#i need to actually deal with the Horrors so that there's a chance they'll actually go away!

[thebirdandhersong]

I remember talking to a friend last week and saying that if I'm reading obsessively it either means I'm extremely happy or extremely in need of help. alas goodreads my good pal you have GOT to be kidding me

[moonspirit]

The possibilities of certain story elements of AOT going differently if Annie never crystalised herself? Of course, it would still lead her to be arrested and questioned, making Armin worried (etc.) Though, what about other storyline segments? Like, what if she was there when Reiner & Bert revealed themselves? Helping to stop Rod Reiss with Eren? Or fighting Reiner along with Eren again, while taking back Sina? ..To also witness Armin's burnt body. Man, that'd be tragic, huh?

But - hey! At least Armin's and Annie's relationship could grow with them together! Plus, gives him a reason to be held by Annie, in her Titan Form. All of this sparked out of.. nowhere, really... I just really like Aruani. Have a wonderful day, Moon!

Hiii anon!!!! I'm sorry this took so long to respond (in case you thought I ignored you, that's totally not it T^T) - I just needed some time to process this!

This is actually very interesting to think about, especially since we often acknowledge the magnitude of the impact Aruani's Female Titan arc had on the story as a whole. There's many posts about that, about how the rest of AoT literally wouldn't have existed if not for Stohess. It was Armin's cornering of Annie and her crystallization that set everything in motion.

Now, let's get to your questions! (tho I'm very bad at AU and canon-divergence stuff so I'm sorry in advance and bear with me 🥲)

Considering that for the most part we are given the impression that Annie was the only one in RBA actually doing any serious work in ref to their mission (ie she wasn't losing herself in living a false reality like Reiner nor hesitating to act like Bertholdt), it kind strikes me that she would NOT have been impressed when Reiner and Bertholdt... revealed their identities. As aloof and disliking of her companions as she may have seemed, Annie's loyalty to them and the secrets they were keeping cannot be ignored - the whole reason she crystallized was so nobody would get a word out of her and that those two would remain safe. So imagine her horror when those two just waltz up to Eren and go "Heyyyy we're the chunky titan and the big titan, what's good?" 🙃

Tho before all this, we have to step back a bit and wonder - how much would she have given away while being questioned? Not much of her volition imo, but perhaps someone smart (say Armin, Hange, etc) would piece together little bits of info she lets slip, or her interrogation is purposely set up to exhaust and drive her to the point of near-madness until she gives up. Perhaps a combination of the two too.

It's also pertinent to note that tho loyal, Annie's also selfishly driven to her own cause - that of returning to her father, so we should also probably underline the possibility that she co-operates with the enemy (in this case Paradis) if it means she can find an escape back home along the way. It cannot be stressed enough that doing this is not too out of line for Annie's character, but it will load her with a massive tonne of guilt she'll never talk to anyone about, especially if it means leaving Reiner and Bertholdt's fate in their own hands. Annie was taught by her father to rely on herself and trust nobody else. There's only so much of leeway she can allow her emotions to have before she steels herself again.

Back to your questions! Assuming a scenario exists where Annie doesn't give away Rei-Bert's identities, instead striking a deal with Erwin, let's say, to keep some of her secrets while co-operating with the Scouts (this is a ticking time-bomb Erwin's planning to take control of, but mind you, Annie wants to escape before it comes to that). Rei-bert expose themselves on the wall and take off with Eren.

What will Annie do? Will she stay with the Scouts to get Eren back, or follow those two hoping they'll somehow make it past Shiganshina where the others can't follow? A chance to return home?

It's hard to say, given she's still loyal to her cause and Reibert, and coldly realistic in her approach that just because she's cooperating with the Scouts doesn't mean she switches sides - acting is only a temporary gig to get what she wants and to where she wants. If she stays with the Scouts, it's probably only to hit a milestone of an escape plan she's got; but if she goes off with Reibert, then it's because she sees her chance and takes it.

What then? We again have two possibilities forking out of this one scenario alone. Will she escape successfully with Reiner, Bert and Ymir? Or will she be caught by the Scouts and stay in Paradis; what becomes of her trustworthiness then? (nothing good. For aruani, add more angst)

With Rod Reiss, you know I honestly think it'd be REALLY interesting for Annie to meet with Kenny again xD I honestly love how every single one of the three Ackermans managed to get Annie at one point in time or the other (it's funny lmao) - it would be SO intriguing to see her come face to face with him. I'm not sure what thematic/symbolic significance this could have (I'm typing this out while sleepy xD), but I think something about Kenny being a slave to his ideals and desires could lead Annie to question her own beliefs or rather, mirror hers albeit in a different light. Kenny's "love" is shown to us in a very twisted shape - ie his relationship with Kuchel, his "raising" of Levi (with violence and purpose. reminds you of another father, maybe?), his pursuit of impossible dreams vis a vis Annie's very simple ones. I don't really know what I'm trying to say here except that I'm now picturing Annie being in the frame (perhaps hidden or not) when Levi finds out that the dying Kenny is his uncle - it seems important in a way I can't quite put to words xD?

About Shiganshina... oh we can't talk about Shiganshina 🥲🥲🥲🥲 I only know for certain that Aruani's relationship would most likely have progressed into a solid relationship, maybe? by this point (or not, given the speed at which things were happening left and right...), so... I can't even begin to imagine the devastation that Armin's "death" and the subsequent Serum Debacle would wreak on Annie. Tho the latter is honestly a PRIME opportunity for her feelings to become obvious to everyone that was blind to it hehe xD

But the angst... not only will it be Annie's guilt about battling Rei-Bert again (whether or not she's still playing actor or has legimiately switched sides is irrelevant)........ but also.... what would a struggle among Ackerman and Leonhart vs Ackerman have come to? God. You know, I actually wanna see that T^T Levi's just gonna lie there and be like "I hate these 104th girls. Always whining about some idiot boy, fuck my life. Erwin, haul me up man."

God. We'd never run out of possibilities to talk about xD You could draw a flowchart or a scenario-tree and it'd just keep going.

Anyway, I'm sorry that this is ALL over the place, really, I couldn't find a way to logically talk about all these things without diving into pages and pages worth of hyper specific possibilities (and that will bore everybody to death) T___T all the same it's very messy and incoherent imo, so I apologise if this isn't what you wanted! We can talk about this more tho, send me your thoughts :3!

[chronotsr]

No. 1 - G1, The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief (July 1978)

Author(s): Gary Gygax Artist(s): Erol Otus, Dave C. Sutherland III (cover), David A. Trampier Level range: Average of 9, preferably 5+ players Theme: Standard Swords and Sorcery Major re-releases: G1-3 Against the Giants, GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders, Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff, Dungeon #197, Tales from the Yawning Portal

I'm not sure if G1-G3 are the most remastered adventures of all time, but it's gotta be competitive. I think Tomb of Horrors might have it beat, but I haven't counted. The 4e conversion [the Dungeon #197 one] is really weird in particular because…4e feels like the edition least interested in the legacy of DND? It was boldly doing its own thing. A good quality, actually.

Anyway, it's time to slag off* on a beloved adventure. Note, I am using the earliest copy of G1 I can find, which is from waaaay later when D3 was complete. I apologize.

*And by slag off, I mean "be critical of at all". In practice, this module is actually showing some unusual acumen compared to its contemporaries.

EDIT: I forgot to mention a rather important thing when this was made live -- note the title there! We are officially in ADND land now, so put away your little brown booklets and switch over to the fuck-off awesome player's handbook with the iconic Moloch statue!

Somehow I had gotten my whole life at this point never really…understanding what this structure was supposed to look like? It looks like this.

I honestly think exterior shots of dungeons are critically underrated. Handouts are amazing and being able to flash the back cover art to safely show the party "like this" is actually great, I deeply wish that….any? of the previous modules had done that? I think the only one that did was Tsojconth. Weirdly, the interior drawing is very subtly different. Look at how the logs face:

Not a huge deal but, a kind of weird inconsistency that top one looks like a stockade and the bottom one looks like a log cabin. Side note, we know that the long dimension of this is using 210 feet tall logs, which is to say, the size of an average redwood. These are some big fuck-off trees -- which could be a very interesting detail about the local area.

Now the setup is pretty simple. You were hired to go beat up the giants because they've been raiding the local humans, figure out why they're raiding, and comeback posthaste. The locals have kitted you out with horses, guides, maps, et c -- but no compensation, they have simply omitted a finder's fee (cheap bastards). Also, if you fail, they'll execute you. With friends like these, who needs Giants?

Gary starts with some mild railroading (you accepted the job already, you are already kitted out, you already walked to a nearby cave, you waited til dusk to approach, you notice two guards are missing, and the cave is guaranteed to be moderately hidden. Sure, whatever, I'm going to ignore that if I run this tho. Gary notifies us of a few critical details:

Don't run this stock, that's immoral

Any surviving giants will flee to G2 if they have the opportunity (which, kind of inherently punishes clever play that avoids combat?)

There is a 2% chance per round that the wooden structure will be lit on fire due to chronic rain (why is this a dice roll??)

If you will permit me a tangent, player arson is truly the bane of interesting scenarios everywhere. Whenever a player wonders, "why are all the GM's dungeons underground or in stonework buildings?", it's because doing anything else invites arson as the default and best answer to all problems. Magic items are fireproof and most metal items will not get hot enough to be destroyed, so very often the best solution is to burn the place to the ground and loot it the next day. So, yeah. No wood buildings. Gary's fix is to have all the giants flee into the basement, then waste a week of the PC's time for daring to use arson. Kind of sucks!

Tangent complete.

Here's some random interesting bits:

Gary explicitly states that you can pass yourself off as hill giant kids, which is extremely funny. Minus the implicit child murder.

Naturally there are giant moms doing giant housemaid shit in several rooms. Presumably they have giant curlers too.

The secret door is, literally just a doorway covered by a pelt. I have to hand it to them, that'd trip up most players in 2024 AND make them feel stupid for not figuring it out!

The big reveal that Eclavdra the Drow is secretly behind it all is so lightly teased that it feels downright tasteful.

A giant that uses a ballista as a crossbow (based) and spears for arrows (also based) -- between the prevalence of lightning spears and greatarrows, one starts to think of a certain famous video game. Genuinely I think it'd be a fun exercise one day, for someone who is more knowledgeable than me about Japanese fantasy roleplaying culture, to talk about how anglophone fantasy works made their way into Japan and were interpreted.

One of the cloud giants has hidden a sentient giant slaying sword that speaks all the giant languages, it feels like there's a hell of a story going on there that is only alluded to!

To my knowledge, this is the first official depiction of an orc in DND? Which implies that Gary is team pig-orcs, which is cool. Frankly, I love porcine orcs, or even better just pigfolk in general, they're great.

I think it is actually a rather bold early stance for Gary to hold that, even here in 1978, Chaotic aligned creatures are not automatically friends. Granted, that's how it is in Elric, so it's not THAT bold, but clearly everyone else missed the memo. The orcs are willing to side with you at least in the short-run, and in our previous modules it was very rare to have groups of chaotic-aligned creatures fighting one another. It was always just personal beefs. In fact, the overall theme of G1 so far is that despite the boxy-ass dungeon design, there's already a command of naturalism that even modern dungeons really struggle with. Factionalism truly is the gift that keeps on giving for the GM!

So the big reveal internally to G1 (just think of that -- a reveal internally to G1, and externally to the GDQ supermodule -- we're already getting pacing!) is that the orc slaves have rebelled. And -- hey -- good for them. There's also a kind of…built-in companion refill system going on here? So in oldish DND the way it works is, the expectation is the party is not just 5 guys with swords. You've got companions to help fight, and you've got hirelings to do other stuff (test suspected traps, if you're evil). And you can only hire so many of these guys from town, but attrition is going to happen. So the modules simply provides, automatic replacements should you negotiate worth a quarter of a shit. A dwarf slave here, an orc slave there. Maybe a giant dissenter if you're really clever. One of the potential "rewards" you can get is more dudes to throw at problems.

More interesting bits

There is, what I can only really call an abortive idea going on here where there's a scary temple in the basement? But no one worships there and no information is provided. It is merely a fucked up altar. I think I vaguely recall that it's retconned Tharizdun in one of the remakes? They always retcon things to be Tharizdun. Busy man, Tharzy.

Gary, Gary no. Stop it. Stop this 78 guys bullshit. I thought we had established that giant rooms of giant clumps of guys was bad. I know you have terminal Napoleonics brain but stop.

Wait, Steading is a noun? I always thought it was a verb. Yknow, like "Steading those hill giants", taking 'em down a notch. Apparently, a Steading is a small farm -- same etymology as Homestead. I guess mark that as our first Gygaxism?

Our second Gygaxism is gill, which is "a quarter pint of an alcoholic drink", which is to say a few mouthfuls

Always end your adventures with weird, ominous non-diegetic text. On the flip-side, absolutely do not do what the adventure does, and end on a teleporter that takes you to the next dungeon. That is the worst option.

Anyway, that's the whole Hill Giant situation. Honestly, it's better than I remembered, but in proud module tradition up to this point it gets weirdly filler-y in the basement. There's just something about basements that makes dungeon designers stop giving a shit, I swear. I do need to give the man his due, even though he was a shitass person: Gygax wrote an 11 page module that is of noticeably higher killer-to-filler ratio than any of his contemporaries. G1 is better than any of its predecessors, pound for pound. It is way, way shorter which is I suppose a plus to me and a minus to others, but -- there is a clear internal logic to this place that is tragically missing from (say) The Dwarven Glory. And that internal logic is the beginning of good adventure design. Anyway, we have two fun tidbits to discuss before we end for the day.

First up, we have an of-the-time account of events in Dragon #19! It turns out that in Origins '78 they played G1-G3's prototype. The account is of the winners (mostly West Virginians, a few Michiganders), who used their magic extremely liberally to hide what they were doing as well as to scout. They did opt to light the place on fire, good for them! If you want to check this out, it's on page 3. I will mention G2 and G3 here as relevant later.

Second up, there's a weird interquel hiding in Dungeon #198! Hanging out as an informal G1.5 is "The Warrens of the Stone Giant Thane!" I will not review it in full because my understanding of 4e is, basically just skimming the PHB and reading the DMG, but essentially the Stone Giants are hypothetically aloof and not particularly loyal to their Fire Giant superiors, but someone gave them The Rock That Makes You Crazy and so now they are. Smash the rock!

Man, map design in the 4e era was so fucking bad. It looks fine, but like, this is four circles. And downstairs is, of course, cave as far as the eye can see. Aren't stone giants supposed to be skilled carvers? Anyway, If you feel like G2 would be too big of a jump mechanically compared to G1, this exists. I'm sure you could use it if you liked, and certainly there is a Genre of Grognard who would be kinda tickled at the thought of finding "lost content" for el classico GDQ.

Next week, we cover G2, which was also in July. So was G3! They're triplets!

[armpirate]

UNDER HIS SKIN || JJK || Ch. 9

Pairings: tattoist!jk x fem!reader

Genre: smut, angst, friends to lovers, tattoo au, virgin reader.

Summary: They say there are two versions for every story, and it's important to hear both of them. Everybody is hearing your side of the story, but it's just fair to get to know his.

After breaking up with his girlfriend, the only thing he wanted was to have fun with no attachment. You wanted to get rid of your virginity, and he wanted to tick you off his list. What he didn't expect was getting so emotionally attached to you that he would regret the deal.

Previous || Next

MASTERLIST

She doesn't live in one of the best areas of New York, but it's not the worst one I've been in either. Although this building... It looks like it might fall down at any point.

The cracking sound of the door draws my attention back to Y/n, finding her fighting to open the door. Her left hand twists the key, while the right one keeps pulling from the door until it finally opens. That sudden move almost made her fall to her back -and I say almost because I hold her by her arm before she's able to stumble enough to fall.

When she's aware of my hold, she hawks and moves her arm away cautiously.

—You do this every time you go in? —I look at her surprised— Last week I thought you were just so mad and frustrated you fought with the first thing you found.

—It'd be easier if we could fix it. But most of us earn just enough to survive every month.

I understand what she is trying to say. I guess that, if they're living here, it is because they can't really afford a lot more than enough to survive. But it still doesn't take away the fact that living like this is a headache. What if one day that trick doesn't work out and she's just stuck outside?

Sooner or later, they'll have to repair that door. Either it'll be by choice or they'll be forced to do it.

—Lift or stairs?

—It depends —I put my hands in the pockets of my cargo pants.

—I live on the fourth floor.

After driving for more than four hours, only stopping to get some gast? Yeah... no.

With no need to say a word, I lift my hand and point to the closed metallic lift. And if the door problem was something to worry about, the elevator only makes me concerned for her safety and genuinely makes me ask myself if she actually dares to go up and down on this thing. Being able to see the wires in charge to move this box up and down the building, the flickering lights giving the best horror movie environment and the buttons that Y/n almost had to punch to get this thing to move? She shouldn't be living in these conditions.

—Welcome to my humble home —she informs me after opening her door.

The big contrast is mind-blowing.

Opposed to the unkempt building, her house is tidy and cozy. And that floral scent that welcomes me as soon as I step inside only makes it even better. Everything just sticks together. There's a lot of white, gray and pastel colors -which is something I'd have never related to her if I had had the chance to guess.

Somewhere across the room, I see a similar turntable I have at home, and it seems like she has a big collection by the big amount of vinyls displayed on the small shelf next to it.

—Oh —I point to the old turntable in the living room corner—, I have the same model.

Pathetic way to try to start a conversation with her right now. I'll give myself that.

—It was my grandma's —she shrugs—. I also have a collection of all the vinyls she bought —she points to that same shelving, that's as tall as the furniture where the turntable is lying on.

Pressing my lips together, and aware of the grimace expression I've made, I simply nod and keep looking around, trying to find something to talk about. Or more like trying to find something that could give me a hint about who she actually is.

—Do you want something to drink?

—I'm fine.

I walk around, looking at all the details and seeing some pictures displayed on the furniture near the entrance door. A more innocent and smiley Y/n appears in one of the pictures, next to an old woman.

—So, are you going to rate my house?

And there she goes. Peace lasted way too long.

—Will you still play the enigmatic and interesting role? —I turn to her— You were about to set some rules.

—About that...

It doesn't take me long to guess she didn't think about anything, and probably she was sure she'd be able to come up with something while I was here.

—You didn't think of anything —I finish and think of the most important rule—. Then let me start: let's stop bitching at each other. Let's move on from that.

Whatever happened between us, needs to stop. We're both grown ups to still be bickering and fighting because of a misunderstanding three weeks ago.

Time to let that shit go if we're doing this.

—Two: Limits —she continues—. I want to set the pace of whatever this will be.

Which makes total sense.

—Of course —I let my body fall on the couch—. Three: Communication. If you don't feel comfortable with something, or you think you aren't ready, I need you to tell me. I will stop and I will mold to you. Like... If you don't feel like talking with a dude, or do something in bed with me, it's fine. We are here for that, so no need to rush it.

She crosses her arms on her chest, keeping her eyes on me as I sit comfortably on her sofa, as if I had been here more times than I could count them.

—Four: We can't tell anyone —she points a finger at me, as if she were warning me—. Let's keep it between us and as low key as possible.

—They'll think it's weird we get on well out of nowhere.

—As if they'll care that much about it. I'm sure they have more things to think about rather than you and me, and our childish fights —she interrupts me—. Doubt they'll notice.

I tilt my head, accepting her proposal.

—Five: No jealousy.

She cackles at my idea, which makes me frown.

She's laughing now, but at some point it'll happen -and probably it'll be from her side. It's good to set some things straight before we get into business.

—Okay, fine. I'll try not to fall for you. And I'll try not to fight every girl that drools for you. Alright?

Rolling my eyes, I decide it's a good idea to write all of this down. So as I try to remember everything we settled for now, I typed them on the phone.

—We need to write down all of this —I justifies myself—. I'll send you a screenshot when we're done. Your number, by the way? —I look up to her, and huffing, she finally gives me her phone number—. Six: You can't go out with the same dude more than once.

She huffs again, and I'm seeing every intention to protest against it. But I stop her before she's able to.

—You need to hang out with different guys to be able to get all the skills you need.

—Or more like you won't be able to enjoy your part of the deal if I fall for someone.

Oh... she really thinks I haven't thought about that.

—Let me get there —I type the rule on my phone before I say it out loud, sitting carelessly and resting my back on the backrest—. Seven: You can't fuck anyone. At least not until I do it first.

That sassy smile slowly vanishes away when I speak up about my idea.

What did she expect? Me getting her ready to be with a random guy, just for them to get a reward of all my hard work? That's not fair.

—You're kidding, right?

I shake my head, playing with my fingers on my lap as I let my phone rest on my thigh.

—It's a transaction, that's what the deal is about —I continue—. This is your part of it.

—And what if I like someone and I want him to be the first time?

—That's exactly why the sixth rule exists —I smirk—. I want to be the owner of all your first times, Y/n. I'll be working for it, and build you up to be ready for it.

And being the first one to taste her and feel her, after the big challenge she's been, is the best reward I could think of right now.

Moving my phone to the side of the couch, I reach for her hand, guiding her to move closer to me so she ends up standing in between my thighs. Both of my hands bring her closer by pushing her from the backside of her thighs, something that cuts her breathing momentarily as I try to place her on top of me, straddling my lap. My hands move up, until they both cup her hips over her gym pants.

—If I can't fuck with other guys —she whispers—, you can't fuck other girls.

—You want exclusiveness?

—No, fairness —she corrects me—. This is our deal, remember?

And I think it's a fair rule.

—Rule number eight: My release is yours —I rub my lips against hers.

—And my first times are yours —she finishes under her breath.

I move my hands over her body, delighting myself with being allowed to touch her this way after thinking about it for so long, deprived and forced to look at her from the distance.

I trace her jaw with my fingertips, moving up to her face to place one of her locks behind her ear. A route that my lips follow, from her lips, to her jaw, until they reach her earlobe. I can feel her fast paced heartbeat against my mouth as I travel over her skin, and I'm convinced she likes it when her mouth lets out a heavy breath as soon as my teeth get in contact with the spongy part of her earlobe.

Still holding her with my left hand on her neck, I reach the phone and manage -hardly- to type the rest of the rules down on the notes. I can see her eagerness and impatience whenever my eyes go up to her. And I know she's totally done when both of her hands rest on both sides of my head, as she tries to bend closer to my neck to be the one teasing me. But I move faster. I throw my phone somewhere on the couch, and cup her face with both of my hands again just to redirect her lips to mine before she can even think of being in contact with my neck.

Her lips are a bit clumsy at first, finding it difficult to follow my moves. But damn, don't they feel soft and addictive. Slowly, she catches the pace and encourages herself to directly touch me, making it hard for me not to groan when her cold fingers lie directly on the exposed skin of my neck.

She opens her mouth a bit wider, letting my tongue dig in her cave. That first touch with her tongue, mixed with the taste of her spit is making my brain go places it shouldn't go to right now. She gasps when I twirl my tongue around hers, and I can't help but grin at that reaction.

It really is making it difficult for me to hold back everything I want to do right now.

—Is this your first kiss? —I ask, breaking up the kiss.

She doesn't answer straight away, instead... I kind of feel bad for making that question when she frowns, and looks at me concerned.

—Was it that bad?

I move my thumb on her cheek. It was obvious she's inexperienced, but not in a bad way. If I hadn't broken up the kiss, I'm sure I'd be hard like a rock in my pants.

—Not at all, and that's dangerous.

Stopping myself before it's too late, I lift her up and let her rest back on the couch. She's confused, probably expecting more from this first time than just a kiss.

—You're leaving? That's not fair, you're such a teas...

—I'm leaving —I start walking to the door—. Now we're in a tie.

Of course mentioning what happened in the studio is way better than saying I'm so turned on, I'd probably would be ready to fuck her just with a kiss.

She doesn't need to know that.

—Anyway, this was an introduction of how it'll go between us from now on —I make a small pause—, cocktease.

—Stop calling me that —she warns me.

Oh, if she only knew she's only encouraging me to use that as her nickname from now on. The more she hates it, the more I'll use it.

—Okay —I sigh—, cocktease.

I rush to close the door of the apartment as soon as I see her taking her shoe off and see it fly across the room. Although I'm fast enough so I just hear it collide against the door.

Smirking again, I take my phone out and see her contact. On her name, where she wrote "Y/n", I edit it just to write "Cocktease".

It'd have been better if she had just ignored it.

[sometimesrosy]

The 100 2023 rewatch ep 1.4

Murphy's Law

Man I wish Wells had survived. I wish we could have seen who he became. :(

The wall has been built. Good for them. Clarke is outside it in the growing graveyard, mourning Wells. Finn sneaks up on her telling her what to do. (shouldn't be out here) says the guy who spent another night exploring out in the woods. Oh he got her something did he?

And she's charmed by the art supplies. It makes her remember Wells who was trading his own stuff to give her supplies. NOW she starts blaming her mother. I mean, fine it's her mother's fault, but oh she realizes what she can do to make her "feel it." Vengeful child. And feel it she does. The first terminated signal in over a week. She is freaking out over Clarke maybe dying.

Meanwhile, Monty needed a working wristband for the comm signals. "Well be talking to the Ark by nightfall." Monty's such a sweety and so competent.

Look at those delinquents working hard building walls. Look at Murphy being a dick to the kid who stumbles. Look at Bellamy being dad bellamy and teasing little Charlotte. OMG WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU MURPHY??

I forgot he peed on that poor kid who wanted a water break. WHAT A DICK. How in the world did they redeem him. But they did.

O is leading Jasper out into the woods. And she gets grabbed. By one of the Johns. Then he trips and sees Wells' severed fingers. Hello Trauma capital T.

Dick Kane is tracking Abby and wanting to know why he's going to Mecha. She lies and says someone has strep. "We don't want another outbreak." And he backs off. She lies again saying she'll keep him informed. Mecha has Raven fixing the tincan. No pressure regulator and they can't ride in the shuttle.

The metal knife from the drop ship. The grounders didn't kill Wells, it was one of us. Bellamy points out there's more than one murderer in the camp. Ooooh. Bellamy and Clarke conflict. he wants the news quiet. Keep people afraid and they'll work for him. Fear of the grounders is building the wall. Don't even know who's knife that is.

OH really? JM. John Murphy. The people have a right to know. SHe goes RIGHT to Murphy and blames her for killing him. He of course denies it because he didn't. AND BELLAMY believes her. "I don't have to answer to anyone!"

Come again? Asks bellamy. And he says the knife and fingers were found together. Poor murphy. He really didn't do it. The kid he peed on wants him floated. "It's justice." She says revenge isn't justice. WOW that's a lot of delinquents jumping Murphy. O wanted to stop it. She was a lot less blood thirsty in season 1. I wish we coulda stuck with that.

Clarke is saying they can't string him up

Oooh. this is graphic. Clarke says Bellamy can stop this and the peed boy says Bellamy should do it. They start chanting his name. And Clarke says she saw him in the woods and she knows he's not a killer.

OMG they actually drop him. THat is awful. Awful. WOW>

HOLY SHIT. I forgot how HORRIBLE that was in the immediate reveal that Charlotte did it.

Horror on top of horror on top of horror. That's how this show dragged us in. We never had a chance to recover or even process one horror before finding another.

Meanwhile Bellamy REALLY does not want to do this, but he's going with the crowd. He's NOT in control, but he's afraid that if he stands against them he'll lose control.

Nigel's "little bird" needs a pressure regulator. What for? Regulating pressure. She says she has her mother's sense of humor. And she doesn't move machine parts. How bout some moonshine and herb. She tries to pimp Raven out to the chief of electrical. Her mother would have taken that deal. In fact, she did, many times. We forgot about Raven's history, didn't we.

"I was just trying to slay my demons, like you told me."

Little girl never learned about metaphors and symbolism. What that little girl could have used was a good ENGLISH TEACHER!!! That's right, an english teacher could have saved Wells. lol

Bellamy blames Clarke. If she didn't tell then those idiots would still be building the wall. Meanwhile he wants to save Charlotte the actual murderer. "Giving the people what they wanted."

Now Murphy is trying to get the delinquents to string up Charlotte. "It's okay to string me up for nothing but when this little bitch confesses, you wanna let her walk." And Murphy slams Bellamy and tries to get the girl. This is jam packed.

Clarke and Finn run off with Charlotte into the woods.

UH OH. The arc medical unit. There's a lot of kids not doing so well. Oxygen deprivation. Raven can't get the part. Nygel has the part, and Abby is going to take care of it. I actually always wanted to see Nygel on earth. She would have been GREAT as a villain. Trading morphine for a pressure regulator.

Charlotte tries to hold Clarke's hand and Clarke is MAD. "Clarke she's just a kid." "She's a killer. Look at me, you can't just kill someone to make yourself feel better."

Finn found a bunker for hiding.Art supply store. "I can't believe you kept this place quiet." Clarke agrees with me. Repurposing and sharing with the group. He bribes her with colored pencils. Jerk. They're using a shit ton of candles. Wasteful.

She thinks if she hadn't told none of this would've happened. Finn says she couldn't have known. "Bellamy knew."

Kane's mom Vera. It's funny whose names i remember. The magic earth tree. It's just a bonsai. Nygel tells Kane about Abby. She sucks. Great villain. He calls her a plague on the ship.Oops theres the morphine.

Clarke fell asleep on Finn's shoulder and she grins, she's got a crush on the worthless jackass. And Charlotte's gone.

Bellamy has found her. It's Charlotte hunting season. Bellamy is trying to help her. "I'm not your sister." She's got your number B.

"Listen to me Charlotte. I. Won't. Leave. You."

She calls for Murphy.

Raven and Abby fixing the shuttle as we wait for Kane to come. She finds out that Kane knows the morphine is gone. They're gonna be here in five and Raven needs 20. "Only one of us needs to get to the ground. 300 people will die if you don't." "They'll float you." "Then they'll float me."

Bellamy is carrying Charlotte over her shoulder before running into the cliff. Here comes murphy. He's ready to take a few of them with her. Clarke arrives. "This has gone too far."

Murphy grabs her and holds a knife to Clarke's throat. A trade for Charlotte. She wants to trade herself. She's feeling guilt. So she jumps over the cliff.

Bellarke's first lost child.

Now Murphy is like, "bellamy..." and bellamy is going to bet him to death. "he deserves to die."

"NO! We don't decide who lives or dies, not down here."

This is when they become partners. "We need rules."

"And who makes those rules? YOu?"

"For now WE make the rules. We banish him."

Bellamy is with her. Threatens him if he ever sees him in camp again. And says the other four can be with him or die with Murphy. THey choose Bellamy.

Finn is all emotional. And useless I might add.

Raven racing against the clock to regulate pressure. And Nygel gave her a bum part. Great villain. She sees a space suit. oh that will work.

Abby tells Kane that she's trying to save "all of us." He arrests her and continues the search for Raven Reyes WHO has just taken off in a rusted tincan. She floated HERSELF bitch.

Clarke and Bellamy speaking to the collected Delinquents and nodding to each other. Partners.

Monty has gotten the wristband working. Morse code. OH no. It fried every last wristband. Fried them all? Then how did they use the wristband in season 3??? Oh it might have been one of the ones the took off before.

Meanwhile O is rewarding "brave" Jasper with a kiss. He picked the wrong girl to have a crush on, I tell yah.

Oh UGH. Finn is destroying the bunker because "we're dead to them." we're not alone. YOURE Not alone. No it was Finn who kissed her not Clarke who kissed finn. Now they have their love scene. Meh. Short.

With his girlfriend Raven coming down AS they're doing it.

Rude. Honestly what a soapy mess. Clarke and Raven shoulda gotten together and left Finn out completely. Damn right.

Anyway. That's a jam packed episode. Very dramatic. High stakes. Life and death on the small scale with the delinquents and the large scale with the Ark.

The hanging scene was BRUTAL. Like it was really violent. And the Charlotte reveal was a gut punch. The acting has stepped up big time. (I still don't love O and Jasper, I never really did, but everyone else.)

Murphy is absolutely despicable in all conceivable ways. Clarke is desperate. Bellamy is floundering. Finn is just standing around doing nothing while Bellarke does it all... sorry, he's judging. He does that. Raven is a super star. Abby is determined. Kane has a stick up his butt but he honestly does think he's doing the right thing, although he's still a dick. Monty is a genius. Jasper is terrified. O is a lot kinder in this episode. She loses that later, too bad. We got a lot of worldbuilding for the Ark in this episode with the politics and blackmarket and health crises and Raven's backstory.

I'm actually really enjoying watching this show for story OUTSIDE of Bellarke. There's a lot that I've forgotten.

[e-m-p-error]

🍎 ｡:*• ─ HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN CHALLENGE.     ›  Day Twenty-Seven

[ Valentino ]

27. Pick a character from one of their favourite Halloween movies and write a small interaction/drabble between them and your muse.

Val isn't really a horror movie kind of guy but I recently watched someone play Dead Rising 2 and fucking TK would get on with him so well sooooo I'm running with that. The fic is 733 words long, and so it's going to be under a cut for length. The worst cw is smoking.

Rounding a corner, Tyrone hit a wall of sweet, red, cherry-scented smoke like it was an actual wall. Immediately it set him to coughing, and he had to cover his mouth with one hand to try and inhale something else. The smoke smelt different, felt different, than what he was used to. It felt warm, it felt like a caress, it felt like—

A hand! 

There was a huge, spidery, black hand reaching out of the smoke and touching his face! Tyrone had but a second to react, and what he did end up doing surprised him. Smacking the hand away from him, he let out a gasp of horror as the rest of the creature, robed in alarm bell red, twisted into view.

He first noticed those glowing, hot pink eyes, slits in a periwinkle face behind–Sunglasses? Gold-framed, heart-shaped, pink lenses glinted in the low light of the maintenance tunnel. A tall red... Thing? Hat! A tall red hat with a wide brim flopped around its head as two long stalks, one thin and twiggy in a heart-shaped pattern, and the other long and feathered with the same motif, lifted in agitation.

“You don't like whatcha see, Baby?” A surprisingly handsome voice leered at him from behind glowing pale red teeth—With a gold tooth, he noted, “I promise you this, Sweet Thing, I was quite a looker when I was alive.”

When he was alive?

Out of the frying pan and into the fucking inferno, apparently. Tyrone glanced behind him and decided to take his chance on the thing that was capable of speech.

“Man, we don't got time for this shit, those— They're comin', and they'll send you right back where you came from.” The human took the too-long, too-big hand still in the air where his face had been and bolted without thinking. 

Two corners, this time, were turned with a steady clicking of the exceedingly tall man's (?) heels. Until he felt they were alone enough, Tyrone wasn't going to stop moving, and it seemed his unwitting passenger was just along for the ride. Whatever was behind him, Tyrone would deal with later. If something was going to kill him, it would be the infected. Whatever this thing was, this guy, he thought, was at least someone he could reason with. There was no reasoning with the infected.

When they were finally a safe distance from the hoard of zombies behind them, Tyrone finally came to a stop, winded. It seemed the thing tagging along with him was, too, if the loud wheezing and coughing to his right said anything.

“The fuck...” Tyrone finally began, looking up from where he held his knees in both hands, “Are you?”

“Sure is a rude-ass thing to ask someone you just fuckin’ met.” The creature snapped, narrowing his eyes as he leaned forward on his knees.

“You're not human, are you?" The human asked, narrowing his eyes, and the demon before him laughed, straightening up to his natural, impossible height. Tyrone didn't know just how tall, but this thing—guy—was huge.

”I'm not anymore, no, Baby. You got a couple more questions before you wear out my patience. Daddy don't got all damn day, now.”

“Daddy?” Tyrone's voice was flat, and the creature sighed.

“How about I introduce myself, Baby? Valentino, Overlord of lust and depravity in Hell.”

“Hell? Demons?!“ Tyrone whipped around in a circle, hands on his head, elbows tented, ”Fucking shit, man, like I need this bullshit.“ He tapped his chest, and Valentino's head lifted when he heard a familiar sound of fabric paper.

”Got somethin' you need to unload, Baby? Daddy loves money. You give me what you got and I'll triple it when you die.“ He held out a hand, ”Deal?“

Tyrone narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing that hand before his brain caught up to him. Grabbing Val's hand, he shook it eagerly, readily willing to make triple what he had on his person.

”Deal!“ It sounded too good to be true because it was. Pulling the bag off his shoulder and emptying the cash out of his pockets into it, he handed the bag over to the other man, watching him shoulder it without a single problem.

”See you in Hell, Baby~“ Valentino purred, disappearing suddenly in another cloud of red, cherry-scented smoke. 

Tyrone didn't know exactly how short his time before seeing Valentino was going to be, unfortunately.

[darkmarkets]

The Horrors of Dark Marketing, part 3: Reviews

Ah, now here is the real chance for a writer to find an audience; the book review.

Anyone who's ever glanced at New York Times will know The Book Review is a big deal. Once you get your book reviewed, you're an instant blockbuster! They'll sing praises to you in the annals of history, they'll backyard-slaughter ducks in your name. Get a book review and you can finally connect to all those thousands of people who share your love of sixteenth century goat braising and who would love to read your coming of age story about one sixteenth century goat braiser caught twixt her twin loves of fuzzy animals and tasty meats. In other words, the book review will help us sell books—if all the tiny, finite pieces of the book review puzzle fall perfectly into place.

If.

And they're probably not going to.

To elaborate: Puzzle piece #1 is finding a reviewer. Oh, sure, we found the New York Times Book Review, but no one's getting in that unless they're Jonathan Franzen or some other ivory tower academia lit-jerk. (I myself aspire to be a kind of ivory tower academia lit-jerk, so its okay if I say it.) Then there's Publisher's Weekly, NPR, Booklist, and all those major pubs with a book review section—just don't worry about those. By the time a writer has a review in those periodicals, they don't need it all that much.

Most likely, the reviewer catering to our book is with a specialized industry magazine, book blog, or Amazon-flavored venues. And there are quite a few to choose from, so no panic there.

Yet.

Puzzle piece #2 is convincing that reviewer to review your book. Sounds easy. Say one particular reviewer loves goat braising books, just loves them, then it should follow that she wants to read ours. Of course, our book has to stand out among all the gajillion other goat braising books sitting in her inbox asking to be reviewed, but that's no big thing. Most of those are about boat braising, anyway.

But then, after the reviewer agrees to read our book, hopefully she'll not be a jerk and actually do the review. People compensated for their work in "love" as opposed to paychecks are notoriously unreliable, or so I've heard. (No, I'm not speaking from personal experience, I've always come through on my writerly commitments how dare you suggest such a thing?!) Anyway, it's hard to eat love, innuendos notwithstanding.

Puzzle piece #3; the review, or a portion thereof, is actually good. Sigh.

And, finally, puzzle piece #4 is that people actually read the review and it causes them to buy the book. This depends on so many factors outside our control, that's it's like staring into the dark spanse of cold space, full of unknown horrors and unfathomable creatures. How many people actually read the book blog our review appears in, how many of those people actually have the $2.99 to spend on a Kindle ebook version? How many of those people might buy the book, but never read it? How many are lit jerks bitter that their goat braising book didn't get reviewed, so they're going to spend their money on the newest New York Times Book Review recommendation? Truly, one can go mad trying to correlate all the potential contents.

So yes; while the book review is the most useful tool for a new writer, it's also the most infuriating. And not very useful half the time. But that half of the time it is useful, it is very, very useful—so much so, it might even be worth putting up some book blog links for those searching out a review! I know, constructive, right?

Well, don't worry; the sunshine and lollipops won't last long. Because get ready for the single most terrifying, most soul-crushing activity in which a writer can partake...the dreaded book signing.

...To be continued! Flee in terror!

Lorna D Keach

[box-of-fandom]

Guilty Tears Analysis: finale

HORROR TW

@not-exactly-laborious

I'm going to be focusing more on the symbolism here,since it disproved that last episode was Janus'. Although I don't think the last two were Remus's and Janus' nightmares, this one has a LOT of dream symbolism.

Now the first thing we see is someone ( presumably Thomas) say that they're okay and that they'll fix it tomorrow. Janus then says this:

(how much more do you need to see?)

Last episode Janus watched Thomas see everything that had been happening in his mind. Janus knows Thomas knows he's upset, so why is he still denying it?

Then Janus sarcastically reminds us that all of this could have been avoided if they just listened to him. There's also a baby cradle which symbolizes this:

(ID: usually baby dreams are a really positive sign that represent growth or development either with you personally or with something that you're working on.)

We then see Janus closing the door on this good omen, something that we also see later.

After that we cut to someone running through the woods. I looked it up and there were multiple meanings to this, but I feel like this one fits best:

(you are running away from a situation in your love life or work life. You may actually be buried this problem deep inside your brain to avoid having to deal with it.)

This is what the whole series is about. Thomas has been running away from his problems with Nico. You can also see it as Thomas running away from the callback, since he works as an actor.

It also talks about how Thomas is running away from himself, again referencing the symbolism above. After a little bit we hear sirens in the dream.

The seduction could be the callback calling out to Thomas, though I'm 50/50 on that.

In the final scene we see ladybugs:

(they are often tied to love, prosperity, and good luck.)

We see them next to daisies (meaning innocence) sunflowers (happiness/honesty) some purple flowers (success and dignity) and red roses (romance). After it flies for a bit, it lands and we see Janus crush it with his finger. I suppose that's means that the past is in the past/the chance is over. He tells Thomas that it time to forgive himself and move on. But will Thomas listen? That's for time to tell.

There's finally the endcard, which also happens to be the profile picture: a wilted white rose. This is what I found online:

(They represent purity... They also represent youthfulness, innocence, young love, and loyalty.)

This means that Thomas has lost his childhood innocence, and can start thinking in grays now. A bittersweet ending.

And that's it. That's the finale of Guilty Tears. I admit there are some aspects that still don't make sense to me, but maybe someone else will get. Maybe the team will make a video explaining everything. Maybe they won't.

This series was so much fun to watch. This is my first time doing something like this, and it was a bit hard to analyze at times. But it was also fun to see what I missed and what other people picked up. I've been hyped for guilty tears ever since there was a trailer for it, and it did not disappoint. Thank you to everybody on the team for making this!

[ghostandrobots]

Tell me about your favourite headcanon's - for any character 😩

OH HELL YEAH! Im gonna do Jennifer Check because I am. Thinking about her so hard.

- Personally. I think Jennifer Check is a lesbian with comphet. Jennifer clearly feels some deep seeded need to be considered attractive, and I think she validates this through men, but I dont think she actually likes men. - Jennifer and Needy watch horror movies together! In the background of Needys room there's an Evil Dead poster on one of her walls. Her and Jennifer both like horror movies, although Needy likes them a bit more. When Jennifer spends the night and it starts getting late they'll throw some random horror Movies on.

- Jennifer 100% Uses it as an excuse to pull a "Oh my god...Needy...Im so scared. You should totttaallllyyy hold me." - Jennifer has an endless music collection. Stacks of CDs, posters, merch she picked up at shows, records, you name it! She's saved a few of the concert tickets from shows her and Needy have gone too. She's always on the lookout for the next closest show. - I think Jennifer doesn't like being alone. Actually she really hates it. She's always either on the phone with Needy, at her house, or texting her. Partially because she just wants be around her! But also because Jennifer tends to shove off any sort of feelings she has. Alone time and the quite settling in always seems to get her emotions going, and she'd rather not deal with that. - ABSOLUTELY THE TYPE TO DO CORNY BESTFRIEND STUFF. She'll buy her and Needy matching stuff, She'll paint there nails at sleepovers, she'll post pictures of her and Needy on her myspace page (Which she totally has one by the way-) She just wants everyone to see her best friend! duh! sorry this is kinda short but!! Thank you for the chance to let me ramble!

[pangolin-404]

Delving into what chapter 2 of Bendy: Rewritten (or just the side scroller AU, as a couple people have called it- still working on a vaguely clever name hh) would be like, where there are choices and reactions! More canon divergence! Things set up and hinted at!

The background music changes. No shame to batim's music, I quite like it, but it can be better. Whenever Sammy's around (carrying the cutout, looking over the band room, giving his ritual spiel) a banjo is added to the bg track. The followers get string instruments, more added depending how many are in the room. The sacrifice room is mainly string instruments

Sammy is somewhat a lost one. He loses his buff rights and is a mix of his pre- and post-update designs. I say somewhat because, while he is skeletal, he drips a lot and doesn't really have feet.

Sammy actually has followers. It can be pieced together from notes and dialogue that he split from the Lost Harbor after a close run in with Bendy permanently mangled his body and converted him to worship. He brought a few other lost ones with him (like, only a dozen but a couple died on the way). They wear Bendy masks, too, yet he's the only one wearing pants (mostly to hold his legs together). He also wears gloves to hold his fingers together, and only takes them off for brief periods to play an instrument before having to put them back on. Bendy left him with a lot of lasting damage

They all look the same and they know it hh

He's a proper prophet figure now that people look up to him. If Henry can find them huddled around a statue in prayer or drawing a ritual circle, they will talk about how much hope he gives them and how kind he is, despite how strict or overly optimistic he can be at times.

The followers' opinion of Henry changes with his behavior. Suggest Sammy is nuts? Say Bendy is evil? Drink too much soup? Break cutouts? They don't like that. Ask to learn more, give them some fresh soup, maybe even draw Bendy for them if Henry comes across fresh paper, and they'll appreciate it.

The cutouts are decorated with soup and candles. Drink a couple cans and the followers won't notice, drink more and they'll be upset, drink them all and they'll get concerned. Ink rats will scuttle out of hiding and can be found licking the empty cans.

Oh yeah you think humans were the only thing the ink affected? No there are ink rats and they scuttle around. Sometimes they become an enemy if multiple melt/fuse together and it's just a Lump Of Rat

"Did you drink the soup?" "No, did you?" "We don't have mouths! We can't eat!" "Who drank all the soup then?" "I don't know, but now there are rats everywhere!"

The whole chapter 2 area is bigger, kind of. Lots more signs of being lived in, with offices turned into little bedrooms and such. The followers are shy, though, and lurk behind locked doors, so finding them is tricky. Signs of life are everywhere but finding the life itself is difficult. Finding ones that talk more than a sentence is even harder.

Sammy is unhinged. Well-meaning, but ultimately mentally...cracked. He claims to have visions he interprets, but it's ambiguous whether they're nightmares/dreams or if Bendy's messing with him. He genuinely believes that Bendy will set them free, and he wants the best for his sheep. He'd be amicable if he wasn't trying to sacrifice Henry.

Instead of pressing the switches to open that first door, Henry had to find a pipe valve. A new "mechanic" of sorts is draining flooded halls. Ink pours down from piped above in an unpassable wall, and one or two valve are needed to shut it off completely.

Remember those notes I mentioned earlier? Well, some found around the music department contain buckets of how the followers see Sammy and their situation in general. They range from "oh hey here's Sammy's favorite tune-" to "note: don't play the organ! D:"

It's possible to find old newspapers and comics. Some of the pictures have been carefully cut out and pasted on the walls in various memorials, ranging from Bendy letting them outside to Sammy being "blessed" by the Ink Demon.

Some of the more petty depictions paint Alice as a jerk. She's an angel, he's a demon, so they're opposites. Since Bendy's so great, she must be awful! Rumors of a cruel Alice in deeper levels are hinted at.

The band room is slightly different. The projector's bulb is burst and there's a sticky note on it saying something about how touching it when you're made of ink is a bad idea, and to fix the projector before Sammy notices. Henry has to find a lightbulb and fix it now before he can turn it on.

The fight after opening the sanctuary affects the followers' opinions. They begin to realize what Sammy has in store for Henry. Killing all the searchers make them either makes them wince or frustrated, depending on their view on him up til that point.

I feel like you could probably click/interact with the banister to look over and it shows a still image of the band room below, and it shows whether or not the projector is fixed/playing and also shows any Bendy cutouts that pop up. I tried to draw that but couldn't get the angle I wanted, so

Sammy's sanctuary is like...just a big ol Bendy shrine. It's also where he sleeps, writes songs to Bendy, and where his banjo is kept. He has a Bendy plush on his bed

The further the chapter goes on, the quieter the followers are to Henry. They're gathering candles and offerings of personal belongings. They might be bittersweet, neutral, or glad to be away from him, depending on Henry's actions.

Jack is important to Sammy. They worked closely together and so they somewhat remember each other. He acts as Sammy's personal treasurer and doesn't let go of anything given to him. The first encounter with Jack is relatively the same, with needing to grab a valve from him. However, instead of holding the valve, it's sitting on the box

Henry's notes in his sketchbook also change depending on his interactions with things. If he annoys the followers and develops a bad relationship with them, he'll treat them like blind fools. If he helps them or is generally nice, he'll sound more sympathetic towards their situation and wish them well.

One is in the infirmary, badly hurt, missing a leg, practically a searcher, and delusional after getting just grazed by Bendy's aura. They believe they've been blessed by his presence, despite falling apart more and more by the hour (Bendy and any ink creature do not go together-). Henry can kill them and put them out of their misery, if he so chooses. The others won't like that.

Whether Henry kills him or not, Jack remembers. Getting items from him in the future becomes harder if he's killed multiple times, until eventually he's downright scared (I'll delve into more detail on the mess that is chapter 3). Befriending him completely later in chapter 3, on the other hand, will make the task easier.

Killing Jack triggers a horror vision. Henry briefly becomes unable to move, visibly distressed and looking around until the vision ends.

Not necessarily the sewers you first encounter him in, but close enough. You know you've entered an area Jack's in if there's a random item on a box that's under a light in an otherwise dim ink-flooded room

He goes through 'stages.' First the valve is on a box. Henry tries to grab it, but Jack (moving through the ink) pushes the box away. The methods of dealing with him is a messy web of cause-and-effect, with chances to crush him, corner the box slowly and steal the valve, it rush at it and cause it to slide off, or snatch his hat and bargain. (It's possible to steal his hat, kill him, and then keep/wear his hat, but why would you do that? Jack would forever loathe Henry and later on Sammy may ask for it back)

Nothing will stop Sammy from knocking Henry out. No matter how kind or cruel Henry is to his followers, Sammy will smack him over the head with a dustpan. He can't run, but the man can be sneaky if he wants to be, lurking through shadows and phasing in and out of the ritual portals.

(Clarification: because it would be a side scroller and the player could see Sammy sneaking up on Henry, instead there's a ritual circle on the wall that he'll jump out of when Henry walks past it.)

The sacrifice room is more of a hallway. The followers are all watching from the sidelines, peering through knocked out walls and over makeshift fenceposts. Candles and other offerings are around Henry. Sammy gives his spiel as always, first starting with a quiet "that face..." whispered mostly to himself but then using his Big Loud Musician Prophet voice to put on a show about how grand the sacrifice will be and how happy Bendy will be. The followers get excited for it.

Messy rendition but you get the picture

Sammy enters the room off to the side and calls for the Ink Demon. Ink leaks from the vents, and his aura is making some of the followers unsteady/weak. They become more restless, and unstable, until the calling reaches its climax (Sammy also sounds out of breath and his voice becomes wet and labored) and Bendy arrives out of sight. Sammy is torn apart, as per usual, though it's a slower, more audible mauling, and drags on through Henry's escape.

Some followers flee into the ink, while one or two are liquidated just by Bendy's aura. Others panic and attack Henry when he breaks free, messed up by Bendy's aura and so they resemble searchers.

Whether or not Henry powers through the onslaught or axes the frenzied followers may alter the number of followers he encounters later on, and (combined with how he'd treated them) how they react to seeing him again. "Oh I kind of remember you" vs "I don't blame you for using the axe" vs "Did you slaughter your way down here, too?"

Like in the updated chapters in game, the you can see ink machine lowering past crates/wood boards

Bendy actually pries himself up out of the ink with effort. Like, hands planted on the ground, lurching up, ink sloughing off of him, generally more detailed for a 2D animation.

Boris time! The boy himself peeks out from behind a wall before stepping out of the shadows

Feel free to send an ask for clarification/more detail about anything- I'm happy to go on more tangents!

[sarah1982sblog]

The real Malory Towers experience: Take your child to boarding school!

"You have to dress up posh too, mummy," says my daughter, half stern, half playful. "Or we'll never get away with it!"

Saturday morning and me and my 11-year-old daughter are going undercover.

We're going to the most expensive girls' boarding school in Britain (£37,275 a year to be exact) for their Open Day – as a pretend prospective pupil and parent. My bog-standard-state-school educated daughter has devoured Enid Blyton's Malory Towers series – just as I did when I was a kid – and her head is filled with a fantasy life of midnight feasts and hockey sticks. Wouldn't it be fun – and a tiny bit mischievous – to see inside that world for real? We're a little nervous (do we have the acting abilities to pull it off?), but really, what difference will one extra mother and daughter tagging along make? They'll barely notice us.

Wrong! All parents potentially willing to fork out £37K a year on their daughter's education will be noticed. People have flown in from all corners of the globe for this Open Day. It's a v. big deal. As soon as we enter, my bobbly coat is whisked off me (in the end I’d decided the I'm-so-posh-I-can-be-scruffy look would be more convincing) and we are greeted with fresh coffee, still-warm Danish pastries, and programmes with our names on (sports fixtures in school today: showjumping and lacrosse). 

A pretty, skirt-suited woman, a member of the leadership team, bounces over to us. "Just act confident," I whisper to my daughter. "It's all about confidence." The woman introduces herself and reassures us that she has worked in prep schools for many years before coming here so she "knows where the girls are coming from". "What school do you go to now?" she asks my daughter. My daughter looks her straight in the eye and says the name of her bog-standard-state-school loudly and clearly. I see the woman flicking furiously through her mental files of prep schools. Nope, that one's not in there. She moves on quickly. "So, would you be a boarder or a day girl?" "Oh, definitely boarding!" says my daughter, beaming. (Impressive acting!) "Oh yes, boarding is great fun," says the woman. "Like a perpetual sleepover, right? The other day, the girls all took their duvets down to the den with hot chocolate and marshmallows and slept there all night!" she continues, feeding my daughter's fantasies. 

Then she plucks us our own personal schoolgirl to be our tour guide: a quietly-spoken, very sweet girl in Year 8. I notice that both her shoelaces are undone and she has a big smudge across one of the lenses of her glasses (seems £37K a year doesn't get you quite the care from Matron you might hope for). "First, it's really great here," she says, without changing her expression."I have to tell you that first." (Have to? Like, instructed to?)

She takes us down Alice-in-Wonderland marble corridors and past a huge wood-panelled library with spiral staircases. "Wow, wow, wow!" my daughter and I mouth to each other with sneaky sideways glances. Her tour is interjected with bits of housekeeping information, like, "That's where you put your lac stick while you're in lessons". I nod, knowingly, as if lac is a word I bandy around a lot. 

I notice the door security code she presses to let us into the drama department is in roman numerals. (That should keep the riff-raff out.) She seems super-excited about using the lift to take us up to the theatre. "It's the only lift in the whole school," she tells us. "Everyone loves using it." I look at the buttons. There is only G, 1 and 2. "Erm, do you ever get to go out of the school?" I ask. "Yes!" she says. "Sometimes on a Saturday, Matron takes us to Waitrose." 

She escorts us to the astonishingly beautiful Assembly Hall with chandeliers, balconies and organ playing and we take our seats for an introductory talk and Q & A session with the Headteacher and senior teachers, a row of neat grey bobs and androgynous types in tracksuits. I get myself into slightly sticky waters when the couple next to me strike up a conversation. "It does make one reflect on one's own schooling, doesn't it? And whether you want the same or different for your own child." (Erm, yes, but not in the way you think). I bluff my way through with vague answers, reddening. I'm glad I put foundation on at least.  

The Head actually has a bun. And an ample bosom. Perfect. She's like a nice Miss Trunchbull and has a down-to-earth sense of humour. In answer to the question, "How do you keep the girls secure?" she replies, "Well, if I lose a girl, it's game over for me!" We're also reassured that House Mistresses keep an eye on the girls' table manners. She tells us that she went to this school herself. Now she works here. This is her world. "The chance to go into town with Matron [not just Waitrose] when they get to Year 11 becomes a wonderful thing," she tells us, without a hint of irony. 

Next we are taken to a Boarding House by two pupils from uk.. It is modern. Smart. Comforting, if not exactly cosy. We are greeted by the House Mistress (who lives in an adjoining apartment with her cat) and shown around: Dorms, showers, prep room, dining room. There's also a common room on every floor with sofas, cushions, beanbags – and microwaves. For their Waitrose-bought snacks.

Now, who says there's no such thing as a free lunch? It's fantastic. A choice of hot meals with a choice of hot side dishes, a salad bar, an assortment of fruit and desserts and cheese and crackers. We sit down with our trays and a group of five girls immediately join us. "Great food!" I say. "Yes," they agree. "Though you have to moan about school food. It's just what you do!" They seem eager to meet people from the outside world. Super-eager. They compete for my attention, talking over the top of each other, and I feel motherly towards them all. 

We're feeling really brave now and ask all the things we really want to know. Were you homesick? How often do you see your parents? Can you choose who you share a dorm with? Are you made to have a shower everyday? Do you have midnight feasts? They use words that are foreign to us like mufti and exeat and tell us the nitty-gritty details of their daily life: How their dirty laundry comes back to them washed, ironed and folded in their cubbyhole. How they have to do prep for an hour and a half every evening (though they're allowed to personalize their study booth). How you must walk to and from lessons with your Walking Buddy. How they get sanctions if they talk at night. And how they have to keep their mobile phone in a pigeon hole and are only allowed access to it twice a day (though one parent, they tell me with joyful horror, gave her daughter two phones, so she could secretly call her anytime). The chef rings a bell and two of them jump up like Pavlov's dogs. "That means seconds," they say. "Do you go to school with boys at your school now?" the others ask my daughter. She fends them off wonderfully. "Yes, but I  wish I didn't. Boys can be soooo annoying." She's way better at this than me. 

“So what are you doing this afternoon?" I ask as we get up from the table. "We're going to Waitrose with Matron!" they answer. "Everyone seems really keen on Waitrose here," I say. "Why's that?" They look puzzled. "Well...it's really big," one of them ventures. "So what's on your shopping list today? I ask curiously. "Strawberries!" they say. I look round at the food counter. There is a big pile of strawberries ready for the taking. Clearly, the thrill of Waitrose isn't about the food. 

As we enter the outside world, I'm eager to know my daughter's opinion of the place. "It's a bit like a prison," she says. In Malory Towers, it always says things like 'Daryl nipped off to post a letter', but those girls are there 24/7 – apart from when they go to Waitrose."

"That reminds me," I say."We need to get a few things for dinner on the way home. Let's go to that Waitrose over there." "Urgghhhhh..." she groans. "Do we have to?"

~maisarah dato waad~

[elizabethrobertajones]

I'm not actually scared about what Bucklemming will do with Mary/Mr Ketch, I think they have shown enough of their dynamic to make it look like two people hooking up and not dubconning/rape. But what I am more afraid of is how they'll write Sam and Dean reacting to it (or them guess it) - that could have a potential grossness factor

Yeah, I feel like their attempt to build it up previously means it’s not going to come out of nowhere and they actually feel like they’ve been building a little romance subplot there, and god forbid it might actually happen in a relatively normal way by their standards. The actual fuckery would be the response to it, especially if it ends up being something where Dean gets really weird about it or something (because oh noes, mom not being faithful to long-dead dad!) and it’s really hard to predict their characterisation choices, as they often come out of the blue or for plot convenience so if they want Dean to fall out with Mary some more, an over-blown argument policing her choices or turning her into an object to argue about between Dean and Ketch or something… Ick. To be honest I’m excluding Sam from this but who knows. He is working closer with the BMoL and now apparently the one more in contact with Mary so has a higher chance of finding out… 

I watched 8x19 last night and remembered I’m still annoyed that they used Bobby as the recap for all the Sam hit a dog drama by having Bobby echo Dean saying it’s a non-agreement to not look for each other - one of the best Bobby moments is the heartbreaking scene where he finds out Dean sold his soul, and he’s always been grumpy and worried about what they do for each other, or trying to talk them into letting the other do what they want because they’re grown adults, etc… Bobby’s letter to Sam in 10x17 fixes that characterisation by having him dealing with a similar-ish situation and warning Sam to be wary of the price of his actions to save Dean and that going behind his back might be a bad idea, and even in 9x01 he’s the sensible voice in Sam’s head counselling him against Dean for Sam to go peacefully when he’s supposed to. Like, season 8 STARTS with the reminder of Bobby’s LAST WORDS to them of when it’s their time, GO, from 7x23… Literally nothing ever in the show would have suggested Bobby would have said what he did in 8x19, so he feels like more of a hallucination than he does in 9x01. Pfft.

Anyway. The best case scenario is that Mary and Ketch hook up, it’s weird and uncomfortable because these writers are so bad at hitting the right tone for stuff like this (that some of their scenes might actually have worked if they were done right is a thing I wonder about - the Amazon hook up in season 7 is directed really well cut with the bloody murder of the next victim and the whole thing from the bar onwards has an off-kilter, wrong sort of vibe, so it’s not being presented as romantic and the murder in the middle of it helps make that clear… if 9x03 or 12x02 were directed much more clearly as horror moments instead of candles everywhere moments…) And yeah, best case scenario, giving us something that as far as we can tell not actually dub con, especially since for once there’s not a super imbalanced power dynamic and Ketch actually seems to see her as a potential equal, and she isn’t being coerced to go along with them but joined of her own free will and so on. The BMoL don’t own her and aren’t blackmailing her, etc etc etc. So unless they introduce new creepy elements or contrived reasons to hook up (which as you say, they DID drop heavy hints Ketch was into her, so probably feel they don’t need to contrive it too much) it’s very possible we might have our first informed consent sex scene from them since season 1 :P

Then maybe Sam and Dean don’t find out that episode, or do but don’t have time to deal with this new info, or it’s Mary kind of having this fling on the down low, and… basically, no time for them to react, leave it for next episode. 

Worst case scenario - there’s still a Buckleming episode to go after this, and they save this as a secret fling to be revealed in their next episode and dedicate 20 minutes of screen time to Sam and Dean reacting in various gross ways to it :P 

(Alternate bright side: we’re pretty sure Cas is not in this episode so it’s definitely not him in the bed :P)