#for who!! by what standards!! what does that even mean!!!!!

[kiyo-cant-write]

hi hi! jade req again, kinda toxic this time

can we get jade with a reader who’s really easy to manipulate and they know it? idk if it makes sense but like jade realizing reader isn’t oblivious to his manipulation, just kinda self-destructive and hopelessly into him

jade thought he was being slick because reader wasn’t calling him out on anything, but he overhears their conversation and finds out that they’re fully aware jade is a ton of red flags but is still staying anyway, and his reaction to that

i really hope this makes sense! idk how to word it

jade w/ an easily manipulated reader ✧･ﾟ

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Aw! Thank you for another request! I love Jade and Octavinelle so much! I hope that I did your idea justice. Please let me know if you'd like another request in the future! Onwards to the story! ^^

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Summary: Jade Leech has been stringing [Name] along for fun and due to the instruction of Octavinelle's Housewarden. He thought he was doing well... but it seems [Name] may have had ulterior motives.

TW/CW: Toxicity but the standard Fish Mafia kind

Notes: established "relationship", they/them pronouns for the reader, the reader is Yuu/Ramshackle Prefect, the reader is described as human and younger than Jade/frosh, ADeuce if you squint, implied to be post-Azul OB

Guest Stars: Deuce Spade, Ace Trappola, Grim, Azul Ashengrotto & Floyd Leech (referenced)

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✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:

Jade Leech

As much of a sadist as Jade can be, he's not exceptionally cruel outside of what he deems as the necessity for his purposes.

He is a bit smug when he thinks he has [Name] under control.

Jade is pretending to be "honor student Jade Leech."

He acts as their friend and support albeit for the Lounge.

He pretends to care, to do everything to help them.

He smiles at them, speaks politely, and even "affectionately."

They trust him and they tell him things they shouldn't.

He will use those bits of information when the time comes.

Every time they have an inkling of doubt, he squashes it.

His surprise is evident when Floyd points out that it might not be the case this time, but Floyd is Floyd and doesn't explain.

Wanting to make sense of this discovery, Jade observes [Name].

He watches to see if [Name] really has caught onto him.

Jade is intrigued and what he finds does not disappoint.

He is surprised to find that they caught on long ago.

But they stayed? Why?

Because they "love" him?

Why would they love the guy trying to string them along?

It didn't make sense to him. He felt a tug at his heartstrings.

Did he feel bad about this?

He didn't know what to do.

Jade starts to avoid [Name] after realizing their feelings.

He retracts further into his honor student persona.

[Name] will not win this fight. He will not be bested by a freshman.

The battle has just begun and Jade needs to bury this sinking feeling in his chest. What does it mean anyway?

Floyd serves as a live studio audience to Jade's struggles.

Jade is an observer. That had been his role for so long, that he wasn't sure when it began. Ever since he was young, he would watch and calculate while Floyd was the type to rush into things, be impulsive, and just a tad stupid at times, at least when they were young. Jade never intended to make his observations a skill, but sooner or later, everything becomes an asset.

That's what his father had always said.

His mother worried about the sadistic streak in her son, but she couldn't do anything to prevent its development. Jade was, after all, a member of the Leech family. He and Floyd would join the family business sooner or later unless they wholly refused its offer.

"[Full Name]," Jade mused to himself, "How interesting."

Azul had been the one to ask him to pay extra close attention to Ramshackle's Prefect in case they strayed too far from things, or got into any trouble. The magicless human that had saved others from themselves, they interested the owner of Mostro Lounge. Jade had simply agreed with Azul's request, observation was his skill, after all.

It had never been meant to evolve, and certainly not into this.

Jade watched as this person fell for his polite words hook, line, and sinker. It was almost too easy. They were shockingly trusting, telling him all sorts of things he could use to be downright evil if he wanted to be. It wasn't time for that, not yet, but one should always guard their secrets (perhaps not as much as Azul, but at least a bit).

He didn't need to do anything unless the moment called for it.

At the time, it had not been necessary.

That was weeks ago.

Azul hadn't given further instructions and, to be fair about it, Jade didn't want to earn that octomer's ire. Not today, anyway. He and Floyd were troublesome, yes, but not stupid.

So, as Azul had instructed, he was trailing the Prefect until told otherwise (or until it became boring, whichever arose first). Though their reactions had been predictable, he could argue that things were getting boring now.

Floyd would have given up ages ago, he was sure of it.

[Full Name] was currently spending their time with their classmates, Ace Trappola (easily swayed by competition and bets) and Deuce Spade (note: gullible as a child). Jade had kept an eye on the three of them (and Grim) because of their closeness. It was rather irritating how buddy-buddy they were. He had worked a bit to get [Name] alone those few times they had spoken privately.

Standing away from the trio, Jade listened in on their conversation.

"[Name], I don't think that this is good," Deuce told them, clearly worried for their friend's mental state, "You need to be more careful. Don't you remember what happened to me and Ace?"

"I fucking remember!" Ace chimed in, "It sucked. Don't trust fish."

"Nya! Fish are food, not friends," Grim told them, "Especially eels!"

"Ah... You guys..."

Jade almost wanted to chuckle at Grim's words of "wisdom" but he withheld it, knowing that he mustn't give away his position. Not yet.

"You shouldn't trust Leech-senpai," Deuce continued, "Do you not remember how he and his twin brother acted before?"

"THEY TRIED TO KILL US, [NICKNAME]!!" Ace interrupted Deuce, earning him a glare from the navy-haired boy, "Sorry, Deuce-chan."

"Don't call me that."

What Deuce was doing could only be described as glowering.

"Lighten up and help me convince [Nickname] not to get themselves murdered by a shady eel and a shadier octopus!" Ace told him, slapping Deuce on the shoulder, "Just because they're better doesn't mean they're changed fish! Fish are suspicious!"

"Ace, do you have some fish-related trauma outside of campus that I should know about?" Deuce asked him, "It's starting to seem—"

"FOCUS ON [NICKNAME], DEUCE."

Ace's reddened face was a sign that Deuce was on to something with that fishy nonsense. Jade Leech would remember that fact.

Fish trauma. Noted.

"....Okay," Deuce agreed, turning back to [Name], "Do you want to tell us what you've been doing with Leech-senpai? We're worried..."

Deuce trailed off for a moment before he added a Deuce-typical offer.

"I can fight him if you want me to. They're messing with my friend."

"N-no thanks, Deuce... I don't think I need that," [Name] said, laughing at the antics of her friends and roommate, "Honestly, I know he's not being honest with me... But I don't really... care?"

The words surprised Jade but he refused to give himself away. There was more information to be gathered, for his own needs and Azul's.

They don't mind my dishonesty? Heh...

"I have never been more concerned for you than I am right now," Ace said, tone lacking its usual goofy undertone, "Do you want me to tell Mom and Dad about anything? They would help..."

Ace wasn't sure what to do but this was a worry. So frantic to say his sentence Ace neglected to register his misnomer for Vice Housewarden Trey Clover and everyone's favorite senpai Cater Diamond. He could lay awake and think about that later.

Deuce clearly felt similarly as he reached out to put a hand on [Name]'s. He wasn't good at solving problems of the emotional variety but he could be a support. Or, he would try to be one.

"Even if we can't say anything helpful... We can be here to listen."

"I appreciate it, but I'm fine," [Name] tried to assure them (but it wasn't working), "I just... I like Jade-senpai... and if this is how... he will talk to me... then I am okay with it. I've just been going along with all... that."

Jade felt time stop for a millisecond as he processed the words. They had been "playing along"? They didn't fall for every trick? Perhaps this was more interesting than he had thought. Still. He didn't like being bested, perhaps he needed to up his game...

"[Name], that's not good... I don't think..." Deuce managed.

"I wish Mom and Dad were here..." Ace mumbled.

"[Name], don't leave me for a fish! It's not even tuna!"

Grim clung to his human with small paws, tail swishing.

Jade was baffled not by those that Azul had previously controlled but by [Name] themself. They were something odd amongst the students of Night Raven College. They didn't shy away from his... methods.

But they said they liked him. He wondered if that made him feel something. He wasn't one to like other people, stay around them long... especially these landfolk.

It was a foreign concept.

Oh dear. [Full Name], you've managed to intrigue me now.

To the concern of Deuce, Ace, and Grim, Jade Leech wouldn't be letting his human prey go any time soon. Not for Azul, or his brother... This was something he was pursuing now. For better or worse.

I hope they're prepared to best me once more.

What would they say if I said I "loved" them? ♪

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Imagine the rest for yourself~

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Thank you for reading! Likes and reblogs are appreciated! Do NOT repost my writing/headcanons as your own >:c Check the top of my blog for the inbox status and read the rules before requesting. This is not a twst-only blog! ^^

[applestorms]

quickly putting this thought out there while i work on a longer astronaut ramble cuz i'm impatient and this feels relevant to recent conversations. SO: on the topic of light's humanity...

i think there are two key functions that light (emotionally? instinctively? intellectually?) feels that his sense of self MUST fulfill in order for him to be fully satisfied/comfortable with himself as a person. these are:

light must see himself as human, as that is a key part of what makes him Perfect (and also, Pure?)

light must see himself as something above/outside of/detached from human, as that is what allows him to be absolved of murder (if he's a god/the hand of the state/Justice incarnate, he does not have to be judged according to the same ethical rules as humans)

it is this contradiction that light Must uphold throughout the entire series following his initial two killings with the death note. he cannot allow either side to fully drop away without losing the Light that he sees as intrinsically Core to who he is and who he wants to be.

it could maybe be argued that light slowly starts to do away with point (1) as the series progresses, particularly as he loses himself in the roles of L and KIRA, but i would argue that this is not the case. even in the final confrontation with near, light still talks about himself as a person-- in part, because he believes that he needs that Humility in order to garner the respect and praise of other people. he isn't a monster like higuchi, and he isn't quite a totally normal, average person anymore either, but some level of humanity must be a part of who he is or his origins in order to make his godhood/martyr status that much more grand and righteous.

anyway, another possibly contentious point that i Do feel pretty strongly about here is the fact that light connects his supposed purity/perfection to his human side specifically. observe:

this purity point in his little explanation of who he thinks KIRA is always stands out to me because it's the one point that L disagrees with (though i always forget he just says this internally and not out loud =3=")

point is-- at least at this point in the story, light sees his Youth and Innocence as a part of what makes him Pure and Righteous. he is not so young as to be totally naive about the horrors of the world, but he is not old enough to be completely jaded and pessimistic about it either. he is neither stupid, nor petty about his killings. every action is a conscious choice, well thought out in advance in order to pursue the distinct and singular goal of worldwide salvation.

i can't help but see the parallels in the fact that this is likely how other people viewed light growing up before he got the death note-- intelligent beyond his years, in a way that surpasses even most of the adults around him, but still with the Purity of his youth, perhaps unburdened in a way, optimism not yet eroded. he's still trying to live up to the praise other people pile on him and be recognized by their standards. he has an overwhelming ego, yes-- but in a japanese social context, where humility and honoring your elders is key, where a more collectivist mindset means that an individual must be held up through the acceptance and recognition of others and not their own self-praise, he has more of a nuanced social game to play.

[kokusfluffyhair]

I don't mean any drama by reblogging this, but by saying "you cannot reblog my post and also include other ace's experiences" is also being exclusive. Before jumping at a further reply, please read the rest of what I have to say. In my own personal experiences being asexual, I have had the opposite happen to me -- as in that because I was not repulsed by the topic of sex or imaginative sexual fantasies that I was not asexual. My irl experiences and lack of attraction towards people irl have been invalidated by multiple people just because in the scheme of some fictional characters or "celebrity crushes" that I have engaged in sexual thoughts. I have been told so many times for over a decade now that if I think sexually of anyone that I am not asexual and that I just have to "lower my standards" or to "learn to love a man for his personality and then he'll be attractive physically". I do apologise that because your experiences were not the same that my reblog made your or any sex-repulsed ace feel invalidated or demeaned. I don't know what you experienced, and likewise, even if you might view where I sit on the ace spectrum as the "accepted way to be ace", you don't know my experiences either. When you post something online, everyone has the right to share and communicate with the post. By saying "you can't do this"/"you can't say this" because it feels conflicting to you on what you wrote, you're inherintely limiting conversation, limiting speech, and even outing other members of the queer community.

It has taken years for asexuals to even feel a bit of acceptance in the queer community as a whole, and for all of us, regardless of how we experience our sexual orientation, we have been invalidated and cast out by many. Because we weren't "queer enough" and are just "traumatised", "scared", "immature", etc. This still happens today, and is why there needs to be solidarity in the ace community. Now, you may say that such a thing is why you made the post, because you were told "you aren't asexual" by people who experience this orientation differently. But, how is further segregation of who can/who cannot reblog/comment/discuss/share your post going to lead to greater solidarity, understanding, and acceptance in both the ace and queer communities? By reblogging your post and sharing my own impressions that came, I did not say that your post was wrong. I did not say that you couldn't have the experiences you did. I did not mock your experiences. Instead, reblogs that are civil and promoting sharing are intented to validate everyone's experience and to form community. As much as I don't think that division and silence is the answer, if you don't want me, as someone who does not experience asexuality in the same way as you do to interact, comment, and converse with your posts, please block me, because even if I don't follow you, I might see your content again on my feed.

In honour of ace week, and because I don't hear it enough:

REPULSED ASEXUALS EXISTS AND ARE AS VALID AS OTHERS

IT'S OK TO BE DISGUSTED BY SEX

IT'S OK TO NEVER WANTING TO DO IT

VIRGIN ISNT AN INSULT

YOU DON'T NEED AN EXCUSE TO NOT LIKING OR WANTING IT

SEX ISN'T WHAT MAKES US HUMAN

IT ISN'T VITAL

IT'S NOT SHAMEFUL TO NEVER DO IT

YOU DON'T NEED TO "TRY IT" TO KNOW THAT YOU HATE IT

IT'S NOT CHILDISH TO BE GROSSED OUT BY IT

IT'S FINE IF YOU'RE UNCOMFORTABLE WHEN PEOPLE TALK ABOUT IT

IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT AND PEOPLE SHOULD RESPECT YOUR BOUNDARIES

YOU ARE NOT BROKEN EVEN IF PEOPLE INSIST THAT YOU ARE

FUCK APHOBES AND FUCK PEOPLE WHO MAKE FUN OF PEOPLE WHO HATE SEX

YOU AREN'T ANY LESS VALID

WHEN SOMEONE IS BEING APHOBIC, INSTEAD OF SAYING "BUT SOME ACES DO ENJOY SEX", SAY "IT ISN'T AN ISSUE NOT WANTING IT"

YOU ARE SO VALID IF YOU ARE A REPULSED ACE PLEASE NEVER FORGET THAT!!!!

PEOPLE ARE JUST BEING CREEPS IF THEY INSIST THAT YOU MUST DO IT

IT'S OK IF YOU'RE NOT THE STEREOTYPICAL "ASEXUAL WHO WRITES SMUT AND MAKES SEX JOKES"

IT'S OK SKIPPING UNCOMFORTABLE SCENES IN MOVIES AND SHOWS

IT'S OK TO NEVER DO IT IN YOUR LIFE

THE WHOLE "OLD PERSON WITH CATS" ISNT EVEN AN INSULT CUZ IT SOUNDS DOPE AF NGL

ALSO IT'S OK TO BE MAD WHEN YOU HEAR PEOPLE CLAIMING HOW GOOD SEX IS AND ALL THE "IT'S HEALTHY" BULLSHIT BECAUSE NO YOU'RE NOT GOING TO DIE EARLIER BECAUSE YOU DON'T DO IT

ALSO ITS NOT A SHAMEFUL THING TO NOT DO ANYTHING YOURSELF EITHER

AND ITS ALSO OK IF YOU EVEN STRUGGLE TO SPELL SOME WORDS OUT BECAUSE OF YOUR REPULSION

IF YOU'RE AN ADULT YOU'RE VALID AND YOU DON'T NEED TO DO IT IN ORDER TO BE VALID AS AN ADULT

YOU'RE NOT MISSING OUT ON ANYTHING

YOU ARE QUEER ENOUGH !! YOU DESERVE A PLACE IN THE LGBT COMMUNITY, AND YOUR VOICE DESERVES TO BE HEARD!!

[paragonrobits]

thinking about how a few people pigeonholded Wyll early on as 'standard Goody Hero you wind up ignoring for more interesting companions later' and how this is very much not the case but it takes some attention to notice it

among other things, he's a non-ironic and genuine hero, free of prejudice in a way that is SIGNIFICANT in the setting; tieflings are widely hated and feared, accursed and constantly driven out wherever they go, and Wyll's establishing character moment is him leaping to their defense, holding the line to protect the tiefling refugees and the adventuring group present at the grove, and then training tiefling kids to defend themselves with a heroic encouragment that they are extremely unlikely to have seen at all from non-tieflings, especially a human. this same attitude underscores his character overall, where he never does any kind of self-righteous attitude you might expect; he's surprisingly indifferent for the most part for traveling with a vampire as long as Astarion keeps his appetites in check, and his response to you voluntarily becoming more illithid/embracing the power of the tadpole is 'weird but you do you'

then, there's his dynamic with Karlach

they have a LOT of closeness over the course of the game that can be read as romantic, and they're certainly very close over the course of the game, with Karlach passionately referring to Wyll as her best friend not that much later on (I think I've seen it proc as relatively early as sometime around the grove party, depending on character quest progress?). They are the single most straightforwardly heroic members of the party besides Halsin (who is only actively a party member much later on), work very well as ideal mainstays for a heroic/compassionate playthrough as well as a Dark Urge struggling to keep themself in check, and are exclusive to siding with the tiefling refugees, reinforcing their status as moral exemplars.

More to the point, though, they're linked to each other; Wyll's quest, upon joining, encourages you to beeline it to Karlach, and his story arc VERY HEAVILY leans towards siding with her and accepting the consequences, and this means that they're basically peas in a pod, character-wise (and assuming you're not playing as a melee-focused class yourself, synergize quite well for making a party as their default classes and set ups lean well towards a beatstick and melee/magic hybrid respectively).

this is where Wyll's character design-as-story communication comes in, subverting the assumption of him being a 'boring' character; quite apart from the fact that a POC adventurer is rather atypical, especially one shown as prominently as Wyll, along with the fact that he is a warlock (arguably one of the stereotypically 'evil alignment classes', or at least inherently edgy, ESPECIALLY with Wyll clearly being a Fiend Pact from the get-go) but is nonetheless the single most moral person you meet early on; he's a scarred guy clearly who has been Through It but is nonetheless charming.

Then, in what seems to be his expected character arc, he accepts that Karlach is not a devil at all but a tiefling in a similar situation to him, fully aware that he is going to horribly suffer for it and gritting his teeth anyway. This leads to him being transformed into a devil himself (or referred to as such); his face warped with massive horns, scale-like protrusions all over, his remaining eye turned bright red. He explicitly cannot hide this transformation, as they are all far too obvious, and even in the weird world of Faerun he sticks out with many characters who knew him before are outright aghast to see what has become of him.

Wyll looks like a devil; one of the iconic and most horrific monsters in the setting, and he is cursed like that specifically as a punishment for doing the right thing; his cursed appearance is an indicator of how moral and righteous he genuinely is, a scar he suffered to do the right thing. It highlights his morality, and if you came in expecting him to be a pretty standard hero, its hard to say how it gets more of a swerve from that than 'a cursed hero doomed to look like a devil as punishment for doing the right thing'

[squid-ichorous]

i have to take solace in the fact that fashion is fucked up for everyone because the idea of buying a garment online w/o exact measurements and a size chart is fr crazy-making and the idea that people just do that is even more so

[delphiniumarchangelmoon]

It’s like 2 am but when I have proper time I’m going to write up a list of how I, if I were god, wound distribute the pronouns and how it would fall apart

And I’m not going easy on them I’m gonna make someone die from mispronouncing a pronoun with ambiguous spelling because I’m a cruel and unjust god who hyperfixated on pronouns like a year ago and has never had a chance to do anything with it

The ideas I got quickly from reading the post:

-the spanners all managed to get ‘she’ as one of their sets which is why Mumbo decided that was what he’d base his asshole behavior on this time BUT it’s the ONLY set Grian got, and Grian is the only person who only got one set and is now pouting about it (“GOD HATES ME” “why does this indicate god hates you Grian?” “I DONT KNOW BUT WHY IS IT JUST ME??? THAT HAS TO MEAN SOMETHING!”)

(it means you’re funny when you complain Grian. Also you keep referring to yourself as a girl like there’s a six minute compilation of it and it’s not even up to date the most recent one was literally a month ago in Joel’s castle raid video bestie at some point you have to ask: am I the problem?)

-Pearl managed to kill herself by tongue-twisting her way into saying a sentence out of order and accidentally said the word “cobblestone” in the section of the sentence that should have been a pronoun and YES, the game counted it.

- Gem just decides to go the route of minimal communication and only says short phrases to get by. This ends up in few very silly exchanges where people instinctively match her energy and conversations go like “teammate?” “Not here” “where?” “Get food. Five minutes ago.” “Thanks.”

-BDubs gets Mirror pronouns which kills at least three people before they figure out what it means

-Jimmy doesn’t die at all Jimmy gets out of the situation completely fine actually, never messes up and acts completely normal all session (physically. Mentally? Oh god Jimmy is struggling. I’m sorry but someone had to have an identity crisis here and you’re my blorbo which means I torture you most 🩵)

-someone, I dont know who yet, but somebody is getting all non-standard pronouns. Just some obscure bullshit. I’ll pull out some real heavy hitters. Just to be a living inconvenience. Scott or BigB probably cause Scott likes being annoying and BigB likes being weird

the next wildcard everyone gets their genders randomly changed to something and if you use the wrong pronouns corresponding to someone else's random gender you die. no one knows what their pronouns are.

[aesops-boy]

TERFs: “We refuse to let women be solely defined by conventional beauty standards! She doesn’t need your opinion on her body or abilities to be a woman!”

Also TERFs, the second a tall, buff woman is good at something: “That’s a MAN! How dare a MAN pretend to be a woman and INVADE our spaces!”

[triglycercule]

What do you think the types of drunk would the murder trio be? Im pretty sure ask dusttale already answered this question about dust but i have to ask the mtt expert

see now askdusttale DID answer the question. but they didn't ANSWER the question when asked what dust is like drunk. they just said that dust is the type to drink himself blackout drunk. so that mean i have total freedom on deciding what the mtt are like drunk hehehe (rubs hands together in a villanous way that you would imagine nightmare doing or something idk)

i already have an absolutely hilarious idea for horror and it might just because i'm on the guilt section of his character analysis but i could TOTALLY imagine him being an emotional drunk. like he CRIES. horror sans man known for being incredibly guarded and private with what he feels bawling his eye out. he gets mad he gets sad he does not get happy because horror doesn't have the right to be happy. he is too upset over the fact that he fucking DOOMED all of horrortale because of his selfishness and nothing can stop him from being incredibly vocal about that fact so much so that killer had to tape his mouth shut because he wouldn't stop crying so loud. and then he just silently cries until he passes out from exhaustion. the alcohol has an incredibly strong effect on him because i dont think he would drink regularly plus he definitely hasnt drinken anything in those 7 years of starvation. it hits like a fucking plane crashing into him. or like getting his eye taken out again. either one!

another funny idea i had for killer would be like the alcohol affecting him but he SWEARS that he's still sober. he is very confused when he starts stumbling because wtf he doesnt FEEL drunk??? why is he bumping into walls and tables HELP WHY DOES HE SOUND FUCKING STUPID???? the alcohol is definitely effecting him but he swears he swears he doesn't feel drunk. hes not drunk its just the damn body doing this stupid bullshit!!!! he's still very aware of what's going on and is basically the same as sober but just like. he's wiggly he's wobbly and oh shit he just fell head face first into a tv whoops. he'd also have a high tolerance because just because. he can drink without feeling like shit until he just blacks out mid conversation with someone because his body couldn't take the toll of all the beer or whatever. hilarious idea triglycercule thank you triglycercule i know

dust in the context that we already know that he drinks AND he can fight against the human while like partially drunk.... i feel it would be kinda like a giggly drunk situation. except dust doesn't laugh at anything that's funny he only laughs when someone gets hurt or something. SADISTIC giggly drunk. because i can already imagine a half drunk dust laughing his ass off after killing the human and its a beautiful sight to me.

anyways imagine how it goes when you pair this sadistic giggly drunk with another that wont stop going through the 5 stages of grief and another that keeps on fucking falling over for no reason in his eyes. dream blunt rotation but the blunt is a bottle of vodka. i can already imagine it in my head and its fucking HILARIOUS. horror going on about how he caused the deaths of others and manipulated and tricked papyrus while killer is just trying his best to keep his eyes open because for some reason they won't stop trying to close. he is surprisingly getting frustated. dust has long since lost his voice laughing at this and he's just silent wheezing at everything. also phantom papyrus is only making the laughter worse because he keeps on making rude comments towards horror and killer and only he can hear him and its guffaw inducing. mtt amazing friend group you dont get shit like this anywhere else

[crownedwille]

I've come to the conclusion that loving young royals doesn't mean I can't be critical about it, maybe especially bc I love the show so much I have such strong feelings about it, good and bad and I can love parts of canon and agree with it and appreciate it but I don't have to love it all. I have accepted that it's okay if I don't accept the ending and I don't have to force myself to support it. It's okay to not agree with all of canon and it's okay to not side with all of the creators' intentions/views. Loving a show doesn't mean you have to take everything the writers say on face value and that's the only version that is allowed to exist. Canon isn't everything and fandom is about curating your own experience that makes you happy and not miserable. You don't have to dismiss canon in every aspect and ignore it entirely, that's certainly not what I want but there is a fine line between being canon respectful, allowing some parts to exist and sometimes, yes, you just have to say "fuck canon" and move on for your own sanity and wellbeing

[mantis-lizbian]

...this doesn't seem like quite an accurate characterization of gestalt, from my experience, that pretty much until you mentioned 4e's hybrid rules, i wasn't even entirely sure you were talking about the same ruleset i was thinking of... Unearthed Arcana page 72, yeah?

so, i actually wound up becoming a massive fan of gestalt in the latter days of 3.5e, before i wound up switching over to PF. yes, characters are more powerful, but - unless you really try to minmax - not crazily so. like, yeah, you can do barbarian/rogue to get both rage and sneak attack, but the only thing that's really going to break stuff is if you double up on full casters, so ban that and 3.5e gestalt characters are, for the most part, maybe 1 to 3 levels more powerful than a non-gestalt PF character of the same level? depending on level and combination. of course, more powerful characters is the point of gestalt, so it makes sense that they'd be stronger.

more pressingly, what really confuses me is the way it's suggested that this causes constructing gestalt characters to be markedly more complex than standard. rather than disassembling classes to component parts, it's more like taking two decks of cards and riffle-shuffling them together. a couple of things - the lower BAB, base saves, and HD of the pair - get thrown out, but for the most part, everything else is kept, and in the same order. i wouldn't (unfortunately from experience) present it to a group of new players, but if you've been mucking about with 3.P for a few years and have at least a half-decent idea of the basic gist of each class, it can be a fun way to spice things up.

however, what i really have to point out is how beautifully it marries with E6 and its variants. the lower level cap means that you don't have as much room for multiclassing, so if you want a character who can do more than one thing, gestalt is a good way to inject that flexibility back in. of course, it does make the characters a little more powerful, but with the cap being before classes (especially spellcasters) really pop off into outright superheroics and demigodhood, you wind up with characters who just feel a bit more in the vein of pulpy heroic fantasy that hits a decent middle ground between the relative "grittiness" of standard E6 and the sheer antics of mid- to high-level standard D&D.

if do ever go back to running a 3.5e game for whatever reason, you can practically guarantee it'll be E6 (or E8) gestalt.

Have you written anything about gestalt rules in D&D 3.P? Is that a topic you have thoughts about?

Not yet, but it is on the list.

The gestalt rules are novel because they're the kind of mechanical option you only come up with if you are well and truly cooked in the brain about the game. For those unfamiliar, gestalt rules involved taking core classes, stripping them into formulaic pieces, then letting you put them together piece by piece, in a way that ostensibly made character building easier (no more foraging a dozen splatbooks to find the right synthesis of class/prestige class/feats), but in the process just catastrophically exploded thoes options and therefore the potential power you could have.

As a 3.5 minmaxer I never touched them not because they were bad but because they struck me as so obviously powerful that any DM allowing them would be doing so on the basic idea of 'let's all have a goofy time' and therefore I would be speaking to an entirely hyperspecialised audience.

I should revisit the topic, though, and Hybrid 4e rules, which are closer to what Gestalt aimed to be.

[labyrynth]

ok so your first problem was assuming mdzs is a story where Good People are Rewarded and Bad People are Punished.

your second problem was assuming that MXTX—who goes out of her way to showcase unresolved, tragic, undeserved endings in all of her works—would ever write a story with such a shallow notion of “deserving.”

the only reason wangxian makes it out unscathed is because they’re literally the protagonists. authorial intent and plot armor ensure their happy ending. that’s it.

[sskk-manifesto]

Ep 5!!!

[carcarrot]

do i really want to make individual drinks again

[butchriptide]

genuinely really frustrating that people will like. choose to accept the age mistake made in assassin as canon for deathbringer when it actively contradicts older material. like. sorry idk if this is me being unfair here but genuinely like. why would you think it's intentional when deathbringer is described in main series as maybe a year or two older than glory at most, and can canonically not be any older than 9 due to stated timeline facts in the main series.

like. I get not liking glorybringer, i really do. no ship is for everyone. hell, even if assassin specifically makes you feel weird about it, so be it, to each their own. i can undertsnad that too. and yes, the glorybringer fans who think the age gap are canon are also in the wrong. they're being really gross, i don't think it's necessary to disclaim that, that feels given, but like... that only comes to my point still of like, i really don't understand taking a spin-off as canon over the main series. i don't really understand prioritizing later content as canon as opposed to the main work over spin-off as canon. why should a spin-off take jurisdiction just cuz it's newer? i feel like the older the canon is, the more likely it is the newer stuff will make mistakes. to me, in the case of a contradiction, the main series should be taken to? a spin-off is meant to supplement the main series, so shouldn't it only supplement canon that doesn't contradict?

like also, i get being frustrated it isn't fixed, but also. like. i obviously have not worked with a publisher before, but if I was writing for fucking scholastic books, no matter how well fucking beloved my series was, I don't know if I could risk being like "hey. can you pull my books from shelves and e-stores for me so that I can edit one line?" Like. I really don't think there's any reality in which I can make a corporation agree to that kind of thing, no matter what that one line may fuck up about my main story. like it's not even the only mistake she makes in the winglets. she calls deathbringer a rainwing in the flip book, but we're not hailing that as canon in retrospect, right? I don't know. I think it's unfair to presume that she's choosing not to fix it as opposed to it being an improbable to downright impossible thing to ask of a publisher. like yes tui is an incredibly successful author but i really don't know if we can presume she has that much actual sway on her publisher.

it's just really exhausting as a deathbringer enjoyer to feel like if I want to talk about and enjoy his character, and yes, that includes context given in the assassin winglet once you ignore the timeline error, i feel like I constantlyyy have to be saying "yes I think the timeline error is an error. no i don't think deathbringer is 13." like. every time i bring him up. i'm a riptide fan I'm used to it but also it's sooooo tiring to go into a character tag for a guy i like and be swamped with hatred for him and it's so much worse for deathbringer than riptide because in the deathbringer tag I have to deal with being actively accused of excusing gross shit for liking him instead of people just saying that my blorbo is boring.

[theskeletoninthegarden]

Sorry about the theater of emotions going on my face from across the room. I'm trying to resolve an argument that I made up between two fictional characters.

[bandsanitizer]

nah but why tf they bringing mama to la?