#get sleep folks

[orcinus-the-orca]

Whumptober Day 08: Sleep Deprivation | Isolation chamber | Forced to stay awake | “Leave the lights on”

Guess whaaaat, it's more Parlor Tricks! This was completely incidental, the stroke of luck kicking in for day 7. Just to let you all in on a little secret, I have ideas written for every day of Whumptober prompts save for a few (day 7 being one that didn't have any concrete ideas). This planning of mine is mostly the reason I'm continuing with Whumptober; they're just too good to pass up!

Okay, rambling over. Enjoy!

 Kaito was severely underprepared, and this time there was no pulling out. He really should have seen this coming, should have known that they would do anything if it meant they got what they wanted. His mistake was thinking that it would only be his life at risk. The truth was, the opposite was true.

 The woman with the voice, that horribly gentle voice, had come in and asked the same question. At that point, he had given up answering at all, learning that any answer but the one they wanted earned him a brutal reminder that he was awake; he was alive. His silence wasn’t taken lightly, either. The woman, touching him so gently and promising him it would be so much better if he just cooperated, had to pull away when he responded with a snap of his teeth. She didn’t even the decency to cry out, only snicker as she turned her back on him.

 “Why don’t we leave the lights on,” she said, her voice so very heavy and comforting. “Perhaps a change of perspective will convince you into good behavior.”

 The perspective turned out to be insanity, or at least the cusp of it. Kaito was very aware the risks of sleep deprivation, and he could feel the adverse affects. The room was empty, he knew that for a fact, but he swore he could hear someone shuffling in the corner. There was no evidence, no shadow (yet) but logic was fleeting. He began to question if he was really remembering right or if he had been awake for that long. Maybe if he could rest his eyes–

 BZZT.

 He stutters awake, limbs jerking as his brain struggles to coordinate. The culprit is the collar around his neck. It’s not electrical, it isn’t shocking him into wakefulness, but it does buzz violently when it detects he’s falling asleep. At least, that’s what he assumes. They never told him, had simply slipped it on and walked out.

 He needed an out. If he was having auditory hallucinations, then he was nearing the fourth stage if he wasn’t already there. He tried to recount what all the symptoms were for each stage, if only to gauge where he was at, but he was so tired. If he could just close his eyes for a minute.

 BZZT.

 “I GET IT!” He slammed his head into the wall, regretting it immediately when the room spun faster than before. Why were the lights so bright? Couldn’t they dampen them a little bit so his eyes wouldn’t hurt? Nooo, they had to make him feel sick. Make him feel miserable, as though his whole life weren’t already a train wreck. He lifts his head, still throbbing from the hit, to look at the camera in the corner. “I bet you think this is…this is…” 

 His head hits the floor, followed by the rest of him. He hopes the position won’t trigger the buzzing collar, hopes it’ll leave him alone so he can at least rest his neck. He needs to keep it together, needs to remind himself of reality, but it’s getting so very hard to focus. To think, even. Why is he even here? What is so important that they would torture him like this?

 Because you’re KID. Because you have what they want. Don’t let them have it. Don’t let his death be in vain.

 Wherever the thought comes from, he’s not sure. It’s not his, so he decides it’s probably KID’s. It makes sense, KID is meant to know how to escape these things. It’s him who prides himself in his ability to escape from anything. Maybe he should be here instead, since he’s so good at it. Kaito hasn’t done anything deserving of this.

 I do appreciate your hard work, Kuroba-san. Hold out a little longer, yeah? For Ol’ Pop’s sake.

 BZZT.

 “Do it yourself,” Kaito hisses, fingers pulling at the tightly wound collar. “You good for nothing–“

 What would Pop think?

 “Pops is dead! If he cared so much, he wouldn’t fu–“

 BZZT.

 “I’M AWAKE!”

 It’s not glamorous, I will admit. But you took this responsibility, everyone is counting on you. Even when the lights fade, keep your poker face.

 Never let them know you’ve stumbled.

 Time passes, he hears the door open. He opens his eyes.

 “How are we feeling?” Asks the woman, lips twisted into a wicked smile.

 KID smiles back. “How pleasant it is to see you again, Gila-san.”

[gravedigg]

hi. do you see my vision?

[attleboy]

little doodle to celebrate going into 2024!!! 🎉 idk what's coming but may we make the best of it :D

[muffinlance]

Everyone in house sick, baby awake screaming every half hour last night, brain no good for Serious Face writing, SEND AVATAR WRITING PROMPTS PLZ

k lov you bye

[starflungwaddledee]

did you remember to leave space for all your phantom limbs?

⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☀︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ˚★⋆｡˚ ┊ ┊ ⋆ ┊ ★⋆ ┊ ◦ kirbytober 2024 #03 ★⋆ miracle // phantom // magic

[eugeniedanglars]

new headcanon that the reason colin thinks bumbercatch is the hottest member of the team is entirely because of the welsh flag scarf he knitted back in season 2. the key to colin's heart is just wales

[royalarchivist]

For folks who missed today's QSMP Movie Night or want to rewatch it with the original audio intact, I've uploaded the Movie Night portion of several members' VODs to a public Google Drive. I will keep these files up until Monday, December 4th, so be sure to watch and/or download whatever you need before then!

UPDATE: The lovely folks at @mcyt-archives have added all Movie Night 2 VODs to the QSMP Archivist VOD Masterlist. If you're still having trouble finding an unmuted version of the VOD you want to watch, check out their archive!

[ As a side note: thank you to everyone who left such kind comments & messages on the previous VOD Archival post. You're all so sweet, it made me feel really happy and appreciated :') ]

[dusty-pistol]

This is not that funny, but it IS cuz I'm tired. My processor wouldn't let me rest until I made this. It popped up in my head, and I haven't stopped gigglin about it since

Original:

[god-of-this-new-blog]

“Sorry that it all went down like it did”

[babacontainsmultitudes]

So it was established in the last episode that Taylor still believes in Santa (tbh I wouldn't be surprised if it's come up prior to this ep too but anyways-) so... Do you think (saint) Nicky been has portalling in every year since the betrayal to sneak in a gift for his son amongst the pile? That Cassandra doesn't even notice because it's just one among the many many presents she herself has bought and wrapped? But every year without fail... Taylor gets one gift that simply says "from: Nick" and well, obviously that has to mean it's from Santa (a conclusion which Nicky expects him to come to, and why he can sign his name at all, though he misses when he could just write "dad"). And one year when he's still quite young, a sleepy little Taylor actually catches Nicky in the act, and Nicky wishes more than anything that he could just *stay*, but instead he only softly tells Taylor to go back to bed, and Taylor thinks that Santa is a lot younger and a bit sadder than he expected, but what's he gonna do- not listen to Santa Claus? So he smiles meekly at the man he does not know to be his father, and hurriedly heads back to his room.

Also yes of course Nicky eats the fucking cookies left out of course he's not gonna pass up on free cookies (which are home-baked to top it off) come on that's a given.

[bunabi]

Since I couldn't sleep I thought it might be nice to catch up on what folks had to say about the combat showcase 😭 big mistake

Many justified observations of DAV, but the fact it was formerly live service is too absent from these conversations

Yeah it has a distinct multiplayer feel...wonder what thats about....must've been the wind

[babyaiker]

It’s 3:30am but I have another rant idea. As a writer myself, when I go into fiction I tend to ask why a lot. Like, what importance does this scene have, why did this event happen and how did it affect the characters. Writing isn’t real life, and every event HAS purpose, and that to me is fun to analyze ^^

So anyway

Overthinking the purpose of the different character deaths in Red Dead Redemption 2

I know I’ve talked about spoilers a fair bit without warning, but I’m not holding any punches, so

SPOILER WARNING!!

Get ready for a long rant folks, and apologies for any spelling errors I missed,

First and foremost, rdr2 is a prequel. But more importantly, rdr2 is a prequel that depicts the explicit fall of the Van Der Linde Gang. Every death serves to cement that fact, as the game strategically will take out certain characters to both break down the gang’s stability, and the players emotions.

The first thing the game does to permanently shift the tone is to kill the comic relief characters. Both Sean and Kieran, while both complex in their own rights, serve specific, almost “gimmicky” roles in the gang (funny Irishman and whipping boy). These more comical purposes unfortunately don’t fit the game’s tone in the later chapters. And while I could go on about how interesting it would have been to see these two characters dramatically change over the course of the later chapters, their deaths are what the writers used to establish the beginning of the end.

The next duo the writing team had to take out of course had to be the smart, leveled headed characters, back to back no less. While Sean and Kieran’s deaths served to change the tone for the player, Hosea and Lenny’s deaths are what changed the tone for the gang. There’s a reason the fandom jokes that if Hosea had lived, he wouldn’t have let what happened happen. Both of these characters in their own right served as important emotional pillars for the gang, especially Dutch and Arthur. They were both rational and incredibly resourceful, two traits that made them a liability to the destined fate of the gang.

Hosea’s death also now introduces us to the section where a lot of characters die because they narratively HAVE TO. Like I said, rdr2 is a prequel, and you don’t want any loose ends popping up in rdr1 cause a character was introduced and not properly wrapped up. Lenny Kieran and Sean, while had their own purposes behind their deaths, didn’t have to die BECAUSE the story was a prequel. It’s easy to rationalize that if they had lived, their lives wouldn’t have affected the plot of rdr1. Hosea however, due to his personal connection to Dutch, HAD to die. He would have absolutely been brought up in rdr1 had he survived, as he was that important to Dutch and the gang.

That goes the same for Molly and Grimshaw. Both of these characters in my opinion would have been loose ends in the first game had they survived. Their deaths did serve other purposes though,

Molly for one served as both the gang and the audience’s sign that things were never going to be ok again. She’s the first death to happen within camp by the hands of another camp member, foreshadowing at its finest.

As for Grimshaw, standing as the last gang member in camp to stand by Arthur and John, had her fate sealed the moment she lifted her gun. By now the tone and the stakes were set, everything was falling apart, and nothing can save it. Grimshaw’s death doesn’t serve to set a tone or change anything for the characters, she’s just a victim of the gang’s fall, getting shot like a dog as reward for her years of loyalty.

And of course, we now get to Arthur,

For those who played the first game, it’s safe to imagine that when going into the next game, there’s a lingering feeling that Arthur isn’t going to make it out of this. The pinnacle of rdr2 tying its loose ends if you will.

And yet you bond with Arthur. You experience the world with him, meet new people with him, you bond with the gang and your family with him. You bathe him, you feed him, you make sure he’s rested, you make him do chores, you do little errands for others with him. You watch him grow scared and doubtful, you watch his eyes grow red, his skin go pale, his cough worsen. And because of the nature of a prequel, you know this can only end one way.

Sure, maybe the writers could write him out quietly, make it so that John would have no reason to ever mention his brother. But untouched grief works well too to keep a man quiet about his loved ones.

Despite everything, despite most players knowing Arthur doesn’t get to stick around, to live a long life, to get out of this ok, we still fall in love with him, and become completely undone at the end of the game.

And Micah’s death in the epilogue, of course, just feels good. It ties up a loose end for the first game, and it gives the player all the freedom in the world to pump his ass full of lead. It’s your reward for 40 hours of cowgirl simulator hell.

And also shout out to Strauss for not ratting despite getting kicked out and tortured, secret og right there,,

—————

Alright it’s now 5am as I finished writing this, but I have 3 more deaths I wanna quickly comment on. Davey, Jenny, and Mac, right?

Due to how sparely these three are mention outside of how they mildly affected other characters, I view their deaths as essentially worldbuilding. Characters WILL die in unfortunate and unfair ways, especially if it involves the Pinkertons. Characters don’t always get to go out with a bang, you are not immune to succumbing to the elements in this game, nor are you immune to the consequences of your actions.

—————

But of course, you can write a story however you want. I can see myself being easily convinced that any of these deaths weren’t required, as it’s all really just up to how well you can write it. I wholeheartedly think that the story could’ve been benefited by the presence of Sean and or Kieran for one. Whether it be watching Sean breakdown over the stress of the gang falling apart, or watching Kieran finally become a trusted member of the gang and break out of his shell more. And hell, I think there’s something interesting in the idea that Hosea survives, but is unable to help quell Dutch’s paranoia anymore.

There’s room to argue that each death wasn’t required, but in the end, they did die, and there were good reasons behind it. Yes, even as a fan who regularly forgets Kieran died due to the amount of “he lived” AU’s bouncing around in their head, his death was cool as fuck, and both thematically and narratively made sense. It’s beautifully tragic and deeply depressing, and the religious themes only make it that more interesting. Saw him pop up in a Twitter thread of “most graphic video game deaths” and felt genuine pride-

[destinywillowleaf]

one of a kind living in a world gone plastic

baby you're so classic

@most-tragic-character-tournament

(all my thoughts in the tags)

[jurdanhell]

if

“...and though the bed is small, cardan cannot mind when he takes jude in his arms” —htkoelths

the. that means jude is the little spoon :,)

[sparring-spirals]

narrative telephone BACK??????

[non-un-topo]

All it takes is a wee little nightmare to make you too scared to step foot outside for fear of Bad Things happening, like it’s an omen lol