#i thought they were monsters

[twentysidednerd]

dnd night 🥰

i almost killed a fucking child 🥰🥰🤪✨

and then brought the child, who is one of the children of the fucking villains of the campaign, with me to help her because i don’t wanna leave the kids to die

in my defense, the kids did not seem onboard with what the party and i were trying to stop from happening when i first heard them talking

it’s been a wild night so far. i almost cried 🥰🥰 but i’m having fun

[creativitysloyalservant]

i have decided to break my lack of original posting on this blog to bring you my Thoughts on Rot in Paradise. because i played it as soon as i got up this morning and i have scoured for some opinions after finishing it, and now i have my own!!

(and also i posted this on twitter but twitter has such a Shit wordcount that i'm also posting my things here with More Detail)

so! spoilers under the cut, please go and play the game if you haven't. it takes literally an hour (it only took nearly 2 hours for me because i like voice acting by myself and exploring every nook and cranny) and it's also free. so maybe come back into the tag once you're done.

okay, so i noticed quite a number of people being confused and disappointed on the lack of an explanation for the monster. it's brought up in the story as the central thing driving the plot, but it's never explained on what "she" is, why she's compelling people to eat a ton of fish-related food or hell, metal, and why this doesn't impact June at all.

but you know what I think?

i think that that's the point. the focus of rot in paradise isn't supposed to be on the monster.

yeah, it's the thing that pushes the plot along besides June and the gang going on vacation in this island. it's what's causing that uneasiness from the moment that guy grabs June's arm at the drinks, to the sheer unnerving feeling of witnessing people going to the ocean to get Raptured basically. i know i personally felt a chill when i saw that one dude literally eating chains and the other hauling an anchor, as if they're trying to make themselves heavier so they get taken by whatever She is.

but that's not the main point! the main conflict is about June and her friends.

as people have pointed out, this game is about toxic friendships and relationships! it's foreshadowed in the conversation that June has with the gang about her cousin (which i will also get into), and it carries it through the way her friends are horribly warped by this ocean Creature. June goes on a silly little vacation trip with her friends only for them to become so so different from themselves that they lash out at her and even hit her in McCoy's case.

but she still sticks it out with them. through the whole game, even despite their verbal abuse, despite being slapped, despite them being people that she can hardly recognise. she stays with them for the whole game, up until the point where you are given the two options at the very end. and she could still stay with them.

because they're still her friends. she cares about them even if they still hurt her. from the way June still tells Carmen to tell June if she needs anything after Carmen literally tells her to shut up and leave, the way June worries about Vonnie eating seafood even though she continues to stuff herself despite being implied to either hate or make an active choice to not eat seafood, to the way June still trudges out to sea screaming for McCoy to come back to the shore as he wades further in even after he slapped her until her nose bled.

it mirrors the conversation about her cousin, the reason for why June was looking forward to the vacation. that while she did comfort her cousin through all of it, June clearly says that "they were dickheads, and she should have ditched them a long time ago".

but it's funny, isn't it? that June, an outsider to her cousin's friend group, easily sees the pain that her cousin's friends are causing her, and immediately calls it as it is. that her cousin should have left the second they hurt her.

and yet now, when her friends hurt her, even though this was a quick and sudden change that happened in a span of three days, June still sticks around. her friends are dickheads right now, and we can see that in the way they interact with June, but she still stays.

because they're her friends. and how could she just leave them like this if it's something that's causing them to be this way?

so no, i don't think the monster is supposed to be the main picture. we don't need to know what it looks like, or why it needs to do this to the islanders, or how it's even doing it in the first place. it adds to the scariness of the game, as per the Spooktober Game Jam, sure, but that's not the point. might be a bit disappointing to some, but that's not the point.

the point is about June, and the choice that she needs to make at the end of the game.

it's a choice on whether she chooses to be pulled deeper into the tides and be with the friends who hurt her and will continue to hurt her in this way,

or to leave them to their fates, whether deserved or not, and resurface to a world where she's alone without her friends.

and even though the first choice hurts much more in the long run, doesn't the second hurt even more in the moment? knowing that you're alone at the end of all of this?

even if it is the right choice, i'm sure the pain must be unbearable in the moment.

[somegrumpynerd]

Horror's nightmare

Horror doesn't think much on his past anymore, but his nightmares often resurface the guilt he's buried about the idea that he could have prevented it all somehow, even if it came at the cost of his own life.

Thankfully, Nightmare is here to make him a hot drink to calm his nerves and promise him a visit to his brother when the sun is up, because Papyrus will always be very glad to see his brother alive and visiting (and as sleepy as ever).

[fatedroses]

And some days, I just wish you wouldn't look at me at all.

[boarcide]

I truly think that one of the biggest tragedies in BEAST in regards to the Akutagawa siblings is that, at the core of it, Ryuunosuke viewed himself as a beast, and showed his love in a way a beast would, while Gin was the only person who ever saw him as human and judged him accordingly. She did not see a beast acting like a beast, the way everybody else did, she saw a human acting like a beast and it’s part of what drove her away.

The ADA saw their rookie detective at his worst, and watched—and continues to watch—him grow from a beast to a human over time. Consumed by hatred and only knowing how to be cruel, and slowly learning how to become human.

Gin saw her brother at his best—the best he could be in their situation—and then watched him grow from a boy to a beast within moments. The scraps of humanity that he had, all disappearing into rage so primal it no longer made him seem human.

[radioroxx]

in. clover lives aus or aus where they choose to live in the underground whatnot. i think more ppl should play with the idea that their friends know Jackshit About Humans. please and thanks

[autumn0689]

Gotta feel bad for Epic The Musical Odysseus because he did NOT get warned about eating Helios’s cows and instead got a vague (if incredibly catchy sounding) prophecy song that made him spiral.

[eggcats]

I wish I could write fics, because I DESPERATELY want a fic where like both Bowser and King Boo decide to break in to kidnap Luigi one night, but they accidentally do it the same night.

So Luigi just wakes up to them fighting in his room and he just assumes he's still asleep so he doesn't really react much, because this is the weirdest dream he's ever had.

And then both of them are yelling at Luigi to ask which one he PREFERS kidnapping him, like a competition, and keep being like "WELL MY CASTLE HAS LAVA SO HE CAN BE WARM IN THE CAGE!!!" "HE WILL DECORATE MY MANSION IN THE PAINTING ON THE MANTELPIECE!!!" Etc etc.

And Luigi, assuming he is asleep because this is too weird to be reality, just goes "I don't even WANT-a to know what my subconscious is-a trying to tell me." And lays down to go back to sleep, confounding both Bowser and King Boo.

It would also be hilarious if they both decide to just stay the night, because neither of them want to be the first to leave and let the other one win. And so when Luigi wakes up and they're still there he's like "THAT WASN'T A DREAM???!"

Cue both Bowser and King Boo trying to out-rizz each other to Luigi, like "Do you regularly dream about me?" "CLEARLY HE MEANS ME!"

[palossssssand]

Been brainstorming (hah) some miscellaneous pin design ideas! Brain, eyes, and mouth angels

[sunb0ts]

something that always gets me about klavier is that he is so clearly just like. friendly. he cares so much and he cares too much. he's one to tease simultaneously but he so clearly just like. loves and loves and loves, even when it puts him in harm's way, he likes people and he likes being around people enough to be desperate for it and for friendship like. ough

[lesbianwyllravengard]

I love wyllstarion because Wyll is one "Astarion admits all of his weird ass fantasies about things Wyll could do to him in bed but never would in reality" conversation away from realising his full potential as a monsterfucker and unlearning his catholic levels of guilt.

[feroluce]

So I spoke somewhat about my thoughts on Emanator Sampo here, but I never really thought of it from a design point of view or what kind of powers he would have until just recently. But I actually kind of love leaning into it from a "stage hand" perspective?

Because like. Aha's body in THEIR official art is completely black, giving attention to all the fun brightly colored things around THEM. And that's so fitting for Sampo! He usually prefers to be a side character. He likes to act from the shadows. His is a much more subtle hand.

So I wonder if as an Emanator, a lot of his clothes are actually very dark? Not necessarily plain, still extravagant and needlessly detailed in things like cut and quality with lots of different fabrics and textures and ornamentation, but dark. Or maybe even his skin itself becomes blackened further down his body; his hands in particular are dark, as a sort of sleight of hand reference.

The motif of a lot of straps wrapped around him like in his canon design is still present, but they're all loose and flowing off of him like paper streamers now instead of restraining him or holding him together. He is no longer contained! Or maybe they're still a bit more rigid/heavy, but just draped more like red stage curtains!

And this is like. Fully self-indulgent, but I love inhuman designs, and there's nothing in canon to say I can't do this, so screw it! Go for broke!! Maybe it's not visible to normal people, but Sampo having a second set of arms would be really cool, as further sleight of hand reference. One set is almost normal looking, but his hands are a bright, attention-drawing white, and the other is dark, set almost in the shadows of the first arms, to act less noticeably.

He also has something of a broken heart design to him in canon (the front of his black shirt with its jagged shape down the middle; his coat looks like a full heart shape in the back), and I actually like him keeping that element as an Emanator, because I think it suits him. Sampo says his taste in aesthetics and views on Elation involve human dignity,

and the story he helps create in Belobog involves the long and winding road of resistance and survival and eventual triumph in the face of some very adverse, oppressing odds. (I'm pretty sure I heard he once called Wildfire "artless" though, plus the man acts like he thinks Shame is some kind of dessert, so like ndkdjzjskkd) But the point being!!

I think Sampo is someone who can appreciate heartbreak and angst and tragedy in a story, because it makes the victory at the end all the sweeter. And this would be another thing he shares with Aha, because I think THEY did bless the Mourning Actors partly just to be a little shit, but also because Aha does recognize tragedy as part of THEIR Path, too, and you can see it in some of the game. So a broken heart motif can still suit him, and I like him having elements of both comedy and tragedy. Like his clothing having a happy sun/sad moon (like the moon in Aha's art) or him having both of the traditional comedy/tragedy masks in his design.

And as Emanator, Sampo can maybe play with the stage settings environment, too. Like lights sometimes behave strangely around him, appearing blindingly bright to someone or dramatically dark. Sampo wills it and suddenly there seems to be a metaphorical spotlight right where he wants everyone to look. And when he doesn't want to be noticed, his face seems to be cast in shadow, he seemingly just fades into the background, no one notices or recognizes him and he sneaks away easily. He can create smoke or fog literally out of thin air without his bombs now, too, the air will just suddenly thicken until his stage is obscured, and Sampo can set the scene as he pleases or disappear without a trace.

And in line with being a stage hand, Sampo can direct attention like no other. He was already extremely good at this as a normal mortal, and becoming an Emanator only took it up to 11, past human limits. Sampo points, and all present feel compelled to follow his fingertip. He looks away, and they all follow his gaze. He can even affect the mood of an audience; he can influence everyone to be calm and placid or he can whip them into a feverish frenzy. Sometimes a crowd will start to become unsettled, agitation stirring until it boils over, until it incites a full on violent mob.

And in the middle of all that chaos will stand one perfectly calm figure, face cast in shadow, until they quietly slip away out of sight.

[boxheadpaint]

ahhh I forgot about ableism. I forgot about that

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

Graz'zt, The Prince of Pleasure, this is the demon lord of hedonism and debauchery! 9 ft (2.7 m) tall but can shapeshift endlessly into other humanoids as bonus action (so like, in a second while doing other things). Has mastery of mind control and invisibility, telepathy and telekenesis, knows all languages, and makes all flat surfaces near him so shiny they act like mirrors! He's also...not originally a demon. He's a devil. An archdevil who said screw the whole hellish regime, I'm just going to take the abyssal layers I conquered for myself!

Man's all about subtlety manipulation, indulging in endless luxury and pleasure, and loves turning purity perverse. As you might expect, he's basically the Abyss's lord of sexual delight, so like...yeah he's about as good as you'll find on that front, especially as a one-night stand. Absurd amount of lovers, including a TON of powerful pissed-off exes. Like the Queen of Succubi. And Tasha. Like Tasha's Cauldron Tasha, who is also Baba Yaga's daughter Iggwilv. But that's beside the point, I'm asking if you'd fuck the demonic king of fucking.

[royaltea000]

I’ve never felt so conflicted about a franchise in my life but at least this dude was hot

[candyskiez]

If I had a nickel for everytime an animated media ended with the titular character having a breakdown after years of repression and mistreatment by everyone around them, causing them to go into a superpowered state and rampage towards something very specific now that all their repressed desires and anger and trauma are running wild and have to be brought back by their loved ones who heavily contributed to them having this breakdown in the first place finally apologizing to them and reaching out, I'd have three nickels.

Which isn't much, but it's weird that it's happened thrice.