#dude you're so accurate with all this stuff you have no idea

[three-headed-monster]

this month has literally just been confirming to me that i'm a fandom Elder my god, me vs explaining 2021, 2022, and 2023 fandom lore to various different people 😂

but yeah ! macklin is really interesting cause i would say there's a decent amount of scholarship on him, but not a lot! he seems, by all accounts, a fairly regular kid, but i think the lack of media bubble around him has also meant we haven't really gotten as much information about him in comparison to other draftees (this also might just be a big gap in my own information because while i have followed this dude for a long time, last year as a whole is a year where i feel hockey did not exist to me for 80% of the year)

i would be careful about third hand accounts though, because i think a lot of us are partial to twisting the narrative to how it fits our own headcanons (very much guilty of this sometimes, but i really do try to be accurate). there's a lot of stuff on adam fantilli in particular, and the reasons he left the canadian hockey system that are inaccurate, or stretched to a large degree. i fear that has been applied to macklin's story too, which he himself has refuted. so i would def encourage to be diligent in doing your own research ! and forming your own headcanons outside of the third hand accounts :)))

connor's masking is so insane and it's gotten more and more blatently obvious since he came into the nhl. before, of course he had his pr voices and everything but every once in a while he'd break character and we'd get a glimpse at the true him. now it feels like unless we're getting another friends livestream, we're never seeing that again 😭

i don't think any of them were raised normal tbh and you're right in saying we can only take what the media says about them. i hate comparisons in anny way though, and even though it's great media foddder, it honestly serves everyone involved terribly because well....

time to talk about shane wright.

shane wright was, from the time he was 14! projected to be the top pick in the 2022 nhl draft. people called him the next one. he was connor before connor was connor. exceptional player status in the ohl, was playing with people 3-4 years his SENIOR by the time he was 15 and eating them alive. everywhere this kid went, people were telling him he was great.

and then covid hits. and he doesn't play hockey. for a year. despite so may other people going overseas to play in europe just to try to continue their development, shane wright doesn't. he sits on his hands. he waits for the ohl to begin again in a year it never does. there was speculation at the time that it was because he was struggling with the idea of being so far away from his family at so young, which. objectively. makes sense. 16 in europe alone is a lot different from billets in the same province as his parents. (also what they won't tell you is that 50% of the players who did get to go overseas was because they had dual citizenship, look at i.e. mctavish and othmann going to switzerland because they were dual citizens, because at the time no one else could cross the borders).

but he does u18s. he looks fine. GREAT even. breaks all kinds of scoring records. consensus heading into the 2021-22 season is that he's still going to be the first overall pick. nothing seems wrong.

until it is. because he has a subpar year in terms of scoring. and there's other competition making their cases for top pick. and it looks like the canadiens will be picking first overall while the draft is in their city, and it's a bigger deal than most first overall picks regardless of who it is.

and i think part of why connor was so hesitant to say "when i'm drafted" the next year in 2023, and always reverted to "if" is because shane makes the mistake of saying in a mid-season interview that he deserves to be the first overall pick in 2022. because that's what everyone's told him since he was 14? so it must be true right? no one has indicated to him anything otherwise?

the habs don't think so. they hate it. they consider it entitlement, but they don't say it to his face. the habs wine and dine him, they send scouts to his games consistently throughout the year to talk to him, habs fans are even asking him to sign habs jerseys with HIS name on it before the draft and he stays on the carpet longer than they're allowed to just to do that

but then the pick comes. it's not him. the habs don't even have the decency to call and tell him. devils are next. they don't change their plans. it's not him. arizona. they don't change theirs either. it's still not him.

imagine being told for your entire life that you are destined for greatness and then the last four years being told you are meant for greatness even higher than the GREATEST of the greatness. you were supposed to be the next mcdavid, gretzky, crosby, all of them. and it fell apart at the last moment, only because you repeated what THEY said to YOU and they didn't like that you broke that unspoken social rule not to. i think i'd be pretty pissed! i would NOT have reacted as calmly as he did on that day, lmao i burst into tears about that, and several people i knew who had followed his journey for years, did too.

he didn't have a complete meltdown, which is a miracle. but he did have one according to everyone's standards of him and how hockey players were "supposed to act". all he did was "glare" at the habs table for a split second and suddenly, he had attitude problems and he deserved what he got and he will be booed at bell centre for the rest of his life. the number of people who sent this kid VITRIOLIC hate for a half second break in his mask, is insane. INSANE. they sent ME hate for defending him. AND THEY LEAKED HIS SNAPCHAT PHOTOS. he was universally blacklisted p much, for "acting like he was above 4th overall" when he smiled SO big in every photo and was genuinely excited to be a kraken. but it wasn't enough for anyone because he was privileged and spoiled and thought he would be the first overall pick out loud.

and ik i said i hate comparisons but part of where my personal headcanon for him comes from is how he reacted to slipping in the draft, compared to adam fantilli (people loved to use this one at the time too so i must include it). adam was THRILLED to be going to columbus. but shane had the equivalent to what would be a personal meltdown to him, and while he maintained high spirits, you could tell that he was heartbroken that it seemed like he lost what had been promised to him. all as a result of him just not understanding the social rule that you don't say you're going first overall.

meanwhile he's captained several different teams and no one had ever mentioned "attitude issues" until the night of the draft. there's more stuff too on his autism, like how he is has literally one hobby and talks about it in every video (guitar and he self admits its his one thing)

and how he acted at the space needle, while it was spinning

seemingly obsessed with moving floors ! he also liked them in the haunted house video from last month and kept saying everything was fine when he looked like he wanted to die.

and he said earlier this year that he liked that the kraken had a new podium for their media space because now he actually knows where to put his hands

saw the tags on your rb, and as a fellow "connor bedard has autism" headcanoner, i would love to know more of your thoughts 😈

it's less of a headcanon and more of a divinely correct vibe check. but like am i wrong...???? although I do see it more as they're the same flavour of ND with different presentations, like Connor is hyperfocus ADHD, and Macklin is inattentive (this comes from someone with mixed presentation ADHD¹, they also tried to diagnose me with austim but my legs were too long i make eye contact BUT!!! 93rd% "indicating that Cassie has many behavioural characteristics similar to youth diagnosed with ASD." raaaaa 💪💪💪 93% is an A!! i ace even the tests i fail!!!) Plus his rigidity with his diet, is bonkers for someone that young (and it's been going on since he was like 14-15)

Like especially with the way that Connor's constant practicing, after practice until the zamboni kicks him off, and then on off days and optional skates hiding his gear to make him take days off?? that is pretty classic hyperfocus ADHD. And especially with the way he blames the teams loses on himself, like please sir seeing you in the mirror is not good for my health!!

And with Macklin, people often mischaracterize inattentive ADHD with not being motivated or good at routine and while yes those two things are a normal part of human life, and more-so with ADHD, he has shown many times how deeply he cares about hockey........ but I think (and also remember i am projecting) his father being THAT hands on with him and his brothers training (even now which yuck, you have your own job get your grubby paws off of your kid's job) has made him unable to self propel, and get himself into that routine? (AND AGAIN I AM PROJECTING) like something Macklin has said a few times is how the shift to a pro-hockey schedule has been hard, and yes it is an adjustment, but he has been essentially living away from his parents for YEARS, two years boarding at Shattuckk, one year (presumably) billeting in Chicago while playing in the USHL, and one year in college at BU, and I think the real shift is that... daddy is planning his workouts again, full time not just summers (also, the travaling doesn't help) AND THAT (i am projecting) is HELL to someone who built a routine, and any hope of getting back into one was dashed when he went of IR for his hip after one game. the boy needs CONSISTENCY!!!!! And until they get him 1) away from his freak father who has his hands al over his development plan, and 2) on simple routine with max five types of days (home game, home practice, home rest, away game, away rest) he will not get situated.

BACK TO BEDARD <33333

the man loves rules and procedures. him at his first training camp all doe eyed and "wanting to make the team!" so much that Kyle Davidson... maybe it was Luke Richardson who said it...??? either way his coach or his GM pulled aside his MOTHER to tell them that they needed to start looking at apartments. Before getting drafted it was never "when" it was "if i get drafted".... like dude.... it's gonna happen! Whenever he get's sen't to the box its always a "they hate me, don't they know I am unable to break rules!! not because they don't apply to me but because I can NOT break rules!" vibe (I am only kinda projecting on this one)

and I do think the type of media around them during their developmental years up has affected them, Macklin's media was always focused on his father, which reinforced his reliance/dependence on him, whereas Connor's was focused on him which encouraged him to focus on himself and what HE can do to improve.

also Connor has that DOG IN HIM

^ connor bedard real not fake (also my childhood psychologist had this PROMENENTLY displayed in her office and i think seeing it every two weeks had an adverse affect on me)

¹ and a bunch of other learning disorders, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, audio processing disorder, also anxiety, depression, and cutie patootie disease (fatal 😔)

[originalwinnerfanfish]

Hey I am the same guy as Dat-lil-shark who has been commenting on all of your Tfp wings of fire arts. I am asking through this blog because it’s my main and tumblr won’t let me switch blog for asks. Anyways I LOVE EVERYTHING YOU HAD WITH IT. ITS A WONDERFUL AU!! Please

Allow me to cook some headcanons of my own for this AU. I’ve been having an autism crisis with it all afternoon.

The dragons and the scavengers (humans) did not live on the same continent and were not aware of each other’s existence until the war broke out, and the dragons dried all the resources on their continent, so they fly away until they found the human continent, still full of resources. In the prehistorical time, the animus dragons in this world put their power inside this world’s version of the Matrix, before all lived in loneliness and let their bloodline die. So there would not be any animus magic born for the unworthy, only those that were chosen by the Matrix.

Shockwave received his animus magic through unnatural means (my guess is through injecting himself with blood from past animus dragons, or through tempting with ancient taboo animus objects. (Potentially half of his face rotting away was a side effect of this)).

Optimus restrain from using his animus magic unless absolutely necessary because he had potentially conceived a grave mistake with it in the past, and potentially, in some way, a mistake that lead to this war. Or he was simply afraid of loosing his soul and hurting those around them. Or potentially. Potentially, the animus magic within the Matrix was not infinite and when it was passed to Optimus, there were only limited amount left, and he got to save them.

Back in the days half breed dragons were very much frowned upon, and because of so, before being chosen by the Matrix, Orion was very much abused. And because of so, Megatronus help him out and protect him and that’s how they became friends. That was also why Optimus not adopted so half breeds, because he was one of them.

Now, Decepticons were also not tolerant of half breed dragons partly because of old traditions, and partly because Megatron was always reminded of Orion when around them.

Ratchet is also an alchemist, and so is Rafael.

Ratchet collects a lot of herbs and rare animals to create his potions with, which Bulkhead always loved to steal and eat when he’s not watching (he got his tail bitten).

And the humans were only in the medieval era.

The Jasper in this version is located near the sea instead (both allows the Jasper Trio to be the first who met the dragons, who came from the sea, and allowed all the Seawings and half Seawings of the Autobots to be comfortable.) and potentially on an island or a half island which still kept them somewhat isolated and remote form the rest of the human continent.

Despite so, Miko was one of the jungle people, and was a traveler who came from afar, hence her bravery and desire for adventures. Since she had been fighting snakes and jaguars all her life she thought fighting the dragons would be the same (it’s not).

Miko loved to use Bulkhead’s entire back as a slide. She also always cling onto his tail when he went for missions so she could sneak away with him.

Arcee disguises herself as a shark and every time Jack was going to hang out with her, he lied to June that he was just gonna chase the shark away from the fish they were farming.

Jack was involved in a few boating races against Vince, and when they did, Arcee was swimming below Jack’s boat, pushing him forward while making it seem he’s just boating faster. Wheeljack always accidentally burn everything around him and was NOT sorry.

The autobot dragons tried to disguise as normal animals to the best of their abilities (crocodiles, shark, lions, etc)

Dark energon also worked similar to the Othermind, and Megatron was so addicted to its fruit that it’s now the only thing he eats.

Silus skinned Breakdown after his death and drooped his scales over a machine dragon that he created. He also claimed that he was the one who took down this dragon and now his townspeople praised him as the Dragon Slayer.

During Operation Bumblebee, M.E.C.H. had clipped the tip of Bumblebee’s wings to study, leaving him unable to fly (and later it healed naturally) and later they did the same to Starscream.

And this was inspired from your design and not the original plot:

Predaking the Skywing suffered from poor sleep and health due to his constant negative mood string from what happened with his race (which lead to dark eye circle and dull scales.)

that is it

hope you like it

I had a lot more head canon but a lot of them were commented down in your post anyways

I just love you AU SO SO SOOO MUCH!!

I might drop in more later

See ya!

GOOD LORD, THESE ARE INCREDIBLY COOL IDEAS!!!!!!

I really like that you focused on the human characters of this AU!

The fact that Jasper located on the coast is a simple and at the same time ingenious move, since it would really solve many problems such as dragons base and variants of humans vehicles!

For example, humans could transport materials and huge mechanisms on ships that were escorted under and above the water by autobots (as in the "Convoy" episode), so the dragons will remain invisible

The idea of boat racing is generally brilliant, as is the detail that Arcie helped Jack while pretending to be a shark (this is not noticeable on the art, but according to my idea, her tail is really very similar to a shark))

I also really interesting about what type of role will play Agent Fowler in this version. Given the medieval setting, he could either be a local count or a knight of one of the lords, somehow having a connection with the king and following his orders to keep the "beasts" away from people

June could also be a local healer in this AU and sell medicinal herbs and infusions (and send her son for ingredients). She might be a great help to autobots, telling Retchet about the plants of the new continent and their effects on organism, which would help him create new medicines. She might even have helped Retchet find a cure for the Othermind infection (while saving Raphael life after Megs attack)

I also really like the detail that Shockwave wasn't born with animus power, but acquired it, and now it's destroying his body. It's even tragic to some extent (especially for Soundwave). But it also works very cool to reveal the character. Perhaps, like Stonemover, he preferred to pay for the use of magic not by destroying his mind, but by destroying his body (idk, this is just so true for him)

So, again, thank you very very VERY much for all of these theorys!

I'm already whant to make many of them a part of this AU canon!

[purpurussy]

I feel like the "dan is bi" anon is trolling but just in case they're genuinely confused: yes dan said in BIG that he loved and felt attracted to his high school gf (although he also made it pretty clear that they did not have sex so idk where anon is getting the idea that he has slept with "multiple women" 💀), and he alluded to his attraction not being confined to a specific gender in the part where he talked about labels, but you're completely taking all of that wildly out of context and missing the point of the whole video by calling him bi. I feel like this is probably the part that's frying their brain:

(shoutout to the legend @goldenpinof for this transcript!)

But firstly, imo it was very clear from BIG, as well as other stuff he's said over the years, that he just doesn't like labels. Which I find very valid, it took me a long time to figure out how to label myself. I still don't know what my gender is lmao but I started saying "bi" for my sexuality because it's a widely-used term that gets the point across. And I think that's the thing here: he came to the conclusion that the labels "gay" and "queer" are the best descriptors of his identity, which do the most accurate job of approximating something extremely psychologically complex and multilayered and nuanced in a simple everyday term that gets the point across to other people.

Obviously words mean things and it doesn't make sense to just pick a label at random (like for example it wouldn't make sense for me to identify as a lesbian, since I definitely feel attraction to men as well as women and everything outside the binary, and am interested in acting on that attraction at times, so I wouldn't be conveying accurate information to other people if I used the label lesbian for myself) but a label is just supposed to serve the task of conveying relevant information to other people (if a lesbian feels some kind of abstract attraction to dan and phil, that doesn't mean that the alphabet council needs to immediately revoke their lesbian card!! Since the word "lesbian" still does a perfectly good job of conveying relevant information to other people. Likewise if a straight dude has a fun little gay dalliance with his college roommate, but has absolutely 0 interest in men beyond that incident, it wouldn't be remotely necessary for him to start calling himself bi if he didn't want to, because what would be the point in that if he's only interested in women? Like if he told a gay dude who found him attractive that he's bi, only to backtrack... Do you see what I'm saying here?). It's perfectly valid for Dan to use "gay" and "queer" as umbrella terms that in his opinion do the best job of describing him, out of the language that's available. If he's like essentially a kinsey >5 and decided to just round it off to a 6 at this point, who are you to tell him he can't lmao

(shoutout to the legend @goldenpinof for this transcript!

Human sexuality is often way too complicated to boil it down to a single label in a way that doesn't erase any of its nuance, and I feel like this is something he's struggled with in the past, especially with him being a public figure. He's mentioned multiple times that feeling like he had to choose a label was a factor that prolonged his decision to come out.

And this is not even getting into the impact that his trauma from his childhood and also from spending a chunk of his formative years in the public eye probably had on the way he identifies or the way he chooses to label himself. It clearly took so much courage and strength for him to finally be able to call himself gay/queer please have some respect for our brave troops

Ultimately the point is that he uses the labels "gay" and "queer", not "bi", and it really shouldn't be difficult to respect that. It's also not biphobic for him to choose not use the label "bi" (again speaking as someone who uses that label). It's just that he feels "gay"/"queer" are better descriptors for him and nobody gets to determine that except him!! :) He wants people to know he's gay so he calls himself gay and that's that on that.

There are definitely people on here who are way smarter and more well-educated than me who would've done a much better job eloquently discussing this topic without rambling all over the place but that's my take (if anyone would like to add to this please do so, I'm always open to learn more about topics like this. And I'm also not saying that the way I see it is the only objectively correct opinion, but anon is definitely wrong so 💀). Thank you for coming to my ted talk

[morlocklesstalk]

The Being a Bitch Amnesty Sphere

My wife and I have been working on a lot of things in our shared and private mental health. Something we have bumped our heads against more than a few times is the idea that being a perfectly controlled, kind, and rational person is difficult to do 100% of the time. We have both tried very hard to do it, and she is much better at it than I am because she is still so so nice I have recently begun my "go ape shit" era. A lot of the time, we spend most of a talk talking about how what we are feeling is irrational or unreasonable or imperfect, and how the sane healthy thing to do is to examine our feelings and our reactions to things and understand ourselves better therefore. Real Buddha nature type shit, and its fucking exhausting. But like, you gotta do it, right? You gotta keep trying to be a good person, and you can't always trust how you feel to be an accurate, fair, and just motivator. Enter the "Being a Bitch Amnesty Sphere", a gesture I have devised to allow one to have a little break from the pursuit of rational and moral living. By making a little sphere with our hands, we signal to one another that what we are about to say is just being churned up by our emotional guts, and hasn't yet been examined and filtered. It is not an endorsed feeling, but it is a feeling that has arisen, and it needs to get out so we can process it.

Some Examples of the Being a Bitch Amnesty Sphere in action

Me: performs gesture: FUCK, my sister is such a bitch dude. Evaluated later as: I am sensitive to certain conversational strategies, and in a recent conversation my sister said some stuff that hurt me and made me feel like I couldn't advocate for myself. Wife: performs gesture: Dog, your entire family needs to go to fucking therapy. Evaluated later as: I think there is a lot of unspoken and unprocessed trauma in your relationship with your family. I love them dearly, and I know you do too. I am sorry for the times when I have foist an entire family's worth of mental health development onto you. I do not hold you accountable for their growth. But why do these sentiments need to be shared at all? Can't we just journal them down and then rip up the paper like a normal, sane, healthy person (because destroying an effigy of your feelings is totally a healthy response to negative emotions :) )? Its like when you have a chest cold and you cough into a tissue, you're 90% sure its just gross waste product, but you look at the gross for a second to make sure it isn't something worse than what you thought it was, and then you chuck it in the trash because you want to get the gross out of your body.

[xproskeith]

can you tell i'm bored-

please answer those. i also drew a ghost for you. because i'm bored. i'm gonna answer my asks too lmao HAVE FUN!

Lmao ok but I actually love this. The you wrote it out AND the ghost! Tis the season!! 👻🎃 Now let's begin!

11: best friend?

My best friend is awesome! His name is Ben and we've been friends since we met at college for our first degrees (we'd both end up going back for nursing later. He ended up following me on that front). But we really started to get closer after we both graduated and especially after I moved back to New Orleans after moving home after graduation for a year and a half. He's just a really cool and chill guy who has always been there for me and been super supportive. We've both helped each other through some really rough times in our lives and really supported each other. He's pretty introverted, tho if you met him you might not realize that at first. It's a hilarious contrast to my extreme extroversion. I also owe meeting my wife to him. He pushed me to finally get on the dating apps and I met my wife on hinge. He also encouraged me when she and I started talking and dating seriously. He also knows how to deal with my anxiety very well and respectfully, tho my anxiety has gotten immensely better than it used to be. Still, worth mentioning. He's also said on multiple occasions how much he appreciates and like how I am just unapologetically me and an unapologetic nerd. To quote him, "genuine folks are hard to find." So that was also really cool to hear from him and just reaffirmed that being myself is the right move. When he lived in the city with me, we'd hang out at least once a week. But we text daily for the most part and still try to see each other as much as we can even tho he's 2.5hrs away now. He was my best man and gave an amazing and touching best man speech. Now, almost a year later, people still talk about it and quote him, "IDK how else to describe him other than he's aggressively friendly." it's accurate and everyone who has heard that agrees lol. Anyway, he's great and I'm blessed to have him in my life. Here's a pic of us at my bachelor trip and before my wedding. As you can see, and as I've mentioned before in various other posts, the dude is built like a Greek god lol

15: favorite movie

This is actually a hard one lol. I enjoy a lot of movies, but have a hard time narrowing down a fave. Hmm. Deadpool and Wolverine is certainly up there for very obvious reasons, but a movie that has always stuck with me since I was younger is The Prestige. It's a well done film whose twist really got me at the end. It's rare for me not to figure out a movie twist before the end and this one I did not see coming.

18: most traumatic experience 

You're gonna get 2 for the price of 1 lol. 1 childhood trauma and 1 adulthood trauma. Both cover a span of time instead of one specific incident.

First is childhood. From pretty much 1st - 4th grade, I was bullied pretty often. I was a very big and fat kid who was also nice and didn't exactly fight back, so I suppose in retrospect that made me an easy target. But beyond that, I was often made the butts of my peers' jokes or would be asked to do something silly or embarrass or the like and they'd say stuff like "of course we're you're friend!" and "if you do it, we'll be your friend." so this went as well as you can expect. It got so bad and took so much of a toll on me that my mom literally pulled me out of school to homeschool me from 5th-8th grade. This would eventually become repressed as the mind often does only to rear its ugly head later in adulthood when my friends wanted to institute a "punishment" for whoever placed last in our fantasy football league. I had always opposed this idea, but they we were really pushing for it that year. Didn't help I was dead last, but I was having such a visceral reaction and didn't know why. But I was literally about to drop out of the league because of it. Then all of a sudden the memories came flooding back and I finally understood the why. I explained it to 3 of my friends in the league, including the guy in charge, and they abandoned the punishment idea. They said they hoped they knew that this was very different and that no ill will was meant. I did, but it didn't stop how I felt. So the punishment idea was dropped.

Now for adulthood. That would be working through COVID as a nurse. This was traumatizing in many ways, but in particular there were 3 key points. The first was watching patients deteriorate and die so rapidly. Like I would leave in the morning and come back to find out my patient coded and died 3 hours after I left. They were fine before then. We also called so many rapid and codes because people would deteriorate so much and so rapidly. Despite everything I knew and docs and nurses way more experienced than me knew, we couldn't save them all or stop the rapid spiral.

Secondly, every time a code blue or rapid response is called overhead, it's preceeded by a beep on the intercom. I would hear that so many times during that time that I found myself to physically flinch and tense and my heart would race whenever I'd hear it. Even a year later when it was just happening to make an announcement. Didn't realize it was legitimately a PTSD response until I was talking to an army buddy who was like "Yeah dude that's what happens to me when my PTSD gets triggered." I overcome that by becoming the code and rapid nurse for my icu when I moved. So I just threw myself headlong into it and overcame it by exposure and desensitization.

Lastly, there was the whiplash of being called a hero and having my knowledge and insight respected only to be called a liar months later. By my own family even. I still remember making a lengthy thoughtful post about the importance of making and explaining why surgical works for day to day vs the n95 masks needed in hospital and the same day my mom made a post about how covid is a lie and masking is just the government trying to control us. My family has on multiple occasions told me my experiences weren't real and I was exaggerating, especially because I'm liberal. After many fights, we all finally agreed to just never talk about it around each other. An uneasy peace, but better.

So there you have it. My two biggest traumatic experiences lol.

21: what I love most about myself

My kindness and willingness to help people

28: a description of the person I dislike the most

Hmm I don't really dislike people. But I suppose this one older lady at work. Kind of short, white, fading blonde hair that's always short. She's always unhappy lol. Mostly dislike her bc she gatekeeps certain patients and has full control over the schedule despite not being the manager.

42: last thing I ate

Greek yogurt and pumpkin seed granola

[northwest-cryptid]

As a general heads up, I'm so tired of Native Americans getting no good representation in media; if you EVER want to make a character in anything you're doing and you want them to be proper Native hit me up. I can gleefully assist you on writing them or actually help you make them Native (at least within the confines of my understanding which means I can assist with making them Lakota, but in that case more power to you for actually giving them a real tribe and history.)

I'm really tired of the horrible representation we get.

I'm really tired of the way we are seen and portrayed.

I'm really tired of how our issues that we actually care about are ignored in favor of the old tried and true "we want our land back" story, which while true; is not at all the only thing we care about.

I'm tired of the narrative that we're a lost cause, that we're not worth fighting for, that we're already dead.

I'm tired of the fact the best representation of us that a friend of mine gave me when I said we have no representation was "there's a Native dude in Mortal Kombat!" OH YEA DUDE THAT'S FUCKING ACCURATE SURE! YEA MY UNCLE ALSO SUMMONS LIGHTNING AND BECOMES A FUCKING ANIMAL!

So yea believe me, you have no idea how cool it is when someone makes Native shit especially Lakota stuff!

One of my favorite artists is edrw and I cannot urge you enough to check out their stuff! Clicking their name there will take you to their deviantart and they do REALLY cool Lakota/Native inspired art.

If you're worried about it being offense run it by me, if you're worried about it not being accurate; I'm here for you fam.

Mitakuye oyasin, my friends.

[neon-jackal]

Why The Twist In CoC is umm uhhh umm

Each underland chronicles book gets it's own big twist, all with varying levels of quality, but today I want to focus on the twist in Code of Claw, and why (in my humble opinion) it doesn't really work. I actually really like Code of Claw, it's my second favorite in the series behind MoS, but this is by far my least favorite part of it, and probably my least favorite part of the whole series. So why is it so... not good?

First, let's talk about what makes a twist work. I think this really comes down to 4 main factors

Does it make in-universe sense? Pretty self explanatory. It's always good to keep writing consistent with the world building & lore of the series.

Does it fit with the characterization? Beyond it making logical sense, does it fit with the writing of the story? Is it foreshadowed at all? Does it feel like something the character(s) would do? Essentially, does the audience buy it?

Does it further/change the story? Also pretty self explanatory. A twist should have impacts on future event in the series, or re-frame previous events in a new way.

Does it work with the stories' themes? This is especially important for a series like TUC. This is a series with some strong messages, so it's important not to undercut them.

Now let's look at the big twist in CoC. For any who've forgotten, the reveal in this book is that Sandwiches' prophecies are fake. Ripred tells Gregor he doesn't believe in them 5 seconds before the final battle, and Gregor decides he's probably right. So how does this do as a twist?

Does it make in-universe sense? Hard no. Sure, the prophecies can be vague, and a lot of things can be left up to interpretation, but they describe way too many things way too accurately to just be coincidence. You're telling me that a super rare plague starts going around, and they need the help of the one guy that does all the stuff, and the cure for the plague is developed in it's place of origin, and Sandwich just got a lucky guess predicting all of that to a tee? Fuck off. This just feels like such a bizarre and rushed thing to throw into the series, and it feels like something that was thought of well after most of the other books had been written.

Does it fit with the characterization? Not really. CoC establishes that Sandwich isn't a great dude, so him faking a bunch of prophecies does feel believable for him, but like I said before, all the other books treat their prophecies as legit, so this feels kinda out of place. It also feels weirdly cynical? Gregor makes tangible progress on his quests, and sees really sacrifice too, and CoC is essentially saying "all of that was for nothing". Again, this ties into my personal belief that the other 4 books weren't written with this in mind.

Does it further/change the story? Again, no, not really. Even if you do buy the twist, all of the other quests were successful, so like, what's the point? It does set up Gregor surviving the final battle, but I feel like there just would've been much better ways of doing that.

Does it work with the stories' themes? Actually, kinda, yeah. It ties into Regalia's shady government and the ways they keep order, and fits the 'forced into a destiny you don't want' thing Gregor and Bane have going on. The whole "Sandwich can't be a prophet, he's evil!" thing the book tries to do is pretty dumb though, and I feel like there were so many more interesting ideas the book could've done with this.

Now let's compare this to arguably the best twist in the series, in CotW. Does it make in-universe sense? Absolutely. It fits into the prophecy perfectly. Does if fit with the characterization? Fuck yeah! The Regalians are evil bitches, so this is 100% in character for them. Solovet especially works so well as an evil-CIA type figure. It expands really well on her talk of wanting to 'punish' the rats in PoB. Does it further/change the story? Yes on both counts! Not only does it completely re-frame the entirety of CotW, it also sets up the humans' general shittyness, which we already kinda see in PoB, but really kicks into high gear in CoC. Does it work with the stories' themes? My guy. It IS the stories' themes! It so perfectly encapsulates the gray morality and overall pointlessness of war, the shady actions of government behind the scenes, and everything else these books are trying to say, and it gets expanded on even more in the next 2 books.

Wow this post post kinda got out of hand uhh if you're still reading this thank you for listening to my ramblings and point out anything I missed in the notes. If you think I'm wrong about anything, feel free to start a giant argument in the comments.

TL;DR: CoC is very good but the twist in it is not great and CotW does it much better.

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

Character voice

Thanks to @elsie-writes here, @elizaellwrites here, @mk-writes-stuff here and here, and @willtheweaver here.

Rules: rewrite a given line in your OCs' voices!

Got long, under the cut :)

"I've got a headache."

Lexi: "Oh, man I got a headache. Well, that's what ibuprofen is for. Time to go out to a crowded bowling alley!"

Maddie: "I've felt worse. I'll be fine." (Is dizzy)

Ash: "I have felt worse before. Maybe I should use those probing devices :)" (bad idea)

Gwen: (if she has nothing to do) "I should probably go lie down. I don't feel good." (If she does) "I feel terrible, but I'll push through. For [person]."

Robbie: "Pfft I'll be fiiiine don't worry about it! I have braved through more before!" (Is later seen lying down)

Akash: "No need to worry about me. I'll take some Tylenol and be okay."

Jedi: "I will be alright. We have medication for a headache." *Injects himself with some over the counter drugs*

Carmen: "Everyone BE QUIET I have a headache!"

Everyone is so healthy here (:

Prompt: Uh oh, you forgot to do something very important!

Lexi: "Oh no! I forgot!?? How??" *flips frantically through her color-coded planner* "I couldn't have forgotten to write it down.... it's not possible...it has to be here somewhere..."

Maddie: "I did? Whoops."

Ash: "Oh. Sorry. Uh, guess I'll try and remember next time."

Gwen: "Oh my gosh I am so sorry I forgot!! I've been under so much stress lately... It won't happen again. What can I do for you to help?"

Robbie: "Oh SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT--" *scrambles around trying to get it done in five seconds*

Akash: "WHAT?! Shit, there's no way I forgot... Guess I did, huh. What is wrong with me? This is why I write stuff down... Oh, um, sorry I forgot, man. Uhh hey is there any way I can make this up to you? Like now? Cause this may haunt me."

Jedi: "Oh, I am terribly sorry... It must be sleep deprivation... I apologize, I will go do that now."

Carmen: *borderline panic attack, likely kicks or punches something*

"Where are we? How did we get here?"

Perfect for TSP actually

Lexi: "Wait, what just happened? Everything just simultaneously changed. The temperature and humidity levels are different. I must be dreaming." (Anxious)

Maddie: "Woah that was super weird. Where do you think we are? (Excited and curious)

Ash: "What-- that isn't possible...but it clearly is... what happened?" (Is also genuinely curious)

Gwen: "Woah. How did we get here? It's... admittedly cool here. Beautiful even."

Robbie: "Holy shit, where are we?! Did I blackout? Or was I just walking and not paying attention so much I took a wrong turn?"

Akash: "Dude...what happened? Did we take a wrong turn? I don't think we did - I was paying attention."

Jedi: "Well... *looks around and pokes at the map on his tablet* it appears this map was not as straightforward as I assumed. I frankly have no idea how we got here. I suppose we are lost. Well, if we must be here, let us survey the area and collect data." (This is what I call the Star Trek Voyager method)

Carmen: "Who gave me wrong directions?! There is no way I possibly got lost. Who can tell me in precise detail how we got here?!"

"I don't have enough curse words for how much you pissed me off."

This one was harder than I thought because most of these guys don't get cold angry, but I'll try.

Lexi: "I have a pretty large vocabulary. I know all the synonyms for, like, every curse word. But I don't think that I know enough for you!"

Maddie: "Hm. I'm not sure I can think of enough curse words that can describe how I feel toward you. Like, none of them work."

Ash: "I would love to cuss you out, but nothing is accurately describing how mad I just got."

Gwen: "I'm not exactly one for swearing, and I'm really pissed that I can't use any cuss word in English, Spanish, or Italian because you're making me so angry."

Robbie: "Bro, I have the most creative swears I know, and even I can't think of one you deserve."

Akash: "Y'know you're pissing me off so much that I literally cannot think of a good enough swear for you."

Jedi: "I will have you know that I am not one for expletives, and I see that this is because I have never been able to find one that quite describes how I am feeling toward people like you."

Carmen: "I would love for you to see how angry I am, but unfortunately you're such an irritating idiot that I cannot find a single swear in my vocabulary that can accurately depict that fury!"

"You want me to eat that?"

Lexi: "Oh, you want me to eat this? Um, that's...fine, thank you.... Y'know I actually ate a lot earlier, and I don't think you want me to eat anything else...thanks though. Really thoughtful of you."

Maddie: "I don't want to eat that."

Ash: "No offense, but I'm not going to like this."

Gwen: "It was very sweet of you to think of me, but I don't actually like [ingredients]. Yeah...sorry. I feel bad, can I do anything for you?"

Robbie: *long exhale* "Look, man, I know you worked really hard on this. And...yeah it's awesome for you to uh....do this. But...I don't think you want me to eat that."

Akash: "That food looks interesting. Oh, you want me to eat that? Umm. Okay..."

Jedi: "It would...be my pleasure to eat this. However, I am afraid I don't quite like this meal."

Carmen: "Why would you want me to eat that? It's gross."

Alrighty that's finally done. Softly tagging @aziz-reads @atelierwriting @mysticstarlightduck @steh-lar-uh-nuhs @stesierra @rickie-the-storyteller @sam-glade @memoriethereaderandwriter-blog @ahordeofwasps @spitefulbull + anyone else who wants to

Your phrase is, "Who would leave milk on the counter?"

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @finchwrites

[aikoiya]

Aikoiya's Writing Tips Masterlist

Important:

Everyone Who Makes NSFW Content (And Those Who Are Uncomfortable With NSFW)

Dadvice - Yo, if any young dude sees this & they don't have a dad or father figure in their lives to explain stuff, go here. I hope it helps.

Club To Teach Fatherless Boys To Be Men

Reporting A Suicide on Tumblr!!

Remember To Download Fave Fics On Ao3

Google Alternatives

Photopea Is Photoshop For Free

You Can Give People 2nd Kudos On Ao3!!

How Get Sleep

Scaling Pain, Fatigue, & Happiness - Helps pinpoint how you're doing.

Tumblr Chrono Mode

Google's "Track My Device" Tracking

Media Wellness

AI-FREE GOOGLE

Bikers Against Child Abuse

"Dangerous Rhetoric" vs Legit Dangerous Rhetoric

Is Your Car Spying On You? How To Check!

A New Sex-Trafficking Method!! (PROTECT YOURSELVES, EACH OTHER, & ESPECIALLY KIDS!!!!)

Also, keep in mind that I'll be updating this whenever I find decent writing tips. So, check back with the version on my blog whenever, even if you've reblogged already.

My Stuff:

Tips For New Writers

The Importance of Establishing the Rules of Your Fic - Warning: This one's a bit of a rant.

Proper Characterization In Ships - Just my personal 2 cents.

Realistic Resurrection Mechanics - From a storytelling standpoint. (League of Legends)

Portrayal of Deities in Fanfics

Portrayals of War Gods & Other Such Nonesense

Haunted Jukebox

You Will Always Be You - Motivational

Blessed Be The Creative

How I Define Shipping

Fear the Man Who Fears No God

Female Fighting Styles

This Hatred Is Unreasonable

What If You're Wrong?

Also, OneLook is a Godsend. If you're looking for a word, but all you have is the definition, then OneLook might help. Now, it isn't 100%, but it's definitely useful.

Other People's Stuff: (If anyone doesn't want their stuff on this list, please tell me & I'll remove it)

How To Tag & Properly Tagging Ships On Ao3 - / is for romance, & is for non-romance! DO NOT USE BOTH UNLESS BOTH ARE APPROPRIATE!!!

Guide To Naming Settlements

Realistic Way To Write More Consistently - Evidently works with Autism?

Motivation for Writing

Tips For Writing Dialogue

Canon Isn't Gospel, But It's Useful & Fun

Fight Scenes Advice - @illarian-rambling

Advice For Writing Deaf/Mute/Blind Characters

Things That May Be Causing Your Writer's Block & How To Fix It

How To Give Your Characters Chemistry - @tanaor

Fighting Scene Vocab

Writer's Block Cure Ideas

Types of Writer's Block

Why You Might Be Procrastinating & How To Fix It

Ways To Solve The 'Why Not Use Magic To Fix Everything' Question

Snappy Responses To "We're Soldiers; I'm Doing My Job"

Foreshadowing

Motivation Debugging

Long-Fic Help

When Characters First Learn Swordfighting

Writing Blacksmiths

Fantasy Guide To Royal Households & How They Work

Computer Shortcuts

Writing Liars Believably

Love vs Lust

Love Isn't A Feeling <- Everything here is correct!

How to Depict Heartbroken Body Language in a Man

Levels of Headcanon

Evil Is Boring

How To Write Non-Linearly

Subtle Familial Mannerisms

20 Compelling Positive-Negative Trait Pairs

Pain Has A Purpose!!

Giving Your Story A Message - @artist-issues

50 Alternatives For "Said"

Accurately Portraying Pro-Lifers

Magical Crimes

Medical: (Sponsored By @skyloftian-nutcase)

Ways You Can Pass Out

Dealing With Stab & Arrow Wounds

Time To Die of Organ Ruptures

Bluntforce Abdominal Injury

Writing Bloodloss

Seizure First Aide

Writing A Character In Pain

Other Stuff:

DnD Subclass & Profession Ideas

Urban Neurosis - Carl Jung

Keeping Character Sexualities In-Character

Twin Protagonists

Master Masterlist <- Go here to see every other Masterlist. Mostly fandoms.

[quidcumque]

GRAVEYARD KEEPER: FIRST THOUGHTS

I heard it compared to Stardew Valley and aside from the silly title screen, it's definitely visually there. Play through? There are a hell of a lot of cons, but they won't keep me from playing it

Con: no character customization, no choices at all. You ARE a heterosexual white male-presenting protagonist with a female-presenting white sweetheart. Any headcannon re either of you being 🏳️‍⚧️ remains headcannon

Hilarious: you are reading a text from your sweetheart when crossing a road and you get hit by a car. Keep track of your surroundings, kids

Con: the dialog writing starts out real clumsy. You do eventually get choices, but I prefer how SV makes you the strong silent type when you're not actively involved

WHICH REMINDS ME, CON: don't let the dialog bubbles cycle on their own without me clicking??? I missed so much unretrievable info because I was mulling over the first half smh

Plot: she swallowed the dog to catch the cat, she swallowed the cat to catch the bird, she swallowed the bird to catch the spider, she swallowed the spider to catch the fly. I don't know why she swallowed the fly, maybe she died crossing the street and woke up in a shitty little medieval FLAT EARTHER village and she has to rube goldburg her way to and through a magic portal to get back to her sweetheart. Or something.

Pro: I don't play rpgs much so while I don't prefer this style over sv's do-whatever-and-you'll-suck-less-as-you-go gameplay, it's pretty awesome in and off itself BECAUSE it's so different. It also contributes heavily to the swallowed-the-spider-to-catch-the-fly effect because it's got EIGHT TABS OF TECH TREES and I started drawing graphs

Pro: you're on a derelict homestead/graveyard with a familiar need to clear rocks/trees/stuff and bring the area back to life. BUT doing things gives you different xp/knowledge points which is how you advance on the tech trees, so it's different from just a carbon copy SV feel

Con: Jesús Christ you can tell this was made by a dude. So was SV, but where it had nearly equal gender ratios (plus the aforementioned character choices), I've seen... not very many women thus far, and what we get is not exactly impressive. I have no problems with "ms charm" telling me to fuck off until I deserved to talk to her, as half the men I met said the same. But I've met two wives thus far, and uhhhhhhhhhhh one is straight up called sweet but stupid in her bio and the other opens EVERY SINGLE DIALOG with "you should talk to my husband, he's in charge" like jfc lady you're the one I need for recipes, calm down? Does he beat you? What the hell?

Con: let's set aside that I'm pretty sure the "medieval idiots thought world flat" thing has been debunked, because I found info but it didn't have good citations. Also maybe we're going for parody over historically accurate, fine whatever. But whyyyyyyyyyy do you have a guy named "G*psy Traveler" like I know I have an inflated sense of how widely it's known that that's a slur, but it on top of the flat earth thing and the WOW that's bad female-or-anything representation, it builds an image of the creator/creators as the really stereotypical basement dwelling head-up-ass dudes who have never ever looked outside their zone and never ever want to

Pro: like two steps into the tutorial you're slapped in the face with Soilent Green is People and you just live with that

Hilarious: I can tell when I have a first conversation with somebody I was supposed to have met already, because my pre-scripted side of the conversation suddenly backslides in terms of my acceptance of the situation

Pro: time is an illusion and represented only by the cycle of emoji-labeled days. Weeks are not counted, so I legitimately have no clue how many "weeks" I went through last night

Unsure??? I don't know how much I'm going to have to drink the church koolaid to progress? I saw an indication up the tech tree that suggested my good/evil choices MIGHT matter, but I've got no idea how. I told the inquisitor who'd just BURNED A PEOPLE ALIVE IN FRONT OF ME that sure I'd be his friend, and I don't know if the game allows for that to have been a choice made out of the fear that I'd be burned next if I said no

Pro: I still want to play it. The myriad cons will influence how I talk about it to my friends, but it's still giving me dopamine, and that's good enough

[crimsonblackrose]

.

Dream Tory

all the rocks are dangerous even in a dream fight.

It's kinda like how Barnes just showed up in TKK3, but a dream.

Johnny...come on, you're getting beer all over Miguel.

Miguel's recommendations for new karate names: Johnny Lawrence karate, strike hard karate, all american karate.

Both dojos are reopening.

It's interesting that everything that Amanda didn't like season 1 and 2 she's on board now. But it's also because Kreese is a different beast then Johnny. Johnny's a dude trying to ruin a business and who found his calling. Kreese is telling kids to hurt one another and laughing when they beat each other to a pulp in front of him and taking his students sides if his students break someone's arm.

The other difference is Amanda and Daniel finally found balance. Amanda was home and front and center for all the Cobra Kai pain Sam went through and Sam actually communicated with her. So she could see what was going on first hand, try to handle it, realize she couldn't and then now her and Daniel are communicating, and trying together.

It's a little like wait didn't we just try xyz and it was a terrible idea? What changed? And what changed was Johnny isn't the big bad anymore (Probably never should've been considered on in CK) and there's a lot of nuance. Like because they're communicating, Amanda can determine okay Daniel won't be in today, so I can handle everything rather than already having plans and Daniel bailing. They're both better in sync and working as a team now.

Awww Miguel's first day back to school.

Miguel literally being loved as the sweetheart he truly is.

Johnny tries to buy an actual gym but it's his credit that stops him.

It makes me wonder how much money he'd made from teaching the first time/how much he made off of selling Sid's art piece, because he hasn't worked in quite a bit.

And the awful place that's his fourth one he looked at costs three grand.

Johnny now does karate in the park :D Which as mr. tried to have one class outside a week, kinda works.

As much as I make note that Daniel doesn't make as much effort/know how to make an impact with Anthony I do really like Sam and Daniel's relationship, though he does avoid doing a lot of the hard parenting stuff and let's Amanda do that. Which is a bit unfair to Amanda.

The last time they were out there it was with Mr. Miyagi, caught such a big fish Amanda was afraid to cook it so they ordered a pizza.

Though this was probably the smartest move because unlike their conversation in the car before school or any of their other ones, there's like no escape. Sam has to talk about what's going on with her. Which she's needed to do for like 3 seasons.

When the fight started I couldn't move I couldn't breathe.

Not quite accurate Sam, you came in hot, you kicked ass, but then you heard Tory and then shut down.

Johnny talks to the current cobra kai's but his other rejected cobra kais are watching and listening too. 💖

Also Johnny who can get past security because he knows all the secret ways in because he went to school there. 🤣 See, Johnny getting in makes sense, Kreese still confuses me. Did he have like a pass or something?

New dojo Havenhurts and Magnolia at 4.

I love the 'sorry kid old habit' after he knocks a kids books out of his hands. He's trying.

So much undealt with trauma that's been set off.

Yasmine slowly warming up to Demetri has actually been kind of sweet. Aisha really taught her a lesson she really learned.

Daniel needed to also go back to the basics, training with Sam for fun. They both needed that and it's really sweet.

He got a few of them. Pretty sure the kid behind Bert and Miguel is the kid Johnny knocked the books out of his hands.

Bert: a mongoose? Johnny: A real animal Bert (note no mean nickname, the kids actual name)

Also secretary birds, and those are so pretty, the curb stomp the heck out of cobras.

Johnny whipped that up super fast, he must's gotta design this stuff himself, who else would've made this for him. 🤣

Mitch: Eagles don't have fangs (Throws shirt at him)

🥺 He and his students are smiling that their other cobra kai people are joining. Even though it's a trick.

Kreese kicking outs students left and right, but any time he knows where Johnny is he offers to have Johnny come back.

Kreese must be making bank, his clothes look a lot sleeker.

Oof the "My students wouldn't make a mistake, show mercy and end up in a coma." Kreese just dropped all pretense of trying to get Miguel back. Which Kreese makes sure he knows because he looks at Miguel when he says it.

Kreese puts his hand out to stop Hawk but Johnny literally just steps in front of Miguel to stop him.

Kreese: This is your last chance.

Pretty sure you still hope he comes back or at least say so in later seasons. I also spotted new cobra kai students in the group.

[blazehedgehog]

Thoughts on Summer Game Fest?

It's kind of already left my brain what was at that thing and I sort of watched it twice. I caught the back half of it on my own terms and then I rewatched it with Jeff Gerstmann's commentary over it (a friend mentioned he was watching it, so I kind of watched along).

Let's see... skimming an article...

Oh, right, yes. Now I remember. A lot of this stuff I do not care about.

Lego Horizon? Don't really care. I have a stack of unplayed Lego games on Steam. I do genuinely like those games, or I do in theory given I've only ever played demos. But I think I'd like them. But I have no need for another one.

ABSOLUTELY no interest in that Quidditch game. That's, what, the third time they've tried to make a Quidditch game? It never sticks. Also, y'know, please give less money to Rowling and all that. I have little love for Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, given that whole project was spoiled by the whole "white males only, for historical accuracy" discourse (the dude willingly went on Breitbart!) Way too many red flags with that one and it's pretty easy for me to outright ignore games like that. Plus, y'know, I also have zero interest in a historically accurate medieval game, whether the accuracy is real or not.

I'm upset at how stupid-in-a-good-way Killer Bean looks. Like it's exactly the kind of game that would appeal to me if I was 17 years old, and there's a part of me that still thinks that's cool, even if you're playing as a coffee bean in a Deadpool costume.

The whole Tim Robinson sketch for Skate 4 completely fell flat and if they're gonna be coy at showing gameplay I don't have any interest yet. It's EA, so I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop and hear how they're gonna mess it up.

Power Rangers continues the baffling trend of retro beat'em'up revivals. I don't understand it. Retro beat'em'ups are really boring. Though I say that, but I was really cynical about that Toxic Crusaders beat'em'up and I actually really enjoyed the demo. And Streets of Rage 4 was good, too. And I loved Shredder's Revenge. The first person stuff in Power Rangers looks interesting, at least.

Blumhouse getting into horror games makes me feel bad because I remember like, at least a decade ago, maybe more, talking about ideas I had for a horror game with a friend. That friend was pretty well-connected with game industry stuff and he told me horror games were "about to blow up big time" and that "there's no better time to put out a horror game." I didn't make my game, and now we're tripping over horror games from everywhere, all the time. I mean, jeeze, for a Steam sale around Halloween, all of the Dread X Collections were discounted and I bought all of them. That's like 20-50 horror games right there. And now you got Blumhouse in on it. I coulda been on the ground floor.

Still trying not to care about Dragon Ball Z Sparking Zero. I don't like the Tenkaichi-style arena Dragon Ball fighters. I played Tenkaichi 3 on the Wii and it had like a TWO HOUR tutorial for a game that ultimately felt really stiff and awkward. This doesn't look as stiff, but it does seem to be a bit of an effects overload now.

But we'll see. I'm open to my mind being changed.

I dunno if I have anything else of value to say besides it seems weird for Street Fighter 6 to already be dipping into guest characters and having their entire next four fighters take an entire year to come out.

[toxictoad]

Okay so as promised (By me, to me) I am writing about Deimos!

He's by far my favorite Durge and the first essay length bit of this is JUST for Act 1. Acts 2 and 3 will be in reblogs at some point

Also who knows I might make a post about his days in the dead three at some point (Read; probably soon because this boy has rotted my brain from the inside out).

You know the drill by now. ADHD ramble under the cut.

Deimos wakes up on the Nautiloid with a specific set of items on him. I don't feel like opening a save just to look at the starting inventory, but the thing that matters here is the book Paladin Oaths and Their Tenets;

(Interesting thing- This book is nowhere on the wiki. I would put it on there myself but I don't understand how wiki editing really works)

This book, I kid you not, is the most important part of roleplaying Deimos for me. He wakes up with no memories, head pounding, covered in blood, but he has tenets, and he WILL follow them (He's Oath of Devotion btw).

In addition to the text of the book, I headcanon that there are little notes in the margins of the pages- doodles and little jokes. Just stuff you would do if you were bored and had an old book on you.

Waking up on the beach, his immediate priority isn't necessarily survival or taking in his surroundings, it's his fucked up brain. I think a lot of people downplay how goddamn TERRIFYING it is to not have any memories. Like I've had days where I was sick and couldn't remember anything, and it was genuinely distressing, and this is like... 100 times worse than that.

So he panics, a little, and goes through all the items on his person. He has armor and a Warhammer, and... this book. He reads through it, and his thought is "Okay, I'm a paladin. That's something" And he finds a symbol of Ilmater drawn in the book and goes "Okay, that's my god probably. So I know two (2) things about myself! Awesome"

Thing is; Deimos is an amnesiac with 8 intelligence. He can kind of guess what Ilmater's followers believe, but the specifics are lost on him. The result is the funniest paladin to ever paladin.

Just imagine you're like... Shadowheart. This dude saves you from a Mindflayer pod. He seems nice enough when he's not complaining about a headache, and he's a competent fighter. You ask him who his god is and he's like "Uh... Ilmater, I guess." And you're like "...Okay" because you're a secret Shar worshipper so you kind of get being weird about deities, but Ilmater is a very acceptable god to follow and you're pretty sure he's not lying, but then why is he being weird about it. This guy is extremely devoted to his tenets but he's not even 100% sure what they are. He makes every moral decision based off of a book in his pocket and a general idea of what paladins/Ilmater devotees are like that may or may not be accurate. He doesn't even know how to pray, but he's pretty sure he's supposed to do it. The only thing he seems 100% sure about is his name, but at this point, you wouldn't be surprised if he got it off of a roadsign somewhere.

He's so fucking weird.

Deimos is incredibly freaked out by the urges, because obviously. After Shadowheart the first person he finds is Gale, and their first meeting is wonderfully awkward because Gale is being himself and Deimos is distracted by the fact that he really wanted to chop off this guy's hand like 15 seconds ago.

And then... Astarion.

Look, Durgestarion is canon in my heart and you have to deal with it now.

Deimos is incredibly easy to manipulate but in the weirdest way possible. Basically, if you can convince him that doing something is morally sound, or even just morally neutral but you really want him to do it? He'll just fucking do it. The Gur scene was the first real test of this:

Astarion: Hey this guy sucks Deimos: No he doesn't be cool What's his face: I'm hunting a vampire spawn named Astarion Deimos (Internally): Hm... Astarion is Good... and hunting good people is bad... So hunting Astarion is bad... Astarion: Please can I kill him? Deimos: Yeah okay

(Note; Deimos' definition of a "Good person" is a person he likes and who hasn't done anything morally bankrupt in his line of sight. Astarion encourages him to do bad things but so does his brain so he just doesn't listen to either of them)

However; The Urges. My way of thinking is that instead of doing horrible violence and mutilation and cannibalism whenever the option presents itself he just does something funny and kind of rude (This is the only reason he has high approval with Astarion. Astarion is constantly getting him to do weird confusing shit for his own amusement. Baa-ing at the redcaps in the swamp? 100% Astarion's influence. Threatening a magic mirror? 60% Astarion's influence and 40% because Deimos is a little bit of a himbo and doesn't like it when things try to test his intelligence. He is not a riddle person).

I cannot stress enough how weird this man appears to everyone who meets him. Friend or foe everyone around who talks to him for more than five minutes is hit with confusion. He rolls up to the scene with Kagha and Arabella and ignores the Dark Urge, only to immediately go "Hey I'm a paladin I can cast judgment on things" (A thing he is not sure that paladins actually do but he says it with confidence) and instead of making any moral arguments he's just like "I don't fuck with you snake lady let the kid go." He has high charisma but only uses it for persuasion. Ragzlin is like "The squid man showed me ur face time to die" and he just goes "No, lol." Withers wakes up to the literal chosen of Bhaal in Ilmateri getup and asks what the value of a life is and he says "Idk it's based on vibes." Astarion convinces him that the extra supplies that keep appearing in camp are a result of his charm and that he's totally not stealing from traders and Deimos goes "Yes that makes perfect sense" while Wyll is losing his goddamn mind.

Pretty early on in the game I found a book (I'm pretty sure it's A is for Azuth and Other Gods 6? Can you tell that a lot of roleplay is based around books for me) That has Ilmater, and between this children's book and the general assumptions people make about him, he can guess that he's supposed to be a martyr. It isn't his natural instinct, but he takes to it surprisingly well (His fighting style is protection, by the way. It's useless in combat but thematically appropriate so I don't care). I also think that he would encourage Gale to ramble about Ilmater because the man is like Forgotten Realms Google and this is probably his most trustworthy source of information for a while. I think Deimos really likes Gale because he talks a lot and helps drown out the murder thoughts.

So Deimos keeps up the facade-but-not-really-a-facade of being a brave, kind, selfless person who puts everyone before himself, and he tells his companions that he has dark thoughts and impulses, but they tell him that it's normal, and who is he to question them? (Again, he is easily convinced by things in weird ways. He trusts basically anyone more than he trusts his own brain, right now)

...And then Alfira comes to camp.

OH BOY. Okay so I have done playthroughs where I knock out Alfira and kill the Dragonborn bard instead, but I've been trying really hard not to metagame in this run so sadly our lovely tiefling bard is no longer with us. Deimos' honest first reaction to finding out he gored her is... to laugh.

Not a happy laugh, mind you- He's horrified, but his first thought is that he's broken his Oath, and then that that is decidedly not the first thing he should be thinking after he killed an innocent woman. So he laughs at the irony, and then he cries, and then he vomits. He cleans the blood off his hands but not because he wants to hide what he did. He just thinks that if he has to feel the blood on his fingers for one more second then he's going to go insane.

He never really stops feeling the blood. It will always be there.

My party at this point was Karlach, Astarion, and Wyll, and... Ouch. I felt like physical pain the first time I played Durge and everyone was mad at me. I think Deimos has that experience, here.

He wants to cry but he knows that he doesn't deserve to be upset about this. He vows that no innocent will ever die at his hand again, and sequesters himself in the ruin with the magic mirror in it and prays. He doesn't know how,really, but something in him remembers what a prayer for forgiveness sounds like. He begs Ilmater to listen to his repentance. Deimos carries a permanent, bone-deep guilt, but this is the first time he feels it so keenly.

He must read his tenets a hundred times, that day. He asks Withers to bring her back, but he understands why he can't. This is a burn on his conscience. She's at peace now, at least.

He is not, but what he feels doesn't matter.

(He is still immensely relieved that his oath is still intact. Breaking his oath might as well be breaking Deimos, and there's no telling what he will do once he's broken)

But, while everyone else is horrified, scared, or maybe just annoyed with Deimos, Astarion doesn't hate him.

And, look... Deimos' moral compass is literally a book, and the book doesn't say that he can't like a guy who thinks it's funny when you tell kids they're gonna die. He just really wants someone to not hate him, so now his best friend is a guy with an extremely underdeveloped moral compass. I think he clocks pretty early on that Astarion is manipulating him. But also... he doesn't care.

Deimos has always been- pre and post lobotomy- loyal to a fault. He was loyal to his foster family until Bhaal made him kill them. He was loyal to Bhaal and Saverok and even Orin. He was loyal to Gortash and Ketheric. He is a paladin at heart, whether that be under Bhaal or Ilmater. He is loyal and dutiful and constantly wracked with guilt.

Guilt for disobeying his father. Guilt for caring about people. Guilt for his past. Guilt for his urges. He's catholic coded.

So just like he was loyal to Bhaal he becomes loyal to Ilmater. Just like he was loyal to Gortash and Ketheric (Yeah, I'm going there) he becomes loyal to Astarion.

And like, he sleeps with Astarion, and he doesn't mind it, and for all his manipulation they do actually like each other, and then the tiefling party happens...

And look... Deimos knows that Astarion is lying when he says "I love you." He knows and acknowledges that fact and he can fully see that Astarion is pulling his strings like a good little puppet.

...And he just doesn't care. He lets himself believe, if only for a night, that someone loves him, despite his hands that are stained with blood and death and secrets.

And he lets Astarion feed on him, and they travel through the Underdark, and Deimos tries to hold his broken brain together.

The Grym fight is a weirdly potent moment for him, because I think that's when it really hits his companions that Deimos... Just does not value his own life.

Because at this point my party was Shadowheart, Karlach, and Astarion. Astarion and Deimos lure Grym onto the crucible, and Astarion can disengage and jump away. Karlach takes out the last of the magma mephits, and Shadowheart is next to the crucible lever.

Deimos can't disengage, though, and he cast survival instinct on Astarion earlier. So he drinks a potion of superior healing, and he tells Shadowheart to pull the lever.

Astarion's "No, my sweet bloodthirsty friend!" UGH I love it.

But Deimos (barely) survives (Which in reality means "Yay I don't have to use a scroll of revivify" but I want my angst so shhh)

They long rest, and the next day it's up to the mountain pass. I... really don't have a lot to say about the Githyanki Creche? Except that I know that Deimos just follows Lae'zel's lead on this. He bows to Vlaakith, and he... mildly considers killing the Dream Visitor (Who, by the way, looks as close to Jaheira as I could make her look, because the boy needs a mom and the Emperor clocks that easily)

He also gets VERY angry about the Varsh's treatment of Varrl (That is a CHILD how DARE you. I wish there was an option to fight him without making everyone else in the Creche hostile I hate this man)

I turned on non-lethal attacks for fighting my way out of the Creche, because I think Deimos doesn't want to kill these people- For Lae'zel's sake, and for his own.

Okay so maybe I do have a bit to say about the Creche sue me.

That awful fight with the like death knights or whatever in the mountain pass sucks. I don't know why but it always makes me so incredibly angry. Maybe it's just because that was the first place I ever actually had a party member die idk. Not related to Deimos I just had a bad time.

Oh, the Elminster thing...

Unlike almost every Tav or Durge I have, Deimos understands Gale's want to sacrifice himself to save the world/earn Mystra's forgiveness. He's a martyr, after all. He doesn't judge- He knows that feeling. He tells Gale as much. He doesn't want his friend to die, but he wants his friend to feel like he has a purpose. (Semi-related; This is my first run where I'm free of the bug where Gale is in love with you no matter what, and his platonic Act 2 scene before the Illithid colony is just... So sweet? Like he just wants his friend to be there for him. I love that wizard. Yes I will watch the stars with you buddy)

But now we are on to the Shadow Cursed lands, and Act 1 is over. Wow, this was so long.

[pondscummy]

so me and roommate L talked on Sunday and I finally like aired some of my grievances and was like hey you really hurt me w how you treated me during my recovery and I realized I actually really don't feel like I can safely communicate with you and I haven't felt like I could for a very long time. and they did apologize and we decided to just be polite roommates and not friends at all and that's a big relief honestly bc now I'm not carrying around this tension the way I was before bc I know there's not expectation from either side but like. it's also freed me up mentally where I'm not thinking about all the immediate stuff anymore and instead I'm like remembering various random things that pissed me off but weren't big enough to focus on before lmao

the one I'm stuck on rn is how insistent they are that I'm on the spectrum. idk they do a lot of explaining myself to me that makes me like. bro shut Up you don't know what my lived experience is like lol you have no concept of anything. which. for context I have a dx and I thought I was on the spectrum for years and years but weirdly enough going to therapy and working through my ptsd made a lot of those symptoms just.... start vanishing. and one of my friends had been undiagnosed for the same reason so it got me thinking about it and talking to my therapist at the time and like. ptsd can present rly similarly. like I was neglected and abused as a child and I literally did not learn social skills, and I was very fearful of other people. as I like worked through the stuff that had instilled that in me and found my stride w stepping out of my comfort zone and getting comfortable being uncomfortable I really don't find it particularly hard to talk to people. I retook the RAADS and I got that I have tendencies but am not anywhere near diagnostic level. I'm literally moving states bc I find the idea of being in a new place and starting from scratch socially rly exciting and I want to like go out to events on my own and meet people both through apps and more organically and I want to get to be in the office with my coworkers like. obv there's more to a dx than just social anxiety but the things that my dx was primarily based in (social anxiety, need for stability/routine, aversion to connection, even sensory issues) are so easily linked back to trauma for me and like. being on the spectrum doesn't go away w therapy?? also I've found it harder and harder to befriend other people on the spectrum; I find I have less in common as time goes on and that my communication style is more focused on like small talk and less directness etc. and I don't tend to get special interests at all anymore like I find it a little difficult to discuss interests w people for long periods of time.

anyway idk my experiences just make me think that it was an incorrect dx but a rly understandable one. I'll probably always have tendencies and get along pretty well w others who do or who are on the spectrum but like I just don't think that I am. and whenever I tried to talk about this with them they'd shut it down and be like um I'm pretty sure you are lmao. and when we talked Sunday I made a comment about making some assumptions about their facial expressions at one point and they were like well we're both on the spectrum so. and I was like my guy I can read facial expressions just fine. if you're saying I can't read yours accurately bc You're on the spectrum then fine. sure. I actually think it's bc you're always so fucking stoned that every muscle in your face is dangling from the frame, personally, but like. i don't have this probably of misreading anyone else dude. like ffs stop armchair diagnosing me and acting like bc you said it then it's law. UGHHHHHHHHHGGGHHHH. it would be one thing if I thought they were saying this stuff bc they think I'm distancing myself out of internalized ableism or something. but it really seems more like they bring it up only to tell me how bad I am at things. which like I'm sorry lmao but. if I'm not giving this vibe to anyone else and I'm not displaying symptoms predominantly in my day to day life and if they're rly seeming to be correlated to my ptsd, maybe you're literally just triggering for me to be around. asshat

[ulubionywuja]

Can you talk more about your time as a film extra? It sounds very interesting

Sure!

It started in winter 2020, during my second year of uni. I studied graphic design and prinmaking, both are expensive af (Adobe programs for design + special papers and ink for prints, one sheet of said paper can cost up to $20/80PLN). I was born in the city that I went to uni in, so there was no need for me to pay landlords or even buy my own food, but still, the materials were bonkers costly, so I decided to earn some money for them. It's really easy to become an extra, all you have to do is find an extra studio (Wrocław has two, I'm signed to ABM to this day), record a scene straight from a shit pseudo-documentary (ukryta prawda, Polacy wiedzą), which isn't published, it's just for them to see if you're ok for speaking roles. Then you sign a paper and they send you emails with movies or shows they need people for. It doesn't pay well, but it's ok if you just need a tiny, tiny bit of money.

My first show was Pierwsza Miłość, it was an episode about some guy getting spiked during a party? I never watched this series before and had no idea what was going on :) But turns out the medical people in Polish TV are actual medical pros and the equipment (like defibrillators) is 100% real! On my first shooting day it was freezing cold, around -8 C, but we could eat and drink everything that was on the tables during the fake party we were filming. I went for that show a few times, since they were making an entire season.

The main event of this job happened last autumn, when TVP (we hate TVP here I hate the government I hate homophobia I hate sexism <3 I want them dead) was filming a (kinda crap) historical drama Kordian. The source material is a classic of Polish romanticism, but they took it let's say liberally. I went because I like the book and it's a historical costume film. A few days before shooting, me and the other extras had to go to the main TV and radio building to get our costumes fitted. I had no idea who was about to play the important speaking roles, and when I found out I was literally shocked? Some of my mutuals know that I'm into Sienkiewicz's trilogy (a book series from the 1880s), which got adapted into movies when Poland was a communist country. I love the films a lot, the most known one is The Deluge (which happen to be the movie with the most historically accurate saber fight in film history), starring some of the most well known Polish actors of that time. And they were about to be in the movie I was in IN THE SAME SCENES? We had mr. Olbrychski (Kmicic), mr. Teleszyński (Boguś) and mr. Nowicki (Ketling z Pana Wołodyjowskiego). And Pazura but I found out he's an awful dude, and he didn't have a role in Trilogy movies, he's just famous. I got my makeup done right next to Pazura and I wanted to punch him in the face because of all the sexist stulejarz stuff he was saying <3

99 % of extra work is waiting, so we did that for like 7 hours (legit) and then played a few scenes by the Wrocław cathedral. It was brutal since I was in a historical outfit and heels on a renaissance pavement :/ I talked to some fellow extras, tbh it was slightly intimidating to be next to mr. Teleszyński, dude is like 2m tall and very, very proud and stoic. Mr. Olbrychski on the other hand is such a walking meme. He's like a million years old, yet I wish to be as fit as he is. Bro literally run off into the churchy distance because he was done with the film crew, smoked a cig and came back only because he was excited to see a horse he was about to ride. (he likes horses a lot and I think rescues horses on his own or somethin??) When he met the horse and befriended him (just a disclaimer, I know nothing abt horses), he got on it and escaped the set yet again, to have a ride around the cathedral. The street wasn't closed off so it was pretty funny watching pedestrians be like "o kurwa was that Olbrychski on a horse rn?". He played his role, it took two takes, his voice is as loud as a whole ass Rammstein live show, pyro included. Also he uses a flip phone from the 2000s. I got a picture with him. I was sitting on the pavement, scrolling on discord, while he just materialised out of thin air right in front of me and talked to some coffee people I believe? So I got up as quickly as I could and screamed CAN I SNAP A PIC into his unimpressed face. He just murmured "yea", and we got a photo. I have a pic with all the actors, but I'm an average young (1970s-1980s) Olbrychski enjoyer and my pinterst board is impressive. Mr Teleszyński I met maybe after 30 minutes of being on the set, as I said he was very stoic but much less done with everything.

I must admit, I expected these actors to be just kinda normal, but they're such unforgetable personalities! Can't say much about mr. Nowicki, because I didn't notice him in the makeup camper :)))) I didn't move my head much since I didn't wanna piss off the makeup artist, it was a different extra that told me we even were in one place together.

That was my last time on a set, but I'm willing to go back once or twice, if they do some other historical movies.

[temporalbystander]

Final one, for now.

Since I don't want to overwhelm people with stuff they don't want, even though I did warn you so it's your own fault, I'll end this stream of posts with this one. It started off as a sequel to the "lies to protect" story but rapidly derailed into its own oneshot. I did write the follow up though, it's just not finished. Then again neither is this one really, it just kind of ends.

Keeping Secrets Sucks

No I don't, and even if I did, I would still say no.

Apparently that had been Faybon's catchphrase for nearly a decade but recently he'd gotten a new one. "I will neither confirm or deny that I have any knowledge about what you're talking about." For most people that would be a confession. For Faybon? The person who's become so well known for knowing secrets that people have been asking him the most mundane and exaggerated questions to see if he had any tells? It became a perfect cover. The only possible way to know if he had any knowledge of a secret was to confront him while the person who's secret you were asking about was present. Their reaction was the one you needed to watch for worry.

At least that was the original idea until it became clear that, due to Faybon's near omnipotent knowledge, even if the person in question hadn't told him anything they would still be worried as all hell. This came about when Chloe was picking on Rose and Juleka and asked Faybon if he knew what the two lovebirds had planned that weekend. Faybon, barely paying attention, had done what he did next out of habit. He played the voice recording of his new catchphrase. It wasn't until he looked up and saw how panicked Juleka was, as she did indeed have something planned, that he cursed and reverted to his earlier catchphrase.

Marinette found out later that he'd actually sought Juleka out in private saying he had no idea what she had planned for Rose for their anniversary and that he was so sorry if his pre-recorded response gave that impression. Juleka forgave him but said that it clearly still weighed heavily on his mind. All this backstory was necessary to explain the outcome of the one question Marinette did not want answered by him. Which, unsurprisingly enough, regarded Adrien Agreste and was asked by Alya.

"So Faybon, do you know who Adrien has his eye on?" Alya was smirking as she asked it, she more than anyone had been annoyed at how good Faybon's poker face was and had thrown question after question at him to see if anything struck a nerve.

Faybon, without looking away from the assignment he was working on, simply brought out his phone went to the recordings and hit play. "Why don't you ask your boyfriend? Surely he'd tell you." Faybon hated discussing anything that may even come close to being considered a secret. Hell, he got uncomfortable discussing Marinette's feelings for Adrien with anyone other than Marinette, regardless of whether they knew or not.

"Jeez dude, no need to throw me under the bus, I thought we were buds?" Nino, who was currently ignoring the way both Adrien and Alya was staring at him, had placed his hand over his heart with a faux devastated look on his face.

"It's my default Alya response bro, I'm not apologising if it's accurate." Faybon's response drew everyone's attention. Mainly because, once again, it had come from his phone. At least he was smiling this time.

"Faybon. How many of those do you have recorded?" It was Adrien who asked the obvious question this time. Which actually got a verbal response from Faybon himself.

"Well, here is my standard response." He said, hitting play on another file. "If you're asking me you don't need to know." Faybon waited for it to end before he continued talking. "Two for every one of our classmates, one directed at them asking a question and one with a codeword reassuring them that they don't need to worry because I genuinely have no idea what the other person is talking about."

"So then why did Nino's seem to be a response keyed to Alya?" It was Marinette herself who asked that question, needing to distract herself from the heartbreaking reminder that the boy she was in love with could never like her back.

"Because I may have gone a little overboard in my desire to prove just how well I know my friends." Now Faybon seemed nervous. Though whether it was about his desire or the sheer amount of recordings he may have made, Marinette had no idea. "That was my 'Nino defending Alya' response. Alya's was my 'Alya asking after Adrien' response." He gave a small shrug. "I may have several for other scenarios, like other couples or rebuttals to insults. Some referencing secrets and others for more public spaces."

"Wow Faybon, anyone would think that you don't want to hang out with us."

In response to Adrien's smiling remark, Faybon loaded another file. "Oh be quiet, Buttercup-" Marinette froze as Faybon quickly shut the recording off. How did he know that name? Did Adrien know? Would that mean… "God dammit that one was meant for Chat Noir." The relief she felt as Faybon continued talking was palpable. "I forgot I had him labeled as Blondie for secrecy reasons."

"Who's Buttercup?" Nino asked the question as Marinette began to panic.

"Chat Noir's most hated person some nights I swear." Faybon answered, his eyes not leaving the phone. "I've always found rain-" he cut off that recording too but Marinette got the message. Chat had told Faybon about Buttercup, and the letter she'd written, and since Faybon knew who she had feelings for it became obvious who Buttercup was. Which meant it was obvious what rain he was referring to. Clearly this was his codeword for reassuring her, except in this case it was to say he hadn't told Chat anything.

"I think that's the world's way of telling you that you shouldn't have so many files." Alya laughed as she spoke, and the rest followed suit. While Marinette did trust Faybon, despite the complicated situation he had found himself in, maybe it was time for another secret identity talk.

—----

"Oh for the love of all that is just Chat." Ladybug had gone back and forth about whether she should actually talk to Faybon that night and whether it would be suspicious if she showed up. Chat Noir didn't seem to have that issue.

"What? I'm just saying that if I knew who Buttercup was I'd be able to help Marinette." No, her kitty had a much bigger problem of not knowing when to give up. It was sweet, kind of, but it was no wonder Faybon called the fictional Buttercup Chat's enemy if this is what he'd been dealing with.

"Oh yeah? How? Are you going to pay him a visit and threaten him for hurting your princess? Or maybe you're going to give Marinette some perfect tips because we both know how great you are with relationships." It was at this point Ladybug felt guilty about hanging back to see what happens and decided to intervene lest Faybon snap.

"Chat Noir giving relationship advice? Now you must be joking."

"Meouch My lady. Is it so wrong for a knight to wish to help his princess?" Ladybug was stopped from answering as a large smacking sound drew their attention back to the civilian that was currently sharing the roof with them. Who had apparently just facepalmed hard enough to leave a mark. "Something you wish to add, Faybon?" The knight in leather asked, quite easily distracted it seemed.

"Oh, just another realisation that would make lesser men jump off this roof." Faybon answered with an exaggerated eye roll. "One I think I must have had before but suppressed because I couldn't be bothered dealing with it."

Now Ladybug was definitely curious, she'd never seen Faybon react like this with any of the secrets he had known before. "Should I be afraid to ask?"

Faybon's eyes met hers without wavering in the slightest. "It's not an identity thing, just a Chat Noir is an idiot thing."

"Hey."

Faybon carried on, ignoring the small objections Chat made. "Tell me Ladybug, if you had heard the term 'M'Lady' before meeting Chat, who would you think it was referring to?"

LB simply shrugged. "Not sure, a queen maybe?" She answered hesitantly. "Maybe someone else of royalty…." Trailing off, a wide smirk crossed her face as the realisation hit. Normally she'd be freaking out over what this meant from an identity standpoint but if Faybon didn't care then it was enough to keep her calm.

"Exactly. I just find it absolutely hilarious that the only nickname Chat uses with a royal theme besides his Princess, is yours." The way Faybon rolled his eyes showed that hilarious may not be his preferred term to use when describing this situation. "I'm just starting to wonder if he has a type regarding smart and beautiful girls who don't care about his lame puns yet still trust him."

"That's- I don't- I'm not." The sound of her partner sputtering drew her attention back to him and he looked absolutely insulted. "My puns are not lame!" Was the sentence he finally managed to finish. Which started her laughing into her hand so as to not wake the children still asleep beneath her feet.

This was far from the topic she had meant to discuss that night but, since she was left feeling so much happier than when she arrived, she wasn't going to complain.

—-----

A sentiment Faybon didn't share if the look of 'absolutely done with it all' he wore the next day was anything to go by. A look which came with quite an… impassioned response when he was pressed on it. "Have you guys ever regretted being someone's true and trusted friend?" He asked as he sunk his head onto his arms.

"I don't think I could call myself a true friend if I ever did." Alya was the one to answer for all of them as she quickly leaned forward to ask her follow up question. "What happened?" The journalist could smell a scoop coming from a mile away.

Faybon didn't look up as he answered. "I've said multiple times just how normal the heroes can be but never have I felt more like I was babysitting children then when I was talking to the two of them last night."

"Oh please, do go on." Marinette had to admire her bestie's willpower. It was clear she was itching to get to her phone but had enough experience with Faybon to know that the moment she did, he would clam up.

"It's not that big a deal." Faybon's tone clearly indicated otherwise. "Just the normal Chat Noir is an idiot and Ladybug encourages him way too much for me to stay sane."

"Well damn dude, if it bothers you that much why don't you say something." Nino's well meaning question is what got Faybon to lift his head.

"And take away the one place they can relax? Where they can feel normal despite being superheroes? Where they can forget for one moment just how many secrets they keep?" Faybon shook his head vehemently. "I'd rather be Chloe's servant for the rest of my life."

"Well then this must be serious." Adrien's voice coming from right next to her made her jump, how long had he been there for? "What caused this change?" The way Faybon's eyes darted between the both of them meant that he hadn't noticed either of them.

When his gaze settled on her and his shoulders slumped? Marinette felt the unease twist in her stomach again. Nothing could have prepared her for what he said next though. "I am about 65% sure that Chat Noir has feelings for Marinette and is too obsessed over ladybug to notice it."

Alya let out a little squee as she leaned in closer. "Oh please tell me more." While the journalist in her ached for a scoop, the rest of her was thoroughly distracted by the idea of gossip relating to her bestie and one of the heroes.

"Surely you're exaggerating?" Adrien seemed nervous as he asked the question.

In answer Faybon just turned back to her. "Marinette, when was the last time you spoke to Chat Noir?"

She had to think carefully about her answer. As Ladybug she saw him all the time. As Marinette though? "Beyond a passing hello outside any Akuma fights? Probably not since Andre got akumatised the second time." She shifted uncomfortably as Faybon's eyes widened in shock, did Chat say something different? Was she forgetting something?

Before she could freak out about it that much he had turned his attention back to Alya. "I take it back. I'm now 100% sure the stupid Tomcat is obsessing over her. He's been seeing me almost nightly to talk about her ever since then and that was MONTHS ago."

"Okay now I know you're exaggerating." Adrien had apparently relaxed if the smirk was anything to go by.

Faybon just looked him dead in the eye. "Adrien, there are two people in this room capable of forming a full unbiased opinion on Chat Noir. You are not one of them." Folding his arms Faybon continued completely deadpan. "So unless you want me to play your rebuttal stay out of this."

Adrien shrugged. "I have no secrets from my friends."

"You're the second blonde I've met who's compared Marinette to the girl they're in love with." Faybon never hesitated to hit play. Whether he was calling Adrien's bluff or last night had actually pushed him past his limit, Marinette was too busy having a meltdown to fully consider it. "Funnily enough it's the same girl too." And there went any composure she had. Adrien was in love with Ladybug, the girl she'd never be was actually herself. She could die happy.

—---

"I think you broke them dude." Nino mentioned as he held Alya down to stop her from jumping about screaming.

Marinette had practically passed out against the door frame while Adrien had frozen in shock. Faybon just shrugged as he turned his attention back to the DJ. He was way passed caring about time getting rewritten now. "That's not even the best part. From the way Chat has described LB whenever she talks about the guy she likes? I'm pretty sure it's Adrien. The four of them could probably enter a polyamorous relationship and I could have some peace in my life."

Two resounding thuds drew their attention back to the doorway. Adrien's legs had given way and he was staring off into the distance with a dumb smile on his face. Marinette actually had passed out and was now being held by the boy of her dreams as if she was the most fragile thing in the world. 

"Do you think they'd go for it?" Alya asked as she put her phone away after taking a picture of the scene in front of them.

"You kidding? The only one actually settling here would be Chat. If I could date Marinette and LB and all it took was giving Adrien a kiss on the cheek every so often? I'd do it in a heartbeat." Faybon responded with a shrug. "The only worry would be whether his ego can handle not being the most famous blonde in the room."

"So…" Nino spoke up, desperate to get away from the topic of his best bud in that scenario. "Who is Buttercup anyway?" He asked while lowering his voice so as not to disturb the two at the door.

"Oh sweetie do keep up." Alya rolled her eyes at her boyfriend. "It's a codename given by Marinette, clearly it's Adrien. I just want to know why Chat hadn't been told yet." She looked straight at Faybon and folded her arms.

Faybon, eyes stern and mimicking her posture, just hit play again. "Unlike you I am quite capable of keeping a secret when it comes to a friend's love life."

Alya sighed. "You're never going to let that go are you?"

"Not until you stop lying to Marinette about it." Faybon answered, turning his attention back to the book he had been reading the day before.