#in theory i could actually sell it for it a lot

[gamebunny-advance]

Hm.

It's a weird feeling getting the secret/rare from a blind box when it's the only one out of all the possibilities that you didn't want.

[exopelagic]

I am baking cake at midnight and it is going to kill me <3

[inthegardensofourminds]

Just put away some winter clothes and got out some summer ones and I feel so demoralized.

[latenightreadingpdf]

Knock on the Door - Spencer Reid

₊‧⁺˖⋆ Masterlist ⋆˖⁺‧₊

Summary: In the midst of an intense investigation, Spencer and Derek bring you into protective custody after a disturbing discovery links you to their case. As you navigate the unexpected situation, Spencer’s calm presence offers reassurance, sparking an unexpected connection amid the chaos.

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆

The quiet street was a far cry from the usual high-stakes BAU scene, but the tension in the air made Spencer’s skin prickle with unease. He glanced at Derek, who was already preparing to knock on another door, exuding his usual calm confidence.

"This one could be a lead," Derek muttered, showing a slight glint of hope in his eyes as he raised his hand to knock. The case had been dragging on, and frustration was growing with each unanswered question.

When the door opened, Spencer noted the faint hint of confusion in your expression. Derek immediately flashed his badge, his tone respectful but firm. "Ma’am, I'm Agent Derek Morgan. This is my colleague, Dr. Spencer Reid. We’re with the FBI."

Your eyes darted between the two of them, registering the serious expressions they wore. "The FBI? What's going on?"

"Have you had any strangers come to your door recently trying to sell you something?"

A flicker of recognition passed over your face, and Spencer leaned in, catching the shift. "Actually, yes,” you said, brows furrowing. “A guy came by yesterday… He gave me his card.”

Spencer and Derek shared a look. "Do you still have that card?" Spencer asked, trying to keep the urgency out of his voice.

"Yeah, I think so. Let me grab it." You turned back into the house, leaving the door partially open, and returned a moment later with a card in hand. As Derek took it from you, he confirmed with a nod that it matched the cards left at the other crime scenes.

You looked between them, anxiety creeping into your voice. "What is going on? Who is this guy?"

Spencer’s voice softened, his gaze meeting yours directly. "We believe he's a dangerous criminal who may be responsible for several recent homicides. His method involves gaining entry to homes under false pretenses."

Your face paled as the weight of his words sank in. Derek placed a reassuring hand on your shoulder. "We need to take you back to the station to make sure you’re safe. There are some steps we’d like to take to ensure you’re protected while we gather more information."

"Safe? Is he going to try and kill me?"

Derek’s expression turned serious. "We have reason to believe he might try to come back, and it’s important we get ahead of him."

A sense of dread settled over you as you let their words sink in. You followed them to the car, feeling your stomach twist with a mix of fear and disbelief. As you settled into the backseat, Spencer turned to give you a reassuring nod.

“Just so you know,” he began, his tone gentle, “we’ll have officers posted near your home to ensure he doesn’t have the chance to get in. We’re taking every precaution.”

“Thanks,” you murmured, your voice barely above a whisper. “It’s just… a lot.”

“Understandable,” Spencer said, glancing at you with a sympathetic look. “We’ll also have you meet with a sketch artist and undergo a cognitive interview. It’s standard procedure, and it might help us learn more about him.”

You looked out the window, processing the reality of the situation. The quiet chatter between Derek and Spencer drifted over you as they discussed possible motives, patterns, and theories. But for now, you were too lost in your own thoughts to make out their words.

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆

When you arrived at the station, Spencer took a moment to walk you through the cognitive interview process. "It’s designed to help you remember specific details," he explained, his voice calm and assuring. "It might feel intense, but I’ll be with you the whole time."

You nodded, glancing around the bustling police station, feeling a strange mix of curiosity and adrenaline. "Okay, so… I just answer questions, and you’ll be able to get a clearer picture of this guy?"

Spencer gave you a small smile. "Pretty much. Think of it as helping us paint a portrait. Every detail, no matter how small, could be useful."

The interview went smoothly; Spencer’s presence was patient and encouraging, never making you feel pressured to remember something you couldn’t. Afterward, he led you to a small break room, offering you a seat at a worn table with a coffee machine humming nearby.

A few minutes later, Spencer returned with two steaming cups, handing one to you. "Here," he said, "it's not gourmet, but it’ll keep us awake."

You took it gratefully, feeling a sense of normalcy settle in. "Thanks, Spencer." You sipped the coffee, savoring the warmth. "I didn’t expect to spend my afternoon in an FBI station, but… it’s definitely more interesting than my usual routine."

Spencer chuckled, seeming surprised by your laid-back attitude. "Most people aren’t as calm in situations like this."

You shrugged, feeling the weight of the situation but refusing to let it get the best of you. "I don’t know. I figure, if I’m in good hands, there’s no point in freaking out."

As you chatted, Spencer filled you in on some of the behavioral profiling techniques they used, giving you a peek into the mind of the BAU. His eyes lit up as he explained the ways they’d been analyzing the unsub’s behavior to find any possible patterns, and you found yourself genuinely interested, asking questions and absorbing his answers.

"Do you ever wonder why people do these things?" you asked thoughtfully, watching him as he considered your question.

"All the time," Spencer replied, his voice softening as he looked down at his coffee. "But there’s rarely a straightforward answer. The best we can do is study the behaviors and try to make sense of them. Hopefully, it helps us stop them."

A sense of respect grew in you as he spoke, and you found yourself admiring the dedication he had for his work. "That sounds exhausting. Important, but exhausting."

"It can be," he admitted, his gaze meeting yours. "But it’s worth it, especially when it means keeping someone safe. Like now."

You smiled, feeling a warmth spread through you at his sincerity. "Well, I guess I’m lucky you guys were around."

The door to the break room opened, and Derek poked his head in, giving Spencer a grin. "You two doing all right in here?"

Spencer nodded, standing up to update Derek on the details you’d given during the interview. As they talked, you finished your coffee, feeling a strange sense of calm despite the unusual circumstances.

When Derek turned his attention to you, his gaze softened. "We’re going to have a team set up around your house tonight, keeping a close eye on things. We’ll catch this guy if he shows up."

You nodded, feeling reassured. "Thanks, Agent Morgan. I know you guys are handling it, so I’ll let you do your thing."

Spencer glanced back at you with a small smile. "If you need anything, or have more questions, just let me know."

As they walked you to the main desk, Spencer looked back, his gaze soft. "We'll keep you safe," he assured you once more, his sincerity unmistakable. "Until then, try not to worry. We’re on it."

A small smile tugged at your lips as you nodded. "I trust you," you replied, giving them one last grateful look before they escorted you to a waiting area. And as you waited, you felt a sense of calm, knowing you weren’t facing this alone.

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆

[elodieunderglass]

I'm not as familiar with LOTR as you are, so I wondered if you could tell me if my wild theory is completely off-base.

No one knows where the Hobbits came from, except that at some point they diverged from the line of men. No one knows much about the Entwives' appearance, but we do know that they fucked off a long time ago.

Could the Entwives have been dryad-ish and hooked up with the hobbits' ancestors and so be the foremothers of the hobbits?

Ah I think I saw that post! The concept has a lot of charm, and when the Tolkien estate loses its corpse-grip on the property in 2050 or so, I think you should write it and sell it 😤 I’ve definitely read some good takes on entwives in fanfiction that both leaned into canon and moved away, and I think that sounds like good fun to explore. A common theme in the fandom is playing with Yavanna, the Green Lady, being the mother or patron of hobbits. This isn’t canonical, but she’s a “green goddess” archetype and is married to Mahal/Aulë, the father of dwarves, which shippers often leverage to their advantage. You could do something quite charming there with Yavanna if you wanted to. We also know that Entwives loved gardens and orchards rather than forests.

Some things I would explore with this include:

what is going on with all these consistent ideas of people, races, women disappearing. We know that a lot of it is how Tolkien processed an almost OCD-like Catholic framing of “the fallen world is getting worse and can never be repaired”, war experiences, romanticism and other stuff stewing in his old man head. What are some ways you could show what’s stewing in your head? What does “people disappearing” mean to you? and why is it especially healing that they disappeared in order to make new families?

I think “they disappeared from their old kin and made new kin” is an interesting and weird thing worth wondering about!

- this would possibly make hobbits a more recent race than is implied. What does that mean to you?

- why are hobbits teeny tiny?

A very good starting point, that Terry Pratchett used a lot, is taking some grand statement in fantasy fiction, and making it reflect a different political reality. “Most dwarves are girls actually.” “Wizards parody academia, but, like, FOR REAL.”

I personally have a different take because of my own political feelings and framings! I have a lot of complex feelings about Tolkien chickening out of hobbits. For various political reasons I personally have to take the stance that they are fully human, fully indigenous, and have their own native language. and that their disappearance is less “teehee we lost them” or “O, the Catholic guilt of the Fallen World, how far we have fallen from the light of the two trees God’s sinless light” and a lot more “oh yeah I’ve seen THAT pattern before.”

If you have a political sort of lens on, someone telling you “yeah… hobbits came from nowhere 🤭 and then disappeared 🤷‍♀️ sad!” is a story that can also invite the response of “OHhhhh you wanted their LAND real bad, huh.” Like, we know what that means, right.

It’s a political stance for me. Hobbits have to be close enough to us to touch, and we have to be able to face that, and the fact that 5,000 media properties will chew on tolkienelves and sell them to you before even admitting to the 🤭 just makes it even more of a 🤨. To me.

…But I have literally just been elbow deep in my own demented fanfic thing that involves inventing a language just to swear in, to enable my standing on a box shouting HOBBITS OUGHT TO RESIST GOING EXTINCT ACTUALLY, based entirely on, I think, spite. Why do multiple authors publish orc football games (Terry Pratchett) and orc coffeeshops (Legends and Lattes guy) and do every damned thing with every bit of Tolkien’s corpse but refuse to look directly at hobbits. I am feral over this and wrote 59k words so far to damage and harm my friends

In conclusion I see a great story shape there about kindred and I think you should explore it and it should be about evolutionary biology and women and divorce and nobody being wrong.

And if anyone argues you with some podcast boy “well actually”, just bite them and do more character work and sit on their heads

[ghastlyfilters]

Hi! Saw you were taking Lost Boys requests...

I have a lot of silly concepts or ideas but my favorite is poly!Lost boys with a partner (I usually prefer fem reader but whatever ur comfy with is all good) who loves stealing some of their older clothes. Like, reader is smaller than them so the clothes are really comfy. Especially the older stuff cus decade+ old fabric is so soft.

reader stealing the lost boys’ clothes!!

pairing(s): implied poly!lost boys x fem!reader

warning(s): aside from paul and marko definitely paying attention to your curves, none!!

(now if i was the reader here i know damn WELL i would be stealing their clothes too. each one of their styles is literally perfection and to see that shit on vampires? HELLO? also i may have gotten a bit too carried away with thinking about all their clothing designs.. but thanks for this cute request<3)

gifs not mine! (if you know the original owner please tag them!)

HEADCANONS

• Stealing your boys’ clothes is by far the EASIEST thing anyone could do. The reason being? They quite literally never change out of the fits they’ve had on since 1987.

• The boys don’t have much of a scent, seeing as they’re all undead. So a washing machine doesn’t exist in their little world anymore. Which means they will now forever be outfit repeaters.

More fun for you. 

• All of the boys have the most random shit scattered around the cave. They’re the worst hoarders you have ever encountered. Cough cough.. Paul.. cough cough..

• But the amount of clothes they have laying around is shocking. Boots, band tees, jackets, jeans, leather trousers, gloves, shirts, man you name it. They have it. Every fucking decade.

• The band tees are by far your favourite thing to run around with. Paul has a shit ton of Môtley Crüe tees, and Dwayne has so many shirts with The Doors on them. (Jim’s face is literally everywhere in the cave now. They sure as hell ain’t Christians, so if they’re selling their souls to anyone it’s the horned god below or their icon Jim Morrison.)

• They did let you away with wearing their old band tees until Marko told the boys about EBay.

When Paul found out a vintage Mötley Crüe tour shirt was going for over a grand, the mf was ecstatic..

So much so, he decided to put his own vintage Mötley tees up for bidding.

“Two thousand… three thousand.. FOUR THOUSAND… FIVE THOUSAND FUCKING DOLLARS!!!”

Poor Paul’s bubble was burst however when David told him there was absolutely nothing they could do with the money aside from unlimited Chinese food for the next few months.

• David’s old clothes are much different from what the others have. He was the first to be turned, therefore he’s lived throughout the most eras.

• He’s got a LOT of leather jackets and trenchcoats. Paul and Marko always joke about him being Jack the Ripper, but you see a different side to his style. There’s been many nights you actually sat down with him and asked where he’d gotten the majority of his old items. Some were by Spanish designers that had been gifts from Max whenever he’d provided David with different clothing, others were from when David had fed off multiple store owners and casually picked out what he fancied afterwards.

• It saddens you that he doesn’t wear any of these anymore. The only reminder he ever gets of them is when you put on the soft wool Trenchcoats that go right down to your ankles, almost looking like a cape. Marko makes mini conspiracy theories that maybe you’re the real Dracula.

• Dwayne’s load of clothes is FILLED with leopard print designs. He’s been a 70s boy even all these years later, and he misses that era so dearly.

• There’s this one satin leopard print shirt that actually fits you quite well in his eyes. It’s still a little baggy.. yet oddly attractive to him. You’ve claimed it as your own now, wearing it like a pj set.

• Aside from the satin shirt, literally nothing else Dwayne has fits you. He’s a muscular guy.. and a vampire. So trying to get his baggy ass clothes to even have a slight loose fit is not for the weak 😭

• Marko however, this is where the real fun begins. You can borrow anything from Marko.. ANYTHING.. and it’s guaranteed to fit.

• He was a big crop top collector. When he used to find a good shirt that wasn’t cropped however, he’d cut it up and make it into a crop top himself. And these are what he adores you wearing. They cling nicely to your curved body, and whenever you wear them you can never get both Paul and Marko to stop staring at your breasts. Assholes.

• Marko’s clothes are by far your favourite pieces out all the boys. Much like the crop tops, he really enjoyed designing all his other outfits when he wore them. And he was pretty damn good at it too. Marko can be a crafty little thing when he wants to be. He’ll even help you design your own outfits too! He’ll cut, sew, stitch, glue, draw, paint, anything you want Marko to design, he’s down. He took so much pride in his unique outfits back in the day. And if you want yours spiced up, Marko’s your man.

• You wear his old belts a lot. One time, you were rummaging through the boys’ old stuff again, and immediately fell in love with this black latex belt Marko had. He’d drawn on perfectly shaped skulls with a white acrylic pen, and added different studs around the buckle. Ever since that day, Marko pretty much customises everything you own now.

FIRST TIME WRITING FOR THE LOST BOYS!! hope you all enjoyed these headcanons and my requests are open for any lost boys related ideas you may have!! <33

[avelera]

Theory: Why Jayce had to attack Cult Leader Viktor

It's a lot of conjecture, and I'm possibly reading more into the scene than the show intended, but I keep thinking about why Viktor abandoned Jayce in Arcane in 2.02, only to be glad to see him later and wish to meet in person. So here's what I'm thinking:

We actually got confirmation that "Sky" was the Hexcore all along.

We have Viktor saying that he left because he was "clouded by emotion". (Bookmark this one because I'm going to make the case that it was the opposite: that this moment was actually Viktor's choice and it was to protect Jayce on a subconscious level, because the Hexcore later welcomes Jayce back and wants to see him in person, in an attempt to assimilate him.)

We have some signs that there were weapons blueprints on the table, namely Cait's sniper rifle, which some fans pointed out could have been upsetting for Viktor to see, enough for him to leave. Certainly S1 Viktor was horrified by the idea of Hextech weaponry.

But, Viktor will later offer his assimilation robot army to Ambessa. And his robots are extremely effective Hextech weapons on their own, even if he sees them as peaceful assimilators, they are brutally effective in a pinch, judging just by the fact that it took Mel AND Jayce to take down Viktor's proxy robot in the Council chamber. So there is some hypocrisy shenanigans going on there with "no Hextech weapons." Unless, of course, it's Viktor who is against weapons and the Hexcore who is in favor of them, and sells the idea to Viktor by making the case that robot assimilation is a "peaceful" use of Hextech.

Now, if you go back to the Sky meta shared above, Showrunner Christian Linke says the Hexcore is the one who wants the Glorious Evolution. It's the one that wants to spread and give Viktor more power and influence. And the reason Sky took off was because its mission was done, Viktor had accepted the Glorious Evolution and the power Singed offered. It no longer needed to project "Sky" at him to string him along into doing what it wanted.

In general, there's a lot that's weird about what happens to Viktor after he leaves the lab. A man of science starting a cult is weird. The glowing footsteps he sees on the way to the shimmer victim shanty town are weird. It's notable that shimmer was what was needed for Viktor's own initial fusing with the Hexcore, so going after shimmer addicts is the perfect way to ensure that assimilation, if you're the Hexcore and you want to grow yourself.

We also have Viktor's voice which fades in and out of robotic monstrousness depending on what he's saying. It crackled over it just being "affection" keeping him and Jayce together. As the Machine Herald in 2.09, it mostly stays monstrous, but it drops down into his own voice, in a whisper without the overlay, when he calls the war around them a "senseless conflict". That feels like a true belief held by Viktor, rather than the will of a Hexcore that wants to spread, multiply, and assimilate everything.

And here's the kicker for me: why didn't Viktor heal Jayce when Jayce hugged him in that room? Jayce's wounds were pronounced and horrible from Renni's chainsaw, there's no way Viktor could have missed them. And why didn't he take the opportunity to assimilate Jayce, since they had skin to skin contact?

This is where I'd argue that it's because Viktor still was more himself at that point. And it could be argued that one reason he ran out of that room was to protect Jayce, on a subconscious level, from being assimilated.

The Hexcore-pretending-to-be-Sky needed to gradually seduce Viktor into going along with assimilation. It posed assimilation as healing, it showed Viktor the suffering of the shimmer addicts and the undercity in general. It played to Viktor's life long desire to make the world a better place, but it feels wrong because it's through mysticism rather than science.

And then, I would argue, once it had convinced Viktor to enact its plan by "healing" people to grow its power and influence, it wanted Jayce next as another addition to the cult and perhaps to incorporate one of the few people who could stop it. So it was not Viktor necessarily inviting Jayce back to the commune, it was the Hexcore posing as Viktor. I'm sure part of Viktor did want to see Jayce again, but we have to juxtapose the oddness of that moment with how Viktor soon after the transformation got as far away from Jayce as possible.

It would make sense, then if Wizard Viktor when he gave his instructions to Jayce really did need to be adamant that Jayce destroys Cult Leader Viktor rather than talk to him. Because Cult Leader Viktor was seductive, and he had just enough of real Viktor's motives and personality left to make a seductive case for Jayce that this was the way for Hextech to help the world.

So Jayce couldn't hesitate, he couldn't let Cult Leader Viktor (who is an unknowing instrument of the Hexcore's desire to expand itself) get a word in edgewise because of how quickly that Viktor could probably seduce Jayce into joining him. Hence the brutality and speed of the attack.

Because Cult Leader Viktor did have to be destroyed. The cult was never a good thing. The good that was left in Viktor was heading towards the disappointment of his ideals shortly in any case, either through running out of power, or from Ambessa's imminent attack. Jayce joining Viktor's cult would have doomed the world and the only way to keep him from joining was to fight rather than talk to Viktor, and that went against every fiber of Jayce's being, because Cult Leader Viktor was almost literally designed in a lab to get Jayce to surrender to him rather than fight him.

And I think we should be really suspicious of how freshly transformed Viktor pushed Jayce away, while Cult Leader Viktor wanted to pull him back in, especially with the implication that it was the Hexcore that wanted to assimilate Jayce in that moment, and just how effective it would have been at seducing Jayce into accepting assimilation if not for Future Viktor's explicit warning.

[hyperfixatedbastard]

do you write hypnosis stuff?? it's not specifically against the rules but idk it's kind of an iffy era for a lot of writers-

if it's okay with you, could you write some Vox x Singer!Reader who he uses his mind control on to sell their soul to him so they remain under the VoxTek label? (im sure remaining with him is an ulterior motive of his as well lol)

thanks :]

I can absolutely do that! I’m a little iffy about NSFW hypnosis, but I can do a SFW oneshot :)

siren songs

Obsessed!Vox x Singer!GN!Reader

Word Count: 1.4k

WARNINGS: Yandere-ish behavior, hypnosis, manipulation, toxic behavior, all that good stuff

A/N: I told y'all I'd be back with some toxic Vox!! I wasn't entirely sure how to end this one, but I've spent enough time rewriting it to stop caring. This one is only romantic in theory - nothing actually romantic happens between Vox and Reader, it's more mutual pining than anything else This is also my first time writing obsessive behavior, so I hope I did it well!

Dividers

You’ve been working with the Vees for years now. You were originally recruited by Velvette, who’s like a bloodhound for new talent. She saw some popular videos of your singing online, and she made you famous.

But you don’t work with her that much, oddly enough. Over time, you gradually started to see her less and less. Vox was the one to take her place. By the time you noticed, there wasn’t much you could do about it—you’re certainly not an equal to the Vees, so there wasn’t much you could do. Sure, you could’ve quit then and there, as you’d never signed a soul-binding contract, but you really liked your job. You were getting to do what you loved for a living! Who wouldn’t want that?

Well, you. You don’t want that anymore. You’re getting burnt out. You feel like you’re out of creativity for writing songs, and singing no longer has the same appeal it used to. It feels like a chore. Getting on stage doesn’t get you excited—it just fills you with dread.

Then you saw the videos of the annual clown pageant down in the Greed Ring. How Fizzarolli, Mammon’s favorite little jester, just…quit. Just like that. 

Can you do that?

You don’t have backup like Fizzarolli did. There’s no Prince of Hell to protect you if the Vees lash out in response to your resignation. But the Vees aren’t Mammon. They’re powerful Overlords, sure, but they wouldn’t kill off an easy cash grab like you. And they don’t have any leverage to use against you—you’re a fucking superstar, you learned to stop keeping secrets a long time ago.

Yeah, you can totally do this!

You spend the next week making a plan. You currently live in V Tower, so finding another living arrangement is a priority. Luckily, your standards are just as low as before you got famous, so snatching up an apartment doesn’t take long. You’ve been building up savings for some time now, just little bits here and there that wouldn’t look suspicious among your bank withdrawls, so you have enough money to last you a while. You’ve made a go-bag, but you’re not too worried about bringing anything with you, as you have enough cash to just buy new shit. By the time the end of the week comes around, you’ve got your escape plan ready to go. All that’s left is to actually quit.

You decide that directly speaking to Vox is your best option. Velvette and you don’t have the same rapport that you used to, and Valentino is just… no. During your time working with Vox, you like to think there’s some sort of friendship there. The two of you chat amicably, and he always makes sure you’re okay when it comes to creepy fans and the like. You feel like there could be something more than just friendship, but you don’t plan on staying long enough to find out. As much as you like Vox, you’re not willing to spend the rest of your afterlife hating every second of your job just for him.

You stand outside Vox’s lair, mentally preparing yourself for this conversation. You take a deep breath, and right before you can knock on the door, it opens.

Okay, here goes.

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

You aren’t as sneaky as you seem to think you are.

A normal boss wouldn’t have noticed the small transactions in your bank account, or the little trips you’ve been taking to go look at apartments. But Vox isn’t a ‘normal boss’ by any means. And he noticed.

From the moment Vox set eyes on you, he knew he wanted you. You’re beautiful, and fuck, your voice—he just can’t get you out of his damn head, no matter how hard he tries. And he really fucking tried. But he couldn’t avoid you, thanks to VoxTek being such an integral part of your performances. And you’re like a damn siren with that voice of yours, even though he’s supposed to be the hypnotizing one here. Eventually, he just gave in and accepted that he was more than a little obsessed with you. That’s why he started drawing you closer to him, pushing away Velvette and taking control of your brand. He doesn’t like sharing.

Obsession isn’t a particularly new feeling for Vox. He certainly has… tendencies. But this isn’t like whatever the fuck he’s got going on with that deer-headed, old-timey bastard Alastor. It’s not a lust thing, either. You’re certainly attractive, and Vox most definitely would sleep with you, but that’s not the main factor at play here. This is a deeper obsession than any of that bullshit.

Vox knows that he doesn’t own your soul. He’s well aware that he can’t truly stop you from quitting. Even if he managed to trap you inside V Tower, he can’t force you to keep up the performances. If he had you under a proper soul-binding contract, though…

He would own you.

Now, he’s not Valentino. He doesn’t plan to take that kind of advantage over you. He doesn’t want to change a damn thing. He just wants you to stay.

And he will make you stay.

He knows when you approach his office, and he opens the doors with the touch of a button on his desk. He plasters that casually perfect smile on his screen and turns to face you as you enter. The doors shut behind you.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you today, my dear,” he lies easily, the charismatic mask fitting into place like it was never absent in the first place. “How can I help you?”

You hesitate, your anxiety starting to get to you. But you’re determined to do this. You clear your throat and step forward. “I’m resigning.”

Vox’s smile doesn’t falter, nor does his screen glitch. His demeanor is…unnerving, to say the least. You’ve known him to be temperamental, emotional. You expected some kind of reaction. But he’s just smirking at you like he always does.

“I don’t suppose there’s anything I can do to change your mind,” he replies smoothly, tilting his head to the side just slightly.

“No,” you confirm, trying to sound confident in your answer. You’re not sure if you succeed. “I’ve already made my decision.”

Vox sighs, though he doesn’t sound very defeated. His smirk hasn’t gone away, either. “Well, then. It’s been a pleasure working with you, darling.”

He holds his hand out for you to shake. The gesture immediately worries you, as it’s the well-known sign of a deal. But you reassure yourself that there’s no deal being made here. Hell may be chaotic, but there’s rules when it comes to these kinds of things. Neither of you have offered anything, therefore there’s no harm in shaking his hand. It’s just a respectful gesture of a boss wishing their employee farewell. It all feels too easy, but you’re too relieved to think too hard about it.

You go to take his hand, but as you lift your head up to meet his gaze, everything goes fuzzy.

Vox grabs you by your wrist before you can shake his hand. He’s not rough with you. He’s careful of his claws, ensuring they don’t put too much pressure on your skin. Not that you’d notice, either way—your mind is far gone at this point, thanks to those spirals in his eye.

“In exchange for your soul, you’ll remain under the VoxTek label and continue working for me. Your work will remain the same as before. You’ll forget about leaving. You will want to stay here. You will want to stay here with me.”

A golden scroll appears out of thin air, and it floats in front of you as it unfurls. “Sign it.”

Your body moves on its own. You sign your name on the line at the bottom of the page.

Vox releases your wrist, and takes your hand in his own as his eye reverts back to its normal state. When you come to just moments later, he’s shaking your hand with calm professionality.

“I’m glad we got that sorted out,” Vox remarks smoothly, his smirk looking almost proud now. “I look forward to your next performance, my dear.”

You blink a few times as you become more lucid and aware. “Uh, yeah. Can’t wait!”

You smile, and Vox releases your hand, seemingly satisfied with your answer. You don’t remember what exactly you came in here for, but you’re happy with the outcome.  “Perfect.”

[baphometsss]

I've had these feelings about how the ancient elves really saw spirits for a while and I'm pretty sure, after finishing datv, that it wasn't too different to how most modern Thedosians see spirits i.e. not as people, but half-people or sub-people at best.

We know that the ancient elves were originally spirits, but even Mythal, 'the best of them', sees herself as being better than spirits. She herself says that she is the best of both worlds after building her body out of lyrium.

The thing that really sells it to me though is Solas's choice of the word 'creature' when he lambasts the Inquisitor for drinking from the Well of Sorrows. He says that they have given up a part of themselves. They are no longer fully the person they believe they are because a. they've given up some of their free will and b. they've given it to Mythal, who did this to him and others, so she could use them for her own ends--at the expense of their free will. They are her 'creature' because that is how Mythal will see them now. She will use them without even their knowledge. They are not a person, but a tool, a pet, an attack dog, a body to posess. He knows this because she did it to him and who knows how many others.

We know that Solas, regardless of the things he did later, fundamentally disagreed with this element of Elvhen society or at least the way the Evanuris saw spirits. Yes, they referred to spirits as their 'brethren of the sky' and had much more cordial relationships with them than modern Thedosians do, at least in the beginning. Yet it still seems like they lost this at some point (probably because they began to follow the Evanuris' example) and took slaves--of flesh, but also probably of spirit too. Felassan's line about them needing to be 'better than that' when Solas sacrifices the spirits is especially revealing of how the Elvhen had begun to see spirits at this point, as not much better than modern Thedosians do. Solas's willingness to sacrifice them represented the beginning his own descent to their level--towards his own corruption, the very thing he feared. In some ways, what the Elvhen did with spirits is worse because they actually know the truth of what spirits are.

The moment the Evanuris declared themselves gods, they were intentionally creating an unbalanced social hierarchy that flew in the face of all Solas believed in (which at this point can best be described as the elven equivalent of basic human rights for all intelligent and even semi-intelligent creatures). As Wisdom, he would've understood that as soon as you create that kind of imbalance, it is a slippery slope for all kinds of abuse. When he calls the Inquisitor Mythal's 'creature', he is referring to them in the way he knew Mythal and many of the Elvhen would've viewed them--no longer a person, but a tool that has been enslaved and bound to her will. Slavery, in the real world context (or at least the context of the legal framework that supports it), hinges on dehumanisation. There are a lot of books on monster theory etc that go into how this plays into various forms of oppression too. So in order for the Elvhen to take slaves of any kind, they would've had to fundamentally stop viewing them as people, as equals.

Cole's 'it's not abuse if I ask' and Solas's 'not always true' really becomes very poignant in this context. Just because the Inquisitor chose to drink from the Well, it doesn't make whatever Mythal does to them next non-abusive. The other problem is that, if you make a choice like that, you have to consider the context that it's made in. I'm reminded of Dorian's justification of slavery in DAI--that a poor person selling themselves into slavery is the preferable alternative to living in the streets. What he fails to realise at this point is that you can't justify a choice made in an impossible situation because if the choice is between your survival and living in bondage, it's not really a choice at all. It's become a necessity that shouldn't exist in a society that claims to be civilised.

There's this dialogue from King's Rising (Book Three of the Captive Prince trilogy by C.S. Pacat, that deals with sexual abuse/slavery in a historical fantasy context) that kind of explains this better than I do:

'‘When I argued the case for slavery in Arles you didn’t try to change my mind.’ ‘It is not a subject for an exchange of ideas. There is nothing to say.’ ‘There will be slaves in Akielos. We are a slave culture.’ ‘I know that.’ Damen said, 'Are pets and their contracts so different? Did Nicaise have a choice? 'He had the choice of the poor with no other way to survive, the choice of a child powerless to his elders, the choice of a man when his King gives him an order, which is no choice at all, yet still more than is afforded to a slave.'

For added context, 'pets' in Vere are slightly different to 'slaves' in that they serve pretty much exclusively as bed-slaves to specific nobles. It's described as being slightly better than general slavery because there are contracts involved, but in practice it's not much different because of the inherent power imbalance. Nicaise is also a child of about 14 or 15.

In other words, you always have to consider the context that this decision is made in. If the circumstances that led to someone making that choice are that desperate, it means that something else--the actions of others--are fostering it, and that is the root of the issue. The Evanuris forced countless spirits and elves into making these kind of impossible choices, because by Solas's own admission, Elvhenan was a deeply corrupt place, no better than Tevinter. This is why he rebelled, and in lambasting the Inquisitor for drinking from the Well, he is expressing his own frustration in seeing the same thing happen yet again. The Inquisitor drank because they faced an enemy who had just demonstrated an alarming level of power and willingness to commit evil and they were running out of options to defeat him. The entire world, not just them, was threatened. Thus, they lose their personhood, because in order to survive they must accept that survival in its most basic form--at the expense of a life truly lived as it should be, as their nature compels them to live it. Thus, in losing their personhood, the prerequisite for slavery has been met. This is when Mythal helps them--not before.

There's also some interesting discourse about how Solas's refusal to let go of his identity as a spirit and become more of a person possibly played a part in Mythal's (and the Evanuris') view of him. He's referred to as a lap dog, a dread wolf. An animal. Not a person. The way Mythal placates him is not simply that of a mother and child but of a master and their dog. So at some point, he decided that wasn't going to simply serve her as Wisdom anymore, because it was keeping him enslaved. He let go of the spirithood he loved and wanted to gain personhood, a choice he should never have had to make if it weren't for the actions of others. He chose to become a version of himself he hated because it was the only way he could stop the same thing happening to others.

Worse still, he wakes up after uthenera to see a world that has, in his mind, degraded even further from what it was--at his own hand. People are even further away from understanding what he wanted them to understand. Slavery still exists. Mages are confined to Circles while Templars hunt them down. Spirits are still mistreated. Personhood is still a matter of debate. His sacrifices and Mythal's death have had no positive long term effect. It was all for nothing. The world continues to be terrible, because nothing within it can stay fixed.

[ghosted-draws]

Really liked that Alastor lost the fight in the finale, actually! A lot of people have been saying that they wished he went full power on Adam, but a theory i really enjoy is that he WAS, but he didn’t OUTPUT what he was expecting.

Alastor canonically rose to becoming an overlord INCREDIBLY quickly. a power no being in hell had ever seen before- I don’t think it’s an accident Lilith picked him, and i’m super curious what would have prompted him to EVER sell his soul as a DEAL DEMON. (And even if he didn’t sell his soul directly, making a deal that would restrict him so badly) Like he knows what that does he must have been DESPERATE. He says specifically both that his wings have been clipped, and also that once he figures his way OUT of his deal he will be pulling all the strings. I think his deal was something to do with his power, or whatever let him rise so quickly to overlord status. He’s not exactly used to being properly challenged.

So when his staff broke, it wasn’t even something he thought COULD happen. It’s not “Oh shit”, its “What just happened?” he holds it out in front of him like he expected it to withstand that attack. But he DOESN’T. It freaks him out so badly he drops everything but the smile for a second. You could say he miscalculated Adam’s power, which, sure, but Alastor is good at picking out weakness, i think he just assumed he could take him, or at least distract him for much longer- he doesn’t seem to have an angelic weapon with him so his job could have just been keeping him busy

when we see him in his studio he is downright hysterical. Because he DID almost die, FOR THIS DEAL. Whatever is tying him to the hotel, he let it almost KILL HIM. And the realization he is not as in control as he thought he was shakes him to his core- he goes back to the shattered radio tower just to feel like himself again, battered and bleeding.

TLDR: Alastor isn’t as in control as he thought he was, and i am very interested to know how he killed so many overlords so fast

[hcfiles]

Of course, you can't believe everything you hear, and should not. If I write a lot of nonsense about HC on forums, who would believe that? It's simple: people lie, especially when they want to eliminate someone, they'll invent rumours to that aim. If you believe it without checking, you can easily believe in antivax and all the other conspiracy theories too! I see that there are a lot of rumours about him, but there's no proof. And of course it's always in the forums! The incident on the set of Tudor made him uncomfortable playing sex scenes because there were people around him. It must have been a gradual process. In the interviews with Amy Adams, she and the journalist made sexual references, and he was clearly uncomfortable. He realised why he was called in the films: for his looks. That couldn't help him excel. Finally, these accounts that reveal blinds do it mostly for the views.

You said something interesting: that he realized why he was called for the movies and that it was for his looks. Did he really have the illusion it was for his acting skills? Let's admit it: As an actor, he may have potential, but still has A LOT to learn and evolve. And, if surprised about the reason he was chosen, I wonder why. Wasn't he the first to sell himself as a sex symbol and to say he was on the job, for the money was good? What did he expect? As an actor, he's usually stiff (probably for being very shy and insecure). To the industry, he's great for action, hero movies. But, he needs to evolve his skills for drama and even comedy. He couldn't even let loose and relax on Boy George's video. He was clearly uncomfortable and showed that, depending on the role, he might only perform it if there's no choice and he sees himself trapped and obligated. Or he will arrange an excuse to leave or to be fired from production. But, this discussion he brought about sex scenes, as he touched on the subject in an interview for Josh, could be for feeling uncomfortable with them or TO GIVE THE IDEA HE IS UNCOMFORTABLE AND GENERATE THE DISCUSSION. People are being manipulated. And, what is curious about this is to see him bringing the discussion when it has been said his promiscuous PR is actually, a cheap porn actress. Don't get me wrong. I do believe he feels uncomfortable with sex scenes and I agree sometimes they seem unnecessary, despite appealing. But, this discussion called my attention and made me question: Why bring it? It is as if he had faced some trouble in a production because of it. So, was that the reason he left (was fired) from TW? For denying taking his clothes off and performing sex scenes? But, isn't he a jerk with women? A jerk with women wouldn't care and even would like to perform them. So, what's the truth?

[intergalacticfop]

Minoan Heanos

The distinctive open-front dresses worn by Minoan women are probably even more iconic than the multi-layered kilts. Over time, there's dispute whether the garment is one piece or a separate bodice and skirt, but currently the one-piece theory is in ascendance.

The word heanos is derived from the Linear B logogram *146, wehanos. The wes- prefix, which is the squiggle in the middle, indicates a garment. Bernice Jones believes that this logogram represents the garment worn by Minoan men and women.

Marie-Louise B. Nosch, The Textile Logograms in the Linear B Tablets, pp 133-138

More research and construction below the cut:

The theory that the garment is a full-length tunic is further supported from imagery from the time, like these figures from the c. 1400 BCE Hagia Triada Sarcophagus. This detail from the sarcophagus shows three figures in some kind of procession, 2 women and 1 man. The woman at left wears a tunic with some kind of pelt as a skirt, and the other 2 figures wear tunics without anything over them, showing that they are one continuous, ankle-length garment.

Some of the most important resources for interpreting how the heanos was constructed comes from the two women depicted in the House of the Ladies in Akrotiri, wherein the side seams of the tunic are clearly visible running along the side of the body and under the arm.

details of figures from the House of the Ladies, Akrotiri, via Wikimedia Commons

advadbsvasb

Diagrams from Bernice Jones' book Ariadne's Threads, p. 82, via Gorgeous Tangents

The heanos itself is made of 3 pieces of fabric: 1 back and 2 fronts. These diagrams show a concave hem like on the labrys-shaped kilt but I went with a straight hem, which is an equally valid option. The end of the sleeves are level with the edge of the hem at the widest point. This would probably be the width selvage-to-selvage on the fabric, being narrower than fabric widths commonly are today. There are 4 seams: the shoulder seam, the two side seams, and a front seam (optional, but recommended if you would prefer not being arrested.) It may be tempting to fold the fabric across the shoulder, so the only sewing is side seams and a neck hole, but this makes a weaker garment overall. I used this as a shortcut in my fitting muslin and it caused tears and weak points at the three points of the front opening.

my fabric was a lightweight, moderately loose-woven cotton with a supplementary weave pattern in squares and diamonds. Linen or wool would have been more accurate but also? much harder to find from online quilting stores selling fabric for affordable prices. The main fabric is dark orange and the pattern is made out of pink/lilac threads. This weaving technique resulted in a LOT of long floats (unsecured expenses of thread) on the back--you can see how the wrong side of the fabric is much pinker than the right side. These floats could snag easily if I wasn't careful, so while it made a very effective visual for this tunic, I do not think that this fabric type would be viable for everyday wear. I'll leave it to people who actually know about weaving to ponder what more accurate weaving techniques would be.

Construction

The overall pattern is basically a T-shaped tunic, and the most important measurements are shoulder circumference, shoulder width, bust circumference, and the shoulder-waist length. In addition, you need measurements for the bicep, waist, shoulder-navel length, and hip circumference. After working out the fit with a muslin, I ended up with this pattern, 1 of 4 identical quarters.

Your first impulse may be to make the tunic very close-fitting, since the depictions in frescoes are skin-tight, but since the pattern has no added gusset this is a recipe for Cannot Move Arm. So I gave a very generous curve under the arm, which also made the dress look better when my arms were down, avoiding armpit wrinkles. I continued that ease into about an extra 2 inches added on to my waist measurement and plenty of extra space around my hips so that I could do exciting things like Sit Down.

I sewed the shoulder and side seams using the machine, and felled the raw edges on each side of the seam by hand with a whipstitch. I foided back the front edges of the v-neck instead of cutting them, which was a tip I got from the Gorgeous Tangents blog. This strengthens the neckline and keeps it from stretching, and also means that everything can be readjusted if you have size fluctuations or just want to modify the tunic into something more or less modest.

I whipstitched the front edges together by hand--the contrasting selvage didn't matter because it would be covered up by trim. I ended up cutting the tunic a liiiittle shorter than I wanted, so I finished it with some leftover bias binding instead of hemming it to conserve as much length as possible.

Trim

I custom-ordered the woven tape trim from Long Creek Mercantile. Both are made of wool--the "header band" and the hem trim are 1 1/4" wide and the center-front and cuff trim are 3/8" wide. I observed that most images of the Minoan heanos show trim with two colors at most, in a simple geometric or linear pattern, so I consciously restrained myself from ordering anything more elaborate. The clothing on Minoan frescoes is characterized by strongly contrasting colors, so blue trim was the most obvious, and best-looking option. Orange tunics with blue trim appear multiple time in art like the "Dancing Lady" fresco from Knossos:

Dr. Jones suggests that the band across the shoulder would historically have been a header band--a band of threads woven at the beginning of a project in order to properly space the warp bands (see her diagram at the beginning). That may be a reason why the shoulder trim often depicted under the front or sleeve trim, as shown above. Regardless, the trim almost always coordinates.

I sewed on the shoulder trim by hand, the sleeve and hem trim by machine, and the center-front trim with a combination of both.

Tassels

Many frescoes from Akrotiri and Hagia Triada show the ends of the supposed header band turned into tassels. This embellishment is not universal among heanoi, as you can see from the "Dancing Lady" above, but it does add a fun little something!

(yes, my Lounging Pants are very fashionable)

I turned the excess ends of the shoulder "header band" trim into fringes, knotting the yellow ones into a lattice and turning the blue yarns into tassels. The lattice-tassel appears on a fresco from Hagia Triada:

Reproduction of fragmentary fresco from Room 14 at Hagia Triada, Crete

The saffron gatherers from Akrotiri shown below have clearly displayed fringes at the ends of their sleeves. The one on the left has red fringes that appear knotted or ravelled/unravelled in an undulating pattern, and the one on the right has fringes that may be either beaded with papyrus-shaped leaves or cut into short tassels.

Another option is leaving the fringes loose, as seen in the Akrotiri frescoes from Xeste, room 3:

The final garment was super comfy, actually! It's much simpler to create than I thought it would be based on the frescoes, which made it all feel pretty magical when everything came together. I did think it was a little unusual how tailored this garment is, and the potential waste of fabric that comes from a shaped garment, especially compared to how later ancient greek clothing was mainly rectangles. I don't know enough about bronze-age and earlier clothing to have any idea how typical this was, since I'm extremely Not an expert on this subject, but am always open to learning more!

[weirdmarioenemies]

SURPRISE! Did you think the day would come when we would cover Love Live on this blog? I didn't!

Yohane the Parhelion: Blaze in the Deepblue is the Metroidvania-style game based on the fantasy spin-off of Love Live Sunshine, but you probably don't care about that! Statistically speaking, our target audience is Bogleech readers who are deeply revolted by anime girls!

So why bring up? Why bring it up? The answer is 🐠 FUNNY FISH! It's Funny Fish Friday!

Since this game is set in an underwater temple, the enemies this game are all based on sea creatures, and that's cool! Again, statistically speaking, you probably think sea creatures are cool. I really liked seeing the variety of enemies when playing through this game, so I thought it'd be fun if I could share them with an audience of people who otherwise wouldn't care! None of the enemies really have names, as far as I'm aware of. But I'll do my Rubesty...?

Our first guy we encounter in the game is the sort of guy who emerges from the ground like the Zombies from Castlevania, and wow! A good first impression I think. It is sort of a squid mantle, if the mantle was also a cloak for a spooky sort of wizard! The way it doesn't really have a 'face' in the hood and the eye is below really makes it seem like a weird mimic creature. Cool!

They also get a tough lategame variant which looks like a mix between a flapjack and a vampire squid. You don't often see flapjacks be designed as scary!

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Next is Barnacles! A whole clump of them, like a cake. They shoot Energy Balls at you. Is this what Barnacles can do if they combine their powers...? The top actually opens up, and it looks a lot like a sea urchin's mouth! So maybe it is some sort of naked urchin creature covered in barnacles? Game Theory!

There are also barnacles with Ice Powers. Like real life!

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Let's give it up for Garden Eel!!!!

What a fine Garden Eel it is! Complete with the sort of grumpy face, and with the addition of two little arms that make it look like it's praying or maybe a bit shy. But it is mean! It also spits energy balls at you, then hides in the hole so you can't hit it. How very sneaky!

SO sneaky, in fact, that these eels have mastered the art of ninjutsu! The ninja eel shows up for a split second in one single room, before smoke bombing away. You'd have to use a time freeze power to get him, but I never got around to doing that. I don't have any beef with a ninja eel! I respect him and his training!

Did someone say CTENOPHORE? I hope you did, or my hearing has really gotten worse. This thing is a grade A ctenophore, only with a ring of Scary Teeth! A little scary to think of a ctenophore who could Bite you, but nonetheless this deserves a :ctenopog:!

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Let's not forget Fish Vortex! Fish Vortex was the first guy to make me go 'wow, this game's enemies really are awesome!' So of course I had to put him at the top of the post! He is my selling point! I am selling all these enemies to you. For 4.99 a pop!

Anyway. This design is just so funny and cool at the same time. A swirling school of fish that leads into an endless dark abyss, and in the middle, a big eyeball. Also covered in fish. It shoots fish at you! Yay!

There is also a pink variant - it shoots fish that give you the Solitude status effect, which basically just makes Yohane too depressed to summon her friends. Meaning? They are Depression Fish! Maybe she just becomes so jealous of the unity and teamwork of these sardines. She's me like just for real! ^_^

---

isopot :)

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This slug is an umbrella. That is ridiculous! Ridiculously EPIC! It does the opposite of shield you from rain, which is create rain, that kills you. But I would still want one as an umbrella.

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When I first saw this thing, I thought it was some strange round Echimoderm I had never heard of. But upon further inspection (I actually asked Mod Chikako shh), it is obviously like a Brittle Star, with each arm folded round to form a wheel! How creative and fun! It even has a bunch of eyes like a starfish!

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Last but not least- sushi! There are sushi guys and they are cute. They don't really do much and are typically found in their own rooms, so I'm not sure what the point of them is. But finding a funny walking sushi should be a reward in of itself, I guess! Look at their funny rice feet! Or the one with the roe eyes!

I happened to use fire magic on one of them and this happened. Oopsies...

Now I am sure you are saying, thank you for showing me all these funny enemies. But are there any cool bosses? Of course there are, me! What's a Metroidvania without cool bosses? So I shall show you my favorites without delay!

First is this freak (affectionate)! It is a sort of amalgamation of lots of different animals and I think it just looks plain cool! Two squid mantles combined into one, a bit of a sea angel shape, bug legs and of course a great big eyeball!

If it is not freaky enough for you, let it be known that the bug legs turn into big green skeleton hands, and it also keeps getting pinker, and it grows new eyes and then extra horns grow out of those eyes. If THAT is not freaky enough for you then I am sorry but I cannot do anything about that.

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Now, how about a sampling of this Freaken Thang? It honestly doesn't seem that sea-creature themed, but it uses seashells so I guess it counts!

What is really neat is that this boss has two different forms, upside down and rightside up! When it is upside down it looks a bit like a Magolor type creature. And of course, I really like the flame thing in the middle as well, that really feels like a Kirby enemy or something! Like a wisp made of plasma!

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Fans of Anomalocaris won't be disappointed by this one! It's a big Anomalocaris tank and boy is it cool! There's something for everyone here, whether you're an Anomalocaris purist or you've always wanted to see it turn into a sort of futuristic beast with a screen mouth that shoots lasers! It really is the future, zura...

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After covering all these wacky creatures, I'm going to have to end it off with the final boss! What could the big bad, the ultimate boss of all these sea monsters even be, I wonder? Well, it's...

...a coelecanth. Just a big coelacanth! It is big and blue! And really, does it need to be anything else? It is such an honor to make the biggest ultimate boss a coelacanth. It is even pretty cute!! Think he's smiling! 😊

Uh oh! Is it still cute? I guess so. My first thought seeing this was of course the world-renowned tongue eating isopod, so I really hope it was an intentional reference! It probably just wants to shake hands. Still, a pretty simplistic design for our final boss, right?

Buu buu! Its true form actually looks like this! Actually, it's kind of doing too much. Like let's tone it down a little?

So!! We beat the mega ultra coelacanth, and now we can find out what his motivation is! And it is... that he is the memories of the people of the past or something. And they all didn't want to be forgotten, so they turned into fish monsters! But we forgive them!

It doesn't really matter. All the girlies gather around and sing him a song. Look how happy he is! I forgot I was talking about a Love Live game until now, actually. All's well that ends well, the end, et cetera! Hit it, Yohane! [imagine this is like the end of a kids movie where all the Love Live girls are having a dance party and there is a shot of the big coelacanth in jail and he's tapping his mouth fingers along to the beat]

[hryniewiecki]

Grand Arcane S2 review

because I really need it to move on

Remember how I mentioned I could write an entire book about everything that went wrong with this season? Well, this is what a little excerpt from it would look like.

Let's start with a personal note to clarify my relationship with this hell of a piece of media.

S1 was this miracle show that was able to break through the several years of depression and anhedonia and make me interested in something, make me try to get back into making art (or at least try to try), to put myself out there on the internet a bit, to try be a part of something and not ashamed of enjoying it, which I never allowed myself before. Coincidentally, I've been at what I thought then was the worst place in my life when it aired and it helped me a lot to get through it. I didn't even think I would make it to see S2, as thee years felt like forever then. Taking all that into consideration, I think you can already tell where this is going.

I honestly thought I was prepared for S2 not being good, as no show could be this perfect. Turns out I wasn't prepared at all. Act 1 made me very happy, so happy I watched it two times, but the rest is something I would've never watch again and rather forget about.

The characters I wanted to see the most were Warwick (body horror, The Wrath of Zaun haunting the streets - got just a glimpse of that, but it felt like nothing) and Viktor (cyborgs and cyber gore, misunderstood idealist, Blitzcrank - got basically nothing; the idea was kinda there somewhere, but got changed so much it didn't matter at all).

I can't believe they took a godforsaken champion like Viktor and not only ruined his story completely, but also managed to fuck up everything else by all of a sudden making him a center of all of this mess. The center being the arcane/hextech/magic, which never even gets resolved/explained. Still no idea why it got corrupted and what was the nature of it; the void was never taken anywhere despite being heavily hinted - everything was evil because it was, but luckily the magic of friendship saved us!! (I'll get to that)

Speaking of crucial plotlines that weren't taken anywhere.. Basically every character got screwed over and made empty. Let's use Vi for a quick example (may not actually be the best example, but hopefully you'll get what I mean) - when I saw the pit fighter scene released early, I expected to see it have a continuation in the show, but instead it ended up just being the exact same music video, nothing more. And that goes for some more events - they get compressed into music videos that make it all incredibly hollow. Fight scenes are fine like this, sure, but not something that was supposed to be a bit more emotional and serious. Anyway, they successfully made me hate most of the characters. Either hate or just straight up not recognize them, and in a bad way.

Long story short the pacing is awful (it only gets back to normal in ep7, as it resembles the structure of S1) and the writing sucks ass. I can't for the love of god believe it was written alongside S1. There's no way in hell - it's literally all the worst fan theories I've seen come to life and get mixed with fanservice. *puts on a tinfoil hat* Maybe this is the real why they needed an extra year or two, as S2 was initially supposed to be released earlier. No way in hell the same people who wrote S1 and cared so much about the characters would do anything like this. Riot must've gotten heavily involved, making us believe they cut the story short (I think 5 seasons in Piltover/Zaun were planned initially?) for the benefit of it, but all it really was is greed - let's make a bunch of bullshit happen and quickly move to another region to sell more skins for new champions.

Now let's get back to the ending. Man, it really had it all - the nonsense, the multiverse bullshit which basically makes nothing make sense anymore (if there was anything left), the (yes, I'm going to say it, because that's exactly what I felt) cringe and embarrassment. Never seen anything more hollow trying to convince me it was deep and emotional (sums up the whole show perfectly).

How the hell the only thing that was supposed to save Viktor from himself was Jayce telling him he's perfect the way he is? Sure, don't try to cure your illness (that my city caused, but "fortunately" another crucial part of the plot, which is the sister cities conflict, ceased to exist), it makes you beautiful, this is who you are (miserable, unwanted, feeling meaningless and like a burden, dying). I am at loss of words.

Now buckle up jayvik fans. I wasn't a fan of the ship as I'm not a fan of any ships in general, but now I despise it. I wouldn't mind if they actually went on with it, which no, they didn't. We don't want two men kissing (women making out is fine tho, won't make the gamers too angry), so let's play extra safe to make sure it could be explained as any type of other close bond (and that's exactly what Christian Linke does when asked about it). You disgusting cowards, either you show me this in plain sight and I wouldn't give it a second thought, or don't even try bring it up at all (and you can't deny it wasn't implied in S1 with all the Viktor's looks and parallels to Mel).

Where do I even begin? Because I don't think you have any idea on how many levels it actually sucks. If you read it as romantic it's basically telling me that if I was a gay man struggling with my feelings and not being able to confess for years, because I'm convinced I'm unworthy of love as something is inherently wrong with me, then the best I could get after surviving all this (what honestly seems like hell) is a hug, because you're ashamed of me and thus I should be ashamed of who I am till the very end.

Something equally bad is Jayce finding out (or rather we finding out) how wonderful the world could look like if he let go of his beautiful dream, his life's work, and killed himself - it never gets denied, as the corruption of hextech doesn't get explained.

Long story short, if you're struggling with your mental health, trauma issues, disability or any of the problems the characters you related to deal with, this show spits you in the face.

I could go on forever about everything that's wrong (even Jinx got played dirty), but let's finish with the few things I liked: act 1 was promising (it's when I believed they could still make sense of Viktor), fun Sevika's arcade arm fight, the epic fight at the Janna's temple (Woodkid goat), Jayce killing Salo (I felt something) and Jayce's glitchy madness in general, young Vander flashback (felt something), ep7 and Singed's story (the only one that makes any sense).

Other than that the show left me with nothing but void in my heart (I guess that's when it all went). The saddest thing being the masses love it anyway, as it seems they'll watch anything that's colorful enough. And Riot will make lots of money of off it, because in the end they never loose. I'm not denying Fortiche absolutely outdid themselves with the art, it's just heartbreaking nothing else even remotely stands up to it.

[shtern-and-art]

Welcome to the little AU I like to think about, where Viktor and Jayce both live in Zaun, and Arcane is actually about class struggle and oppression. Let's start with Jayce's backstory (you can find Viktor's here).

First of all in this house we fully accept the theory that Jayce and his mother are not from Piltover. They moved there to live with Jayce's dad when Jayce was still a kid (most likely from Ixtal). We appreciate and dig deep into mixed immigrant kid Jayce Talis narrative (yes, there will be more posts exploring this theme in canon later). 

With that in mind, let's begin.

THE PILTOVER DREAM

- Let's imagine that house Talis was a bit further on the decline when Ximena and Jayce moved to Piltover. Couldn't keep up with the capitalist progress and the demands of high society anymore, losing even more of the status and wealth each passing day.

- They already downsized to owning only one factory somewhere in Zaun already. And eventually Jayce's dad had to sell it, too, to close the last debts.

A fun point to think about, because it was either leaving his grandchildren paying off the failed business expenses decades from now, or losing everything right now, and living in poverty, but without that shadow over the family. Let's not think too deeply about aggressive business takeovers and monopolies of Piltover, it'll get too sad and aggravating fast.

- Eventually, and rather fast in the grand scheme of things, Talis and his family moved to Zaun. Where he continued working as an engineer at the last Talis factory he had to sell. How about that turn of events, huh.

- Now imagine you and your mum escape poverty, get to the bigger, shinier city in another country to reunite with your dad... but end up spending only a year there at most, before you all have to move to the local poverty capital. And all the kids there look at you like "ew, you're one of those bourgeois bitches".

- So yeah, Jayce's formidable years were not as fun, not a lot of friends made between his autistic straightforwardness and the shadow of Piltover making up an imaginary chip on his shoulder.

- His dad had a nicer official job, too. Gained somewhat of a passable, if not overly friendly, reputation. Worked hard, and didn't complain or bring up any hazing. He needed this job and this reputation, after all.

"It's complicated" status on LinkedIn.

- He taught Jayce what he could in the late evenings, and let him rampage through the family's library before starting to slowly sell it off.

- Nice times didn't last long, though. Couple of years after the move to Zaun, Jayce's dad passed away at work, in a gruesome accident. Crushed to death while fixing up the broken machinery. The funding of the factory was dropping even more rapidly now, and it was not possible to keep up with all the safety protocols anymore.

- His family received a small compensation (he wasn't following the safety protocols, after all), and had to size down again, and move even deeper in the undercity.

- Ximena had to take on more work again, just like when Jayce was a (smaller) child. But now she couldn't take some of the finer, less stressful jobs, because of the missing fingers. This stuck with Jayce. This character will remember this from now on and forever.

But hey, at least there's no need to go into the mountains on the regular despite the weather conditions, right? Ha ha.

JAYCE (AND TALIS)

- Jayce stopped using or mentioning his last name even before his father's death. Though it stopped haunting him with biting remarks from the peers only after him and Ximena moved again.

- But Jayce still had his ambitions, his -dream-, his drive, the sleepless nights, and the remains of his father's library.

Never really leaving the bottom of the pit, ground 0, from the start, did make him even more passionate about harnessing magic and improving the lives of the workers.

- But let's be real here, he is kinda selfish about that. About his passion.

He could've gotten a job as an assistant in some repair shop or with a local mechanic. Be safer, have better chances of the job and salary growth. Of supporting his mother.

- And oh Jayce is all about that, that is also his big goal in life. He moved out and got a job (way too early) in his teens, to take some pressure off Ximena.

- But he got a job in the formerly Talis owned factory. The same one his dad died in.

- Because, you know. If Jayce wanted to make progress in his research, he needed access to the industrial forge and the finer quality equipment.

- So small repairs stayed as just a side gig, while teenage (maybe he was around 14 or something?) Jayce began the fast journey to permanently fucking up his back doing manual labor.

- And yes, his official position was linework, loading and/or (later in the timeline) smithing. Because they couldn't hire an engineer, no matter how promising, without papers confirming proper education. It was a proper Piltover factory, after all. They gotta do things the right and legal way.

- Instead of Kirammans, Jayce got the shift manager that lets him tinker with his own stuff at dead hours, because Jayce is a good boy who's ready to work two jobs, one under the table, all for under the table scraps pay.

- And when I say "moved out", I mean Jayce is living in prime real estate of a big industrial crate that got written off from the factory he works at. It's propped somewhere really close by to it, in the back alleyways that never see the sun.

Very practical of him, can catch more hours in the factory, and not worry about traveling back and forth, cutting down his research and work time.

- Only a few people in the factory know he's the kid of the Talis. Jayce puts a lot of effort into not bringing it up. No need to complicate things, and make more obstacles for his actual work and life goals.

- Jayce still signs every page of his research, though. But only with his last name. He thinks he's being bitter and conspiratorial about it. 

THE INCIDENT x1: THE CRASH

- But guess what. Nice times didn't last long, yes. After (at most) a year and a bit at the factory, the disaster struck.

Jayce was working his usual late hours all alone, fixing some heavy machinery that broke down for the third time that week, when some very out of date mechanisms gave out and very unfortunately crushed Jayce's leg way ahead of the schedule.

Oh, Jayce almost dying on company time, just like his father before him. And in an eerily similar fashion, too.

- He didn't die, though. He was brave, and (after waking up) put his bone back into its place, and (after waking up after -that-), asked the shift manager for his non-mandatory monthly couple of days leave. Like a champ.

- He was still young, and stubborn, and terrified by what happened, and of the look the shift manager gave him after dropping Jayce off at the crate.

So he laid there on the floor (no carpet in the crate) in a daze of pain and delusions, not thinking about how this injury may cost him this job and the chance of continuing his research. Like a champ. Until the night of his last day of leave.

- And when no new miracle came through, Jayce gathered all the scrapes he could reach to make a makeshift splinter and a crutch. Maybe even from the hammer prototype handle. And set out on the long trek to the local meat vendor guy.

People at the factory mentioned him sometimes as some sort of underground doctor that helps out factory workers that can't afford visiting a proper clinic. And asks a reasonable price, it seems.

- Neither gods nor Jayce know how he managed to get to this guy's place on his own, but it took a lot of hours.

- Imagine Jayce, already pumped full of not approved for humans painkillers slumped over the metal table, doing his best puppy dog eyes like "Can you do something quick? I have to make it to the morning shift, dowctor 👉👈"

And the local butcher shop surgeon going "Yeah, me too, boy".

-

Doctor: How did you get here, boy? Jayce: Hamner ✨✨✨✨✨*

His Best Friend.

*that's Jayce throwing up over the surgery table.

-

- Yes, Jayce's vague hopes of getting a really good splinter went out of the window real fast.

The doctor, looking at the cracked open leg with big signs of infection and pieces of bone all over the place: “Meh, not today. Not gonna perform a puzzle. You clearly won't be paying for the extra hours, and my slop coffee's getting cold.”

- Jokes aside, he did explain to Jayce that trying to fix his leg will take a long time and probably multiple surgeries, and even with all that it will never work properly again. He will not be able to get back to his previous work for a long while. Most likely – at all.

- And Jayce couldn't have that. So he swallowed his initial panic and agreed to the amputation. Because he may have a shorter recovery time, if he's lucky. Because he can start walking again in a shorter span of time. If he's lucky. Because, sure, he can't afford the prosthetic, but he can figure it out, he can make something himself, whatever, crank it, chop it off, boss.

THE FOLLOWUP

- And, well. Jayce did eventually figure it out.

He probably had to move back in with Ximena for a while, while he recovered, and build his new leg with some input from the back alley doctor. It was quite simple and basic, his first model.

- Jayce had to keep building new ones over the next few years, as he grew older and bigger.

- He did return to the factory as soon as he could (perhaps a bit too soon, even), and continued his research.

- Jayce tried to not draw attention to his missing leg. There were plenty of amputees on the job, but all of them got their work injuries way later in life, and had plenty of strength and experience backing them up. Jayce didn't have any of that yet, only the vague rumors that he's an outsider following him all his life. So he kept quiet, and to himself. A perfect cog in the machine.

- Meanwhile, his continued research of body augmentation and prosthetics got him into a new side gig.

As payment for his operation, the back alley surgeon got Jayce to work on prosthetics for his other clients.

As in, after their operations and/or amputations, the doctor would refer people to Jayce. For a reasonable fee, of course.

- The problem in Zaun lies not only in the low life expectancy and the amount of severe injuries in the workforce. Prosthetics can make life bearable for most. It's in the prices, too.

Can regular old uncle Fedya from the nail making factory get a pair of relatively ok working fingers to keep sorting nails 16/6 after he got his hand stuck while cleaning a press? Without going into lifelong debt? Much to think about.

- The market of prosthetics is monopolized by that sickly cat chem-baron that Sevika cut into pieces. But that will happen in the future, back then he was still very much alive and ready to absorb or eliminate any competition.

- So Jayce worked on the downlow, and never took money for his work.

- And even with that he eventually ended up on that baron's radar. The fact that he did his prosthetics for free made it even worse, actually. Hah.

- But Jayce's patients didn't rat him out. The earliest ones, at least. Maybe later the back alley doctor made the rule of blindfolding patients before Jayce will work with them. Just in case.

- Sometimes families of the people Jayce helps pay him back in food. Sometimes they bring supplies for the secret lab he definitely doesn't have, shhh. Such a bright gentleman can definitely find some use for all this toootally useless junk they had lying around. He takes it, or they throw it away, you know. Or whatever. 

THE OVERVIEW 

- I think it will be fun to have Jayce be a silent mechanic with no name.

The patients for prosthetics never see his face, or hear his voice much. Or at all. Jayce learned to work in silence. He never leaves signature markings on his prosthetics and machines. He learned to linger in the shadows and not draw attention to how he looks or moves. To who he is.

The need to fit in and being needed forced Jayce into another version of the same rigid mold.

- Jayce has unchecked social anxiety, and gets nervous and uncomfortable when too many people pay attention to him. Or just being around big groups of people for long periods of time. He, unlike the Arcane!Jayce, was not prolongedly trained to stomach it. Social events tire him 10 times faster.

- He doesn't ask many questions, he's just there. Slouching, to occupy less space with his (smaller and shorter than in Arcane, but still) giant frame, and also because of the back pain.

- And yes, almost 10 years of hard labor starting from teen years (with not much proper training, too!) got Jayce chronic lower back pain way earlier than his coworkers. It mostly bothers him at night though, so it's alright, hahah. Doesn't impact his work much. Still easy to hide, so it's basically neglectable. Ha ha.

- Jayce doesn't keep up with his appearance that much. Looks somewhat like a stray dog. Unkept, and sometimes grimy from work, but mostly clean. Hair reaching the chin, pulled into a half ponytail, Vander-style. It's only long enough for the layer of soot to protect from the fire and metals.

- He is mostly going by Jay in this timeline. At first, he did only at work, to have more distance from his family name. But then it just stuck.

Only his mum (and later Viktor) calls him Jayce.

- Sometimes Jayce traded various knick-knacks at Benzo's. He didn't always have the money to buy things, but Jayce can barter for stuff and do little repairs.

- And no, he's not gonna stay for a full-time job, thankyouverymuch. Jayce is -very- into 16-hour shifts and his damp crate in the alley. He's all good

- Yeah, put the box of discount parts near the door, Ekko. It's for the stray.

- The back alley doctor is a big, intimidating looking guy, who runs a meat selling or other kind of food shop. With the vibes of that food stand guy from Arcane.

(To the reader: if someone knows a character from the league that would fit the bill, then do tell. I will gladly adjust and implement more canon stuff).

--

NEXT UP:

Viktors bio / the story

[s1arco]

summary of what I've seen going on with Pressure currently

UPDATE: THE SALE SEEMS TO BE CANCELLED, EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE POST WILL BE LEFT ALONE TO READ BUT THE SCREENSHOTS OF THIS WILL BE AT THE BOTTOM

this is copy/pasted from what I sent to a friend so some things might seem weird. if I missed important details please let me know so I can edit it in

im also doing live updates on the Discord specifically in this Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PressureRoblox/comments/1h6itjk/update_on_current_official_discord_after_people/

for the homophobia: mostly really seems like people overreacting to jokes made, mostly back when the game was much smaller. there has been recently mods not effectively moderating stuff, including homophobic stuff, so while its mostly an overreaction, they still have fucked up some

for the friends with pedo: i cant say a lot, i saw a screenshot of a supposed pedo being in the Discord but not enough information either way to confirm or deny if its true

someone also spread the rumor that Zerum sent Gianni voice lines to do that made him uncomfortable enough to consider quitting Pressure, that just ended up being a complete lie lmao

also there was just more people bringing up Zerum and Fishbun harrassment and shipping and Sebastian in dresses being banned in the Discord and stuff, though thats all old news

thats the very quick rundown, if you wanted more youd probably have to go on Twitter /hj

now Zeal's Twitter account has been completely changed to an Urbanshade account, and it was announced hes selling Pressure. right now current theories are

a) he actually is selling Pressure

b) this is a rushed, stressed decision made due to the harassment the dev and mod teams, meaning that this decision may be reversed later

c) someone hacked his account to fuck with fans or, more likely, scam people

also from what people (and i lmao) think this seems more likely its either a stressed decision or a hacker due to the worse grammar than usual

right now it has been confirmed that he is trying to sell Pressure. I personally still leave open the possibility that this could be a rushed decision, but I will not try to claim that that's whats fact, and encourage others not to too

and these are what have been said by the team since locking things down, in general and the server announcements each

Now Zeal has deleted the sale tweets and retweeted that it is not for sale and that he's being cared for. I hope he does well and takes a hiatus to calm down before he does anything related to Pressure for now