#deception iv

[dark-side-princess-sims]

Ephemera is an automaton created by the Devil who serves as Velguirie's guide through Darkside Heaven, the rift between dreams and reality. She, like others of her kind, is aging and in disrepair.

Velguirie's goal, like her sister Laegrinna's, is to offer human souls to her father in order to revive him. Ephemera works diligently to help her achieve this goal and rule over the world.

[mrs-mquve-cc]

I'm 10000% sold on going back to using LBB on Zeno 🥵 the LBB conversion of this outfit doesn't have the sword belt the original has though and that is essential to his character, so I'll be changing that because the alternative is giving him an accessory he'd end up stabbing Laegrinna with every time they try to make out.

And of course, Laegrinna demanded to be included in this post too and who am I to say no to her?

[dark-side-laegrinna]

I've been alone with you inside my mind, And in my dreams I've kissed your lips a thousand times...

I can see it in your eyes, I can see it in your smile You're all I've ever wanted, my arms are open wide...

Tell me how to win your heart, 'cause I haven't got a clue But let me start by saying... I love you

[mastomysowner]

Torture Chamber by maskedpeach

Artist's comment: well...kinda wanted to make Wolfsmund and Deception crossover, since one heavily reminds me of another

By me: Aw, the Devil's children sure have a lot to talk about! How's daddy doing?

The irony is that the villains from Wolfsmund were going to establish a German monarchy, thus setting on the path to unify the Holy Roman Empire, and in the good ending of Deception IV Laegrinna unites the whole world. It's also nice that this ending shows that even the government providing such large-scale stability only enjoys the support of the majority of its citizens, not everyone. I. e. even in the best organized society there'll be a number of people who cannot and/or won't want to live in it. You can’t drag everyone into a bright future.

[i-cast-zone-of-truth]

So I just picked up another Vorkosigan book (having inhaled the first 8 or 9 books several months ago), and I dont know if it's that I've been away or that this series just keeps gaining momentum, but I am here to tell you the PLOTTING on these bad boys is THE TIGHTEST SHIT. Listen. Every time I pick up one of these books I underestimate it. somehow!!!! I say to myself "ah yes, this will be merely good." AND THEN IT KNOCKS MY SOCKS OFF. it's not just the plotting. It's the fact that this woman UNDERSTANDS PEOPLE SO GODDAMN GOOD. And she's like. Genuinely progressive about it. do NOT be fooled by the archaic language. she's got THE SPIRIT in a MAJOR way. And in my (huge metropolitan) library's app, where you borrow nothing without waiting 4-50 weeks, her stuff is TRAGICALLY always available. Please help me create hold times for these books! You'll thank me!!!

[naancydrew]

danger on deception island

[soleildiddle]

Mascot Horror-tober days 6-14

Part 1 | X

[kissingarthurclaus]

I wanted to try out some simple cell shading!! So I doodled a little something with my wife 🫶💖🫶

Taglist♡: @crushes-georg @changeling-selfship @me-myself-and-my-fos @tiny-cloud-of-flowers @sunstar-of-the-north @dearly-beeloved @adoredbyalatus @squips-ship @sunflawyer @cherry-bomb-ships @miutonium @in-true-blue-love

[thecryptidart1st]

Who else do you portray as Hazbin hotel characters?

Tough question considering I haven't watched the entire Hazbin Hotel series (I'm a Hellavuh Boss kind of guy tho :P ) Tiktok spoiled a lot of the good songs, but I *try* to avoid listening to soundtracks of musicals until I see them in full context. So right now the songs I have heard give off a lot of vibes that match with some of the Graveyard Shift characters

But I am a sucker of all these songs with tension that may or may not radiate in a sexual energy if read in a certain light

[toytle]

lexicon luthor

bust comms

[gophergal]

If you're still doing art requests id love to see some Erron x Kabal or Raiden x Bo' Rai Cho (or any of those four individually if you dont feel like drawin ship art)! :3

I've never considered this ship but gotta say! I like it!

[dark-side-princess-sims]

😈 looks can be deceiving... 😈

[corviiids]

THANKS @kimdokjafan you are so kind and generous. ok im cashing in the first of three blank checks to talk about faith trust and pixie dust (most recent chatfic) because the last two directors commentaries were too serious so let's do a silly one.

some p5r spoilers, and this is mostly about sumire, and it's long again. do i need to keep disclaiming that these are long? you should know me by now.

i had this written for a while before i started formatting it because i wasn't really sure if i should post it? i feel like silly chatfic is something people go to for predominantly lighthearted nonsense so i was like, maybe there's too much plot and dramatic misunderstanding and i should just keep this one for myself. but then i was like well nothing matters and maybe someone will have fun with it. it's kind of terrible how much fully or mostly completed fic there is my docs that just doesn't see the light of day lol. write for yourself etc but i like sharing! too bad it comes with the mortifying ordeal etc. anyway that was a tangent

potato counter is a neopets game. there's no deep lore i just like neopets. i guess in this universe ryuji doesn't play neopets? or maybe he's just never played potato counter specifically. i also have a different fic where ryuji DOES play neopets. it's about neopets and ryuji and goro talking on neopets.

i think this might literally be the first time ive written sumi in a fic because i haven't actually written that much fic for royal, like, now that im looking, literally almost none? and none that had a group dynamic. so it was kind of fun to find her voice for the first time in a silly groupchat like this. i was worried people would find her exclamation marks annoying but i personally thought it was endearing so i added it in there.

every time i do a gag where a character corrects their own typo i have to code more stupid little bubbles to make it happen but i think it's worth it. all the effort that goes into making tgis look as much like a real chat as possible

this obviously doesnt take place in the canon p5/r universe, but im imagining sort of a postcanon sumi personality where she's more comfortable being herself and isn't borrowing kasumi's brand of confidence, but she's visibly a really anxious person without that kasumi veneer. i also think in this universe sumire is a fairly recent addition to the friend group, and while everyone likes her a lot and she really likes them, i kind of wanted to emphasise that feeling of being in a friend group where everyone's established and you're sort of a plus-one? you don't really fit yet. part of that is her being new, part of it is her anxiety, part of it is just the kind of person sumi is where she's so polite and self-conscious she ends up taking herself out of things with her own good intentions. stuff like her interrupting the flow of an existing conversation by greeting everyone instead of jumping straight in because she doesn't feel comfortable inserting herself, which means everyone else stops to greet her even though that doesn't normally happen in a friend group, or making a point of thanking everyone for being invited to events while the others take it as a given.

idk i love that she feels a bit out of place with the phantom thieves in p5r. and part of that is a natural consequence of being a new addition in royal who can't be naturally integrated with an existing dynamic but i honestly feel like the writing team realised that and acknowledged it, and really leaned into it, and that made it work incredibly well for me. like, it's part of her character that she's sort of an outsider. it's not like p4g's incredibly clumsy integration of marie and subsequent attempt to shove her down everyone's throat as the canon love interest in p4ga (knife). sumi has that outsider vibe on purpose and it makes me really like her dynamic with the thieves as an individual

goro also feels slightly out of place in these chats, but his conversational style blends more naturally with the other thieves at this point and he even uses their codenames sometimes. i keep saying my chatfic series isn't a real Series because the lore keeps changing, but if we accept that they're all kind of following a General Continuity, assume this takes place some time after the last fic in which ren added goro to the groupchat and they made an effort to integrate him into their friend group. he's kind of there now and has settled into being the weird boyfriend. that's his role.

every time goro says something like "ren and i" assume it's the text equivalent of him talking to the group with his arm around ren's waist.

ok i got really fond of this silly running joke where sumi brings up the weather when she's feeling uncomfortable. she's so polite. i like this thread because setting it up meant i got to tie it off like this:

this just made me happy lol i liked writing this. i tried to use it to demonstrate that despite goro's abrasiveness he obviously knows sumire pretty well, he's attuned to her quirks and knows how to tell when she's having a bad time with her anxiety, so he uses her little weather habit to ground her.

i honestly dont think goro and sumire could be considered close in p5r and as much as i like the "royal trio" in canon they're not really... like... friends? with each other? they're both attached to ren, so it' more a V shape than anything else. but that said, i really LIKE goro and sumi's canon dynamic. he takes a really grouchy but politely attentive supervisory role to her during their few forays into the palace as a trio where he doesn't really know her well but clearly identifies her as a harmless little tryhard who needs some guidance and steps into that role grudgingly, and she immediately looks up to him despite being very wrong footed by his ruthlessness, which i find incredibly charming. i think given time they could be good friends, they just didn't get much chance to know each other very well in canon. so i tried to kinda do that here.

once goro stops being evil and joins the group they all kind of tiredly accept that his role is to occasionally push a cup off a bench while smirking and refuse to clean it up. emotionally, i mean.

wait i need to backtrack chronologically to talk about akeshu.

in this scene they're in the same room lol talking and snickering while typing. im trying to get at that vibe of the annoying couple who is flirting with each other, via you. you know? like ostensibly they're talking to you (sumire) but everything they say to you is part of their stupid game. sumi is incidental to goro and ren teasing each other about flirting with someone else, goro is reporting everything ren says because his boyfriend is so eye-rollingly foolish in a cute way. they're very tickled by how amusing and charming they are. gross. disgusting. sumire im so sorry for putting you through this

anyway here are too many of my favourite jokes from the fic

[dark-side-laegrinna]

inspired by the intro of Deception IV: Blood Ties

[treevore]

making her a draconic sorcerer/bard actually was inspired of me tho jesus christ that's my evil princess i love her so much

[shslprince]

Honestly whenever someone (wrongly) accuses Maki of being poorly written and tries to fix it fic her its usually a worse rendition bc they either:

A: make her too cold-hearted and bitchy and forget her compassionate side

B: flare up her tsundere-ness to a comical degree

Or worse C: forget to let her be funny or attempt to make morbid jokes