#it was some of the best writing I've ever done

[sevenangrybees]

I really should write a fic about it. I have so many headcanons and fan dungeons; Icelandic Atlantis dungeon, The Oubliette, Labyrinth dungeon where the demon acts like David Bowie, and (always sunny theme) "Mithrun takes the gang cave diving." which includes Otta getting cockblocked from the hot halfling scuba instructor and the consequences of everyone forgetting to keep reminding Mithrun to equalize his ears when they hurt.

I'm of the opinion that Flamela was Mithrun's second for his first dungeon back, but the party nearly wiped during the dungeon lord fight (half the party died including flamela, Mithrun collapsed from mana depletion, and the last one standing smartly gave him a rapid mana transfer before resurrecting anyone else. That was when the Canaries learned they had to make sure to check his mana reserves before a big fight), and afterwards she was made deputy with her own squad and only sent to baby dungeons and ancient magic investigations.

She has NEVER forgiven Mithrun for that, she got ONE TASTE of everything she wanted and now her job is mostly fucking paperwork!

elf drama i just made up

[heartilywrites]

je t'aime, je t'attends ; c. hyunju

request guide | masterlist

summary: where you found your girlfriend participating in a series of deadly games.

cw: angst ; a bit suggestive ; a shit ton of narration and little dialogs, cho hyunju x fem!reader ; reader is a triangle guard 🗣 ; no use of y/n

wc: 2.3k

a/n: i love joining new fandoms, HI GUYS i've been simping for hyunju ever since i saw her and i needed to write for her or i'd die. hope y'all like it <33 feel free to request if you want, i'm a bit behind my rqs now bc of work but i'll do my best to write more for hyunju !!

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ Player 450

The robotic voice order, with your scope you looked for the poor soul, shooting without a second thought. When looking at the rest of the players, a familiar face was recognized by your orbs.

You knew that profile like the palm of your hand, you’ve spent way too many hours looking at it that it was burnt into your memory like your life depended on it. You had to be dreaming, licking your lips after a shaky sigh made the only sound in the small room you focused again on the woman. The number 120 was distinguishable on the back of her sweater as you made sure to memorize it, she was covering people behind her and a small sour smile painted on your lips, Hyunju didn’t change.

Your mind couldn’t concentrate anymore, what was she doing there? You’ve asked her time to get the money she needed, did you take too long? Did the salesman find her after you left? You were sure that was the case, if you knew she had been invited you’d done everything in your power to stop her from participating. A last gunshot was heard, you were quick to look over your scope; your heart stopped for a moment when you saw blood staining Hyunju’s face, but when your eyes concentrated on her and the kill was confirmed to be another player, you allowed yourself to relax a little bit.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ Soldiers who have completed your mission, please line up outside the sniper rooms.

As if your own hearts were able to feel the presence of the other blindly, while you were putting away the gun given to you, your body began to tremble just like Hyunju was down at the play arena. Both scared for the woman’s life now, you didn’t know what to do moving forward.

You thought back to when the Masked Officer had recruited you offering a generous sum of money that could solve all your problems if you did a couple of tasks and your first thought was your girlfriend, on the future that could be forged for the two of you after receiving the money, you had imagined the two of you living a quiet life in Thailand as per request from Hyunju, you didn’t care what the job could be about or if it meant blotch your hands in blood. You’ve done it before, you were a very well trained defense guard who was struggling to find a stable job, most people didn’t care about your time in the korean military force or if you were one of the best snipers from your battalion they all ‘needed a man for the job’. You couldn’t rely on Hyunju either as she had been facing unemployment too for quite some time now, you had reassured her that you’d take care of the bills however you could.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “I’ll go back to being a guard for clubs if I have to,” you said to the woman while preparing dinner, a small sigh was heard from her that made you turn. You walked over to where she was sitting and took her face in your warm hands thanks to the fire of the stove. “It’s okay, Hyune, I got this. We’ll make it out of here, trust me.”

One of her hands looked to rest on your wrist, a sad grimace painted on her face. “You shouldn’t have to do this alone. I should be able to help you, to help myself… I want to contribute too.”

‍Your lips left a small kiss on her forehead. “We’ll be fine, my love, I promise.”

The mere memory made your heart ache with anguish, you had to get her out of there, you had to make sure she wins these games. You had to… You had to let her know you were there, didn't you? Maybe in that way she could feel more protected… Or maybe she would hate you for being there, maybe she’d break up with you, call you a monster, question how could you do that to innocent people?

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Hey, twenty-three, can you believe what eleven is doing?” a distorted voice asked behind you.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Couldn’t care less,” you said back, your voice sounded completely different too. After leaving the briefcase you were carrying back into place and taking a different gun you walked over the entrance. “I’m not part of the business and I don’t care what happens with it, I told you.”

‘I have more important things to worry about’ you thought to yourself while following one of the square soldiers and accommodating the strap of the gun on your shoulders.

You saw all the players grouped at the back of the big bedroom, you thanked the gods you were wearing a mask as your eyes looked desperately for Hyunju while the soldier was speaking, you didn’t care what was being discussed at all. Even when the so famous player 456 was talking you couldn’t force yourself to pay attention until a specific line that came from his mouth caught your thoughts.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Let us take our vote right now.” your eyes looked at the man with hope, your heart filled with gratitude, at least someone was sane enough.

Without turning your head upwards, you saw the prize being announced and a sigh left your mouth, your full attention was now on the room and each player as well as your superior.

You were asked to be beside the podium, you walked a little too quick for your taste. You positioned yourself while looking forward at each player and counting on your head the x’s, hoping they would win. And then Hyunju was called over, when you noticed your hands shaking you held tighter to your gun, you noticed she doubted for a second and then voted the circle. Your eyes shut and a shaky breath came out your mouth, you had to stay composed, you couldn’t break down there.

And when the circles won the poll, the players were told they needed to rest and feast for tomorrow’s games. The group walked out leaving a couple of triangles and the circle soldiers who were handing the food. After being instructed to leave for the night, you walked over to your small room and allowed yourself to break down once the door closed behind you. Leaning against the door you let your tears roll down on your face, how could life be so cruel to you? You just wanted to make your girlfriend happy and now she was condemned to die on an island away from home, you wouldn’t be able to even take her home with you.

No, you couldn’t think like that, you wouldn’t release that energy into the universe, you had to take care of her now. It didn’t matter if it cost you your own life, you would ensure Hyunju won the games. You would be like a hawk, watching over her as much as you could. The officer was more than pleased to see you ask for more responsibility, you tried to be where the players were at all times. Behind the triangle mask you were constantly watching Hyunju, following her discreetly on the six-legs game arena and cursing people who looked at her bad under your breath. You found yourself almost celebrating your girlfriend’s win with her group, thankfully you stopped before. After seeing Hyunju win, hope began to occupy your heart fully, convincing yourself there was a chance she could win this games, that she would be free.

At night you stayed to cover for a little, after all, you weren’t that sleepy now. Leaning your back on the wall you saw your colleague deny a permission to go to the bathroom and at first you weren’t against it, you knew the rules too, but when the older woman began to ramble about her bladder issues, you stood up again.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “I got this, I’ll take them.” you said to your company before they opened the door, a small thank you was said from the other guard.

When the door was opened and you saw the woman smile a giggle almost escaped your mouth, but any trace of a smile faded when Hyunju let herself show asking to go too. Your breath got stuck on your lungs as you watched closer now, forcing yourself to guide them to the bathroom, that was your time, you had to talk to her now.

You stayed outside for a few minutes to allow them to do their business and after a couple of minutes you turned to look everywhere hoping not to see anyone approaching, you knew the bathrooms didn’t have cameras so you took advantage of it to walk in.

Hyunju was watching her own reflection, it made your heart pound hard against your chest, she was as beautiful as ever. Brown eyes turned to look at you with a confused frown on her.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Do we need to-” she began to speak, being interrupted by your distorted voice.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “At ease, sergeant.” you said making her freeze on the spot, blinking a couple of times, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

You two had met back when she was in the military forces, before she came out as the Hyunju you’ve been loving for some time now. At first you were just really good friends, but as time passed you couldn’t help falling in love with each other. You were there for her at every step, inviting her to live with you when everything was just going from bad to worse for her, losing her job, gaining debts one after the other, having everyone turn on her… But you, oh you were her rock, her place to rest from the crude world and now there you were, in a pink suit with that horrible symbol on your face that has been taunting her dreams for the last couple of nights.

Your name fell from her lips on a small whisper that could almost go unnoticed if you weren’t paying your full attention to her, you released your gun and took the mask from your face, tears wetting your cheeks and she held the bathroom sink tighter under her hands.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Hyunju…” you whispered back, breathing in deep to calm yourself.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “What are you doing here?” the two of you asked at the same time, she shook her head. “You shouldn’t be here, you shouldn’t be in that suit… What are you doing?”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Trying to get the money to flee this shitty place.” you answered, taking a step towards her that she took back. “Hyunju, please.”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Why would you accept to do this?” she asked now, you bit your lower lip for a moment.

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “Because I want you to be happy, I want us to start from zero, to have the life we deserve.” you started to answer, walking slowly her way to not scare her away. “We deserve to be happy, don’t you think, my love?”

‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “You shouldn’t have come here, you shouldn’t have accepted it, we shouldn’t be here.” she began to speak a little faster and when you let your hands rest on her face she looked directly into your eyes.

Warm hands thanks to the gloves you were required to use made her feel at ease, made her feel like home. Troubled eyes were looking at each other, but you can sense the love and strong connection in them. Even in such a dangerous place with death itself roaming in every room, the love Hyunju and you shared had such power that could make any other emotion drown.

A silent discussion was held and not even a second later, your lips met each other with such hunger like you’ve been starving for so long, like you were far from the other for years. Without distancing from Hyunju you pushed the gun to your back so you could get as close as humanly possible with her, your right hand pulled her closer by the neck making Hyunju whimper for a small second, you smiled over her lips.

Aching hands looked to sneak under her shirt while her own hands clumsily tried to undo your suit, it was the sound of a flushing toilet that made the both of you jump and stopped grudgingly. Hungry eyes just looked at her as she was composing herself, Hyunju left a small sigh sound before looking again your way.

 ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “We have to get out of here,” she whispered, now Hyunju was the one holding your face in her own hands, you closed your eyes for a moment. “The two of us, safe and sound.”

 ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “You need to win the games.” you said back, opening your eyes again. “Do you remember our signal?”

Hyunju thought for a moment before taking away one of her hands to show you the sign you two had come up with back in your military days, you giggled and nodded.

 ‍ ‍ ‍‍ “I’ll be in every game watching over you, okay? When you see a guard doing it, know it’s me.” you whispered, she nodded too and stole another kiss from you. “We need to go back before the other guard comes to check, tell them, I’ll wait outside.”

The woman nodded again and as you were rearranging your suit, Hyunju pulled you in for a last kiss making you giggle like a teenager, almost giving in, but lastly stepping away and pulling your mask back on. You didn’t know how you’d make her win, but you had to go back home with her alive, you’ll figure it out in the way, but for now the only thing you could do was protect her.

[cer-rata]

Cerata's 2024 End of Year Artist shoutouts! (part 1)

Okay so this year was the first time I'd really participated in fandom in over a decade, but I'm truly glad I did because I met a ton of great people, and even got to work on projects with some of them. So I wanted to put all of the cool visual art that I've received last year, whether it be art trade, commission, part of an event, or...fanart? Because that happened somehow?

Anyway, there are a number of other people that I worked with last year, but a bunch of that art started near the end of the year, and as such is not finished yet, hence why this post will be two parts, one now, and the second when everyone else finishes up.

No particular order, all of these artists are great, and lovely people, so do go check out the rest of their work and tell them how cool they are, yeah? Also, some are currently open for commissions, so keep an eye out for that.

(Also, this is my first time trying to do ID text, so bear with me if they're a little rough, despite being a writer, I hate words?)

So first we have @fiyaharts with a lovely illustration of a number of the my favorite Krypton and Krypton-adjacent children. Shadi is lovely to work with and fast to the point where it spooked me a little bit, go off girl.

Next we have two pieces from my favorite Evil Woman Apologist, @vivictory-draws, one of a divorced Barbara and Kara being totally normal about it, and the other of my child and blorbo that haunts my waking hours, Conrad. Love N to death, which is why I haunt her with threats of commissioning Joker/Desaad Yaoi.

...Maybe for the next list, who knows...

So next we have the art created for the last @womenincomicsminibang (which is going to be returning with a reverse bang in a few months, keep an eye out on that.)

The lovely and evocative cover was done by the talented @breakingthespacetimewall, and the scenes of Cassie trying and failing to get her life together were done by the wonderful @soop-jpg

Working with them was a pleasure and honor, and their dedication and kindness really helped me through finishing that fic, and I remain incredibly grateful for that.

The first person I worked with this last year, and the one who really helped solidify the core of a lot of my projects, @nicodrawings drew a glorious cover for my mania-induced first longfic, and also a character reference for the aformentioned disordered young man who haunts my waking hours. She's a professional through-and-through, with wonderful instincts and great communication. She's also working on a fan-comic project of her own that I think is wonderful and am excited to see continue.

I lucked out and was paired with the super chill, super talented @byeara on my first fan project ever, and they hooked me up with this super fun and detailed cover for the fic I wrote for that one kon-centric minibang. I loved working with them, and would love to do so again, logistics willing.

This jerk @vnekey made me cry by drawing really sweet, totally unexpected fanart for that mania-fic I wrote. I'm still a little speechless really, I'd never gotten fanart of any sort for any reason before, and to receive something so lovely as the first thing really touched me deeply, and honestly kept me writing through some rough patches.

...Fight me!

My first ever art trade! Kind of! @spider-jaysart is super sweet and supportive and made my...second biblically (is there a Source bible? Are there religious Coluans?) cursed son and his hapless, frankly narratively cursed best buddy look so precious that they ALSO made me cry, can we stop that actually--

Speaking of my cursed son and his narratively cursed Kryptonian, @spicy-apple-pie created this really pretty piece that's...a number of weird deep cuts smushed together into something really specific, but neat if you have the context, which nobody does :3

She was so wonderful and patient and I really enjoyed seeing her run with her inspiration, the Kryptonian mural is super neat and not something I would have ever come up with on my own.

@mediaraiz Is really stylistically flexible, and their "Blob" style really scratched that itch I had for something cute and playful, and they were so game in taking on a larger project, and then went above and beyond in making my lanterns looks truly special.

Finally (for now), @riverdeansart drew a sweet little scene of two horrifyingly stressed totally fine spacebros chilling and chatting about how everything is completely okay!

I was super vague about this one and Dean did a great job getting the vibes right anyway, and with haste.

...So yeah, that's if for now! I'll circle back in a bit when I'm forced to let more artists out of my basement everything else is done!

[tennessoui]

What is your favorite prompt you’ve ever written? 💗

ooo a fun question!! setting aside ficlets that i've written in response to my own silly lil aus and thinking only about ficlets that are in response to prompt ask games, here's a few that come to mind!

this angsty, meeting (again) at a party while drunk au

i think most of the prompt fills i write now are expansions of tags i have on my blog (which i very much enjoy because some of the best writing i've done has been in short ficlets doing just that), but i do love this one for being a canon au and mostly a complete story all by its own in less than 3k. i also just did a quick reread and i like obi-wan's voice in it a lot. tired, hurt, unable to do anything but give into anakin

this snippet in the cheating au where things are beginning to bubble over

i just love the cheating au, for one thing, and i love the dynamic here with the four of them (anakin, padmé, satine, and obi-wan) at a restaurant and playing at normal only for obi-wan to end the night laying a pretty overt claim on anakin (by taking his necklace back and wearing it - which padme notices in another ficlet set a bit later)

this snippet in the playmaker au where obi-wan is returned to anakin's care and keeping

i. also just love the playmaker au lmao and i really like this ficlet for how it looks at who obi-wan has become and how when pushed, he'll do anything it takes to get back to anakin, even if it means committing some random taxi driver to die because he got in a bad place. this obi-wan is not the same as the one who went into the prison and he's irrevocably become anakin's by this point. probably doesn't even regret it (much).

and this prompt fill from agesss ago where obi-wan is in the agri-corps and anakin is a jedi padawan and they become penpals (or flimsi friends, in star wars language)

i haven't thought about this au in ages (flimsi friends au lol) but i enjoy it sm. anakin would fall in love with obi-wan via letters despite never meeting him in person and, well. obi-wan would very much do the same tbh

[sudcikis]

But listening to music high is the best experience ever, I can't speak for writing obviously because I don't write music but the latter I can relate to from some of the things I've written. Oh, I've definitely done unspeakable things to High For This, not sure I'd recommend it for a wedding song though. Wedding night.

‘ It's a wild ass processus we've got going on. Not gonna lie, for some of them you've gotta be high for it to make sense. It's what helped me for awhile, but i'm trying to lean more into the descent way now, if I wanna leave past fifty y'now. it's all about connecting into your feelings, being intimate with emotions which is a lot fucking more harder that just smoking the pot.

 On the other side I don't know if any of my songs are worth singing in a wedding, but i've heard they're worth listening when you're having sex - i'll take it. ’

[fuckitfireeverything]

re: my last post, I’ve been thinking and talking a lot about how my creativity works and the forms it takes, and I’m so bad at having ideas but I’m so good at building on ideas — it’s why I really thrive in collaborative storytelling like ttrpg/actual play but could never write a novel, for instance

and I know that it’s just as valuable a skillset but there are so many fewer opportunities to make things in that form, because even if I wanted to put together a creative team to work on something like an audio drama, I don’t know how to approach people I want to collaborate with without being like “but I don’t have any ideas, that’s where you come in” because it feels like putting the hard work onto them/like a really big ask

[deoidesign]

For my birthday... read my webcomic! It's literally free! (Unless you want books. Those are not free)

It's beautiful, it's gentle, it's funny, they're canonically t4t and gay... And it's about time traveling vampires solving supernatural mysteries!

I've spent thousands of hours writing and drawing it, and it's really good! I'm not biased!

It's on hiatus right now and coming back in 2 months, so it's the perfect time to get caught up

[icewindandboringhorror]

Pages from trying to keep a little sketchbook-scrapbook type thing going for two weeks lol. I gave myself specific rules in hopes they might all end up more cohesive/consistent seeming, but alas, scribbly chaos reigns, it seems

[twoheadedoddity]

John Gaius and the Gospel of John

Ok. Here we go. I've spent the last little bit annotating my copies of tlt in detail, and I've been focusing a lot on the biblical references— especially John's confession chapters in NtN. I'm essentially cross-referencing the verses alluded to in the chapter titles with the actual content of the chapters, and recording some thoughts/observations. Not entirely groundbreaking, but I want to be thorough.

I'm building off of posts by @todd-queen here and here; go read these posts because they exploded my brain. The cipher. wow.

Please bear with me and if you read nothing else, read the entry for the final chapter.

Side note: I'm mostly using the New Revised Standard Version (the one I'm most familiar with) and sometimes the New International Version.

John 20:8

"Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed." (NRSV)

This is the big one—as has been previously pointed out, the fact that Muir got this verse to fit as the first numbers of the cipher AND be so relevant melts my brain. Immediately, connotations of Harrow breaking into the tomb at 10 (the first person to ever so do), seeing Alecto, and wanting to live. She saw and believed.

This chapter consists of John setting up the context for the cryo project, the Earth dying, all that. The main link is how the verse fits with Harrow's story.

John 5:20

"The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished." (NRSV)

John and his crew are trying to buy time amid the projects getting shut down. Their power gets shut down anyway, and miraculously, the bodies that John touches don't decay. This verse speaks to both the first pieces of John's powers and foreshadows the more drastic "miracles" that will come later.

John 15:23

"Whoever hates me hates my Father also." (NRSV)

The crew realizes the link between John, his eyes changing, and the intact corpses. They try to experiment to see if anything will bring about changes in the bodies. Nothing does. He names them Titania and Ulysses. He moves the corpses' hands from across the room for the first time. Not really much to link the content of the verse to the content of the chapter here if you ask me?

John 5:18

"For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God." (NIV)

The crew wrestles with the implications of what John can do—in a way, the idea that John could be chosen in some capacity, or that John can now play at being God. This is also the chapter where they decide to stream on the internet; so, you could maybe say that the verse foreshadows the ways they'll be targeted due to John's actions.

John 8:1

"While Jesus went to the Mount of Olives." (NRSV)

The verse, in context, comes right before Jesus demonstrates to a group how none of them are without sin, and shows mercy/forgiveness to a woman that others were wanting punished.

As for Jod—his little necromancy twitch streamer gig starts to take off. People start coming to him for help or healing or miracles. His words, he's "playing Jesus." Obvious parallels to the sections (such as the above verse and those that follow it) where Jesus is teaching folks and performing miracles. Interestingly, Cristabel intervenes, telling John he's wearing himself too thin and that he's making the same mistakes as Jesus by never turning people down. So John sets a limit to one hour of miracles a day.

The cult really gets going. The authorities turn up. The choice is get taken down or do something drastic. John chooses something drastic—COW WALL. Cow wall scares everyone into leaving the cult alone for a bit. I think, in a lot of ways, this is the chapter that was foreshadowed by the previous chapter's verse, if we really want to draw parallels that far?

John 19:18

"There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them." (NRSV)

John mostly talks about the politics of the FTL program—more funding stuff, the way cryo was dropped, the inconcistencies with the program, the trillionaires rushing ahead with stuff. I'll be honest, I only vaguely grasp the corporate-funding-technology-science-and-capitalism side of John's story. But I don't think there's any link here.

John 5:1

"Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals." (NIV)

^ He goes up for a festival (the KJV uses the word feast, so I keep rotating that word in my brain too) and in the next verses encounters sick people in a pool. He heals one of them.

John faces no consequences for Cow Wall and other crimes. If nothing else, his influence grows. He and his crew have a barbeque and talk about their plans.

At the barbeque, big bright lights go off in my brain that point to the word feast in the KJV. This literally isn't anything. Like I don't think it's a very meaningful connection to make here. But my brain keeps going "I connected the dots!" I didn't connect shit "I connected them!!"

John gets approached by an important organization and he agrees to help them. So now he's remotely controlling the corpse of a big world leader to fool the world into thinking he's alive, in exchange for a lot of money and a city-destroying weapon. Great. Comparison between Jesus' miracles of healing and John's necromantic reanimation "miracles."

"Could you give him a permanent pulse? Could you make it so he bleeds if he gets hurt? Could you fix any current degradation to his corpse? Could he talk, if we wanted him to?" (NtN 271-272). This is a quote that @/todd-queen pulled from the text, and it fits really well.

John 3:20

"For all that do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed." (NRSV)

More FTL stuff. The nomination for that. John finds out that the plans that were progressing for FTL and the evacuations were dubious at best—just trying to make it look like progress. John is furious, and decides to lean into the necromancer-cult-leader-twitch-streamer act even more, gaining even more sway.

I think something could be said for the verse—being all about evildoers hiding and preventing their deeds from being exposed—can be linked to the trillionaires lying and covering up the ways they are interfering with the FTL project/evacuation plans. And how John tries to expose them. I'd be able to give a more concrete argument if I understood the FTL plotline better but for some reason I struggle so bad with it.

@/todd-queen also links it with this quote, about how John and his crew hide the nuke, intending to never let it see the light of day. Which is also a good connection imo. "We kept laughing that it came with a manual. I think we were scared of what would happen if we stopped laughing. We pulled up the floor and put a safe beneath the lino and swore we were never going to use it." (NtN 279).

John 9:22

"His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue." (NIV)

John grows in power. People come to join. It becomes an international sort of crisis. The first violent exchange occurs, and John uses the energy burst from the deaths to commit atrocities. One could link the verse to the various authorities coming after John and arresting anyone trying to join his cult. John certainly would. I hate him so much.

John 1:20

"He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, 'I am not the Messiah.'" (NRSV)

The chapter where everything goes to shit. FTL accelerating their escape attempt to mere days and then hours away. The attempted coup with G1deon and the nuke. John's crew is convinced this is the end; Cassiopeia and Nigella getting married. John reveals that he also has the corpse puppet ready to start a nuclear armageddon, as a backup threat to prevent FTL. Everything goes to shit at the cult compound. Cristabel shoots herself to make John figure out how to work with the soul. Everyone kills everyone else and John starts the apocalypse. Becomes God using the collective souls of the population and that of the earth. Obtains perfect lyctorhood with the earth, creating Alecto. The order of events for the actual nuclear apocalypse are unclear, because John is self-contradicting and a liar.

The actual contents of the chapter are... a lot. All over the place. But it's the most raw and visceral part of John's confession, which kind of fits nicely with this particular verse—given that it's from the section about John's (the Baptist, like, from-the-bible John) confession.

While I haven't covered the alternate ARC chapter numbers, I need to point out that this chapter is John 1:9 in the ARC. "The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world." (NIV). Seems pretty fitting for the chapter where he becomes God and begins the process that will become the resurrection, right?

John 5:4

This verse doesn't exist in the NSRV and many other versions, because in recent translations scholars think this verse wasn't part of the original. It is:

"From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had." (NIV)

The first connection, of course, is John picking and choosing who to bring back. Healing, resurrection. Yeah.

In this chapter John answers some of Harrow's questions. It's hard to tell which bits he lies about, exactly, but Harrow knows that he's full of shit. She decides to find the truth, and find God—probably not John in the end because he's a horrid lying sham—and walks into the River.

Right. Ok. Now back to this verse not being accepted as part of the bible anymore. On one hand, many of the Christian sources explaining its removal talk about how older, more accurate manuscripts do not contain this verse, so it's more accurate for more recent translations to remove it. Interesting. A chapter where Jod is clearly falsifying information being named after a verse that is supposedly not genuine. Tamsyn Muir your game is incredible.

Please direct your attention to this reddit post. The verse could also have been removed to focus attention on Jesus' healing power rather than having an angel also be doing the same thing. The post puts it better than I can, go read it, but essentially: John is trying to focus the attention on himself—the idea that he's the source of the world's power.

Choosing John 5:4 for this final chapter of John's confessional was very, very deliberate. I would like to shake Tamsyn Muir's hand and also ask her oh so many questions.

Final thoughts: I definitely that the main purpose for the choices behind most of the verses were primarily to fit with the cipher. But, where possible, Muir would have wanted them to fit somewhat with the contents of the chapter.

However, where things were very, very deliberate, were the first and last of these chapters—20:8 and 5:4. There is no doubt in my mind that these verses were handpicked for how incredibly relevant they are.

A lot of what I've pointed out has been pointed out by other people as I've mentioned throughout this post. I'm glad to be bringing it all together and freaking out over it, even though I doubt I'm the first to do so.

[dinsbeskar]

y'all.

we need a talk.

[moonlitcomet]

new pokemon fangame in my has-played list thanks to a recommendation from a discord member:

pokemon tectonic

please note this post is very long and very opinionated, but that's out of love for this game! pokemon tectonic has captured my interest and i'd like to see its devs improve in their next project.

my thoughts so far, after 21 hours of gameplay and 4 badges:

it needs a lot of polish, and a lot of QoL changes.

a lot of the choices made for gameplay in tectonic are really great and fun - every single pokemon getting rebalanced at least a little bit, all the new moves, the retypings and what not, that's all fantastic. i have no complaints there.

there are a lot of QoL features - such as easy move relearners and move mentoring - that make swapping your team's movesets around a breeze.

there is also an extremely expansive in-game documentation of everything - gameplay, battles, new moves and abilities, pokemon stats and learnsets, etc. you could make a wiki out of what's in here alone.

they encourage you to catch 'em all and actively reward you for it!

consumable held items will be automatically renewed at the end of a battle. you will never run out of gems or berries.

there are following pokemon, hgss style!

however, it fumbles in a lot of aspects.

gameplay

npc trainers will know your moves, and they will act depending on what moves are in your current pokemon's moveset- before any are made.

in the context of the game, this makes perfect sense. you are given an item that allows you to preview a trainer's pokemon before you battle. species, types, abilities, items, everything. trainers will react based on what they think you will do before have a chance to do anything.

but in the context of playing the game as a normal player, it feels either downright cheap or incredibly unintelligent on their parts. they will give you at least one free turn of setup, then get brutally swept by an attacking pokemon.

it would be a good idea to adjust this npc ai so you can disable use of the trainer x-ray for both battlers. i don't want them to know what i have just by looking at me, and i don't want to know what they have just by looking at them.

removing use of this tool for both sides would keep it fair. having to look at every trainer i fight in detail before i fight them is time consuming and removes a lot of the mystery and the fun of playing pokemon games to me.

trainers in this game will switch their pokemon as often as they can, and tectonic discourages you from doing that too.

a major part of pokemon's gameplay is knowing when to sacrifice a pokemon so you can bring in a waiting, healthy team member. a pokemon hanging on by a sliver of health is better to sack in the moment so your waiting team member doesn't take a strong hit, and has a turn to set up or retaliate.

tectonic actively punishes this style of gameplay.

trainers will constantly switch depending on what they think will counter your active pokemon. usually, this just means switching into a pokemon that resists your next attacking move. this is often at a detriment to them, and sometimes you can get caught in switching loops where you and the enemy trainer will change between pokemon every two turns -

attack, switch.

attack, switch.

attack, switch.

this wastes a lot of time.

an un-toggleable feature of this game is "trainer perfection". when you beat an average route npc trainer without having a single pokemon go down on your side, the trainer will run away and drop exp candy. this is a perfect win. by default, if you do not perfect a battle, the trainer will wait until you come by again to challenge you once more.

this can't be turned off except if you happen to have a special item called a stink bomb, which forces them to run away whether you've defeated them or not.

protip, you can open the debug menu using an application in your installation folder, and give yourself infinite stink bombs.

my suggestion for the perfection system is to allow players to disable it for average npcs, make it optional. or, at least, give us an option to *willingly* talk to npcs to rematch them. like the vs seeker in older games.

the devs intended this feature to not force you to rematch trainers multiple times, and instead plan your routes carefully. this has the unfortunate side effect of discouraging some players from fighting every trainer and exploring the game as they want, because the forced rematches upon coming across them again [unless you perfect them] waste more and more of their time.

also, some of these npc trainers are trainers that completely block your path - difficult ones at that. if you don't perfect or scare them off with a stink bomb, you'll have to go at them again when you come back around.

as of right now, the trainer rematches are as annoying as the pokemon breeders in gen 5. they are incessant unless you sweep them.

IVs, EVs, and natures are completely removed.

to most casual players, this would be a hooray! i'm personally happy about the removal of IVs, but it really starts to kick you in the teeth as you progress in the game. instead, what these things are replaced with are called style points. style points are minimal stat adjustments that allow you to set up different styles of battling for your pokemon.

think of it like skill points in average rpgs.

these are cool in theory. but the way they're set up is limiting and feels unnecessarily strict in application. for some unknown reason, both attacking stats are permanently linked, and you must raise both attacking stats at once. raising two attacking stats only removes one point from your remaining pool, but it feels pointless to have style points invested into a stat you will not use [ie, physical attack on a pure special attacker].

i can't believe i'm saying this, but i genuinely miss EV training over this. EV training feels like it has a much stronger impact on stats than these style points do, and you have far more control [with up to 252 in a given stat rather than 20]. it's a cool idea, just not particularly favorably executed in my opinion.

it is possible to have EVs and make them not a nightmare to deal with!

pokemon reborn has a system where all power items - anklet, lens, weight, etc - will increase its given stat EVs by 32 for every pokemon you knock out, regardless of the EVs the species naturally gives. with this feature in place, EV training becomes a breeze and you can have a fully trained 6 pokemon team in less than 10 minutes, rather than the potential hours it might take the normal way.

reborn's system is, in my opinion, an almost perfect way to do EV training. the only way to make it less hassle would be to turn EVs entirely into a menu, as tectonic has attempted to do.

you cannot use bag items - other than poke balls - in battles.

as a plus, enemy trainers cannot do this either. this is mixed based on how you like to play. i can respect this gameplay decision, as much as it very much isn't my style.

every pokemon is sorted into one or more tribes that have different effects on the battle.

honestly, i don't even use this feature. it's cool for team building i suppose, but feels tacked on and isn't my style. a point in their direction for making tribes a completely optional gameplay mechanic.

story

four out of eight badges in, the story is near nonexistent. you get scraps of it every now and then, teasing you for something large. you are wandering a world that has already been conquered. and honestly, i love that premise. people talk of someone who has already defeated the evil team in the past- you see remnants of what they did to the world around you.

this, to me, is very similar to what it feels like playing b2w2 without playing the original black & white, which i did as a child. i say this positively. traversing remnants of a world that was not yours to conquer is awesome. i'd love to see more of that.

however, halfway through the main story [i assume] and not having any of the story ramping up in any fashion feels slow. there's very little motivation for continuing aside from showing up your brother, which you are told to do before you even get your first pokemon.

everyone is just... so mean to you, for no reason. none of these characters feel particularly likeable, none of them are funny or kind as a motivation to fight for them.

[cain and hardy in reborn are my favorite examples for this, i would commit war crimes for them in spite of everything sucking early on. and it gets better. so much better.]

so you're just... trudging through a world that hates you or doesn't care about you, with no incentive to fix it from anyone you like. everything feels very obligatory, as if you have no choice in the matter, and there's no urgency at all to any situation. i'll reblog this post with an update if or when the story ramps up, but as of right now it's not hooking me too much outside of the initial concept.

final thoughts

Pokemon Tectonic is a somewhat long game with a very strong premise and unpolished execution. It feels like it's too big of a scope for how small it feels, and a lot of the effort in creating this game clearly went into rebalancing every single pokemon up to gen 8 [and some of gen 9].

What it suffers in the most is lack of accessibility and lack of options in terms of gameplay - a good game dev can add features that can modify or disable parts of their game that either make it easier or harder. Tectonic feels like it's trying to strongarm you into playing a nuzlocke or deathless run, with how it punishes you for letting a pokemon faint in battle.

I think this game could be made leagues better if it felt more customizable. As it stands, once I finish this game, I will probably not be revisiting it, as much as I like what it has going for it.

That is all I have for now. My favorite part of this game is that most avatar boss battles can be defeated with Fort Unfuckable.

[noperopesaredope]

Me writing Izzy angst for one of the future chapters in Survivors of Wawanakwa (my new Island of the Slaughtered fic):

[ruelpsen]

Honestly, as someone who has been going through fictosexual attraction for years and also didn't know how to deal with it at first: Just write and think about the most self-indulgent bullshit you can picture. It is the only way to keep sane or so I've found.

Oh I'm already on it, believe me. In fact, here's a little snippet from what I've been working on...

"Are you... turned on by this too?" you ask. "I'm not sure," he growls. "I will admit it's not something I've ever involved in my... liaisons before. But seeing you so desperate like this is always sure to awaken a hunger in me. Or rather-" he pauses for a moment, burping again- "a thirst." With that, he kisses you deeply once more. You feel his fangs press against your lips as you moan with pleasure. You grip the back of his shirt as your hips instinctively buck against his, suddenly jostling his body. He abruptly breaks his lips away from yours only to turn his head to the side and release a short, thick belch. "Apologies," he says. "I didn't want to be..." He trails off, lost in thought for a moment. He eyes you for a second, observing the redness in your cheeks and the pleading look in your eyes. "On second thought, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" "Yes," you moan. "God, yes." "My, my, what a nasty little creature you are..."

[40steps]

hey i’m a mutual who dropped out in 7th grade and i just want u to know that things will be ok. i’m going back to school this year and like you can just stop either temporarily or permanently. i promise u it will be ok

:((( thank u so much this means a lot to hear . my plan has been to drop out for like two years at this point but i never really expected it to feel this much like a huge change even though it was always going to be. and my mother asked me if i just wanted to drop out when i told her i didn't want to go in today and it's sent me on a downward spiral. sorry for putting this on your dash board whoever is online and whoever saw it.

[kazamajun]

5.4k words with a few paragraph rewrites on top and I'm still not done

[dallonwrites]

i love not counting word count literally only just found out that lover boy is past 10k. just a fun thursday night revelation