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fromdeathtomorning · 2 days ago

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♡ REVERSE AU

♡ SYNOPSIS. What if you were the otome game character in the game they were playing instead?

♡ FEATURING. Lucifer, Mammon, Leviathan, Satan, Asmodeus, Beelzebub, Belphegor

♡ CONTENT. nsfw (levi, asmo), slight yandere,

♡ A/NOTE. I love, love these sorts of aus! Best believe you'll see a lot of 'em from me

♡ LUCIFER

♡ He's the second-to-last person who becomes aware of the game and, by extension, his brothers' growing obsession with one of the characters. Really, when it was just Leviathan who liked it, that was nothing strange. Even when Asmodeus joined on the wagon, nothing out of the ordinary. He'd easily been taken with characters who served "cunt"

♡ But suddenly, it's all of them? He's a little curious, he must admit. It surely can't hurt just to see what all the fuss is about...

♡ He isn't prepared for how much he grows to enjoy your presence. He finds it's pathetic at first. To be so desperate for a fictional being? He has stooped for too low. He puts the game aside for months, refusing to think about it.

♡ He only picks it back up when his brothers' start discussing the new wedding event, and wedding outfits, and how much they needed them. Mammon even going as far as to request money just to buy the thing.

♡ He refuses. But in the dark corner of his room, he'll pick it back up. He won't even let a living soul discover that he enjoys the game; always pretending he has no clue what anyone is on about when they discuss the game. But he does. Honestly, out of all the brothers he's the one who has most of your stuff unlocked. He has the whole collection.

♡ Not through effort; the game is likely only running on his funds with how much money he sends. He's a very busy demon, and he doesn't have the time to grind the way his brothers do. But he does have the money to out-win them.

♡ You're very well taken care of on his account. He discards all the others completely. Really, you're the only reason he still has that stupid game. He is not shy of spending money, and he has nothing of any other character and everything of you. The only thing he won't buy is live merchandise.

♡ A shame, he thinks. But it's too big a risk to do so, so he's content keeping you all to himself as a little secret.

♡ MAMMON

♡ He's... actually, not one who enjoys otome games much. Correction: He's not much of a gamer at all.

♡ How did he even get involved with this game? Well, no one knows, but one this is for certain: he is involved. Really, he dedicates a lot of time, money, and effort. Really, you're just too cute! How he would love having his very own live human to cozy up with.

♡ He's never disliked humans, but the new game has him growing strangely fond. He thinks that maybe he understands Lilith a little bit better now.

♡ While he's not as much of a dedicated collector as certain other people are; he does have the highest level of intimacy! Even though he's the avatar of greed, he's more greedy for the attention. He spends all his funds on gifts and such, and is the first person who reaches highest level of intimacy. It makes his brothers very jealous.

♡ He's super smug about it, too. He's not afraid to flaunt it. The way your character flushes on screen, the way he's allowed to touch you places the others can't without losing intimacy points? It's to die for! He's all sorts of gooey on the inside just thinking of it.

♡ Of course, when any of his brothers manage to get you up to final intimacy, he's throwing a hissy fit. He'd worked for this, not them! He really wishes you were real, so he could whisk you to his room and never let anyone else ever lay eyes on you.

♡ LEVIATHAN

♡ He thinks that he's the original, the first one to have liked you, and that makes him special. He's wrong, weirdly enough, and well, he doesn't take that kindly when he finds that out.

♡ He's your number one fan! He sings your praises; he has all your merchandise and all your collective items. He even leaves behind his beloved Ruri-chan, that's how much he likes you! Seriously, your face is plastered across his walls and every corner of his room. It's... kind of creepy.

♡ But that's okay! You'll like him anyway, won't you? You even told him so, face all flushed! He's livid when he realizes Mammon, of all people, has higher intimacy than he does and immediately starts grinding.

♡ He's too obsessed with you for his own good. He hates that his brothers like you, too. You're meant to be his! His player two! His companion! He's gotten into physical fights over you with his brothers on several occasions.

♡ It's made him be a bit more closed off. He used to run fan accounts and argue, trying to spread your fame but he doesn't anymore. He wants you for himself. Wants you to be real. Wants to touch you, feel you, do absolutely sinful things to you, but you'd forgive him right?

♡ He can't stand the thought of sharing you. In the quiet of the night, alone in his room, he'll pull up videos that are fake as he strokes his cock; precum pearling from his slit as he whimpers alongside some animated video of you. God, he wants to touch you, taste you, and wants you to be real so bad, the things he could do. The things he would do.

♡ SATAN

♡ He's likely one of the most respectable of your fans.

♡ He likes you, a lot. Has even attempted at finding ways to make you real on various occasions, but has had little success. None of his books have any sort of magic for that. It's upsetting, and yeah, he's had a few outbursts but overall it hasn't been that bad.

♡ He's bought a few of your merchandise, collected all the collectives he's liked or imagined you'd like. He has maxed his intimacy. He's left waiting as patiently as he can for more content. He doesn't give the other characters any attention; all his funds go to giving you gifts.

♡ He imagines all the ways he could treat you if he was just given the chance. He'd be a great lover, he's sure of it. He buys flowers and foods and other things from the game shop to gift you and wishes he could do the same in real life.

♡ He's even taken up drawing; sketches of you littering every page of his school books or sketch books he's recently started buying. He's taken up studying topics you mention fondly on the side. Has started learning to make your favorite food items in the game.

♡ He's convinced that he's the best choice. Convinced that out of all his brothers, he could make you choose him, were you real. Now, he just needs to figure out how to successfully make you real.

♡ ASMODEUS

♡ Asmodeus doesn't care much for the actual game, he just likes you.

♡ He discovers your aesthetic through Leviathan, who has all of your merchandise, and grows fond. He's played a little, but honestly? He'd much rather go out and fuck someone who looks like you than sit over a screen with you.

♡ But don't get him wrong! He's still your fan.

♡ He has boosted not just yours but the game and its company popularity immensely. He's done various themed outfits and events after you, and posts about you on his socials. He's even started fan accounts where he edits you!

♡ He even manages to score the game devs a deal where a whole series of clothes and make-up are inspired. It's been a huge opportunity for them, and Asmodeus is just happy that he has your whole collection for free.

♡ While he doesn't play, he does have all your merchandise, too. He's managed to charm people who have certain limited items. He has it all and a cute little alter where he collects stuff he bets you'll like in his room.

♡ Honestly, he's probably considered as your biggest fan by the majority of the Devildom, even if his brothers would argue about that.

♡ BEELZEBUB

♡ Much like Satan, he's probably one of the most respectable of your fans.

♡ He mostly just starts playing on Belphie's account, where he's helped his twin grind for your things and boost your intimacy points.

♡ He only downloads the game on his own after that. And while he isn't as fanatic as the rest of his brothers, you bet he takes good care of you. He makes sure to feed you every day during the major meals, even though you technically don't need to eat.

♡ He likes imagining that the two of you are eating together. Meals are always way better when he isn't alone.

♡ BELPHEGOR

♡ Strangely enough, he's actually the first one who discovers the game! All locked up on his own in an attic, with no contact at all... Well, it does get pretty lonely. And it's easy to turn to the comfort of imagined people who would certainly treat him better than his brother.

♡ He just... doesn't expect to grow so attached.

♡ Really, he shouldn't like you this much! But... oh, oh, he really does. It's almost addictive. And he doesn't actually have anything else to do with all this free time, so he's capable of grinding a lot. Really, his brothers would be proud over how productive he's being!

♡ Except... When he does get out of the attic, and suddenly he's not the only person who likes you anymore? It's so unfair! He liked you first! The rest of his brothers seem like they're mocking him. He'd only shown Beel!

♡ To say he's angry with his brother's for "stealing" you from him is an understatement. He has —more than once— thrown an absolute fit because he hasn't gotten his way. He treats you better than the rest of them anyway.

♡ You like him more, right? I mean, don't you see how much effort he's putting in for you? Getting all your costumes, endings, and events! All of it! That's a huge achievement coming from the literal embodiment of not putting an effort in.

♡ Well, fine, he can share. He knows how to play nice! Just... don't like them more than you do him, okay? Oh wait...

♡ While he downloaded the game, and you by extension to fight his loneliness he's never felt lonelier than when he has to think about the fact that you don't like him. That you'll never even know he exists.

♡ But it's better than being surrounded by the assholes who refuse to even listen to him.

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falmerbrook · 9 hours ago

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Theories for What Darien is

Some folks seem content with "vessel of Meridia" as an answer to "what's Darien's deal" but I'm not, and I think at some point we'll get more answers, so here's a collection of some theories+clues I've thought of or seen others suggest in the meantime.

A Demiprince

A Demiprince is "the Daedric offspring of a Daedric Prince or Daedra Lord and a lesser entity such as a mortal". They aren't really a thing this series puts a lot of focus on (and I like that, personally. We have enough focus on daedra already) but having a focus on a major character being one could be a good opportunity to flesh the concept out perhaps. From what we do know, though, the relationship between Prince and Demiprince seems less like that of a literal parent and child and more like the Prince provides some part of themselves or their power/essence/realm to create a new being with part of the essence of a lesser being. When that other entity is a mortal, I suppose that would just be the other parent. Basically under this theory Darien's father (as a reminder, a character we have met and interacted with in-game) was probably a Meridia cultist, or otherwise connected with her and for whatever reason agreed to make and raise Darien. He probably grew up from a child if this is the case.

Meridia wasn't a part of the Coldharbour Compact, but maybe for whatever reason she felt she needed a mortal with loyalty and a connection to her, as well as a sample of her power to do her bidding on Nirn, and thought a Demiprince would be the best way to go about it? Regardless of motivation, I think it would set up a very interesting relationship or dynamic between Darien and Meridia if they ever return if it turns out she's basically his mom.

Evidence:

Darien mentions that he never met his mother when you talk to him on Summerset. It seems like something pretty specific to bring up unless it had some sort of relevance (although the rest of this dialogue is going to be more relevant to later theories)

He also seems to be under the impression that he has always had whatever power/abilities he has related to Meridia in him his whole life (now, how long that life is depends on the theory).

(me too, Darien)

When he mentions that he had dreamed of the assault on Coldharbour and the light of Meridia before, he says that he's been having these dreams since he was young, implying that 1) he had a childhood (that's relevant I swear) and 2) his connection to Meridia and purpose as her Champion has been present since he was young. In his journal you can find in Camlorn, however, he says he's been having dreams predicting the Planemeld "since winter", implying they are a more recent thing. Perhaps his dreams have just gotten more specific or frequent as he got older?

---

Something of otherwise daedric origin that Meridia plops on Nirn when she needs something done

Basically, my thought with this one is that "Darien" has been Meridia's vessel (whatever that entails) for a long time, that she sends down to Nirn/Mundus whenever she wants to more covertly get something taken care of. For an example, in the context of the Planemeld, a certain amount of time before it started (I'm thinking, say, months) he appeared in Camlorn as a full adult, with him and the people around him having false memories of his past. Perhaps his "dad" is in on it, or perhaps he's just a random guy who has now been assigned an adult son by a god. Once he had fulfilled the task she set out for him, in this case helping to thwart Molag Bal, she would bring him back into the Colored Room for the next time she needed him (in this case, the conflict with the Dark Triad). In this case, he isn't a mortal, he just appears as one and is under the impression he is one. Usually, his memory is reset when he returns to the Colored Rooms, but, according to Meridia something changed in his interactions with the Vestige...

This one certainly has it's own holes in how it actually works, but it's a start.

Evidence:

The biggest evidence for this theory comes from the player's conversation with Meridia during the Summerset main quest.

She claims that he only believes himself to be Darien, and that he is really something else. (also she calls him "it") As well, she also says she sends him to Mundus to execute her will, implying this is not only his purpose, but also that she's done this before.

Additionally, she directly says that something about her intended purpose for him has been altered since he met you (and she specifically cites the Vestige as the problem). Perhaps he was meant to forget about his bonds and life from before he was returned to the Colored Rooms, but something about this time made it so he didn't and now he's invested in that past life.

The way he keeps returning to the Colored Rooms when he "dies" (his first time having not been within the protective shield Meridia set up, the second time being when he sacrificed himself to restore Dawnbreaker) is reminiscent of the way daedra are returned and reformed in their home realms when they are killed elsewhere. Daedra aren't actually "killed" when they die, they are instead just returned to the plane of Oblivion they originate from. Perhaps that is what's going on with him.

(source)

Finally, I mentioned earlier that in his journal, he claims he's only been having his dreams of the Planemeld and Meridia for probably a few months at most. Perhaps that's how long he's actually been on Nirn?

We saw earlier that he also mentions that his childhood was a blur. Maybe that's because he didn't actually have one.

---

A(nother) Vestige™

(or just generally, originally a normal Breton dude, turned into something daedric)

So, from my understanding, a vestige (lowercase v) is basically the daedric version of a soul. Daedra do not have souls in the way mortals do. Instead they have vestiges that are basically the essence of a daedra that its form/body is created around. This is a bit different than what The Vestige (uppercase V) is. When mortal souls are sacrificed to Molag Bal, the soul is replaced by a vestige in Coldharbour, turning the mortal into a Soul Shriven who is compelled/forced to serve as a slave in Coldharbour for eternity since they cannot die permanently (similar to daedra). The bodies of Soul Shriven are weak and decay over time, but rarely, such as with The Vestige, some other Aunic (which I think means relating to Mundus) aspect allows them to maintain their former body, while still have the ability to reform after death like a daedra. (all of this is taken from this book, so if I got it wrong let it know)

With that out of the way, this theory is basically that Darien is like The Vestige, but for Meridia instead of Molag Bal. Alternatively (and more simply) it could be that he was originally born a normal mortal, but at some point had some part of Meridia's power/essence imbued in him to become what he is now (the Ambitions had this sorta thing going on for another example of it).

There isn't really any evidence for this theory that makes it more likely than the others. As a matter of fact I think it's weaker than the previous two. However, it would be thematically interesting to have him parallel with The Vestige, and it would make this line A+ foreshadowing:

---

Other random tidbits I found interesting but don't really apply to any one theory

In his final words to the Vestige in the books he leaves us after the Summerset main quest, he rather definitively says that Meridia is responsible for bringing him into existence. So at the very least she has something to do with his existence. This could apply to any of the theories I've already put forward, but mostly the first two.

His powers or whatever essence of Meridia that he has is implied to be finite. He initially seemed to think that he was transferring the rest of what he had into Dawnbreaker when he sacrificed himself at the end of Summerset, but in his final words it seems more like it took away a part of it, and each time he does something like that or "dies" he loses a bit (and that when he loses all of it he will actually die :( )

Nocturnal seems to recognize him as "Meridia's vessel". This is right after he mentions using Dawnbreaker so the Meridia connection is obvious, but the same use of the word "vessel" makes this seem like a thing the other Princes understand or already know about unquestioningly. Maybe it's a Daedric Prince thing, maybe it indicates Meridia has had this "vessel" in whatever form for awhile.

His dad is definitely a guy that exists given Lady Arabelle mentions having worked with him at some point at least 16 years prior to the events of the game. Make of that what you will for however he fits into all this.

Not really related to what his deal is at all, but still a interesting part I forgot about: Darien and Sotha Sil have had a conversation. I very much wish I was a fly on the wall during that. Maybe Sil could recognize more about what was going on with Darien than we could.

#eso #elder scrols online #darien gautier #wrote most of this at the beginning of this year and it has been sitting in my drafts #but i figure i should post it sooner rather than later in case they ever bring him back lol #mine

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theconstitutionisgayculture · 8 hours ago

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Yeah I'm gonna talk about the Andor rape scene.

First, disclaimer, I don't watch Andor, or any Disney Star Wars show. I did watch Rogue One, and it's probably the best thing Disney Star Wars ever did, which isn't saying much. So if you want to dismiss what I'm saying because I didn't see the scene and don't have the "context" or whatever, go fuck yourself because the only context I need is that there's now a rape scene in Star Wars.

Which is bad. It's stupid and retarded and it changes Star Wars forever for the worse. Star Wars isn't Game of Thrones. It isn't a dark, gritty, realistic portrayal of war and tyranny. It's a space opera, and while some space operas do "go there" with regards to rape and graphic content, it's not required, nor is it the norm. Star Wars was one of the space operas that didn't go there. It never needed to. You understood that the Empire was evil because Darth Vader was torturing people and they blew up an entire planet. The empire were the bad guys and the good guys were defined by standing up to the Empire. And even with that simplistic concept, the movies were still good. No one went to see Star Wars and thought "well, Vietnam just happened so I don't really think I can believe this portrayal of war unless some villages get napalmed and some women get raped". They said "oh wow Luke Skywalker is awesome he blew up the Death Star!" or "laser swords? Awesome!"

The idea that everything needs to reflect reality is such a braindead concept, but I'm not surprised that's the defense the showrunner is going with. Everyone involved with Disney Star Wars at every level has shown that they don't understand Star Wars at all. Not from a storytelling or character standpoint, or a meta, cultural standpoint either. "It's for kids" is never an excuse for bad or lazy writing, but it is a reason why explicit scenes aren't included. For decades, the most explicitly violent thing in Star Wars was Ponda Baba's arm getting cut off in the Mos Eisley cantina. That happened within the first half of the first movie, and the series never felt the need to try and top that because explicit content was never the point of Star Wars. It never needed to resort to cheap emotional ploys to get you to feel for the characters. Which brings me to my next point:

Aside from stories about rape, rape is never necessary in fiction. In fact, I say 95% of the time it's a crutch bad writers use because that's the only way they know to evoke a visceral emotional reaction. It's lazy and uninspired. It lowers the quality of whatever it's in. If you can't get someone to hate your villain without making them a rapist, then you're a bad writer. But this rape scene in particular is actually damaging to the original trilogy (as so much of Disney Star Wars is). Because the explanation is that you can't have a story about war and resistance without rape. Which means that the Empire is now known to have rapists in its ranks. Andor takes place in the same timeframe as the OT, which means that the same Empire that tried to rape that woman is the same empire that had Princess Leia captive on the Death Star for at least a few days. Do you see where I'm going with this? If your assertion is that rape must exist in the Empire to portray war and resistance accurately, then Princess Leia had to have been raped while in captivity, because the same Empire that captured this woman also captured her. But that never happened. We know that never happened because it was never so much as hinted at. She was tortured for information, but she was never raped. No female captive in the entire Star Wars saga, both the real Lucas stories and the fake Disney "canon", was ever raped. So by the directors own reasoning, the only Star Wars property to ever portray a realistic (where "realistic" is seen as good and "unrealistic" is seen as bad) version or war is season 2 of Andor. Which is massively insulting to every other Star Wars movie and show ever made. Even The Acolyte, which is objective trash, doesn't deserve to be implicitly slighted because it didn't depict rape. Star Wars is not about reflecting reality. It's about the fight between good vs evil. It's about family and belonging and standing up for what's right. Universal concepts that anyone can understand even if it's nothing like what you read about in the news everyday. And that's what it should always be.

Goddamn I hate that Star Wars is being ruined like this. I hate it so much.

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ammoknightsofficial · 8 hours ago

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Translating the Dev's Headcanon Spread for Kyle's Family

Alright, so, I've gotten my hands on the Monster Hunter Stories 2 Art Book! That means it's time to translate This Image, piece by piece! The text on this is quite small, and the halftones can interfere with legibility at times, but I managed, for the most part. I'll be including notes for each section, particularly anything that may seem like an odd or interesting choice, for Maximum Transparency!

Everything's Under the Cut!! Have fun!

母：優しく穏やかな女性 // The Mother of The Family. A Loving, Gentle, and Quiet Woman.

I've chosen to write this in full sentences, rather than the original format, since that feels easier to communicate. You may notice that "Gentle" is both Green and Blue, and that's because 優しく and 穏やかな both communicate a kind of Gentleness, with 優しく being more like "Tender" and 穏やかな being more like "Calm".

カイルがまだ幼い頃に病にかかりこの世を去ってしまう // She Fell Ill when Kyle was Very Young. She never Recovered, and Passed Away when he was still just a Child.

Before I Get Into Translation Notes - I Have Some Thoughts.

I'm going to be fully transparent - this part is one of the main reasons I got the book. I had my suspicions that she was terminally ill and died when he was young, but I didn't want to make any absolute statements until I could properly translate this passage. I had basically no doubts about it, though - this particular scene here is absolutely striking, and communicates what's going on extremely well even if you can't read it. Kyle's too young to understand what's going on. He thinks a flower will make her feel better. Meanwhile, you have the second youngest brother that's just barely old enough to know, and in that horrible point where he understands what's happening, but doesn't know what to do or how to handle it. Then there's the middle child, with enough emotional intelligence to know that comforting the second youngest and not dissuading Kyle's - the youngest of them all - attempts to help is the absolute best course of action here, to keep everyone strong while their mother (tries, and fails to) fight(s) her Terminal Illness. It's really amazing character work, all in one simple image.

This explains a lot about Kyle's actions during the course of the story. It's kind of difficult for a lot of people to understand why he reacts the way he does to his father getting injured, but with the context that he watched his mom die of a Terminal Illness when he was practically just a baby, and was powerless to do anything about it... It really makes sense, doesn't it? On a personal level, I mean. It also puts this post-game line into some new perspective...

"I'm not putting on a brave face" is such particular wording, and such a particular reassurance to give. He's had to before, and the way he's saying this almost implies - to me, at least - that maybe the player character is intended to, perhaps, know about that bit of history. That's all Speculation, though - I just find it an incredibly interesting string of implications.

As for Translation Notes...

The main thing that may seem out of place is the fact that "She never Recovered" is in both Red and Green. That's actually nothing special, it's just the fact that her illness and her death are being linked together in this passage. She died because of her illness - not because she got, I don't know, eaten by a dragon or something later, in some odd unrelated event. She was Terminally Ill, emphasis on Terminal.

カイル家族イメージ　―　作中には出てこない設定イマージです // Headcanons about Kyle's Family - These are Characters + Character-Establishing Headcanons that Do Not Appear in the Story.

Apologies for putting the Document Title all the way down here. I wanted to talk about Kyle's mom first, lol. I've already explained my reasoning for translating イメージ as Headcanon. I don't think anything else is all that noteworthy.

A Chart Depicting the Developers' Ideas for What the (Living Members of the) Family Looks Like. In Birth Order, we have...

長男：真面目・優等生　―　23年

First-Born: Serious + An Honor Student - 23 Y.O.

次男：自信家・明るい　―　21年

Second-Born: Self-Confident + Cheerful - 21 Y.O.

三男：優しい・賢い　―　18年

Third-Born: Kind + Wise - 18 Y.O.

四男：勝気・負けず嫌い　―　16年

Fourth-Born: Determined + Hates Losing - 16 Y.O.

Me, personally, I think the birth order sounds right, but I'm not a huge fan of how young everyone is. The Fourth-Born looks 19-21 to me, the Third-Born looks in their mid-20s, so on and so forth. But that's partially just the fact that I, myself, am currently in my 20s, and generally really prefer writing + drawing adults. Straight up, I clocked Kyle as being at least 18 when I was doing my playthrough of the game, but this image seems to imply he's about 15. Extremely weird thought to me. I will personally continue writing him as an adult, and his siblings as generally way older than the Devs are estimating. That has no bearing on this piece of Dubious-Canon, however, just something I wanted to mention as a bit of an oddity to me.

Also, the second Kanji in the Birth Orders actually specifies that they're all sons (男), but I'm using the Gender Neutral forms of the Birth Order terms just because I find that more comfortable and less clunky, personally. No other reason.

And, no, I don't really know what that bit of handwriting next to the Third-Born's head is. I also currently cannot fully decipher what this passage (originally below the Headcanon Spread) means, though that's likely just a Skill Issue.

If I figure it out, I'll likely Reblog this Post with an Update, but for now, I think I've covered what I can.

Thanks for Reading!! Hopefully you found this interesting, and maybe you found it useful!! The print on this spread was really, really small, and at times quite frustrating to decipher - hell, I just straight up gave up on the above passage - so any comments or compliments in the notes will be appreciated!!

#monster hunter stories #monster hunter stories 2 #monster hunter #monhun #mhs #mhst #mhs2 #mhst2 #kyle monster hunter stories #the winters family #kyle winters #kyle.pdf #nekro.pdf #nekro.txt

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kikyoupdates · 2 days ago

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Changing Plotlines ⭑˚💞⭑ 𝑎𝑤𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡

yandere!ocs x f!reader

yandere, reverse harem, yandere reverse harem, original characters x fem!reader, slowburn, isekai

A desperate cry on your deathbed leads to you being given a fresh start at life. You're overjoyed at having finally obtained a healthy body and a real chance at living normally, only to discover that you've been transported into a yandere game, where danger lurks at every corner. Determined to protect your new life at any cost, you vow to stay as far away from the major characters of the game as possible. But things don't always go as planned.

previous | story masterlist | next

If your parents’ sources were to be trusted, word on the street was that Triston Von Hersch, son and heir to a powerful family from a neighboring kingdom, had just arrived in Zodite. Naturally, this came as no surprise to you. Triston was one of four pivotal characters in the game, apart from Flora herself. His appearance at this time could only mean that it wouldn’t be much longer until he inevitably crossed paths with the protagonist, thus marking the start of his infatuation with her.

You felt bad. Really, you did. And you realized that you would probably continue to feel this way for a good while. But it was better to live and feel guilty than play the part of a hero and end up dying in the process. There was no way you were going to sacrifice yourself for Flora, no matter how kind and lovely she was. You’d already suffered enough in your previous life. This time, you deserved to be happy.

Hopefully, it would get easier with time. You would become busy enough with life’s many challenges and forget about Flora. Well, somewhat, at least. Odds were that the icky feeling in your stomach would never completely disappear, but really, who in their right mind would stick their neck out for a complete stranger knowing the sick things some assholes would do just to be with her?

I’m not cruel for minding my own business. I have no choice.

Running into Theresa had certainly been a pain, but as much of an insufferable brat as she was, there was no reason to actually be afraid of her. Based on the way things were going, you expected that she would continue to give you a hard time for a little while, but she’d probably lose interest before long. Besides, depending on whose route Flora landed on, Theresa might even find herself being killed. Not that you felt as if she deserved to be outright murdered for her shitty personality, but actions did have consequences.

Also, and perhaps you were being a bit naive here, but you’d recently met the literal god of this land. Was it really so much of a stretch to hope that he might give you a heads-up in the event that shit started to hit the fan?

You pursed your lips, remembering Zodin’s stupidly carefree expression as he sat on your bed.

On second thought, it was probably best not to get your hopes up too much. He didn’t really seem like the reliable type.

Whatever. Triston was here now, in Zodite Kingdom, but it had nothing to do with you. Honestly, you hoped that Flora ended up with him. Of all the yanderes, he was arguably the mildest. But again—literally anyone was better than Friedrich. Fuck that guy.

You didn’t have much planned for today apart from reviewing some notes from class. Even though you were pretty on top of your studies, you felt the need to always go the extra mile. Your sickly body had prevented you from getting a degree back in your previous life. But here? There was no reason not to aim for that top spot and be the best damn student in all your classes.

You yawned, still a bit drowsy after the big lunch you’d had, then promptly sat down at your desk and opened up one of your textbooks. It was going to be a productive day, you could already feel it.

No sooner had you put a pencil to paper before someone knocked on the open door and poked their head into the room.

“My lady?” Lizbell said. “I’m sorry to disrupt your studies, but it appears as though you have a guest.”

You stared at her in disbelief. “A guest? Are you sure they’re not here to see my parents? Lizbell, I feel like I don’t need to keep reminding you, but I have no friends.”

“I’m not really sure what to tell you,” she shrugged. “The young lady waiting is quite adamant about seeing you. I’d say you have a friend, after all.”

Young lady? Uh... no. Seriously, there was no way. It couldn’t be.

“Did you happen to catch her name?” you asked, swallowing nervously.

“Indeed, I did,” Lizbell smiled while nodding. “She introduced herself as Flora Tillberry. Oh, actually. Now that I’ve said it aloud, it sounds rather familiar. Isn’t she the same person who sent you that gift basket not too long ago?”

Fuck, fuck, holy mother of fuck! Why? Why was Flora here? You thought you’d made it abundantly clear that you weren’t interested in seeing her after you’d ignored her letter!

“Lizbell,” you whimpered, getting down on your knees and bringing your palms together as if you were saying a prayer. “Please, please��tell me you didn’t let her inside the manor.”

“I did not let her inside the manor,” Lizbell affirmed.

“Oh, thank Zodin,” you sighed.

“One of the other servants did.”

Wow. A whole five seconds of relief. That was a new record.

“You have got to be shitting me!” you cried out. You stood up, already fuming and ready to make a scene. “What in the hell is going on here? Who’s just letting strangers into our house as they please?”

Lizbell frowned. “But my lady, it’s hardly polite to leave a guest waiting outside.”

“She isn’t a guest! I didn’t invite her here!”

“Perhaps there was some sort of miscommunication,” she said tiredly. Clearly, she wasn’t at all concerned with your plight, which sure, from her perspective you could understand why. Flora was just a nice, polite noblewoman, same as you (although you were slightly less polite, perhaps). That being said, you just couldn’t get close to her. Even if your reasons were nothing short of ridiculous paranoia, this was serious shit you were dealing with here. Your life was literally on the line!

“She isn’t my friend, and I didn’t invite her here,” you reiterated. “I’m not sure what she told the other servants, but I’ve already chosen not to let her into my social circle.”

“It’s highly exclusive, I hear,” Lizbell snorted.

“Oh, shush! The point is, I have no intention of speaking to her, so rather than keep her waiting for no reason, I’d like to ask you to make her leave.”

Now, you’d only known Lizbell for a rather short period of time. But somehow, in that short period of time, she’d already given you more disapproving looks than you could count.

“Lady [Name]—”

“No,” you cut in, lifting your hand to silence her. “I’m sorry, but I honestly don’t want to hear it. I understand this is your way of caring for me. Forcing me to put myself out there and meet new people. I get it, trust me. But I don’t think you realize just how upset I was when you ratted me out to my parents to make me go to that party. I thought I could trust you, and you just... what you did really sucked. I had my reasons for not wanting to go, but you didn’t seem to care at all. And right now is the exact same thing. I have my reasons for not wanting to see Flora. Can’t you just respect that and move on?”

Lizbell’s brow creased. She usually looked so sure of herself, calm and collected, but without appearing arrogant. This was one of the rare moments where it appeared as though she was second-guessing her decisions.

“I suppose it wasn’t very fair to do what I did,” she reluctantly acknowledged. “It just pains me to see that... you don’t have a single friend. After all this time. And I can’t understand why, when being around you always lifts my spirits right away. I knew it also meant a lot to your parents that you go along with them to that gathering, but I must have forgotten my place. I serve both your mother and father, but I am your personal maid, first and foremost.”

She looked guilty now, which was making you feel guilty too. God, all this guilt! It was practically eating you up day after day.

“I’m sorry, my lady,” Lizbell said sadly. “I know we joke around a lot, but I can tell that you’re actually quite upset with me this time. I don’t understand your reasons for avoiding so many people, but I realize it isn’t my business either way. If this is what you wish, then I will go speak to Lady Flora and make sure she leaves.”

You offered her a smile. “Well, if you understand what you did wrong and promise never to do it again, then I’ll forgive you. And yes, please get rid of Flora. I know this probably sounds counterintuitive, but I promise I don’t dislike her or anything. There are just... reasons that we can’t be friends. Alright?”

“Alright,” she nodded. “I will go relay the message.”

“Perfect. But, um... try to let her down easy, okay? She’s a really nice person, and I just... feel bad about all this.”

Lizbell chuckled. “Very well. I’ll do my best to soften the blow.”

She left after curtsying hastily, and you had to admit, even once she was gone, the urge to creep around the manor in search of Flora was ridiculously tempting. But against all odds, you kept from giving in. This was it. After today, Flora would completely give up on you, and your life would finally return to normalcy.

“Um... Lady [Name]?”

Goddammit. Why did you have a sneaking suspicion that shit was going to go wrong again?

“What now, Lizbell?” you sighed. “Did she start crying? Because I really don’t want to hear about it. It’s only going to make me feel even worse than I already do.”

“It would’ve been much simpler if that was the case...”

“What?”

Lizbell nibbled on her bottom lip. “Erm, how do I say this...? I was going to politely ask that she leave, as you instructed, but by the time I got there, it turns out Lady Flora was already engaged in a conversation with your parents.”

Of course she was. Because why wouldn’t she be?

“This is giving me a headache,” you groaned, rubbing your temples impatiently. “Can’t you let my parents know that her being here is making me uncomfortable?”

“Erm, that’s another thing...”

“Meaning?”

“They’re actually—”

“[Name]!” your mother’s cheerful voice cut in. “Your friend, Flora Tillberry is here to see you! You know, that young lady that sent you the gift basket? She was just telling us about how close the two of you had become in such a short span of time. Why didn’t you let us know that you’d made a friend at school? We would’ve celebrated right away!”

You glanced over towards Lizbell, exasperated.

“...they’re actually coming to speak with you right now,” she finished with a nervous chuckle. “Haha. I probably should’ve finished my train of thought a bit faster.”

Zodin, are you seeing this shit right now? Do you see how atrocious my luck is? Can’t you do something about it?

You didn’t even know if Zodin could read minds. He liked to communicate with you telepathically, so you wouldn’t be surprised if this was within his abilities. But if he could hear your thoughts, he sure wasn’t giving you the time of day right now. Jerk.

“Mom, I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” you sighed. “Flora and I barely know each other. We only talked the one time.”

“Oh, you’re just pulling my leg,” she chuckled, playfully poking your cheek. “Flora told your father and I all about it. Why did you hide the fact that you’d made a friend? We just don’t understand. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Having a friend is a good thing! It means that there’s so much more for you to look forward to!”

You really didn't know what she was going on about, but your parents were usually pretty understanding. The fact that she was being so stubborn about this issue meant that Flora must have really laid it on thick. If she was going so far as to lie about your “friendship”, then clearly she was a lot more determined about this than you’d given her credit for. Which spelled a whole lot more trouble.

“Flora’s not my friend,” you insisted. “I don’t know what she’s been telling you, but it isn’t true.”

Lizbell glanced nervously between the two of you. “Baroness [Last Name], I really don’t see why she would lie about this. It is possible that Lady Flora has simply shown up here without any regards as to Lady [Name]’s personal wishes.”

“But why would she come all this way if not to see her friend?”

“I’m, um, not too sure about that either...”

“So, she has deceived us?” your mother gasped, her brows instantly drooping. “But... she seemed like such a nice girl.”

“She is nice,” you sighed. “But I still can’t be friends with her. And it’s far too complicated to explain why. It’s not the sort of thing you can explain.”

Your mother glanced around. “Well, if that’s really the case, then we’ll have to escort her off the property. But we’ll have to hurry, because last I checked, she was chatting with your father and—”

“Aha! We seem to have stumbled across a rather lively little gathering!”

Internally, you were already screaming.

I’ve never been more upset to hear my own father’s voice before.

Yeah, it was bad. Your father was here now, with Flora standing right by his side, her doe eyes wider than ever as she gazed at you both fondly and guiltily. She knew what she’d done wrong, the little rascal. And yet, being faced with her in the flesh, you were reminded once more of the fact that she was nothing more than a kind soul whose entire fate had been cruelly dictated.

Even if she’d lied her way into your home, you still couldn’t hate her for it.

“Come here!” your mother hissed, pulling your father in by the wrist. “That girl isn’t supposed to be here. Everything she’s told us is a lie.”

“What? But why would she do such a thing?”

“I don’t know! She might be stalking [Name]! Our poor darling... she hasn’t even made a proper friend yet and this is what she has to deal with...”

They were doing a terrible job of being subtle because you could hear everything they were saying, and based on the way Flora kept grimacing, she could too. Honestly, what a fucking mess. The whole situation was out of control, and as much as you appreciated that your parents were trying to rectify the whole thing, at this point, it was easier to deal with it yourself.

You sighed wearily. “Could you all please give us some space? I think it’d be best if Flora and I spoke alone.”

“Are you sure?” they frowned; even Lizbell still looked concerned.

“Yes,” you nodded. “It’s fine. We’ll get everything sorted. Flora’s a good person. We just need to clear some things up, that’s all.”

It looked like they still had their doubts, but this was the best shot you had, really. You felt awful that Flora had been holding out hope that you might actually end up becoming friends, but you needed to get your message across, once and for all.

Only once you were certain that they were gone did you close the door, leaving you alone in the room with Flora.

“I-I am so sorry,” she proceeded to splutter. Already, she looked to be on the verge of tears. “I realize this is terribly rude. I forced my way in here, I even deceived your parents... but I never heard back from you after sending the letter along with the gift basket. Perhaps I was hoping that you might have simply forgotten to respond, or maybe the letter got misplaced while it was being delivered, or...”

She cast her head down, defeated.

“Oh, who am I kidding?” she whimpered. “Now that I’m seeing you in person, I can see it clear as day on your expression. You want absolutely nothing to do with me."

Ugh. The guilt was coming in strong, which is why you needed to be even stronger.

“It’s nothing personal, Flora,” you tried to insist. “I just... have my reasons for not wanting us to get too close. I don’t have any friends, actually. And I suppose I was maybe hoping to keep it that way? I work better alone, haha...”

That was a big fat lie. Well, not the part of about you not having friends. That was unfortunately the pathetic truth.

“You hate me,” she said, and with a distinct sniffle, she buried her face in her palms and began to sob.

Admittedly, not the way you’d planned on spending your Tuesday afternoon.

“I don’t hate you,” you struggled to deny, waving your hands all over the place. “I just, um, hate everyone! I mean, I’m not making exceptions or anything!”

“That’s not true,” Flora choked out. She wiped a hand across her damp eyes and sniffled again. “If you hated everyone, you wouldn’t have gone out of your way to help a complete stranger, like me. You’re a kind person. Incredibly so. But you must have seen right through me that day. You realized I wasn’t fit to share your company.”

“Flora, I’m telling you, it’s really not like that...”

You didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t in your nature to be needlessly cruel just so that she would leave you alone. But at the same time, you also couldn’t tell her your real reasons for avoiding her, because who would believe such a thing? Or, worse yet—suppose she did believe you. Then what? It would basically be telling her to her face that her entire future was doomed.

This is hard. Ugh, I hate how this is making me feel. Zodin, I’m begging you, please help me!

No response, as expected. Then again, he did say he wasn’t permitted to meddle in the affairs of mortals, so getting any help from him would probably be impossible. To think that you’d actually met a god, but couldn’t even make use of him. It was laughable, really.

You shook your head adamantly. “I promise I don’t hate you. But I’m not looking to make any friends right now, that’s it. I’m sorry.”

Fat tears dripped down Flora’s cheeks. “I just thought,” she whimpered, “I thought��maybe we could be friends. My father—the man who took me in as his own—is a very kind soul. I know how much it means to him that I can finally attend such a prestigious academy. And I too am overjoyed to have the chance to obtain a higher education. But it seems as though nobody wants me there, or anywhere else in high society, for that matter. They know of my birth and think I am unfit to study among my peers. [Name]… meeting you was the only time I felt any sort of reprieve. I know I should already be thankful for the opportunity to lead a lavish lifestyle, never having to worry about food or clothing. But ever since I’ve made the change, I haven’t stumbled across anyone who didn’t treat me as lesser than, or an outsider. Other than you. You’re the only one, and I just... f-for a few brief moments, I allowed myself to dream. But I was naive to do so. I realize that now.”

Fuck, now you felt like the bad guy. And the only reason you were even doing this in the first place was to avoid the actual bad guys!

“I’m so sorry,” Flora muttered shamefully, her face having turned completely red. “So sorry. I really, truly am...”

This wasn’t supposed to happen. If only you hadn’t given into the guilt back when you’d seen her being bullied by Theresa and ignored them both. Then none of this would have happened. You were paying the price for your stupidity, and the fact that it could all have been avoided was easily the worst part.

You swallowed, a painful lump forming in your throat. A close friend. You’d always wanted one of those. And after playing Zodin’s Benevolence firsthand, you knew all too well what a kind person Flora was. You could imagine her being an amazing friend. It just sucked so bad that sticking close to her was such a dangerous gamble. If not for that, then...

Is becoming her friend... an immediate death sentence? No, not necessarily. This is just me trying to play it as safe as possible.

In the game, Flora didn’t have any friends, which made it very easy for the yanderes to take advantage of her loneliness. But perhaps it was possible to keep her at arm’s length, while still avoiding incurring the wrath of the male leads. If they saw for a fact that you didn’t have any romantic feelings for her and made no efforts to interfere with their schemes, then maybe—just maybe...

Maybe you could actually have a friend for a little while.

But even so, you were still scared. So, you decided to test your luck.

“Um,” you said, clearing your throat. “Why do you want to be friends with me so badly? I mean, I sort of understand what you mean about feeling like an outsider, but I promise not everyone is awful. It might just take a bit of time to find another kindred spirit. And isn’t there anyone else who’s approached you so far? Some handsome men, perhaps...?”

In asking this question, you’d been hoping to get a bit more information as to which way the plot was headed. It was probably too early to tell whose route she would end up on, but you had inadvertently ended up ruining her first meeting with Cassius, so you were curious how everything else was unfolding.

But oddly enough, Flora reacted by tilting her head at you in confusion. “As in, suitors?” she clarified. “No, nothing of the sort. I don’t see who would want to marry someone like me, still so new to a life of nobility. Why do you ask?”

“Uh, no reason, really.”

Strange. By now, she should’ve at least met Lawrence at Theresa’s gathering. Unless she was deliberately avoiding mentioning how he’d comforted her and taken her into his arms. But come to think of it, you hadn’t caught a glimpse of her that evening. Granted, there had been a lot of people, but you figured a messy altercation between her and Theresa would’ve been quite easy to pick up on.

“Were you not at Theresa’s party a few nights ago?” you asked.

Flora still looked confused. “Theresa... Simmons? The same woman who’s been harassing me on campus?”

“Yes, the bitchy one.”

“No,” she replied, shaking her head. “I never received any such invitation. But even if I had, I would’ve had the good sense not to show up. I wasn’t about to allow her to embarrass me again after you went out of your way to stand up to her.”

Huh.

It seemed like you’d once again accidentally changed the course of the plot. The whole reason Theresa invited Flora over was in order to humiliate her publicly. But if she’d never so much as sent out an invitation, it probably meant that hitting her on the face with your shoe had frightened her more than she would ever admit. Honestly, you weren’t sure whether to be proud or exasperated.

So far, Flora hadn’t met Cassius, and she hadn’t met Lawrence either. Assuming first meetings were absolutely crucial in determining whose route she would end up on, that only left Triston and Friedrich.

Come on, Triston, I’m rooting for you! I mean, uh... you’re still kind of a piece of shit, but you’re less of a piece of shit than the rest of them!“Why do you ask?” Flora said. She’d stopped crying by now. Her expression even looked somewhat hopeful. “Is it possible that you’ve reconsidered... and might be willing to give me the time of day? Because if that’s the case, I promise you won’t regret it. I’ll do everything in my power to become the type of person you’d be proud to have by your side. I’m not a noble by blood, but... I can learn. I can figure things out, and I’ll make sure not to embarrass you. Please, [Name]. Just give me a chance.”

She inched closer to you, to the point that you had to back into the wall and shrink in on yourself. Goddammit, those big blue eyes of hers were just way too bright! The poor girl. She’d never done anything wrong in her entire life, and soon enough, everything was about to go wrong.

Perhaps... perhaps you could stick with her just for a little while. Once things started getting complicated, she’d have her hands full regardless. And she would inevitably fall for someone's charms, even if she didn’t realize how truly awful he was until it was too late.

Becoming Flora’s friend didn’t mean that your life was automatically over. It was an added risk, yes, but since you didn’t have the heart to dash her hopes yet again, you didn’t exactly have much of a choice. Besides, at the first sign of danger, you were retreating to the safety of your manor and going MIA until you were absolutely certain you were in the clear.

It was okay. You just needed to take it easy and gauge how the plot was progressing.

“Alright,” you said, still sounding a bit unsure of yourself. You’d barely even gotten the word out and Flora’s mouth had already widened in delight. She looked ready to squeal and start hopping up and down. “But I’m very busy,” you added. Which was a lie, but she had no way of knowing that. “I care about my studies a lot, and I won’t have a lot of free time to meet up. Just every now and then... from time to time we can hang out a bit. Okay?”

“Of course!” Flora enthused. “I’ll give you all the space you need! Oh, I’m just so glad you’ve decided to hear me out. I promise I won’t let you down. You’ve already done so much for me, so I need to work hard to repay you.”

“Erm, there’s really no need for that,” you insisted. “You’re not just trying to be my friend because you feel obligated to make it up to me, right?”

“Heavens, no,” she blinked. “I want to be friends with you because you’re such a lovely person! You fight for justice, even when you stand to gain nothing from it. You’re an actual hero!”

You sighed loudly.

Oh, Flora. You wouldn’t call me that if you knew my true reasons for avoiding you.

Whatever. For now, it would be fine. You just needed to be wary of giving the male leads ample space to get to know her, and prove to them that you weren’t a threat. And until things got bad... you would actually have a friend, which was kind of exciting.

“You’re so kind,” she rambled on, eager to keep singing your praises. She grabbed your hands in hers and flashed you a bright, cheesy smile. “You have no idea how happy I am right now! I was terribly rude to mislead your family. I know that this sort of conduct is absolutely inexcusable, and I promise now that we’re friends, I’ll never let you down again. But you’re as forgiving as you are brave, [Name]. For that, I am ever so thankful.”

Well. She was certainly hyping you up, that was for sure. But at least she wasn’t crying anymore, and you no longer felt quite as guilty as you did earlier.

“Father will also be delighted to hear that I’ve managed to make a friend,” Flora hummed. “I hope you don’t mind if I tell him about you?”

“That’s fine,” you reassured.

“Perfect! Oh, and you’re more than welcome to stop by my home whenever you please. I can even have one of the spare rooms set up for you if you ever wish to spend the night.”

Clearly, she was getting a bit ahead of herself, but her enthusiasm was pretty cute. Oh, well. At least you had a friend now. That was a good thing. Even if said friend was going to be in for a world of pain later on. But when it came to that, you’d have no trouble jumping ship and saving your own skin.

Right?

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magical-girl-coral · 2 days ago

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Quiet me for the ask game thing :) any character you want

Gonna put this one under read more cause it went from drabble to snippet so an accidental semi one shot, oops.

drabbles: send me characters and a prompt

Sandra Lynn knocked twice on the closet door, trying her best to keep her voice leveled to avoid further freakouts. "Ivy? Sweetheart, are you okay in there?"

The reply she got was a childish sob. Sandra had to keep her instincts at bay or she'll burst down the door. "Can I come in at least? I need to know if you're hurt or not."

The door unlocked itself from the inside. Sandra Lynn counted to five, did those breathing exercises Jawbone did before a heavy therapy session, and entered with a smile and a hopefully calm demeanor.

She found Ivy sitting at the back of the closet with her arms folder over her knees, her formed hunched over and shaking with fear.

Sandra Lynn went in front of her immediately. "Ivy, sweetie, please, you've gotta tell me what's wrong." So I can kill the fucker that did this to you.

Ivy shook her head, snot and tears flying around her. "Its-it's stupid." She stuttered. "It's so fucking stupid, it's just a waste of time. Please, just leave me alone."

Sandra Lynn shifted her position and sat besides Ivy. Close enough to me within a hand's reach, but far enough to avoid feeling suffocated. "Ivy Embra, you are currently under my watch and it's my responsibility to ensure your protection and well being. Now you will tell me who did this to you and I will make sure they will never step foot her agai-"

"NO!" Ivy screamed before shrinking back into herself. "You-you don't have to do that. It's not her fault. I'm just being stupid, I swear."

Sandra Lynn bit her lip. Calm down, calm down, calm down. "How about you at least unload this on me so you'll be able to calm down better? I swear on my honor as a ranger and a mother of six insane children, nothing will leave this room."

Ivy stared at her feet, rocking back and forth until she finally made her decision. "It's-really fucking dumb. It was just-" She breathed deeply through her nose. "One of the senior rangers petted my hair. He saw me practice and went over to compliment me. He...He joked about setting me up with his son. And I know he didn't mean it cause everyone else were laughing and it was obviously just a compliment but I just got so fucking scared for no reason and-"

Sandra Lynn did the dumbest thing she could have done at that moment; she leaped over and gathered Ivy into her arms, hugging her close so she'll hear her heartbeat.

Thankfully, Ivy melted into her arms and slowly hugged her back. "It's so dumb. It's so fucking stupid. He's not here anymore and that senior was nothing like him but I still got this horrible feeling that something terrible was going to happen to me. It's been almost a year. When will it be over?"

Sandra Lynn robbed Ivy's back softly. "I wish I could say when, sweetie. I truly, deeply do. But until that time comes, know that I'm always gonna be here when you need me. In the AMs and the PMs."

Ivy laughed snottily into Sandra Lynn's shirt and grimaced. "Sorry for ruining your clothes."

"I am looking after ten kids who can't go one week without getting into a food fight. I've been through worse."

"Didn't you just say you have six?"

"Legally, I have six. Generally, I have between 10 and 15."

Ivy laughed again, this time at least without shame. A good first step as any.

#Anon #Asks #Fantasy High #Sandra Lynn Faeth #Ivy Embra

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adobe-outdesign · 2 days ago

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My Freindly Neighborhood fan who still plays and thinks about the game even after the like, year since it came out and I 100% it. In the story for ONCE the mascot aren't evil or haunted/transformed humans. Puppets are just alive there. Our main character would have said otherwise. Like he's only surprised to see them acting off and alone, not that their alive. And without giving too many spoilers in case you decide to look into it, the puppets are basically just kids who saw stuff they shouldn't when alone and had no one to help them. They don't even 'attack' to harm you they're just a mix of excited to see someone new and are desperate for a hug. You're just canonically in bad shape.

It's a very fun and wholesome game, it's not for everyone of course but it's a fun shooter parody game. Like I'm pretty sure it was designed as a parody shooter game and not mascot horror, just uses mascot horror elements. But FNAF: Ruin came out very quickly after it's initial release and I think that mix with the game's lore being pretty tame (despite having a good message especially if you get the best ending) helped 'killed' it off before it could fully grow. But many youtubers said it was one of the best games in that space they played that year.

For some reason I thought it was way older than Ruin? But yeah, sounds cute.

#my friendly neighborhood #ask #Anonymous

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jull-reblogs · 2 days ago

Text

Well I'm glad!! Don't expect anything like the first chapter though haha, I'm not there yet. It would be more like a sneak peek and something to let people know that this project exists. Also giving myself deadlines like this helps and makes it more "real".

If you think Mediterranean keto would be the right choice for you then go for it!! Not everyone needs to stick to 25g of carbs a day :D

I think I could find some equivalent to this STAR roll here! And agreed, meat is always the best part for me 😁 I guess I could just try to make tonkotsu soup myself ^^

Well one of my coworkers once brought us homemade matcha tiramisu and it was so good!! And there's this Japanese bakery next to where I work that makes matcha brioches filled with cream or matcha cookies. I can't eat this stuff anymore but it's amazing, I recommand trying it if you can find something similar!

Haha yes Mangalitsa pigs are adorable and black-footed cats are the cutest serial killers! I had never seen Jacob sheep before and wow, they're impressive.

Oh now fishing in magma sounds like a great concept!! I admit I'd love to see that in a future game!!

Haha it's fine, don't worry! It's interesting to me that you think in such detail about culinary traditions and all since I tend to not put much thought into these aspects of worldbuilding. Gives me a different perspective.

Oh I see, this is interesting. I remember that you thought Malon might have Gerudo origins and now I see how this could be possible!

Yes I didn't mean that Vilia should be allowed into Gerudo Town, definitely not. I just think punishing him would be harsh when he made it possible for Link to save the city (and the kingdom). The guards should definitely be more careful about voe dressed as vai haha.

TotK should have made gloom sickness a true epidemic, things would have looked a lot more threatening then. I'm still thinking about the details but I want a lot more characters to be affected in my rewrite (though of course saving all of them one by one would be redundant) and the remedy would also be harder to find. I'm also planning to add different kinds of illnesses depending on what's happening locally, for example Castle Town will suffer from something unique due to its proximity to the Castle und what's underneath it.

I tend to see magic as something really rare especially in BotW's Hyrule so I don't share that headcanon about Wild's mother being a magess, but she could definitely be the reason he's skilled at cooking and knows which ingredients to use!

Yeah I thought just getting rid of the mud by washing it away was a bit easy. It should have made the Zora or anyone who touched it really sick.

Yes I'm sure the Gerudo would still need external help from time to time for things they aren't used to doing and in that case they would use the shelter as you suggested. At least we know in OoT that they needed the carpenters from Kakariko to repair the bridge in Gerudo Valley, so that can definitely happen.

Haha yes I think we won't agree on Time! Except about the troubles that come with waking up in the body of a young man after seven years of magical coma, of course.

Yes they have to extend the cast in ancient Hyrule and to give the ancient Sages more character. I guess we might finally get to see them without their masks and learn their names (though I think we shouldn't need a new game for that).

In French the game will be called "Les Chroniques du Sceau" which I think is better than if they'd gone with "L'Ère du Sceau" again. Not sure how that would translate, does Chronicles of the Seal sound weird? Chronicles of the Imprisoning War maybe?

Well I'm not planning to buy the Switch 2 at the moment anyway! And TotK was such a disaster for me that don't want to spend more money on a spin-off without making sure it's any good before.

Isn't it funny that they didn't even mention the audio memories in the Switch 2 direct and it was advertised in a different video? I was completely uninterested in the GPS or the ability to share builds in TotK but THAT would give me a reason to replay the games. Also now it seems we'll also be able to repair weapons and I'm like ??? So we're adding such a major feature through an app and we're not even mentioning it?? Weird communication choices haha.

@aikoiya The post was getting long again so here's a new one!

I knew you were going to answer that saying "this is unfair" isn't real life logic haha (and I agree that life hasn't been fair to Sky and Sun anyway). It's just that such an ending would probably leave me feeling unsatisfied and even a bit robbed, and I think it would require a lot of other changes to be made to the story in order for it to work properly. But anyway you're right, as things are now this would just be happening behind the scenes so what I'm saying doesn't really make sense. But just thinking about it changes my perception of SS in a way I don't really enjoy, so it's not a theory I favor.

Yes in that setting I'm pretty sure that the other Sun would not make herself known to Link and Zelda and would let them have their happy ending. But I think Zelda would likely suspect her existence and know that something is wrong. I guess even Link could notice that the Temple's doors are suddenly open and would ask Impa a few questions.

I had no idea Tingle called Farore the Goddess of Wind in WW, so I went on a little quest to see if I could find the same quote in the French version of the game. Apparently it's in Tingle's description of Outset Island and I never had the chance to play with the Tingle Tuner mode. I can't find the same quote in French anywhere and I don't even know if this was included in the HD remake (I guess I'll have to wait for a Switch version to find out… if they ever release one). This has me wondering if this quote isn't something exclusive to the English version, but I can't be sure and I'd like to know what the original Japanese text says. The French wikis mention that Farore is the Goddess of Wind in WW but don't provide any quote, it just looks like the pages were translated from English but that they couldn't find the same quote in French. It's really frustrating!!

Anyway that's a bit weird because WW already establishes Zephos as the God of Wind, and he seems to be a minor deity compared to Farore. The way I see it, wind is just the element that Farore tends to be associated with, and since a lot of myths might have been lost with Hyrule in WW this could just be a mistake on Tingle's part. I mean this is the game that gave us the Golden Triumph Forks haha.

I'm not limiting Nayru/the Golden Goddesses to a singular domain, quite the opposite ^^ To me Nayru being the Goddess of Wisdom includes different concepts such as order, law, science, magic, etc., and even time (since she's introduced as the creator of the world's fondamental laws), while calling her the Goddess of Time doesn't include all of that. That's why I wrote that I found it a bit restrictive. But sure she could have both titles, the same way Farore could be known most commonly as the Goddess of Courage and also called the Goddess of Wind in some situations.

Oh I didn't think of the blocks from OoT! I would say though that they don't really use any time powers, they're just random blocks that appear or disappear for some reason when Link plays the Song of Time (it's just as absurd as playing the Song of Storms to open holes in the ground haha). But yes they were blue and associated with time, and of course Nayru is too. The difference with Hylia in my theory is that Nayru created the rules of time (if that makes sense) among other fundamental laws, while Hylia's power specifically allows her to manipulate time and foresee the future. In a way I see Hylia as Nayru's spiritual daughter who inherited some of her powers over time (and that's why the color purple she's represented with is very close to blue).

The Master Sword has also been depicted as either blue or purple though, so that asks the question of the true color of all of these things! Nayru is definitely linked to time so it makes sense that the timeshift stones are in Lanayru (and Hylia also doesn't have a province named after her).

"From the edge of time" could definitely just be a poetic way to say that Hylia kind of recorded a message for Link before dying haha. But I find it interesting that she would phrase it like that, I like to see it as a clue.

Well if Zelda simply sent Link to a point further back in time, wouldn't there be two Links existing at the same time in the Child Timeline? But sure Zelda creating a brand new timeline also raises a few questions that kind of... make my head hurt. I'm not sure what happens exactly, I've always wondered! All we know is that Link finds himself in the Master Sword's chamber with the Door of Time already open, which hints at things happening in a different way this time (because he definitely doesn't have the three spiritual stones and the Ocarina of Time yet since this is before Ganon's coup, and the ending seems to imply that this timeline's Zelda doesn't know him yet). That's why I believe Zelda might have done something a bit more complex than sending him to a point further back in time, but there's no way to be sure. The Triforce of Courage is also visible on Link's hand during the ending, and we also know thanks to TP that the Triforce is still separated in the Child Timeline despite Link and Zelda preventing Ganon from entering the Sacred Realm this time. So maybe Zelda isn't able to change everything? It's complicated haha.

Anyway, whether OoT Zelda creates a new timeline or just sends Link further back in time, that's still huge time powers and that's not something Link is able to do by playing Zelda's Lullaby.

I also believe it is more likely that Talon inherited the ranch. True, Talon might not always have been so lazy, but maybe if that was the case the game could have hinted at hit. All we know is that he leaves his daughter alone with Ingo and only comes back after Link deals with the situation, which does not make him look so great. And he only promises to work harder after that.

I'm kind of bad with names so I'm impressed you're going through all of that trouble to rename the settlements!!

I haven't gotten to developping the technology that much yet, but I'm really interested in seeing what the different races could do with it! I love the idea of using the Sheikah to infiltrate the Yiga bases. I wish TotK had done something like that and shown the Sheikah helping Link that way.

Same, I was so excited when I heard about these pirates… and then so disappointed to find nothing more than a bunch of bokos with no backstory.

Vignoble is not related to noble (though I kind of make the association in my mind, especially since vignobles are sometimes called châteaux).

Yes I thought you could maybe use clos! Aquaticlos is funny, it can work! Though maybe you could use the same logic as for the raisins (I love this Raisins de Terre idea by the way, it makes sense!) and say that what the Zoras call a clos already refers to something that's underwater, since that's probably the case for most of what they cultivate.

I don't mind helping you with French, I'm glad to do so! You put so much effort and thought into this, it's really interesting.

#loz #zelda #zelda lore #zelda theory #aikoiya

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emblemxeno · 2 months ago

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I think the thing that really bugs me when people talk about "3H is so much better than Fates in terms of grey morality"... is that it only focuses on a very specific subset of greyness as a whole. When you actually take a step back from the perspective the game shows you, it's actually not morally complex in the slightest, especially compared to Fates.

For Fódlan, you're introduced to a fundamentally broken system that thrives off of eugenicist breeding, abuse, tyranny, technological stagnation, religious dogma, theocracy and experimentation that saw a young girl watch her fellow test subjects almost all die having Crests implanted into them just to create a superhuman. Said theocracy is staved by a consummate liar who's basically "Corrin, but gone wrong and a terrible human being" with an inability to let go of severe mommy issues or the ability to let go of her hatred and genocide denialism, intentionally keeping up a lie to make the most of it. Said subject leader ended up wanting to cast down the oppressive system to make one of "merit," but becomes an imperialistic, authoritarian revanchist who stages a war of total conquest to enforce that order, and in her ending, doesn't even fully dismantle the titles of nobility outright. Dimitri was genuinely a decent person before the massacre that killed most of his family and almost everyone he loved, causing him to go under severe psychosis that, when unraveled, causes him to turn into a bloodlusted maniacal tyrant who's more in line with Ashnard from FE9 than the typical "good boy lord" archetype since Marth. The least horrible of the bunch is a neoliberal schemer who sides with the strongest side (in VW it's the Church, in GW it's against the church) who can and does show a willingness to drop his interests like a hot potato when it suits him and openly intended to have Almyra invade Fódlan to establish the continent as his own suzerain state. And each of them, if not held back by the sheer divine grace of Byleth's mute ass, ends up committing tons of atrocities in the opposition to manipulate the audience into thinking they chose the "right" side. Hell, even in YOUR route it's strongly implied you're doing the things in the other routes and the story just doesn't want you to consider it because you're the good guy from your POV.

They're all awful and war criminals, and no matter what people say, that isn't moral greyness or moral complexity. Having a story where there isn't a clearly-defined sense of right and wrong, good and bad, to define morally grey conflict as a whole leads to a story where they're all horribly awful if the story isn't smart enough to recognize it doesn't fully absolve them as a person for your actions nor does it dehumanize them. People set a 0-100 scale that's never in the middle assuming a war criminal is either a goodest boy who did no wrong or a violent monster who needs to be put down and not made excuses for it, when the truth is that people are far more complicated than they seem on the wholesale. 3H doesn't do this, it wants you to think your side is always the good guys and the enemy side is sympathetic but still the bad guys. And it does this to avoid pushing forward the truth that you're genuinely no better and that the story is openly feeding you an extremely impressionistic lie of events. This is where any moral greyness falls apart, as without any kind of acknowledgement of your side's failings in a morally grey conflict, there is no hope of making a story that's actually morally grey. You created "hero defeats woobie villain" type story-writing, just slapped a coat of paint calling it morally grey when it isn't.

To give a contrast, Fates goes out of its way to avoid ignoring the actions and consequences of Corrin's choices. All of the routes have players make choices that cause a severe lapse of judgement that leads to bloodshed on both sides and innocent people on both sides dying. On Birthright, you're intentionally invoked ludonarrative dissonance by Corrin in that route being loud and aggressive of killing Garon and not questioning the "good kingdom vs. evil empire" conflict... with not only Corrin not even trying to stymie the bloodshed, but the abundance of route maps and killing waves upon waves of enemies influences that bloodshed and is meant to make players question their actions even as they kill recruitable, named soldiers on the other side. Even Ryoma, by openly lying to Corrin about not about being blood related, is more morally complex because he did so in order to keep Corrin and his family together and because it's essential data, nevermind that Ryoma is strongly implied to know Nohr is starving and just... do nothing about it, feigning ignorance with Silas's explanation in Birthright Chapter 23. Even as far as Corrin being a genuinely good person, they still kill thousands in-story and they don't really care about who lives and who dies as long as it's not their Nohrian siblings, and this leads to Xander accidentally killing Elise and then committing suicide by cop. All while Corrin teaches Ryoma to change as a better person.

Conquest is even more morally complex and grey; Corrin goes back to Nohr with the inability to betray the only family they've ever known and try to end this madness internally, before realizing the privilege they commanded as a Nohrian royal and tried to sabotage the Nohrian war effort and work in any kind of change. He succeeded in ensuring no casualties in small skirmishes, but he failed miserably trying to ensure no deaths in Cheve as it suddenly made them realize the rot is far too institutional for them to fully reform; Garon is a flesh-puppet piloted by Anankos with no regard for anything but destroying both kingdoms, his two trusted men are evil, and the Nohrian royals are deep in denial their father who was once loving and kind has become rotten and abusive and caused so much trauma they don't want to even acknowledge he's been gone for so long. It's a frightening realistic depiction of an abusive household with how the Nohrian royals self-rationalize their control over a fundamentally fucked-up situation, and Corrin begins to see that when Azura reveals Garon's true form. Knowing that the Yato as is isn't strong enough to pierce Garon's blessing from the Rainbow Sage and actually defeat them (which is strongly implied if not all-but-confirmed to operate similarly to Ashnard and BK's blessings in FE9), they need to show Garon's true form to the army... so they intentionally and knowingly abet the genocidal invasion of Hoshido, needing to sacrifice his ideals to save as many people as he can in the least horrible, fucked-up way possible. Along the way while they save a few thousands die in the invasion and Corrin ends up seriously mentally breaking up along the way as he's forced to nearly kill his two brothers and become demonized by the nation he's putting to the sword for the greater good, as he's forced to keep up the lie of a heartless invader until it just... becomes too much. And this is the route people have the most issues with, despite being the route that is so fucking complex that it gives everyone the moral sympathy needed to be empathized with, while not excusing their actions.

What Fates does exceedingly well that 3H doesn't is that it recognizes that the characters' choices are their own actions, and expects readers to pay attention to dialogue to connect fundamental revelations of the plot. It doesn't need to make its characters morally hazy-feely or war criminals with fundamentally unsympathetic traits to make them morally complex, it does this by having the fundamental concept behind Fates is two forces of good people being trapped in a fundamentally violent and horrible war that threatens to tear the continent apart in the process. And Fates does that so exceptionally well by having actual moral complexity to the characters that merits reasons to go down each of the routes while not being so non-committal to calling out injustice or bad actions in the story that it completely destroys any point it has. With Fates, I get the feeling of two families and armies of good people trapped in a war that's engineered by a broken god wanting to destroy the world and both kingdoms. With 3H, I get the feeling many people in Syria felt about each of the factions being staffed with war criminals, rapists and mass-murderers. I can sympathize with all sides of Fates because it recognizes their actions as they are while not diluting their complexity as characters. I cannot sympathize with 3H's lords because they are all so solely-defined by their end slates that no amount of blood, violence or suffering will ever be enough to end the war and them crossing lines even Ryoma would never, ever do. Ryoma, as in the guy who runs basically Fates's equivalent of the Ninja CIA with all the ugliness it implies. Even he wouldn't do what Edlegard, Rhea and Dimitri stoop to in their oppositional and player routes, and while the story humanizes Ryoma, it just expects us to love 3H's blorbos so much we just begin making jokes about how war crimes are "expected" of the series and we should still forgive them because... the story presents it better?

It's a major reason the shitting on Fates's story while lofting 3H as the better one irritates me so much; Fates had an actual writer who was committed to the greater narrative and nuances of the characters that got botched in the implementation of the JP script (which was why IF was even more panned there than Fates was here, which has regular appreciators outside of hardcore FE fans) and got fixed in the localization (despite its flaws), while 3H expects people to just believe they're the good guys without actually thinking about what their actions entails or making consequences stick. And I think it's most infuriating because the reason why people got so weird about Fates, especially Conquest, is because it was so willing to make the player feel uncomfortable with their actions and provoke intentional dissonance in their actions of being rewarded for the right inputs as a Good Gamer™ versus the very visible suffering it causes, and it not saying to the camera "And That's Terrible" and expecting it to be evident within the context and subtext of the work. For many people, it wasn't, and gave such a bad first impression regardless of the sheer cohesive validity of the work that they just wrote it off and dismissed an amazing story as too little value to actually analyze. Meanwhile, 3H's logos, ethos and pathos follow-through sucked ass, but people forgave it because of the lore boner people had and because, when you break it down, 3H is no different than the "good guy vs. evil empire" stories the fandom derides, it just does so in a way that makes those your route deems "evil" sympathetic even when they really aren't. It was so telling that when FE fans said "We want grey morality!" what they really meant was "We want to be morally, objectively correct and rewarded for being a Good Gamer™ while the enemy army has a sob story that makes them sympathetic while still morally, objectively wrong!". In hindsight, it's not hard to see why, Arvis, Lyon and BK are the series's most popular villains, but it's not good writing to apply that to a story about war criminals while thinking sob stories serve as a sufficient excuse to unconscionable atrocities, because FE fans don't want to feel responsible for their actions. They're literally the kind of people Spec Ops: The Line critiques about the typical military FPS dudebro wanting to feel like a hero for being a war criminal, only implied to an intelligence ego-driven bunch of virgin nerds who cannot agree on basic fucking canon details.

...this was a really long ask, so I'll TL;DR it with "FE fans are bad at media analysis and really should stop calling 3H better written than Fates when 3H refuses to actually analyze its own context while Fates does so extensively in giving each of the cast initiative, including for their own fuck-ups."

While I will push back a little against some of the assertions regarding Rhea and Claude (and also Dimitri somewhat) given their circumstances of being the ones on the defense in 3H, I vehemently agree with your assessment, and that's why 3H in general falls flat for me in its storytelling.

Fates, as you say, has intentional dissonance that makes you question your actions when provided with more information the further you get into the game. 3H's dissonance just reads very unintentional.

Edelgard's entire route is obvious low hanging fruit, especially the scene where she executes Dimitri, accusing him of "being obsessed with her" when she's invading his country for no fucking reason other than wanting to enforce her will on independent countries. Instead of going to therapy, she decided to kill a bunch of people, she's nuts and will never not be a shit person.

But to your point, there are other lines in 3H that read similarly ridiculous, fanning the dissonance.

Edelgard and Claude's lines to Kostas in chapter 2 about "being noble and commoner isn't different and you don't have the right to kill actually", and they both sound like immature fuckwads. Claude's consistent push to pry information out of people is insensitive at best, and borders on invasion of privacy. Claude constantly both sides-ing the church and Edelgard, and that's not even going into the shit he pulls in Hopes. Dimitri both sides-ing the dynamic of nobles getting rid of their successors for not having crests. Dimitri constantly trying to find the best in Edelgard after he begins his recovery, to the point where an unbelieveable parley scene occurs, like give me a break. Rhea is never able to confront her issues and mistakes on screen unless she's dying or being romanced by Byleth. Sylvain's "battle of ideals" line in Azure Moon, Dorothea being sad over Ferdie in AM or VW despite him being kind of a coward in that he doesn't have the stones to bite back at Edelgard, Mercedes also has a line about Ferdinand, in general just the entire spiel that side characters make about fighting old friends because "there's no choice."

Does this cast have any self awareness or agency, or not? That's why I rail against Byleth's presence in the plot so much, because he's treated as the end all be all of what is right/moral/correct. Sure, characters can feel bad about what they're doing, but because Byleth (i.e. the player) is there, they must be on the right path in the end. And everyone has to be sypmathetic when you're against them because there has to be room for Byleth (i.e. the player) to have enough reason to join them in another route, otherwise the multi route structure doesn't make sense.

In concept it's already a story structure that warps itself around what makes the player insert feel most good, but in execution it's somehow even worse. And that's because all of it is done in dialogue, many lines of which I've already mentioned. You're not supposed to think about the material reality of the shitty things these characters do and say, because the priority is that they can tug at your heart enough for you to excuse them/fix them/justify them.

Claude is ultimately not a bad person as a whole, but the game really wants you to not consider how feckless and fickle he can be when faced with bad odds, especially when he kind of effectively abandons an entire country that he's supposed to be leading whenever Byleth's not supporting him. Rhea and Dimitri are snug fit into either "crazed opposition that must be taken care of" or "person project that You need to get a handle on", both interpretations taking agency away from making the player seem like a bad person or going in the opposite direction by making the player the ONLY person who's able to save them from themselves. And Edelgard is the queen of never being held to account the damage that she does, always skirting responsibility in-game and in the fandom because "she just did what she felt she had to," "sometimes change takes sacrifice and horrible choices," or "she just wanted to WALK with you, sensei!" All in an attempt to get you to not care what you do when siding with her, and to make you feel bad for her when you don't side with her.

The player must never feel bad about the objectively bad things they do, and must always feel correct and justified in the things they feel are correct. That's the 3H M.O. When you recognize that the people you side with are kinda shitty no matter the route, it's not because the writers wanted you to, it's because you put the time in the think about it long enough. The game wanted you to feel bad about the war because "we used to be FRIENDS", not because of the terrible things you do in the war in the first place, as if the methods and machinations aren't a significant part of why warfare fucking sucks.

And as you say, and I mostly agree on, is the Fates M.O. is not shying away from the negative impacts that Corrin's choice had. In Birthright, Corrin's close Nohrian allies/siblings die because of the choice he made, because siding with Hoshido had a ripple effect on how those near and dear to him were treated by Garon. Another part of Birthright's narrative is the Hoshidan cast having to get used to Corrin just being himself, and trusting that a Nohrian isn't who they believe them to be. Exposing Ryoma's ignorance and showing that his arrogant juggernaut plans aren't gonna cut it when it comes to establishing a lasting peace, is critical in showing that, yeah, mindlessly fighting Nohr doesn't fix the root problems. It intentionally pulls the rug under the player by going "yeah your side kind of fucking sucks for charging at Nohr all this time, when these are people with dreams, loved ones and livelihoods."

Conquest puts a twist on this, by having Corrin be relatively successful in some areas when it comes to changing perceptions towards Nohr, helping people gain autonomy from a brutal regime, and actively undermining the horrible things that war has its soldiers do. The rug pull is then done during chapter 13, and again after the Sakura map, where Corrin is smacked with the reality that sometimes you fucking fail at what you're trying to do in story, despite the player succeeding in gameplay. The player representative doesn't have complete control nor is he treated with kid gloves in Fates when faced with the ugliness from his side and the opposition.

And what's greatest about it, is that it's showing you, rather than employing a missable dialogue in a monastery about how sad it is to fight against former classmates. Dude, I know it's sad, is that really all you can say? The message begins to dull when it's bashed over your head too much, and especially when there's no meaningful impact in story, all because there can't be because Byleth (the player) has to be accounted for as the ultimate arbiter of who joins him or not. You can't avoid feeling shitty about Scarlet, like you can with Ferdie. You can try your best trying to get around the retainers in Fates when you fight them, but they still have crushing death lines because the story is written to accommodate the fact that you're killing people who aren't evil at their core. 3H has to make sure you can avoid that before a war even starts. Flora and Ryoma's suicides, Xander's suicide-by-cop, Takumi's descent, the fates of the Kitsune and Wolfskin who were caught in bad circumstances (something that, despite claims of poor writing, happens all the fucking time and is another shitty thing about war that more need to recognize); the topics of isolationism, war profiteering, subterfuge and treason, spy networks and thievery, the ethics of bystanderism, FUCKING CIVILIAN CASUALTIES.

That last one-alongside the general idea of trying to win a war with as little bloodshed as possible-is one of the prime driving forces of an ENTIRE ROUTE in Fates, and is still pretty prevalent for Corrin's beliefs in the other two. In 3H? Barely a footnote in all honesty, and more so an extension of how other characters are perceived. Edelgard forcing civilians to stay when Enbarr is under siege? Claude says "it takes some resolve, I gotta hand it to her." Remire being destroyed and the Empire doing fuck all? Uhhh, look over there, they got taken in by Rhea, don't worry about it. What about the effects of the Alliance being dismantled and given to the Empire, Kingdom or the church? Or showing more of the people in the monastery town that face the most danger from the Imperial invasion or the thieves after the timeskip? None of this is treated as the horrific circumstance it is, so it ends up as fridge horror you think about at 2 a.m.

Thinking about how the war affects the common people and civilians isn't the main priority in any of 3H's routes as far as I can remember, since it's just lumped in with the vague "too much bloodshed, doesn't war suck" aesop. We never dive into the specifics of why war sucks in 3H because doing that has the potential for the player to materially feel bad about what they're doing, so instead we always have a cushion to assuage our feelings in by being reminded that Byleth (the player) is the pinnacle of good and always knows the right thing to do in the end. Which is shallow, vapid, and utterly spineless in a simulation game series about war.

A lot of this is fueled by my anti-3H though, so I'm very willing to take corrections on things I flat out get wrong, I haven't played that game to completion in like a over a year, so the details are finally getting hazy.

#long post #fire emblem discourse #rant #character hate #fire emblem fates #also when i think about it i can't recall specific bad shit being discussed in 3H's support conversations either that AREN'T backstory #or general/vague “war is bad”#meanwhile the Jakob and Oboro support in Fates start with Oboro hating Jakob for volunteering for cleanup/mop up operations #which is some fucking HEAVY shit that hardly any other FE game (to my knowledge) acknowledges #other supports in Fates talk about PTSD; assassinations; military ethics; abuse of the lower class; xenophobia; etc.#the only times 3H gets similarly deep (and fittingly the best written) is when it discusses death and dying for one's cause or friends #which is like 75% of Dimitri's supports #he's best character for a reason in that game

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nenoname · 27 days ago

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anyway i've been squinting at this storyboard, trying to tell what the rest of the family's minigolf skill is at but im distracted by what seems to be a 100 score for soos'....

#him having an average game with that one exception aksdhsakjdha #stan seeming to be second best which probably makes sense cos he has so many golf clubs #still looks like he got stuck on two of the courses super bad tho lmao #the actual ep changing it so mabel isn't mostly perfect at the game and scores some 2s #less of a 'perfect game' and more 'pretty dang good' to highlight the difference between her and paz's skill #otherwise there's less of a reason to resort to cheating cos there still would've been a good chance she could beat her on her own #mabel pines #dipper pines #stan pines #soos ramirez #....almost wrote soos pines there i'm falling for his trap of wanting to change his last name #the number of games for each character are inconsistent across the board lmao

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fish-in-the-aquarium · 1 day ago

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Shitty english time!

1. John/Sam becouse I'm the professional clown (you live on the green lock of my clown wig). Look, I'm obsessed with making things more "complicated" and a romance between these two would make Sam and John's lines even stronger. And truly terrible for Sam.

3. First place goes to two birdies because I'm against the system

2. Hansry is too good for this world but mentally I'm 11y/o and it's a little hard for me cos… well, me and Hans are the same person. This is an EXAGGERATION but I feel a boy who has been infantilized for a terribly long time and who is looking for a quick dopamine hit so that the impostor syndrome will scream a little quieter (but it only gets louder and all self-fulfilling prophecies will come true). My bb, of course you see that your kiss of true love was broken and you ignore Henry's hand and the fact that your beloved is just late for the finale of Mass Effect 2. You can't be loved, can you?..

As a result it makes me a little offended by his feminization which is, of course, very childish of me, and I'm sorry. I'll try to overcome a kid inside me and draw some arts with them.

So-. Well-. Y e a h . . . I thought I was too old and too settled to have my wig blown off by a villain but here we are. Istvan is... he is... mmmMmMmmmm. There's not much of him but the character shows so much in evry second of screen time? And yet it's all so subtle? Idk, brother/father came back from Afghanistan but he didn't drown in vodka and became the best "I'm an evil villain but I won't kill my potential killer" in the media.

Istvan, your depression is legendary.

Johanka. No comment. There must always be a mystery in a afab.

Second place! ✨Samuel✨

On a personal level all my subpersonalities are HUGE fans of compensatory destructive behavior in smart and responsible characters who are still romantics deep down but life tries to crush this quality with a asphalt paver (new comparisons are made up by those who have bad old ones).

On a character level, he's simply the hottest thing in the game, I'm drooling. He's mostly reasonable but pritty impulsive; smart, can be a cold-blooded liar but also sooo naive. I'm trying to think in English and I just have no rihgt words. He has a fragile beautiful heart and a steel core blah blah everything is realistic and balanced. Too good.

And it's true, "too goos". Sam is so complex, even over the top for the character of his role. The writers who prepared the boy for the end of the game overdid it a bit for my taste. But it's probably even better this way. As a basic person I'm 100% satisfied with everything about Sam.

Third place. John of Liechtenstein.

John is my first oc pure speculation (is he really that... idk silly? Where is he lying, where is he sincere? Does he drink with Henry because he is genuinely interested? Is it a professional interest? Or does he just need an excuse to drink?) but I turn into a tasmanian devil when art gives a character with a closet that won't close from corpses but they take responsibility for their own failure. Fuuuuck, he looks into the eyes of those whose relatives were killed because of him and escorts the survivors to safety (I could not think of a single practical explanation for his actions, wtf)??? He is too sexy for my miserable mind. Humbles from Pathologic, you'll always be famous.

4. Since when you love this game?

The murder of Runt and the particularly horrific line "a good Christian shouldn't remember such things". At that moment I realized that the writers live, have friends, love and I can have a beer with them (they won't want to drink with me).

I learned about the second part from the scandal. I didn't give a shit for two weeks and then I decided to find out what all the fuss was about. "Well, THAT game can't surprise me, I'm not that fujoshi anymore".

5. How you discovered it?

Back in 2018, I fought with alt-rights cos they liked the game only because it was their ideal fantasy, and not because kcd was historical (women's shaved armpits and smoky eyes, pff). I didn't even play thq game, I was just young and angry.

And I turned on The Scene(tm). And I was stunned. And I shuffled in my clown shoes to the computer.

Hey, KCD2 fans! I made a small "passport" for y'all!

1. What's your OTP?

2. If you want, you can list here some more favorite ships ;)

3. Your favorite characters (top-3)!

4. Since when you love this game?

5. How you discovered it?

#my shitty text post

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lyxchen · 2 months ago

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Okay so I've heard this said a bunch of times and I'm gonna admit I thought like that too for a while but no, Gi-hun did not win the games because he was lucky. A lot of people think that's how he won because he never killed anybody but that's really not the point. Gi-hun won the games because a) he's smart and is able to look at things from a different angle, b) because he is a good and kind person who also believes in others and c) because of the goodness and care get got back from other people.

In the first game he survived because Ali saved him and that wasn't luck, that was Ali being a good person and helping somebody not get killed. Ali could've not caught him, let him die, he didn't even know Gi-hun at all at that point and he put himself in more danger too by having to hold on to a person while standing completely still but he still saved Gi-hun because Ali is a good person.

In the Dalgona game he quite literally Was Not Lucky. He decided to go with the umbrella which is the worst shape to pick and he probably would have died if he hadn't looked at the game in a different way and decided to change his strategy. Gi-hun is smart. He is also optimistic and so he tried something new and found a different way to beat that game.

In the third game he survived because he was smart and kind enough to listen to Il-nam. The other people in their group dismissed him as just an old man speaking but Gi-hun didn't and that way they had a good strategy to beat the other team. The same goes for him listening to Sang-woo's idea of running three steps and then stopping, which ultimately was what saved them. His group also chose him as their leader (who, as Il-nam said, needs to not seem weak or loose hope because then the whole team is doomed). His team trusted in him and his optimism and they were right to do so.

In the marbles game he won because he was once again kind and decided to team up with Il-nam and also because in the end Il-nam decided to "sacrifice himself" for Gi-hun because he showed him kindness before. Yes Il-nam didn't actually die but he also knew that Gi-hun had cheated and still let him continue on to the next game, probably because Gi-hun had been good and kind and caring towards him before, even though he really didn't have to be. Gi-hun also didn't know this but by teaming up with Il-nam he inadvertently ensured that Il-nam had a lot more fun in the games than he would have had, had everybody just ignored to "old, fragile man". Gi-hun was good to Il-nam throughout all the games and it ended up saving him in the marbles game.

In the fifth game it's only some small moments as Gi-hun isn't really involved in the game because he's the last number but still it wasn't just luck. First of all he was kind enough to give the number 1 to the player that asked him for it. Yes, that number was bad but he didn't know that and had he been selfish enough to say no to that other player he wouldn't have survived. Being the last to play in any game can end up being bad for you, still he decided to give up the number he picked because the other player asked him to. Secondly he also survived that game because Sae-byeok was kind enough to remind him of which glass tile to step on after he had forgotten which one it was. It's only small but she didn't have to tell him and still she did. Sae-byeok btw is also good to him because before that he was good to her and protected her (even though he was angry at her at first) and that way he was able to gain her trust.

Lastly he won the Squid Game because Gi-hun was kind to Sang-woo and because Sang-woo deep down was still a good person. There were probably many reasons as to why Sang-woo decided to kill himself in the end but part of it, I'm sure, was also because Gi-hun was a good friend to him. I mean Gi-hun was even willing to give up all the money and go back home with nothing gained if it meant that Sang-woo didn't have to die and would be able to come home with him. Gi-hun deserved that win and that money and in the end Sang-woo knew that. He also knew that Gi-hun would make sure to take care of Sang-woo's mother and that he wouldn't just take all the money for himself because Sang-woo knew that Gi-hun is a good person. (Gi-hun technically also won the Squid Game because he was good at it which is also him being smart)

So in conclusion and I hope y'all haven't stopped reading yet: Gi-hun didn't win the games because he was lucky. He didn't just sit around doing nothing and won anyways. He won because he was smart but even more importantly he won because of the kindness and goodness that exists in humans and that is especially present in him. He won because he had empathy, because people trusted him, because he got back from them what he gave to them first. He never killed anyone and we can clearly see that he Could Never kill anyone in those games but that's not his weakness. Just because he didn't let himself get corrupted and turned into what the games wanted him to turn into doesn't mean he won because of luck. Him not playing by those subtle, hidden rules that are made to force him to be bad, to not care about others and to give up his kindness actually means he was better than the games. He won because he didn't let them turn him into a monster. They tried really hard and they failed and that's how he won!! But also on top of that he also won because he isn't the only good person in this show. He also won because other people helped him, were kind to him and gave a shit about him. Each and every person that helped Gi-hun didn't have to do that. They all could have not helped him, Ali could have not caught him, Sae-byeok could have not told him which one was the correct glass tile, hell, she could have Lied to him about it and the only difference it would have made for the other players would have been them being one more dead person closer to winning all that money. But that's really not how humans are and act which is why all these people helped Gi-hun, helped each other in small or big ways and in the end his own kindness and the kindness that exists in other people is what lead to Gi-hun winning. That's not luck. That humans being good

#people underestimate my man so much and he's literally the main character #gosh this post is so long i hope people even read it fully #man (gn) i was never able to just write out essays on some random topic for school #but when it's about my favorite show i can write some long ass analysis post on the goodness in humans shown in a series about death games #or really anything to do with any show or movie i love #like #it's mostly in the small details which are much more subtle and unnoticed than the bad things some characters do #but also #it's because that isn't normal #somebody like deoksu pushing people to their deaths in the glass bridge game is much more uncommon than somebody like saebyeok reminding you #which tile is the right one to step on #of course we notice that big bad thing happening more because it's not normal it's not what we see every day #but somebody helping you out somebody being kind that somebody maybe even being someone you don't know at all #we see that every day #every day we go out into the world and help each other survive and sometimes it's in big ways but even if it's just small things #we see that every day everywhere in the world because in the end that's what people are like #people aren't mean for no reason or actively plan on how to take you down #(well some people are but those people are the exception)#instead most people will either just let you live your life but very often also help you and care and be good #anyways i feel like i'm getting off topic but yeah #that's how gihun won #because humanity is good and he represents the best of humanity #as in kindness goodness care and sometimes even sacrificing your own comfort to save somebody else #that is who gihun is and that is ultimately what helped him survive #lea's random thoughts #squid game #squid game analysis #seong gi hun #seong gihun #cho sang woo

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