#i'd love to hear more stuff like this

[stuff-diary]

Just here to say I love Nmixx's new album, especially Run For Roses.

[fuck-john-calvin]

Team give lyfrassir edda tentacles. Not in a horny way. I mean, sure if that's your thing, but that's not what the point of this post is. the rainbowed hair, blood, and eyes are cool and all but I need something a little less pretty bifrost glow-up and a little more I-got-turned-into-an-eldritch-monstrosity-and-can't-go-out-in-public-anymore.

Not full on monster level (though bonus points if they have a barely even human-esque form when they're angry or using their powers). I want them to still be decipherably humanoid, or recognizable by someone who'd met them before all this. but something that could conceivably be achieved by a cosplay is not enough for my hp Lovecraft body horror needs. my ideal post-tbi lyf design has become the subject of several drastic urban legends simply by walking around the street and not interacting with anyone.

so yeah. give the fricker tentacles that don't go away and are a nuisance to find clothes to wear with. make Marius find them pretty even when the way they've been changed isn't conventionally attractive. Please reblog with any personal hcs you have about their cosmic horror appearance that are a bit more screwed up than the norm, lyf edda is my barbie and I like dressing them up in nuclear chaos lmao

[skeletalheartattack]

Subtitles below the keep reading:

Hey you, shut your mouth and look at my paw! DON'T FORGET!! [Incomprehensible sped up gibberish] This... Journey... Money... Loads of coins. [Incomprehensible sped up gibberish] What-about-her? What-about-her? ... What-about-her? 'She still like me? [Quiet but mostly incomprehensible gibberish about subtitles] O P S O P N O-1 1. Here's the spell: Love the mermaid, for sure! The mermaid is HAPPY! Okay! It's pretty normal for a fish, right? Guuuyyyssss, beeeee caaarefuuulll wiiiiith theeee GIIIIIRRRRLSSS!!! [Incomprehensible] Oh! Silly! Oh yes! Lamb chop boy! [Incomprehensible] [Very quietly, while white noise is playing over it] Goood eevening, aand weeelcome too the shoooowww... [In the background] Ohhh, mooney!

[seventh-district]

Sam: "Look at me. Hey- look at me a second. I know. I know you're tough. I know how strong you are. You have every right to be proud of that. But being able to handle somethin' doesn't mean you should have to. Least of all when I'm right here trying to help. Please let me help. If not for you then for me, because I don't like knowin' you're hurtin', especially when there's somethin' I can do about it."

Me, shaking my head, fighting back literal tears: "B-but it's gonna give you another headache!"

[rmbunnie]

Red Hood Characterization

This is really long so I'm putting a cut here, I've been thinking about Jason Todd's character motivations and the question of whether or not his actions are based in a Moral Code (I don't think so, not to say he's without any morality) and I talk about that in more depth here.

I saw someone say on here that Titans: Beast World: Gotham City was some of the best Jason Todd internal writing they'd seen in a while, and I've been a Red Hood fan for 8 years or so now? pretty much since I read comics for the first time, so I went and checked out and I thought it was good! The way the person I saw talking about it as if it was rare and unusual made me wonder though, because as well-written as i thought his stances on crime were, there wasn't really anything in it that went against the way I conceptualize Jason?

This kinda plays into a larger question I've been thinking about for a while with Jason though, which is that, do people think that the killing is part of a fundamental worldview that motivates him a la batman, and that worldview is the reason he does the things he does?? Because 8 years ago i was a middle schooler engaging with fiction on the level that a middle schooler does, so I simply did not put much thought into it beyond "poor guy :(" but ever since I actually started trying to understand consistent characterization, I don't really see Jason as someone who's motivated by a moral code in his actions the way batman or superman is!

tbh my personal read is that he's a very socially-motivated guy, his actions from resurrection to his Joker-Batman ultimatum in utrh always seemed to me like every choice made leading up to his identity reveal was either a. to give him the leverage and skill necessary to pull off his identity reveal successfully, or b. to twist the knife that little bit more when he does let Bruce find out who he is. Like iirc there's a Judd Winick tweet like "yeah tldr he chose Red Hood as his identity because it's the lowest blow he could think of." And I think that's awesome, I think character motivations rooted so deeply in character's relationships and emotions are really fun to read! I also think it's where the stagnation/flatness of his character comes from in certain comics, because if his main motivation is one event in one relationship that passes, and he is not particularly attached to anything in his life or the world by the time that comes to pass, it's a little harder to come up with a direction to go with the character after that, because there isn't much of a direction that aligns with something the character would reasonably want? But I do think solving this by saying "all of the morally-off emotionally driven cruelty he did on his way to spite Batman was actually reflective of his own version of Batman's stance that's exactly the same except he thinks it's GOOD to kill people" isn't ideal. To be fully honest, it seems to me like he never particularly cared one way or the other about killing people to "clean Gotham of crime," he just did everything he could to get the power necessary to pull off his personal plans, and took out any particularly heinous people he encountered along the way (like in Lost Days.) Not to say I think the fact he killed people keeps him up at night anymore than everything else in his life events, I just never really thought he was out there wholeheartedly kneecapping some dude selling weed or random guy robbing a tv store for justice.

Looping wayyy back to my question, Is this (^) contradictory to the way he's written/the overall average perception of the character? Because like I enjoyed his writing in Beast World i have zero significant issue with anything there, I just didn't believe it would be a hot take, like yeah, that is Jason. It's been a while since I've read utrh and lost days, but I don't think my takeaway directly contradicts either of those too bad iirc. Idk all this to say I think Jason killing and being alright with killing is an obvious and objective fact, but i guess i've always seen it as more of a practical tactic than a moral belief, and I think taking the actions made during the lowest points of a character's life where he is obsessively focused on this ONEEEE thing and trying to apply it as a Motivating Stance to everything he's done after that, doesn't really follow logically for me.

[laugtherhyena]

In a dra/sdra2 zombie apocalypse au, who dies/gets infected first, who was the one who spread it all, and who are the modt lilely to survive? (All on your opibion)

Well someone has been watching those infection Aus going around huh? I've been having a blast watching those but pulling the strings on who does what is a litte harder.

First off, here's how I'm going with the virus:

-Infection spreads only through bites, afterwards there are 4 stages the person goes through in the zombification.

-Stage 1: Starting stage after the person is bitten, they're still acting fine since the infection is just starting to settle in and hasn't started spreading much further from where the bite is. it's the only stage in which amputation can stop the virus from spreading, tho this needs to be done as quickly as possible after the bite.

-Stage 2: Virus is already running through the person's blood system and become very tired as their muscles begin to ache, they develop eyebags under their eyes and their skin starts becoming pale with a slightly greenish hue. This is the first stage in with the infected can spread the virus to another person, it's also where they start feeling hungrier than usual.

-Stage 3: The hunger is starting to become unbearable as the person's body begins rejecting most types of food, they can't sleep and now their skin has gotten greener with an itchy sensation all over. This is where the person's sanity really goes downhill and the decay of the body begins, all the scratching leaves open wounds that only get worse as the infection progresses.

-Stage 4: Final stage, by now the persons mind is completely gone and they're just mindlessly wandering around and trying to eat people to quench their hunger. They're the most aggressive in this stage, however it doesn't take much longer until the decay makes their bodies fall appart completely and the zombie dies of "natural causes" per say.

Anyways, this got really long so I'm putting it under the cut. Taking their chronological ages for this btw (Aka: Dra cast being younger than most of the Sdra2 people)

-Utsuro and Akane:

Utsuro was the patient zero of the infection, spreading the zombie virus as a way to throw the world in despair while remaining fine as his devine luck made him asymptomatic. Roaming around the desolately city watching the chaos unfold, always accompanied by his loyal servant; Akane Taira, who is by now a stage 3 zombie whose devine luck slows down the spread of her infection significantly and leads to her retaining most of her sanity.

She strives to be the perfect servant for her master, carrying out his orders and acting as a "bodyguard" of sorts. Sometimes she wonders if her former classmates manages to escape safely, other times she wishes to see them as decaying zombies.

-Since I'm talking about the luck people here's Nikei, Hajime, Emma and Iroha:

Their devine luck is steadily running out, looking for Utsuro is no longer an option with all these zombies around. The voids stick together in hopes that the remainder of their luck acts in unison and gives them a better shot at surviving this mess.

As their leader, Nikkei is always trying to think of safer ways to traverse the city and places for them to get supplies or steal steal from other survivor. He's stressed pretty much all of the time but tries to control his emotions to not end up lashing out at his friends, he doesn't always succeed. Hajime is the closest they have to a doctor due to his knowledge in health while Emma tries to get keep the group's morale so that they don't all go insane, not an easy task when her own sanity is starting to go down the drain.

They lost Iroha pretty early on, she was very scared, jumpy and paranoid, which led to her lashing out at Nikkei and the others out of frustration (sorta like she does in the void theater segment) then storming off where she was attacked and killed by a hoard of zombies. The remaining 3 voids swear to stick together and survive no matter what.

-Mikado and Kokoro:

Mikado was getting in contact with Kokoro for his future plans and when the zombie outbreak happened, he stayed by her side since they were pretty much stuck inside her laboratory for a while because of all the zombies outside.

Kokoro is scary smart, however, curiosity surely gets the best out of her. So she wants to study the zombies to see how they function, how the infection spreads and affects the body, maybe even try to find a cure in the way. She has chemical components, protective suits and a lot of things to keep herself safe, and since Mikado is stuck with her she makes him work for her so she shares these supplies with him.

So for a while all he had to do was lure zombies into this designated containment area and collect samples from them for Kokoro to study, while also bringing some dead ones in too from time to time so she can dissect and study them as well. But nothing good lasts forever, Mikado was bitten by a zombie he thought had died while collecting a blood sample, Kokoro takes this as an opportunity to start testing possible cures on him.

She was able to develop a solution that keeps his infection from spreading beyond stage 2 (the one Mikado had reached by the time she first tested this solution on him), but there's been no progress on one capable of reversing the effects of the virus so far. Probably because Kokoro's lab is starting to lack a few things by now, not that this will stop her from continuing her research tho, if someone's gonna find a cure it's probably her.

Anyways, back to the Dra cast. This whole apocalypse starts in a similar way to how the cast gets captured in canon, Kisaragi brings them to the foundation's place without knowing Utsuro and Akane (who is at early stage 2 now) are the causes of this mess. The two of them let a bunch of zombies in and reveal themselves as despairs, at this point the class ends up getting divided as they lose track of where the others are.

-Group 1; Yamato, Mikako, Teruya, Satsuki, Haruhiko: It was a hard decision but seing as zombies were everywhere around the facility, they couldn't risk staying for very long to try finding the others. Yamato directed the people with him alongside several other foundation members that hadn't gotten bit towards some helicopters where they left the island and headed towards a secret underground facility/bunker.

So they're safe, but obviously worried about the others. Yamato manages to contact Tsurugi via some kind of communication device early on and hearing that he's got a lot of their clasmates still with him makes them all a little relieved, Yamato sends the coordinates of the bunker to him so that Tsurugi can bring him and the others there safely, he also tent to talk him whenever he has the time to make sure everything is going well and even send supplies to their location when needed.

Because i imagine Yamato would absolutely be overworked on this, trying to keep the people at the bunker safe and sane while getting news from their friends still outside while ALSO trying to find a cure himself. Which is a lot harder to when he is very unwilling to bring infected into the bunker to make tests as in depth as Kokoro is doing. His are done by shooting zombies around the area on the surface with a dart that has one of his solutions and a microchip onto it, he keeps track on these zombies to see if it does anything. Not very precise, but the safety of the people in the facility is more important to him than that.

Mikako also helps with it from time to time but most of what she does is keep check of the people in the bunker and make sure they're ok, while also being in charge of checking and disinfecting anyone that's gonna enter the facility and coordinating ocasional missions to go outside and gather more suplies. Where are these supplies coming from? Otori mart of course! Hence why Teruya also helps with these missions by telling them which stores will have certain itens and where to find them.

As for Satsuki and Haru, I don't think they're doing much, sorta just trying to settle in the facility and reassuring the other people there that they're safe down there. I like to think Satsuki maybe pulls up some performances to boost morale of the people at the facility and make them smile even if just a little.

After getting separated from Yamato and the others, Tsurugi took the lead in guiding his classmates to safety after deciding that they should head down and try to leave the island via boat, but things don't go so smoothly as the group is followed by a hoard of zombies. Kakeru, Mitch and Kinji stay behind to hold back the zombies while the others reach the boat, Maki wanted to stay behind with them as well but Higa insisted that she should go with the others to protect them.

-Group 2; Tsurugi, Kiyoka, Ayame, Kanata, Kizuna:

The remaining members of class 79 stick together as they traverse through the city, making contact with Yamato via Kinjo's two way radio and getting the coordinates for their location. Tsurugi effectively becomes the leader of the group, though his weird morals tend to make him pretty cold and rather unsympathetic during the apocalypse, prioritizing their survival above all else while being somewhat paranoid about the infection and possible traitors like Utsuro and Akane.

Back in the foundation's island Ayame had gotten bit by Taira while in denial that she could have helped cause this, she tried to get Akane to "snap out of it" and return to her senses, but it didn't work out. Seeing as Ayame had gotten infected Tsurugi wanted to put her down to avoid more casualties, which was not taken well by pretty much everyone else in their group, except for Rei who begrudgingly took his side she figured keeping Ayame with them would be risky.

Thankfully, Kanata stepped in and begged to be allowed to try doing something to help Ayame and if there was nothing she could do to save her she would let him go ahead and kill her. They headed towards an abandoned hospital where Kanata performed mant tests on Ayame and ultimately decided to amputate her armnin an attempt to stop tye infection from spreading. She monitored her closely for tge next few days and was overjoyed when she didn't show any signs of infection afterwards.

Because Kizuna is not doing well either, a few weeks into the apocalypse she became absolutely terrified of zombies and the virus which led to her becoming extremely paranoid and scared that she could get it and turn into one. She was never bit, but her anxiety and paranoia makes her afraid that maybe she has gotten it somehow, she constantly asks Kanata to do check-ups on her and asks if what she's feeling is normal or if she's turning into a zombie.

Ayame is.. not doing very well. Her mental health has gotten pretty bad after learning the truth about Akane, she blames herself for not having been able to "see her true colors" despite being so close to her and is generally really hurt over her betrayal of them since she had feelings for her.

Currently she doesn't talk much, doesn't eat much and doesn't do much, which bothers Kinjo since she could have been very helpful due to her talent if she had the strength to be a more active member of their group. Kanata tries to help her mental health improve even if that's beyond her field of knowledge, she's essential always near her and Kizuna to keep an eye on them and reasure them that they're gonna make it to the bunker.

She pretty much doesn't sleep anymore, something Kinjo uses to the group's advantage and tends to leave her in charge of looking over them while they sleep for the night, if she sees or hear anything strange she can wake him up and he'll know what to do from here on out.

With Kanata being their only medical professional and Ayame and Kizuna not being in the best state of mind, Kinjo and Kiyoka are the ones who do most of the work for the group. They scout areas they're about to head towards next (since their goal is to reach the foundation's underground facility, they're always on the move) to see if their safe and look for suplies and food. Maki is essentially his right hand woman and voice of reason a lot of the time, she also taught the other girls how to fire a gun, just in case whatever base they are currently staying in gets attacked while the her and Kinjo are out.

-Kakeru, Higa and Kinji:

While Kakeru and Mitch were killed by zombies back in the Kisaragi foundation's island, Kinji managed to free himself and reach the roadway, unfortunately he was infected in the process. Knowing that he would eventually lose his mind to tye virus, he decided to not go after the others from his class and instead dedicates the time he has left to giving a proper burial to the dead people and zombies he finds on the streets, praying that their souls are able to rest in peace.

Kinji's infection has reached mid stage 3, his memories are starting to become foggy, keeping his sanity while resisting the hunger is becoming harder and harder.

-Rei:

She stayed with Tsurugi's group for quite some time but eventually left after a huge argument with him and generally being fed up with having to deal with them. Having the coordinates to the foundation's bunker written down in a notepad, she decided to find it on her own, believing she could get there way faster without having to wait for a bunch of other people.

She was certain that her intelligence and problem solving abilities would be enough to get by, however, in these situations safety is in numbers. Rei had a close call in the city when she stumbled upon zombified versions if her parents, unable to bring herself to shoot them, she was attacked but luckily a group of survivors came to help her before the worst happened.

She stayed with them for the night, having her minor injuries treated by the father of one of her classmates. While she was offered a place in the group by their leader, Rei refused, adamantly sticking to her goal of making it to the bunker on her own.

She made it out of the city, but is starting to run out of supplies and ammo.

-Setsuka and her crew: Working as a detective for a good while before the apocalypse and having the devil's eye to help her, Setsuka is a master of stealth and doesn't have a hard time at all avoiding zombies by traversing through some safer routes. She set up a base in an abandoned warehouse and overtime managed to rescue a handful of people, these being Ryutaro, Midori, Keisuke, Minako and Yoruko.

Things were going as smoothly as they could be for a while until zombies broke into the warehouse and the crew had to leave in a hurry, Minako was killed in the process and Yoruko was bitten in the ankle, something she only took notice of late at night. When the others woke up the next day, she was nowhere to be found. Ironically, it was while the group looked for her that they met Hikaru, who could possibly have saved her from the infection the same way Kanata did to Ayame.

On a good note, now that they have a medical professional, Hikaru can take care of Midori and tell them what kind of medicine they should look for in this situation, the two of them tend to stay at their new base most of the time (set on the roof of a tall building, stairs barricade to prevent zombies from getting up. The group climbs down usinga rope whenever they need to leave) while Setsuka and the boys go around to gather food and suplies.

It was in one of these small missions that they met Rei and agreed to give her some of their food and a place to stay for the night in exchange for medical supplies. While she was asleep, Setsuka rummaged through her backpack and found the notepad with the coordinates for the underground facility. She used the devil's eye to record it and now there is a new group heading towards the bunker.

-Kanade and Hibiki:

Hibiki panicked and ententered her puppet stage early on into the apocalypse, Kanade found that delightful, now she has her sister all for herself and no facades to keep on at all since the world has gone to shit. Her focus is not on surviving or making to a safe shelter, she's just having a blast brutally murdering zombies all over the place and people too whenever she sees that they have something she wants or simply managed to get on her nerves.

Zombie or human, Kanade likes to sign her work, other survivor have learned to recognize corpses killed by her not only for the guresome ways in which they were left for display, but also for a music note symbol carved in their foreheads. Every once in a while she will be sent to eliminate people or specific trade groups that Syobai considers a threath to his business, in exchange, he allows her to take any weapons he wants from his stock and stay in his shelter if she desires.

The person Kanade talks with the most is Hibiki, which is more like talking to herself by now since she remains unemotional and unresponsive to anything but direct orders from her.. Or is she..?

Either ways, if one hears singing around the bloody city streets, it's better to run away immediately.

-Shinji and Yuki:

Shinji was on a business trip outside the city when the apocalypse started, he was attacked and his car was destroyed by zombies when he tried to come back there when the outbreak was in its peak. In the outskirts, he stumbled upon the place Akane and Utsuro had locked the real Yuki in. Took a while but he eventually managed to free him, the boy was scared and confused, it took a few days Shinji to explain things to him and for the reality of the situation to settle in his mind.

Although scared Yuki is determined to reunite with his mother, just how Shinji wants to find his wife and daughters. Together the two of them are making their way back to the city, with Shinji promising himself he'll do anything to protect the young boy, who is like a son to him by now.

-Syobai:

Being a broker during the apocalypse sure has its advantages! Since money is pretty much worthless now, Syobai makes a living by trading goods (weapons, clothes, medicine, shelter, drugs, whatever you want, he probably has it) by things of his interest, be it food, other suplies, information or even services from people. Though a handfuls survivors tend to avoid doing business with him, aware of the dangers that come with the deal.

Most of his goods were taken from other traffickers/criminal organizations after they were attacked and killed by zombies, so Syobai has a lot in hands to trade and lots of contacts he made during this mess to keep him up to date on the situation, always gotta be one step ahead of the curve you know.

-Yuri: Stage 2 infected, he achived his dream of sacrificing himself to save a woman!.. Now what? His health is deteriorating fast.

[r0semultiverse]

What We Do in the Land of Ooo

🧛‍♂️ What We Do in the Shadows x Adventure Time crossover AU! ⚔

Finn Mertens in place of Guillermo de la Cruz

Marceline Abadeer in place of Nadja of Antipaxos

Bonnibel Bubblegum in place of Laszlo Cravensworth

Jake the dog in place of Colin Robinson

Vampire King in place of Nandor The Relentless

Betty Grof in place of The Guide

The Lich in place of Baron Afanas

Peppermint Butler in place of Wallace the Necromacer

Simon Petrikov in place of Derek

BMO in place of Nadja Doll (her old consciousness uploaded or something was an idea I had)

Marshall Lee & Gary Gumball/Prince in place of Sean & Charmaine

[betweenlands]

i am so deeply emotional about sbk right now. how the hell does a server this good exist

[waxflowerwoes]

obviously chandrilan fashion is influenced by traditional east asian garments (the first time i was watched andor i was thinking about how much it reminded me of korean hanbok but that bias is probably indicative of how i grew up near a koreatown) and i saw someone somewhere say that it's odd that the shirts are crossed right over left (the way to dress a dead person) instead of the traditional left over right

now this could be a cultural oversight on the part of the costume designers. it wouldn't be the first time hollywood (or even star wars) appropriated an aesthetic they didn't understand. but with the line "play it how you want. but i'm going to assume i'm already dead," also existing in this show, maybe it's not.

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Valicer In The Dark -- More Score & Story Ideas!

Because, uh, I have a lot of ideas for stuff I want to do in this verse, and the original list from a year ago has expanded quite a fair bit:

-->While I haven't gotten all of my stories into a proper timeline yet, I do have the first five sorted:

A) "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of" -- the story currently in progress, where the trio all meet, solve Victor's ghost problem and Ghost!Emily's Barkis problem, get wrongly accused of murder, run from the police (showing off their special starting scoundrel abilities along the way), and eventually end up in Elder Gutknecht's old place in Six Towers. This is sort of the "prologue" to the whole mess, putting all of them in the right position to start on a life of crime. XD

B) "A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded" -- yes, I did have Gale of Baldur's Gate III's line about how "a parasite shared is a parasite halved" when I came up with that title. XD As you might imagine, this is the trio first "unofficial" score, with them going to murder Bumby, because the fucker needs murdering. Of course, it's only after they kill him that they meet up with Smiler's parents and learn they were exonerated of the original "murder" by the Spirit Wardens. XD Still no regrets, though.

C) "The Van Dort Vacancy" -- came up with that title while looking at old Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark episode titles and being inspired by "The Cab-Con Caper's" alliteration. This story focuses on Alice and Smiler returning Victor to the Van Dort mansion...only to discover the Van Dorts hosting a party. Victor quickly learns that his parents never even considered the idea that he might be in danger when he vanished, only caring about the fact that Victoria Everglot married someone else (and is now due to wed Imperial Guardsman Christopher White after her first husband's death and disgrace) -- and after overhearing his mother declare "what ghost would marry our Victor?" decides fuck them, he's taking his stuff, stealing what money he can, and going to live with Alice and Smiler in Six Towers. Features special guests Barnaby "The Butcher" Fortescue III and Kasimir Jones from Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark, because it tickled me to imagine them doing a score to steal some of the Van Dorts' money at the same time -- only for Victor to catch on to what they're doing when he meets Barnaby at the party and go "if you wait five minutes for me to get my things, I will open the safe for you and give you a good chunk of the money inside." XD

D) The currently-untitled story detailing the gang's first "official" job as a crew, picked up when they go to dinner at the Ball & Socket Pub and Smiler overhears two workers from Coalridge discussing needing to get something back from their boss -- the "something" is a list of potential union representatives that the boss stole in order to call assassins on the people listed. The workers need it back to keep their nascent union safe. Notably, the score involves the workers saying they can't give the trio much in Coin, but they'll do what they can -- and then one of them jokingly saying, "Unless you want to be paid in furniture."

Cue Victor, Alice, and Smiler, who currently live in Elder Gutknecht's-not-exactly-comfortable house, going "what kind of furniture?" XD (A couch and a proper dining table, specifically -- old furniture one of the workers was trying to shift after inheriting some stuff from a late relative.)

E) "Who You Gonna Call?" -- As you might guess from the Ghostbusters quote for a title, this story involves the gang busting some ghosts. XD Specifically, it involves Bonejangles -- here a Whisper who does entertainment work for the Ball & Socket on the side -- deciding to school Victor in the art of ghost-catching by taking him on a job to catch a few Echoes (non-sapient ghosts who continually do the same thing over and over again in a loop), with Alice and Smiler tagging along for moral support. However, as it turns out, one of those "Echoes" is actually a Specter (a sapient, feral ghost who attacks people and possesses them to feed on their life force) who was biding its time... I felt a little bad that none of the previous stories really had any Whisper-y stuff for Victor to do, and decided he needed a "day in the limelight" score -- as a bonus, this score is how he gets his ghost-hunting equipment for later!

-->I also have plans for two possible prequel stories -- one showcasing the three times Alice and Smiler talked before the events of "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of" (I have the first bit, Smiler giving Alice the money for lunch, actually written already), and one showcasing some of Smiler's life even before that (I have a rough draft of the scene where they wake up the "morning" after inventing Joy Serum and go "bwuh?" over their newly-glowing yellow eyes). Good for filling in gaps and writing more stuff from Smiler's POV!

-->I mentioned Victor wanting to make a community greenhouse very briefly in the very first post I made about the AU -- this has expanded into a whole little arc about him finding an abandoned conservatory while wandering Six Towers and the gang fixing it up into a place where they and the other residents can grow food. In order, the stories would cover:

1) Getting enough money to pay a glazier to fix all the broken window panes (or doing something for the glazier in trade)

2) Acquiring the initial plants (which involves a trip to Barrowcleft and probably doing a job for someone there in trade)

3) Victor researching ways to infuse butterflies and moths with electroplasm to create radiant energy insects to help the plants grow; my idea is that he eventually tries mixing it with some of Smiler's Joy Serum -- and gets REALLY BIG bright yellow glowing moths, to his and Smiler's delight and Alice's concern

4) And then, once the place is just about ready to "open to the public," Lord Rowan, the only lord who maintains a permanent residence in Six Towers, rocks up, claims the greenhouse is his, and demands an absolutely ASTRONOMICAL rent from the trio to use it. Fortunately he proves to be a man who likes games when Smiler asks to negotiate, and tells them if they can break into his house and get the deed to the land from the safe in his bedroom, it's theirs (the trio smartly get this written down and notarized by someone in Charterhall first; Rowan is PIIIIISSED when he realizes he'll have to honor the deal)

-->A related idea would be for the gang to encounter some of the people in Charterhall (the neighborhood mostly made up of one big university) who are working on an alternative power source to help replace leviathan blood (which is refined into the electroplasm that powers everything electric in the setting) and need a place to test it. The trio decides that the alternative energy group can try to get the streetlights back on in Six Towers, and there's a score all around helping them get there safely, and keeping Lord Rowan's nose out of it until they're done. Not sure what exactly it will entail yet, but I'm eager to find out!

-->As stated in previous posts, the gang eventually has to go after Dr. Kelman when he puts out a notice saying he wants the three captured so he can submit them to his special "social compliance therapy" (aka do horrific brain surgeries on them and/or Hollow them by ripping out their souls). This is how Victor and Alice learn Smiler's birth name, and the whole trip proves to be a rather dark look at Smiler's childhood pre-running away and joining the Advocates. In fact, I already have one specific scene in mind of Victor finding a photograph of a young Smiler and noting that their smile in the picture looks incredibly strained, as if they're desperately trying to see the bright side. Also, Miles Cedars is definitely going to show up, and possibly get to murder Kelman. Because I like giving him the chance to murder Kelman. :)

-->Speaking of Smiler angst, I also have in mind a story where, on a particularly chilly night in winter, Smiler, Victor, and Alice are wandering the streets together when Smiler somehow falls into one of the local canals. Victor and Alice fish them out as fast as possible, fortunately, but the rest of the story proves a race against time to get Smiler home and warmed before they succumb to hypothermia. Featuring half-naked cuddling when they learn that skin-to-skin contact can be an excellent way to warm a chilled person (fortunately this is after they get together as a polycule, so the partial nudity isn't as awkward as it could be)...and Smiler crying in front of Victor and Alice for the first time when they can't stop thinking about the fact that, if they'd been walking with their fellow Advocates, said Advocates would have believed them when they said they felt okay...and they probably would have died. :( It is a story of many feels, is what I am saying.

-->So, when does my OT3 actually become an OT3 in the actual stories? Shortly after the Kelman score, in a story entitled "And There Was Only One Bed" (a play on the fic trope, and the fact that the house only has one good bed -- at the time the story starts, the three are taking turns using it, with the other two sleeping on cots borrowed from The Advocates). The story involves Smiler (who has been trying to subtly push Victor and Alice together, having noticed they seem to like each other) finally revealing to Victor and Alice that they're a pretty accomplished hypnotist, and offering to use their skills to help Victor with a nasty bout of insomnia. Victor agrees, with Alice wanting to watch for her own peace of mind -- cue Smiler hypnotizing Victor the next time the three of them are going to bed...

And a deep-in-trance Victor asking to be held as he falls asleep. Prompting both Smiler and Alice to cuddle him...and fall asleep against him because neither wants to get up and possibly disturb him after he does drift off. Meaning when everyone wakes up the "morning" afterward, they're all really awkward -- Alice because she's like "wtf why did I find that hot;" Victor because he's like "oh no I liked that too much and I have to process the fact that I'm in love with both of them now;" Smiler because "damn it I think I just decreased total happiness in this household should have kept my stupid mouth shut." They do their best to push through and complete the latest job they have though (a random "steal something from this rich fucker's house" deal, it's not actually important), which ends up with them having to clamber up onto the roof at some point --

And then Victor nearly falls off said roof. Prompting both Alice and Smiler to nearly have a heart attack and have their feelings toward him thrown into STARK RELIEF. Meaning they all finally have a chat once they complete the job and get back home, which allows them to finally discover that a) they're all willing to get into a polycule and b) that they actually have quite compatible kinks. Story ends with Smiler delightedly returning one of the cots to their parents (Alice insisted on keeping one in case one of them does want or need to sleep alone) and the three of them regularly sharing the bed. :)

-->I also want to do at least one follow-up concerning them starting to play around with hypnosis, and Alice insisting she wants to do something that will help keep Victor Victor no matter what they do to his head -- cue her and Smiler coming up with a safety suggestion that involves Victor picturing the core of his personality as a glowing tree, and then having him encase it in unbreakable glass so his personality can shine out, but nothing can get in. :) It's just a sweet scene that's been rattling around in my head for a while, and I'd like to put it to virtual paper.

-->I mentioned a "Lord E.A. Bethesda" in my Duskwall Slang post a while back, as a guy who gets labeled with the very-dangerous-in-Duskwall title "Welcher" (someone who hires someone for a job, but then decides to try and kill them instead of pay them; people who do this generally end up dead themselves). How does he get saddled with this label? By hiring the Three Pillars to steal a golden beetle statue from a rival (Lord Bethesda is a bug collector, you see), plying them with a hefty reward if they pull it off (which he can afford as the "Gambling King" of Duskwall -- his fortune was built off of getting lots of people to pay him small amounts of money in hopes of great reward). They do indeed pull it off --

And Lord Bethesda happily orders them killed by his guards, forcing them to escape his house in Brightstone. However, Bethesda (who has done this before) employs Plan B and has his guards herd them toward his garden and through a gap in the lightning barrier around his home --

Before turning said barrier back ON and stranding them in the HEAVILY ghost-and-horror-riddled Deathlands just beyond (specifically, they're in the Lost District, a formerly rich neighborhood that was abandoned once the lightning barriers went up). This leads into the sequel story, where the trio have to find a way back into the city while navigating the horrors of the Deathlands...which results in them discovering that Alice's Wonderland Jabberwock, inspired by an illustrated poem she read as a child, is actually based on a REAL CREATURE. Which has the horrible eye beam and wants very much to kill them. (And which may have the voice of Christopher Lee because I might as well throw in the nod to Tim Burton's Wonderland -- Victor is VERY CONFUSED as to why it sounds like Pastor Galswells.) They manage to kill IT instead by strapping Alice's Vorpal Blade (now a real thing, Victor bought it for her as a present) to Victor's ghost-catching kit while Smiler whacks together a sort of motorized skateboard thing for them to ride on and then using the electroplasmically-charged Blade to slice the damn thing's unprotected belly open. Alice claims one of the eyes as a trophy, and shortly thereafter they're found by the Spirit Wardens, who look at the corpse and go "let's just get you back inside the barriers, shall we?" Cue the the trio tromping back to the Ball & Socket and telling the clientele about their experience...leading to Lampblack gang leader Bazso Baz declaring Bethesda a Welcher, and the guy soon afterward getting killed.

-->Not that Baz is actually a friend to the trio -- for another future story has the trio invited to one of his fancy parties, supposedly to recognize how rapidly they've made a name for themselves in the Duskwall underworld. The three go, figuring it's a good way to keep relations good with their fellow criminals -- but are quickly rather disgusted by the party itself, as it feels pretty much like any party Nell Van Dort would throw (overly ostentatious and making it clear he's only in it for the power). They resolve to get through the shindig and head home...

And then Baz reveals that the actual reason they were invited was because they've collected a variety of bounties on their heads (including a big one from the Van Dorts, specifying Alice and Smiler have to die but Victor be brought home alive, and a huge one from Lord Rowan, wanting them ALL dead) and the other criminals want to claim them. Cue the Three Pillars having to try and find a way to escape from the house as the other criminals hunt them. Fortunately for them, they have unexpected allies in Baz's staff, with one guy in particular having a sister and nephew in Six Towers whom they've helped a lot (probably both in general with the greenhouse, and specifically by helping the kid when he got sick once). They eventually manage to get out with the staff's help, and limp their way back to Six Towers...

Just in time to see Lord Rowan trying to make a big speech to the citizens about "how your heroes are dead" and blah blah blah. He is gobsmacked to see the trio still alive, leading to, of all people, Smiler strolling up to him and clocking him in the face. XD Gaining the Three Pillars a reputation as, frankly, unkillable...

Aaaand I should probably cut it there because this post is getting long enough. XD And I haven't even touched upon all the stories I have in mind that are based off of other properties I like! Guess that would be a good follow-up post to this one, huh? :p

[the-cpu-system]

bring back dumbass aus for stuff .. pls ..

borderlands but they're all neighbors and that's it . that's the thing. They all live in like the same city but there's different like streets and communities/districts and so there's like Hyperion Park that's this closed gate neighborhood and there's like Atlas Crest and then like. pandora is like the slums or something

borderlands city AU when guys when

[lovecolibri]

Anyway,

[medicinemane]

I don't know... horrible things happen all around the world and it's not a competition

Atrocities are committed against multiple groups in multiple parts of the world at the exact same moment, and none of them erase each other. They all matter, all the people in this world who are being brutalized matter. There shouldn't be any line you draw where one group doesn't actually matter as much as another

You're welcome to prioritize your energy towards helping one group or another, but what's not ok is invalidating or dismissing people who are actively being harmed

Same goes for trying to figure out which social group has things worst (and lets be honest, always using a US lens)

Like... maybe the important thing is to prop each other up and help everyone get on their own feet rather than trying to... pick fights about if physical disabilities or mental illness are less respected (I'm trying to pick a more absurd example but sadly I've seen exactly that argument happen before). Maybe it doesn't really matter and what matters is helping who we can when we can

I'm tired of it, I'm just fucking tired of it. Support people, champion them when the world is just brutalizing them, but you don't need to throw a single other person under the bus to do that

Which seems to be an absolutely impossible lesson for people to learn

[goo-p]

Idk if you meant fandom OCs or not, but I do love my guys... A poly triangle of a serial killer, an ex-military general/experimental monster, and a completely normal guy that likes violence too much. Atlas (31, he/him), Bhyram (60, he/him), and Williard (34, they/he) respectively. The series follows them navigating getting together while also managing so much trauma. Also they're dragons, which is fun. Not as toxic as it may appear! :)

Yoo I love it!! Already adore the vibe of their collective characters, I have such a weak spot for groups of misfits n the such, I'm glad these three have found each other. Love that Williard is the supposedly most 'normal' too

And when you say dragon, are we talking 'full' dragon or anthro type? 👀

[goldentigerfestival]

Yuri's dialogue (JP) is so fascinating to study, like... the repetitive use of certain words/phrases that others use sparingly but he uses constantly. the way it feels like his vocabulary is more expansive than what he uses, but he defaults to a "comfort" level of speech. the way it mixes in with his sort of "street talk" words and the sheer level of informality. the way his "street talk" phrasing is contrasted by the tone of his voice (on that note, people I know who also know JP are also very endeared by these aspects of him so I KNOW IT'S NOT JUST ME!!!).

'cause the thing is, he uses phrases that yeah, other people do use, but he uses a handful over and over and over (contrast to other characters' sparing use of repetition). it's actually... really refreshing? it sounds more relatable and less "video game/anime/JRPG/RPG" writing or something, idk. like closer to how a real person would speak.

I do my best in my translations not to make things sound too stiff across the board, but Yuri makes it so easy. it's why I'm so interested in translating all his lines in Vesperia, like... the actual, original tone for him with his original wording because it's smth Eng only players don't get to experience ('cause even if you listen with JP audio, if you don't know the language, ofc you're gonna miss out on context. it's nobody's fault for not knowing, just... they unfortunately miss out). the thing is, there are a lot of times when the lines in and of themselves are not contextually incorrect in the English ver (usually the situation for smaller scenes, because they altered the text outright for more important stuff which was the stuff that originally set me off, but there were also plenty of cases of just vocal tone shifting with the correct context that still gave off the wrong impression), but Yuri's tone is shifted away from the original in Eng even though it's completely and perfectly translatable.

I am by no means about to translate the entire game because let's face it, I really don't care that much for Vesperia on the whole. I'm kinda stuck with it because Yuri's there lo and behold I actually am WAY more engaged in his stories in Rays, Link and Asteria because it's an amazing character put into circumstances where he actually gets to shine and feels more alive, which Vesperia did not provide nearly as well with its very disjointed story. also, Tales gachas have banger stories that are arguably better than the mainline games, and they regularly make Yuri a very central character to the gachas. Crestoria was also about to do it until they pulled the plug on that game and I'm pretty confident something interesting has been lost to the world. also I just generally don't have the energy or motivation to do that, so... I'll only be focusing on Yuri's lines, especially because his stuff is where the bulk of the messing around was. he's just insanely fun to translate for and I love burying myself head first into his speech.

will I actually finish this project? dunno. will I get around to posting it? whatever I get done (so all of it if I complete it), and if I decide to call it quits then I'll post what I have at the time I decide that. will it take a long time? probably, but I can always mention stuff along the way...

[spinnysocks]

might redo my Wild West / RDR2 Outlanders au to be even darker in some parts after playing through The Horrors in the actual game... :3