#i wanted this chapter to have more lore and backstory for mess

[tasteofthedivine93]

The Beauty of the Beast - Messmer x F!Reader - Elden Ring Fic - Part 5

TasteOfTheDivine // Masterlist

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/57094387/chapters/145208599 Fic Rating: Explicit🌶️🌶️ (Chapter: Teen) Category: F/M Fandom: Elden Ring // Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erd Tre Relationships: Messmer x F!Reader // Messmer the Impaler x F!Reader Warnings: None Words: 3862

MASTERLIST // <- Part 4 // Part 6 ->

Author note: I've toned down the Shakespearean old English for Messmer as it was doing my head in. lol So its more of a blend now. Imagine he uses the language as a leader and now he's getting comfortable around you, he's starting to speak more modern like you. Will tie into the story soon.

Also Messmer isn't like 12ft here, I thought more 7ft, so still taller than you but not ridiculously tall lol.

ALSO ALSO: Lordran is were DS1 is set.

You both walk slowly down the main stairs and Messmer gestures to the other side of the castle that you've not explored yet. More glittering stained-glass windows shine bright colours throughout the hallways. You want to ask about them, but when you turn to Messmer, you see a sadness on his face. His posture dips a little and he sighs. Instead you keep quiet.

You are curious about who your saviour is. He towers over you by maybe two feet, he wears lavish clothing and speaks like the old-gods. You couldn't imagine being this close to a God. You're new to this land, maybe he is just royalty? Your mind spins with questions you are dying to ask. But you can tell it is best to not overwhelm the man.

You turn to look at him again, to find one of the snakes that linger around him observing you with its penetrating green eyes. As if it's trying to read your mind. However you stand your ground and you narrow your eyes at the creature with a smirk twisting on your lips.

Messmer notices your teasing.

"Thou art not afraid of hem?" He questions, a slight joy echoes in his question, as if everyone is scared of them.

"Hm?" you snap your gaze from the snake and look up at the man with soft eyes. "Oh, no, I'm not. I'm used to all sorts of animals." You bravely lift up your hand and boop the snake on his nose. The creature wriggles with glee and retreats away from you.

Messmer reaches up and touches his nose. The gesture makes you cock your head. Did he feel that? You smile at yourself. 

“May I ask?” You ask softly, looking back at the snakes once again. You’ve noticed the short cloak he wore over his shoulders floats from his body and drapes around what you assume are the snakes bodies. 

Messmer stops and lets out a sigh. 

“They hast been with me since birth, we can communicate with thought, they’re attached to me.” He says with a monotone voice, as if he’s annoyed with having to explain to his allies. He starts to walk again and ends the conversation with “Aye I feeleth what they feelth also.” He looks back at you over his hunched shoulder. 

You blush, biting your lip. “Sorry.” You murmur, picking up the pace to catch up with him. You see Ophis slither out from under his cloak and you swear the serpent winks at you. You smile as he slips back away. Unknowing, Messmer also smiles at your apology.  

“Does it hurt?” You blurt out without thinking. Messmer stops for a moment and you feel yourself shrink inwards, you feel the temperature around you two rise a few degrees. You feel bile burn your throat from anxiety. He lets out a sigh and continues walking.

The silence grows between you two again, only the sounds of footsteps can be heard.

"Were thee travelling long before arriving?" Messmer asks tenderly, breaking the silence.

"Yes, for many weeks, I travelled by boat from across the sea." You confirm.

"Thou art not from here?" He asks.

"No, I'm from Lordran. The Distant Lands, as I've been told it's called here."

"Ah, tis why thou wasn't aware of my presence." He chuckles to himself. Behind him, Fidi rolls her eyes at his pompous comment.

You cover your lips with the tips of your fingers and let out a small giggle at the snake behind Messmer’s back. He turns to eye the snake, curious at what it did to make you laugh. You remove your hand and clasp them back in front of you. "No I don't, are you... royalty here?"

Messmer presses his lips in a straight line, wanting to avoid the question he begrudgingly guided you towards.

"Something liketh it, aye." He says with sorrow. "Do thee hast royalty from thy lands?"

You nod. "Yes, many Royal families, even Gods who reside in the Capital." You smile as you talk about your homeland. "There used to be dragons but that was long before my time."

“Fascinating.” Messmer mutters to himself.

He stops and opens a door and invites you inside. Inside was a large grand room with an enormous dining table in the centre of the room, covered in gold and silver plates and cutlery. There's only two seats, one at each end though.

You feel a pang of guilt bubble in your stomach as you remember his invite (request) for dinner on your first night. You walk around the table, fingers gliding over the wood. You sense him watching you. You flick up your eyes and catch him, causing him to breathe in deep and look away. Beside the table was another large fireplace, more snakes carved into the stone hearth. Above a portrait of a woman with long golden hair. You're reminded of the statue from down below. You're not sure how long you were staring at the painting. But you suddenly feel the warmth of Messmer behind you and he joins you in admiring the painting.

You both just stand there. You want to ask but feel like it's an intrusion. 

“My mother” he whispers, sounding dejected. “Just like you, I am not from this particular land. I used to reside in the Lands Between at the Capital with my family.” 

“Why did you leave?” You crane your neck to look at him still staring at the painting.

You see his adam's-apple bob as he swallows. He takes a deep breath, his chest rising and slowly falling as he compensates answering your question. 

“My mother wished me to lead a crusade in her name.” He says, words mixed with venom and despair. 

You don’t respond, you just simply nod.

“Do you miss your family?” You question. “I miss mine terribly.” 

Messmer scoffs and walks away from you, leaving your question unanswered. 

Instead, Messmer walks to the other side of the room and opens a side door and waits for you. You venture down yet another long hallway, candles lighting the way and more decorations of snakes and trees line the walls.

"Why did thee leave?" You both stop by a large bay window and you admire the view. Messmer looks down at you, eyes fixated.

"Oh, well, my father got sick and my mother worried I would catch it so she encouraged me away. I heard of the Lands Between and thought it would be a good place to start anew." You say with tears lining your eyes as you gaze at the trees below.

You feel one of the snakes gently lie its head on your shoulder and it nuzzles your cheek, tongue flicking out and tickling you. The sensation makes you giggle and stops your tears from falling. You think back to Messmer telling you how he can sometimes feel what the snakes feel and you blush. 

“I heard of an Academy, Raya Lucaria. I was hoping to go there to study.” 

Messmer’s eyebrows raise, genuinely surprised at your want to study, not many from the lower classes know how to read let alone wish to learn sorcery. 

“Thee wishes to learn Sorcery and Incantations?” He asks. 

You shake your head. “No, not necessarily. I just wanted to learn. Females aren’t allowed in the Academy’s back home.” You play with your fingers again. “I like reading.” You smile at him, but embarrassed you drop your gaze back to the floor and you turn away from him and the window. “Beg your pardon my lord, this probably sounds inadequate. You must think me dull.” 

Messmer frowns. “Not at all.” He mutters. “Actually…”  He bites his lip and hesitates to finish his sentence. He sees you looking up at him through your lashes, big eyes glistening and incandescent in the sun shining through the window. He feels his stomach flip again. “Follow me.” He marches down the hallway taking large strides with glee. 

You stumble behind him as you pick up your dress to follow the large man. The snakes look at each other, nodding their heads and glancing at you. You feel unnerved they might be talking about you, can snakes even talk? You ask yourself. They must do so if Messmer communicates with them. 

The pair of you reach a metal cage lift, Messmer steps inside and barely fits himself. He offers you his hand, you stare at it for a moment but reach out and cup his large fingers. His skin was soft and warm, but not human warm, a warmth that you could feel in your bones. Like standing by a fire while a snow storm rages outside. You hesitate for a moment, your legs feel wobbly and begin to shake. You timidly toe the bottom of the lift before feeling yourself being hoisted in the air by a snake around your waist. The snake plops you down gently but you still shudder. Your hand still in Messmers gigantic but tender grasp. 

When you settle your weight, the cage groans and creaks and you feel your stomach bubble with nervousness. You worry if the lift can even hold your weight let alone the both of you. 

“Hold on.” He mutters so deep you feel it vibrate from his chest. He pulls a metal lever and the cage shakes and so do you. On instinct you grab his toga and hold tight, bunching the loose fabric in your fist for dear life, you press yourself against him and cover your face. You squeeze your eyes shut and feel the contraption slowly rise upwards. Your other hand still grasps him tightly as your stomach drops at the movement. Messmer, looking down at you, smiles. He moves his free hand to cup your waist and hold you steady, he can feel you tremble under his palm. Once you feel more secure, you stop shaking for a moment. 

Your face pressed against his tunic covered chest - you feel he’s chiselled and hard muscled, but you also feel the protrusion of the snakes that you assume must be attached to his body. Only a thick drape of fabric separates the two of you and yet you can still feel this heat once again. You feel not just a blush on your cheeks but your entire face glows red. You don't remove your hand from his, and you feel his fingers grip yours a little tighter.

The cage lift stops suddenly and you let out a gasp and the breath you didn't realise you were holding. As if you weigh nothing, you feel him pick you up and hoist you off the cage. You didn’t even notice him move away from you. Opening your eyes, you see another grand staircase surrounded by candles - however all made of stone. 

“I've never been on such a device before.” You let out a shaky laugh, you go to stand away from Messmer but find yourself still attached to him. He notices and lets go of your hand.

“Apologies, I didn’t bethink to ask.” He rubs the back of his neck again and walks away from you nervously. You follow behind him up the stairs to the top outside of yet another large wooden door decorated with golden handles. 

“There’s something I wish to show thee.” Messmer reaches for the handles and pulls the door open slightly, but then slams it shut, a blast of dusty air blows in your face. “But first, thee must closeth thy eyes.” He says with glee, his golden eye sparkling with joy. You tilt your head, curious and narrow his eyes at him suspiciously. 

“Tis a surprise.” 

You slowly close your eyes and drop your shoulders. You hear the aged creak of the doors in front of you opening. Then you feel his hands gently cup yours as he guides you into the room. A dusty smell hits your nose but a familiar one. Your footsteps echo around what sounds to be a chasm of a room. 

“Can I open them now?” You ask timidly.

“Nay, nay, not yet.” 

With your vision shrouded, your hearing heightened as you hear that familiar roar of flames being lit and the darkness from behind your eyes turn orange. 

“Waiteth one moment.” Messmer lets go of your hands, leaving them feeling cold, you cup them in front of your chest waiting. You hear the loud swoosh of a pair of curtains, turning the orange to a peach colour and the warmth of the sun hits your face. 

Messmer stands behind you, you feel his hands on your shoulders and you flinch at the surprised touch. He leans down and places his face close to your, his lips nearly touching the shell of your ear, you feel his breath and let in a gasp. “Okay, open thy eyes”. He whispers, sending a shiver down your spine. 

Opening your eyes, you’re met with a grand, vast, incredible library. The room must be about 8 stories high, in the shape of an hexagon, some walls filled with books and scrolls, others lined with stone tablets. To the left a large winding staircase leading to more open rooms and balconies filled with more and more books. You gasp at the unimaginable sight. You step away from Messmer, hands clasped over your mouth in awe. You slowly spin, looking around at the stacks of books. You feel your chest tighten, a lump forms in your throat. 

“I can’t believe it.” You whisper, your neck craning back so much it could roll off your shoulders. You continue to turn and spin looking at each nook above you. The warm glow of the candles seems to not stretch high enough. 

Messmer stands watching you, a smile on his face. Ophis butts him in the shoulder trying to gain his attention, but he merely waves the serpent away. His eyes transfixed on you. 

“I’ve never seen so many books, this is incredible.” You feel tears line your eyes once again, your breathing becomes shaky as you try and control yourself and the intense wave of emotion. 

“Doth thee like it?” Messmer asks and you snap your gaze back to him, a tear falls down your cheek and he feels his heart squeeze. But he knows it’s happy tears that fall. 

“It’s wonderful.” You whisper, you look around at the bookcases around you. “May I?” you ask softly. Messmer simply nods and gestures to you. You turn suddenly and find the first bookcase to your left, you read the spines of the books, running your fingers over the gold embossed letters. 

“I don’t even know where to start.” You grin so hard your cheeks hurt, you turn to Messmer who casually follows behind you. 

He chuckles at your enthusiasm. You run away to the next bookcase, looking at the next set of colourful books. Ophis butts Messmer again, the man turns his head and snaps at his companion. 

“Aye, Ophis?” He says through gritted teeth, annoyed that he was interrupted. 

“Ask her to dinner again” the snake opens his mouth enthusiastically, happy to offer help. Messmer sighs and scratches him under the chin. 

“I shall, friend, just alloweth her first to explore.” He looks at you crouched on the floor looking at more books, pulling one out and flicking through the pages but not reading a single line.

Fidi slithers into view. “You did good, Messmer.” The snake nods and touches its forehead to Messmer. He sighs and walks over to you.

“I shall leaveth thee to read, if thou require aught, just pull yond cord by the door,” he weakly smiles at you and starts to walk away.

You didn’t hear him, instead you felt the warmth of him leave your surroundings and you hastily look up distraught. “Wait!” You call out to him, standing and running over to him. He turns slowly and you run into him, wrapping your arms around his waist and hugging him tightly. 

He stands there shocked, arms in the air and doesn’t dare move. You mumble your gratitude into his chest and he barely hears it. He breathes in a few times and hesitates to move. Fidi moves and slithers over his hand and guides it down, till his large fingers wrap around your back as he returns the hug, pulling you in. He feels his body shake, it has been many a year since he had felt the gentle embrace of someone, anyone, let alone a fair maiden. 

You pull away from him and run back off to your books, you pull a few more out from the shelf and pile them next to you. 

“I shall come receive thee for dinner later.” He tells you before leaving you to your new books. You don’t reply, but your smile makes him huff out a small laugh before turning away and walking out of the library. 

***

Messmer sits alone in his room thinking about you upstairs, he thinks about how close you were in the lift with him, how easily you hugged him, how you weren’t frightened of him anymore. Also how you easily interacted with Fidi and Ophis. He felt his chest tighten, his heart flutter. A small smile grew on his face, he never thought he would appreciate the company of someone new, the castle had grown stale since the war ended and he hid himself away. He hadn’t heard from his family or mother in years, he wasn’t even sure if he was welcome back home or not. 

Fidi and Ophie rest their heads on Messmers chest, facing the man. Fidi opens her eyes, sensing distress within Messmer. 

“Don’t ruin the wonderful day, Mess. Think of her, the future. Not the past.” 

He reaches up and pets the snake on the head. 

“I’m sorry Fidi.” He sighs. “I just have never hath felt this way about anyone before. I has’t this desire to protect the maiden. Care for her.”

“She is wonderful, isn’t she? She suits the castle well.” 

He feels the blush on his cheeks again.

“The lady does.” Messmer sighs.

Fidi closes her eyes again, nuzzling back against Ophis.

Ophis speaks without moving; “Do you think she’ll stay if you asked her to?” 

“I would desire so.”

Messmer stares up at the ornate ceiling through the hole burnt in the top of the canopy bed, blackened from smoke and char. He thinks of you and your kaleidoscopic eyes, your soft skin and your melodic laugh. 

***

The night draws in, Messmer watches the sun finally set over the treeline from his balcony. He took to the snow covered veranda as he does every night to watch the falling sun, the one constant that is the same here and as back home. In silence, he makes his way up to the unused library, even though he couldn't remember the last time he stepped inside. 

He’s grateful the door was still wide open, stepping inside he looks around the ground floor for you. Cautiously he looks around, a small pang of worry hits his chest as he wanders in the dark, candles long burnt away leaving stalactites of red and white wax down the candelabras. The small hint of dusk from outside keeps the room alight. 

He goes up the stairs and turns the corner, at the end of the first row of bookcases he sees a small flickering light from a corner. A large pile of books blocks his view till he peers over the top to see your sleeping form resting on a pile of pillows propped against a loveseat, also covered in scrolls and opened books. An opened book rests against your slow breathing chest. The one lone candle by your side flickers against his movement, casting delicate shadows on your sleeping face. 

For a moment he thought about waking you for dinner, but after watching you sleep for a moment, your peaceful face made him feel weak. He looks at Fidi who tilts her head at you, also admiring the sleeping maiden in front of them. Messmer presses his lips together and reaches down to the book on your chest. His fingers graze the soft skin of your chest near the swell of your breast. He nearly drops the book back onto you as he nearly pulls away as if struck by lightning. He holds himself for a moment, mentally taking in how soft you feel before removing the book. 

You wiggle at the change of pressure on your body. But your eyes remain closed. Messmer scoops you up in one shift motion, letting your head and hand rest against his chest once again. He felt comfort in having you close to him. He notices a small smile form on your sleeping lips. Fidi and Ophis slither over your body and rest their heads on your stomach and look up at you, tongues flicking out to taste the air around you.

Carefully, Messmer carries you out of the library. Not wanting to startle you awake with the loud clattering of the iron lift, he slowly descents the secret staircase that wraps around the tower. However he is grateful he gives him a few more moments with you resting against him, safe in his arms. For a moment he remembers how powerful and dangerous his hands are, how easily he could set you alight with his cursed powers, how much blood is on them. 

He shakes his head of the wretched thoughts, tightening his grip on you. You held his hands so easily, touched his ashen skin without hesitation, held him close and found him secure for a moment. He blooms with the idea of how easily you’re being to trust him. Yet he knew you’d run away the second you learnt of his past. Fidi senses their master's distress and wraps herself around his shoulders to comfort him. 

Finally he makes it back down to the heart of the castle, carefully marching up the grand staircase, he hesitates. He looks down the left corridor to your room, then to the right to his. For a moment he thinks about carrying you to his bedchambers, so you may slumber on his bed, so he can watch over you, protect you. For a moment he swears he feels his feet start that selfish journey. But he stops himself and turns to the left and carries you back to your room. He carefully opens the door and places you down on the bed, moving a stray strand of hair from your face, fingers delicately toy with the strand for a moment before smoothing back around your ear, fingers gliding over your soft cheek. 

He looks down at your sleeping form once more before sighing and walking away. He closes the door behind him with a click.

***

You open your eyes when you hear the door shut. Sitting up, you stare at the door waiting for it to open again, but it doesn’t. You raise your hand to your cheek and trace your fingers over where he last touched. You bite your lip and rest your head on the pillow, grabbing it and hugging it tight, before closing your eyes and falling back asleep. 

[instantpansies]

and so it begins

First Chapter!!! Most Recent Chapter!!!

as we all know, Perry the Platypus won the @hellsite-hungergames and killed @hellsite-hall-of-fame.

the first polls, in which you people chose: - third person - author's notes in the middle of text - weird epithets to denote speakers - smirking

i'll be working on the first few chapters as i have time and releasing them one by one on ao3. my user is twenty_four_manticores and i'll be releasing this fic under the pseud instantpansies!

example of what we can all look forward to here. (holiday special sneak peek here)

current ship names in running: Pellsite, Perrysite, S.W.C.N. (Ship Without a Cool Name) - compiling a suggestion list and will run again with new options in a bit. round one poll

giving perry a tragic backstory here and here.

y'all decided i shouldn't refamiliarize myself with the og hunger games here.

messing with povs, decided here.

capital building doorway message here

i'll be releasing additional polls throughout the writing process to really crowdsource this fic. it'll be so much more authentic that way. they'll be released at random times but i'll have a featured tag on my blog with all the posts related to this fic. updates will follow.

finally, i will be open to all suggestions at any point! if we have a lot of people asking for things i'll make a poll! tell me what you want and i'll make an effort to get it in there, no promises though.

guidelines: hellsite-hall-of-fame has asked to keep this fic relatively sfw. while there will obviously be some violence and MCD, we're keeping this strictly smutless. pg-13, people, i'm rating this fic T on ao3!

tags to search on my blog if you only want to see fic content: - #enemies to lovers angst hurt no comfort 200k hellsite hall of fame x perry the platypus (all) - #the fic (all) - #LORE (things i might add later/won't be in the story but might help add some texture as i'm writing. mainly stuff from blogs involved acting in-character) - #hellsite hall of fame - #perry the platypus - #hellsite hunger games - #fic polls (if you only want to see polls) - #fic suggestions (anything y'all give me to work with that isn't in a poll!) - #chapter announcements

also, all pnf/mml/hng/etc posts are organized under #dwampyverse, not their own individual tags (except perry the platypus and dr doofenshmirtz)

disclaimers below cut

please note: i am a student with a ridiculous schedule and adhd. i make absolutely no promises to update this fic in a timely fashion.

fair warning: i've written fanfic before on my main pseud (twenty_four_manticores). i don't write smut but i occasionally write ~weird~ things. if you have a problem with any of my writing i don't care, send anon hate right here on tumblr dot com and i'll defend myself (or not) as i see fit.

what the hell am i doing. i write oneshots. i don't have the attention span for this. oh no. oh no

[mythicamagic]

have you played Love and Deepspace and what is your review on it??

Hello! Yes I have. It's sitting in my homescreen right now on my phone.

I think my opinions on it might be quite mixed or controversial? So just bare that in mind before reading.

I've played a looot of otomes. I think I started playing them in 2009. I can very much say that LADS is a unique experience. It's not like anything I've ever played before in terms of graphics, cinematography and interaction with your fictional boyfriends.

The Great:

I think the interface and design is really nice in certain aspects (the combat is a bit iffy). This is a very pretty game imo. Also can I just say, having a customisable MC is really great! I like that you can change not just her skintone but her voice settings as well. I also just- LOVE the 4 and 5 star cards content. They hold some examples of lovely scenarios written with care, and some good ole fanservice to boot as a treat. Whoever does the lighting for the 5* cards does a marvellous job, as the animations really feel 'alive' sometimes. Great direction with using the MC as the POV so the 'camera' swings or moves closer according to how she's reacting. Love that.

The LIs:

I think having a varied cast is important in otomes but a common vibe or theme can often be shared between their contrasting personalities. For Piofiore its mafia/crime lords and domestic life, for Cafe Enchante cosy coffeeshop vibes. With Love and Deepspace I'd say its cosy vibes mixed with action, mixed with angst. The cast supports this, with all of them having serious or sweet sides. I am definitely not drawn to some of them, but that's okay! I think anyone going in new should know they won't like everyone and that's common for otome. What I find uninteresting might be wonderful to someone else and vice versa. I will say Sylus took the spot as my favourite and he has a very different vibe to the others even when he's doing cosy domestic stuff. I very much enjoy his scenes and how dynamic they feel (also its really nice the whole cast is in their twenties)

The Bad:

The worst casualty in Love and Deepspace is...the main story. I can't overstate how much of a confusing, poorly written and badly executed mess the main story is. In terms of setup, establishing lore, world building and stakes, it somewhat limps from one chapter to another. Scenes can begin and end abruptly with plot threads seemingly dropped. Secrets can often be intriguing, yes- but by continually withholding answers the game can get a bit frustrating. As a new player with no knowledge of the game, I didn't understand why Rafayel kept referring to himself as a fish during the crane game and kitty card mini games. It was like they were referencing something that hadn't happened yet in game, so I was like - okay, I'll wait. I'm sure it'll be explained (spoilers: it was not explained).

Essentially if you want backstory and context to the boys you NEED their cards to unlock their content, and I'm not a huge fan of that. I think the main story should still at least give you a bit more to work with about the boys. (This is especially bad when the lore is locked behind gacha luck). And I get that the whole story is space/time themed but sincerely I did not know the world of Love and Deepspace was capable of casual space travel until I read Sylus' anecdote story. This is not good worldbuilding. Sure it throws loads of terminology at you but you'll have to read the notes yourself to understand what they are. It's a lot of telling and not showing. For an example of how this could've been done: Cowboy Bebop is about bounty hunters in space. It has scenes of them...in space. You're telling me someone as rich as Sylus, who offers MC to go on his motorbike, yacht, and private jet, wouldn't offer her a circle around the planet in his spaceship? Idk it feels like a lot of worldbuilding details have been overlooked.

There is also the issue of voice acting. This can again come down to personal preference but in general I always give English Dubs a fair chance, and enjoy many of them. Voice acting has come a long way since the wooden performances of older animes and games. That said, many of the boys, especially in the earlier chapters and content sound extremely flat. This goes double for the NPCs (who can be laughably bad). It's not even a matter of 'oh this person is just reading lines with no emotion' no the inflections in their voice are off- the context of what they're supposed to be emoting to can feel a million miles off base. I barely felt like they were in the scene with me. That said - this was likely a voice direction issue, because more recent content allows the boys to sound more relaxed and involved in the scene. Sylus' English VA knocks it out of the park in his performance though and I really appreciate how much he embraced that role. A lot of people could get embarrassed having to voice ASMR type content but he got fully immersed so 10/10 for that. I haven't tried any other languages apart from Japanese but c'mon, we know the Japanese VAs are like celebrities over there and will crush any role so no notes there except they're all great.

TLDR:

With all that said I do not hate the game, I really enjoy it! (I wouldn't have ranted so much here if I didn't care) I just wish certain aspects were tightened up more for storytelling purposes. It feels a bit jarring when some aspects of the game are SUPER polished but then easy mistakes are made. So I'd say if you're interested in playing - to just embrace the fluff and spicy fanservice. Treat it as your main meal as I do. If you end up enjoying the main story and combat then that's a bonus! I really hope this game continues to be successful because their recent content and chapter has been super intriguing - and in general its just nice to have an otome reach the spot of 3rd highest grossing mobile game during some months (below the giants like Genshin and HSR)

[chameleonspell]

HTDC commentary - 3: breathe

[Looking back at HTDC after nearly ten years: comments on lore, character notes, influences, art, whatever. May contain spoilers for later chapters.]

chapter text: 3: breathe

In this bit, I get explicit about some of the stuff implied by Ire's behaviour, last chapter. Which I have mixed feelings about now, because it reads very blunt and tell-not-show and whatever, but... oh, well. At other times I'm maybe not obvious enough with character's internal processes, and the reader should at least understand the terms Ire uses for his own issues. This is all stuff Ire is self-aware about and he's currently reflecting on it, so fine, let's set out Iriel's psychological stall.

only distantly registering the wet ground soaking through his pants.

Wait, no, let's talk about his pants, because alexgaretti dragged me about this later, and I deserve it - why did I convert everything else about the narration into my native British English spellings, but then keep saying "pants" instead of "trousers"? I DON'T KNOW, OKAY, IT JUST FELT WRONG. Pants are how leg-things are labelled in the Morrowind game! Common pants, extravagant pants, it's all pants! People wear pants, that's just how it is. I felt weird enough spelling "bonemould" with a U, leave me alone.

Imprisonment, he knew, was part of it. Of course it had affected him, he had been foolish to expect otherwise. Ridiculous to think he could simply pick up his life where he had left off.

There are obvious reasons why Bethesda games never do anything further with their habitual gambit of starting your character as a prisoner - the player should get to decide who their character is, and how they react! The game isn't going to force you to consider that a character who has been in jail for any length of time (especially delicate, cruelly-framed prisoner characters) may have been wildly traumatised by this experience, and may have difficulty adjusting to being suddenly given their freedom.

Fanfic is the trauma-processing place, though, so naturally we all love having carte blanche to let our characters be really messed up by it.

He offended someone by staring at them? Why? How many seconds were you allowed to look at someone? Wait, not looking at them could be rude too? How could anyone figure out this stuff? If they couldn’t even explain to him how to do it right, why tell him he was doing it wrong?

This chapter is where people started asking me if Iriel has autism. Which I still don't have a concrete answer for! Partly because I'm not sure a fictional character benefits from that kind of word-of-god authorial specificity, when you could just let readers decide, and relate to him however they want to. But also because if Ire's autistic, then probably I'm autistic, and it's not like I'm against the concept, but I really don't know! When I was writing HTDC, I labelled a lot of my behaviours as social anxiety, because they primarily manifested when I was under stress. It blew my mind slightly when someone said to me, "what if it's just that being under stress removes your ability to mask?". I'm still thinking about that one, to be honest, but I'll spare you my non-conclusions, here.

Then he hit adolescence, and it turned out that everything prior had just been the warm-up act for being a queer teenager completely unequipped to conceal this fact from his incomprehending parents and conservative town.

While I'm still vaguely irritated by this chapter, at least we didn't get all this backstory as actual written chapters, right? Gotta start in media res. Gotta skip to the bits that matter for this story. 

Also, we don't need to have the boring argument about whether it's more radical/regressive to write fantasy queer utopias, or to recreate systems of oppression in fantasy worlds, right? Of course people can do either, do both, do whatever suits their purpose and is interesting.

I've read some amazing fic* set in Summerset, where homosexuality was an accepted and valued part of society. That approach is totally valid! It just didn't fit what I wanted to do, here, so my headcanons are different.

Based on what I'd inferred about Altmer values (I don't know ESO, don't talk to me about ESO), homophobia as a default in that society does seem very plausible to me. Summerset is a culture where bloodlines (and so heterosexual procreative pairings) are obsessively cultivated. Your blood is who you are, it’s fixed and unalterable, and if you’re acting (or fucking) against the overall societal interest, there must be something wrong with you and your blood.

According to a first-era emissary to the Altmer isles: "Breeding outside the pure line is a terrible, unthinkable crime, and taken as prima facia evidence of the tainted blood of the individual in question- if they were, they wouldn't have the impulse to do it. Exile to the mainland is regarded as equivalent to a death sentence, since there is no purpose in living outside their ideal society."

Now, we have to take this with a heavy pinch of salt. He goes on to write: "They have no real names of their own, only combinations of numbers that, when spoken aloud, sound to human ears as such. They feel no real tenderness for one another and have no concept of compassion." So, as with any TES text: biased source. But I think it's reasonable to assume that the Altmer do care a lot about purity of bloodlines, since this theme reoccurs elsewhere.

* Exhibit A: In Pedo Impedimenta, which is hands-down the best Summerset fic around, and in terms of wildly imaginative headcanons, one of the best TES fics, full stop. It's... a lot. It's unfinished, but you should read it anyway.

He had a plan: the Crystal Tower. Get there, he told himself, and everything will be all right. And then he did… and it wasn’t.

The fic I linked above, In Pedo Impedimenta, is set in the 4th era, and has a scene in which an Imperial tries to make a politely regretful remark about the tragic destruction of the Crystal Tower during the Oblivion Crisis. He is blindsided by how even the slightest mention sucks the air out of the room, sending half the Altmer into tearful, traumatised paroxysms of shock, while others barely restrain themselves from murdering him. The level of social faux pas is off the charts, basically. Altmer grief for the Tower is fathomless, because the Crystal Tower represented the Altmer people, was their heart, soul, ancestral memory, you name it. A symbol of Altmeri perfection.

Iriel revered the Tower from childhood, grew up struggling to prove himself worthy. Getting accepted there was a validation of his entire being, evidence that whatever anyone else thought, he was capable of touching, representing and embodying that perfection. Getting expelled, therefore, was equally personal.

Intellectually, Iriel knows there were petty, down-to-earth reasons for his expulsion, but that sort of symbolism is hard to shake.

Speaking of symbolism, according to ESO, the Crystal Tower looks like this. Yes, I know. I hate it, I had not seen this when I wrote about it, and I honestly refuse to accept it. I wanted it to be a symbol of Iriel's pure desire for knowledge and intellectual advancement, but SOME PEOPLE want to make everything he does into a sex joke. I hate it, and I don't care that it's got a nice safe flared base.

Invisibility potions require diamonds - too expensive to make a habit of. Ire began to practice invisibility cantrips obsessively. [...] Gradually, he discovered that more subtle and specialised effects were possible with illusion, allowing him to adjust his “dosage” according to the situation.

Illusion magic! Already, it's being framed as a sort of drug, with dosages and expensive dependency. Iriel makes this framing himself, and later mutters sarcastically about his addictive personality. But what is he trying to medicate away? Short answer: himself. Physically or mentally can vary. I told people from the start: the title of the fic was never metaphorical.

Depending on the alchemical properties of the bog, corpses could either remain perfectly preserved indefinitely, or decompose to skeletons in mere hours. He suspected that he was not the former.

Iriel has a terrible phobia of skeletons and bones, though I don't think I knew that yet, when I wrote this line. But this is the crux of it: bones are what's left, when everything else has been taken away, all the soft, pretty, fleshy nonsense that buffers our inmost selves from the outside world. Bones have nowhere to hide. And, to Iriel at least, they are fucking horrid.

But Iriel, we could say, what's the alternative? That corpses don't decompose? That dead people stay the same forever, and never really leave? Isn't that differently horrid? I got really obsessed with this theme, later, something Morrowind's burial customs makes easy.

Sinilakki drew Iriel being all translucent in the swamp.

Perhaps I shouldn't have said Iriel had a psychological stall. Stalls don't move, and the entire point of a character-driven narrative is to move a character, right? How are we moving them? On rails, like a train? Self-driven, or carried passenger? That has to change, too, right?

Around half-way through writing HTDC, I made a notes document, trying to clarify to myself what kind of story I was trying to tell. I did it by defining the sort of story I wasn't trying to tell, and I'm just gonna copy-paste it all here, stream-of-consciousness non-capitalisation and all:

not a coming of age story

ire knows who he is (that's kinda the problem), he's an adult now, whatever the fuck that means.

it's about what happens next, how he can fit this adult self of his into the world (can he? does he want to? what kind of world? there are many.) what does it mean to be normal, does he want that? why/why not?

if he fits in, what will that cost him? if he walks away from everything, what will that cost him? what does he value most? could he still change? should he? what would that cost? are these cost estimates of his accurate?? how is even mental accounting???

how mutable is his identity, his self-image, the image he projects? which one is real, are any of them real? is he a trick of the light, reflecting false images with nothing behind it at all? smoke and mirrors.

not a coming out story

ire's out to his family (he's never had much choice about it) and he's past all that terrified self-realisation, first love/lust bit, past the initial horror of it. the worst already happened, in terms of his family and his old life, it's dead and gone, and he survived. and he's bored now. bored and bitter. because it ought to get easier, and it doesn't. "it gets better" got him through his teens. but he's still waiting, and nothing fucking changes, or rather, it got worse. where is his community? is that a thing? and while plenty of this is beyond his control, part of it is internal. Ire maintains, on a logical, rational, principled level, that there's nothing wrong with his sexuality, and that what happened wasn't his fault, that he was badly treated, that he deserves the same right to love and be happy as anyone. HOWEVER. it's not as simple as that. he's been deeply psychologically damaged by homophobia, it has claws in his self esteem that he can't seem to shift. he worries he can't maintain a healthy relationship because of it. worries he can't have a healthy relationship with himself.

not a romance

it's not about iriel falling in love with someone truly, madly, deeply, permanently happy ever after. it's certainly not about a relationship fixing his problems, if anything it gives him more.

it is about relationships, in particular his changing relationship with julan, and the ways it makes him examine himself and how he interacts, and what he wants from another person. What he did wrong in the past, and what he needs to stop blaming himself for. And what his partners need from him, and how he can learn to meet those needs, should he choose to do so. about that negotiation. about failing at it, about screwing things up really badly, on both sides, and where that ends up. about trying to fix things. about what you can/should forgive, what you can't, and what forgiveness means. about recognising when to hold on to someone and when to let go.

what is preventing iriel from building healthy relationships? from feeling, expressing and receiving love? how does this change? what kinds of relationships/people are good for him?

not a tragedy

ire's been through enough shit, and doesn't really believe happiness is likely. this is not about proving him right. it's not about giving him a happy ending on a plate either, his is not a journey of one step, and this story is limited in scope. but it's about managing loss & moving forward.

ok so what is it?

it is about survival and growth. how ire is paralysed by his trauma, and resists change, and the ways he struggles to get past this. to take control of himself & be more than a product of his past & his conditions. to make choices, not be swept along/reacting. to find ways of being in the world and engaging with it.

its about ire's coping mechanisms. what they are, why he has them, how they help him, how some of them damage or restrict him. whether he needs them, or can replace them, reconfigure them, drop them entirely. the things you do to survive are not the things you do to get free. how can ire move from survival to getting free?

it's about surviving, and then about surviving/outgrowing the person you had to become in order to survive.

All aboard, guarfuckers! We've got 197 miles of bad road!

next: 4: falling previous: 2: labels

[cowboybrunch]

I have been combing through your archive for any botrd content, so I beg you: Please, please please gimme a infodump on botrd🥺🥺

Your favourite snippets, anything you deleted but still liked, fun facts, anything really 🙏🙏 I will be grateful for any crumbs you provide

leah hi!!! waking up to ur notifications made me happy dance <3 <3 :-)

*rubs hands together* oh you have NO IDEA what you just unlocked

let's start with some fun facts:

when I first started writing BOTRD, it was entirely in Rosalie's pov and it was intended to be a straightforward romance (i refer to this as draft zero). i got about 80% of the way in and then realized 1) it's not really romantic at all and girlie needs to get out of this situation and 2) there was another story hidden in Theodore's pov that i wanted to explore

the first completed draft is sitting at 95,267 words and is organized into acts and scenes, not chapters. here are the names of the first scenes from each act (only used for outlining purposes):

act 1: "sunrise" act 2A: "old flame" act 2B: "ten seconds" act 3: "mouse thunder storm"

after finishing the first draft, i jumped straight into writing the prequel, Judas Wept. and im so glad i did! it really influenced how i'm approaching future drafts (and it gave us Elias! i love Elias!)

my favorite character to write dialogue for is Emily. my favorite character to write period is Marcella

some rapid fire lore!

at the beginning of botrd, Theodore has consumed 2 souls: the soul of the person that killed him, and Andrew's. at the end, he's got around 6,000 (most from Mortae voluntarily sacrificing themselves to make him OP)

Marcella only targets men due to her past trauma and a desire to protect young women. she thinks it's funny when they beg. she has no qualms with murder or lawlessness. if she had Theodore's abilities, we wouldn't have a story. she would've dealt with this mess a century ago

Rosalie is very subdued and passive in act 1. she thinks more than she speaks or acts in her first few POV chapters. stuck with one foot in the past kinda thing. once she starts processing her grief, she becomes more of an active participant (which is not necessarily a good thing! but! she's healing!)

Azmaveth has a whole secret backstory (Uriel, too! i dont know if we ever unlock that one on page) but basically: he lost a child, so now he's ultra protective of his wards (Theodore and Marcella) BUT he has to balance that with his loyalty towards Morrigan so she doesn't come by and just slaughter all of them

i affectionately refer to Rosalie's friends as "the humans" and they're a bunch of goobs. Mike is a golden retriever. James is a chihuahua. Henry is a dachshund. Emily isn't a dog, she's a mountain lion

and now, a favorite snippet:

(context: Theodore is at dinner with Rosalie's friends. they're having a potluck!)

I start silently amending my statements without her having to ask. I lived in California for a few years and recently moved back. Truth. I work at my foster father’s restaurant. Lie. I don’t follow any sports, but baseball is my favorite. Truth. She coughs to hide her chuckle, but I don’t think anyone is fooled. Baseball? It’s the great American pastime, is it not? Aren’t you French? Her eyes dance with laughter. I’ll give her all of my secrets if she just keeps looking at me like that.

something i deleted!

"little life" (Rosalie POV):

I work. I eat. I sleep. I go to family dinners once a week and participate in conversations and drinking games and try my best to quell the worry in their eyes. It’s easy, or it should be. I don’t tell them about Theodore, and they don’t ask. Not directly anyway, but I see the questions in Emily’s eyes when she catches me twisting my wrist in the lamplight, studying smaller scars that linger above the others, the promise I’d made, the debt owed. I try not to think about it and succeed, mostly.

and i'll wrap up with a picrew dump!

Rosalie / Emily / Andrew

Theodore / Marcella / Azmaveth

Gemma / Elias

this story has been my brain worm for two years and will probably pester me for two thousand more so thank you so much for asking about it!! <3

[chevvy-yates]

Something I would like to know:

As previously mentioned in this post, I'm curious if those of you who follow my blog are interested in reading further stuff about my boys such as:

lore contains full backstories but also character traits, their cyberware, humanity loss, relationships with friends/their partner(s), etc (I'm sure there's more to add).

snippets/fics as I write especially Ryder's and Thyjs' story 90% alone. I do see it as an own side story that starts in the middle of the main rp story. Ry and Thy are my own ocs, so ofc I do write 'rp' just all by myself when the two are alone. I won't post any fics on A03 but consider to post them here (long chapters will be in pdf form).

role play from the 2078 story this contains wip snippets as well as whole finished chapters (it just takes a while to convert them into a "fanfic-format") but also info that I haven't shared yet because it would maybe greatly 'spoil' the story for people interested in reading.

—

Or are you rather only here to take a look at the vp and reblogs when you manage to stop by?

I'm just trying to figure out if it is worth posting all the lore or just a few bits here and there, keep the rest for my friend and myself and just share it in private chats with those interested, because it is probably going to be a lot. I know it will be ongoing for the next year(s), so it more or less is a long-term project we work on.

So if e.g. only 3 people are really interested, I would conclude for myself I to let it be and feed my blog mostly with vp than having to mess with creating posts here for hours (post creator is still a bitch). I'm always happy to answer oc asks as it helps me develope the boys further (just slow in answering) and I think I'll always share a bit of lore here and there anyways like I did before. So please consider to take a moment and klicken one of the options and feel free to write a comment as well. You may help me a lot with my final decision. <3

Another thing:

Thought about if I should tag people who are interested, so they do not miss it (even though tagging currently doesn't work right here anymore either it seems)? Or at least add their 'tag-names' (if they have some) to the tags as well so the find/see this post as they follow their own tagged name I guess? Does that make sense? idk, I never tagged names like that in the tags before but I've seen a few people do.

[thelightfantastik]

I never expected to post this picture of an AU where Jester is a dragon rider and feel actively sad, bitter, and angry about it, but here we are.

Dragonblade rant under the cut.

I wanted to post this having discovered Jester's name and backstory, at the end of a book where he could finally call himself brave, and where he'd grown into a man just as good, kind, intelligent and sweet as Jester was in the show. I've loved his character for over a decade and genuinely believed this was the story where we'd get his full story after his enigmatic introduction.

And instead he got a quick, brutal, meaningless death that didn't even affect the plot. He got 20 chapters of being characterised as a lazy, unfit drunk. Of being emotionally stunted and neurotic and desperately obsessed with an unrequited love. Of being outperformed both mentally and physically by some random older man who was trying to woo the 16-year-old main character - who was herself repeatedly robbed of her own agency and dignity and forced into a narrative hinting at a romance with Robert, a man portrayed as a manipulative sexual predator - or a life of isolation from other humans, waiting to find out whether she'd have to slice open her dragon or die of old age, whichever comes first.

All of the magic and mystery and warmth and comradeship in the characters and storytelling that existed in the Jane and the Dragon show was systematically stripped away over 21 poorly written chapters. And I tried so hard to enjoy it - despite the careless way it was written in both typos and grammatical errors, weird pacing, the shoddy, sometimes nonsensical plotting and character choices. The gratuitous violence towards Gunther and miserable characterisation of Jester (culminating in a poorly written death for shock value) just to discredit and remove them and make space for Robert as both love interest and battle comrade.

So many times I recognised how poorly the story was written but felt so fondly about the show that I kept reading anyway, desperate for a snippet of backstory on my favourite character, the kind of man I imagined he'd become, to see how all of the characters had grown and developed, to see a resolution or development on the dragon lore - just desperate to see a glimmer of the original show in Dragonblade.

And instead we got this; a tangled mess of half-baked and barely connected plots held up by poorly characterised characters, that culminated in the utterly meaningless death of my favourite character and not one single plot resolution.

But don't worry, at least there's still more to come.

[stormbite-art]

i feel morbidly curious since i've been looking at old sb art and stuff, what was the original story/first draft like? story-wise and character-wise? again, just curious

The original first draft, version 0.001, pre-alpha, unrendered version of Stormbite was a hot mess, but there are still some anachronisms of it in the published version because I loved messing around with it in its raw form.

RIP Version 0.001 - Circa. 2012~

The first version was written by an angsty, unknowingly asexual, hyper stressed, nerd-ass teenager full of spite filled ambition, who had a little book/art club of other nerds who were into art, manga, video games, hyperfixations on birds, mushrooms, fish, and all other niche Ology zones, that they wanted to entertain and please. We all liked sci-fi and fantasy, non-human protagonists, were all raging angrily about how a certain series was going and the state of YA fiction at the time (it was those dark 2009-2013 years where all YA fiction was paranormal romance love triangle bullshit).

Because I was full of spiteful ambitious rage, and it was not my first rodeo in deciding to make a creative project of some kind, I decided to do my own story/comic with some characters created by my nerd club friends.

It was entirely what you'd expect of a teenager who did not fear cringe and was just wanting a good time to entertain friends. Plots were flexible abstract things, and canons were loose. Ships passed in the night, and AU's were golden and hyper modifiable to fit any scenario or adaptation. There was no lore or world rules, it was a free for all.

I managed to get through almost 20 pages of colouring this super rough comic, and doing what is essentially still the first chapter without really doing a script or any forethought into what happens next. Version 0.001's remnants still exist in chapters 1-5 and that is it, everything else after that came later when I decided that drawing took too long, and writing was faster and easier to change. Drawing out thumbnails of scenes did help in writing what happened and how a fight played out however.

The original versions of the characters however:

Storm had the full anime works: She had a split personality with colour changing, glowing eyes, possessed by the spirit of her dead twin, a metal collar that couldn't be taken off, lightning and frost powers, nerdy t-shirts and converse.

Kat was originally a blonde-haired blue eyed white girl, with blue jay wings which changed. Her tail was cut off, she was a trained assassin who wore revealing ninja outfits, her and Amell was meant to be a thing.

Beth had a pet owl called Harrold who was a spy for her, wore a cavaliers hat and was a self-proclaimed technomancer who could hack anything and control technology, was cheerful and helpful, had all of her limbs, and was obsessed with blueberry muffins.

Wilny was pasty emo boy with scraggy hair and much greener wings. Also he could actually stop time rather than mess with perceptions to make it feel as though time has stopped.

Amell was a skinny, lanky dude, greek rather than kiwi, and had blue eyes, and could lift a car in flight.

Comet was more of a main character with a kind of disturbing backstory, long hair, reality manipulation powers

Raoul was a wolf-girl before she became Asena and Raoul his own person. Palmer didn't really fully exist.

Malana is more or less the same, but was meant to have horns at one point and was created in Risio but was a reject.

Sabre & Fell were generic bad guys. Rex was a good guy.

There was also a lot of other characters who either have been recycled into other minor characters (ex. Rai, Asena, the Varren group ((that was the first rodeo)) or Roux) or have been lost to time and cut completely.

Of course, time goes on, you grow and change, develop and redevelop both what you like, how you work, what you can do and prefer, so of course it evolved a lot more and there was a lot of changes along the way.

Personally, I think they all look a lot better now.

[wilchur]

EA compliant fic? 👀👀

Yeah!! Maybe more of a series even. I am such a big fan of the story Larian was telling before they made a mess of it like right before release and want to base Ezra's canon on that, instead of the game as it is now. I'm still working out the details because there are some things I'm gonna have to mix and match to have them make sense post act one, but I'm determined to include as much of the EA canon as I can. From Wyll's old storyline to the datamined Nightsong and Shadow Curse lore, I'm gonna do my best to make it fit.

It's all still pretty much still in the world building stage, though. I refuse to start writing actual fics/chapters before I know exactly where I'm going to avoid having to retcon shit later on. And since I have to expand on some stuff pretty much from nothing -- like in case of Karlach's really vague Elturel backstory -- it's gonna take a while before you see an actual fic from me 😅 at least one that takes place during the events of the game

[lenny-rambles]

About "SpyxFamily: Short Mission 13"

Manga: "SpyxFamily"

Update: Short Mission 13

Author: Tatsuya Endo

Relevants tags ig: the dog has ptsd, again

Honestly, I was mad when I initially saw it was a Short Mission. It's gonna be a month now since the last regular chapter came out, the plot was moving, my heart skipped at beat at the last double spread, the story was thriving, I could sense a lore drop any minute now. Then we got two short missions. TWO!!! But the newest short mission took me by surprise and now I'm sad about the damn cartoon dog.

Spoilers for the SpyxFamily manga and anime, more as in, characters that appear and not exactly plot stuff, BEWARE!

IT'S A GODDAMN SHORT MISSION, WHY DID YOU SHOW AGAIN THE SAD DOG'S BACKSTORY?!!! ISTG. You know what I was expecting? I was expecting a "funny haha, future seeing dog has a boring day home alone" maybe break some stuff by accident, maybe he goes to the neighbors' for attention, cute, sweet, nothing heavy slice of life chapter. BUT NO, I WAS FOOLED.

Like, most of the Short Missions are just, not that relevant. Like, it is more of a day-to-day life than the manga normally is. As in, last short mission (the chapter before this one) was about Anya sending Lloyd, and WISE, to an early grave with a High-Fashion dress for prom. It was funny, sweet, Anya wanted to help, then Damian messed up again and she wanted revenge, you know, the usual.

Why? Who gave Tatsuya Endo the idea to give Bond MORE flashbacks?!!! Poor dog's been through a lot, the Forgers becoming his safe place is just beautiful. THE WAY HE AND ANYA RESONATE, BECAUSE THEY ARE BOTH SECRET EXPERIMENTATION SURVIVORS!!!!!! Fucking dog making me sad because a big ass Penguin plushy has stiches. Stupid dog making me emotional over fish, FUCKING FISH. I HATE FISH!!!!

SpyxFamily makes me happy and sad. I think it's a great story to show how connections, friends, family, define a person more than what we'd like to imagine. No person is an island, so seeing characters like Nightfall or Franky, doing missions or getting bits of their backstory, makes it feel more real. Having a character like Anya, being capable of reading mind but not truly understanding most of it makes you think about how children navigate the world.

Oh gosh, I could talk about how SpyxFamily shares an anti-war message through its main characters, all of them victims of the war, one way or another. But it won't, 'cause this was supposed to be about the dog having what I'd call panic attacks because he accidentally broke a glass. BUT WE GET TO THE PENGUIN. In case you haven't read the manga (why are you reading this?) or simply forgot, Bond broke Mr Penguin!

It was an act of jealousy, Anya started playing with the plushie more, and he got lonely. So he destroyed it. He might be an oracle dog, but he is still a dog, I don't blame him. And he felt Bad. He made Anya cry. And he felt terrible because he just wanted Anya back and now Anya's crying and he can't undo it (dogs can't sew). In the end they made it better. I don't remember if it was Lloyd, Yoru or the neighbors, it was probably Yoru though, who fixed it. And the Penguin got cool looking stiches and "he and Bond made Peace".

That was nice, UNTIL THIS GODDAMN CHAPTER. I used to wonder if Bond also felt survivor guilt from being the only dog that managed to escape. TURNS OUT HE DOES, THE DOG HAS SURVIVOR'S GUILT FFS!!!! Poor Bond, realized that he inflicted damage to something like him (unable to defend itself, new/young, a play pretend animal and an animal no longer treated as such) and he tried to make it better. I can't change what I did but I want you to feel better, I'm sorry.

I'm overanalyzing here, it's probably Not That Deep. It's a funny haha manga about a family of dangerous people who end up loving each other by accident. But sometimes it's about Lloyd burying himself in a nameless grave by the time he was 18. It's about Yoru sacrificing her innocence for her brother only to do the same for her. It's about Anya needing validation from everyone because if the people in the lab didn't like her they'd get rid of her. It's about Bond feeling lonely and distressed because a vision he got is especially terrible and he is just a Dog.

I read the interview where Tatsuya Endo said he didn't like the characters that much. Maybe not Gege Akutami (you're going dow Gege) levels of hate, but a blunt indifference. And sometimes I find that hard to believe. Maybe he didn't want Anya to be cutesy-dumb-pink-haired little girl, or Lloyd a super-intelligent-spy-ikemen at first, or even now. But I don't think he doesn't like his story, or characters; we wouldn't have the short missions in the first place if that were the case.

All this to say, cartoon dog made me sad, and then happy, because there are better things coming for everyone in the end. Thank you for reading this far! I'd recommend SpyxFamily if you are up to something a tad dramatic, with a happy ending and endearingly funny. (Or if you have issues with your parents and want a bit of escapism, that's also fair)

[cheeto-flavoured-pasta]

For the Random WIP Ask Game:

11. 🌈 RAINBOW SLOTH: Wild card! Share one thing about your WIP that you have been waiting to be asked about!

And all of a sudden I’ve forgotten everything I’ve ever wanted to be asked…

Kidding (partially).

I initially wanted to post a whole paragraph about plot twist ideas/arcs for my WIP for this, but then again, I also wanna talk about APS fun facts, but then again again, the question is asking to share only one thing, so now I have to actually make a choice and commit. :P.

I think I’ll do the second option, so here are some random APS fun facts:

The very first version of APS was some novel I wrote 3 years ago that was set in Japan (I was a huge weeb at the time and it was so cringey) and the plot was wildly different and honestly so convoluted. I tried to take the premise of “superhumans discovered by government and go through dystopic hell” and “secret underground superhuman organization that basically fights off ‘bad guys’” and mush them together. Turns out, you can’t have two main premises at once (at least for me). One of them could have been a side-premise/subplot of sorts, but nooo. I had to mash them together and squeeze them into one book to the point where the plot switched from one plot idea to the next (ex: I set up the story as a “superhumans discovered by gov’t” plot and then completely flipped it on its head and forgot the other premise halfway through). It was a hot mess. A flaming mess. I deleted that book entirely and decided to change everything about it (except the title). That was a much better decision.

Caster was supposed to be the love interest of another random side character. Decided against it later because I don’t wanna center the story too much around romance. Caster’s also aroace and not interested in any kind of relationship, it wouldn’t really be fitting anyway. Idk, the idea just didn’t stick.

There was supposed to be a scene in chapter 6(?? Was it 6?) — the one where there’s a street brawl and someone chokes and dies — where Talia actually steps in to do something. All she manages to do is splash water in one of the perpetrator’s/instigator’s faces. I only wrote that because I thought it was funny, but I took it out later because it created a big character inconsistency

APS was supposed to be a book series with dual-POVs throughout (ex: Caster and Talia for the first book, Melissa and Cassian for the second, etc. etc.) I eventually scrapped that because the second POV either became useless to the book or it could have another whomp story all by itself without sharing the story with a perspective of another character.

At one point, I planned APS to be a 6-10 book series with so many fucking prequels and sequels and companion novels. I scratched that entirely because, seriously, it was so unnecessary to have that much for no good reason at all. The plot would be too stretched and convoluted if I kept it as a 6-10 book series, and after revamping the plot events, I realized I only needed three books to tell the whole story.

To build off the previous one: I do have a slight “spinoff” series of APS called APP (A Powerful Past). It’s more of just individual books covering pieces of backstory/lore in more detail, but that’s a side-series, so it’s pretty much it’s own thing. I’m only gonna work on it after APS is finished, so for now, the most I do to work on APP is to add to any thought dump pages.

[ell-arts]

Will The Veil be like season 3?

If you mean like a possible interpretation of what season 3 could've been like? Then yes, it is :)

The Veil is, at its core, my attempt at writing a season 3 continuation for the show. It didn't start out with that goal in mind, but eventually, I got some ideas on how I was going to progress the plot and eventually the idea birthed into a multi-chaptered story of how I would've wanted the series to end properly.

Of course, not everything is going to stick with what is canon.

Since this is a fanfic, I’m free to write and change the lore in any way I feel is fitting for the story. So while The Veil is my take on what season 3 could’ve looked like, some creative liberties were taken that are in line with my personal headcanons and wishes, leading up to a finale that I feel is a more fitting ending for the series. So there’s a level of self-indulgence in it, but I prefer sticking to a mostly canon-compliant story, and so my hope is to write a fic that is both satisfactory to myself and to the reader. 

Changes in The Veil that differ from canon:

A year has passed since the events of the season 2 finale. The teens are now between 17-18 years old and are much more mature. This is to aid character development in a way I feel would enhance the story. 

In general, the story is far more mature, dark, meaningful and serious than the series. No farts or bathroom jokes here, no sir!

Betrayus is actually a formidable villain now. The gap between his formidable past-self and his cowardly present-self is closed and he’s back to his malicious ways. 

Pac and Elli dated briefly but have broken up and are not together anymore. They're now close friends instead.

Some retcons or plot holes will be addressed and fixed (or at least as far as I am able to, cuz they're a mess ^^')

Zac and Sunny's whereabouts were confusing in the last episode and seemed to contradict what the series had been leading up to. The whole concept has been tweaked and given more context and background in chapter 4 of The Veil. AKA, Pac's parents disappeared at the end of the war, and instead of it being alluded to that Elli knows where they are, they're still missing and nobody has a lead on their location.

Instead of there being supposedly two PacWorld Wars, there is now only one PacWorld War to refer to (since only the first war is consistently referenced and we never learned anything about the second war.)

Everyone's getting backstories. Not just Betrayus and Pac. Cylindria, Spiral, Elli, the Ghost Gang, and many others will get backstories that will give their characters more depth. Some backstories will be more tragic than others.

If ya'll like what you're hearing, please check out my baby and number 1 priority fanfic, The Veil. You can read it either on AO3 or FF.N!

[angelofthepage]

24 Bendy Questions/Opinions!

So user BeninjaLIVE over on Twitter has this Bendy thread happening that asks a bunch of opinion questions, and you know what? I'm feeling a little playful tonight, so we're gonna answer them here. If you didn't have a baseline of where I stand as a Bendy fan before, well here you go!

1. Which is your favorite game? feel free to say any of the unreleased ones too!

See this is already hard. XD I really love the original BATIM for its story and characters, definitely my favorite story, but I've enjoyed the experience of Dark Revival a ton too. I've probably been exposed to it more times as a result of friends casually booting it up to play in calls, and the fan service for the original was great, Chapter 4 still breaks my heart. But I am a lot harder on its storytelling since, I don't think it did as good of a job as Ink Machine, especially in terms of how fleshed out its characters were. So I guess, Dark Revival for overall experience.

2. out of all the games, Which Character is your favorite?

I think my answer is still a tie between Sammy and Malice. XD They are my beloveds.

3. Which character installs the most fear / is the most horrific?

That depends on the context! From a gameplay perspective? Carley scares the crap out of me (I love you ghost girl, I want to give you a cookie, even though you're mean to us). From a writing perspective? The ink demon is pretty horrifying both in that he's this terrifying monster and was horribly mistreated within his backstory. A victim turned predator.

4. If you were in charge of directing the new Bendy game, what would change? (new features, new characters, changed gameplay, etc)

This is a dangerous question to ask me. X'''D I would put more focus on story and have more time spent with characters so that we get to know them and care about them a bit more. If we're specifically talking about The Cage, I want more of Sammy and Joey (and Boris, I would kill for a Boris reunion). I want to get to know them (if we're continuing the "Joey Drew learning to be a better person arc" I want him to try and be kinder to Henry and mess it up in his own Joey way). I want to know Henry's feelings about what he's going through. But most importantly, I would be putting Archie Carter, Evan, Buddy Lewek, Constance Gray, and/or Abby Lambert in this game. It doesn't have to be big, but for the love of all that is good and Bendy, PLEASE give us a book character cameo in this game, I beg of thee Meatly! We literally just had a book release involving a ton of Gent stuff, please give us an audiolog from one of these guys while going through the horrors of it, I would be SO HYPED for that!

5. What is your LEAST Favorite Character

This is the silliest thing, but there's only one Bendy character I actively dislike, and it's that puppet in the mop bucket from the prologue of BATDR. That thing creeps me out. I'm so sorry. ^^''''

6. smash or pass the ink demon

Neither, I'm extremely ace and not here for smashing, but I'm not passing up on interacting with him. I'm instead inviting him over for some cookies and hot cocoa.

7. Opinions on Bendy and the Dark Revival? this goes for gameplay, lore, characters, everything.

Already covered this one earlier, but to reiterate, I like it! I just wish we spent more time with the characters. I do have some issues with the way the story was handled. As much as I loved Chapter 4, I do kind of wish we got the reveal that Audrey was the daughter of Drew sooner, or at the very least, gave her more time/scenes to grapple with it. Because love the ending as I might, Joey's speech about her being born of darkness just, doesn't hit for me when she doesn't seem to feel that way about herself at any point? Like we see her struggle with it once and then never again, it needed some more build up and punch. But overall? I loved it. I loved this cast, I love the atmosphere and locations, I loved the expansion of the ink demon's character, Memory Joey was a hit despite doing some things that kind of lessen the horror of the previous game, and Twisted Alice, as nonsensical as her plan was, was such a treat, I was so glad to have her back and have her be such a menace. XD

8. Do you have high hopes for any new bendy games? (mainly Bendy - The Cage)

I have a reasonable level of optimism and curiosity! I'm sure it'll be an interesting entry. Curious how they'll handle more disturbing horror after how disturbing the last game was. I'm trying not to expect too much, going in with fewer expectations makes for a better experience for me personally.

9. How did you feel about BATIM's ending when it first came out?

Mostly confused, but really excited that Henry didn't die. X'''D No joke, when Chapter 5 first came out, I was so freaking anxious about what was gonna happen. A friend got on call and watched a playthrough with me so I didn't like lose my entire cool. X'''D Still one of my fondest memories in this fandom. The ending wasn't everything I hoped for, but I still appreciate it and the rest of Chapter 5 as a result of the experiences I had with friends during it.

10. looking back on it now, how do you feel about Chapter 3 of BATIM?

When the original came out, it needed some balance and bug testing badly. But in its current state? It's not as bad as people make it out to be, but it is tedious. I get so lost in it as someone who's directionally challenged, but like, -gestures at Malice- my GIRL! How can I not enjoy it at least a little when my queen is right there giving some of the best and most informative dialogue of any character in the game?

11. if you could change / improve ONE THING about Bendy and the ink machine (the singular game) , What would it be?

This is going to sound ridiculous, but I would want it to have some gyroscopic control on the Switch port. I'm sorry gamers, I don't know how you play games where you have to aim with the analog sticks, I can't do it, I'm so bad at it. X'''D I use motion controls for stuff like aiming my view in Splatoon, give me that as Henry and I will be unstoppable.

12. Opinions of MAlice Angel / Corrupted Susie Campbell?

She is everything, she is the moment, she is my beloved, and I want to bake for her and tell her she's beautiful, because she IS! She was such a fun antagonist and I want more of her backstory! Like she has been an enjoyable part of every game she's been in. Boris and the Dark Survival with the Milla Tapes? Underrated Alice moment, she was GREAT there.

13. Do you think Sammy dying, and THEN coming back was good or bad?

I don't think I can classify it as good or bad, but I did enjoy it! Like hey, ink creatures don't necessarily stay permanently dead, and they can have some really interesting mental things happening when reforming, that was cool world building! And then when we got to see under the mask, and he's ready to kill us? Oh MAN, oh that was a thrill. Would not trade that brief Sammy boss fight for anything, that's my GUY right there!

14. On a Scale of One to Ten, how convoluted do you thing Bendy's lore as of Present Day?

Eh, gonna roll with the devil's number and say a 6.6. It's not that bad. BATDR convoluted it more than BATIM did, and there are some book moments that puzzle me, but it overall? It's workable, and I only drive myself a tiny bit nuts over it (I say as I've been going "NOTHING IS TRUE THE CANON IS A LIE" for like two weeks trying to assemble a series timeline and classify ink creatures).

15. Opinions / on a scale of 1-10 on the Bendy Books?

Dreams Come to Life - 7/10, needed more clarity in parts, had some good moments with returning characters, Dot we love you, JACOB WE LOVE YOU

The Lost Ones - 7/10, was a little weird not seeing most of our studio cast and being so far removed from the studio itself, but it's an enjoyable read, really liked our new characters and swapping perspective, living for that Wally intro, and I have a lot of questions about what ink can do to your brain and Tom's mental state in 1946

Fade to Black - 9/10, by far my favorite, great balance of old and new, Joey Drew was DELIGHTFULLY UNHINGED (something something that's the Joey I knew), Rose was fun, Evan was fun, DOT HI I MISSED YOU, Archie Carter was THE BIGGEST SURPRISE and I ADORE HIM, never thought we'd get a YouTuber cameo audiolog character as a MAJOR PART of a book, Wilson was a treat, and the studio sections of this one destroy me, I love it love it love it

The Illusion of Living - 7/10, the greatest Joey Drew character study to ever exist, which is great but difficult to read when he jumps all over the place and rambles about who knows what for pages at a time, offered some really great moments that I can't imagine the series without, and it solidified my love of Abby, please give Abby a spot in the games, this book made it very clear she is important to the Joey and Henry backstory, and I am so frustrated that we have not referenced her ONCE in these games when she's one, the head of the art department, and two, the one with the braincell of this trio, also Detective Sinclair's murder mystery was fun, I didn't know I would enjoy that genre so much, also Sammy and Jack were GREAT in this book

Employee Handbook (the original) 6/10 - It's a game guide mostly, but I go back to this thing often since it's one of the few things in the series that ACTUALLY GIVES US DATES for when things happened.

16. Opinions / on a scale of 1-10 on the Crack up Comics?

Crack Up Comics is a solid 9/10 for me, it was genuinely fun to read. Sucks that so many comics got spoiled for me on Twitter (much like the ending of DCTL, still sore about that), but the art is really cute, there's a small bit of lore, and the characters are written in such a fun way. Bendy you little scamp, I love you. Hindsight being what it is, I'm still a bit sore there was no cameo appearance for Carley in this book, and I feel the same way about all the toons from this book not appearing anywhere in Dark Revival. What is the point of having fun cartoon characters if they're not at least making a small appearance on a wall poster or something? That is such a missed opportunity.

17. Best Toon Character? (Out of Bendy, Boris, and Alice)

Alice, by far. Don't get me wrong, I love Bendy and Boris too, but Alice has such a fun character, especially in the comics, I LOVED her.

17 (2). Best Butcher Gang Member? (toon)

Edgar. I've warmed up to Charley a lot over the years, but Edgar is my baby boy, I want to hold him and squeeze him and love him, he's so SWEET.

18. Not a question; but SHOW US YOUR / AN OC!! FEEL FREE TO LORE DUMP !!

So hiiii, this is my girl Bella Ewe, a young woman who got roped into Joey's shenanigans as an apprentice animator (after he accidentally broke her leg), and accidentally ends up in the cycle. She gets sacrificed by Sammy, ends up as a searcher that steadily evolves, he has regrets about it, and now with Jack, they're working as a trio called The Shepherds to try and help break the narrative that everyone's been forced to play a part in. Her dive ability allows her to plunge into the depths of the ink, where she talks to people to try and help them regain their humanity. She goes from timid and hopeless to fiery and surrounded by found family, and she is my beloved sheepy daughter.

19. Best Human Character? (Out of Henry, Joey, Audrey, Wilson)

Oooh, that's hard. I'm gonna have to say Joey. I love Henry and Audrey, but the two of them don't get a lot of characterization. Joey however, we get to know him throughout multiple stages of his life AND an inky memory of him, and all of them are such a fun time to explore.

19 (2). Best Human Character? (Out of Wally, Nathan, Sammy, and Bertrum)

Okay that's not fair. X'''D Sammy is my favorite, I love his human iteration just as much as I love his inky one, but Wally is also high up there. He's a fun comedic relief.

20. Best Inked Creature? (Out of the ink demon, Malice, Sammy, and Buddy Boris)

This also isn't fair, how dare you make me pick between my wife and my husband. X'''D But I'm gonna have to say Alice. She's got the more compelling story, but Sammy is also really good as our first introduction to what can happen to a human tainted by ink, he's the one that pulled me into liking Bendy in the first place.

20 (2). Best Inked Creature? (Out of Shipahoy Dudley, Lost Ones/Searchers, Allison, and Tom Boris)

This is hard, but I think I'm gonna say Searchers and Lost Ones. Back when BATIM Chapter 4 dropped, you know that part where that one Lost One goes "when can we go home" and then you open the door to see a room FULL OF THEM? Shivering and miserable? That broke me, I just kept whispering "I'm sorry" as we went through there. (Also Porter and Heidi are great, I hope we see them again someday.)

21. Whats the best ink demon variant?

BATDR, hands down. He is a much more intimidating monster, the voice gives me chills (thank you Sean), I can't get over his silly little hooves, he's great. Still love all the others though, they're good in their own ways.

22. The Better gloves? three lines or two dots?

I prefer the two dots for Bendy, but it doesn't really matter. Alice got infinitely cooler gloves, I'm sorry. X'''D

23. Did you prefer Wally being Boris, or Buddy being Boris?

I'm a Buddy Boris kind of gal. Buddy stole my heart in the books, and I love him a lot. That said, I think they both have merit, and I can appreciate fan content that explores both of these options. When the original game was in development, and Wally and Boris were the characters that were left, all the others we could make pretty reliable guesses about the fates on, so him being Boris was a process of elimination theory that people tried to justify with details like him knowing his way around the vent system. And it would have been so sad as a twist since his whole thing was "I'm outta here," him not getting out would be the unfortunate punchline. I get why it was popular, and like I said, I enjoy a number of fan works that use it. But I won't lie, it didn't ever feel like that was the canon for me, not enough information to back it up. I mean Buddy has a similar problem, but at least we know he's a Boris. Whether or not he's Henry's Boris friend is the inconclusive part. Regardless of canon, that's how I write him at least.

24. Did you like Joey being inky or the newer lore?

I'm not sure what this is asking, but I get the sense this has to do with the old theories about Joey being the Ink Demon vs. what we have now with Memory Joey and the human Joey being dead? I'm okay with it to be honest. Would I have liked Joey to be the big bad that also suffers as a monster for his crimes against his co-workers? Yes, that would be very satisfying. But I think in a lot of ways, his current lore can still be satisfying too. It's no secret that I have some mixed feelings about his slideshow presentation, but let's reiterate for anyone who doesn't know me, because I think it ties into this in an important way.

I struggle with the decision to change the lore for Henry and Allison, and it affects my feelings about Joey. Memory Joey is a great character, he's a Joey Drew that's trying to be a better person, and that's what I like about him. He's imperfect, because he's a Joey and Joey is far from perfect, he's going to make mistakes and botch things up, but he's trying. He cares about Audrey, he's trying to help her through the studio without overstepping the boundaries, because again, he's still figuring out this whole "being a better person" thing. And ultimately, that was what endeared me to him. You don't need to change the lore of the previous games to give Joey Drew a redemption arc. All we needed was Joey choosing to try and be better. It doesn't erase his sins and all the bad stuff he did along the way, it doesn't change how he treated people, it doesn't change the literal murder and chaos he caused, the lives he ruined. And it shouldn't. Redemption arcs aren't about a character being forgiven or given a pass, they're about a character choosing to be better regardless of how the world sees them, and that's what's SO POWERFUL about Memory Joey! Joey Drew in life was so concerned with how the world saw him at several stages, so much time is spent being stuck in the past, despite his insistence that he doesn't want to think about the past. And finally we have an iteration of him that has tried to move past what he was before, and I am SO PROUD OF HIM!

That was all we needed, we did not need Henry and Allison being clones to soften his crimes. That does not help with Joey's redemption arc, in some ways it kind of cheapens it for me. Instead it has caused more confusion on whether or not ink creatures require a soul, lessens the horror of the original BATIM for Henry's characterization, brings about SEVERAL questions about who is and isn't a clone now (looking at you Tom), and just like, it's been really weird when it comes to Joey's murder and victim count. Like, the guy has been responsible for multiple deaths in BATIM and the books, why are we deciding now that these two aren't part of that? Also the one note about the ink children that came before Audrey, that is also a can of worms and I'm very exhausted thinking about it.

Overall, I like Joey as he is now. As stated before, I think Fade to Black has some of the best Joey writing in the entire series (as does TIOL, even if it was a bit of a slog to get through). I like Memory Joey a lot, I mean I wouldn't have made a doll of him if I didn't. X'''D He's alright.

Thank you for these wonderful questions! You guys, if you made it to the end and wanna go engage with the original, here's the link one more time, just so you don't have to scroll to the top. XD Have fun.

[noeou]

can u elaborate more about what you feel of twst setting as a school?? i'd like to know why it makes u feel like that!

okay, disclaimer this is mainly my opinion cause im very picky for no good reason. this isn’t hate or anything, by the way.

one.) personalities. yes, i do blame personalities on setting, now this isn’t necessarily bout the nrc itself but the backgrounds of the characters.

the queen of hearts is not an exception to ‘we’re all mad here.’ i don’t think riddle should be as strict as he is, well actually, i think he is the right amount of strict but maybe he could be more insane?? not like a psycho, but yes psycho. i personally think that riddle would be much calmer and smiley, in a scarier way. he wouldn’t turn as red unless he’s upset, when flustered it’ll be a different kind of blushing. he probably won’t be easy to fluster, cause i don’t think he’d take compliments seriously. most he’d received were either mocking or forced, not really genuine. this has to do with my headcanon that the qoh killed her last lovers because of their ‘insincerity’ towards her, considering she’s mad i doubt she’s easy to genuinely love.

i haven’t watched the lion king, but i don’t think scar is actually asleep all the time. i know lions sleep a lot, but that’s because they already have everything. the ladies that bring food, shelter so forth. you could say leona has the same thing, but he doesn’t have the people’s respect. his brother has everything, if he’s like scar that should be something he wants. he wouldn’t sleep all the time, but plotting on how to get the one thing he doesn’t have.

hades sure as hell wasn’t shy in the slightest. he picked up persephone at a party and brought her home and kept her?? i’m not saying idia has to be a carbon copy, but i think (as heir to styx) he can survive without his little brother at his beck and call. if you want to look at the disney ver. HADES TOOK A GIRLS SOUL AND HAD HER SEDUCE A GOD SO HE COULD TAKE OVER THE HEAVENS!! bffr, idia aint shit.

i can go on in another post, these are three dorm leaders and things that stood out the most to me.

two.) it’s hard to see the characters that aren’t in the same dorm interact with each other. i know it happens in game but i just can’t picture anything other than it.

in the nrc, it feels as though everyone is competing with everyone. this probably is true to an extent actually, but in my mind it messes with the flow of dialogue. no one agrees with people out of their dorm (except maybe 1st years) and there is just constant bickering.

when writing im often forced to consider dynamics like this, which is near impossible if no one gets along! no new faces can show up, no new dynamics can be made... maybe im just being overdramatic.

three.) there's nothing to know about other character's backstories.

I LITERALLY COULD CARE LESS ABOUT LEONA RN TELL ME ABT RUGGIE!! each chapter, the dorm leader is the villain (jamil exception) so we only get to know about them. hate to say this, but that's boring asl.

we never get to a deep dive in ace or deuce or characters like that unless it's an event or something. new people won't be ble to learn their lore in the actual story (where it should be or at least in their cards, cause i can understand the story is already v long)

i hate having to look at the wiki for sprinkles of info about characters we talk to once or twice but do nothing for the plot (ehem, jack, you forgot him too huh.)

i could probably go on, but this already took way too long... sorry nonnie for making you wait months D:

[womanofwords]

STEM Kids Shenanigans (Chapter 3)

Chapter 3: Change

Dante Rhodes had a routine: he woke up early, took a shower, got dressed, woke up his twin little brothers (George and Logan) before they went to school and made himself breakfast while also packing himself a decent lunch. By the time he had started eating, he could already hear the sound of two sets of footsteps wearily making it to the bathroom and one set of footsteps coming downstairs. Those were his mother’s.

“Good to know one of my kids is up and at ’em,” she sleepily joked, as he took a bite out of the chocolatey cereal his brothers craved.

“I don’t want to miss the bus,” Dante pointed out.

“Don’t you still need to pack your stuff?”

“Did it the night before. Fail to prepare and you prepare to fail.” He took another bite of his cereal to drive his point home.

“That’s my clever, organized boy.” She played with his braids and sighed. “Now, I just have to get my other boys downstairs so they don’t end up sleeping through school.” She stomped off, and Dante shovelled more cereal into his mouth before they saw and threw a fit.

He got out of the house at 7:00 (the same time he always did) and was at the bus stop by 7:10. The bus arrived anywhere from 7:15 to 7:20, and ended up at his school around 7:45. From there, it was a leisurely walk to his registration room and he was in his seat by 7:50, content to read and/or catch up on missed homework until his teacher got in. The silence was nice.

But then people came and ruined it.

His other classmates trickled in one by one, robbing Dante of his silence and bringing noise with them. Eventually, his form teacher and their year group leader, Mrs Winters, came in, going through the motions of the register and announcements the way she always did. But with a vital difference.

“Dante, I have something to tell you,” she said. “You’ll be moving registration groups.”

“What?” Dante spluttered.

“A few students have left, and numbers have to be kept equal. You will be moved to Mr Oluwatola’s class, along with a few others. You might recognize them.” She smiled to reassure him . . . or was that a knowing smile? Like she knew something he didn't? He couldn’t always tell with people. “You will report there for afternoon registration.”

This was bad. This was really bad. He’d never heard of Mr Oluwatola, much less knew where his room was. This was going to completely throw off the perfectly good routine he had, and for what?

Hopefully, nothing else had been messed with.

(PAUSE)

Dante ate the same lunch every day in the same corner of the lunch room. Cheese sandwich with apple juice and a Kit-Kat. The same lunch he always had. He was ignored while he ate and that was the way he liked it. Once he was done, he went to STEM club.

Angelo and Yujin were there, but not Layla. “Dante, good to see you!” Angelo waved him over, and he took the seat closest to the door.

“Hi, Angelo and Yujin,” Dante greeted. “Where’s Layla?”

“She’s praying. She’ll be here in a minute,” Angelo replied.

Dante thought before he spoke. “We should wait for her. Discussing things will be better with her opinion in it.”

“But until then, since Yujin is new, let’s catch her up on the lore and general backstory of Melanie Sainsbury, AKA Snitch Sainsbury.” Angelo laughed and scratched the back of his head.

“Who called her Snitch Sainsbury?” Yujin asked.

“I don’t know. Someone said it one day and it stuck,” Dante said, playing with his hair. “And it fits like a glove.”

“She got a prefect badge and decided she was a police officer,” Angelo replied. “And she is a stickler for the rules.”

“Real stickler. She once gave me a lunchtime detention for defiantly speed-walking and insubordination.”

Yujin spluttered with laughter. “Defiant speed walking? How does someone defiantly speed-walk?”

“She yelled at someone else for running in the corridors, so I slowed down around her so she wouldn’t yell,” Dante recalled. “She then accused me of defiantly speed-walking and gave me a lunchtime detention.”

“She seems mean,” Yujin replied.

“She is mean! The moment she got that badge, she was on a power trip to end all power trips!” Angelo pinched the bridge of his nose. “She’s the teacher’s pet from hell.”

“Hi, guys! What did I miss?” Layla asked.

“Melanie’s the teacher's pet from hell,” Yujin reported.

“Ah, so nothing's changed.” Layla sat down. “So, I guess we should run at least one experiment to show that we’re doing actual science stuff. We suggested the human body, right?”

“Right!” Dante said. “For example, the different responses to touch. We can collect data from a plain human hand, a gloved human hand, a plain robot hand and-”

“AHA!” Melanie yelled, bursting in. The four STEM students yelped with terror. “I’ve caught you! Bringing in robots to school!”

“What?” Angelo asked.

“I heard everything! Using robots to test human reactions to touch!” Melanie looked disgusted yet smugly pleased. “You’re coming with me to get expelled!”

“What?” Yujin asked, tears welling up. Melanie ignored her and dragged them to the nearest teacher.

“Sir, I have the troublemakers right here!” she said.

The teacher paused. “Excuse me?”

Melanie pressed on. “These students were going to create robots and use them to exploit a human’s nervous system!”

“That was hypothetical!” Layla snapped. “We’re part of the new STEM club, and we were discussing the possibilities of comparing the reaction to the touch of a robot hand versus a human hand. I don’t know why Melanie burst in!”

“I know your kind, you know. Smart kids that are too smart for their own good and think they’re above everyone else!” Melanie shoved a finger into Dante’s face, and Dante couldn’t help but notice that her fingernails were dirty. There was probably a saying about not pointing fingers when your fingers were unclean, but he didn’t remember all of it right now. “They’re clearly all evil geniuses. Expel them!”

“Kids, do you have actual robots in school?” the teacher asked.

“No, sir,” they chorused. That appeared to satisfy the teacher, who turned to Melanie with a sigh.

“They did nothing wrong, Melanie,” he told the prefect. “In fact, if these students managed to make a robotic hand during school hours, it would be incredible for the school's reputation.”

“What?” Melanie shrieked. Dante covered his ears and groaned.

“Everything is so loud,” he groaned. “Melanie, why do you always have to be so loud?”

"I'm not loud!" Melanie yelled.

“Melanie, step back or I will be forced to give you detention,” the teacher ordered. Melanie shot a hateful look at the four, but did as she was told.

“Can we go now, sir?” Angelo asked. The teacher nodded, and Angelo took Dante away. Layla and Yujin followed. “Dude, are you OK?” he asked Dante.

“Noises are too loud. Everything is too loud. I want my headphones,” Dante muttered.

“Do noises always make you feel like this?” Yujin asked.

“Yeah. I’m autistic. I like having a routine, I like eating the same foods and I don’t like loud noise. And today, I found out that I’m being moved to a new tutor group with Mr Oluwatola, and I don’t know who that is! My whole routine is gone!”

“It’s going to be OK. We’ll help you. My tutor’s Mr Oluwatola. You're with me.”

“I got moved there, too,” Layla replied. Yujin nodded in the affirmative. Inexplicably, all of them were now in the same tutor group.

“You'll be there with me?” Dante said, smiling a little.

“Sure. Us STEM kids have to stick together. Besides, if we’re apart, Melanie will just pick us off one by one,” Angelo said.

And the four laughed.

(PAUSE)

Angelo led his STEM club members to their new registering room once the bell rang. “Good afternoon, new arrivals,” Mr Oluwatola said. Dante looked up at him. He looked kind.

“Hello, sir,” Dante said.

“Ah, you must be the new transfer students. Dante Rhodes, Yujin Moon and Layla Ismail?” The three nodded. “Come in, take a seat. I see you’ve met Mr Riva.”

“We met him in STEM club,” Dante, Yujin and Layla chorused. Mr Oluwatola raised an eyebrow, but made no comment.

“There’s a long row at the back. We can sit together there,” Angelo took their new seats, and Dante relaxed and smiled.

This was nice.

(PAUSE)

Dante walked out with Angelo, Layla and Yujin. Outside was full of noise, and it made him wince. Everywhere was too loud, and his mother wondered why he never went out. “Mirella!” Angelo yelled, making him jump.

“Some fair warning next time, please!” Dante groaned. A little girl in a pink dress with blond curls rushed over to Angelo. She looked like she was four.

“Angie, Angie!” she giggled, and Angelo laughed as he picked her up.

“Hey guys, this is my sister, Mirella,” Angelo introduced. “Mirella, this is Dante, this is Layla and this is Yujin.”

“Pretty scarf!” Mirella giggled, pointing at Layla.

“Yes, it’s pretty. It’s called a hijab,” Layla told her.

“Pretty hair!” she giggled, pointing at Dante.

“Oh, you like the braids, huh?” Dante teased, shaking his head so the braids would whip around. Mirella laughed.

“Your sister is adorable, Angelo!” Yujin gushed. “Hi, Mirella!” Mirella waved at her, and she squealed and hid her face behind her hands.

“She’s going to really like you guys,” Angelo said, walking away. Dante smiled as he walked away with her.

“DANTE!” two voices screamed, and he groaned.

His own family had come to pick him up.

George and Logan were running towards him, and he wanted to freak out. This was so embarrassing. “Hey, nerd brother,” George greeted.

“Are these your girlfriends? Two is a bit much, no?” Logan asked.

“Shut up! They’re my friends from STEM club!” Dante snapped.

“So they’re nerds, too. Never mind,” Logan sighed. Yujin giggled.

“Dante, your younger brothers are adorable!” she squealed. “They’re like men, but smaller!” The twins drooped, and Dante laughed.

“Yes, they are, aren't they?” Dante laughed as he steered his brothers away. “See you in registration!”

“You just let her talk to us like that?” George snapped. “That was embarrassing!”

“You were embarrassing me!” Dante hissed.

“OK, OK, we’re sorry,” Logan apologized. “We shouldn’t have assumed that you could get a girlfriend.” The twins laughed and broke away from their older brother, seeking refuge from him via their mother.

“George, Logan, stop messing with the kids from Dante’s school before one of them punch you in the mouth,” she scolded. “Dante, how was school?”

“The bad news is that some other kids left, so I got moved to a different tutor group to keep everything balanced,” Dante groaned.

“Oh, I’m sorry, honey,” his mother said. “Is there any good news?”

Dante grinned. “I already have friends there.”

To read the other parts of this fic, see Masterlist.

[quinloki]

Hi hi! If the One Piece self ship rambling is open, I would love to throw my hat (haha straw hat) into the ring! I recently got into the show (and yes I am making my slow journey across 1000 episodes) and have been falling in love with it quickly. And uh… I may have fallen for a certain blonde pirate cook. As I like to put it. I am currently Sanji for Sanji haha! I just don’t know! The way he genuinely can be a kind and badass dude but also be hilarious has my heart. Not to mention, someone mentioned in the anime that he first fell for Nami upon seeing her being silly with her friends. Not prim and proper nor stellar. Just herself. And I just… I NEED THAT!

This led to me creating a sona for One Piece! Since I’m still working through the show, my sona lore (I tend to treat them like OCs but based off of me and my own growth throughout the years alongside other self indulgent stuff like “mmm… I’mma be a pirate”) is still up in the air. And I probably won’t talk about all the lore here since gosh it would probably be… way longer then I’d like to admit… I made a species for this (specifically an One Piece version of selkies cause I discovered One Piece did nothing with selkies yet and upon discovering Sanji had a thing for mermaids, my brain went “hmm… seal mermaids”), I just gosh I’ve been enjoying this show so much and creating this sona. So far she is a member of the Strawhat Pirates, having initially joined to get passage to her home island due to being kidnapped from it by pirates and being utterly lost only to find family in the crew and become their chronicler, recording their adventures alongside any important information they should keep in mind while sailing such as supplies and current plans. I think so far my favorite thing for planning her has been designing her cause I decided to have her face initially covered for backstory reasons so she looks intimidating only to be a crybaby failgirl who is quickly charmed by Sanji but is too nervous and caught off guard by these feelings to say anything cause expectation subversion. And I don’t know, I’m such a sucker for the trope where the hopeless flirt actually gets a win without knowing it cause the other person is struggling to convey it. And so I’m excited to explore the duo that is the “looks like she could kill you, is actually a cinnamon roll” mess and this malewife cook I adore who simp for each other

And yeah! Thanks for providing this opportunity and I hope you enjoyed the rambling! And consider me a follower of this blog since you seem epic!

\o/ I love it!! And welcome to the fandom! I hope your experience is as great as mine has been!

I've fell in with really solid people and I cannot actually hype them up enough to be honest. If you do come across someone cranky, just block 'em and more on honestly - it's a huge fandom so there's all types wandering around.

Sanji's a good choice! He's got a heart of gold as far as I'm concerned. I have plans for a multi-chapter fic for him soon ^_^ (soon being 2024 at this point, but still). He's not one of my mains, but only because he's a little too much for me xD

I love the addition of a Selkie and everything that entails. It is a solid set up for a really good romance between your OC and Sanji =3 And you can adjust it as you want in the One Piece world - have fun with it \o/

I hope your story develops, and you feel compelled to write it down, even if you don't share it! \o/ May all your words and arts for it be just as you want them. <3