to do in London, and, and…

“And I… I don’t believe you,” Luke says, his voice growing sharper, and Clive almost jumps, blinking at him in shock. “And I don’t just mean about your arm. You were acting stupid. You shouldn’t have tried to save me.”

Clive stares, disbelieving. What’s wrong with him? Is he upset that Clive helped him? “Well,” he says, matching the sharpness in Luke’s voice. “That’s a very nice way to treat someone who saved your life--”

“You know that I can talk to animals.” Luke balls his fists. “You didn’t have to try to save my life.”

What’s wrong with him? “It was a spur-of-the-moment decision.” Clive sits as tall as he can, looking down on Luke with a narrow gaze. He shouldn’t have to defend himself to the kid, but somehow, he feels compelled to. “And you weren’t able to talk to those wolves, obviously. I barely know you; how was I supposed to remember that?” 

As the words come out of his mouth, he realizes how stupid he sounds. Of course he should’ve remembered something so unusual as an ability to talk to animals. But in the moment, he hadn’t thought of that, or of his own safety, or of anything. He’d seen Luke fall, and he’d seen the wolves coming for him, and he’d had to do something. Is that so hard to understand?

“I didn’t want to see you hurt,” he finally says, not knowing how else to justify his actions. “It’s not like I did anything overly reckless.” Suddenly, he wonders. Could Luke feel guilty for what happened to him? “You don’t need to feel bad about it,” he says quickly. “It was my own decision.”

Luke grows silent, turning his face away toward the wall behind him. “But I was the one that tripped,” he says quietly.

 Understanding dawns over him. “Look, Luke,”Clive begins hesitantly. He needs to be gentle. Although he only just met Luke earlier today, it feels as though he’s speaking to his younger self, the boy who’d cried alone at night, blaming himself for what had happened to his parents, and to Constance, and to everyone. “Look, I’m alright. I mean, I didn’t die,” he starts carefully. “And once we solve these puzzles and get off this island, I’m sure this is nothing a hospital visit can’t fix.” 

“But you still shouldn’t have had to help me.” Luke still won’t look him in the eye. “I should’ve been more careful. I should have--”

“Look, don’t bother with the ‘should-haves.’” 

Luke blinks, turning toward him.

 (Are there tears in his eyes?) 

Clive coughs, looking toward the floor. “What matters is the present. And we’re all here, and we’re relatively fine, and we’re going to get off this island, and you’re okay. So I’m happy. And since I’m the injured party, and I’m not upset, you don’t have to be, either.”

“Why aren’t you upset?” 

Clive wonders about this. In some ways, he is upset. He didn’t plan to go so far from London, he didn’t plan to be stranded on an island, or to get hurt. But he isn’t upset with Luke.

“It… felt good to be able to save someone for once,” he says quietly.

[haxorus-imp]

Human Perspective - Reader LBP fic

Gender neutral Reader - No romance - Little Big Planet - No dialogue 

A human is lost in the imagisphere and is struggling to cope with their new surroundings. AO3 for those that prefer to read it there - > https://archiveofourown.org/works/28741977

You really don’t remember how you arrived here in this strange place. One moment you were resting peacefully, the next thing you know, you were being woken up by a small little humanoid fabric creature.

Once your eyes focused, you had gotten startled upright from the presence of the being, which was obviously understandable. In a hurry, you scoot away from the being and frantically look around. Despite just waking up, it took mere moments for you to realize that something was completely off about the land you were in...let alone how you got there. You were left completely dumbfounded. The small little humanoid seemed a bit worried about you, despite just meeting you.

Flustered, your confusion only grew when you tried to ask the little creature where you were and it simply spoke in sign language. Which you didn’t understand. Seeing your expression of complete loss, the little being thought for a moment before it decided to wave at you in a ‘follow me’ motion as they turned and waddled away. Still lost and confused, you really didn’t have a choice.

You picked yourself up and followed the little being through some garden-like areas before the landscape began to change and buildings made out of wood and cardboard slowly appeared. While on the walk over to who-knows-where, you decided to slightly distract yourself with looking around at your surroundings.

It was strange, as it almost felt like you were back home on Earth. However, this was far from the case. An example of your strange predicament lies in the horizon and around yourself. It was all made of fabric...just like the ground was...with an exception of other things. Like the cardboard buildings and creatures that dwelled nearby, as well as the fabric clouds that floated on by. The only thing that could be deemed ‘normal’ around here, at least to you, was the water that flowed in the rivers under the bridges you two passed by. Everything was strangely made to look like projects of arts and crafts.

Not even the locals were exempted from this rule. As the little creature that was leading you somewhere was made entirely of knitted wool. I just left you puzzled and completely stumped at where you even were.

But hopefully this little biped would be able to provide some answers. Your first set of strange contacts was with a small group that the little sack...thing...person...was leading you towards. Your approach didn’t go unnoticed. Once you and the little creature arrived, the three figures were giving you wary glances. But the little sackperson stepped forward and began to sign to them. It was quite a surprise to learn that these larger beings seemed to be British...despite this place not looking like Earth. A bit of back and forth later and you finally managed to introduce yourself and explain your situation to the three larger beings. In which, they introduced themselves to you as well.

There was Larry Da Vinci, an elderly individual with a paper beard and cardboard 3D glasses, who seemed to be rather forgetful, as it took him a moment to remember his own name before the bun-having blonde next to him spoke up.

Her name was Victoria, who had doll-like features and a steampunk-inspired body. She also seemed to be very polite too. Despite being an older female, her and Da Vinci even seemed to be a thing. If the sweet-based names he kept calling her had anything to say for it.

Then there was a rather depressed-looking individual named Clive, who was a man with an eraser for a body and a cyan desk calendar for a head, which was just to name a few things that caught your eye about him. It was just so strange to see paperclips merely sticking to a body without an anchor. But he was still polite none-the-less, even if he wasn’t as enthusiastic as Larry or Victoria.

As for yourself? Well, you were a human. Made of flesh and blood, unlike the natives of this realm you happened to get lost in. It wasn’t hard to take notice of how the others would look at you strangely from time to time.

Not only just because you showed up out of nowhere, but because your appearance just seemed...as that Ginger-Haired prideful loudmouth ‘Avalon’ would put it - “Highly suspicious-looking”. You didn’t think you looked that bad...or creepy. So, you just played down their doubts by just explaining that you're from very far away and that you were lost. It took a bit of convincing from Sackthing to see if Larry had any leads on what to do.

Many of them acted like they had never seen a human before and it wasn’t hard to see why. I mean, they even thought you looked ill and took you to an apple-headed nurse, who was strangely in a birdcage of all things, named Eve to have a look at you. She apparently tried to find your ‘stitching’, which took you awhile to explain that you weren’t born with ‘stitching’. She seemed completely lost with your explanation on a normal human body and she did some typical tests. Took your temperature, tested your reflexes, and gave you a few psychological tests. All came back okay, showing that you were in fact a perfectly normal human being. Even if she seemed slightly disappointed. The rest of the time was spent visiting the other creators once word got around that a unique stranger was visiting Craftworld from ‘very far away’. Despite meeting a fair chunk of them within the first few hours.

It was most likely Avalon who let the cat out of the bag, the dude probably can’t keep his mouth shut to save his life. If your first encounter with him had anything to say about it. Dude even had the nerve to call you a ‘rubbery-looking tall weirdo’.

Thankfully, Larry chewed him out for his rudeness before you could. So one by one, you met the creator curators and visited their homelands with Larry as your guide, since sackthing had other duties to attend to at the time.

It was quite an exhausting trip. Thankfully most of the realms could be accessed by rocketships that were provided by Larry Da Vinci. Yes, rocketships. Made out of cardboard...with a jet attached to them.

You didn’t understand how they worked, so you pretty much just went with it and didn’t ask any questions. Each encounter was as unique as they came as you headed off to the other parts of Craftworld with Larry. Your first encounter was with the lovely baker you met before, Victoria. She was very interesting to say the least, having a lab and bakery hybrid that she called home. She explored the possibilities of pastries and science. A strange combination. She even tried to offer you some of her baked goods, which you sadly discovered you couldn’t eat. At all . You just couldn’t force yourself to eat a literal SPONGE cake, so you had to turn her down gently but gratefully thanked her for the offer anyway. After that was Clive, the same depressed individual from earlier. You eventually discover that  he has lived in a factory for most of his life and just knows the day in and day out of being at work constantly. No wonder the poor sap was so blue. He obviously needed a long vacation. After a typical meet and greet, you toured the factory he called home and had a lot of fun watching how things operated while Clive rambled on and on about work and various activities he would perform around the factory. You even got to meet the cute little sackbots while you were there. Which was a pleasant experience in itself! After that was Eve’s Asylum where she and Professor Higginbottom were located. You met Higginbottom at the Asylum. Which was probably the strangest thing you have ever experienced...aside from being lost in this fabric dimension. He seemed like someone who got into the bong and never came out. Though, listening to him talk was quite entertaining. Even if you didn’t understand anything that came from his mouth. Eve was present there as well. Despite the underwhelming encounter from earlier, Eve was still elated to observe you and see how you were coping.  She apparently ran the asylum that was filled with beautiful flora, magical trees, and crazy people. Which wasn’t a surprise, but you were just happy that they were under the care of someone as loving as Eve. Even if she got a bit frustrated that she couldn’t make heads or tails about your ‘strange biology predicament’. Even with an unnecessary ‘second analysis’. Then finally, there was Avalon. The dude was about as loud and as arrogant as they came.

However, he pushed it to a point where he made it endearing rather than annoying, but your traveling companion could beg to differ. It seemed that Larry and Avalon had a lot of disagreements on who was the leader of “The Alliance”. Whatever that was. Both of them mixed like oil and vinegar, like broccoli and pizza, like boomers and millennials...it was honestly kinda funny to watch them bicker. However, you haven’t forgotten that rude comment he made about you. So you were still on the fence with him. Still, Avalonia was a wonderful place to visit. Looking at all of the strange gadgets that were made, the types of vehicles, and the sheer ethereal aura that the place radiated...Avalon really did have a strong reason to flex after all.

But as fun as it was to visit these Curators, you still needed to find your way home. Plus, you had to keep moving if you were going to be able to find anything to eat.

I mean, you have been offered food on numerous occasions while on your trip, however it wasn’t anything you could actually eat. ‘Sponge’ cakes, icing that was too sweet, jam that was too sticky, crackers that were made of cardboard, cookies made out of paper, fruit made out of fabric or plastic… It was all fake...and you were starting to starve.

Your lack of eating also seemed to worry Larry, but you feigned being fine. Despite the fact that you hadn’t really eaten in days. It was wearing down on you pretty bad at this point. Despite your lie, Larry seemed to still be lost on what to do with you. You honestly couldn’t blame him though. You were quite an enigma. Then, Larry was reminded of something and had explained that he was going to go to a place called Bunkum to attend a session in a place called Popit Academy and graciously offered if you wanted to visit while he was participating. At that time, you really didn’t know that you could explore other planets...but this was a strange new universe with strange new ways. So what could possibly go wrong?

So, from one planet made of patches to one with strange gadgets on it, you arrive at a place called “Needlepoint Peaks”.

Which was filled with crisp mountain air and little floating objects that harassed you at every angle. It was quite frustrating, as they would cling to you and you would have to constantly shake them loose. It seemed to amuse Larry to the point of chuckling as you both headed down the mountain together. While on the way, you even decided to take a bite out of the crackers that were sticking out of the ground. Which turned out to be a big mistake.

The ‘treat’ was about as stale as they come. It was hard to chew and it had the lingering scent of cardboard and dust. You promptly spat it out and coughed violently while Larry looked at you like you had lost your marbles.

Despite everything looking tasty, it was all dried and stale, nothing more than deceptive decorations for your ever growing hunger that gnawed away at you from your insides. You could only sigh helplessly as you passed the deceptive goodies and just focused on following Larry to the next destination. Once down from the mountain, both of you arrived at a place called ‘Stitchem Manor’, which seemed to be occupied by two lightbulbs and a monster. The family greeted Larry and seemed to notice you, despite you attempting to hide your taller figure behind the Elder Curator. The smaller lightbulb seemed to be very eager to meet you, as he strode up and waved and said a rather friendly hello. You timidly come out of hiding and meet up with him too. Returning the greeting politely. The lightbulb seems to happily chitter about as you stare at him. He then graciously introduces you to his father, a clear idol in his eyes, and his mother. Who wasn’t a monster. She just looked scary as hell.

You politely greet them in return and Larry explains your situation to the family. It seemed that Larry had decided to see if you could visit with the Pud family, which was a rather strange name, until he was through with his lessons at the popit academy. Seeing if one of them was available to show you around Bunkum until he came back later. You almost rolled your eyes at the thought of needing a guide or babysitter, but you didn’t know this place. So you really should stick with someone until you understand the ropes. The younger-looking lightbulb, who was named Newton, proudly volunteers to show you around Bunkum. A desire to give his ‘new strange-looking chum the best tour of Bunkum they have ever experienced’. So he says. Apparently, his parents were both worried about his proposal. Not because of you, but apparently Newton had caused a heap of trouble for the natives of Bunkum and was still in too-hot water because of it. Despite making peace with most of the locals and trying to clear his name from the titan incident...whatever that was. It sounds bad just by the name alone.

However, after enough begging, his parents gave in and decided to allow him to show you around Bunkum. Satisfied with the ordeal, Larry had headed off and Newton’s parents headed back inside the large manor.

Once alone, Newton had grabbed your hand before suddenly letting go in surprise. When questioned, he just stared and made a comment about how your ‘knitting’ felt strange against his hands. You just merely shrugged and walked ahead, Newton quickly taking the lead again as he rambled on and on about stuff to do while you were visiting.

The first stop was Manglewood. Which could only be reached by boat. Which just made the ride over much more boring than usual, except when Newton would talk about it and mention all the things to do there. It helped to pass the time until the island in question came into view. By appearance alone, you would’ve thought you both were lost in some bayou in the heart of Louisiana, but that wasn’t far enough from the truth. There were film reels, movie cameras, and set pieces all strewn about the landscape. Making it look like a set that was covered in moss and willows. However, you also took notice of a strange figure sitting at the edge of the landmass. Simply sitting there and watching the boat. Once close enough, you seemed to make out that it appeared to be...dog-like? Like a sock puppet type of dog? It was just waiting there and once you both touched down on land, it sped over to investigate. In which, it happily jumped aboard and sniffed around.

Once it glanced at Newton, it’s face changed to a certain type of disinterest but once it scanned over to you, it began to wag its’...butt...and bark happily. You confusedly look at the animal before waving and greeting the...dog-thing. Having it jump up on you and lick you with a fabric tongue, thankfully it didn’t seem to leave any slobber behind.

Newton explained that it was a creature called Oddsock and it seemed to be protecting Manglewood. He almost seemed a tad bit jealous that Oddsock had taken a liking to you so quickly, even if he didn’t show it openly.

He led you off of the boat and further into Manglewood, the dog sticking close to your side.

There, you both found a man who introduced himself as Marlon Random.

He was quite a character. Looking like a spool of film with a strange hairstyle to go with it, the dancing, the personality, the references to movies and such...he was probably the most enjoyable to be around. He didn’t even seem to mind Newton. Greeting him as if it was any other day, in which Newton had replied half-heartedly and explained your situation. Once Marlon heard of your plight, he stopped and looked at you closer. Taking notice of your strange appearance as well, he nods and laughs lightly. Eager to show Manglewood to you, despite Newtons’ protests. You had decided to visit the space area and discovered that floating in space was incredibly fun. The zero gravity, peaceful music playing in the background, and just the weightlessness of it all...it was truly an experience. After that, he took you over to the old-style diner. You jammed out to some old-style tunes, which strangely came from Earth of all places, and you even tried to take a few bites out of the food laying around. Getting the same result as the one from Needlepoint Peaks. You even tried the milkshakes. Which were SO SWEET. Too sweet even!

It was like everything around here was made out of two dumptruck loads of sugar. Plus, you couldn’t really force past it, as it was strong enough to hurt your teeth anyway. One secret spit out later and you lot had decided to settle in for a bite.

With the exemption of you. So while Newton, Marlon, and even Oddsock enjoyed the food...you found yourself without a meal yet again. Your aching belly rumbling in disdain as you sigh quietly. You just had to endure for a bit longer...you would get home soon...hopefully. Thankfully there was water to drink. So you had that instead. Still, you had a kick watching Newton shove fries and pieces of food into that hole in his neck. Which made sense, as he simply couldn’t shove it past the glass that covered his head. It just made you wish you could enjoy it with them...wait...why were they looking at you...why were they laughing --? A tickling sensation pretty much crawled around you as those bothersome floating objects began to stick to you again, resulting in you crying out in agitation and shaking about in the seat to dislodge them. Your companions seemed to find the situation hilarious as you pluck them off and flick them away from yourself. Huffing a bit at your group as they laugh at your grumpiness. But once it was all said and done, the last places being too ‘dangerous’ for you to explore, you both decided it would be time to head out to the Ziggurat. You would’ve headed to a place called ‘Zom Zom’s’ however Newton explained that he only took a special type of currency called ‘collectabells’, which got a chuckle out of you. Sadly, you didn’t really have any currency at all. So you skipped on going there. He probably wouldn’t have anything in your size anyway. So, both of you cross the bridge and ride the gondola into the distance while Marlon and Oddsock waved you both off. In no time at all, the temperature began to drop and snow began to fall from the sky. The wind from the gondola didn’t help the situation either, your clothes could barely keep out the chill. Newton didn’t seem bothered by it, which wasn’t a surprise to you. That fluffy coat he was wearing looked comfortable.

You would ask to wear it, but it was just too small for you. Plus, Lightbulbs radiate heat, so he was probably all warm and toasty underneath that fabric. Talk about being lucky.

Finally, the gondola came to a hill and along that hill seemed to be a towering figure. It almost looked like a burlap sack...like something you would shove potatoes in. Once closer though, it seemed similar to the last creature you encountered.

If logical reasoning could be fathomed here, that must be this land’s protector as well. Seeing by how they grew alert to the approaching elevator. Once it stopped and you and Newton stepped off, the large figure approached curiously. Similar to before, the creature met Newton with a poker face about as blank as the snow, but he gave you a rather silly smile once he looked in your general direction. What you didn’t expect was a large friendly hug to accompany that smile. You were pretty much scooped up and pressed against the taught cloth-chest of the large figure, gasping for air as it cuddled you. Newton began by explaining that this was the Ziggurat, which also happened to be Toggles’ home. Which was the name of the creature hugging you. He told you about the grand library and the ballets that would be held here every day and that hopefully you would enjoy the shows while you both were here. With a few desperate taps on Toggle, you were released and were finally able to get a full breath of air. You almost felt bad for Toggle’s worried face, but a reassured pat on their arm seemed to make them satisfied that you were okay. You walk along, following Newton as he gives you a brief tour of the entrance. Toggle following close behind you both as you walk towards a large and towering brass-like structure that was the centerpiece of this frozen wasteland.

Then, you met Papal Mache in the temple sanctum. Who gave Newton a rather skeptical glance after your arrival before staring at you for a brief moment. Once again, another remark on your appearance was made.

It almost made you wanna put a bag over your head and hide away from the world.

And what is with everyone asking where your ‘stitching’ was? You’re not made of fabric!

You just let out another sigh as Newton repeated the spill from earlier encounters while you busied yourself by looking at the temple architecture. From the looks of it, it seemed to be the insides of a large pipe organ, with stained glass windows of ballerinas and russian-esque soldiers. Which made sense, as Russia was known for its musical culture and revered classics in the modern world. While you admired the art and such, Papal Mache seemed to understand and decided to escort you both down to the library. Which was being looked after by...a dog...woman...thing.

You simply just shake your head and decide to listen in on her history lessons that were offered to you, which were indubitably interesting and selectively inspiring.

Especially once you began to read some of the pamphlets that Toggle helped save from a flood. Toggle even stayed and sat down to listen to his heroic deeds for a bit. Out of curiosity, you pick up one of the pamphlets. No wonder the lady-dog would’ve been so upset to lose some of this history, it was pretty interesting! However, it was short-lived once Newton grew bored and pulled you away from the library with a rushed goodbye to the friendly dog lady. Nearly leaving Toggle behind. Only then did you realize how cold you were getting from the temperature after sitting still on a cold floor. You begin to shudder as the cold wind brushes against you and you slow down as the cold bites at your flesh.

Curiously, Newton had questioned what was wrong as you trembled helplessly in the frigid gales. Once you explained that humans can get something called hypothermia from excessive cold and die, Newton practically flipped his lid.

A quick grasp of your hand and he took off with you in tow.

He quickly rushed past Papal Mache and through the temple to get you to a large furnace on the other side.

Once close enough, you could feel the warmth of the furnace melting away the freezing ice that had wrapped itself around your body. Replacing it with warmth and comfort. Once at the entrance, you graciously sit down on the warmed metal and let out a blissful sigh of relief. You were pretty much scolded by Newton for not telling him earlier and a worried Papal Mache arrived on scene not much later. A brief questioning later and Papal figured it might be best if you don’t stay here too long. Not that he didn’t enjoy new visitors, but because you just weren’t equipped for such freezing temperatures. Which were even worse when night fell.

You nodded in understanding and let out a sigh of brief disappointment, but the snow was hard to endure at this point. Once you thawed out, you both would be heading to your final destination, Bunkum Lagoon.

The sound of small rapid footsteps grace your ears as a smaller version of the big guy came scuttling onto the scene. A brief slide later and suddenly it was the big guy again! Only then did you realize what ‘Toggle’ meant. It made you almost wanna laugh. Papal Mache decided to speak up to the large silent hero about your incident and Toggle seemed to become saddened by the news, but nodded in understanding anyway. You felt bad for such a rapid departure, but what else could be done? It was best to finish touring Bunkum so you could get back to Stitchem Manor so you could wait for Larry. Once you got warm enough, you stood up from the ground and Newton rejoined you as both of you walked back into the temple and towards the back where a large elevator awaited. Both of you got on and Papal Mache and Toggle waved their farewells as the elevator began to move and drop down. You had no idea how this would get you to a lagoon, but if you weren’t at the risk of getting hypothermia, you may like it a bit more… Newton seemed to be more apprehensive about this place, unlike the last two places you both visited. He began to talk about a wicked queen who probably boils her disrespectful subjects in hot oil and how she would probably tear him limb from limb if she as much as smelled him. You probably broke a sweat listening to his anxious worries about the next destination. Didn’t seem to be as peaceful as the last two places, just from what he was saying alone. You gulped as the air began to become more humid as the elevator slowed to a stop.

Once outside, the first thing your eyes caught was the sunset that was glistening over the very large lake that resided in a city filled with towering spires and buildings. You couldn’t hide a gasp of awe as you stepped out into the residential areas and admired the masquerade theme that the city had going for it. Plus, there were airships and clouds as far as your eyes could see. It was truly breathtaking. Newton slowly slinked out after you, scanning around as if to keep an eye out for danger. You had thrown caution to the wind as you walked out further into the Lagoon, Newton squeaking and following behind you for a change. You pretty much just happily stroll through the town, looking at all of the cardboard, stickers, and crafted creatures fluttering about. A stark contrast to a human like yourself.

Suddenly, a sudden shout came from above. The noise made Newton cry out in fear as he hid behind yourself as a hovering platform came into your view. On top of it was a marionette looking female as she called down to the both of you. From the tone of her voice, you already knew you weren’t gonna like her. Her tone was bratty and easily portrayed the type that she was. That type being a heavily spoilt princess that expected everyone to obey and respect them, despite them not deserving any. She was also being followed by another sack creature, this one resembling a bird. She immediately began to chew out Newton for one reason or another, you weren’t exactly paying attention as she hissed at your companion. It was almost like she was demanding an explanation as to why he was in ‘her’ kingdom. Newton had managed to pluck up enough courage to creep out from behind yourself as he explained your situation once more. About how you were from ‘very far away’ and a friend had asked if someone was willing to show Bunkum to the newcomer. Despite the fact that he tried to pass it off as him trying to make amends by doing this ‘tour’ with you. Despite the fact that he selflessly volunteered for it, no pressuring from his father or anything. Still, you said nothing as the ‘Queen of Bunkum’ introduced herself to you and you to Swoop, who had landed and was staring at you after giving Newton another neutral passing glance. It even almost seemed to flutter happily for a bit. It made you wonder why all of these sack creatures seemed to be happy to see you, but that can be pondered later. Right now, you just wanted to go and explore this last location before the night began to fall.

With courtesy, you bowed a bit and greeted Pinky. Being sure to call her ‘queen’ in a respectful manner. She looked like the type that was prone to suck-ups.

In which you assumed correctly. Almost seemingly flustered with your polite behavior, she cackles a bit before welcoming you to the Lagoon and ‘knowing fully well that you WILL enjoy your stay ’. However she does give you a warning to keep ‘that yellow ninny’ out of trouble, to which you assured her that she had nothing to be concerned for. Satisfied, she calls swoop back to her side and the levitating platform hovers off into the distance. A thankfully short encounter. Newton lets out a relieved sigh as you continue on. A desire to explore in your veins as the sun continues to set. It was kinda sad that you couldn’t hang out with the bird like you could the other two, but it probably has a job protecting the queen. Still, you continued on. Your lightbulb co-conspirator follows you from close behind. Just waiting to see what you decide to do with the rest of your day. And It was a rather eventful rest of the day.

Both you and Newton had attended various events. Such as an air joust festival, a puppet show, and you two even climbed the tallest tower in the district and listened to the bells of the tower ring. You even got to see the ‘legendary creative heart’, which was strangely disturbing. Despite it being just a giant valentine heart with large bird wings, it still pulsed like an actual heart. You honestly didn’t know how the locals could stand being next to it for so long. Even from this distance it was loud enough for you to hear. You just brush it off and try to ignore all of the bothersome floaty things that came from it. Hopefully none of them would stick to you. At the end of your trip, you both stopped on a pier to watch the sunset over the lagoon. The purple and pink clouds just brought out a tranquility in the atmosphere that almost made you forget about your troubles and your lingering sleepless exhaustion. Despite being here for about a few days, you were starving and getting any sleep was rather rare. Mostly since weird things would occur while you were dozing.

You fell asleep in the rocketship once and a large flower garden had grown up around you while you had slept and you only took notice when you woke up. It was hard to explain it to Larry. You even crashed in Clive’s factory and when you awakened, some new robots were by your side. Seemingly not made in the factory at all, as they didn’t even have the same body shape as the Sackbots. Clive was about as stumped as you were when you showed him. It was just...when you fell asleep, weird stuff would happen to you and the things that surrounded where you were sleeping. So now, you just try to stay awake as much as possible. Even if your eyelids felt like cinder blocks and tiredness nipped at your aching muscles. The thing that bothered you the most as your empty stomach.

If you couldn’t sleep nor eat, how would you even make it out of here?

There was no sustenance to keep you going. You’re pretty much running on emergency energy right now. Burning stored calories and trying to stay alive while you were at it. The constant insomnia was also wearing down on you. You just felt like you could fall asleep right here on the pier. But Newton jostles you awake by reminding you that you both had to head back to Stitchem Manor before night fell on Bunkum. You nod slowly in understanding and finally muster the strength to stand up with a long stretch. From there, Newton led the way back to his home. Leading back the way you came. Back up the mountain, back through the Ziggurat, back down the mountain, through the swamp again, and back to the boat. Once you both set sail, you watch the sinking sun with a lazy gaze.

It was quite a trip...but you really wish you were home. It wasn’t like you were miserable here. These strangers were so nice and open to you, despite your off-putting appearance. You just wished you had something to eat right now...and maybe a nap. Or a thousand year sleep, which would be far better. Still, Stitchem Manor came into view at the cliffside and you both began to dock the boat. By the time you both arrived home, the sky had turned to twilight as you slowly walked after Newton.

Who seemed to be rather jovial after todays ‘adventure’. Both Nana Pud and Captain Pud were there to greet you both at the gates of the manor, Larry Da Vinci was there as well. Seemingly having an idle chit chat while you both arrived. Once you two were noticed, you sluggishly came to a stand still next to Larry while Newton griped about being pampered by his doting mother. You and Larry couldn’t help but chuckle as you all said your goodnights and you and Larry headed away from the manor. You manage to look over your shoulder as the younger lightbulb seems to be happily waving to you while he and his parents go inside the manor. You returned the favor, albeit a bit more slowly as exhaustion slowly caught up to you. Once you were out of sight of the manor, Larry had asked how your day went. You pretty much told him everything. About the fun you had in Manglewood, the freezing experience in the Ziggurat, and the jousting shows in Bunkum Lagoon. You spoke of all the people you met and how Newton was informative and made sure to look after you. It seemed to earn Larrys’ approval as he nods as the pod comes into sight. Once you both were aboard and a course was set for Craftworld, you decided to settle in on the pillows on the far side of the pod. Where it was a bit quieter than the control room. Larry decided that he would drive you both back to Craftworld while you took a nap. You didn’t mind and happily accepted the offer. Though, he probably could tell that you weren’t getting enough sleep. You could practically see the darkness lining your eyes.

Now you were wrapped up in soft materials and laying in a nest made from pillows and such. Your mind was so tired and strained from being awake for so long that all you could think about was how many people you met in the last few days. How many potential friends you could make...but it was still a mystery as to how you arrived on Craftworld in the first place. Let alone how to get out of this dimension and safely back to Earth. If you wanted to go back...that is. I mean, you were still hungry. Even more so now. You could only sigh as the feelings of hunger went away some time ago after you tried to not focus on anything. You were still lost. Even if you met some friendly faces along the way. Still... how did you get here? And how do you get back? You merely blink as these questions run through your mind and you just let out a deep exhale and close your eyes tightly. You just needed some sleep for now. Maybe this is all just one big fever dream and you’ll wake up back in your normal bed with normal humans around you. No fabric, no cardboard, so sponges...just flesh and bones. Organic stuff... REAL stuff.

Or...at least the things you HOPE were REAL things. Oh, but it was just another problem to solve for tomorrow.

You let out another final long sigh as your heavy eyes finally close and you drifted off to sleep in record time.

Blissfully unaware of the images and energy seeping from your head while you slept peacefully throughout the whole trip back to Craftworld.

[dazais-guardian-angel]

Time for my feels dump thoughts on Diabolical Box...! y’all, this game. this game. I don’t think people give it enough credit for... a lot of what it does, despite the messiness of the plot reveals... but it’s so special and unique, in ways I’m only now appreciating. also this is gonna be really REALLY fucking long I am so sorry, but I have a Lot to say about the ending parts... i just love this game so much...... so i wrote a fucking novel bc of course i did.

also i played this in October, completely unintentionally, so that’s noice.

The amount of voice acting and cutcenes in this compared to CV is amazing, I love it so much, even if it is funny sometimes the dialogue they choose to voice and then abruptly cut off a few lines later.

I had COMPLETELY forgotten about Luke jumping on Chelmey and trying to rip his face off and it’s just the funniest fucking thing omg; Hershel in the background going “NO LUKE THAT’S HIS FACE” is comedic gold.

Will we ever know what Hershel was going to say when Chelmey asked him what Luke’s relationship to him was... dammit Luke why’d you have to cut him off.

Hershel calling the hamster “generously proportioned” is amazing. also “I’ve always said that helping rodents in need is among the duties of every true gentleman” Hershel... please tell me what other situations have made you say that... please...

Why is there an entire subplot about finding this Karen’s dog, just to make Chelmey look like even more of an idiot? if they needed to pad the game out more, they definitely could have done it with flashbacks or in places that I’m... ahem... emotionally invested in

Flora’s treatment in this game is so infuriating to me, like... why did they think this was a good idea? What was the point of bringing her into the plot for NO other reason than to be kidnapped and impersonated? Was it literally just because they needed a way for Hershel and Luke to run into Don Paolo and get the box back from him??? Why couldn’t, idk, Katia run into him in Dropstone and get the box from him and save Flora, that would still get the box to her and keep Flora in the group, and it would tip them off to Katia being related to all this even earlier, and Don Paolo could still be shown there if he absolutely has to make an appearance in each game. I know it’s because he has to be built up and then revealed, and because Hershel always has to have a dramatic point-n’-reveal every game, but whyyyyyy does it have to be at the expense of Flora. :))))) It would have been interesting to see her reactions to Folsense and Anton and everything, and not have Katia be the only female involved in all this; maybe she could, you know, actually have a personality!! hahaaaa who am I kidding...

beluga: “it’s already been a year since she passed away” me: whythehellyoucryingsodamnloud.jpg

Anderson talking about Dropstone and the sacrifices made to found it and how it can’t die out like “other towns”... with the song playing... whythehellyoucryingsodamnloud.jpg

The sheer coincidence of Katia going to Folsense on the same day that Hershel and Luke would end up in Dropstone and then there, and on the 50th anniversary of the town... not a likely one.

Didn’t some versions of the game come with a real version of the train ticket to Folsense? I want it D:

i also want a real Elysian Box, like can i commission someone to make one minus the whole you know actual gold, please, i’ll pay aNYTHING- *sobs*

LUKE HOW COULD YOU FORGET THAT HERSHEL IS AN ARCHEOLOGIST, AFTER ALL THE ARCHEOLOGICAL SHIT YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH

Hershel to “Flora”: “you’re as white as a sheet!” Don Paolo, minutes ago while the others aren’t looking: *furiously powdering his face mask or some shit*

Why was Anton’s diary lying in the street though... it doesn’t make sense that Katia or Beluga would have it, and they couldn’t open it anyhow. probably just a gameplay thing that should go unquestioned but I want to knowwww lol. Also wish Hershel and Luke had reactions to the entries.

Ilyana tho. Also bootleg Clive asdfghjkl

I LOVE THE TOWER OF HANOI PANCAKE PUZZLES

Am I the only one who doesn’t understand the obsession with the tea set... like yeah it’s fun to serve tea when you actually get it right, but I’m stuck with like two recipes missing and getting frustrated just trying and trying countless ingredient combinations on end because some of the npcs are NOT helpful enough in telling what to make :))))

Obviously Katia can’t reveal anything or say anything about why she’s there at all to keep the suspense till the end, but it would have been cool to see her working together with them and making a plan to get into the castle and help Anton aka I just wanted more scenes with Anton being nice and not flying into a rage over a misunderstanding ugh

It’s honestly pretty impressive some of the deductions/connections Chelmey makes in this game, despite his... other incredibly stupid ones lol

“iSnT iT oBvIoUs?”

WHY DOES HERSHEL RISK KILLING LUKE (AGAIN) WITH THE BOX. And why tf does it not do anything to them since they assumed it would...?

The biggest mystery of the series is how Pavel gets where he does, truly

The music in the forest is truly one of the best osts, god I love it. I also adore the Herzen Castle ost now, I never really noticed it before but it is WONDERFULLY creepy and heavy and melancholic and just... idk, those harpsicords go hard. damn.

Opening the Elysian Box is the best puzzle in the series, because of the meaning behind it. Or at least, it’s my favorite for that reason :^)

Alright folks so I’m gonna be completely, unabashedly honest here, and reveal myself to be the superficial, shallow fucker I am lmao: Anton is super hot and I’m still attracted to him even now, and I hate that we get so little time with younger him dklslskdfkflssd I AM SORRY I CAN’T HELP IT OKAY. BLAME THE VOICE ACTOR, HE HAD NO RIGHT TO SOUND SO UNEXPECTEDLY DEEP AND INCREASE ANTON’S HOTNESS LEVEL BY 1000%... just. god damn. damn. the dining room scene. the lighting. the way he puts his hands down and closes his eyes at one point. the way he says Herzen. the freaking sass with “chalk it up to my bad taste then.” the little clap. his entire design which just oozes Victorian era anime bishie beauty. kudos to the character designer who was like “well they said make someone cool and handsome and i wasn’t sure what to do but i tried and i guess it worked out” GOOD SIR BOY DID YOU SUCCEED. how dare this man turn me on so much, fUCK. And I know it’s super shitty of me to not like his old design as much!!! but just!!! why the beak nose.... why.... he was so gorgeous and then you give him the Bronev nose treatment..... i’m already so sad over the ending but you make him look so much sADDER, THE SADDEST POSSIBLE DESIGN FOR OLDER ANTON. It’s not that I mind him being old, I just wish he looked more like himself... there didn’t need to be such a drastic change. But I know I’m just being petty lmao. anyway stan Anton for most beautiful PL character always 🙏 Descole and Clive’s hotness have nothing on this man

*ahem* But to get back to serious topics, replaying this now when I’m older, with the ones after it in mind, I think I finally realize why this game stands out to me so much from the others, making it my favorite. To put it as best I can, Diabolical Box, to me at least, just has a different feel from all the other PL games. Yes, it’s still definitely a Layton game, you still investigate a mystery, there’s still puzzles everywhere, it still has a relaxing city or country feel to the atmosphere, there’s still lots of charm, but once you hit Folsense and the climax and the ending reveals, the tone sort of... shifts? Not drastically, but enough that’s different from any point in all the other games that I can remember; I feel like Last Spector might have the closest kind of atmosphere to Folsense at certain parts, but even then the plot of that game is nowhere near to having the same tone as this one. Diabolical Box, when you really look close at it and think about it, is dark. Dark in a way that none of the other games are, despite the darkness some of the others do have. And I think part of that is because almost every other game/movie is connected to the overarching story involving Hershel’s past and people involved with him, and so the drama and angst is very much grounded in London or other places Hershel would be/was, and in his time, but Diabolical Box is unique in that the story and characters in it have nothing to do with him. And to reflect this, Anton and Sophia’s story is based in the early 1900′s, the Victorian era, in a city so far separated from, again, everything to do with Hershel, that if you were to just watch their story by itself and take the professor and Luke out of it, and you knew nothing about the series, you could reasonably argue that it isn’t from a Professor Layton game at all. What I mean is that Anton’s story could be an entire anime all on its own surely it’s not obvious how badly I want that, nope, not at all, completely separate from this series, and it would work; it could be its own period era-esque drama series, still with all the supernatural shit intact later on. I can think of a few existing anime similar to what I’m imagining. 

And I really do think it would be amazing, because like I said this story is terribly, terribly dark, and sad; as a PL game, like a lot of the other ones, it can’t go deep into the nitty gritty of what makes Anton’s story so fucking depressing, but just like... Imagine it. Imagine being alone, for so long in that castle, so long that you don’t even know how long it’s been anymore, with virtually no one, after having your heart broken and being abandoned by the person you loved the most, and who you thought loved you, and getting no closure about it. This long post goes a ton of detail about Anton’s character and things he was probably feeling/reasons for his behavior, but in short, Anton’s mother is never mentioned, so combined with how distant he was from his father and the fact that he feels alone in his role in society and that no one truly sees him as a real person, it’s quite possible that he clung to Sophia unconsciously as a mother figure, and, in general, she was the only person who made him feel seen, and loved. The only exception was Beluga, but Beluga leaves the town and Anton behind after quarreling with their father, so... It’s just extremely apparent when you read the diary entries and his dialogue (with the voice acting) that Anton was always alone and terribly insecure, and that Sophia made him the happiest he ever was - and so her leaving him was devastating to him. He was alone for fifty years (and who knows how long it actually felt, to him), in a lonely castle and emptying town, his entire family either left or dead, his body slowly aging without him even knowing it, while he had a daughter and granddaughter born without even knowing it, and all the while he’s left with the misunderstanding that Sophia might have loved someone “better” than him all along, never getting answers, having to live with all that grief and guilt and blame and jealousy and self-hatred over a situation that wasn’t even entirely true. Imagine what your MENTAL STATE would be like, jfc it’s a miracle he’s as sane as he is in the game!! Not to mention everything that crashes down on him within TEN MINUTES AT THE END. Yes, Unwound Future and the prequels very purposefully heap the angst on with Clive/Dimitri and Descole respectively, like “we are trying so hard to make you feel for this guy cry cry cry” and I fall for it like the trash i am love them too, don’t get me wrong, but Anton’s tragedy is much more understated but in my opinion is by far the absolute saddest of them all. I just... i’m crying y’all, this poor man. give him a fucking HUG. Anton Did Nothing Wrong 2k20; he doesn’t even hurt the people he lures in with his vampire scheme!! he lets them go without a scratch!!! what a guy... give him a hug and blankets please i love him so much, him and Sophia- *sobs*

and also as a side note, I honestly think Descole/Desmond would fit perfectly into this game for a lot of these reasons, in the trend of “trying to fit Descole into the first trilogy”; he’s got the right Aesthetic™ for one thing, but mainly just he and Anton have a LOT in common...! actually, now that I think about it, Randall and Anton do too, but I much prefer the notion of Descole and Anton interacting. honestly, I’m toying with the idea of an AU where Desmond and resurrected Aurora end up in Folsense and solve that mystery themselves instead of Hershel and Luke; i think it’d be fascinating.

However, by the same token, as much as I LOVE this game and characters for all of those reasons... it also makes no fucking sense ahaha. How the FUCK does the gas work. The illness that started killing people when the ore was first unearthed and is the reason everyone starts leaving, is THAT from the gas I assume?? but like why?? cause eventually it just turns to making the town appear as it was years ago and keeping people young, so...? ARE ALL THE TOWNSPEOPLE NOT ACTUALLY THERE, OR THEY ARE AND ARE JUST YOUNG LIKE ANTON; I’m still not clear on this!! because Hershel at the end says they’re illusions, and yet when you talk to the npcs so many of them complain about being tired and feeling old, so what is the truth!! It would make sense if newcomers see the town as it is in the pictures, but there’s no reason for them to not age... in fact, I don’t understand where the not aging thing comes from at ALL, since if the idea is that the gas makes what you think will happen happen, how tf did that even come about in the first place??? There’s no way everyone who inhaled the gas would think the exact same things and have the exact same hallucination. And if fifty years passed in reality, how long did it feel like to Anton/others; surely it couldn’t have been that long if they never questioned why they weren’t aging? If the gas in the box put Schrader in a coma, what was his theory about what would happen? Why does nothing happen to Hershel and Luke upon opening it when they clearly assume something will happen? Related to other things, how does the box become the source of a rumor, and how does Schrader even get it? Do people just assume Anton is dead or otherwise gone, or do they know/assume he’s still in the castle but don’t try to see him because of the vampire? Does Beluga know Anton is still there, if he does it’s pretty shitty of him to ignore him, and why does he think the box has to do with the fortune of all things if he possibly knew Sophia wanted it and knew it had something to do with her and Anton (seriously I don’t understand Beluga, I really wish they’d done more with him; he looks so shitty even if you give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he knew the least amount possible)??? Did Sammy know that the drugged flowers related to getting into Folsense? Did Katia know how to get into Folsense, and what was she planning to do if she never found the box in order to prove she was who she said she was? Why do some of the npcs act like they know the deep dark secret of Folsense and keep saying Hershel and Luke don’t need to know, and keep talking about the town being cursed, like do they really know the truth?? Or not??? LEVEL-5 I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS AND I’M TOO DUMB TO FIGURE OUT THE ANSWERS. EVEN LAYTON VS. WRIGHT’S STUPID REVEALS MAKE MORE SENSE THAN THIS AAAAAHHHH

anyway DB best game anton hot Even with all the weirdness though that makes this game the most Layton the Layton series has ever Layton’d lmao, I still love Diabolical Box so damn much. I love it so much, guys. It’s not part of a huge narrative, it’s not connected to the main characters; it tells its own little story and it does that perfectly. It’s so unique from all the rest, like I said, the plot has so much depth I don’t really see talked about, Anton and Sophia’s story is so beautifully tragic and underrated on a mature level that none of the other games really reach, and despite how upset I am we don’t get to see more of them, their love story is so impactful and emotional just from what little we do see, despite some of the oddities of how it plays out... they’re so sweet together and I cry so damn much over them ಥ⌣ಥ Iris is one of the most beautiful and touching songs in the series, too, and my favorite. And I’m a sucker for the Victorian era and cute romance lmao, so it just gets me like nothing else does... it’s so wonderful. saddest PL game, I will die on this hill. Even if I seem to talk a lot more about some of the other games/characters simply because there’s more content to talk about and there’s more to say about the more flawed content. you can’t improve perfection *chef’s kiss*, deep down, I think, this game will always be my favorite. ❤️