#hes actually such a good character if u can get his approval up

[squibll]

worldstate where the hero of ferelden does get to go with sten postgame, actually

[willows-peak]

*･ﾟ✧ How the JJK characters show their love for u (love languages)

tags: multi character x reader, gn! reader, fluff, just overwhelming amts of fluff

word count: 1.3k

a/n: im starting off with some fluff, bc they all deserve some soft loving <3

⋆｡˚ ♡ PHYSICAL TOUCH: light squeezes of your hand, hugs from behind, leaning on your shoulder on the train, holding your wrist while you walk together, no matter what their hands are on you. they just love you too much to keep away from you, can you blame them? the feeling of you against their skin makes them feel happier than they could ever expect, even when they're coming across as clingy sometimes.

nobara will tug on your sleeve until you oblige and follow her around the mall, your hand either taken by your girlfriend's or the brightly colored shopping bags she'd acquired over your trip. some for her, some for you, because she was just dying to put you in some of the shirts she'd seen around the mall. and she's smile and kiss your cheek when you went with her requests with no fuss

yuuji will take no liberties in picking you up at any point. greeting you? you're up in the air before you can say 'hello'. god help you if you even mention being tired, because he will carry you in his arms without a moments hesitation, holding you close to his chest and claiming he can't in good conscious let you walk while tired! as your boyfriend, its his job to take care of you

gojo will never ever hesitate to embarrass you with how doting he can get. dramatically gasping whenever he sees you in his kitchen making a snack and rushing over to you, pressing kiss after kiss to your face and squeezing you while praising the heavens he's able to see you today, ignoring how you turned your face away and whined at him to lay off

⋆｡˚ ♡ WORDS OF AFFIRMATION: with someone like you, how do you expect them to keep their mouth shut? they can never get enough of the way you blush or laugh at their compliments, or their daily vows of love. "you're a great cook, dear." if you made them a meal, or fawning over how great you look today, despite you being dressed in loose pajamas with a messy bedhead. they need you to always know how in love they are, constantly.

sukuna, surprisingly, can offer quite a few bits of praise to you through the day. while you may have to pause and figure out his wording to actually receive a compliment at times, that doesn't change how he'll always show his approval of you in his own way. he never fails to acknowledge your effort in something, patting your shoulder and congratulating you on whatever you did.

nanami is always straight to the point when he speaks, wasting no extra time to dance around a subject and often being more blunt than necessary with his words. and that carries over to how he loves you, of course. kissing the temple of your head, murmuring about how lucky he is to be with you, brushing hair out of your face while you lean in for a proper kiss.

⋆｡˚ ♡ GIFT GIVING: plastic charms, figurines, hair clips, clothes, jewelry, stuffies, flowers, games, they're never ending. you're never not on their mind, so it's really impossible for them to be out and about without seeing some beautiful roses in a shop window and not hesitate at all with buying it for you. a single off handed comment about how you're a fan of something, and suddenly your arms are full of different kinds of merch. you've had to reorganize your room countless times to fit everything they've gotten you in there, and you're starting to look like a hoarder. but, it makes them happy, so what choice do you have?

getou could plant acres of flower fields with how much roses he'd gotten you. you can't even remember when you'd told him your favorite flower, the innocent seeming question still forcing you to fill up vase after vase of beautifully picked red roses. the amount of times getou had shown up to your door, hands behind his back with a smile plastered over his face at your weary sigh. "what did you get now, sugu..." "i don't have a clue what you mean, my love."

maki will take the extra step and take you with her when she gets a gift idea, finding the way you'd fret over her funds as she casually bought you yet another scarf she caught you eyeing much cuter than surprising you with it. this happens so often that she's caught you snapping your head forwards when letting your eye linger on something too long, making her laugh and peck your cheek before snatching it up before you could notice.

⋆｡˚ ♡ QUALITY TIME: quiet nights, spent curled up next to each other simply enjoying the others presence. sitting next to you while you play your favorite game, throwing occasional questions at you and smiling when you eagerly answer them. sometimes they get sheepish at how in love they are, that you simply being there makes them feel happier than anything. but when you're cozied up next to them, snoring softly against their chest, they can't seem to care too much about anything else

megumi is the king of silent time together, claims it helps him study and plan for missions when nothing is happening around him. and while that's true, often times he will replace 'feeling lonely and wanting your company' with 'studying for an exam'. he's sure you aren't aware of what he truly means when he asks to come over though, even when he shows up with no textbooks or notes to 'study from', and immediately goes to cuddle up against you when you usher him inside your room.

choso is..very clingy lol. always following behind you wherever you go, sitting next to you with a soft smile even as you aimlessly scroll through your phone. he's so silent that you've forgotten his presence entirely a few times, yelping when you hear a low sigh or a shuffle of his hand against your own. you felt a little exposed at first, always being under surveillance by him, but you adjusted pretty quickly and accepted his way of affection.

⋆｡˚ ♡ ACTS OF SERVICE: call it a hero complex, but they just adore being your knight in shining armor. holding the door open for you, finishing an assignment for you after learning how stressed you've been recently, wrapping their coat around you when it gets too chilly out, making your favorite meal just because they could. why should you have to do things when they're right there?

toji, despite having cast away his family name, was still raised by a traditional family. which meant he'd assigned himself to any hard work that needed to be done. plumbing, cleaning, repairing of any kind, he was on it. at first he did it out of habit, used to being forced to pick up any chore that others didn't feel like doing. but over time, the way you'd thank him and hug him tight when he did something for you made his heart melt. nowadays, he almost gets giddy when he hears your frustrated mumbling from across the room, happy to help you yet again with whatever you needed.

yuuta is really the sweetest thing... he's always ready to help you out, no matter how small the issue is. the mornings are his favorite, though, watching your chest rise and fall peacefully while sunlight slowly made its way across your sleeping form. he loves being able to tidy up your room and get breakfast ready for you while you peacefully sleep the sunrise away. he'd turn his head towards the hall as he heard your footsteps shuffle closer to him, a blanket draped over your sleepy figure as you greeted him.

inumaki, even with your reassurance, still feels guilty at times for not being able to talk with you how you're used to. deciphering rice ball ingredients in response to you asking when his is birthday isn't the simplest task, unfortunately. so, he always makes sure to show his love through simple tasks he can do for you. keeping extra snacks in his bag for when you get hungry during class, handing you his umbrella if he notices the sky beginning to dribble on your way home, even when you insist he keep it. he doesn't mind the rain if it's with you.

[mohntilyet]

literally cannot remember if this is already a post you made but do u think about if illario was a companion character and lucanis wasnt (maybe still rescued from the ossuary, maybe not). would he even be a viable companion character. etc.

i think i've mentioned it in tags but god yeah i've been thinking about companion illario. through bias and visions i think he could have made a really great companion!!!! i just don’t think we had enough who lie to/betray you in veilguard and i was like illario would love to do this <3 or at least TRY to do this and find that he can’t, because the betrayal-according-to-approval mechanic would return in this concept. this assumes a lot of things that i consider to be canon, including that illario’s a genuinely good assassin (YMMV on this i think. i look upon him with rose tinted glasses) but we’re introduced to illario as the second-best option who accompanied lucanis on various mage-killing quests.

he’s recruited in minrathous and not treviso because he’s been killing venatori like a man crazed. i forget who made the post but the one about how veilguard recruitment quests feel forced because you are recruiting, when stumbling on the right people could have felt more organic and a lot less formulated. he’s been operating in minrathous as the ‘demon of vyrantium’, which he admits to rook that he’s not the original. the original was lucanis, who was captured and killed by the venatori, and in his grief, has been trying to kill the magister (zara) that killed his cousin. he’s actually very nice and fun for an assassin, but players get the feeling that the charm is practiced, and there are glimpses into the “something rotten” under the surface.

what the players also do not know is that his hatred for the venatori is definitely projecting his guilt, because even in this au, illario is the guy who originally betrayed his brother and his complexes (slash pos slash hot slash i often picture him on his knees) remain. anyways. plot breakdown under the cut because its so fucking long and please take with a grain of salt because this was workshopped on a call with fie, who ‘yes and’s everything i say, so it might not be the greatest plot ever. nor very coherent. however, this is my blog and i can say whatever i want

act one recruitment: hunting down and killing zara. there’s foreshadowing here or something where she definitely recognises him and the facial animation leans towards “betrayal”. like zara saying “you?” in a way that can be mistaken for fear, when it’s recognition and betrayal + illario killing her before she can reveal anything else. they find evidence that lucanis is still alive and you see how excited he is, but also very conflicted. illario finally returns to treviso, and you immediately see the favoritism when he informs caterina that lucanis could still be out there. caterina delights in the idea of her favorite weapon back in her possession, and illario swears to bring him back.

in between: there’s a venatori leak! the magisters send some back up to weisshaupt which makes things a lot harder for the veilguard (miniboss before ghil?), and it contributes to failing to strike at ghilanain. but who could it be? everyone is a bit wary of each other, and causes friction.

act two: the ossuary <3 inexplicably, illario has found where lucanis is. the veilguard fights their way in and out, escaping with lucanis and destroying the vial of blood. they also find out lucanis is possessed, and when they return to treviso, after the shock and relief leaves, there’s a gleam in caterina’s eyes. illario is moved up in line of succession because caterina can’t see an abomination becoming talon (canon not discussing that he’s fucking possessed pisses me off so bad btw), and she’s obviously envisioning a world where lucanis’ leash is passed onto the grandson she’d seen as lesser, but has recently proved himself better than she had previously judged. suddenly, illario has everything he’s ever wanted, but not in the way he’s wanted it. he’s never wanted to necessarily be greater than, and doesn’t want to lose him. illario is very uncomfortable about becoming a new caterina to lucanis, but can’t express himself or explain it because he’s deeply repressed and he’s trying to be happy because, isn’t this what he wants?

in between: illario’s acting super weird. a high approval illario is a lot more awkward and doesn’t seem to know what to say, which is a first for him. he’s obviously putting on a brave/pretty face on, and hesitates to say something— but finally just thanks rook for helping him get lucanis back. a low approval illario is actually much happier, smiling and laughing and delighted by the way things have gone, with rook/the player none the wiser about what’s happened. (kind of like… bull’s reaction to the chargers in the dreadnought quest being positive either way, but the repercussions come later)

if you are in a romance, a low approval illario will trigger a sex scene, a high approval illario does the dellamorte branded “lean in for a kiss but he can’t bring himself to actually follow through and leaves rook awkwardly”. the differences in reaction would ideally confuse and interest players :)

act three: hinges on approval rating. illario plotted to trade rook’s life for lucanis’. the venatori at weisshaupt was supposed to be their shot to kill them, but failed to do so, and now they’re forcing him to make good on his deal. there’s a cutscene where the party is led into a trap and a high ranking venatori magister— the one who actually experimented on lucanis (because zara is like a middle man. she wants the blood but isn’t the evil mage scientist who did all the experiments)— shows himself and reveals everything illario has done. he was the one behind lucanis’ initial ‘death’. how the venatori leak was him. illario is desperately trying to keep the venatori’s mouth shut, but the magister is tricking him with magic as he tries harder and harder to keep his cover. a fun, trippy kind of sequence where there are illusions and mindfucky magic as illario stabs at the magister and finds out he’s attacking air, and the party keeps getting attacked with magic that they can’t figure out is real or not until it hits them, in this hall of mirrors type freakshow. it splits into two different paths:

low approval: the deal to save lucanis over rook was made early on, and nothing they have done has made illario think differently. he’s scripted to be more defensive and try to stop the magister from speaking, ignoring the party and thinking only about how he can keep his secrets but failing to. he’s angry that his plans have fallen down around him, and attacks both the party and venatori, determined to keep his failures from reaching anyone else (god forbid it reach caterina). the party are forced to kill him when he turns on them, willing to work with the venatori to keep the power he has before it slips away from him again.

high approval: everything they have done has made illario think differently and he’s spent ages regretting and trying to find a way out of the deal (see: the distress he feels right after becoming first talon, interesting codexes, etc). he’s scripted to defend rook from magic, at cost to himself, physically protecting his friends/rook from the magister and getting in the way of spells. he admits what he’s done and pleads with them to help him, despite having no reason to trust him. after the party fights the magister off together, illario begs for forgiveness, explaining himself, how regret couldn’t make up for what he’s done but he’s still tried to change things, change himself. but how could you ignore the feeling that, as with everything else in his life, that this is another lie? you get the choice to trust him and forgive him, or kill him for betraying the veilguard. i think this can hit harder if he’s romanced and you forgive him. the image of him pleading literally on his knees is about to get me to black out, followed by a rook who gets down on the ground and lowers themselves to his level just to kiss him before pulling them both up onto their feet again…. its like a ‘i fear to stain your hands with blood’ moment <3

completed companion quest: faced with compassion that he’s basically never extended to anyone, illario is inspired. he admits this guilt to lucanis, wanting to make him talon and leave everything behind, and while lucanis initially is obviously both angry and distressed, he later seeks out illario by himself, and their reconciliation happens off screen. i’d love for rook to be there so i could this but i honestly do not think its their place like can we leave the dellamortes to do this by themselves. in private its just a very “you went through hell to get me back. i think i need to give you a chance” + a slow rebuilding of the trust they had. and also lucanis has not even gotten the same outside support system as illario has taken his place and i think it’s good to note that. well. illario is about the most positive his relationships get and the only other person he would potentially have is caterina, who is also a more intense and outwardly scheming in this au. so not to be like “lucanis has no choice” but he kinda has no choice LOL. the point is: lucanis decides to protect him, and says that this betrayal is something they have to keep secret together as long as it safeguards illario, which safeguards himself. like what would the crows think of 1) illario trying to usurp power using an outside source (infighting/betrayal is okay. bringing a third party into crow business is not), 2) illario losing the idgaf war and desperately bringing lucanis back, 3) lucanis being possessed, 4) lucanis forgiving illario despite it all because they’re so codependent they can’t even bring themselves to leave the other. house dellamorte so weak that they can’t snuff out the weakness in each other? oh fucking brother. they can’t let anyone know how dire this situation is, and need to present a united front. also the terrible fact that they love each other deeply remains. mentioned in banter probably? eg:

“So… what do the Crows think?” // “The Crows don’t know.” // “…What? But your brother, and you—“ // “Are keeping it to ourselves. We’ve discussed this. House Dellamorte can’t afford to look divided, not right now.” // “So, what, he just forgave you?! You’re moving on? From trying to kill him?” // “'Forgave' is such a strong word, but maybe someday, yes. And we’re not just family, we’re Antivan Crows. You should know by now that we’re odd like this.”

“Illario. How long do you think you can keep that secret?” // “Considering only us, Lucanis and I know about it, hopefully forever. He insists that no one else has to know. Or should I be afraid that you’re going to go tell on me?” // “No! It’s just… Lucanis doesn’t, I don’t know, want vengeance?” // “Ha! He is the vengeancey one. But no. No, he’s… between the two of us, he’s always been the good one.” // “Lucky you.”

i also picture a lot of post revelations blackwall type banters and maybe something like davrin going “I have to believe you can be better, that you’ve changed. Half the Wardens are like that.” and once again i have to grieve varric because if there’s anyone that would understand lying their ass off and having mixed feelings about their brother, IT’S HIM LOOLLL. i think harding would treat him quite harshly, and neve loses a lot of respect because why would you ever even think about working with the venatori. but there’s a recognition over how he’s changed for the better. i think bellara is the surprise sympathiser, with everything she feels about cyrian. (“For a second, listening to Anaris to be with my brother again was worth it. So… yeah. I get it.” // “You weren’t foolish enough to fall for it. I did.” // “But you’re fixing it, aren’t you?” // “I’m trying.” // “Cyrian tried too. And if I can still forgive him, I can forgive you too.” // “…Thank you.” )

i also think a serious talk about being talon happens, where lucanis doesn't think he should be talon (possessed so his self worth is at an all time low. and also he's always thought illario should be talon anyway) and asks illario to keep the title. which is... weird because suddenly illario realises he doesn't necessarily want to be talon anymore. sure he can, sure he finally has caterina's approval, but he's got a new chance in life and he's not sure he wants to spend his life running an organisation that doesn't even care about him, would betray him first chance they got and remind him of the way he used to be, or see who he is the way the veilguard/lucanis has. his bitterness towards caterina also trumps his envy of lucanis, and the idea of lucanis resenting him as much as he resents caterina is something he'd like to avoid, which is another reason he's uncomfortable with being expected to tug at the leash. indecisive, illario can't quite fully commit himself to the crows, but is nervous about what leaving them would mean.

endgame: he would take lucanis’ place as a magekiller in this ofc, so he’s the guy killing ghil, and (for now….) first talon leading the crows to fight in minrathous (illario: “one of us should probably say something. remind the crows in whose name this fight is to be fought. we are emotional beings after all, and rhetoric is the fuel that feeds the fire—“ viago: “maker’s sake just give your speech”) i’ve also implied romance throughout this ask while not discussing it properly (ask me about it later. i need time to think on the whole romance arc and beats i know it exists but i refuse to give out half baked illario thoughts.) and i think the endgame post-fade prison talk would be very sweet and so intensely genuine/sincere and illario’s half struggling with being this truthful but pushes through because he wants to say “i love you” and really mean it. almost losing rook has put his priorities in order, and rook is at the top of this order, which has made him reevaluate everything else in his life and realise, "i don't think i can live without you. please don't make me". it’s fun for me that lucanis’ romance is a first in many different ways, but for illario it would be the first time experiencing actual romantic feelings for someone that he’s not faking, so you can imagine the damage its wrecking on his crow-psyche. sometime here i think there’d also be a decision where he’d ask to leave the crows and be with rook, tho i also think if given the chance to develop he could actually find something he cares more about than being first talon. genuine affection might kill him, reciprocated affection would probably be the nail in that “fuck the crows actually i just found out i like life outside of treviso” coffin.

but this is kind of leaning towards “illario only leaves the crows if you romance him” which i don’t like the sound of. he should be able to do that without a romantic relationship. i think narratively the best way to end this arc is for illario to leave the crows after having found alternatives to what he believed his life should amount to (as i think lucanis should have in veilguard), but i also don’t exactly know how to end it. i do want house dellamorte to be defunct, like an ‘illario leaves, and so does lucanis’ thing, where even lucanis gets the chance to grow out of believing “death is his calling”. i also like the idea that illario, ever the extrovert, gets real friends and is like “LUCANIS. you gotta fucking experience this” LMFAO. i’m thinking maybe the companion you spend most time with illario in the party after his act 3 quest starts to suggest things, so neve being like “you made a pretty great demon of vyrantium. consider making venatori-killing your full time job, you were good at it, despite all the traitor stuff.” or taash going “you know, you wouldn’t be the first lord of fortune to make mind numbingly stupid mistakes. drop by sometime. you and isabela can bond over it.” and they’re half joking but it makes the cogs in illario’s mind turn where he’s like “whoa. i could just. stay with the people who like me!” and where he goes is mentioned in the epilogue. a romanced illario would potentially just join the faction rook is a part of, tho a de riva would probably be unique in choosing if they want to remain a crow.

HOWEVER. i honestly don’t know if this is in character. fie and i convinced ourselves it was but i’ve had some time to really chew on it and idk if he’d want to give his ambitions up?? if someone has managed to read on this far, feel free to suggest things if you like i am always stumped because i don’t actually want to crows to stop being an assassin house, and there’s ofc no way to really make them ‘softer’ without taking away the bite that makes them interesting to play with. but extricating the dellamorte cousins from this WHILE feeling true to dragon age writing is difficult lol. just let me think. i’ll be back with some results hopefully.

side note: if illario is killed, lucanis takes his place with some difficulty (spite getting in the way, and no relationship building as he would get in canon) especially because despite his incredibly complicated feelings about his cousin trying to kill him, all of his anger is directed at rook for actually killing him. it doesn’t matter if lucanis would/could have never forgiven him, or otherwise, rook has taken that chance of hashing it out with illario from him completely, and lucanis won’t forgive them for it.

anyways the potential endings and first talons:

lucanis defaults into first talon if illario is killed as the only remaining heir, and struggles in this role alone, though the fact he is an abomination helps keep the crows in control for a while #cycles #snakethateatsitsowntail #housedellamorteissocooked

illario can remain first talon if encouraged to stay during the endgame, or if romanced by a rook de riva that also chooses to stay with the crows. depending on how the crow missions were complete, his direction with the crows either hardens/softens the organisation.

teia becomes first talon if illario decides to leave the crows, and rook has made choices that lean towards ‘softening’ the crows, eg. sparing ivenci to humiliate him, helping the crow-venatori loves run away, being kind towards jacobus, etc. the crows gain a reputation for coercion and can once in a while be found targeting, killing or exposing corrupt officials.

viago becomes first talon if illario decides to leave the crows, and rook has made choices that lean towards ‘hardening’ the crows, eg. killing ivenci to humiliate him, turning in the crow-venatori lovers, being harsh with jacobus, etc. the crows gain a reputation for efficient, quick assassinations that tip the scales towards anyone who can pay for their services.

if missions were not complete, the antivan crows’ reputation falls as they get sloppier, unable to recover from their losses and struggling to keep ahold of their power. there’s a reshuffling of talons, but the crows are in such disarray that it takes a decade for them to recover and gain back the effeciency they used to be infamous for.

ANYWAYS. sorry for that it is actually getting away from me and i don’t know how much of this is clear and how much of it is just my wishful thinking. i think there’s enough good things here to publish as an answer tho i’m aware this plot is kind of dollar store zevran LOL. maybe the best way to describe it is that i’ve accidentally combined blackwall, bull, and zevran’s arcs into this. hope this is at least a bit compelling for you anon!!!!!

[everytimewetouch-dot-mp3]

modern bingyuan ft. werewolf luo binghe and human shen yuan (listen i have a brain disease (autism that is omegaverse and werewolf flavored) okay, i cant help it)

binghe’s pack:

mobei jun, his second-in-command

shang qinghua, mobei jun’s mate pet human

sha hualing, nasty bitch (affectionate) who comes in clutch during territory disputes and shit

various underlings

(tangential pack members: tianlang jun and zhuzhi-lang, by virtue of bing lbh’s relatives. tlj was meant to be the pack’s alpha, but didn’t have much interest in leadership)

vague story ideas below the cut:

shen yuan moves to the same city as sqh to be closer to physicians that specialize in his medical condition. sqh initially seems really excited to meet in person, then puts it off again and again until shen yuan calls him from the hospital like ‘dude listen i know u maybe don’t actually want to meet irl but im gonna be in the hospital for a few days and im bored out of my skull, can u just bring me some games or smth and leave them at the nurses’ station’

sqh feels bad for putting off the hangout for so long, so he brings the games, the nurse directs him to shen yuan’s room, and here we meet mbj who’s curious abt who’s been bugging sqh to hang out for the past couple weeks. after that, sqh comes to visit shen yuan in the hospital every day while he’s there. he bitches about it, but it’s friendly bitching.

meanwhile sqh and mbj keep showing up to pack stuff smelling like human—one specific human. and he smells good, at least in lbh’s opinion. so he gets curious and keeps bugging qinghua to introduce him to this sweet-smelling human. ofc, he makes it seem like he’s suspicious of the human who’s suddenly started hanging around his second. sqh finally gives in and invites shen yuan to hang out with his other friends (shen yuan is very excited and extremely anxious).

binghe is immediately obsessed. shen yuan is smart and funny and a little rude, even though it doesn’t seem like he means to be, and he smells so fucking good it’s unreal. lbh doesn’t let hualing bully shen yuan, which is out of character for him nice. mobei jun tacitly approves of him, qinghua is already his friend, and hualing doesn’t try to kill him within 20 mins of meeting, so it’s p much a success. there’s one point where shen yuan’s scent suddenly turns sour from pain and the werewolves all pause, but qinghua keeps yapping on and the only sign shen yuan gives of being in pain is a tightening of his jaw and a deep, sharp inhale through the nose

after shen yuan goes home, mobei jun tells binghe that shen yuan had been in the hospital but wouldn’t say what for; he assumes shen yuan was injured somehow? but every few hangouts, shen yuan’s scent does that thing again. binghe and he have been getting closer, and eventually for some reason or another (tianlang jun or zhuzhi lang, maybe?) he’s pressured into revealing that he’s a werewolf. also at some vague, hand-wavy time, shen yuan explains that he’s not injured, he’s just got heart problems

shen yuan’s got a hand-wavy heart condition inspired by long QT; he moved because he went into cardiac arrest during a regular hospital visit and his family was like ‘ok we thought this was managed but u now need to see the best specialists in the country’ and the specialists were like ‘ok you’re getting an implantable cardiac defibrillator like yesterday; why didnt they do that after your heart stopped last time???????’ which is why he was in the hospital

anyways blah blah maybe somebody kidnaps shen yuan to get to luo binghe or smth like that, binghe goes all badass bingge mode and kills some people, and then they fuck nasty (but also tenderly!!!) and they live happily ever after

[silviakundera]

Does it feel like they're trying to redeem the dickless bore? idk if he's doing a con on her or they're showing he has real feelings for her wasn't the novel different?

One thing I'm really noticing in the Princess Royal (Grand Princess) adaption is that they will 'play it straight' with characters like Su Rongqing and the Emperor: giving the character similar dialogue and facial expressions as they would have in the novel -- except without PWX or LR's internal dialogue of 🙄 why u lying???

🙄 lol ok sure

😒 oh i see, back on your bullshit again

😤 the AUDACITY

😬 oh shit oh shit danger BE COOL

The consequence is that if you take everything at face value, the Emperor seems like a reasonable guy and not up for The Absolute Worst Dad award. Under the surface, the novel reader knows he is acting out a play and coldly calculating every interaction with Li Rong, the Crown Prince, and Consort Ruo. Every single scene with him, Li Rong is in peril and she knows it. She's pretending to be his sweet, obedient 19 year old daughter who believes in him and is following Pei Wenxuan's direction and acting as a puppet, making moves that he has already approved PWX to make. The Emperor's pretending that this play isn't supposed to end with LR and the Crown Prince taken down & the power transferred into Consort Ruo and the other prince's hands.

The viewer can just interpret all the words coming out of a character's mouth as facts & just believe everything they claim about their motives/real agenda as true. Or they recall the implied horrorshow of Life 1 and view all of these interactions with a cynical eye, questioning what else could be under the surface.

With SRQ, that guy is so fucking complicated. I think actually he's portrayed in character. Nothing we have seen isn't .... him. At least so far, as of ep 19 he aligns with the novel.

But 3 different factors: A) The music is romantizing him; B) The audience is given a couple internal-thought voice overs from him, which other antagonists don't get; C) With those voice-overs, the screenwriter has chosen to affirm his love for his brother and LR way earlier than the reader has it confirmed in the novel (where he is intentionally kept a total mystery for far longer, while the reader is the math lady meme, trying to piece together clues to figure him out).

And ultimately, when in SRQ's PoV in the drama, we have to deal with him being the hero of his own story. He is absolutely sincere about himself and, as has been revealed, in his own way he's sincere about wanting LR and his brother to have a good life this time around.

So does that mean the writer intends to do a swerve in the narrative arc and redeem him in the end? It's totally possible. Maybe?

However, not necessarily.

#1 There is a certain refrain from many of the great cnovel/drama villians: I had no choice! You all forced me to this!

We saw it from Shen Yurong in The Double, we saw it from Meng Yao/JGY in The Untamed, and in the novel (and I presume in the drama), we're gonna see it from Su Rongqing.

And it's the reason why they become villians who can't be saved. Because so many people suffer in life or experience unfairness. But they don't turn around and use this as an excuse to enact horrible cruelties on others.

Out of the billions of people in the world, few have no problems but so many of them actively chose to do good, or are willing at least to turn back and be better.

#2 imo the reason LR has historically been bad at reading people's hearts but has an exquisite read of SRQ, his flaws & darkness, is THAT'S HER FUCKING MOM. And I do think ep 16-18 put that out there in the text, if you're looking for it. He and the empress are the same sophisticated aristocrat who is clever & educated but with a narrow perspective limited by their privilege and desperate need to maintain the status quo. So sorry bro, but no wonder she might have settled for marrying you in the first life if you wanted to, but she was never gonna fall in love with you 💀.

PWX can see that SRQ loves her and he thinks that matters, so it scares him. LR has tender nostalgia for her empress mother and her former companion but she's all too aware that their love for her will not necessarily get in the way of stepping on her to protect the social structure of a powerful aristocracy class operating at a higher level above the peasants and restraining the throne. To them, this is safety and stability that guards the realm.

(ofc both those characters are complex and when it comes to LR's life & death we can't be confident on what they will always choose. that's part of what made all the palace drama aspects of the novel incredibly suspenseful. So many of the suppporting characters are layered and tho everything they do makes sense when it happens, you can't often predict people's hard choices when their back is up against the wall)

Story of Kunning Palace and The Grand Princess say that caring about people and trying your best to understand them, wanting what's best for them by listening to what's best for them, can make a huge difference. But not everyone is willing to change.

[beautysamour]

Heyyy

Omg I love your writing so much 💖💖

I was wondering if u could do one with kenji where your warners twin and you're kinda funny and chill and basically warner and kenji r arguing or smthng and he comes and complains to u.

Sorry if its too specific it just came to me lol

Do I wanna know?

✧ 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: kenji kishimoto x reader

✧ 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬: kenji kishimoto, mentioned aaron warner

✧ 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: Kenji fully believes you’re the better twin

✧ 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: none

✧ 𝐚/𝐧: !! despite being aaron’s twin, there’s no physical description of the reader, no specification for whether you’re identical to him or not !! thank you for the request 💓

“And then— and then! He tells me that he doesn’t even like me as a human so why would he love if me I was a worm,” he looks at you with an offended expression, “Can you believe that?!”

“No,” you say sarcastically with an amused smile, “Totally out of character for my brother.”

Kenji huffs and drops himself on your bed, “He’s terrible, y/n, I can’t believe you grew up with him.”

You snort, Kenji and your brothers relationship was…you don’t even know how to explain it. They weren’t exactly on bad terms but they did get in each others nerves—the complete opposite to your relationship with Kenji.

You always liked Kenji even when he was a soldier, and he liked you two. You didn’t have any power at Sector 45 so Kenji naturally separated you from your brother, at the time. But as time went on, Aaron grew on Kenji and your almost certain Kenji has also grown on your brother.

“He really isn’t that bad, Kenji,” you try not to laugh when he groans at your response.

“Yeah, well compared to you, he’s nothing like the saint you are.”

“Oh, woah,” you draw out your words sarcastically, “A saint.”

“Yes!” He exclaims, “If I haven’t made it obvious already, you’re the better twin.”

You laugh. It’s not a surprise that Kenji still preferred you over your brother, considering that he was your friend first, but Kenji’ dramatics never failed to entertain you. “I mean you did say he was the worst, didn’t take a lot to put two and two together and figure you liked me more.”

“See? I’d argue you’re also the smarter twin too.”

Your mouth drops in fake surprise, “Really?”

“Uh huh, I mean you love me so that automatically makes you smarter,” he says as he pushes himself up with his left arm.

You laugh again, “So is that all my brother did?”

“Y—,” he widens his eyes as if he remembered something a fully pushes himself up on your bed, “No actually. He said the only reason he tolerates—tolerates!— me is because we’re dating.”

You nod your head, it wasn’t really a lie if you were being honest. It was funny to you though.

You scoot closer to him putting on your best puppy dog eyes and look at him through your lashes—you try not to laugh when he visibly stiffens, “Yes….?”

You grab one of Kenji’ hands and put it in your lap. You start to play with his fingers, once you reach his middle you start talking, “Are you upset by that?”

“Um…all jokes aside just a little?”

You hum. “So are you saying that you’d rather be on his good side than mine?”

Kenji rearranges himself in your bed so he’s properly facing you and grabs your hands, completely falling for your little trick, “No! No, no, I was mainly joking—“

“Are you sure?” You take one of your hands from his grasp, “You seem awfully affected by it.”

“Well—of course. He’s most likely going to be my brother in law, I of course care about his opinion. But his—I don’t know what to call it—approval? I’d rather have yours over his any day.”

You remain quiet for a few moments dragging out the silence. Then you start to laugh, and Kenji starts to get confused.

“Did I say something funny?”

“No, but it’s just a little funny that you thought I was actually sad you were talking about my brother so much,” you say in between laughs, “I’m glad you care so much about his opinion.”

“Well—“

“And brother in law?”

Kenji opens his mouth but nothing comes out. He looks as if he got caught stealing something.

“Uh,” he starts to say, “Sorry if I—“

You shake your head and grab onto the collar of his shirt, you pull forward and make sure that your lips connected with his to shut him up.

Kenji relaxes into the kiss almost immediately, and you only pull away when his hands start to fiddle with the hem of your shirt, “Kenji,” you say softly and also as quiet as a whisper, “I’m not upset. I’m actually happy you’ve thought of, you know, with me.”

For what felt like the longest time since, Kenji smiled and said, “How could I not with you?”

[aeonofladys]

Why i believe opal being a kid makes sense

We already know opal is kind of crazy and most likely doesn't use peaceful methods. A way this could have happened is, he was manipulated since a baby by the ipc to believe he is doing good, and doesn't truly understand what he does or who he hurts are actual people, seeing this more like a game.

Additionally, if someone grew up in a place where shedding blood to get what u want is considered normal and perhaps even encouraged, would he truly be able to develop the required empathy and courage to go against the people that he most likely looks up to? Especially if he truly a very young kid, wich is 100 times easier to manipulate.

That way, being manipulated since youth to believe in very worng ideals and not even registering on what he is doing is wrong, he will most likely view this as a silly game to gain praise, approval and money ,wich can get him a lot like physical items, for example toys, but also stuff like respect. It will bot be that hard for him to realise that the more money he has, the more people treat him nicely, because he can be of use to them and has a lot of influence but idk if he will realise the second part.

And of course, for the same exact reason, he won't view lives as actual lives, but more off a number. As said before, he will almost to even zero empathy, and he won't even be able to register that those are actual people he is hurting. He will view them as a stepping stone , or perhaps a way to win the game more easily.

Last but not least, he will start to get bored one day. Kids easily get bored with their toys. And so he will seek more entertainment. Will do even more crazy stuff. Will kill even more people, in different ways, just to give him some entertainment. Or perhaps just to gain a little more praise. Maybe after he has won so many battles, the adults won't give him such heartfelt compliments because they will start to expect it and so beraly give him attention. And what does a kid crave the most? Attention. Especially from the people he looks up to. So he will start to do more crazy stuff, so he could hopefully win faster, so the adults would actually get suprised and give him wayyy more attention.

It would also be very fun to see how he deals with relationships and attachment. Will he seek parental love out of people? Making stuff read bedtime stories to him, and asking them to do basic parental stuff, but once they mess up he will give them a punishment or even kill them because that's the environment he was grown up and his kid-like mind won't even register the fact it isn't the correct way to love? Or will he despise the idea of people looking down at him for being a child? People looking down at him, when they should be looking up, and praise him for all the things he has accomplished! Will he also hate attachment? That's something i am not truly sure of yet. But one thing i do know is that he will get attached without knowing it. Perhaps an additional reason on why he chose aventurine to live is because he has gotten slightly attached to him. Or perhaps because he found him as someone who will bring more entertainment to him. Or perhaps even none of this, and it's truly him wanting to follow diamond's wishes.

All in all, I truly hope he is an actual kid because it will be very fun to see how they will write him. Plus i truly adore the idea that he views everything a game.

I genuinely do believe it kind of fits his character the more i think about it, but maybe i am just self-indulging myself. Please tell me your thoughts!

{Ofc his actions aren't excused tho Imao. I can't wait to learn more about him, and he will most likely be the next stone head we learn about so i cant wait. }

[oh-no-its-bird]

Just wanted to say I adore all your au's but the idea of Tora and Shisui are sending me my two favorite boys interacting

They'd be so fun together!! I honestly think they'd have really good chemistry

I see them as one of those dynamics where people take turns looking at them and going "oh ok so HE'S the sane one, right?" but switching who they're talking about depending on the hour of the day. (The catch is neither of them is normal they're just so good at acting it that they've managed to trick even themselves)

They have to take turns being in charge in the trio with Itachi bc if either one of them is left in charge for long periods of time it inevitably goes to shit

They have a lot of genuine respect for each other (which is somewhat rare coming from Tora, who, while gives a lot of surface level respect to people bc ettiquite, doesn't actually tend to really respect a lot of people)

They have the perfect personalities to play off eachother as the "straight man" and point out when the other is being insane or just plain weird

Meanwhile, Itachi is looking at their individual crazy going "this is a perfectly normal idea told by two perfectly normal upstanding members of the community and I have no issues with anything u are saying right now"

<- which also makes Itachi the perfect tie breaker/in-between for them bc he is blind to any crazy they may say and will take them very seriously no matter how stupid or outlandish the idea proposed

I think Tora existing and kind of dragging Shisui into this dual partnership for "who's in charge" between the three of them also eases a lot of stress off of Itachi. He just has to sit there and eat his applesauce in the back seat of the car as Tora and Shisui argue ab how to take care of any given problem and occasionally ask if he has any ideas.

Personal take here: I don't think Itachi likes being in charge! That boy is a born, built, and bred shinobi who follows what he is told to a perfect T, no matter how blatantly horrifically awful the order is! Even if hates it with all of his heart! He'll still fucking do it! And then only blame himself for it and not the guy who fucking ordered it! Because he'll still obey that guy after!

Which also adds another fun layer of irony bc hes supposed to be clan head one day!

To me, Itachi is a fascinating subject of having an unshakable, unbreakable iron will— and also having absoloutley no spine

To be fair tho was also like. Fuckin 13. He was fucked up and was tricked at a very, very young age and unfortunatley that one mistake came to chain him to that one specific way of thinking. If he came to grow out of that way of thinking, he'd first have to admit he'd made a mistake, which wasn't gonna happen bc it was too late for regrets.

But anyways:

With Tora here Itachi has another "voice of reason" to help steer him away from other voices who might otherwise bind him. There isn't as much pressure on only him + Shisui to here and now choose what they (and only they) will choose to do to save the entire clan or Konoha

Tora is a natural leader and quick to take charge, and Itachi is ok with that. When Itachi chooses to speak, he is listened to carefully and his opinions are taken seriously, which is all he can ask for tbh. Otherwise he's allowed to sit there and look pretty till given a nice, neatly wrapped plan approved by 2 people he can really, truly trust.

So he's doing a bit better mentally than canon

Anyways, in this AU I think Itachi should actually get to semi-retire as a shinobi and actually Sasuke gets to be clan head bc his brother ain't built for it. Plus it can play more into the stuff I was talking ab earlier about Sasuke struggling a lot more than those around him to learn different stuff (sealing especially) only to come out as one of the most terrifying in what he eventually masters.

Let the second son inherit!! Let Sasuke have a defining character moment where he decides he wants to help guide the clan, and he's forced to kind of get over his brother worship to confront Itachi to say he doesn't think he'd make the best clan head. And Itachi let's out this sigh of relief he did not know he has been holding for his entire life and tells Sasuke he's proud of him.

Fuck right sorry we were talking about Tora and Shisui let's get back to that—

They're a terrifying, hyper competent duo who are here to get shit done. I've been thinking about Tora's chakra affinities latley, thinking it's mostly wind with a weak water affinity (and boy do I have thoughts about the implications of him having lost that strong connection to water in this life but that's for a different post) so his wind moves can feed into and off of Shisui's fire for some cool combo attacks. Just them fighting together really well in general is fun to think ab tbh

Tora has a decent (honestly kind of mean) sense of humor, but when he makes jokes he says it with a totally straight face. (Itachi is similar so when they're joking with eachother no one can ever tell bc neither are even laughing about it as they banter w dead faces)

But Shisui, having grown up with Itachi, can totally tell when he's joking and thinks he's funny. He's a pretty upbeat, smiley guy, but he always seems to be laughing about something around Tora for some reason (the reason is that Tora is funny you just can't tell)

Shisui is in general just really good at reading him. He catches on to what he's thinking really fast and will sometimes react to Tora's plans before he even explains them. Or he'll see some scattered clues to something and go "Hmm. This means nothing to me but it feels like something Tora would notice, so I'll make note of it"

I think over time both Shisui and Itachi would start to make similar expressions to Tora

(I love when friends subconsciously pick up on eachothers expressions and vocabulary)

Tora catches Shisui's "I'm going to cause problems on purpose" smile and Shisui catches his in turn. Tora catches Itachi's quietly smug gleam in his eye and Itachi gets his own (very punchable) smug smirk

Funny scene where Shisui makes the exact expression Tora always makes before declaring something terrifying and Kakashi instinctivley slaps him upside the head bc of it. Shisui goes ?????? What the fuck was that for ????? As Kakashi apologizes and stares at his own hand in confusion

Tora and Shisui are a comedy duo you can't change my mind

[haveyouseenthisskeleton]

Underswap Sans & Papyrus character sheets (Updated version)

BLUE (Underswap Sans)

Backstory: Blue grew up happy and lacking nothing until his parents tragically died in a Core accident, leaving him to take care of his six-year-old brother all by himself at only fifteen. Hard worker, he still accepted the challenge, finding new creative ways to gain money, not all of them legal, but at the cost of his relationship with his brother. Blue never wanted to be a parent figure for Honey, and got overwhelmed quickly, which led his brother to meet the wrong people and, eventually, to be addicted to alcohol and cigarettes. Blue still feels guilty about this, even though Honey never considered him responsible, and it deeply affected his relationship with children. He doesn't want to be a father ever again, he's not good for it, and he doesn't want to be responsible for someone else again. Unfortunately, fate laughed at his face and threw Chara on the road. It didn't go well. Chara reset a lot of times, toying with the brothers and trying to manipulate them against each other, which Blue quickly understood. Most of the time though, he didn't have the opportunity to warn his brother since Chara killed him first… He knows that because he read it in a notebook Honey managed to save it from timeline to timeline. That's also in this notebook he realized Honey is actually really not doing well. The brothers managed to get out of there eventually, but they never forgave Chara. They don't remember what happened between timelines, but that notebook is kinda their guarantee Chara won't come and mess up their relationship again. On the surface, Blue engaged as the first monster police officer, with Alphys' approval, who continued to train him. It was a rough start though as the police officers really didn't want monsters around at first. But his energy and friendly face eventually won them over. He's trying to reach high ranks in the police hierarchy now.

Personality: Accessible - Active - Athletic - Caring - Challenging - Charismatic - Cheerful - Confident - Conscientious - Courageous - Creative - Curious - Daring - Dedicated - Dynamic - Efficient - Faithful - Friendly - Hardworking - Helpful - Heroic - Honest - Independent - Leaderly - Very loyal - Objective - Perfectionist - Playful - Protective - Reliable - Spontaneous - Ambitious - Competitive - Moralistic - Proud - Stubborn - Argumentative - Arogant - Fiery - Impulsive - Pretentious - Resentful - Research of adrenaline - Tendencies to put himself in danger - Hyperactive

Job: Police officer

Hobbies: All sorts of sports, hanging out with his friends, working for the Queen, solving neighborhood problems, trapping the house so Honey stops emptying the fridge during the nights.

Loves: Running, screaming, being loud, puzzles, his brother, competing with Alphys, promotions, people giving him high responsibilities, when people come to him to find ideas of fun activities to do, bitching on Karens, sweets, sugary foods, well-thought puns and jokes, messing with his brother's romantic life, gossiping with Toriel, driving BIG cars, drama movies.

Hates: Sitting for more than ten minutes, people who baby him, being in charge of children, Honey asking him to buy something when he's ten meters away from home and had the entire day to ask him, the office printer, pigs and all their relatives, having to chase criminals in dirty places, people picking him up because they can't resist his small size, being sick.

The S/O of his dreams: Someone active who can keep up with his energy, which is rare. Someone who is honest and has time to argue with him because he will argue on a lot of subjects.

Dealbreaker: Saying he's a bad father when he clearly said he wasn't feeling comfortable with being a dad, hurting his brother, baby him.

Contacts :

Family: Honey.

Best friends: Papyrus, US Alphys, US Undyne.

Close friends: Sans, UT Toriel, UT Undyne, UT Alphys, Pumpkin, Coffee, Salsa, Ink.

Friends: UT Mettaton, UT Grillby, UT Asriel/Flowey, Oak, Willow, Nugget, Copper, Chief, Nox, Moon, Sun, Rambo, Rumba, Sam, Ben, Delta.

OK/Neutral: UT Asgore, UT Muffet, UT Burgerpants, UT Gerson, Rus, Demon, Error.

Would better avoid: UT Frisk, UT Chara, UT Gaster, Red, Tango, Creeper, Fang, Killer, Dune.

Absolutely hates: Edge, Wine, Torpedo.

________________________________________

HONEY (Underswap Papyrus)

Backstory: Honey doesn't have many memories of his early childhood, he pretty much remembers only losing his parents and then Blue taking care of him the best he could. Unfortunately, fate wasn't nice to Honey as it gave him a hyper empathy that caused him troubles growing up. He cares for others so much that he struggled a lot to see the people he considered his friends during his teenage years were mainly with him because he could be easily manipulated. When he noticed, it was far too late as he fell into the hell of addictions and depression as no one really understood his way of seeing the world. Honey felt terribly lonely all the time he was Underground, to the point he developed tendencies to self-destruction, sabotaging himself because he had no self-confidence. It got worse after Chara fell as he had the brilliant idea to write his thoughts in a notebook he passed to himself through the timelines. It just led him to develop, added to everything, high anxiety that he couldn't get rid of, even after reaching the surface. The first thing he did once out of this hell was to find help for his addictions. His mind got blown the day he discovered what neurodivergent means and since he's slowly learning to understand himself better with his therapist. What really helped him though is finally finding people he could call friends and that actually cares about him. Honey is a very loyal friend and he's one of the most caring people ever, so he makes the best friends. Maybe, after all, all he needed to know was that he mattered all this time. He's doing way better now and discovers life again.

Personality: Benevolent - Caring - Cheerful - Compassionate - Cultured - Discreet - Dramatic - Hyperempathetic - Forgiving - Friendly - Generous - Gentle - Genuine - Honest - Hopeful - Humorous - Idealistic - Kind - Observant - Open - Optimistic - Organized - Patient - Peaceful - Perceptive - Prudent - Reliable - Romantic - Self-critical - Sensitive - Sentimental - Sweet - Tolerant - Trusting - Absentminded - Emotional - Anxious - Demanding - Dependant - Easily discouraged - Fearful (he faints to protect himself from big scares) - Lazy - Procrastinating - Reluctant to do new things - Attached to his routine

Job: Writer.

Hobbies: Art, cosplay, fanfictions, binge-watching movies and TV shows, reading a lot, playing video games, sharing his favorite pieces of media with his friends, making 5k words of theories essays on Tumblr, staying in bed four days in a row.

Loves: Talking about his hobbies, people who show interest in what he likes, DOGS, and PUPPIES, and CUTE ANIMALS, having the inspiration to write, screaming in tags on Tumblr when something excites him, hugs, attraction parks, his little routine, every time he realizes how much he feels better after a therapy session, hanging out with his friends, childish jokes, fake mustaches and glasses, goofing around.

Hates: Loneliness, the bad days he struggles to do anything, the blank page, when his brother argues for nothing, people wanting to drag him in things he didn't plan, going to new places without a warning, random people asking him random things in the street, when he can't listen to music in crowded places, being alone in crowded places, people telling "i will tell you later", phone calls, when Blue turns off the TV after calling him to have dinner twenty times, scary things, jumpscares, people scaring him just to watch him faint.

The S/O of his dreams: Just someone who cares and shows interest in what he likes is enough. Liking to hug for hours is a bonus.

Dealbreaker: Treating his anxiety like a joke, screaming at him for doing nothing when he struggles on bad days and can barely function, manipulate him, using his addictions against him, not being patient with him in general.

Contacts :

Family: Blue.

Best friends: US Undyne, Oak, Coffee, Rus, Ben.

Close friends: Sans, Papyrus, UT Toriel, UT Alphys, US Alphys, Willow, Pumpkin, Sam, Delta.

Friends: UT Undyne, UT Grillby, UT Muffet, Red, Edge, Copper, Chief, Moon, Sun.

OK/Neutral: UT Mettaton, UT Gaster, UT Burgerpants, UT Gerson, Rambo, Salsa, Rumba,

Would better avoid: UT Frisk, UT Chara, UT Asriel/Flowey, Nugget, Nox, Tango, Killer, Demon, Creeper, Fang, Ink, Error, Dune.

Absolutely hates: Wine, Torpedo.

[fictionalsillies]

can u pls spare some info abt jade, she’s taking over my brain and joining the mw brainrot ^_^

Hi ! Sorry for replying just now , I woke up only recently -

I’m really happy you want to know more about my silly gal :D

I actually wanted to add more depth to Jade’s character for a while now , so this is awesome ^^👍

Here are some Jade facts , including some epic lore !

Jade is pansexual , and ever since she was a kid she never thought about the gender of her potential partner being something that mattered to her 💙💛🩷 For example she actually used to have a crush on the one friend she had in middle school , and even though she wasn’t interested in her romantically Jade still remained close to her for many years :) 

Jade was … definitely really different when she was younger compared to the present day : very shy , afraid to raise her voice even just a little too much and terrified about disappointing her parents , she clinged to her skills with technology in hopes of becoming good enough to get her mother’s and father’s approval one day … though Jade only talked about her past with Jaw Bone and no one else : it makes her pretty uncomfortable . 

She’d look kinda like this back in the day ☝️

Speaking of Jade’s parents , they used to be heavily involved with L.A.W back when she was a child , with her sister Lena even becoming an esteemed Agent of theirs … however , they pretty much only had eyes for her , leaving Jade behind without caring about any of her own achievements . Since she had the chance to witness up close just how messed up her family’s ideal were , Jade’s hatred for L.A.W begun very early and still lives on to this day . 

After running away from home ( around 17 years old ) Jade got involved with a group of anti-L.A.W space pirates , and they ended up becoming her real family : their Captain Klamp especially took a liking to her , becoming the father she never had while teaching her how to fight and defend herself , and that was also the point where she decided to get a few “upgrades” to improve herself , gaining her robotic legs and eyes . 

Jade has to be careful about not overcharging her legs , since they can stop working and leave her without a way to move or run away … that’s why whenever she’s in a fight she reflects carefully on her every action .

Jade’s shotgun doesn’t actually use bullets : instead she designed it to shoot pure electricity to paralyze her enemies , which can last for whole days … and give them some brain damage in the worst cases , which in her opinion is very much deserved ;C;

Jade often takes pictures of the L.A.W agents she defeats to then turn them into memes and send them to Jaw Bone … he finds them hilarious :,)

Jade’s favorite food is waffles , to the point that they are included in her breakfast almost every day ! Jaw Bone likes to surprise her by baking them some , doing his best to go easy with the heat ( he almost blew up the kitchen once because he wanted to “test” how much the microwave could take … ) 

When talking about videogames , Jade would be a big fan of strategy based ones , like Pokémon and Inscryption , playing some Minecraft and Stardew Valley  when she’s stressed .

The desk Jade uses in her room to work is neatly organized , and she won’t hesitate to annihilate anyone who messes with it ( JB is the only exception to the rule and even he knows not to push it too far ) 

Jade’s voiceclaim would be Lucy from Cyberpunk Edgerunners , another big inspiration for her being Sombra from Overwatch :D

Jade physically can’t wake up without her cup of coffee in the morning ;I

Even though she works for Disco Head now , Captain Klamp does occasionally pass by to chat with Jade and see how she’s doing , and he always makes sure to remind Jaw Bone that if he makes his adoptive daughter upset he will “kick his sorry boney ass” , even though Jade begs him not to do tell him that … overprotective pirate dad is best dad :,)

[dragonmarquise]

Escher headcanons 👐 any spare Escher headcanons for a poor starving Escher fan?

YESSS get ready folks, it’s time for… the Escher Hour!! \o/

For some characters, I have more thoughts about them than others. Escher is one of those characters. I feel it’s because there’s just so much room to think about and develop him more than what the game gives us.

Meaning, this post is gonna be LONG lol...

(Also please let me know if anything sounds awkward or doesn't make sense, I went over all of this like 5 times to fix stuff up and I Am Tired :u )

Starting off with his real name (mentioned in my headcanon names post a while back): Matthias Conrad Escher! So he has the same initials as M. C. Escher, his parents knew what they were doing, lol. As an adult he doesn’t mind it nearly as much as when he was a kid. He insists on everyone calling him Escher, not Matthias or any nicknames (with one specific exception, we’ll get to that near the end, hee hee).

A brief(ish) history before/during his time on the force:

Was in an archery club as a student before moving on to guns. In general he has amazing aim with pretty much any kind of long range weapon. Do not challenge this man to a game of darts, you will lose, lol

He’s not really a friendly guy. Not mean but also not exactly introverted, just… not that outgoing. The type of person who doesn’t befriend people himself, but gets befriended by others. If that makes sense?

As a kid, he was very into stories (novels, comics, movies, etc) about heroes with simple beginnings who go on to make a big impact and save the world! Though nowadays he gets annoyed by most stories like that because he realized it had a bad influence on him. More on that in a bit...

Joined the police because he genuinely thought he could do good and help protect people that way. Over time he becomes jaded due to witnessing some of the things his “fellow officers” were doing, especially going overboard with even small “crimes”. Escher either ends up threatened by said officers to keep things quiet, or otherwise if he does report someone, it just ends up getting swept under the rug while Escher is the one being reprimanded for being “too nosy”. Even if it never goes anywhere, he still makes reports on the hope that something will change.

Despite all of that, the main reason he sticks around on the force is because, in his mind, “If there’s even only one ‘good cop’ in the NAPD, it might as well be me.” The other officers know Escher is a “stickler” about rules, trying to be fair and respectful even to criminals, etc. So at least when he’s around, most of them will behave themselves. Thus, he figures if he quits, things will just get worse. Not to mention, he hopes he can influence and inspire his fellow officers to actually be better people and to be more genuine “good cops”, and make a change for the better from within the NAPD itself!

Remember those stories I mentioned that he liked as a kid? Yeah, subconsciously he was trying to be the cool and awesome hero he always wanted to be. Looking back on his mentality like this, present day Escher very much understands that he was being an idealistic idiot. :u

Though, it also didn’t help that there were in fact a few cops who were convinced by Escher to start being better about their activities, and even showing mercy and respect towards criminals. These guys were very far and few in-between though, compared to the number of cops who approved of more extreme measures (like the walking tanks) for any crime, no matter how small. Those cops either bought into Berlage’s “slippery slope” argument, or otherwise they knew they were corrupt but didn’t care as long as they can say they’re the “good guys”.

The NAPD probably would have just killed him and cover it up as an accident, but Escher proves to be a good fighter and survivor. And even during a few attempts, he makes it clear he is one very stubborn bastard when it comes to actually dying. He will only die when he feels like it, lol. So the force gives up on it after a certain point, and decides to just keep an eye on Escher and make sure he doesn’t quit (since it would mean he potentially ends up more actively fighting against them if he’s not on the force anymore).

He is gay, but realized/accepted it fairly late in his life, maybe somewhere in his 30s or 40s.

Unfortunately, his wife at the time was not happy when he came out to her. Lots of fighting, screaming, and a very messy divorce, with her taking almost everything he had. At the least it also meant he never saw her again after that, which he’s very thankful for.

He used to smoke. Obviously once he got his cyberhead later in life, he couldn’t do that anymore. He still keeps his old lighter with him though, mostly out of sentimentality. It’s a very nice zippo lighter!

Likes whiskey, mostly for the “warming throat” feeling it gives after drinking it. But by the time the game starts, he doesn’t drink much anymore.

Also note that by the events of the game, Escher is somewhere around late 50s or early 60s in age.

Some further info on Escher’s cybernetics, all of which happened after his divorce but before the events of the game. It’s not just the cyberhead!

Escher getting his cyberhead was due to an on-duty injury, where he was shot in the head. The official records state it was caused by a criminal he and other officers were tracking, but in reality it was from a fellow sniper who he “snitched” on. That guy ended up with a slap on the wrist like most of the other cops Escher reported, but he was still pissed at Escher about it. Escher himself doesn’t learn the truth about what happened until after the events of the game (more on that later).

That being said, enough of his throat/voicebox/etc is left in tact, such that he’s still able to speak “normally” (i.e. not through a speaker like most other cyberheads). Hence why in game, he’s the only cyberhead that doesn’t have a filter-thing on his voice clips.

On that note, of course most of his brain is also miraculously intact, but the shot still puts him in a coma. So his superiors make the decision for him to get him set up with a cyberhead.

During the procedure for getting his mind copied over into his future cyberhead, they also opened him up and gave him cybernetic lungs! The police force found out he had cancer from his smoking and decided to fix him up. How nice of them, right?!

Except, they did it without asking him first (again, the coma). Not to mention since then a lot of the higher-ups use it to almost bully Escher, saying he “owes the force” for being saved, both in terms of the cyberhead and the cyber lungs. Escher hates this, but again, he’s stubbornly stuck in his “might as well be the only good cop/if I leave no one else will be able to fix the force for the better” mentality at this point, so he’s still an officer. Also, while he hates to admit it, he does end up feeling like he “owes” the NAPD for being willing to save him, even after all his “snitching” and whatnot.

But combined with everything else going on, it still at least adds onto Escher’s doubts about how much “good” the NAPD is actually doing…

Besides all that, cybernetic organs (other than cyberheads, which replace an entire head including the brain) aren’t as great as cyberheads and limbs, and especially compared to the efficiency of there organic counterparts. Escher makes sure to get regular maintenance on his cyber lungs, but even then they can still malfunction on occasion. Sometimes it gets so bad, he wishes they had just left him with his cancer-ridden organic lungs.

He gets his arms fully replaced with cybernetic arms as well, though definitely not willingly. He suffered another on-duty injury. This one he knows was caused by his fellow officers, but it was ruled as an accident. Escher has doubts on how much of an “accident” it really was, and has been trying to find solid evidence to the contrary. He’s hoping it might actually be enough to finally turn things around with the force like he wants.

Anyways, truthfully his arms weren’t that badly damaged, but he was pressured by his higher-ups to get the cyber arms. They were convinced it would affect his aim as a sniper, which he took as an insult, but still agreed to the cybernetics just to get those assholes off his back.

Lastly, he also got part of his legs severely injured, this time being a genuine accident compared to the head and arms incidents. Both legs injured below the knees, enough to warrant amputation. His higher-ups also tried to pressure him into going for fully cybernetic legs, as a complete replacement for what’s left of his legs. This time he stands his ground and refuses. He opts for non-cybernetic prosthetics instead, especially since he at least still has his knees. Paid for them himself, so that his superiors couldn't say he "owes" them for this too.

As a note, I like to think the world of New Amsterdam has regular prosthetics like what we have irl, but also cybernetics which are basically more advanced prosthetics with fancier technology. Like, wires and sensors connected to the body’s nerves, so that it’s not too different from the original organic parts. It still takes a bit of physical therapy to get used to though, and of course regular maintenance and repairs to make sure it stays operational.

Next, headcanons of him during and right after the game, mostly what happened to him after being knocked out.

By the point of the game’s events, Escher is having especially strong doubts about the force. His investigation about the incident leading to his arm replacement keeps hitting dead ends, even though he knows there should be something to prove what actually happened. He’s also finally starting to have suspicions about the incident that led to his cyberhead as well. His investigations for that also lead to dead ends, but he finds enough clues and evidence to make him realize it wasn’t just an accident. Unfortunately for him, it’s still not enough to force a serious investigation into it all.

He considers quitting, but again, idealistic idiot! If he quits now, what happened to him could just happen again to someone else, so he’s determined to do something good from within before he gives up completely. It's a bit of sunken cost fallacy, in a way, but where Escher refuses to acknowledge how deep the ship has sunk by this point.

Even besides that, he’s heard about a new NAPD project that will lead to better crime prediction, and ideally less wasting time with harassing writers and other small time “criminals”. He’s hoping maybe this project is finally what the city really needs to stay safe, what the NAPD needs to be less corrupt, and maybe even what he needs to somehow find proof of what happened to him and finally getting proper justice.

*insert meme of your choice here that has a “What could possibly go wrong!” and/or “Image preceding worst possible outcome” vibe* :P

The way I see it, most officers are willingly following orders from Project Algo without question. Once Faux-as-Project-Algo starts ramping things up, I think the officers are encouraged to go to extremes with their actions against criminals. Which they do so as a combination of “orders are orders”, and genuine glee over finally getting to punish “criminals” in the way they always wanted to. Basically, the way I see it, the NAPD was always corrupt behind the scenes, Faux just made it worse by encouraging them to be way more blatant and public about it.

An aside: I mean, they have the tube system and turrets already set up throughout the city, not to mention plenty of attack helicopters and walking tanks ready for immediate deployment. You don’t have that kind of firepower at the ready unless you’re fucking looking forward to finding an excuse to start some carnage. Just saying!!

Back to Project Algo’s influence on the NAPD: A few officers have doubts, and these unfortunate souls are taken over by Algo/Faux and forced to do his bidding.

Guess which group of cops Escher is in, especially after he questioned Berlage about the “suspects” at Brink Terminal. And with his history of questioning and reporting his fellow officers over “trivial” matters before now, of course he’d be the first on the chopping block when it comes to testing out certain aspects of Project Algo.

After getting knocked out at BRC’s hideout, they check and confirm that he’s not dead. His cyberhead sorta shorted out from the impact and is effectively in sleep mode. But now they gotta figure out what to do with him before he wakes up!! Their solution: Put Escher on a bus. Literally in this case, they find a bus in Brink Terminal that’s heading far out of the city, get him on it (by stuffing him into the luggage compartment while no one’s looking, lol), and let it take care of him for them!

He wakes up far outside New Amsterdam, at which point Project Algo has lost its control over him. The project did not have good enough signal/network connection to keep controlling him from that far of a distance. Also he scares the poor bus driver and passengers by accident when they discover him in the luggage compartment. :P

Escher sorts things out and manages to get on a bus heading back into the city. He spends time on that return trip thinking over everything that happened to him leading up to this point: him trying to be a “good cop” but not making much of a difference; his injuries which led to his cybernetic parts and being told he now “owes” the force for “saving” him; and then him expressing his doubts and concerns over and over again, only to be scolded and have everything swept under the rug, no matter how serious of a violation it was. He wants to be a “good cop”, but now he’s realizing how much of an idealistic idiot he’s been for trying to make change from the inside out. Letting himself be a doormat because he desperately wanted to believe he could make a real difference, that the NAPD could do good like they claimed to, that he could be a hero if he just stuck around and did as much as he could, etc.

And then this time, being sent to capture “armed suspects” that weren’t armed at all, plus getting taken over by Project Algo for trying to be reasonable about BRC and other writers? This whole this is really just the straw that finally broke the camel’s back.

By the time he arrives back in the city, the main plot of the game is already done. So thankfully he’s not taken over by Project Algo again. But yeah, he’s thought about what he’s been through, what he put himself through due to a selfish sense of justice and heroics, and finally understands he’s been wasting his time trying to clean up a system that keeps dirtying itself up anyways. Not everything can be fixed easily, if at all, like in a story.

Now more post game headcanons!!

His outlook on everything that happened to him before now can be more or less summed up as: “They say, ‘the only good cop is either an ex-cop or a dead cop’. I never took that phrase seriously until I almost became a dead cop. And frankly, I’m still mad at myself for not seeing the truth sooner.”

So suffice to say, he quits the force, and becomes a private detective! He still wants to be a force of good in some way, but at least now he realizes he has to do that himself, outside of the NAPD. Occasionally the cases he takes on are against the NAPD too, so even after quitting he still gets on their bad side.

And of course, he's not completely jaded to the point where he thinks being good is pointless. He just has more realistic expectations on how to do good in the world. He's still frustrated with himself for not doing this earlier, especially for not quitting the force sooner, but better late than never I guess!

He tries to keep any hard boiled monologues in his head, especially since it could mean tipping off someone about what he’s doing. :P

His detective office is actually the living room of his apartment. He’s kind of hoping to upgrade to an actual office at some point, but for now it works well enough for keeping his files organized and as a space for meeting with clients.

Escher has a small collection of drinky birds going in one corner of his office, lol

He likes jazz, blues, and lounge music. He’s got a record player and a collection of records in his office too!

He doesn’t like watching TV, so he doesn’t have one in his apartment. He prefers listening to his records, the radio, and even podcasts sometimes. Otherwise he’s occasionally checking online for recent news and possible leads.

In terms of other hobbies… this guy actually doesn’t have much going on. Though he’ll sometimes check out random books from the local library to read, from novels to biographies to textbooks. The way he sees it, you never know when a random piece of info from a book you only read once could end up useful later on. And even if it doesn’t, he finds it kind of fun to read something new!

That being said, he at first avoids any fantasy or sci-fi novels about heroes going on big journeys and saving the world and stuff, because… well, you probably know why by now. He gets over it eventually, but he doesn’t get quite as much enjoyment out of them than when he was a kid. Not to mention, he revisits some of his childhood favorites occasionally, and they make him cringe sometimes. A lot of the time. For the most part, it's from him realizing how terrible they really were (be it because of poor writing, or things like racism, misogyny, etc).

Escher is saving up money to go full-cyber! Since the only major organic part of him left is his torso and part of his legs, he figures, why the hell not at this rate. Not to mention, his cyber lungs are still Not Good, despite making sure to get upgrades and updates over the years. It’s to the point where he’ll need to get them full replaced in the future anyways. So going full-cyber would be a huge improvement over continuing to deal with the cyber lungs!

In the meantime, he did at least modify his cyberhead so that his neck is part of it too. So now he has the voice filter thing! He always hated how before then, his voice made him stick out too much among other cyberheads. Back to his enjoyment of whiskey mentioned waaay earlier, this change means he doesn’t get the warm throat feeling from drinking anymore. Then again, by now he’s pretty much quit drinking completely, so it’s not that big of a loss in his eyes.

As a private detective, he held onto his sniper rifle but took it apart and converted it into a crossbow. Meant more for defense than anything else, especially since he has bolts for causing smokescreens, loud noises, bursts of paint, etc.

Escher is now on good terms with BRC even after the knock out. He understands they were just trying to protect themselves, especially with him being controlled by Project Algo at the time.

He also works with BRC and other writers to warn them about any police activity, such as to be on the look out for both police traps and actually dangerous criminals (like, suspected murderers and anything else along those lines), exchange information and rumors, etc.

For my “Red as a separate person from Felix” headcanons/story, Escher is eventually “convinced” to take on Red as an apprentice of sorts. Red actually manages to do a good job, all things considered!

And finally, ending things off with my patented Shipping Nonsense, lol

Sometime after the end of the game, he decides to give dating a try. He thinks it won’t really go anywhere, but at least he can attempt to be more social with others. He ends up speaking with Cinco, the five ball DOT EXE member, and going on a few dates. Cinco doesn’t deny he’s with DOT EXE when Escher asks about it, but asks Escher to not make a big deal of it (which Escher respects).

But then Escher at one point admits he was a former sniper for the NAPD. Which unfortunately leads to both of them worrying that he might have been the one who killed Eight Ball. He got taken over by Project Algo after all, he could have been control to handle Eight Ball before going after BRC...

They both break things off because of that. Escher is disappointed but realizes he should have expected his past to keep causing him problems. Meanwhile Cinco is outright devastated. He’s scared of the idea that Escher was the one to kill Eight Ball, but also still hoping that’s not the case because he ended up falling for Escher pretty hard. D:

Eventually, Neun (nine ball DOT EXE member) steps in because he’s “tired of Cinco’s whining” (i.e. wants to help his friend). He speaks to Escher privately and admits that he knows, with certainty, that Escher was not the one who offed Eight Ball. Neun looked into that personally, almost right after Eight Ball’s body was discovered, and managed to track down the real killer via hacking certain parts of the NAPD’s system. Of course, he was careful to make sure Project Algo didn’t detect what he was doing (thankfully Faux was too busy putting his All City King plan into motion to notice). Neun even admits he also “took care of” the killer himself. He hands over records and files to Escher to prove he’s telling the truth.

Through those files, Escher finds out the person who killed Eight Ball was a sniper who was not being controlled by Project Algo, but still followed the order without questioning why an unarmed writer needed to die. Also, plot twist, Neun had found additional info about the guy in the NAPD’s records and elsewhere, and it turned out to be the same sniper who shot Escher in the head way back when! So, things coming full circle and all of that.

Neun makes Escher swear not to tell anyone about him “handling” the real killer sniper himself. In exchange, the two of them go to Cinco with the rest of the info, explaining it as them working together to investigate things further and find out about who really killed Eight Ball. They cover up what Neun did by saying the sniper was eventually killed in a separate incident later on while Project Algo was still active.

So with Escher now in the clear, he and Cinco are back to dating!! Genuine old man yaoi, cyborg version, lol (Cinco is also in his 60s, so I’m serious about the old man part okay)

Cinco calls him “Mattie” as a nickname, but Cinco is the only one allowed to do this. Everyone else is required to address him as Escher. :P

Cinco is really affectionate with Escher, also very cuddly! You’d think Escher would be annoyed by physical affection like that, but he really doesn’t mind. Actually he’s touch-starved, but either doesn’t realize it or doesn’t what to admit to it, lol

Escher isn’t one to laugh much (and even before getting a cyberhead, he didn’t smile much either), but he does enjoy Cinco’s puns and joke. Not outright belly laughing, but definitely a chuckle, y’know?

That’s about it! Thank you for sending in an ask, I really appreciate getting a chance to ramble about my headcanons. Feel free to check out my other rambles in my BRC headcanons tag! :D

[scepterno]

i love ur fic so much ive been hyperfixating on it for like two weeks 😢😢 can i have some little trivia facts about some of the characters please i need to know silly stuff u haven't told us!!

omg.. ty... this is the sort of message that gives me life I LOVE SILLY TRIVIA

gwen and trent probably hang out the most from the original cast (minus anyone living together or dating). gwen has her own room in her parent's house dedicated to painting and trent will chill there on a bean bag in the corner writing music while she paints. now that she and courtney are dating, courtney visits way more to study in that chair while gwen works (they take breaks to make out and cuddle very often) gwen's little brother thinks trent is a huge loser and wishes duncan would hang out around the house more instead (courtney bullies him on trent's behalf)

cody lives in a dorm room on campus at his college. sierra goes to the same college but still lives with her mom (she has an hour long commute) she and cody hang out on campus and hang out in a lot of the same clubs and friend groups (mostly nerdy stuff)

harold is a speedrunning streamer and video editor for popular youtube channels. they make music for fun but wants to make professional music for indie games one day.

leshawna really loves to do community service (canon in the show) but i like to think she somehow managed to drag duncan into it too (his parole officer approves) so they get really close through that. he also ends up being dragged to a bunch of family events and parties with leshawna. like an honorary brother who acts like he doesnt want to be there but is super good with all the kids and is never actually disrespectful to the adults. leshawna's parents adore him. he's never been more well fed in his life.

zoe mike and cameron are all living their best lives with the all stars money zoe/mike earned. mike and cameron live together but zoe lives in an apartment with 5 roommates near her community college. they live within 10 minutes of bus so distance isn't an issue at all. they're practically inseparable.

scott and courtney are actually pretty good friends still (they never dated in all stars in this fic) and text regularly. scott moved back home after the show so he's not really near anyone else from the casts, but that's more of a blessing than anything considering the wacky hijinks everyone gets into on the regular.

i think ezekiel lindsay beth and tyler probably hang out a lot when lindsay and tyler aren't traveling around the world to fashion shows and whatnot. zeke got super into thrifting fashion because of lindsay. he's like. bowling alley employee fashion. you know. and although he's not really good at sports, tyler still likes to have "boys nights" and take him to games. they have a tradition of buying and rating the hot dogs at every stadium they visit, and buying souvenirs for lindsay.

alejandro really wants a lizard tattoo but he's very sensitive to pain and would definitely cry, so he's avoided getting one until he can find a tattoo artist who won't judge him for sobbing in the chair. he learned his lesson the hard way when he got his nose piercing and nearly broke carlos's hand because he was so scared (it didn't really hurt that bad, but nerves make everything worse).

josé has a quarter collection (like, the united states quarters, because there's a different one for every state). it's a good excuse to travel and get out of the house (or country) for a weekend retreat.

okay that's pretty much all i have in me right now (i have a meeting to go to at work) but if you want to hear anything for a specific character or headcanon, i would LOVE to share my thoughts!!!!

[owlhead650]

hiiii… i know i already did a request but i can’t help but ask for some nevstasia… your writing is sooooo tasty and it would make us so very happy if we got some nevstasia writing from u :3

Hi Meteors.

I know you asked for Nevstasia shipping content but no matter how much I thought about it I just couldn't picture it. I couldn't think of a good romantic scene to write between the two. Instead I wrote a short story focusing mainly on Ren and Nastasia with a quick scene including Neved. I hope you enjoy the story.

Happy Birthday Meteors.

This short story is around 3165 words long and includes my oc Asopo acting as the interceptor. When Asopo gets mentioned the characters are referring to the player character. This story includes a novelised version of an actual scene from .Karma files so beware of spoilers. Without further ado, here is the story I wrote for my lovely friend The Meteorites. @pokefangamebrainrot & @pokemonsillysys

Pokemon Rejuvenation - Nastasia .Karma Files

Nestasia was writing her report for unauthorised mission number seventeen. For reasons best known to herself and Madame X, she was able to get away with this borderline insubordination as long as she wrote these reports afterwards which totally didn’t omit any information. She checked the word count. ‘1083’ words. She estimated that it would take Madame X about 16 minutes and 40 seconds for her to finish reading it.

She re-read the report to ensure there weren’t any mistakes. The title of her report read “Mission Approved Post Completion No. 25” Now that would have been a fatal mistake. Madame X only knew about 17, she had to keep it that way.

“Hey, Nastasa?”

She looked up from her laptop to the person standing next to her. “Yes, Ren?”

“I just wanted to ask if you could help me get back into my body for a little bit.” That is not the question she was expecting.

“What? Why? What would be the point in doing that?”

“Well you see me and my friends are going to do this hang out together and I guess I just want to… be there? For real? I also just miss the way my body felt. I touch myself and I feel metal, I think my pokemon all miss it too.”

“I get where you’re coming from but… I just think that’s an unnecessary risk. You know why.” Ren’s real body was currently in a life support pod hidden somewhere known only to herself, Ren and Madame X. At least Madame X believed she knew where it was. When she demanded that Nastasia show it to her she was led to a life support pod in which the body of a black haired teenager was laying down unconscious. This was a ditto acting as Ren’s body double, she couldn’t keep her promise to Ren if Madame X knew where the real one was.

“I know it’s a risk but… things are going to get more serious soon, we both know it will. It’ll happen when… y’know.” Nastasia did know. She had been the one to explain to Ren that the dome over Grand Dream City wasn’t actually just for simulating preferable weather in the city. It was to make sure no one could evacuate when that thing was unleashed upon them.

“So you think you won’t get a chance like this again? You want a break from that robot body when you can still get it?”

“That’s basically it, yeah.”

“Fine. But we need to be careful about this. I’ll speak with you again in forty minutes.”

Nastasia sorted out the rest of her evening’s paperwork and went with Ren to that location. Sending Ren’s mind back to his organic body was a delicate process, one that could result in permanent brain damage if performed incorrectly. Nastasia was known to do things correctly.

Ren’s mouth felt dry, he could feel the softness of the cushion beneath him and hear an air conditioning fan. He inhaled through his nose, he could breathe again, he needed to breathe again. 

Ren sat up and saw that Nastasia was sitting on a couch a few feet away. A Ninetales with soft yellow fur and a thick bundle of tails laid on the couch with her. He wanted to touch it.

“Hey Stasia.” Despite having just woken up, Ren actually felt really tired. He was going to go to sleep as soon as he made it to Sashila.

“Hello Ren. How does it feel to be flesh and blood again?” She pocketed her phone.

“It feels… good actually. I think I took it for granted. Can I pet Ninetails?”

“Hold out your hand. Ask it.” Ren did just that. He bent over and offered his clenched fist to it. He felt gentle licks on his fingers and started petting its head. The fur was soft, and warm. So warm, like a bed with an electric blanket. It was like touching his Arcanine.

“Thanks Stasia, I’ll enjoy this.”

“That’s alright. Now we need to discreetly make our way back to HQ and keep this a secret.”

Ren felt the wind playing with his hair. It was cold but refreshing. He scratched his cheek and under his chin, he had the occasional itch which never bothered Robo Ren, but touching his own face felt so good. Now that he knew what it was like to be without that feeling he realised how good it felt.

He went indoors. He walked down the stairs. The heating inside was pleasant, he never appreciated how the indoor temperature was just right. He went towards the group bedroom. Between the hallway and the bedroom there was another room. It seems to have been turned into a sitting room thanks to the new Rotom TV and the couch. Erin was looking through some notebook and probably about to walk out of the room. Venam was looking at the TV.

“Hm? Oh, hi Ren.”

“Hey Erin, just wanted to ask, when are we all doing that hang out in GDC?”

“Oh, that. Yeah I don’t know. I forgot about it until now. I’m not convinced everyone is able for something like that right now. It seems like a bad time.” Erin sounded frustrated.

“Wait really? I know Asopo and Melia have been a bit off lately but wouldn’t a group activity be a way we could help everyone? We’ll need to be a proper team for the Xen Raid.”

“Yeah, I don’t know. Maybe if at least Venam would say a word. Could you speak with her?” Ren looked back at Venam and the TV. A video of Espurr eating ice cream was playing. He sat down next to her. “Hey Venam.” He looked at her face. Venam’s blank stare was reminiscent of Espurr's own expression. She looked empty inside. “Are you alright?” She didn’t respond. He waved a hand in front of her face. “Are you catatonic or what?”

“O-oh yeah. Hey Ren.” She looked at him and shifted about on her seat.

“Hi Venam. What’s up?”

“I’m… looking at cats I guess.”

“I can see that.” He glanced at the TV again. A Skitty was chasing its own tail. “So what’s wrong?” 

“I… I’m just sad, I guess. And tired.”

“What are you sad about?”

“...Things didn’t end well between me and Melia.” Venam looked away from him. Ren was shocked. 

“Oh crap, what happened? Where’s Melia now?” Ren looked at the entrance to the bedroom, as if he might see Melia walking into or out of it.

“S-she just… dumped me.” Venam took off her leather jacket and just placed it behind her so that she’d be sitting on it. She was wearing a white t-shirt underneath.

“Dumped you…? Why? What went wrong?” He felt distraught, he always thought Melia was the sort to let someone down gently.

“I-I don’t know. I asked her out on a date to GDC, but for some reason she insisted on bringing Asopo along. He sort of just sat there silently the whole time, even more silent than usual. Then she got this goth makeover which I thought was really pretty, and then when we went home. I… I tried to offer her a kiss before we went to sleep but she just… she jumped back and acted all shocked, like she just acted as if we never dated in the first place. She just said that if we were in a thing then it’s over all of a sudden. I have no idea what I did wrong.” Venam rubbed her damp eyes and sniffled. Then she got up. “Thanks for listening to that crap. Good night Ren.”

“Oh… alright. Goodnight Venam.” He noticed that she forgot to pick up her leather jacket, she just left it sitting there. Who cares? She’ll see it in the morning.

Ren was going to get ready for his own sleep, but then he saw an envelope on his pillow. The outside read: ‘To Ren <3’ and it was written in pink glitter ink. What the fuck?

Dearest Renny Wen Ren,

Ren, meet me at The Back Alley. I’ve loved you for so long and it’s time to talk about it. O///O

Love Melia~ UWU

Ren… felt furious. What the fuck? What the actual fuck? This was humiliating. Melia just threw Venam away like her feelings mean nothing, only to send this bullshit to him? He once felt a bit of an attraction to her, it’s true. But really it wasn’t anything he was ever going to act on. By now he was over it, but Melia must’ve noticed. What is she doing? Why has she been so aloof and antisocial lately? And now that he thought about it, when was the last time he spoke with Asopo? Everything about this situation feels wrong, he had to do something.

Ren was going to go to the back alley, but he wasn’t going to talk to Melia about whatever dumb romance this is meant to be, oh no. He was going to confront her and make her explain herself. He threw the envelope away but crumpled the letter into a ball to put in his pocket. He was leaving right away.

Nastasia was finishing her dinner by Neved’s bar in the Xen Admin lobby. It was quiet, just herself and Neved. He was wiping a glass as she swallowed the last of her food. “So how’s Franchesca?” She asked, wanting to break the silence.

“She’ll live, or at least at this rate she should.” That wasn’t a very happy question, now that she thought about it.

“What about you?” He asked. By now he had put away the glass and sat on a chair on his side of the bar.

“...I would like a Martini.”

“Of course, anything for you.” Such a dramatic way of wording it, but she thought it was sweet. *Deoxxxxxx…*

Her Deoxys flew into the room and reached towards her face with its helix arm. It tapped her forehead and showed her a vision.

Ren. Blood stained. Desperate. He’s running from someone, a blonde girl teleporting around and mocking him. The occasional manic laugh is heard, she’s hunting him but taking the time to play with her food. A white haired boy runs after them both. He seems to be trying to prevent Ren’s death, but his expression is emotionless. He shows no signs of genuine concern, his every action is methodical and without passion.

Nastasia stands up. “Sorry Neved, that martini will need to wait. I must leave immediately.” She turns around and bolts for her lab. Her armour is there, she’ll need it if she is to make it on time. She’ll mobilise Robo Ren as well. That machine can fight and move even without Ren’s mind in it, just not as independently.

“Asopo…” Ren was cornered. He wasn’t sure what Asopo was even trying to do, but his robot body had shown up and attacked him for some reason while he and Melia just sort of watched them fight. The robot lost. Then Melia fired an arrow at it.

“And pop goes the weasel. We appreciate your cooperation! Now for our dear Raven… your wings shall be clipped.” Ren was half way through turning around when he heard another arrow fire. Everything went dark. He felt cold, numb again. He wondered if Melia had actually finished him off. 

A sudden flash of light assaulted his eyes. He heard applause, there were stage lamps above him and it looked like he was in some sort of game show? What? 

“...Oh come on.” On his right he saw some floating platform lower itself next to him. Melia was in a whole different outfit with twintails, a popstar dress and a microphone.

“Welcome one and all to the second* episode of M5’s GuiltyOrNah! The game show where we decide if our contestant is…”

The audience finished for her. “GUILTY! OR! NAH!” He had to listen to even more cheering. Where was the audience? He couldn’t see them. Was this hell? He could still feel the blood running down his body.

“Today’s contestant is Mr Renster! And lemme tell ya, this one is really personal! You wouldn’t even believe. Let’s look at the voter’s centre and see who we got for tonight!” Ren looked towards the voters. He saw… more Melia. All three of them were Melia. There were four Melias in the room with him… he felt dizzy, he felt scared and sad. 

“Without further ado, it’s time to get to the voting! Ren is being charged with… Betrayal! Being a fake friend in another world! Not fighting back when you’re attacked, like, seriously?! You know what to do folks! Cast in your votes!”

Ren still didn’t understand anything. He really didn’t… except, Melia mentioned betrayal. Being a fake friend… he was still insecure about that. Even though Melia had seemingly forgiven him for joining team Xen and not explaining why, even though he had the best of intentions and his friends had given him the benefit of the doubt… still. He knows how he hurt them. He would’ve preferred to be next to them, fighting team Xen more directly and alongside them. Maybe Melia was right to be angry at him, and if he hurt her in some other world then maybe dying here was the only way to make up for it? He felt so dizzy… he felt so sad.

He was aware of some Rotom TV in front of him. It cycled through some images before settling on a skull. “And there we have it!” Melia cheered. “Renster has been found guilty by the court on all charges! And you know what that means!”

Ren groaned to himself and looked at the Melia with the twintails. “Now we’re going to give you a choice! How would you like to die?” Ren felt upset again, and still afraid, but he did some thinking. There was something Melia needed to hear.

“I… I don’t know how to react to all of this. I’m confused and defeated. This is the punishment I deserve for the things I’ve done. I knew joining team Xen was a betrayal on all costs, but I did it anyway. And even after I found out that I was tricked, I stayed. The truth is… I stayed because I wanted to help Nastasia. She said she joined team Xen because she was looking for a friend. And after all this time it seems she may finally know where she is. I wanted to be there and help her, but it was at the cost of my closest friends. I’m sorry, Melia. I’m sorry.” He was ready.

Ren braced for the end.

“...What?” Melia was in disbelief, her sinister jubilance had disappeared all of a sudden. Ren looked at her again.

“If this is the punishment I deserve, then I won’t run away from it. I don’t remember what I did in another world, but the pain it’s caused is the same.”

“R-Ren…” Melia’s face reddened, she was holding back tears. Ren remembered something important. “I just ask one thing.”

“...What is it?” Melia asked.

“Tell my sister that I love her, and that I’m sorry I disappointed her too.” He remembered another thing. “Sorry, I want to ask two things of you. Please talk and make up with Venam.” Okay, that’s everything important. He was ready to disappear now.

“...No, Ren. It’s I who should be apologising. You’re nothing like the Ren I knew. You’re way different than him. In every way imaginable. I should have realised that sooner.” There was another flash of light, a gentler one. He felt the pains and injuries around his body rapidly soothe, a warmth enveloped him as he lost consciousness.

Nastasia was angry. Angry at Melia for attacking Ren and angry at herself for not being able to get there faster. Melia somehow used the archetype to create this little pocket dimension in GDC and it took Nastasia a few minutes to figure out how to break in. It took her a whole agonising fifteen minutes to get from the Xen base to GDC. She saw the alleyway Ren was cornered in. She descended and landed in front of him.

She pushed Melia back. She had been about to grab him. Nastasia followed up with a lunge and tried to beat Melia to a pulp, but her strikes were blocked by a corrupted black archetype shield.

“What the fuck?! Get off me!” Melia screamed. She retaliated and Nastasia had to jump back. Melia was about to run at her again so she pulled out her blaster. “Not another step.”

Melia sneered at her. “So threatening… you’re in the way of my friend.” Nastasia would have laughed if anything about this was funny.

“Friend? That’s not what that looked like to me. Friends don’t try to tear others apart. You’re a monster.” Nastasia was ready to start maiming Melia right here, but saving Ren took priority and Madame X needed her alive anyway.

“Sounds like you need to mind your BUSINESS.” Melia attacked, Nastasia signalled to Deoxys to use teleport. Herself and Ren vanished.

Nastasia was regretting how she agreed to put Ren back in his organic body for that time, but she really shouldn’t. It made him happy, even if it was poorly timed. Deoxys had checked Ren’s mind and body for injuries. Strangely all his injuries had been recently healed, and at the same time his memory of the past hours had been erased. Why would this have happened? Ren was getting shot by arrows and chased not long ago, did Melia have an abrupt change of heart? That would explain all the hypocritical ‘he is my friend’ talk right afterward.

Nastasia wasn’t going to let go of Ren’s body for a while now. She’d watch over it and while he was still unconscious she was going to put his mind back into a Robo Ren body. She’d teleport him back to Sashila where his allies can tend to him further. She had her own troubles to focus on next. 

Why would Melia and Asopo suddenly change like this? Their current dispositions were very different. They both changed around the same time but possibly for different reasons. She knew from Clear, Kieren and Madame X that as the interceptor Asopo had chosen destruction. If he was committed to fighting for oblivion then why would he try to save Ren? Not that Nastasia was complaining, it’s hardly as if she wanted destruction, but it’s still strange. It’s always possible that Asopo was trying to trick Clear and Kieren, but they only offered to ally with him after they were sure he would agree to it genuinely.

Not that it ultimately mattered to her. When she joined team Xen she had a goal in mind.

She’ll find her friend, even if it means the end of the world.

[futchgunk]

Bladders Gat3 Finish doc

:et me get the rest of my fucking feelings out about baldurs gate:

im so mad bc any character who is not human or realism/white passoid is literally regarded with the same type of dismissal that you would see in mainstream media. all the companions that are not white passing are treated like shit and have bad ends.

-Lae'zel (gith) gets abducted by the a bad guy for the last 1/3 of the game (also we could talk about her being the fighter class as default is also a bit racist, but the deep dive will be its own essay). and then she can die and not be able to be resurrected. (resurrection scrolls and revivify spells ONLY work on companions and not npcs)

Wyll (THE ONLY BLACK HUMAN MAIN CHARACTER, side note we could talk about how is name is spelled like a white mormon names their kids) is a big talking point bc he is constantly strung between the expectations put upon him by himself, his family, and then his pact matron. AND NO MATTER WHAT OPTION IS CHOSEN WILL CONTINUES TO SUFFER IN THIS EXECUTIVE PURGATORY. He starts as a "i have to kill this devil" actually its a tiefling (suddenly its now fantasy racial infighting, so of course u dont wanna kill another companion so early in the game, so Wyll is forced through Hell's Circles and the exposure makes him grown large demonic horns. (Wyll does not have control over his body or himself, nor his actions, and only suffers the consequences of the actions of the Tav (PC)). Wyll even gets to have the "I did everything for my father's (approval just to have my father misunderstand me and then the most noble course of action is to be independent because i am still bound by choices prior and also if two black people form any sort of family on screen its disgusting and blasphemous so I might as well treat my father like my brother who i never was able to relate to when i was younger" THIS IS NOT MENTIONING THAT WYLL IS LITERALLY THE SON OF THE DUKE OF BALDURS GATE. HE GIVES UP HIS STATUS OF NOBILITY TO BE HEROIC AND IS JUST FOREVER CONTINUALLY PUNISHED. THE DUKE OF BALDURS GATE IS BRAINWASHED TO RELINQUISHING HIS TITLE AND CORONATES THE WHITE DEVIL EVIL DICK BAD GUY WHO SOLD KARLACH (TIEFLING) TO HELL FOR GIGGLES.

Karlach (tiefling) is a bright eyed noble hearted character that is looking for solace after having 10 years of her life taken from her when she got sold to devil and hell and made a war machine slave because thats perfectly tragic. Her heart is taken from her and replaced with an engine (machine) that is slowly killing her when she is not in Hell. THE ENGINE DOESNT EVEN HAVE A GOOD IN GAME MECHANIC, YOU GET TO SET URSELF ON FIRE TO GET A 'HEAT' DEBUFF THAT U CAN CONSUME ON AN ATTACK, you build heat any other way, so its like only <Lv. 4, and if you minmaxed the opening scene, you get a 2h sword that does this every attack, so like its a bit moot and useless. Furthermore i think its really stupid that shes yearning for companionship and yet is not allowed because her engine makes her to hot to touch. Which rubs me the wrong way as a black transfem (u could argue tiefling coded) because I already feel like that. I feel like im too intense and hot with my passions and i intimidate people to the point that I'm actively denying myself the intimacy i crave so dearly just by existing and expressing myself. The taxation of life shouldn't really exist in video games!! The whole party gets mind enslaving brainworms that magically dont work because the plot armor is really strong yet the demon character who EVEN WHEN THEY SEEK HELP IN THEIR COMPANION QUEST ARE DENIED THE REALITY OF LIVING COMFORTABLY BECAUSE THEY SHOULD ONLY EXIST IN HELL. (cried actually). Before the last of this mess, she offers to turn into a mindflayer just to give herself the peace that she could be the hero that saves the world (become the villain because its better than who you currently exist as, or die being yourself (who has LITERALLY BEEN DEMONIZED). Karlach doesn't get to have have a happy ending because she either dies from engine overdose or goes to hell just to fucking breathe. THE KICKER IS THAT WYLL, THE PERSON WHO WAS GOING TO KILL HER AS PART OF THE WARLOCK PACT, OFFERS TO ACCOMPANY HER IN HELL AND FIGHT BY HER SIDE. WHICH MEANS THAT ALL OF THE MARGINALIZED IDENTITIES EFFECTIVELY FUCK OFF AFTER YOU SAVE THE WORLD.

White victim Shadowheart has the option of rejecting what she knows (which was a lie told her) or believing it. The worst she has to do is kill a bound seraphim, and free her parents held captive by putting their souls to rest (she turns them into light, killing them). She gets sick weapons. Clerics are busted anyway.

White devil astarion got to ascend in pale supremacy and got cool vampire powers (bite+, bite++, buff on kill, and consume buff for heal || next hit crits). The final battle WAS BUGGED FOR ME. I WAS STUCK ON THE BOSS FIGHT FOR TWO WEEKS BECAUSE THE END OF BATTLE SCREEN WOULDNT LOAD. LIKE I MADE A WHOLE NOTHER CHARACTER BECAUSE I BEAT THE BOSS 7 TIMES AND MY BUGFIXED DIDNT WORK!!

if im gonna get so heated about video games i am just gonna go play bloodborne so i have no room to complain bc im constantly sucking

[nikkiiiscute]

One Headcanon for everyone one in the neighborhood! (Except for u Home D:<)

Note that this is when everyone was still alive / human sooooo yeah.

🍎Wallace would sometimes weirdly talk to the puppets and would call them by his friends' real names. Example : "Julia's hair is soft today, Right Barnabus?... Yeah she's like a.. Hair master, hehehehe" "Said something about my hair? uhhhh.. Dory (Dory is a nickname for devil dorelaine) said not to touch the puppets during lunch... Hello? Wally?"

🐶Barnabus likes to have an airhorn to sneakily sneak up and it's kinda like this, "BWAAAAAHH!! hahahaha, I'm never getting tired of Aira" "*huff huff* First.. YOU KNOW I CAN'T STAND NOISE!!! Second... You.. Named your airhorn Aira? Third... Your paying for my book.. Do you have a 50? Thank you." "Aaalright alright sorry, Ayy how ya doin lil buddy?... Ehh.. Wally?"

🌸Julia would often give people nicknames that are fun (and may or may not be from Jonas (Jonesy) heres a look. "Hiya Bya! Sup Franko! You too Eeedee! Hello Popsie, good day to ya! Lookin good Barney! Howdy Howdy! Oh hi walls, Said something about my hair? uhhhh.. Dory said not to touch the puppets during lunch... Hello? Wally?"

☀️Byeol / Sally will come up with episode concepts with sammy Julia as they got a good story to tell and would show it to Dorelaine as an Episode Proposal kinda like this, "Ronald Dorelaine, What do you think of our most Astounding, Most Remarkable episode?" "Hope ya like it Dory! I like a new side character move in :>" "Oh just in time! What is your Creative Brain thinking about this Spectacular Script huh Wallace?"

🦋Frank will always have a book or two during Lunch Breaks so they can keep up with entomology / lepidoptorology while on the job, Why not we take a look? "Hiya darling, What's the new topic? Is it okay if I can see?" "It's about Chimeras, It's a rare thing with butterflies that can give them Asymmetrical Wings and yes dear, you can see the pages" "How you two lovebirds doin?" "Hiya Howdy, Doing great. Say, Do you know any sneak peaks for the new episode?" "Nada, But I got one more readin' buddy! Say, How'd ya like to know things about my favorite bug? ay Wally? "

✉️Eddie is clumsy in work, It's obvious that Byeol added this trait cuz he would ACTUALLY trip on set. Here's a nice preview. "Hiya Frank! I got the package ya- AAGH!! oof!... I'm A -Okay!" "CUUUUTTT!!! Eddie, You really need to stop being a klutz or else it will fuse into your characte- Ohhhh! That needs to be written down, this WILL be added to your character! Now I'll just ask Dorelaine for approval" "Aaand there's my clumsiness fused into Mr. Dear. Which is actually kinda cool. Ya hands still sweating Wally?"

🐛Howard is the person that prepares the sets and Eddie helps out, I feel like Howard would be indecisive about how the layout of it should be, Heres a snippet. "Gee.. I-I dunno if the flowers should be pansies or marigolds..Uhhhh I think both! then it'll be the main focu- THAGHH!! I CAN'T THINK OF A LAYOUT!!" "Ay! ay! Calm down Howdy! ya just need some brain rest and actual rest, Ya stayed up 'till 4! I think the 'Bodeguero' thing is getting to ya head. So, Whaddya say?" "uhhh, Sure thing barn. EDDIE!! TELL DORY THAT I NEED A BREAK!! AND TELL DORY MS. PERDIZ'S NOT FEELIN' WELL AIGHT!?" "Got that covered!" "*heavy exhale*... Oh howdy - do lil guy.. Didn't notice ya Walls"

🐦Poppy is prolly the one with the sewing / repair puppets as she can do the job either at Home or Work cuz she's convalescent like my mom. So she's rarely in the Poppy suit and Voice Acting, That's why Partridge is rarely seen. Last part I swear. "Hello dearies, I'm back from my doctor's appointment." "Hiya mothe- I mean! Ms. Perdiz! How's your stomach doin?" "Doing well dearie! now, you said something about Mr. Darling puppet having a tear? Hello? dearie are you okay? Mr. Darryl? Wallace?"

❌ Samuel is dead, He has no info on him. We are so sorry.

[melonteee]

i made a thread about the sanji flashback on twt so that might’ve been the one u saw. like. it’s one of the most bizarre things i’ve seen on tv and i genuinely cannot believe oda approved of this. one of oda’s demands was to keep the backstories of the straw hats unchanged because

”… they're so pivotal to who they are as people, what their dreams and motivations are, and how luffy digs into that as he meets them and helps them rediscover those dreams”

now, looking at how sanji’s story was handled and how his backstory was shoved into a context that didn’t respect his backstory at all, and how his conflict was reduced to ”i want to cook more extravagant dishes but zeff won’t let me” it’s obvious that they only met this demand in the most literal sense. what i get from that quote from oda is that he wanted the straw hats arcs, not just their backstories, to be treated with care. so i have to wonder, did oda set this demand before contracts were written? meaning he literally didn’t have any creative control beyond the just the actual backstories. idk how these things work but i don’t have any other explanation for this mess :(

I mean the answer to that is the producers have all the pull, they have no obligation to actually listen to Oda lol. Yeah Oda said he approved the script and approved some scenes but it's very possible they just changed it AFTERWARDS so they got his public okay to make it look good.

I've been saying it since day one but netflix notoriously do not listen to their creators, and Oda either had a different idea of what this was gonna be and didn't get the memo, or they just gave him empty promises so they could slap his name everywhere and make everyone feel at ease. I honestly can't imagine Oda enjoying what they did to the Baratie and Syrup Village at all, especially since all these characters are very close to his heart.

Sidelining Sanji to focus on the Zoro/Mihawk fight is genuinely such a disrespect to his story lmao, Sanji's complications, emotions and self made obligation towards the baratie being turned into "Zeff won't let me cook my creative dishes" is insane?? From what I know we didn't even get the line of Luffy telling Sanji that sacrificing your life is no way to show gratitude to your saviour, we didn't get Sanji's realisation of how inspiring Zoro and Luffy are as people, we didn't get Sanji facing himself and his own dreams due to Luffy, nor did we get Luffy not taking no for an answer from Sanji ?? We didn't even get to see the effects of Sanji's kindness through Gin, we didn't see the build up of Gin threatening to take Sanji's life just to break down and realise he can't do it due to how POWERFUL of a thing Sanji's kindness is.

Instead, he became a side character in his OWN ARC? Instead they just slapped manga titles onto the episodes to make us think this will indeed follow Sanji's original story, and boy were we surprised! The entire motivation and struggle of his character, his flaws and depth, have been upended, because they deemed Zoro and Mihawk more important in this version. How discouraging is that? All I can say is lol. lmao.