#is this my main character syndrome being like YEAH NO ONE GETS THEM LIKE ME

[emptyrainbowz]

I had a dream last night that Dan and Phil had a second music endeavor called “Dan and Phil Rock” and like, arguably none of it was rock music, but it was original music that was pretty good, but nobody fucking listened to it??? And Everything’s Fine was on there but no one??? Cared????

[watercolorsam-arts]

Saw Sonic 3 tonight…. Holy Shit

I have a lot of thoughts, and a lot are really good, I had a blast watching it and I will be going to see it again.

I do however have one “complaint” I guess? Spoilers under break

I need to talk about Maria. But I want to start my little rant with *I did not dislike how Maria was handled in the movie* I quite enjoyed everything she was in. As a stand alone story in the movies, it was awesome (and personally seeing the movies as a sort of au makes the most sense for me). But I want to talk about how one character decision changed a significant amount of Maria and Shadow’s story. (Among other thoughts and things I noticed)

Maria was not explicitly stated to be sick,

It actually seems like she wasn’t sick at all.

Which I feel takes away a lot from Shadow’s creation/discovery.

Shadow in the games was created to be a cure for Maria’s N.I.D.S (Neuro-Immune Disorder Syndrome) his excess chaos energy was a byproduct of being created using Black Arms dna. He was never meant to be a weapon, he was meant to heal.

Maria cared for Shadow beyond just “this will cure me” she and Gerald saw him as himself. He might have been just a cure to Gerald at first, but Maria saw Shadow, not a weapon, or a cure, or an alien, she saw Shadow.

G.U.N saw a weapon, which is why they had to take him, and cut down anyone in their way.

By removing Maria’s sickness, you don’t have any reason for the Ark to exist, and you also don’t need to “create” Shadow. Shadow had to be dropped into the story (kinda literally as he fell from the sky) for him to have a reason to be there.

Maira and Shadow’s relationship in the movie doesn’t have quite the same impact. It even feels kind of… generic? I guess? That the “child” character doesn’t see the “monster/weapon” as one and befriends them. Maria being there isn’t nearly as justified as in the games. “Her grandfather brings her everywhere” and I get why, but still. Even if there was one line of “she gets sick easy, so the professor wants to keep an eye on her.” Instead of just “yeah they go everywhere together”. (Once again, I didn’t hate the version of their relationship in the movie, this is just a comparison to the games)

Maria not being off world also takes away from Shadow’s motivations. Maria wanted to see the world, she wanted to meet the people, and experience everything! She cared so much about a place that would cause her harm just by existing there. No matter what happened, she believed with all her heart that the people of earth deserved to live life to the fullest, even if she couldn’t. So when Shadow gets reminded that he was meant to protect and heal, he chooses to save the world Maria cared so much about.

Movie Maria’s death feels like she was caught in the crossfire for no reason, which, in its own way, has a big impact on Shadow’s arc. She had so much life to live, she was his sister, she didn’t have to die, which fueled Shadow’s hate.

Movie Shadow’s motivations for saving the day are different from game Shadow’s. His motivation is fueled by hate, and hurt, and by love. He hesitates when he hurts Tom after mistaking him for the General. He hurts watching Sonic live a similar horror to what he did. Just like Sonic has to learn, no one wins with revenge, everyone just keeps getting hurt, and he might have wanted to hurt them, make them pay for what they did, he doesn’t want to hurt. He still chooses to heal, and to protect. Maria haunts him in the way a dead star still shines for us, guiding him even though she’s gone, to show love instead of hate and hurt.

They’re both executed phenomenally, and both work in their respective stories, personally, I prefer how the game handled it, but that’s just me. And it’s so interesting to see how different yet similar the two are. The main take away is that all movie Shadow knew was that he was a weapon and chose to actively go against that, while game Shadow knew he could heal as well as hurt.

I will forever cry over the “they’re children!” Line, because… yeah… Shadow and Maria were children, who should have never gone through what they did, I need to hug them and put them back in their blanket fort with a new movie and some snacks.

And this is less of a movie/game comparison, but more so the representation of Maria’s illness. A lot of the time, we see Maria as full of life and energy, but various media like Gerald’s journal, dark beginnings, and the Shadow Campaign in generation has told us she doesn’t always have it that good. She has days where she can barely move, or she’ll need a mobility aid, or she’ll be incredibly sick even with the Arks gravity and atmosphere. Chronic illness’ don’t always impact you the same every day, but you’re still ill, even if you can’t see it, and Maria has become pretty good representation for that, which makes me kinda sad that it was dropped for the movie.

(I feel like my ramblings don’t make sense towards the end? So I think it’s a bit more just, thoughts about the movie and the game. Thanks for reading this far btw :) )

[dropoutconfessions]

Hey. No. I'm with that other anon. The one that doesn't like mismag. I get it.

I haven't liked it historically, but I'm starting to warm up to it. I'll be honest though, I don't love how you just kind of knocked them down about their opinion.

I agree that Brennan has a bit of main-character syndrome. I HATED that about mismag 1. We've finally got a mainly POC cast at the table and Brennan takes the main stage? I didn't love that.

I also didn't really love K's character in s1. Like, okay. If you don't want to be girly, then just don't be? Also, the high-pitched voice was like nails on a chalkboard for me.

To pivot though, I've reflected a bit on that and re-watched s1 a few times and I understand it more now. I get that SOMEBODY had to be the "evil-coded" character, and tbh I think Brennan was the best option within the cast.

I also understand that K was the mirror to that. That they wanted to be the dark chosen one, but was instead pushed into being the opposite.

The show is about fighting. Fighting oppression that wants to keep some people away from something. Fighting the destiny that chases these characters through their whole lives. Fighting for family and friends and the good of people.

I don't think we should be fighting each other for having different opinions though.

Yeah whenever there has to be the one person to do a thing, it's usually Brennan, he's mentioned that he defaults to whatever the dm believes serves the narrative best.

Now I'm gonna be honest, I have no fucking clue which anon you're talking about. "The one who doesn't like mismag" does not narrow it down in the slightest. Like a good 40% of my incoming confessions since mismag 2 was announced have been people saying they disliked mismag. Anti mismag tags pop up more often than pro mismag tags do atp. So apologies, but I don't know which confession you're talking about.

Just in general tho, feel free to link me to any post where you think I was being kind of an ass, I'm not super great with tone.

[insufferableprotagonistpoll]

Round 3

Propaganda why Victor Frankenstein is insufferable:

"Victor Frankenstein is so pathetic not even tumblr could love him. The best parts of Frankenstein are the ones where your blessedly saved from being in his whiny, self deprecating, self centered pov. He’s so conceited that when his creation tells him directly “In revenge for killing the wife you were making for me I’m going to kill YOUR wife to see how YOU like it!”, Victor Frankenstein thinks that the creation is going to kill him and *only* him. (A decision And on top of it, he’s a shitty dad. Truly the worst.c

"this fucker has zero self awareness, which could maybe be fun to read about! except that 3/4 of the book consists of him constantly woe-is-me-ing about his own mistakes and how he shouldn't be responsible for any of his own actions."

"He's not irredeemable, but his refusal to take accountability til it's too late is irritating"

"The man has never one in his life taken responsibility for his own actions. He's always surprised when the things he does have consequences for him and the people around him.

"It's not my fault I spent months grave robbing for spare body parts, sewing them together, and giving life to the results. How could I have ever predicted that that creature wouldn't look quite right? How could I have known that it was wildly irresponsible to abandon the grown man sized newborn that I created?"

Man acts like he is a completely innocent victim when, in reality he's the cause of every one of the problems in the book."

Propaganda why Clary Frey/Fairchild is insufferable:

"Here we go again: She found out she was part of a race that opresses pretty much every magical being ever and immediately jumped onto being as racist as people that were raised in that cultist lifestyle. She calls a man ""Warlock"" the way people say slurs.

Terrible friend. Poor Simon never gets a break. And she's an even worse girlfriend to him. He is understandably upset when he finds out the person she most wants to kiss isn't him and asks for some space, but no, not on her fucking watch. She won't stay away from his place all of a sudden. Despite never really having time for him prior.

Goes up to a closeted gay man and tells him all smugly she knows about his sexuality and acts like he's the problem for not owning it. He lives in a homophobic society where violent punishment and exile is normal.

Speaking of exile, almost gets a woman that was nice to her exiled so she can break the law.

Demands aforementioned warlock do necromancy and when he tells her about his trauma, she throws a tantrum. She never apologises. That and, she and her friend always go to him for their problems, and are never grateful when he helps.

Has the ability to wish for one thing only once ever, wishes for a shitty man to come back to life.

The incest thing. She wanted to fuck a man while thinking they were fully biologically related. Yeah. And technically they're still adoptive siblings. True love.

Her cringe evil arc.

Apparently she's worse in the books. Great to hear."

"I don’t remember much from the books but she was kind of annoying"

"She finds out about a magical world she's been unaware of her whole life and it takes her five seconds to jump onto the fantasy racism train. Constantly demands people do dangerous stuff for her. Causes so many problems and when someone points out that she's going to hurt someone they're treated like they're an asshole. Walks up to a closeted man like "I know what you are". Is a terrible friend to her childhood 'bestie'. Falls in love with her brother, one the worst men alive."

"Worst case of Main Character Syndrome you'll ever see."

[yesmissnyx]

Hi, I hope it's okay to DM. I'm looking for advice while getting into the kink lifestyle/self-realization.

I'm struggling to deal with internalized shame. It's the same old struggle, I'm guessing.

Figured out I'm bi and very, very kinky late last year, kind of all at once. Suddenly liking guys as well was easier to deal with. Realizing I'm into BDSM, hypno, crossdressing, and most of the kinks on your pinned list was... hard.

Some days, I can fully feel okay, and others I feel smothered in shame and depression, like I'm not supposed to want these things. I feel like I'm intruding into a space that I don't have the right to be in.

My question is, how do you recommend new kinksters/subs/etc deal with the question and internalized shame. Or specifically feeling positive about their kinks and the changes that happen as you realize them.

Sorry for a bit of a rant, and thanks in advance if you're willing to give me some advice.

Hey there! Sorry for the SUPER late advice! I hope you're feeling better in the meantime, but if not, I can do my best to offer you 1. some advice and 2. some words of encouragement.

First of all, HELL YEAH. Welcome to the Bisexual Kinkster Club--a club you now belong to because you are kinky and bisexual! Kink rocks! Being bisexual rocks! I am giving you a welcome basket myself.

(The lube tastes like strawberries.)

That being said though, I'm so sorry you're dealing with internalized shame around all of this :( Shame is a very personal thing and can be tricky to deal with, ESPECIALLY when parts of society are telling you the thing you like is wrong, just because they find it disgusting.

But...first of all, disgust-based morality ain't it, chief. It's a one-way ticket to being a miserable, hateful person with Main Character Syndrome and an easy target for fascism. Don't give into it! Don't listen to people who value their own disgust above the needs and happiness of others!

As long as what you are doing is not infringing on the personal rights of others, you deserve to do the things that make you happy. Full fucking stop. (And, newsflash, doing something that just happens to disgust someone is NOT infringing on their personal rights.)

Now, this might be controversial, but I'm going to let you in on a big realization that I had some time in my early 20s: shame is, in my humble opinion, a useless emotion to feel for any duration of time.

It makes you do things you don't want to do. It keeps you from doing things you DO want to do. It lies to you. It eats you alive.

More importantly, though, it's JUST an emotion, and like all emotions, its only job is to try to tell you something. Feeling emotions doesn't make you a good OR a bad person!

Of course, I'm not just telling you "lol just stop feeling things" because that's, like...not possible or healthy. BUT! You are not obligated to feel any emotion that you don't want to feel.

You might, however, want to interrogate the shame, because even if you aren't going to listen to its wishes (right???), it's worth understanding what it's trying to tell you.

So! What is the shame afraid of? What does it want to protect you from? What does it want you to do? Is what it wants you to do in line with your own goals and desires?

If you aren't in alignment with your shame, which I assume you aren't, then you can tell it that.

"I appreciate that you're trying to keep me safe, but I have no reason to be ashamed of the things I like, and I'm not going to let you stop me from enjoying them."

This might sound silly, but once you can speak frankly with your difficult emotions, it gets WAY easier to work through them. Viewing them as parts of yourself that just want to keep you safe is way easier than just dealing with nebulous shame, anger, anxiety, etc.!

And then, there's also the chance that it might be telling you something useful, once you start asking questions.

For example, if the shame is afraid that your friends might judge you, maybe you need to rethink how you navigate your friendships. If it's worried you might be going about a kink all wrong and you'll make a fool of yourself, do some research. If you're overwhelmed by the intensity of a new kink, explore it at your own pace and listen to your feelings about it with curiosity instead of judgment.

Remember: Action TOWARD a goal (in this case, pleasure and fulfillment) is always preferable to an action that AVOIDS negative feelings.

Enthusiasm and self-love are a better motivator than fear and shame. You deserve to be the best, happiest, more joyful version of yourself, and if that includes being a kinky crossdressing hypnotized bisexual, then so be it :)

Hopefully this all makes sense! And hopefully this helps you and others who might be in a similar boat.

Good luck on your journey and happy pride 🌈🏳‍🌈

(Also, please know that I'm always open to give advice. Ask me things. Let me live my know-it-all dreams 😜)

[gonnamurdersomeone]

CoD people as cats? I think so here we go!

Someone better appreciate this I literally took 3 pages from my fucking notebook to write all this shit down

Captain John “Bravo-6” Price

I think John would definitely be an Oriental cat if not that then probably a Burmese. Smart, quick on his feet and pretty loyal seems about right.

Lieutenant Simon “Ghost” Riley

I think Simon would be a Norwegian forest cat or a British Short hair.. for obvious reasons dude is a fuckin Brit through and through. I chose NFC becuase they are bigger types of cats and used to harsh climates

Sergeant Kyle “Gaz” Garrick

For Gaz I chose an Abyssinian cat, they are pretty, usually have pretty eyes (like him) and are pretty smart and playful. Very Gaz coded

Sergeant Johnny “Soap” MacTavish

Johnny boy would be a Scottish Fold or a Siamese cat. They are very vocal, love people and are just a joy to be around honestly. Plus they suffer from pretty boy syndrome so… yeah

Sergeant Gary “Roach” Sanderson

Gary my baby boy, I chose an OciCat cause of his name it’s so random? I thought him being a more exotic and weird cat would fit his aesthetic. Very pretty cats too!

General Hershel Shepherd

Fucking hell I hate this dude and for that I gave him a Sphynx cat, they are mean, bald and bossy as fuck. Sound about right for mister Shepherd no?

I want to kill him

Kate “Watcher-1” Laswell

Kate one of my favorites! She would definitely be an American Curl. Very pretty cats with a unique personality and it just fits her. That or a Bombay cat I couldn’t choose

Nikolai “Gaz fell out of the helicopter again”

Nik our lovable transportation buddy, of course he would get a Russian blue there is no need to elaborate here he would be a Russian blue. Very cool cats ngl

Farah “Kilo Actual” Karim

She is so pretty and such a girl boss istg. But I’m giving the Bengal cat or an Ural Rex very curly hair and just very funny kitties, I think it fits her

Alex “Echo 3-1” Keller (Jr Price fr)

Pretty boy gets a pretty cat!!! He gets to be a Manx cat cause of the no tail (and his one leg) nahh jokes aside very pretty kitties for a very pretty boy

Phillip “Shadow-1” Graves

I hate this dude with all my atoms but he’s tolerable compared to Shepherd.. But I gave Graved an American shorthair. One becuase he’s American and two his hairline makes me wanna cry

Vladimir Makarov

I hate you so so much for what you did in MW3… but you are a character so I’m still giving you a cat. If you were a cat my guy I think you’d be an Peterbald or a Karelian cat

Andre “Alpha 2-1” Nolan

Surprisingly not a bad character imo but he could use some more character development! I’m giving him a Korat cat or a Singapura. I wish he got more development in MW3 honestly :/

Alejandro Vargas

Alejandro! Our favorite Mexican man gotta love him and the cowboys. He’s a petty boy as well so I’m giving him a pretty chill and cool cat as well. A color point shorthair, not necessarily a *breed* per day but still he deserves a petty kitty

Rodolfo Parra

Rudy! Another cowboy we love what a gentleman <3 I’m giving him an Egyptian Mau kitty, it has spots and I think Rudy would be a spotted kitty. Very good boy

Valeria “El-Sin-Nombre” Garza

Mommy issues fr love this women. I support women rights AND wrongs 💪 she gets a Donskoy or a Savannah cat. Both wild kitties to match her wild and unpredictable personality I think it fits very well

König

Anxious King gotta love them! For obvious reasons he’s a Maine Coon cat, the biggest house cat there is. For being an absolute UNIT of a man he deserves a very loyal, pretty, and big kitty. God I just wanna smother this man

Kim “Horangi” Hong-jin

Toyger need I say more? It’s a literal house tiger, his name is fucking Tiger he gets to be the tiger damnit! 😤

Darnell “Hutch” Hutcherson

Dunno the rest of these guys very well (besides Nikto) but I’m giving Hutch a Chartreux cat. I wish the more obscure characters got more attention, no they may not be apart of the MW part but still they deserve love

Nikto

I love this man with every fucking atom of my body. My baby boy deserves the best cat in my opinion the Lykoi. Very cool, funny and amazing cats one of the best he’s just a goober I wanna pet him and keep him in my closet away from all the bad things

Mace

Mace heard some things about you here and there and decided I couldn’t leave you behind. You my friend would be an Oriental Longhair dunno why but I think it suits him

Velikan

Idk if this man is even part of the fandom? Either way I’m giving you a cat deal with it. You would be an Highlander cat if not then an Tonkinese kitty.

Keegan P Russ

Oh Keegan my dear boy, you would be a Devon Rex kitty, very smart, mischievous and overall just a joyful cat. You deserve the world my dear

Logan Walker

Ragdoll. You will get a ragdoll take it or leave or my guy. Just know I’m only adding you and everyone else because of Keegan

David “Hesh” walker

Hhhh.. hesh dude idk I’d probably give you a Havanah Brown kitty. Seems like a good fit. Unusual brown kitty for a unusual cool character

Elias T “Scarecrow” Walker

I literally know nothing about you? But I’m still giving you a cat! Uh I think possibly a Javanese cat would fit you my dude.

Alex v “Ajax” Johnson

Same with you like? I have never heard about you either but whatever. I think a Australian Mist or a Khao Manee cat would work

Alright so that’s all the CoD characters I think? I’m not sure if I missed anyone, if I did tell me and I’ll assign them in the comments or whatever.

No I’m not adding the other characters such as Diego or any other unknown Ghost team people or random background people that only have like 2 lines of dialogue or is barely even known within the CoD community.

[zweetpea]

He loves me, he loves me not

CW: F bomb gets dropped once (pg13 ish), Non Canon compliant, Third person, Fem reader, mean Gojo, some angst, some Geto/Nanami and Haibara x reader, some Utahime x Gojo, No (Y/n), Honorifics, the main character(reader insert) may suffer from Mary Sue syndrome.

“Satoru, Suguru, Shoko.” Satoru looked up from his video game, Suguru closed his book, and Shoko hid her cigarettes from Yaga. They were lounging in the courtyard when Yaga interrupted them. “I’d like you three to meet our new transfer student. She’ll be joining the other first years. She’s from America and has only recently picked up Japanese so please be kind to her.” Yaga nudged her forward.

“Uh, hello. I’m…”

“Pfft! Ahaha! Yaga-Sensei, what is this?” Gojo laughed. “She’s a stuttering little idiot.”

“Come on Satoru be nice.” Geto smiled at the new girl.

“Tsk, whatever. She’s probably weak anyway.”

“Hey! Did you just call me weak?”

“Just speak English, your pronunciation is terrible.” Gojo mocked.

“If I don’t practice, I’ll never get better. Now look who’s being an idiot.”

“What did you just call me short stack?!”

“Gojo, shut up for a second.” Ieiri glared at him. “Something feels wrong.”

A tiny noise sounded from your backpack. It was like a mixture between a growl and a whine.

“Hey short stack. You’ve got a curse in your backpack.” Gojo stated bluntly.

“Okay newbie, we’ll take care of this-”

“NO!!” She cut off Geto and held her bag close to her chest. “She’s not a curse. She’s my best friend.” A little black Chow Chow head popped up from her bag. Yellow spiral eyes blinking furiously, adjusting to the light.

“Arf.” The curse squeaked.

“This is cub. I’ve had them for two years now. My friend Hannah named them. Hannah is an incredible person. She has the makings of a great sorcerer, but she’s not interested.”

“I’m sure she’s lovely.” Shoko smiled at her. Gojo just scoffed.

“Yeah, you should see her use her technique! It’s telekinesis, she was able to lift literal tons! …I miss her a lot.” She said meekly.

“That doesn’t explain why you have a curse with you.” Gojo rolled his eyes.

“Cub is a special curse. Their kind is able to reproduce, back two years ago my dad and I took out the rest of their family. They were cowering in the corner of an abandoned cave system and he let me domesticate them.”

“Great, curses can breed now.” Geto groaned.

“No, just cub and their kind.” She smiled at the three second years. “I’ll be nice and give you one warning. If I see any of you try to hurt them I will make your life hell.”

“I’d like to see you try.” Gojo smirked.

She lifted Cub from her backpack and carried them off. “Cmon Cub. Let’s go unpack in our dorm.”

“Yaga-Sensei! You can’t seriously allow her to keep a curse.”

“There’s nothing I can do about it. The higher ups themselves have ordered her transfer and approved her request to keep the curse.” Yaga sighed.

“Ugh, spoiled brat.”

“Look on the bright side Satoru. This could be interesting.” Suguru smirked.

“Since when were you an optimist?” Shoko rolled her eyes.

“Hey, I just think that could have fun with this.”

“Like what, Suguru?” Satoru moued.

“Don’t know, guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

The next day the new girl introduced herself to her new classmates.

“…but you can call me whatever you like. I look forward to working with you both. Oh and this is Cub. Don’t worry, they’re harmless.”

Haibara gasped excitedly. “They look like a baby bear!”

“Yeah, they’re so cute!”

“Totally! You’re like their mama bear huh?”

“I suppose I am.”

“Can I call you Kuma-Chan then?”

“Of course! But you have to let me call you Yu-Chan.”

“Deal.”

“What about you Nanami-San?” She turned to the blonde boy.

“Yeah! Use a nickname.”

“You don’t have to.” She assured him.

“Nickname! Nickname! Kuma-Chan! Kuma-Chan!” Haibara clapped along with each syllable.

“I’ll think about it… Kuma-San. Ugh that sounds weird.”

Haibara cheered excitedly. Yaga smacked him and started to teach.

After class Haibara invited her out to lunch.

“Hey Short Stack. Come over here.” Gojo beckons her over, curling his finger in a come here motion.

“What?”

“You may think that you’re special, having the old farts drooling all over you and all, but you’re nothing more than a wet hole they can toss away at any moment.”

“Wow. If this is how you see women, it’s no wonder why you’re a virgin.” His smirk dropped, as hers curled tightly onto her lips.

He grimaced at her, stepping toward her to tower over her. “A weakling like you should watch your mouth. I’m the strongest sorcerer in the world, probably all of history.” He slammed her against the wall. “I shake the foundation of the world.” He placed his hand around her throat. “No one would even care if you were to disappear one day.”

She held her hands in a circular position and brought them up to her eye level. Before he knew what happened purple rope surrounded him on the ground then more apparated and entangled his limbs.

“What the Hell?” He grunted.

“Strongest my Ass.” You mumbled and limped away.

“Kuma-Chan! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, Yu-Chan. Just a little light headed. I hate to say it but that Gojo guy is pretty strong.”

“He’s a Gojo, of course he’s strong.” Nanami piped up.

“What do you mean?”

The boys explained the details of the Gojo Clan and Jujutsu society as a whole.

After lunch the Higher ups brought her down to the basement of Jujutsu high. “What is this?”

“This is Tengen. Nullify their energy.”

She held her hands up in a familiar manner and purple rope surrounded the sorcerer.

“It didn’t work.” One of the higher ups remarked.

“Hang on.” She pulled off her backpack and pulled out Cub. “Come on now, Cub. Absorb Tengen’s cursed energy.” They winced and hid into her shoulder. “Please Cub. I know that you’ve been a bit sick but please, try for me.” Cub looked toward Tengen and tried to absorb their cursed energy. “Nothing? Okay bud.” She put them back in the bag.

“Wait.” Tengen called out. “You said that curse could absorb cursed energy?”

“They can transfer it to someone else too.”

“The Star Plasma Vessel will be here in a few days. I want you to absorb their energy and feed it to me.”

“May I know why? I’ve been flown across the world, to an underground bunker, in the forest of an island nation. I have no clue what’s going on.”

“Men, leave us.” The higher ups leave the two sorcerers and the curse. “I am dying, it is happening very soon. My consciousness will evaporate and I will morph into a higher plane of existence. The Star Plasma Vessel has the Cursed Technique to renew my form but they can only use it upon death, thus can only be activated once. I believe that your pet can absorb it and transfer it to me without casualties.”

“What if it doesn’t work?”

Tengen had gone quiet after that.

“Okay…” She turned and walked out.

The day of the full moon was the day of the merge, and it was also the scariest day of her life. The day started out with Haibara and Nanami asking her to accompany them on a mission; she declined.

“Huh? But what could be more important than this?”

“Don’t worry about it Yu-Chan. The higher up’s gave me a different mission and I have to stay here.”

“Just let it go Haibara.” Nanami pat him on the shoulder and the two left.

Next she went to the armory to get a weapon just in case of emergencies. “Ooh a machete. What do you think bud? Should I go Jason Voorhees on their asses?” She swished the machete around as cub sits on the floor.

“Arf!”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

She then spent the rest of the day chilling on the roof of one of the buildings, keeping watch over the school to see when the boys would return.

Eventually Geto ran past her and Cub. “Geto-Senpai!”

“Satoru is in danger! If you want to be useful go help him!”

“Take Cub with you!” She threw her pet down to Geto, Riko, and the maid.

She then went off to find where Gojo was. On the way she came face to face with Toji Fushiguro.

She assumed a fighting position and shouted, “Who the hell are you?” He didn’t respond as he pulled out a gun from his worm and shot her. The bullet pierced through her stomach.

“Out of my way.” He spat coldly as he stepped over her. She lay unmoving on the floor as he walked away. She didn’t need to give him a reason to think she wasn’t dead and risk him coming back to finish the job.

After he was a good distance away she felt that it was safe to get up. She pulled the bullet out with her hands as red vines surrounded the wounded like bandages. Then she pulled on them and they disappeared along with the wound.

She got up ran in the direction Toji left in. “No doubt he was already to the elevator by now.”

She got there just as the elevator doors closed and she saw Toji looking surprised at her. She used the Machete she had borrowed earlier to pry the elevator doors open. She then sliced the cables on the elevator. “Who says you can’t bring a knife to a gun fight?” She then takes a different elevator down and runs through the tunnels to get to Geto and Riko.

On Toji’s end he had heard the snap of the elevator cables and been quick. He pried open the doors and used one of his swords to plunge into the space between the doors and jam the elevator still. He took a moment to catch his breath. He then opened the ceiling hatch and crawled up into the open. He looked between the cracks and saw that he was only a few feet from the bottom to if he hit it it most likely wouldn’t kill him. He hesitantly crawled back into the elevator and slowly pulled his sword out. The elevator plummeted down to the bottom and Toji lost his footing and hit his head pretty hard. “Ugh. That brat, I should’ve finished her off when I had the chance.” He rested for a few seconds before he got up and walked through the tunnel.

Halfway through a snarling wrathful creature came charging a him. Cub bit into Toji’s right side as he swung at the poor creature. Toji kept swinging but Cub started to jump around and claw at the man. He was getting tired of the creature but he couldn’t really do anything to them. After a few minutes he finally grabbed Cub and threw them hard against the wall. Cub whimpered and crawled towards Toji, not willing to give up fighting yet. Toji stabbed them in the side and walked on towards the other side of the tunnel.

When he finally got to the end he yelled exasperated. “OH COME ON!! I shot you, and you gave me a head start when you cut the elevator cord, but somehow you got here before me!”

“You’re not getting the star plasma vessel that easily.”

She apparated a glowing white metal chain to her and struck him with it. He grabbed it and pulled her closer to him grabbing her and threw her down the tunnel behind him.

She heard a familiar whimper come from farther down and she rushed to see Cub. “Oh shit! No no, please! Cub!” She surrounded them in red vines and smiled softly when they licked her hand. She sprinted back down the tunnel in a fury.

she handed Cub off to Riko who had been abandoned by the boys who were fighting. She summoned her chains and swung over to them. She struck Toji in the face and again on his back. She kept swinging. His arms his legs his sides. Geto had to physically stop her as she jumped closer to the assassin and was almost hit by one of his curses.

“Careful Kohai!”

“I’m going to kill him! He nearly killed Cub!” She screamed as tears poured down her face.

“I’ll handle this! You get Riko to safety.”

“But-”

“No offense Kohai but you’ll get in my way if you jump in guns blazing. Go help Gojo, get him to Shoko.”

“Okay.” She swung away. “Senpai! Here!” She pointed at him and a light blue ribbon shot towards him and was absorbed into him. She pulled Riko and Cub away down one of the tunnels to get to the elevator.

“Gojo!” She and Riko called out as he stood in front of them. He ran toward the two and hugged Riko. It did feel like a bit of a punch that he’d greet Riko first, but it’s not like the two were close so she shouldn’t feel bad about it, right?

“Hey Gojo-Senpai, Geto-Senpai wanted me to get you to Shoko Senpai.”

“No need.”

“Alright then, come on Cub, absorb Riko’s energy.”

“WHAT?!” The two scream.

“Riko can Absorb Cursed Energy and either transfer it to someone else or use it to amplify their attacks. I could boost their ability to do so if I had any energy left but I used the rest to boost and refuel Geto-Senpai.”

“Back up, back up. What can you do?”

“I have purple rope that nullifies, white chains that attack, red vines that heal, and light blue ribbons that buffs someone. I well it’s more complicated, I can use the last bit of my cursed energy to refill someone’s cursed energy as well as boost the strength of their attack.”

“You’re like Shoko and Utahime combined, but weaker.”

“I don’t know about that. She was beating up that assassin pretty easily.” Riko smiled.

“I don’t know what world you are living in but that was not easy.” She declared.

“Weak.” Gojo Whisper yelled.

“Shut up!”

“Here, if you need cursed energy have your little bear thing refill yours with mine.” Gojo held out his hand towards the curse. Cub nearly bit him.

“Do you by any chance have a high amount of cursed energy?”

“Yeah, it’s basically unlimited. Why?”

“So you’re why Cub’s been sick lately!” Cub started to consume energy as their human kept talking. “They get kinda sick and cranky when they’re surrounded by a large amount of Cursed energy.” The two did the transfer and Cub took away Riko’s cursed energy. “Now if you two will excuse me I’m going to go help Tengen.”

A few days later and life was getting on at Jujustu High. Riko and her maid had gone home, Tengen was stable, Shoko had healed Geto, and no one had heard anything about Toji since he fled.

“Hm? Short stack! Where are you going?” Gojo called out as he saw her leaving the premises with her suitcases and Cub riding in her backpack.

“Good luck with your future endeavors Gojo-Senpai!” She smiled back at him. “I’ll be taking my leave now.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” He ran up to her.

“My purpose for coming to Japan is fulfilled. I’m going back to America.”

“What? You’re leaving?” He asked exasperated.

“Yes. Is there a problem?” She tilted her head slightly confused.

“You can’t leave!”

“Why not?”

“Because there aren’t as many curses anywhere else in the world. If you want to get stronger you have to stay.”

“I’m strong enough to protect myself and those I love.”

“Oh really?”

“Why do you even care?”

“I want to fight you. You beat me once but rest assured that will never happen again. I want you at your strongest so that I can destroy you.”

“Ugh. Can you be any more petty?”

“You’re not leaving Tokyo yet. I’ll talk to the higher ups and get them to let you stay.” He pats her on the head like she’s a dog.

“The world doesn’t revolve around you, ya know. I don’t want to fight you. And after this past week I don’t think that I want to become a sorcerer anymore.”

“Just… stay for the rest of the school year. If you really want to leave after that go ahead.”

“Is your ego really that fragile that anyone who can possibly crush the brittle piece of masculinity you have has to be “put in their place”?”

“You wish. Like I already told you. I am Gojo Satoru. I am the strongest sorcerer in history. Mountains crumble before me. Raging oceans calm at the snap of my fingers. I can destroy everything that you’ve ever loved so be a good girl and sit tight while I get ready to humiliate you.”

She just looked at him bored. “You know, your fly has been down this entire conversation.”

He blushes and looks down to see that she was lying and looked up to see her giggling to herself and walking back towards the dorms. “See you later Tomato Face.”

“I’m going to kill her one day.” Gojo mutters to himself.

Weeks went by without her even realizing it. Everyday was rigorous training; her speed, strength, and stamina had all increased.

“Okay, let’s try domain expansion.” Yaga said as he held up a clipboard jotting down notes for an examination to determine her rank. They were out on the track field measuring the strengths and limitations of her cursed Techniques.

Haibara and Nanami came out to support her while the second year students came out because Gojo wanted to make fun of her.

“Oh, um… I don’t have a domain. See, because I can nullify cursed energy I can’t exactly use a domain to amplify my nullification. They kinda cancel each other out.” Gojo snickered watching from above at the top of the stairs. Geto elbowed him in the side as Shoko glared.

“Don’t worry Kuma-Chan! You’re doing great!” Haibara yelled supportively.

“Can’t you just put me in grade 4? I don’t really know if I want to stay here anyway.”

“Listen, I know that this isn’t the most ideal situation, but you’re here at Jujutsu High anyway and most people want you to succeed.”

“Look, I’m hungry, I’m tired, I want to go take a hot shower and finish up my day by watching Naruto. Can we please just finish this up?”

Yaga sighed and clicked his pen in. “Fine, we should have enough Data to sort you.”

Haibara ran over to her. “Kuma-Chan! Don’t you want the fame of a Jujutsu sorcerer?”

“No not really. I think you and Nanami-San will be great sorcerers. Ieiri-Senpai and Geto-Senpai will be amazing too.”

“What about me, short stack?” Gojo teleports behind her and wraps an arm around her shoulder.

“Yeah yeah, you’ll become the strongest sorcerer and you’ll have women throwing themselves at you, you’ll be so rich that you’ll use paper money to wipe your ass, and if anyone ever talks back to you you’ll kill them without a second thought.” She replied sarcastically.

“Wrong! I’m already the strongest.” He booped her nose. She rolled her eyes and pushed him off her.

“Drop dead SENPAI.” She said tauntingly, and walked off.

Geto smirked and walked alongside her. “You sure told him off.”

“…Can we not talk about him Senpai? How have the curses been.”

“Tasting like Shit as usual.”

“Do you want me to make you some sweets?”

“That sounds lovely sweetness.”

…

“Since when did they get so close?” Gojo side eyed the two.

A year later Yaga sent Haibara and Nanami out on a mission.

“Can I come along?”

“Are you sure you want to?” Nanami asked worried.

“Can’t let you two have all the fun, now can I?” She smiled and left with the boys.

“Pfft. She thinks that she’s all that.” Gojo rolled his eyes.

“She is pretty nice.” Geto replied smiling at the thought of the yummy pasties that she’d cook when she got home.”

“Oh yeah. I bet you’d know all about it seeing as you two are best friends.”

“Are you jealous?” Geto’s voice held a bit of mirth to it as he teased his best friend.

“NO! I just don’t like that she’s taking away everything that is rightfully mine! My title as the strongest, my best friend, next she’ll take away my girlfriend.”

“You don’t have a girlfriend. And she tied you up once a year ago, I highly doubt that you could call her the strongest.”

“Okay second point first, it’s still a blow to my reputation, okay? And while I don’t have a girlfriend yet once I do she’ll probably go around spreading lies about me.”

“Who would you even want for a girlfriend? Riko? Shoko? Utahime?”

“Um… someone who can keep up with me. Someone who’s kind and thoughtful. Someone strong enough to keep my family off my ass but someone I can protect and provide for. She’ll have to be okay with me leaving for missions all the time though.” At Gojo’s confession Geto bursts out in laughter. Gojo blushes. “What’s so funny, Suguru?”

“Your ideal girlfriend sounds just like the woman you were bitching about not even 15 seconds ago. She doesn’t just kiss your ass, she’s made me pastries on many occasions to wash out the awful taste of curses, she has incredible power but overall doesn’t want to become a sorcerer, and since she’s been on several missions she’d understand the hardships of having to travel for work.”

“No, Suguru that’s crazy talk. I don’t love her and I’ll prove it to you.”

“How?”

“I’m going to tell Yaga that she left without permission.”

“What? No, Satoru. Do not narc on the poor girl just because I said that you have a crush on her.”

“I do not!”

“Gojo has a crush on who now?” Shoko appeared to the boys.

“No one!” Satoru shouted.

“Okay, calm down!” Shoko sighed.

The next day the three came back, Nanami carrying her in his arms.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m so fucking sorry!” Haibara sobbed into Geto’s shoulder.

“What happened?”

“She took a hit for Haibara… her Achilles tendon was slashed and she lost a hand. Haibara broke one of his ribs and the curse ripped his arm clean off. Eventually we were able to get her enough cursed energy to heal herself and Haibara, but she overdid it and she hasn’t woken up since.”

“HAIBARA!! NANAMI!! YOU ASSHATS WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT HER!!” Satoru yelled as he ran into the room. Geto had to physically restrain him and explain the whole situation. “She wasn’t supposed to be on that mission.” Cub walked over on their hind legs and pawed at Gojo, sucking up some of his energy. They then rushed over to their human and refilled her energy so.

“Yu! Kento!” She shot up she pulled Yu into a tight hug and as the other three boys in the room watched on. “Jackass. I thought that I’d lost you.” She softly sobbed.

“Okay Short Cake I think that’s enough excitement for one day. I’ll bring you back to your dorm.” Gojo pulled her away from Haibara and picked her up.

“Hey! Put me down!” She screamed as he started to walk away.

“Call me Satoru and I just might.”

“This isn’t funny Gojo-Senpai!”

“Why so cold? Not even 5 seconds ago I you used Haibara and Nanami’s first names. Come on~ three little sounds Sa~To~Ru~”

“Never!”

“I’ll give you a kiss if you be a good girl and say my name!”

“Yu Yu! Kenny! Help me!”

“Now they have their own nicknames? You’re being so mean.”

“Sugu! He’s your friend! Do something!”

“Even my own best friend gets this special treatment. Oh how you wound me.” He pouted.

“Should we do something?” Kento asked.

“Nah, I’m going to love teasing him about this for the next month.” Suguru smirks recording the whole thing.

At the end of the year She and Gojo finally battled; he wiped the floor with her.

“Congrats, strongest sorcerer.” She smiled at him.

“Thanks. In a year how about we have a rematch? Does best two out of three work for you?”

“Only if you count this round one. I don’t think I could go three rounds with you.”

“Technically this is round two since you beat me as a first year. Next year at your graduation winner takes all.”

“I wasn’t really trying back then but you’re on.”

“Gojo are you bullying this poor girl?”

“Look who decided to show up. Short cake this is Mei Mei and Utahime.”

“Nice to meet you both.” She smiled.

“Gojo! You should show me more respect as your senior!” Utahime glared. As the two started to bicker Mei Mei pulled the other woman away.

“Sorry hun. He’s taken.”

“What?”

“I can tell that you have an interest in him, but look at them over there. Do you see his smile? The fire in his eyes when he looks at her? The way he laughs so carelessly? His heart belongs to Utahime.”

“Sa- …Gojo-Senpai, I have to go. I’ll see you in a year.”

“Wait. You’ve still got two weeks til you have to go back to school.”

“Yeah, um. I think I’m going to go back to America.”

“Why? You were just there.”

“Six months ago for Christmas break.”

“Oh… has it really been that long? Okay well. I’ll see you around!”

“Yeah…”

She went back to her dorm and sobbed into her Pillow. After a good hour she bought a ticket to go home, and started to pack.

“Wow. Sweet Eighteen has done you well.” Gojo smirked.

“Tch. Don’t be a creep.” She said as the two assumed a fighting stance.

The battle was chaos. Attack after attack was fired. Eventually she nullified his cursed technique and jumped on him. She got onto his shoulders and started to hit his head.

“…Short cake… hang on for a moment… I’ll surrender if you do something for me.”

“What exactly.”

“Squeeze your legs together. As hard as you can.”

“Are you kidding? That’ll suffocate you!”

“That’s kind of the point sweetheart.” As he said that she just fell back in shock. He caught her as she fell. “Is that a no? If you’re not into that I’m more than willing to suffocate in your chest.”

“Shut up!”

“Short Cake, what happened to us? You haven’t talked to me in a year. We were so close after you nearly died.”

“Oh don’t act like you care about me! Just go off and marry that Utahime chick!”

“I don’t want to marry her.”

“Please. I saw the way you looked at her at your graduation.”

“Oh you mean like how you’re so touchy with Suguru and Haibara and Nanami, and all those assholes on your social media accounts!”

“Are you kidding? You have no right to judge how I chose to move on from my heartbreak. It’s not like you’ve been very chaste anyway. You’ve “supported” a few girls financially here and there over the past year and you have the balls to act like I’m in the wrong?”

“You ghosted me!”

“Because Mei Mei said that you were in love with Utahime!”

“Yeah? Well she lied. Utahime has never made me feel like I was at threat of being overthrown as the strongest. For two years you came at me with comeback after comeback and I finally felt alive! Two years I watched you give Suguru sweets and I begged him to share even half a crumb with me! Two years I watched you squander your potential because you didn’t feel like you deserved to be here! I’m done holding back.” He grabbed her by the back of her head and kissed her, he then whispered her full name lowly in her ear and vowed that one day soon he would marry her.

“Come here dumbass.” She kissed him again. “I love you Satoru.”

“I love you too.”

“I could have been named Sasuke?” Her and Satoru’s 5 year old son pouted.

“Toru suggested that name and I shot him down. We already have one emo son in Megumi. We didn’t need another one.”

“Kakashi! Nezuko! Why is my very pregnant wife and your very pregnant mother out here in the cold?”

“Hun, it’s September, and 75 degrees out.”

“Sorry Papa.” The three year old girl teared up.

“Great Satoru. Now you’re making our daughter cry.”

“Sorry Short Cake. Megumi! Can you help your mother to the couch?”

“She is not my mother. No offense.”

“Non taken. I know that you only say that because then technically he’d be your father.”

“Hey! He’s a great dad!” Kakashi defended.

“Yeah! He’s the best daddy!” Nezuko adds.

“I suppose you are great, aren’t you Daddy~?” She teased. The children painfully unaware of the meaning.

“Are they like this all the time?” An unfamiliar voice called from the foyer of the Gojo Estate. Her face burnt up in embarrassment.

“Mrs. Gojo. Meet Itadori Yuuji and Kugisaki Nobara, Megumi’s new classmates.

“Please pretend like you didn’t hear me earlier.” She requested meekly.

“Done. Gone from my memory.” Yuuji smiled plainly.

“Yeah yeah, I don’t really care about Sensei’s bedroom affairs.” Nobara hand waved it away.

“Megumi. How about you show your friends around and put your siblings down for a nap?” Satoru suggested.

Megumi nodded and everyone left the two alone.

“I love you Mrs. Gojo.”

“I love you too Mr. Gojo.” And as Sakura petals fall the two embraced in a tender kiss.

[unsiredtribrid]

i don't care about m/f ships in tvd so this is really not even my business, but like ? how is someone gonna talk badly about the other popular m/f tvd ships and how the fandom only cares about what the ship does for the men in the ship (and not the women) and then also ship h@ylijah in the same breath? doesn't make sense to me

the show tried to give hayley growth and make her into a character that found a sense of honor and a moral code that was important to her. this is a big change from the teenage girl we saw in tvd who sacrificed people to get a flash drive of info on her family. but then marcel, who is hayley's friend btw, gets his heart ripped out and dies and the show has hayley immediately forgive elijah and hook up with him. do you know how little sense this makes for her? the show keeps on going with the characterization it gave her, for the most part, and when she dies everyone mourns her. even marcel. so that part with elijah didn't make sense and that's only one of several moments where elijah got the girl but it either didn't make sense for hayley or did nothing for her (or worse, got her killed? hayley's entire death was almost entirely focused on elijah and thankfully at least some of hope's grief. but a large part was how sad he is and how all his girlfriends keep dying, lol)

elijah's feelings are always what's prioritized in that ship, which is part of the reason why it's so bad. it's about his manpain and him agonizing over his actions and no part of that ship is good for hayley or makes sense for her unless you argue that he offered a bit of reprieve from the chaos of being a new mikaelson (for hayley) because the rest of them, minus rebekah, put her through a lot sometimes. even then i feel like that argument only works for maybe the beginning of season 1 and to ME it seems like hayley's character has completely outgrown him after that. there doesn't even seem to be anything there for her? it feels forced. it also flies in the face of her development and sometimes it can be good to have characters go five steps back and then one step forward or whatever, but this is not one of those times because the ship doesn't even have enough positives to justify that

tldr though, what i mean with this post is that while i do agree that the fandom (and fandoms at large) tend to focus on what men want more than women and that is completely fair to discuss/unpack, i also find it funny that people who like h@ylijah are seemingly not acknowledging that all of elijah's ships also fall prey to this issue. i'm not the police and idc what people enjoy. i get why people love all of their ships, even d*lena and i hate that pairing because of what it does to elena. but like. yeah idk, this is my two cents because i also think a lot of the tvdu fandom can have this weird main character syndrome with the way they talk about other ships in the fandom

[multifunctionalnitroglycerin]

I haven't yet watched the second season of Blood of Zeus, and honestly, I am a bit scared to do so.

Not because I expect it to be any accurate retelling or anything, far from it. It was fun exploring a different course and not sticking to the mythos and not pretending to stick to the mythos.

I am not watching it for the plot and all its at times glaring insufficiencies, but for the art style and character designs, which are in many cases superb ( yes, I want a curvaceous Aphrodite that is vengeful and can sure as heck yield a sword, yes I want an Ares that isn't half naked and wears armor and a helmet ( no talks abt accuracy here I am not out to get them) a Demeter that looks like everyone's aunt that will force you to eat some more, has a green thumb and a heck of a temper, and frankly one of my favorite Athena designs in modern animated media )

What I do worry about, however, is the plot. Which yeah is all fun and games as far as myths themselves go, but even from the trailer I see Heron suffering main character and plot armor syndrome and I am a bit less than enthused.

S1 was bad enough with Zeus playing favorites among his bastard children, and being like, you are not a mortal you are my son.

Ehhmm sir, what are Apollo and Hermes and Ares then?

And they are present in the scene. So either Zeus is supposed to be an even more huge prick, clearly favoring his mortal offpsirng from the immortal ones. Who have backed him up. In several occasions in the show. Or well, plot.

And then we have the trailer with Heron fist fighting Ares I think, and getting 4 solid hits in. Which okay fun if you like Heron, but my dudes. You won't win a fist fight against the God of War. But he is the son of Zeus! And so is half the Pantheon.

And I am afraid we are going to overlook many 'logical' things, and nerf a lot of gods to make Heron seem as idk the rightful heir to the throne of Olympus or idk and yeah... it ll take a lot from the show.

Because wether we like it or not, Heron is a demigod. Not a God. And he has lived only a handful of years in comparison to the rest. I have trouble thinking that any of the gods would back down from taking the lead and giving it to Heron. Who will? Athena? Ares? Poseidon? Hera?

Especially in a time of unrest. Where supposedly Hades is behind the coup and wants to take over Olympus. Well, buddy, I wouldn't want to be stuck down there and constantly being a footnote, either. I can understand why he snapped within the premises for the show.

And it introduces an interesting theme. Civil War among the gods. Not the first time it has happened, but it has the potential to be interesting. I want to see them struggle, and fight while trying to organize a sort of defense against Hades and Persephone. I want Athena and Ares to fight over how to station their forces and who should lead them. I want to see the power struggle between the Queen of Olympus, the King's brother, and his first son. The power vacuum is delicious.

And I definitely want to see more of Apollo and Artemis and Hermes. Who I feel will more readily accept Heron among their ranks. On principle of their personalities in tandem with their status.

Anyway, bottom line I don't want to see an overpowered Heron for example and an Artemis that misses 3 shots out of 5, and Ares that can barely hold his own, a Hermes thats like a Flash lookalike, a himbo Apollo with little functionality and a goddess of battle strategy that cannot do battle strategy, all for the purpose of making the main character look better.

I might be going off a mile here, but I have learned to expect the worst usually, so forgive me. I d very much prefer to be pleasantly surprised, so fingers crossed for that.

[sea-buns]

not really, but I suppose that’s just a difference of opinion. I do think that gorgug’s nightmare sequence was one of the weakest, especially with how it shifted topics (being dead, small spaces, not being able to escape a stereotype, because if any of these had been expanded on that would’ve been great), but I do think a lot of gorgug’s character revolves around feeling in-between, or too much one thing and not another and trying to close that gap. The best one for me was deffo the sphinx tho, I interpreted it as not *just* about him being dumb, but rather like. You’re big and dumb and strong and your main job is getting angry and hitting shit with an axe. You went to a community of gnomes and they gave you a better axe, and you loved it. You are uniquely dumb, unlike those who have come before you, because you cannot solve a specific kind of puzzle while a sphinx talks at you. You are the reason your parents cut contact, and from the beginning you were unsuited for their home. Your extended family predicted that you would grow to know only rage, and here you are, a barbarian. You, from this perspective, are not proving them wrong.

I do think that that whole sequence does reveal that he’s afraid of like. Being that stereotype? And then going yeah sure I’m stupid eat me, then moving forward and clawing your way into understanding anyways

Ahhh I see. Yeah I think I did misunderstand your first ask a bit lol

I did really love a lot of the topics his sequence brought up. Like I've read some incredibly well-written fanfics that covered the ways that claustrophobia, and imposter syndrome, and being dead have affected him. But like you said, if they had just honed in on at least one, rather than hopping back and forth, it could have done so much for that section. Cuz, personally, I don't feel like we saw Gorgug be significantly affected by any of those. At least not in a way that felt complete and satisfying.

I really like what you said about his character being "in-between". I totally agree. Kinda circles back to how his parents trying to help him calm his rage was actually stifling him.

Your family needs you to calm down; you've broken another bedchairdoorappliance. Your teacher wants you to rage; he says anger is good but you don't understand. You sing to try and calm yourself, you're always trying to be kind to others; they only use it to hurt you more and all you can do is get angry back. Your friends need you to rage. You don't have the power to protect them socially, but this you can do. You try not to rage outside of a fight, but.... they don't seem to be that bothered when you do. In fact, you watch them provoke physical confrontation when they're mad on many occasions.

(Oops dipped a biiiit into the pot of how important friendship is to his character. Did not mean to lol it's just one of my fav things about him so it's kinda subconscious I guess)

But yeah! He's also in such a limbo this season as well! You can't do this you're too angry, you're not smart enough for that, you don't rage right.

Also realllyy like your interpretation of his trial. The angle you described it at was really interesting.

I don't think stereotype is the right word, though. I would say... he's afraid of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy? I'm assuming based on your own "stereotype?" that you weren't sure about the word either.

I don't think Gorgug is, or would ever be, afraid of being a "stereotype". Like I don't think he gives a shit about the stereotype that orcs/half-orcs/barbarians only know anger and destruction. I think he's afraid of being a self-fulfilling prophecy of all the things people say that he is. Stupid, mindless, destructive, etc. To pull from what you said here (which it wont let me copy paste on mobile god fucking damnit)

"Your extended family predicted that you would grow to know only rage, and here you are, a barbarian. You, from this perspective, are not proving them wrong."

"Stereotype" for sure applies to his racist extended family. They fucking breathe stereotypes like oxygen. But the bit where his afraid of becoming what everyone says he is, I think "self-fulfilling prophecy" suits that much better. He believes he can be more than that, he knows he can, but it doesn't change the fact that they are technically right.

Okay and the giving in but then "clawing your way into understanding anyways" actually goes so hard lol. Anon, you are so right. From that pov, it's not so much a give up as it is an acknowledgment before he essentially puts the subject on ice.

Rings back a bit to the start of fhjy to me. That dread of seeing the email of school starting back up again, and the terrible sinking pit in your stomach of avoidance, because the time has come to really unpack all that. There was something specific Zac said in his little Gorgug recap before the season started that was about, like, the dread of having to figure out who the fuck you're gonna be when everyone around you seems to have their shit together. That. That hit hard lmao but the experience that he's covered is very true to Gorgug, I think.

I totally misunderstood your first ask! Though I'm happy you sent another cuz I understand a lot better, I think. And tbh I've never had the opportunity to discuss that section of fantasy high with anyone? I wasn't on tumblr or watching d20 when it first aired so I missed these specific topics. Always been v interested in what others thought of his part. Maybe I should put the vods on in the bg next time I'm play sdv. Give em a relisten. And man. The fact that I'm out here quoting your message brings me back to english class so hard. Shocked I don't hate it. Actually having a topic you give half a shit about does wonders huh lmao

Thanks for the ask! You have altered my perspective and I appreciate it. It's like how sometimes you gotta read something out loud to understand it. If all I have is the walls of my own skull, I can only get so far.

[ombrathefurry]

canon vs fanon main characters

I’ve had to answer this ask six times because Tumblr on my phone keeps deleting my response

Sf 

Canon: Severely traumatized, not very loud about his feelings, not very loud in general, good intentions but DEFINITELY not innocent, avoids attention and confrontation as much as possible, a cat, child that needs protecting, actually kind of smart sometimes, “everything that happens to me isn’t my choice anymore” but in a bitterness to the world way 

Fanon: Neurotically anxious, main character syndrome, loud, “PLEASE DONT HURT ME PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE,” panics a lot (but not in the way he actually does this one is more like a meltdown than a panic attack,) innocent bean, literally almost every other animal other than a cat (usually mouse or sheep,) kind of dumb child that needs protecting, shouldn’t be left on his own, warms up to people too fast, “everything that happens to me isn’t my choice” but in a woe is me kind of way (main character syndrome)

Phoenix 

Canon: Literally a horrible person, woman, boxy and strong, scariest and most dangerous out of the main cast, a literal sadist, horribly unwell both physically and mentally, actually just a monster she’s just become the epitome of a monster, TORTURES people and never intentionally KILLS them, absolutely terrifying especially in a fight, very unstable mentality (which leads to her being not so evil sometimes,) she cannot be fixed 

Fanon: Man (???) less scary than loading (??????) kind of edgy but not super scary, the cool lady baddie character that everyone avoids because she’s kind of scary, kills people, isn’t very cruel she’s just insane, “ehehehheee” evil instead of just actual pure evil

Loading 

Canon: Mentally unstable, gayest man alive, very severe mood swings (can be the nicest man alive or the most viscerally psychotic creature chasing you like a rabid dog,) a stupid idiot, no capability of manipulation (he also would have no interest,) manic killer, loves Draven with a deep passion, people think he’s evil because it’s just the way he is, silly 

Fanon: Big evil mastermind, calculating psycho, always evil, kind of a jerk, smart, a simp for Draven, people think he’s evil because he tries to be, sfs worst nightmare (occasionally #1 tormentor???????) scariest of the gang 

Draven 

Canon: Apathetic scary man, he’s scary because he’s unpredictable, occasionally sadistic and when he is he’s actually really bad, doesn’t look for much trouble but when he does his craziness shows through, but he’s also actually traumatized and is struggling with it, love loading with the same deep passion, okay yeah now that I think about it he’s actually very mentally unwell too 

Fanon: Emotionless man who doesn’t care about anything (he does he just doesn’t show it) not scary, kind of uninterested in loading, dad vibes sometimes I don’t know how 

Reena 

Canon: Bubbly, kind of a jerk actually, annoying, nice to her friends though, can’t do much about anything that’s happening to sf despite really wanting to, watches over sf rather than protects him 

Fanon: Protects sf, innocent, elegant, kind peaceful ghost type thing idk there’s not much else she doesn’t get a lot of attention 

[panlight]

I know fandom doesn't always think of Bella as a "Cullen" when thinking of the coven collectively. She wasn't included in your worst traits amplified answer. But I was still curious what you think hers would be.

Yeah to me "The Cullens" are the group pre-Bella. I understand that by the end of the story she and Renesmee are part of it, by in my brain everything sort of exists in this Eclipse-era status quo so I don't think of her as a Cullen.

As for a negative trait enhanced . . . I guess she could have turned into Renee? She seems to have a similar ability to get everyone to fall all over themselves to cater to her needs. This could just be Main Character syndrome, but we could chalk it up to inheriting a gift similar to Renee's and Bella doesn't even realize she's doing, but like, how many people put their lives on the line for Bella's love story? How many people end up dead because of it? Like, kind of a lot!

Renesmee is too young and too much of a plot device or symbol to really have any 'traits,' negative or positive. People have plenty of headcanons, but I'm talking on the page. She is possessive of Jacob though, and loves to show off the size of her prey, but how much these are 'negative traits' and not just 'she doesn't have much life experience yet no matter how smart she is' who's to say? She could have another Renee-like power, although personally I think most of the visiting vampires were doing it for Carlisle and/or because it was 'right' rather than because 'omg look at this cute baby' but Bella and Eleazar spoke about it as if Renesmee is just that cute and endearing, and you can certainly read her gift as maybe planting positive feelings for her in people's minds, as the ones who didn't let her touch them (like Amun and Alistair) were much less committed to the cause.

Or she could just go completely negative; this kid is going to be spoiled rotten as the miracle only child of a rich family PLUS she has Jacob, who has to be and do whatever she wants, and this is all super normal to her since birth. She is supremely used to being the center of attention and it seems really natural and normal to her. She's also used to 'showing' her thoughts to other people; if her power grows, how close do we get to mind-control? I'm sure SM intends for her to be all loveliness and light (but feel like an outsider as a hybrid), but she could easily go down a darker route.

[pitter-patt-art]

Ace Attorney AU August oops-august-has-been-over-for-a-week Update!!

Hiiiii well okay first and most importantly of all! Happy investigations collection day everyone!!!! My copy is supposed to arrive by 10pm although I'm not sure I'll be playing it right away, but, hey, once it arrives I'll have in my possession at least one physical copy of every game in the series (2 for aai1, woohoo)!!! *Coughs* uh except all of the OG Trilogy which instead I own like 2 times over digitally (3 in T&T's case, thanks Wii) lmao. Ah well.

NOW the actual post. Yeah it's not August anymore but I've been recuperating or w/e so shhh, better late than never!

Overall I wrote over 50k words (actually in August itself) and posted 5 fics (with many more in progress), which is honestly just, wild???? That is so cool. Apparently the way to overcome writer's block is just overcommit to a month-long prompt list, who knew!

Here is my post about the first 17 days/AUs! And over here's my Ao3 series for these! Below the cut I'll wrap up the last 14 days of AUs, some thoughts, etc!

I am setting the goal for myself to actually finish writing these before the end of the year even if they're not technically "AU-gust" qualified anymore by the time I get to them sooo ...wish me luck!! In the meantime I am proud of myself for (tbh completely unnecessarily and to my detriment lmao) coming up with actually a full 31 solid AUs based on the prompts that I feel inspired by.

This post is gonna be a bit more rambly than the last one because I definitely did more of my writing last month the first 2 weeks rather than the last 2, but nevertheless--

Onto the remaining AUs!

18 - Space Travel

So, I actually started a draft at the airport before my vacation where I got wayyyy too sidetracked getting detailed about this one and thus ended up not being able to finish the post before takeoff lmao. I'm not sure whether it's annoying or interesting to include all of that here, but it's my post so fuck it, here's August 21st patt to tell you aaall about it so I don't have to: The Martian AU (I've only seen the movie and not read the book but i *did* literally just re-watch it because this thought crossed my mind lol. (Hello! It's future me popping in to say: fun fact, rewatching this movie literally ended up being the reason I knew a bar trivia answer last week lmao. Huzzah for the powers of Ace Attorney refreshing my movie quote knowledge.) Be glad this one occurred to me because my first inclination was to lean into the dark past of my vld phase (I'm super joking I had a lot of fun with it before the last few seasons haha sorry idk what to tell you friends) and see how much I'd retained if i tried to make that work but the martian sounded more fun in the end). Apparently my Thing™ is a) poisoning Phoenix and b) putting Apollo in an insane situation in which he's completely on his own--which all things considered is probably far meaner lol. I think Phoenix is to blame for creating his own problem here for choosing to eat the stupid necklace but I fully blame Capcom for all the BS Apollo has gone through after AA4 (bc...the stuff IN that game is. coincidentally also Phoenix's blame to claim. lol). That said I'm part of the problem teehee. Apollo can be Some Guy from the real world who gets isekai'ed and he can also be Mark Watney :P (sorry bud I love you but you have just the Worst case of unavoidable main character syndrome). ((Which is QUITE funny actually because I'll never get over Capcom calling 4,5,6 the """"Apollo Justice Trilogy"""" (it's really not and it's frankly insulting they're trying to say it is.) Like he's. Y’know. The main character in exactly one of those games...... so.)) What was I talking about? Lmao oh yeah so Apollo is left on Mars (not sure he actually has much in the way of Botanist™ vibes but the indomitable, never-say-die, highly sarcastic vibes.... ye haha that's my boy right there). Omg wait sorry I'm writing this and realizing this whole thing actually fits the 18th AND yesterday's (the 20th) prompt as well. Whoops.

Clay as the captain (let him do something, says I)

Trucy as I think the pilot ONLY because I am literally constantly on the lookout to make a Wright Flying Brothers joke, sorry

Klavier aaaas. Uh. So the German astronaut in the film is the chemist and navigator and I know Klav's not necessarily supposed to be actually German canonically but there IS something funny about it

Athena as the flight surgeon and EVA specialist (for a couple reasons but mostly so she can be a doctor lol. I imagine she also can be there for psych stuff too, like, it's a long ass space voyage, that does shit to your brain)

Kay as the SysOp and reactor tech, tbh mostly because for some reason i really have a thing for hacker/programmer Kay, i guess?

Ema I want to be there also lol so that would be exceeding the actual number of OG astronauts but eh it's my AU. The rest of these I'm just directly comparing to a crew member from the martian but I think some of the titles and tasks could be redistributed a little to allow an extra person as a treat for me.

Originally i kind of wanted Sebastian (....SIGH. or...Eustace. (I fear even though it's AAIC release day today, I truly may die on this hill forever, falling on my sword of devotion and gratitude to the fan translation team... That said, while I think Eustace is, like, a Deeply Fine name, I have to say that Excelsius is a fucking knockout name lmfao, that one took me out. Anyway, ahem: "I wanted Seb/Eustace...")) to be there too but I think that's getting into too many cooks territory just specifically bc I'd have too many voices to play with lmfao. So instead I think he's the operator who works the satellite and realizes Apollo is alive, I think he'd fit that well. NOT THAT that needs to be. Included. In the AU. I have...so much self control.

Anyway I have too many thoughts about it, it's a problem, ironically I think I would prefer to focus on the crew and not Apollo himself, so that would at least make it more than just a rehashing of the movie/book. (Or, the movie at least. Does the book spend more time with them? I should read the book.) ...I did, Of Course, also came up with a funny, pseudo-future-science-y way to do a Sibling Reveal in this one, so there's that, too, haha. OKAY AND, SCENE. Snatching my mic back from myself. I'm actually so devoted to the Martian AU now hahaha, I really didn't think I'd let that happen to myself but here we are... You'll see in a bit, but I for-better-or-worse do truly have an extended universe going on for it now, eheh... (Help.)

19 - Spies

Franmaya?? Franziska POV??? Here's the deal: I cannot BELIEVE I got this many days into the month and STILL hadn't come up with a franmaya-centric AU, it's terrible. Also I need a Maya POV if I want to hit my self-set, self-indulgent goal of having POV of every "main" character I can (did I exactly accomplish this no but that's perfectly fine obviously haha it was just a side achievement I had my eye on). So to that end, I ended up with something here that I'm not COMPLETELY sure I won't end up changing when I sit down to actually work on it, but in short: semi The Princess Bride vibes but with spies instead of pirates! Or uh! So um okay full disclosure lol I got all excited about an AU of this kind and then like an hour into daydreaming it into existence I realized I was heavily relying on / leaning into ASSASSIN territory rather than SPY. Which are notably different things. (Wait lol should I blame Spy x Family?? Totally Endo-sensei's fault and not at all mine, boom, take that.) ...And not to go even harder into sxf territory, whoops, but my idea was something along the lines of like, since Kurain School Channeling changes spirit mediums' appearance entirely, I was going to have Maya be something of an expert in disguise, and Franziska I was almost more or less going to let retain her actual position of international prosecutor with Interpol, although perhaps I'd lean more into a James Bond-esque intelligence agency sort of thing than what we see them do in-game, I'm not sure. Maya gets "killed" for real in 2-4 except she actually just becomes an international assassin(?) apprentice. Does this make sense? Probably not lol. But is it a little funny and a little sad? Yes, yes it is, and that's always my sweet spot as a writer. The only problem with this premise is I can't stop myself from considering what Phoenix would do / be doing in the background, because the problem with Maya "dying"-only-being-secretly-alive leaves at least twofold problems in justifying why Nick hasn't gone full conspiracy theory board stop-at-nothing-to-find-her, in that a) If she's not dead, Pearl can't channel her, and knowing Pearl I have to imagine that would be her first move to try tbh, and b) even if that weren't an issue, if the police were never able to track down Maya's body at all, I fully believe Nick would still throw himself at the problem until he's able to find answers irregardless, so. This ain't about him though!! So we'll just all have to deal with knowing he's taking reaaally really bad care of himself while he single-mindedly tries to figure out what's going on ahaha...ha. He's most absolutely the drowning child in the facebook post meme. Don't worry about him.

20 - Crossover/Fusion

Soooo. Okay. First may I say, I'm not the most crossover-fic-y person in the world neither as a reader nor writer. HOWEVER. Unfortunately. My one undying weakness has proven to be Ace Attorney x Legally Blonde (and more specifically Legally Blonde the Musical, the best version, though I do love Reese Witherspoon's performance ofc it's iconic but the musical is just MWAH ugh. One of my all-time favorite musicals and definitely the one I've listened to the most esp the past couple years hahaha.) The problem is, I've joked about so many slight variations / one very Long Intensive specific AA/LBtM crossover AU ideas, that trying to limit myself to a one-shot I could conceivably finish within a day proved too much for my decision paralysis and I didn't end up writing any of them lmao. Alas. Mostly, I just think it would be funny to see the characters interact in something of a vacuum just for fun, the problem is just that I happen to be uniquely terrible at not thinking through a Crack AU until I can, ahem, "crack" it, so to speak, to make it actually justifiably function. So in theory all I want to write for this day is some combination of like, Elle and Phoenix interacting and Miles and Emmett interacting, or the four of them having a conversation that goes something like "omg wait me too!! i also went from a creative undergrad degree directly into law to chase after some guy!! what are the odds teehee" while Emmett and Miles watch in horror, and also alternatively Emmett and Phoenix mostly bemusedly watching Elle and Miles geek out over like, fancy ass high class (pink) clothing like "uh yeah i have no idea what any of those words mean. she bought me this suit and i honestly wouldn't even be able to find the store again. oh no way he bought you yours too?? man, wild." Etc. (If anyone's interested in really watching me suffer and spiral: my longer and more intensive idea for an AU with them is to have them be tackling parallel cases where either of them (Elle and Phoenix) has specific knowledge that is helpful to defending the others' client, and they get like place-swapped through dimensional shenanigans somehow also related to the cases. And Phoenix has to abide by, like, nominally-accurate US trial law (I know he wouldn't really be licensed shhhh) -- by which I mean Emmett is sitting as his co-council and exercising the most restraint possible to keep from bashing his head into the table every two seconds. And Elle has to abide by guilty-until-proven-innocent Japanifornia trial law ("wait WHAT omg what do you MEAN the prosecution can just, like, not submit their evidence before the trial???? wait what do you MEAN we should just TAKE THAT that is EVIDENCE AT A CRIME SCENE--"). On the bright side, Elle gets to experience being one of the most normally-dressed people in a courtroom and not at all being looked down upon for her general vibes and wardrobe (like tell me she wouldn't fit right in in the ace attorney universe and seem completely ordinary), and Phoenix gets to experience a real jury (take that jurist system trial that Capcom would like to never ever talk about again) and also the judge going "so, Prospective Juror No. 103, do you understand that the defense in this criminal trial does not need to say a single word in order to be doing their job? the burden of proof lies entirely on the prosecution the entire time and the defense and defendant could choose to remain silent every day of trial and that would be completely within their rights, do you understand that? are you okay with that?" etc etc, shout out to my jury service a couple month ago and the kinds of questions a real life California judge asks jurors that would seriously blow the minds of every single character in Ace Attorney lmfao can you imagine? Anyway.) So yeah idk. Also something something, spirit mediums and the whole Greek Chorus bit from the musical... "School Spirit"... much to think about in crack AU land hahaha.)

21 - Absurd Tragedy

To be honest with you, this is the entire series lmao, so much so that I had trouble even thinking of an AU to be "alternate" in any way here, hahaha. What I sort-of landed on and have vague outline notes about in my doc is (not to make another excellent-musical-adaptation-of-an-already-top-tier-movie-which-is-itself-a-highly-unfaithful-adaptation-of-a-fairly-obscure-book reference) a Shrek the Musical "I Think I Got You Beat"-style debate about whose canonical absurd tragic circumstances are the worst, lmfao. Granted, this then turned into a "wait what if I use said argument as an absurd way in which to make Apollo and Trucy have a siblings realization completely on their own, which both compounds the fact they've both already lived such tragedy to begin with but also could touch on Phoenix knowing about it and not telling them about it", and uhhhhh lmfao a debate specifically between them is OBVIOUSLY not the romantic flirting banter of the song between Shrek and Fiona lmfao but like still, the general premise, just in a sibling bickering coat of paint instead. Also was toying with it being an Athena POV just to sell home / for the additional absurdity of the experience of "you've gone over to your friend's house to hang out and suddenly they're obnoxiously arguing with their sibling and their parents are nowhere to be seen and you're not exactly sure what you're supposed to do with yourself except awkwardly wait for them to be done" lmfao. Which I've most absolutely experienced from both ends multiple times hahaha. The alternative option for this prompt is just for me to write an excessively long essay debating and attempting to personally rank the main cast's level of absurd tragedy compared to each other, lol.

22 - Orphan

I wrote 324 words (slash one physical lined page in my actual notebook) of this while I was on vacation, lol. AU where Miles invites Phoenix to go watch one of Gregory's trials (or Phoenix invites himself, or Gregory invites him while Miles tries to hold the landline phone away from him, lol) and I mean of course the trial he goes to is The Trial (like, Jeffre... AW CRAP wait I don't actually know what Jeff Master's or Kate Hall's official names are lmfao uhhh. Well you know what don't worry about that. Happy AAIC day once again..? Lol. Anyway, the concluding day of Gregory's last trial, obviously, ignore the defendant's name.) Like, basically, here's my thought. AU where Phoenix is also there, and not only does that mean he knows what happened to Miles and Gregory but also, like, it's Phoenix. Tell me even at 9 he wouldn't be insisting on taking care of the poor kid who just lost everything and has nowhere in the world to go. Tell me he's not like, begging his parents they need to help him, lol. I think really this is just sort of an AU to explore one of my several personal headcanons for what Phoenix's parents are like, because I've spent a lot of time on a different version of them (coughs for the last AU on this list...coughs) but I also have a version of them which I find fun / funny where they're like, kinda hippy-dippy and like very hands-off (tbh almost all of my hc's about the Greater Wrights is they're very hands off, just in different ways) but in more of a "we want our child to experience the beauty and wonder of the world on his own time and not influence him or set rigid standards to conform to" kind of philosophy. Anyway my point is they like adopt/foster Miles somehow before Manfred can actually get his hands on him (he's still too busy dealing with the fresh bullet wound I guess?) This is just a gen au of course, not only because they're 9 lol but also the logistics of being adoptive/foster siblings gets weird quick lmao, but mostly I just find it interesting to think about what might have happened if Miles was in an environment where people paid more attention and cared more (and weren't explicitly influencing and manipulating him to exasperate the problem on purpose), because I have to imagine examining his nightmares a little more closely a little more quickly might have led someone (say, Phoenix who was also there in this AU) to find something slightly off about it or like start putting pieces together quicker, idk. I, uh, I'm not gonna lie to you, I don't actually remember how I intended to end this one hahaha ;; I started it but I was on vacation and neglected to outline / summarize the rest of my ideas the day of, so I guess I'll just have to see where my mind takes me when I get back to it.

23 - Musician

So my FIRST thought for this day was to use it as an excuse to finish my First Ever Ace Attorney Fic, which has been in WIP stasis for...uh.... 6. Years. i--SIX????? Shit. lmfao. yeah uh. I guess I created the first version of the doc (on my OneNote, god) back in 2018. So. Yeah. Hm. Omfg. This fic has partially existed since before Phoenix Disbarment Day. That is so. Wow. Damn. Y'all we're so close to aa4 time (2026) what the hell??? Ahem. Pianist Phoenix. That's. My point lmao. I know the original thing that sparked me loving this concept was actually some tumblr post I saw apparently a LONG long time ago, hahaha, and I know there's no way I'll find it with tumblr's abysmal search function, but just know it was not a completely original idea of mine when I say i fucking LOVE the headcanon that, you know what actually Phoenix CAN play the piano, he just chooses to do it as shittily as possible because that's kind of what he's like post-disbarment and he'd absolutely get a kick out of fucking with people like that even if they have no way to know they're being fucked with. It's like, he's no virtuoso or anything, but he can passably play the piano! He's just being an ass on purpose! It kills me every time lol. I won't say I think that's necessarily true in canon so ofc it's not like an end-all-be-all hc for me or anything but it's just sooooo funny to me that I like to break it out any time I possibly can. Look me in the eyes and tell me he wouldn't. Honestly, look me in the eyes and tell me if he actually put his mind to it in any meaningful way he wouldn't be able to get decent quickly regardless, considering the fact he became an accomplished lawyer on more-or-less a total whim. This to say: that was my intention, to finish this fic I've had brewing that was about Phoenix actually being able to play the piano and hiding it for a really long time but eventually being found out by Miles by chance. Except then I sat down on the plane and started writing a Pearl POV instead? In which she finds out about more or less the same exact concept but from Iris--also by chance, but less actually catching him playing and more being asked, "Oh, does he still play? He was always good at that." And then bc it's Pearl (Pearl I love you), of COURSE she goes and confronts him about it. Pearl might be the single most confrontational character in these games tbh which is SO FUNNY to me. Like I'm kind of exaggerating obviously but also am I? I know she has psyche-locks you have to break through multiple times throughout the series but stiiiill. Everyone else is so repressed and weird about anything remotely vulnerable, I stg. Props to Maya for making sure Pearl turned out pretty okay I guess, lmao. Anyhow yeah that's sort of the AU I ended up with. Pearl POV where she and Iris know they're sisters (don't get me started on this I have so many thoughts about the amount of information I'm positive Maya and Pearl are NEVER given skjflj) and Pearl visits Iris in prison regularly and on one such visit maybe she mentions Nick's job at Borscht and Iris makes a totally innocuous comment to the effect that Pearl learns he actually knows how to play the piano and she goes to get mad at him about it because he's definitely been pretending he can't and Pearl's pretty sure he's told neither Maya nor Trucy the truth and that cannot be left to stand.

24 - Pretend Hate

Okay, this exists in a similar realm to the Orphan prompt, except instead of Phoenix being there for the trial or the Wrights taking Miles in before Manfred can, it's more just AU where Miles doesn't actually cut all contact and he and Phoenix successfully end up exchanging correspondence (in semi-secret) during the time they're separated (i.e. they remain friends and close during the 15 years they're separated in canon). "Semi-secret" because they--esp Miles--somehow hide who exactly it is they're talking / writing to all the time but don't necessarily hide the fact they are doing that. Like, a fake cultural / language exchange program or something? I feel like there could be a world where Manfred really doesn't give a shit what Miles is up to as long as he's being molded into "someone Gregory Edgeworth would hate" (I don't think he would lol but that's another AU) and becoming a model von Karma protege prosecutor and such. He obviously goes to lengths to cut Miles off from everything he's familiar with in that he takes him to Germany, but I've always thought it's way more on Miles feeling guilty and blaming himself and thinking he's unworthy / pushing people away being the reason why they never talked before aa1 despite Phoenix's "attempts to contact him," whatever those may be specifically. And, yeah, I've watched that one episode of the anime but tbh I don't really use anime canon for almost anything besides maybe some of the fun visuals, haha, so I'm kind of disregarding that anyway. ANYWAY. My point is. The "pretend hate" part is that--sometime over the course of exchanging correspondence, Phoenix starts thinking something's weird and gets it in his head to "investigate" himself, since he's still in LA / has access to the scene of the crime and stuff, and then as a combo of him just plugging away at it until he has enough (circumstantial) evidence to be like "Miles I think you're wrong about this" and also a younger, slightly less repressed, slightly less in Manfred's pocket Miles actually being somehow willing to consider alternatives a little--they're able to put their heads together and eventually come to the (correct) conclusion ahead of time, before the 15-year statute of limitations, that it was almost certainly Manfred who did it. And then they work together to figure out how they can possibly PROVE that but they haven't thought of anything foolproof by the time aa1 events start rolling around (or at the very least, the 5-years-ago sections of aa3? It might make more sense if it's as soon as Miles returns to Japanifornia, and also I think Phoenix has way less reason to fall for Dahlia/Iris so hard if Miles is around and *coughs* available lmfao. Anyhow). So, in the hopes it'll keep Manfred from getting suspicious of Miles, they publicly pretend to hate each other, putting on a show of more of the canon attitude Miles esp. has before 1-4, but behind the scenes they're actually working together trying to think of a way they can definitely get a conviction to stick that Manfred won't be able to worm out of. And that's the AU! Idk, in terms of additional thoughts, I couldn't decide what to do / what would happen to Mia in this AU either, which doesn't super matter but did give me pause. So she might live, idk, depends the exact timeline. I do also think a scene where--Dahlia still hits on Phoenix in the reading room/courthouse library but he's like, actively there waiting for one of Miles' trials to conclude for a covert meeting, so when Miles gets there and is like "What are you messing with over there?" Phoenix is like "Oh, hey, check out this weird bottle some girl just gave me because apparently she fell in love at first sight, haha, isn't that so funny--" and then Miles recognizes it from the Fawles trial and they catch Dahlia earlier or something, idk. Or alternatively Phoenix was AT that trial so HE recognizes it. Or maybe it's funniest if he was there but doesn't recognize it until Miles does lmao, this is not the point of this AU but I can't stop myself from considering this part of it.

25 - Scientists

So THIS is the day I sort of alluded to earlier, many many words of post ago, where I got so invested in my The Martian AU that I started accidentally worldbuilding about it. What I've started and have about 400 words of (slash one notebook page, again from the plane after my vacation), is like, AU where it's NASA instead of law and I can make Phoenix go "What, like it's hard?" only it's about literally rocket science this time hahaha. Basically for this fic I just thought, well what if Phoenix just shows up as a flight tech or engineer or something (idk I don't really know that much about real life astronautics) as Miles is preparing for some space mission or something and he's just like WHAT are YOU doing HERE. I know I know I made Apollo literally be the titular martian and yes he ALSO has a (or tbh probably has a WORSE) canonical debilitating fear of heights, so, shhh, but I do like the idea that Phoenix is like, oh, who, me? In the flying metal death trap? No fucking thank you, I will be down here watching and talking directly to you through a headset or something. You cannot escape me however i can at least escape the building I'm in. No interest in seeing the Earth from above, thanks. Actually iirc Miles also doesn't love heights but meh whatever I'm fairly certain Phoenix talks about it the earliest in the series so there you go. Anyway, this would all be a mission prior to whatever mission it is that Apollo & Co. go on to Mars for the first part of the AU, so I guess you could consider it a prequel? And probably a fairly shippy one. I have other reasons for which it's fun for me if wrightworth is at least together if not outright married before the events of the "The Martian" part of the AU, so this one would be, like, about how exactly that went down.

26 - Victorian Era

Okay, once again, this just. IS. Literally. Dai Gyakuten Saiban / The Great Ace Attorney. Lol. That said, I've always loved the fanart I've seen of like Ryuunosuke and Phoenix (and respective Co.'s) interacting, or like, one or the other ending up in the other time period somehow, so I thought it'd probably be fun to try my hat at that. I feel like I've neglected the tgaa characters anyway, considering I actually somehow managed to reference PLvPW already, which is obviously significantly more of a spinoff and also just largely non-canonical, lmao. Also tgaa is just SO GOOD, augh. I'd love to have the multi-witness cross examinations from both of those games back sometime again, and I had so much fun with the jury in tgaa too, excellent mechanic. What was I talking about? So, I never completely decided on a concrete direction to take this, but even before AU-gust had started I'd already been toying with the idea of an AU where maybe Maya or Pearl channels a character from tgaa specifically because some documentary or special or something comes out talking about the real-life Herlock Sholmes (as opposed to the Totally Fictional "Sherlock Holmes" who Phoenix references in that one trilogy line, because I really think that's the funniest possible explanation for the discrepancy) and they're arguing over how that cannot possibly be a real person and no one was named that and etc etc and then to prove once and for all one way or the other Hurley is channeled and also for bonus joke content "recognizes" Phoenix at first (idk pretend his eyesight got worse in his older age, I know Phoenix and Ryuunosuke look, tbh, less alike than Ryuu and Apollo do, lmao, but again that's another AU) and then I get to play with Phoenix's mom's maiden name is Naruhodou and his middle name is Ryuuichi or such to that effect, because that is also a favorite headcanon of mine (not in small part because I can project my own life onto him by making him half-Japanese from SoCal, lol). So that's an idea I'd had that was already decently fleshed out and the ONLY problem is that if I'm having characters actually be channeled then there's a very real limiting factor of how many spirit mediums exist, and also that means Maya and/or Pearl don't get to interact with them, which for the sake of not overwriting would be good but for the sake of my love of a chaotic group conversation would be bad. But, uh, hopefully I do manage to hold myself to a less broad cast of characters, ideally, instead of bringing a bunch of them over to the other time period to see how they'd deal with that and interact en masse. Ha. Haha.

27. Younger / De-Aged

So here's another AU I'd already had idle thoughts about before AU-gust had even started! I...will get into this later, TRUST I will, lmfao, but I do have an extremely involved AU already in which Time Travel of the "regression" type is involved, i.e., they have their memories of the "future" but are thrown back into the past including their own younger bodies however-many-years-ago. So I've got that type of thing covered, I promise I do, haha. And additionally, I've actually already written them "younger" for my colorless AU way back on day 2, so I did think perhaps I'd just continue that one and say it was for this prompt (a smart person thing to do. this is the objectively correct option). On the other hand. I find pre-DL6 Phoenix and Miles reacting to how their lives actually turned out in the end HILARIOUS. Tell me it's not funny. And tell me it's not, like, some sort of depressing-yet-ultimately-hopeful for the older/current them to look at their child selves and be like Kid, Oh, You're Going To Go Through Some Shit, but also reflect on how they did make it and things turned out okay and life goes on etc etc. My problem with this kind of thing is that it's hard to come up with a justification for and that's not a problem in itself but it is a problem in me not knowing how i'm going to end a fic, which often gets me decision-paralysis-ed into not being able to start it in the first place, which did in fact happen to me here, haha. I think ideally I'd just do a quick "wait, was that a dream?" kind of thing where they (Miles and Nick) have a short conversation with themselves, but... Uh-oh, what, did you think that was all I had? You clearly don't know me at all. OTHER au option where young Phoenix is in the future/present and rather than himself and Miles it's the Wright Anything Agency who like, idk, find him roaming the streets of LA (fun fact! I actually came up with this AU one day while I was quite literally roaming the streets of LA myself at like 3am-ish. Do with that what you will). He is of course wearing a hat or beanie or something at first because come on, that's way more fun, and no matter how much Trucy, Apollo, and Athena are like "hm idk something about this kid seems familiar" I just don't think my first thought upon seeing some vaguely familiar kid alone on the street would be, like, "Oh, that's obviously a child version of my father/coworker/boss!" So. I'm not really sure that one has an end point either, though, so the same problem still stands, haha. The bad, someone get a spray bottle to spritz me, option of this is, obviously, to combine the two, so it's like the WAA find him first and then are like UHHHHH we need an adult (never mind actual adult-age-ness between them) and somehow end up getting Miles there too, but idk. I... should not. Overcomplicate. I shouldn't. Even, even if...august is over...so theoretically there's no longer any sort of On-Time component since it's late either way........ definitely not.

28 - Caretaker

Here are my exact notes / entire doc for this day. Ahem. And I quote: i brought up the lighthouse keeper thing but i dont know where that would be going exactly maybe this is a thing i could do franmaya for??? since i still havent gotten there? actually lol that as a lighthouse thing is funny. ghost romance? my three tropes rattle End quote. Anyway, shout-out to my friend hailstorm for being the one there to brainstorm "lighthouse keeper" with at the self-same bar trivia that I mentioned previously, lmao. I actually think that was even the same exact day as the The Martian quote was a relevant answer to a question. So yeah, even though I already kind of have franmaya planned for the spies day, that's both kind of sort of a darker AU overall and--WELP well, okay, so, i do, you know, recognize maybe a ghost romance isn't, uh, necessarily the fluffiest kind of AU lmao. Don't mind that. My point is, I love the vibes of a lighthouse keeper AU, and I generally like ghost romance as a trope, so that does feel like a viable option. Honestly, I kind of separately wanted an excuse to practice writing miego also, so maybe the Feys are just all chillin' in this lighthouse for...Some Reason, and that's side-plot relevant somehow, idk. I know Franziska and Godot exist in the same place for a minute in 3-5, but I honestly can't really remember them interacting? I think she'd fucking HATE him though lmfao. He'd think she's funny but I actually think she'd be too reactive for his most preferred teasing/fucking-with-people dynamics, haha. Regardless, if he is there at all, it's a very minor B plot, I think, 'cause this ain't about him, lol.

29 - Forced into Hiding

Achtung, baby, 2566 words of this are written! Lol. So uh, yeah. In short, AU where Klavier gets hounded by fans on the street while he's also having just a bad personal day, and the closest and best place he can think to hide from them is at the WAA. I, um, actually hadn't realized I'd written quite this much of this, haha, it was supposed to be short and fairly silly but then it turned into Klavier having a little bit of a panic attack maybe and getting consoled by Apollo, sure, of course, but then also having to deal with and experience some amount of closure / reach some kind of understanding with the Wrights, also. It's kind of part Klav character study, kind of part complaint against freaking Capcom for neglecting him (boo, I love him, stop ignoring him, or, yknow, worse, whatever the heck turnabout academy was supposed to do for him, which honestly almost felt like a step back to be quite honest). Okay, also, taking a slightly closer look at what I've already written, the REASON I'd thought I'd written way less than this is definitely because he hasn't even GOTTEN to the Agency yet, never mind spoken with any of its members, lmao. That would do it. In any case, I like the idea of Klavier having a bit of a vulnerable moment, and I also like the idea of him and Phoenix actually, like, talking for real, instead of, once again, whatever Turnabout Academy and DD was meant to tell me, which seems to be less than nothing. I kind of like the fact that it gave him a law mentor? I mean, she was very dead, but I have a very meaningful Use for her in later-to-be-announced-AUs-I-keep-teasing, haha. I of course considered other people and times when people in AA might be forced into hiding, but this felt like a silly but also meaningful way to do that without it just being an exploration of Miles and his not-suicide note (which wasn't exactly "forced" anyhow, he did that all on his own) or like, Zak Gramarye (who also completely did that to himself but w/e). Making it about Klavier completely escapes the bounds of canon, because canon is a weenie about talking about any of his actual feelings EVER, so screw you Capcom, I'm doing it for you. Don't worry about it. Trucy commiserating with him about still Loving someone, perhaps the very closest person biologically related to you you've ever known and depended on in your life, who not only did you very big harm personally but explicitly used you in a very real and participatory way to perpetuate the harm elsewhere and all the complexities about Feelings For And About Them Therein, and Phoenix somehow having enough self-awareness to recognize that shutting down completely and isolating yourself away doesn't actually do you any good even when you're at your lowest, and recognizing that Klavier doesn't exactly have a "Trucy" to be a focal point to draw him out of that, and that therefore he needs to be a bit more open to his peers. (Insert joke about "Well, I'm really definitely not suggesting you go adopt an entire child, that's really probably, uh, not the way to go, actually, but, you know. Everyone needs people, that just makes us human." Etc.)

30 - The Beginning of the World

So, hm, as it turns out, I got extremely sidetracked this day thinking about the next day on the docket. Whoops! Unfortunately this ultimately means my ideas for this day as of now are relatively uninspired: I had the thought that I could explore the beginning of Troupe Gramarye, which is its own sort of world, or else, maybe something about the beginning of the series itself but from the somewhat unconventional POV of a one Mr. Larry Butz. Yes, that's a bit self-serving in that it lends toward trying to complete a list of "main, recurring characters' POVs" that I've had as a sidequest all month, but, still. That said, just exploring actual canon through Larry's POV isn't exactly what I'd classify as an "AU" necessarily, so I feel like something would need to be different here. Okay, wait--not to draw inspiration a dang week late to the party, BUT. Now that I'm typing this up, I'm thinking, okay, maybe, what if. The "Beginning" of the series, technically speaking, is basically the fact that Phoenix gets put on (class) trial for stealing Miles' lunch money--which notably only happened because Larry himself picked it up when it fell on the floor. So, perhaps, what about an AU where he doesn't do that? I mean, I guess it would just turn the entire world of AA into something of a terrible series of tragedies with no real closure about them, lol, rip, but it could possibly be interesting? I dunno! (And, yes, I know DL-6 itself is more or less the basis of the series, if we're being ticky-tacky, but Phoenix wouldn't have been involved without meeting Miles, and that somewhat necessitates the class trial, and without him none of canon would get resolved, so. I will say, I do love going back to the earliest points to see how and how much you can make canon deviate or stay the same--reasonably speaking--via minor tweaks and butterfly effect and all that, so this could be interesting, although I once again must say I think it really just means a bunch of innocent people, Miles included, are going to be put away and possibly executed over murders that weren't their faults, lol. Hm. Much to consider.)

31 - Two(+) of the Above:

Beginning of the World + Younger/De-Aged + Canon Divergence (+ Feat. Jokers: Guardian, Everybody Lives)

With all of this, the ONLY prompts I've actually missed on this list become Animagus which I swapped for the Wings joker, and the last joker of the four, Thriller, which was never exactly a priority of mine because I'm not sure I'd write that sort of thing particularly well, so! Wild! Completionists everywhere almost rejoice, haha. SOOOOO. For the eagle-eyed readers out there, I'll bet you're just dying to know what this one AU I've been teasing all post could Possibly be to warrant such a build-up, right? (...Right?) The answer is the at-ow! (Phonetically, lol. I've been calling it that instead of out loud saying all the letters in AATTAU out loud every time.) My friend Ben can attest to the fact that this behemoth AU (her word which I'm stealing) has been in the works for, uhhhh... months?

MONTHS. AHAHA. Ha. That. Sure says March! It sure does! And it is not lying. Lmfao. (Ignore the time, I was working overnight then--my beloved work schedule whomst I miss dearly--so that's a perfectly reasonable discord-ing hour for March-me.) Also, once again, I'm choosing to blame Ben for my extensive AU problems, she sent me a very cute time loop AA fic that utterly destroyed my entire mind because it got the mere idea of "Time-based AU" caught in my endless void-idea-hole. So. Here's the real rub. The literal reason I started doing this AU-gust challenge in the freaking first place was that I was absolutely Desperate to find a way to overcome my writer's block. And one of the (admittedly many) reasons I wanted to do this was because I have been ITCHING to write this stupid behemoth AU for real. I have a massive outline doc already, I have a whole slew of scenes planned, I have lots of character archage, I have sooo many things I want to say and explore about them all you have No Idea. It's extremely self-indulgent and absolutely my personal magnum opus for all my very specific favorite AA headcanons and ideas and thoughts. And obviously, it worked! I did indeed overcome my writer's block! And I had so much fun doing it!! And I'll admit, from the very beginning, I had been eyeing that "Everybody Lives" joker prompt, because...that's it! That's basically the point of the AATTAU (Ace Attorney Time Travel Alternate Universe, if that wasn't clear, haha). I don't want to let myself get TOO into it, because Oh Boy, I sure will! If you let me! Haha. But basically the premise is EXACTLY what I stated in that very first discord message I could find about it. Maybe not so much "time travel" technically speaking than it is "gaining memories of everything that happened in canon right as the DL-6 earthquake happens", so it's more regression than actual time travel since they're in their own younger bodies and everything, but still. It's basically my excuse to treat canon like it did happen and YET allow for everybody to survive and for the very fun cocktail of traumas and joys that come from remembering what happened but having the chance for something different (and all the effort that goes into making something different happen in the first place).

Now, as far as AU-gust goes. I was obviously not about to even pretend I could remotely start this during August itself or justify connecting any of it to the series and the prompts I'd already written for it, lol, but I also couldn't get the idea out of my head, so I got it in my head I really wanted to end the month with SOMETHING that somehow tied into my AATTAU, if only to motivate myself to actually get on it and start writing out instead of solely outlining everything that's been in the works all these months. So to that end, I saw the "Everybody Lives" and the "Beginning of the World" prompts, and an idea came to me. I'd been dancing around the justification aspect of this AU for most of the time I've had it because let's be honest, it's just a very self-indulgent idea and it does not NEED "justification" to serve the purpose I want it to serve and be what I want it to be. But the AU-gust prompts gave me some actual inspiration and an Idea as to a way to solidify my unnecessary "justification" but in a way that it doesn't need to be directly part of the final product of the AATTAU (like, I could make it a separate one-shot and either just link it to and from the AATTAU fic itself, or if it all ends up being a series, then I could just include it in the series but it wouldn't be necessary to read to understand what's going on. And so, I present! The Ami Fey one-shot special I came up with just to fit these prompts :3 ...And by "i present" i mean, uh, I wrote 4k words of it on the 31st and didn't even come close to what I wanted to cover, because I suck at being concise. Lmfao. (Shocker.) Basically, I used Ami Fey as a semi-self-insert kind of godlike figure to reason out a semi-plausible way to make the concept I want to explore happen, happen. And I had a lot of fun, but I do still have a bunch to finish, but either way, I'm very pleased to have a (somewhat silly but ultimately fun for me) reasoning as to the gears ticking behind the scenes of my idea! To be somewhat less vague, the whole AU is predicated on the idea that, Phoenix and/or Miles (who remember from the beginning / from December 28th, 2001) meeting the other characters at-or-after the time they originally met in canon are able to recall their memories of the "original" (i.e. canon) timeline. I've used some magatama shenanigans to have some fun with this, and I'm now using Ami Fey and magatama shenanigans to explain how and why this is A Thing, even if it isn't necessarily the objectively most logically sound argument I've ever made. It's still a good one, in my book, and more importantly I like it, so that's all that really matters.

To briefly explain the "two" (by which I mean 5?) of the "above" I'm using here:

Beginning of the World: This fic specifically would show the beginning of the "world" of this AU specifically! Woohoo! Go Ami Fey, creating a whole new set of problems for our beloved little Guys to go through, hahaha. I think I may have based her character a little too much on Maya mischievousness, but, oh well. Let's just say that's where she gets it from.

Younger/De-Aged: As I've already kind of expressed, the premise of this AU is mostly just them being their own younger selves except they also have the memories of all of canon (and maybe a year or two after the fact, I need to confirm a couple dates).

Canon Divergence: I feel like this is decently self-explanatory, but then again maybe it's a bit cheesy to include this here, since it basically diverges from nearly the first major event of canon (DL-6), but that's not the only time things go almost-canonically but diverge a bit in some way, so I think it really does fit here.

Guardian: This one is a bit multi-fold. It somewhat refers to the way I'm making Gregory Edgeworth the de facto guardian (as in, legal guardian) of mostly everyone I possibly can because I love him and he would be great at it. But also, guardian in that, Mr. Savior Complex Phoenix Wright himself has literally all of the information at his disposal to try to "save" the potential Happy Lives of literally every person he loves, and, well. He does a pretty good job about it; not without cost, haha, but I feel like I can definitely call him a "guardian" of others in this AU. And, as for specifically the one-shot Ami fic, she is essentially the guardian of the entire Fey lineage, in this AU at least, so that also totally fits and is most immediately relevant.

Everybody Lives: I think this one is pretty self-explanatory at this point, lol. But for the one-shot: Ami is essentially trying to secure an "everybody lives" scenario, even if it hasn't been achieved yet, so it's more an aspiration at that point, but ultimately it is indeed successful. Now, "living" does not mean, like, "totally healthy" (mentally or physically), so there's lots more to it, but in short, yes, they live.

And......that's basically a wrap on that!

I mean, it isn't actually at all, since I still have to finish 26/31 fics, lmfao, but as far as the idea generation stage goes, and the use of the AU-gust prompts, that's what's up in my world! Somewhere out there maybe there's an AU of my actual real life where i finished more of these on time, but i'm still pretty pumped by all the work that's already been made on making so many AA fics a reality for me. I've come a long way since starting that first AA fic in 2018...!!

I still have all the aforementioned 26 fics to finish obviously, and I also have AU continuations planned for at the very least, day 2's colorless prompt and day 3's dark academia prompt (let alone day 31's, lol, but that's its own monster entirely), but I'm optimistic!

Thankfully I actually finished using nano to word track for me before they, you know, doubled down on AI and called everyone "abelist" (???) for not supporting it, which, uh. Well. But for my own posterity and if anyone's curious, here's what my word counts looked like throughout the month of AU-gust--admittedly including some planning and outlining:

It ended up being 51,377 words total in August on these AU prompts alone!

I feel like I wanted to say something poignant and meaningful at the end here, but it's almost 9:30 and I work at 4am tomorrow, so I'm going to go ahead and wrap this post up here, haha. If you read all of this, thank you very much for joining me on my little journey!

Once again, here is the Ao3 series where I'll post anything more that gets done, so if you'd like to see how any of these AUs turn out, feel free to keep an eye on that!

And here is the previous post with the 1st half+ of the AUs if you missed it and are interested now!

My copy arrived literally as I was writing this up so I've spent the last several prompts of this post listening to the AAIC soundtrack in the music collection, and, oh man, it's seriously so surreal this exists??? I might be an old fogey who has and will for an indeterminate amount of time continue to have trouble letting go of the fan translation names I've lived with for the past decade or whatever, but it's seriously so awesome the entire series is finally available internationally!! Let's hope for my sake AA7 doesn't come out before I finish any of my AATTAU, because that would really throw a bit of a wrench in my decision-making process, lol.

Bye for now!

[ravenadottir]

writing as a producer, not as a writer

to explain that title i need to talk about writing as a writer first. i promise everything will make sense in a bit.

as a writer you have a few steps to follow when writing fiction, whatever genre that might be. one of those steps is characterization. building a solid foundation over a trope so you have a well constructed person. it's called a person because there must be a personality attached to them, and not all writers follow this step... which can result in all those main characters syndromes known as "everybody loves her but she has the charisma of a bag of flour".

now, writing drama requires you to understand people and motivation. if you don't comprehend those concepts, all you have is isolated events and no connections or links to your characters.

let me give you an example using season 2 of litg.

if you trade hannah and chelsea's lines after day 24, will the characters make sense? would you say they're exchangeable? exactly, NO! because both of them have very defined personalities and individual traits. they might share an interest, sure, but they're not the same person.

now that we got these steps out of the way, let's write as a producer, which is what writers of seasons 1 and 2 were doing.

i've always hated seasons 3 and 4, but for one of them i couldn't quite put my finger on why.

season 3 is honestly a rainbow festival where kitties lick your face and shit bombons, i hate it. nothing exciting happens, and when something slightly more filled with energy comes along it's accompanied by your li forgetting your name... it's a laughable attempt on drama, and to me personally, no. it's a fuck off from me dog.

season 4, however, seemed to be coming strong for the drama because so many players asked for it. we badgered them asking for something, and um... the delivery was absolutely, for lack of better word, shit. and now that i've replayed a few episodes i understood why: producing.

seasons 1 and 2 were written from producers' perspective. once you have defined traits and characteristics, you have real people. now, if you want to instigate drama, how do you push those people's buttons?

by introducing raunchy challenges that make sense, bombshells that are irresistible to them, intriguing games that will plant a seed of doubt in their minds about certain people... contests, casa amor, more bombshells right after a brutal dumping, returning islanders.

for the most part the drama in those first two seasons was pretty realistic, and that is the reason! mason and levi getting angry, squaring up because the other is hitting on mc, mc not taking shit from anyone, lucy trying to sabotage her ex's current relationship mostly because she wasn't over them, erikah being mad and jealous and acting out of impulse... and that's to mention only a few of the feuds on season 1.

season 2 had so many classics: roccogate, lottie's explosions, every single fight about loyalty but the one instigating was also a flawed person (sitting on their own ass and talking about someone else). clandestine kisses, clandestine plans, doubt about loyalty through producers' doing, such as the tweet challenge. this season was built so well because the writers were thinking as producers!

it was a powerful combination of producing-writing and realistic characterization.

and after you introduce things or people that will cause the drama, one thing you need to do is to give your characters some development, whether positive or negative, BECAUSE PEOPLE REACT TO THINGS, and depending on who that person is, they'll react DIFFERENTLY.

did we have that on season 4? 3? ex-in-the-villa? did we have anything remotely human such as emotions or people? yeah, didn't think so.

the reason why i was put off from replaying season 3 is because they act like a bunch of pixels, and not like people. the writing is so weak and so convoluted, tired and lazy, i can't bring myself to play those seasons repeatedly. it takes me out of the story because there's nothing serious or entertaining happening.

individually, the characters might be hot, or cute, or both. together, as a group, MOST BORING SHIT I'VE EVER READ.

take the rahim-jo kiss as an example of how to pull your reader in. elisa told chelsea about the kiss because she knew the girl would blab, since she'd done it before (lottie and gary's event). that single piece of gossip goes to show almost everyone's expectations and reactions, consequentially showing us, the players, new things about the ones involved and it worked so well from a writing perspective. this is what it caused:

elisa blaming chelsea even though she was the one who gossiped. we get a pretty good idea of how elisa deals when in crisis, specifically when she's trying to get rid of the guilt.

shannon being sexist and aggressive towards jo instead of bringing rahim to the ordeal, which also reinforces the fact that she didn't want to let rahim go because he was her safe bet to the finale.

chelsea crying out about not wanting to hurt anyone, and dealing with her problems by drinking and trying to pretend nothing is happening, or that it's not that serious (even though she yells about gary in a challenge right after face-sucking elijah).

jo lying about the whole thing, clearly scared of shannon's reaction, and throwing insults around because she doesn't know how to deal with being caught.

ibrahim hiding because he can be such a pussy, and honestly doesn't really care for shannon.

the boys walking out because they don't think this is worth the drama

lottie provoking people by ignoring the questions about the kiss and asking about the towel.

hope trying to minimize the damage, always the mother.

and mc can do pretty much nothing about anything, it's our choice.

finally, the pool dialogue we have with bobby, and how emotionally drained he is despite this not being about him. it shows that he cares about the group.

just by introducing someone that rahim would surely like, the "producers" hit jackpot. they brought a girl that is an athlete, awkward, tattooed, and sent that girl on a date along with the guy that has a taste for girls like that, to a fucking spa. GUESS WHAT? they didn't have to push their lips together, they just knew rahim, and they knew he was frustrated with shannon.

by the way, introducing a strong-minded girl who knows what she wants, and doesn't fiddle in casa amor, is how they managed to make rahim choose her, because at that point, priya was history due to her pass at noah.

there you go, two dramatic events just by introducing people that would turn his head. drama that can last for days, and generate so many meme's, so many gif's, so many quotable pearls and classics to push the show on social media further more.

season 4's drama was like elisa telling chelsea the secret, and then chelsea blabbing about it but never once hinting she was dramatic as hell. on season 2 we have multiple instances of chelsea doing that, and not just with other characters, with us too, so it makes sense elisa would seek her to get the word out.

so when lexi pulled and threatened mc, i was like "yesss, finally, some drama!!" but then the next day she was like "ah yes, i was the little bobeep of the fucking i don't care tv show-shire" and i was so... confused ???? because why would the girl that was so passive-aggressive with me yesterday join me in the kitchen and tell me an anecdote??? one that is not relevant to anything and doesn't tell me how she was affected by my presence there ???

it was SO FUCKING RANDOM.

did we have random chats in the villa on seasons 1 and 2? ABSOLUTELY. but who started those? the crackheads! tim, gary, bobby. it was never hope or lottie who tried to diffuse drama by talking about random things, no! that was always the boys, mostly because they were either bored or uncomfortable, which falls into place with their personalities!

i sincerely can't bring myself to play season 4 because all the drama was apparently fabricated for shock value, and wasn't rooted in a true concise storyline or plot.

again, i'll use lexi and "YOU WILL NOT TAKE MY MAN" ordeal. what did she do after we picked kobi? ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY NOTHING. i was ready for her to pull a butterfly knife and start swinging, mortal kombat style... maybe even try to pull our mc's spine right out of our noses, but instead... she was just there, not saying or doing anything.

the repercussion of our choice doesn't match the promise, or the characterization that was given before. if lexi had drowned my mc i would be like, "ok, work, that makes sense." but she didn't do anything about it.

bobby had to hold lottie back when we chose gary on day 10, and she's incredibly creepy and cryptic the next morning. even takes a few jabs at pissing mc off until the very end, because she doesn't give up on gary and thinks she's entitled to have him. her actions match her personality, and lottie walked so lexi would trip, fall and crack her skull.

the producing worked in so many instances, more than times that didn't, so explain to me, WHY DIDN'T THEY REPEAT THIS FORMULA IN UPCOMING SEASONS.

for instance, boat party. instead of having an episode or two with your li, and building up for them to leave after a serious fallout, and that being the climax in your storyline, NO! that was the setup for the boat fucking party. it happened in 50 taps or less. WHAT WAS THE REASON?

i hate everything fusebox produced after season 2 but like... for different reasons.

everything feels like riverdale, it's a bunch of absurd and over-the-top shit happening, cringe dialogue, only to have zero any impact on the people involved, no consequences, not even vestigial feelings. it's for the shock value and shock value alone.

it seems the writers and writing directors are thinking episode by episode, instead of making an outline for the season, so we're left with a lot of isolated incidents that overall don't make any sense, and don't foreshadow or create any repercussions.

you cannot draw a timeline with any season beyond season 2. and i hate that lazy shit. i truly do.

i was going through the litg s5, the ex-in-the villa tag here, and... so many complaints about the toxicity of the characters! it's giving after saga. no real motivation behind the drama, no real repercussions, over-the-top scenes for no reason, obnoxious and unlikable people. it's a slap on the face of the players, it truly is.

but still, i was pushing myself to persevere and try to play season 5, and then i saw the design.

YOU CAN'T BE BAD AT THE WRITING AND THE DESIGN, PICK A STRUGGLE.

so... to sum it all up, writers were successful on early seasons because characterization and situations walked hand-in-hand. one caused the other and we were able to witness the consequences, and whether positive or negative, they EXISTED. they PRODUCED the show after coming up with characters that felt human, then just wrote the consequences for whatever it was.

anyway, just wanted to talk about this because it had been a while since i last touched an litg season, and when i realized why i hate recent ones, i had to write about it.

[wandering-koyote]

Im using this chance to scream about my mortal kombat hot take that turned into a rlly long ramble (only loosely related bc its about two normal humans lol):

Everyone says Cassie and Jacqui shouldn't have been in MK11, since Cas has had the main character spotlight in MKX and Jacqui has the personality of cardboard, while Takeda/Jin are more interesting. HOWEVER I actually think they deserved to be in the game 500% more, but that Netherrealm completely fumbled them. Jacqui more than Cassie, like horribly so.

Both really need something 'unique' about them, and MK11 was that chance, but instead Jacqui is just. A plot device really. She only exists to support other character arcs and be a borderline macguffin for Jax to have motivation- her own damn tower ending is her dying to further someone else's life. MK11 should've given Jacqui something to define herself a bit more in the story! Some kind of plot!! Cassie's story is sorta interesting, but Sonya coming back kinda dulls the impact of Sonya, yknow, dying. Hanzo's death is more impactful since his character arc was just wiped, Sonya doesn't get that. The whole "you're my mom who just died but not yet because you're from the past and im really conflicted about this" angle was, as my dad who watched me play said, "really fucked up" (in a good way imo), but they really only confined that to one scene. If you're gonna go at that angle, put ur whole pussy into it babe!!!

Takeda/Jin have more than enough to separate themselves from their parents, so yeah Cassie and Jacqui really needed an extra game to grow. Unfortunately they didn't, they're just kinda static. So im delving into personal story ideas!

Cassie would've really benefitted from gifted kid syndrome- girl just killed a god and saved the world, mk11 shouldve rlly leaned into the idea that shes pulling herself apart to try and keep being the main character. Kid of Johnny and Sonya, god killer?? Make that shit keep her up at night. Make her take charge in every situation where the older characters aren't there, make her self sacrificial, make her want to be the hero not because she wants that fame again, but because earthrealm is notorious for crumbling without someone to protect it and she cant bear to have anyone else shoulder that weight. She did it once, she can take it again. Then make Sonya die doing exactly what Cassie's doing, sacrificing herself for the mission and for Earthrealm.

Then she comes back, younger and a little less hardened. I think it's infinitely better if we flip the whole "ur my mother" thing- make Sonya conflicted that this is her child who is writhing in agony over her mother's death and Sonya isn't sure what shes meant to do. Everything screams to go and comfort her- its her DAUGHTER for crying out loud, but how would Cassie react? Would it only make things worse? What the HELL did her future self do to make Cassie look at her with such mixed emotions? It's mentioned a few times that present Sonya valued work heavily over her family, and that it got worse and worse over time, so i think it should culminate in a scene where Sonya from the past tells Cassie that her future self was wrong- the mission isnt everything, and she has family she needs to look out for. I think it'd mirror the Johnny's well too, since old Johnny literally beat the shit out of younger Johnny because he refused to take his (future) family seriously.

Jacqui on the other hand? She just needs her own damn arc. Keep Jax becoming a bad guy, thats fine imo, but touch on the mother's death and Jacqui's feelings about it. Her damn MOTHER died and the story is completely "ohhh jax became a bAD GUY ABOUT THIS" and I don't even think Jacqui gets to like, I dont even think her death is mentioned around Jacqui at all. I think just adding a few scenes between present Jax and Jacqui would fix a lot. Have the two not talk since her death; Jacqui really wants to talk about it, acknowledge what happened and try and heal, while Jax is ignoring her attempts and distancing himself (depression) and simultaneously trying to protect Jacqui. Replace the Kronika and Jax scene with a scene of the two in a fight, Jax trying to tell Jacqui to leave the military and dodging any conversation about how badly theyre both hurting, while Jacqui is pissed that he's shutting himself off and is basically regressing her into a child as a way to cope. Jacqui leaves in a huff, and Jax alone going "please, i just want to protect my little girl", queue the clicking of the grandfather clock stopping the tears freezing midair. Dont even show us the conversation, just hard cut away- the fight tells us everything we need to know about why Jax is doing what hes doing. I think that ALONE would help with Jacqui a lot (we've acknowledged she has feelings about her mom's death and that she has a conflict with her dad going on now), but going further you might be able to replace the cassie/raiden scene with JACQUI instead. Have Jacqui be upset that Jax is so deep in grief that hes joined the bad guys, and that she cant even tell what type of person her father is anymore. Is he the father that pushed her on the swing when she squeeled 'higher!', who hugged her so gently with his metal arms, or is he the man he is now, joining with criminals and thieves and murderers in the name of her 'protection'? Is that who he's always been? Have Raiden tell her that it doesnt matter who her father is, but who SHE is. Is she the type of person who give up on her dad? Or will she look him in the eye and tell him "I love you despite everything" and fight to save him?

Jax and Jacqui should reconcile before the boat scene entirely so they can get a plot beat to just talk. Too much action for a pause in the boat scene. My timeline of events is iffy but maybe this can happen at the Tiara scene- iirc Cetrion LITERALLY threatens to kill Jacqui and Jax is STILL on Team Kronika after this. CMON. Have Jax switch sides and attack Cetrion when she tries killing Jacqui- Past Jax is a bit iffy to me as an addition to the scene, he doesnt rlly add anything. Have Jax snap out of everything at the realization that its not the military putting Jacqui in danger, its HIMSELF. Have him admit hes wrong, and the two finally get a moment to grief (even if briefly bc the world is dying again). Have Cetrion note this interaction too. Whens the last time her mother ever hugged her like that? When was the last time they grieved the loss of Father? Even MENTIONED Father? Is Kronika even her mother beyond just the name? Hot take but have Cetrion try and betray Kronika at the end of the plot because of this moment, and Kronika goes "lmao no" and absorbs her essence anyway.

VERY LONG ASK I KNOW BUT I NEED TO GET THIS IDEA OUT!!! It also adds a layer of theming around family and love, something thats vaguely there in MKX and MK11 but its like. Hidden and an afterthought. Jax protect Jacqui bc shes family. Cassie is grieving the death of a family member. The villian is the mother of two other villians and kills one and discards the other. Cassie and Jacqui deserve better thats my message im here all night folks

Yesss! The family themes need to hit hard! This is why I’m sad they rebooted when we could’ve had more familial growth, but maybe we’ll get it in the next few games 😭

I don’t have much input because I agree with so much (if only I could ring up NRS and get you hired)! BUT IM POSTING CUZ YOU COOKED FR FR AND NEED RECOGNITION 🔥🔥🔥

[burr-ell]

@meiloorun-notthefruit replied to your post “yeah, hot take, if you haven't watched the first...”:

Wait if anybody wants to respond to this i have never watched c1 and i am having the time of my life with this week's episode, what is an example of the group actually mad? im curious

​Sorry it took me a minute to respond to this! There's a pretty good writeup of the issue on r/HobbyDrama (though it does have one or two minor errors), but I'll give you the short(er) answer.

So originally, Vox Machina actually had eight members: Percy, Grog, Scanlan, Pike, Vax, Vex, Keyleth, and Tiberius Stormwind, a dragonborn sorcerer played by Orion Acaba, another voice actor who'd done work on video games and anime with the rest of the cast. For a variety of reasons, Orion rather quickly developed a nasty case of Main Character Syndrome, and frequently did things that genuinely angered the cast. A couple notable examples:

When the party fought and defeated K'Varn, a beholder, in 1x11, Orion had Tiberius exit the fight for a plan to rally a group of mindflayers to their cause (which failed), and eventually returned, landed the final killing blow on K'Varn, and generally acted like an ass about it, leading to Marisha demanding to know why he was being so rude and unpleasant.

In Vasselheim in 1x16, in order to escape from a trap, Vex had to fire a nearly-impossible shot and rolled a 35, meaning it was guaranteed to happen and was going to be an incredible moment for her, and Orion had Tiberius insert himself to "help" using Telekinesis. The entire cast yelled at him indiscriminately for it, and while Matt was able to thread the needle live on stream, the atmosphere was generally very tense.

The nadir of them all, 1x27. This one's a twofer:

I don't know if you've watched TLOVM, but the Briarwood arc had just begun at this point, and all the party really knew about the Briarwoods was that at least one of them was a vampire. (I can't remember if they knew Delilah was a human necromancer by this point.) So Tiberius goes on a HUGE shopping trip to buy—among other things—every mirror he can in Emon, and the conclusion most people have drawn, quite reasonably, is that he intended to use them to make a massive light array to just drench Whitestone in sunlight and fry all the vampires. He also tries to write his family in his hometown of Draconia to bring the Draconian army into Whitestone to take care of things for them. Both of those things are frustrating to watch in the moment, but especially so when you realize that they're attempts to essentially speedrun Percy's entire arc and make Tiberius the hero. This and the other things he was doing already took up a ton of solo time, and Travis (known hater of shopping) eventually snapped "how about you get nothing else, and we move on?"

Then, the grandaddy of them all: while the party was discussing what to do and Vex was formulating a plan, Orion announced out of bumfuck nowhere that "Tiberius is getting a half-chub". Every single person at the table was appalled, and you can feel the change in the air if you watch the scene. Travis and Taliesin are both visibly furious; Sam, Marisha, Liam, and Matt are completely taken aback; and Laura looks incredibly uncomfortable. Tiberius had never established this aspect of his character at all the way Scanlan did, and after everything else there was very little patience anyone was going to grant him.

These are just isolated moments; Orion had overall behaved rather unpleasantly on-air and did a lot of metagaming (the reason he left the K'Varn fight was that he knew what beholders were and thought Matt was out to get him), and Matt once explicitly said after Orion left that he used to cheat on his dice rolls. Going from episode 27 to 28 is such a palpable shift in tone and atmosphere, and it's unsurprising that two episodes later they would announce Orion's permanent departure.

So yeah—if you've watched those scenes, you have a much better metric for what the cast's genuine anger is actually like.