#it’s such a very knives lie to tell lmao

[syeniites]

It is so funny that Knives calls Vash his ‘little brother’ and so all the Gung-ho Guns obviously just accept it and refer to him that way too, but really there is no way Knives could know which of them was born first (unless their memories go back as far as their literal moment of birth - which I guess is possible??) since they were both already there when Rem found them.

[biggie-chcese]

Ways I Would Change Rain Code Chapter 3, Everyone's Favorite Chapter

(let's join hands and frolic in the fields of missed potential together yayyy yippeee 🐬🌈🫧 <3 spoilers btw. this is another long ass rant/critique so warning for that too)

chapter 3 is pretty infamous for being rain code's weakest chapter but i love this game and want it to be better, so here's some changes i'd make to it. these overhauls are gonna be pretty big in some places but hey! if that's what it takes!

Part 1: The Beginning

gonna start off with saying that makoto's introduction is perfect. i would change nothing about it. he's intriguing, his exchanges with yuma are fantastic, and he lays down some nice lore and foreshadowing. no notes

AS FOR WHEN YUMA LEAVES THAT PENTHOUSE... HOO BOY

i take so much issue with the introduction of the resistance. as hilarious as it is that they kidnap yuma by simply picking him up like a piece of furniture, it just kinda ruins every subsequent interaction he has with them. he has no reason to believe a single word shachi is saying. that man can preach about non-violence all day but that doesn't change the fact that he and his crew kidnapped yuma. and if i were yuma, that would be on my mind the entire time. just from a narrative standpoint, it feels strange for him to put more stock into what the resistance says than makoto, who literally saved his life. meanwhile the resistance kidnaps him, threatens to kill him like three times, and foists a menial task on him. why is he giving them the time of day at all? just lie about taking their request and go look for your friends.

so how would i change this? it's simple: have the resistance give yuma a good first impression

picture this: after leaving makoto's place, yuma returns to where the submarine used to be. he's devastated to not see any trace of his allies and breaks down. this is where he can have his sulking session like he has on that couch after being kidnapped in canon. shinigami teases him while he's down but eventually lifts his spirits when she talks about the detective who left an impression on her. yknow. "i want to eradicate all unsolved mysteries and bring happiness to everyone!" yeah, that guy. you know him. determined to keep going, yuma gets up and decides to search around for his friends. the player has control now and can talk to several NPCs asking about them. the final NPC says to yuma, "All the gunk and trash of Kanai Ward's rivers flow down into Dohya DIstrict. If you're looking for a body, that place is your best bet." that NPC gives yuma directions to dohya district, and the area is unlocked on the map! the player can take yuma there next

when yuma steps into dohya district, he has his initial shocked reaction to the place being completely flooded. it's horrible here, but he presses on, looking around and asking a couple more people if they've seen any bodies. as he's asking around, he sorta forgets that he is a small, frail, vulnerable outsider that looks really easy to rob, and so a couple of thugs come along to remind him of that. they corner him with knives, egging him on to fork up any money he's got (which would be none. yuma's broke ass lmao) and with no other options, yuma cries out for help.

in comes the resistance! i think this is where shachi saves yuma by breaking up the conflict peacefully- quite literally practicing what he preaches (SHOW, DON'T TELL!!!). the thugs leave, and shachi asks yuma if he's okay, inviting him to their hideout in the process. this is where we can have shachi drop the lore about dohya district as they walk there together. the resistance gets introduced, and i would change very little about their introduction! however, i would leave out the parts where they threaten to kill yuma, because yuma needs a reason to trust them. and let's be honest: those scenes do nothing but unnecessarily raise stakes before fizzling out immediately. yuma can still refuse their offer for him to join them because, well, they just met. and it's still a reasonable decision for him to make without the death threats and kidnapping. maybe instead of death threats, the resistance leaders get all riled up and loud, then shachi quiets them down and tells yuma he wants to talk about the issue in private on the roof. yuma can still witness shachi get his gun through the crack in the door.

everything is the same after that, including fubuki's scene because that part is perfect. everything about her in this chapter is perfect. i think she could've had a little bit of her labyrinth development outside of it but oh well. she kinda gets that in ch 4? moving on.

Part 2: Lamp Oil? Rope? Bombs?!

i actually love the bomb threats as a concept- they add a lot of stakes to the game. however, the pacing completely ruins that. yuma wastes too much time in between them in a way that makes the bombs lose all of their urgency. so let's just cut that all out and make them yuma's first priority. let's say yuma has 15-20 minutes reach and disarm each bomb. this gives him no time for lollygagging, and he goes running around the city immediately, trying to dodge all of the peacekeepers. he can even be intercepted by guillaume and dominic at these times and narrowly escape via QTEs and detours. this still gives our culprit at least 45 minutes to enact his plan, which is plenty of time. after disarming the bombs, then yuma can return to the hideout to confront the resistance. there, he finds nobody is there except shachi's corpse, slumped against the couch, with his revolver nestled in his right hand.

shachi's clothes are wet, implying he just came in from outside before shooting himself. the safe that held the gun is wide open. nothing else seems to have been moved around. since there's no evidence of a struggle, perhaps it... truly is a suicide?

"wait that's a pretty big change" you might be thinking. or not. im not psychic. but please consider: this game has enough locked room mysteries in it, and it can survive with one less.

my idea is that this mystery should have at least one more layer of complexity to it because the entire canon mystery hinges only on icardi's escape method... i guess there's also the "suicide or homicide?" part but anyone who has ever engaged with the mystery genre will instantly figure out that shachi is left handed the very second they bring up the gun's irregular design. so why not have a situation where the body is moved? we haven't done anything like that ever since chapter 0.

my other biggest gripe with this mystery is that icardi didn't need to kill shachi at all. he could've just done his robbery and left kanai ward (or, well, tried to) without any hiccups. why kill shachi? why does the game never touch on that? i guess we could go off of icardi hating shachi's ideals but... going out of his way to kill him during his otherwise perfect heist? idk, it seems like a super lukewarm motive for all that.

so why not have shachi get in his way? shachi directly tries to stop icardi by following him in secret and confronts him at the site where he's about to bomb the hydroelectric plant. and that is where shachi dies. i think shachi's true cause of death should be drowning, since it's the best way for icardi to kill him. and how does icardi do it? well, he threatens to drown servan first. in shachi's attempt to rescue servan, icardi gets the upper hand. icardi then transports his body back to dohya via the waterways to keep anyone off his trail. he then frames it like a suicide by shooting the corpse in the head. there, he plants the gun, cleans up a bit, and leaves.

there are a number of types of evidence for yuma to deduce this later. maybe shinigami notes that the gunshot wound seems way less bloody than it should be. maybe yuma finds something belonging to shachi near the hydroelectric plant, like his necklace (maybe stuck to a grate or buried in rubble from the explosion?) along with evidence of a huge struggle. also, yuma sees multiple safes floating outside a bank near the plant. also there should be a few more red herrings among the solution keys. yuma will still interrogate margulaw to get the lore on the others, of course

i want yuma to know that shachi was trying to save servan, but i honestly dont know how to make that clear through evidence. maybe servan leaves something behind on purpose?

(yuma can meet kurumi during all this the same way too idc. i don't really think her inclusion in this chapter is necessary but w/e i wont take what little screen time she has from her. poor girl)

in the end, yuma and co get cornered by guillaume and dominic at the hydroelectric plant's bomb ruins instead of a random office, so he can get his final batch of clues right beforehand. then just before dominic crushes him into a small purple stain, he panics and goes into the labyrinth as usual.

Part 3: Down the Rabbit Hole We Go!

just a heads up, i'm changing nothing about fubuki in this labyrinth. fubuki and her interactions with shinigami are the best damn part of it, so imagine it's still there under this new format. anyway.

now i get it- this mystery still hinges on icardi's abilities. im not a mystery writer, so just imagine a lot of this stuff is more subtle than it is presented here.

let's frame it like this: the mystery casts a lot of doubt on shachi at first. from the evidence, yuma's initial assumption is that shachi did the hydroelectric bombing to send a message to the rich, then returned to his hideout and ended his own life.

as we go through the labyrinth, we first deduce that the bombs were all a diversion to keep yuma and the peacekeepers away. after that, we learn about shachi being left handed, then we deduce that this had to be a homicide. after that, we try to figure out shachi's actions before he died, eventually coming to the conclusion that he was present at the bombing of the hydroelectric plant, but if it was a homocide, someone else maybe tried to stop him. from here, we look back at how his body was discovered and figure out that his real cause of death was drowning. yuma then points the finger at icardi due to his swimming ability, and we take down his arguments accusing the others as usual.

after this, we find out his motive through actual RDM matches with his phantom instead of just mentioning it at the end of the labyrinth. through his motive, we learn more about how shachi's body was transported through the waterways and shot post-mortem at the hideout. then we can finally go to GOD shinigami mode, where icardi tries to say "this is what shachi wanted! he started the bombings and i tried to stop him. he realized the error in his ways and asked me to kill him!" but yuma counters that with the evidence servan left behind, saying that shachi has shown to be nothing but a man of peace, even til the very end.

when it's over, icardi says he hates this city and wanted to leave, but yuma scolds him on his selfishness, in how many people he endangered and how he killed a man who wanted to do some good for this world, all for money. pissed, he finishes icardi off with a silly little comic book

Part 4: Oh Yeah What About Guillaume and Dominic

imma be real with yall i do not like these two. they're just lame ass antagonists man. and maybe it's the black in me talkin but im not a fan of the dynamic where dominic, one of two characters in the entire game that's darker than a sheet of paper, is a big dumb brute whose likes include "sleeping lazily" and dislikes include "thinking," is completely loyal to this ambiguously pale little girl. i dont think guillaume herself is racist- she treats him exactly the same as her other underlings. actually she strikes me as one of those "im not racist! i hate everyone! ^w^" kinds of people and she actually means it. it's still pretty obnoxious though. sorry guillaume likers.

i'm also not even gonna accuse kodaka and the dev team of racism or colorism (though i could say something about how nearly all of the darker skinned characters in danganronpa such as akane, aoi, and yasuhiro are all portrayed as the Stupid Ones™ or the butt of a joke like daisaku from DR3 who happens to be the ultimate... farmer... ok. ok that's fine. whatever. the sole exception is sakura, an excellent character... whose appearance is still treated like a joke. also i will not complain about servan's afro + donut lips combo. i will not. do you see how all these little things build up to leaving a bad taste in my mouth? anyway im getting sidetracked). so i'll say it could just be chalked up to ignorance. either way, i think one simple fix to this is to let dominic talk... in the mystery labyrinth

a really fun payoff to his dynamic with guillaume is to simply have them swap their roles in the labyrinth. there, dominic does all of the yapping, showing he was actually paying attention to the case the whole time in the real world, and guillaume is on the sidelines occasionally making red text appear by calling yuma a little f- er- maggot. it still retains their running joke, but gives it a more memorable punchline imo. it doesn't really get rid of the weird undertones but i think it adds something to dominic that's sorely needed by showing him as smarter than he comes off as.

Part 5: The Ending

now my biggest change i'd make to this ending is making yuma recognize that he killed icardi for no reason. he... sorta does it in canon? but he's more worried about the fact that he killed icardi at all and not his trend of having a way too eager trigger finger when it comes to the labyrinth. and he hardly even hesitated either. he was so angry with icardi for killing a good man like shachi for his own selfish reasons that he mercilessly killed him for it. and i want yuma to acknowledge that more. i want him to reflect on how his tendency to just use the labyrinth the moment he feels like he's in danger is a terrible thing. please. please i want more reflection on this.

i wont change much else. however, when makoto replaces their submarine, i want there to be some consequence: all of their notes are gone. the inside of the sub is clean. the scent of yakou's cigarettes is gone. the furniture is the same, but it's all brand new. it's unsettling, but the NDA graciously accepts their new gift.

idk how much strain that'd put on the team that modeled the sub's interior, but i think it's worth it. the game needs some concept of change and consequence to it. make chapter 3 matter.

that's really all i have to say. thanks for reading!

[mediocreanomaly]

Legato falling for you HCs

Authors Note: I’m so sorry I’m a Legato apologist so of course my first post has to be about him lmao I am for sure not proof reading this so apologies for any mistakes

• First off, he’s got alot going on. So it’s most definitely going to be a bit of a slow burn for him to really like you, much less love you. Don’t be deterred though! Patients is key... •When he first meets you he’s pretty indifferent to you. I’d imagine you’d have to meet him through the Gung-Ho-Guns so he mostly just wants you to stay out of his way. •Main way to get him to warm up to you? Food. They say food is the quickest way to a mans heart and that's especially true for Legato. Don’t make a big deal of it but if you just happen to have extra snacks laying around for him? Who is he to say no? •Eventually, he might even start to unconsciously seek you out knowing where you are there's a snack to follow. •Slowly, the two of you even begin talking, small words exchanged between meetings, you sit and nod while he quickly complains about what ever is currently not going right with the other Gung-Ho-Guns •Now eventually these quick talks turn into full conversations. Legato isn’t exactly nice but he’s also not completely rude either as you talk. He silently listens and might add a snarky comment along the way but he secretly has begun enjoying listening to you, not to mention he can’t stop watching your mannerisms and notices you need a hair cut soon and- uh oh. •If you’ve managed to stick it out this far congrats! You’ve actually begun to get somewhere with the man. Now once Legato begins realizing he has feelings for you it’s a lot to unpack. He’s been through a lot and trusting someone is hard for him so give him some time and space as he mulls over how to handle the situation  • Once the two of you start dating not much changes admittedly. For one he does not want you to initiate any touch. He has a ton of trauma regarding it and one wrong move will have him pushing you back with his powers before you can say “Bluesummers”.  • The second thing you have to understand is Knives Millions comes first. Every. Time. It might take some getting used to but the man is devoted. If you can stick with him through those two things it’ll actually bring you a lot closer to him. Not many people would be understanding of that. •Legato does try to show he cares in his own ways though. Bringing you things back from towns he visits (destroys), giving you books he likes, ect. It’s small but it’s the best he can do to thank you for still being by his side. **Very slight spoilers for manga**  •Now. I do actually believe you could get this man away from Knives but it is a very long, very tedious process. Don’t ever shit talk Knives around him, don’t beg for him to leave knives for you, and don’t tell him knives is bad for him. He’ll leave just like that, instead go for a softer approach  •Legato doesn’t know how to live without someone commanding him. He’s never known kindness or love until he met you, so it’s up to you to slowly show him he can live without a collar around his neck. •It’ll be hard I won’t lie, but do domestic things with him in the rare time he has away from Knives. Show him how to cook, take walks with him, fold laundry with him, show him that life doesn’t always have to be a fight. Sometimes you can just...be. • If he opens up about his past? You’ve got him. He doesn’t share that information with anyone, and you are suddenly very aware of why he acts the way he does. Don’t pity him, but show compassion. Listen to everything he has to say and assure him he’s come along way since then. • At this point despite how devoted he is to Knives...I think you’d be able to finally drag him away. I think the main reason he’s so loyal to Knives is that he doesn’t know how else to live. Knives is honestly just another form of his abusers, another iron fist, another collar, another cage. But you? You’re like a small ray of hope, the first good thing to ever bless his existence. He won’t say it out loud, but he isn’t sure he deserves you, but he’s thankful he has you anyways. •For the sake of fluff we are going to assume you managed to get him out of the Gung-Ho-Guns, maybe you got him to reluctantly join Vash’s cause (unlikely) or maybe the two of you are now in hiding in a small town (more likely) either way it’ll be a bit easier to get Legato out of his shell, although don’t expect a huge transformation he’s still working himself out (but he’s trying!!!)  •Eventually he get’s used to a life without someone looming over him, it’s weird for him at first, but not completely bad. He also starts to get more use to touch, your hand in his, his hand pressed against the small of your back, your fingers tracing his face. There will always be a limit to how much he can take before he needs a break, his trauma isn’t going to disappear over night but he’s trying everyday to be someone worthy of you love. Besides, when he gets to wake up suns still just peeking over the horizon your sleeping face catching a bit of the golden rays that sneak in through the blinds...he can’t help but think that all his suffering was worth it, as long as he get’s to keep waking up next to you.

[dreamwritesimagines]

It’s CMA-

Omg she acknowledged that she feels safe and that’s growth from where she used to be! Clover is becoming more emotionally intelligent and doesn’t even realize it haha

Lmaooo “classic cactus” clover is right… artists…. (/j)

Lmao Ben has mastered the art of lying to Anthony over the years; once again Dream’s writing of sibling dynamics is absolutely golden

I also love that clover knows that palette knives aren’t sharp because it means that she’s been paying attention to him and the things he loves too ❤️❤️❤️

I love the tie in to the last chapter with her concern about his hands and his art<3

Also awww she’s actually going to tell the bridgertons! That’s a huge first step for her considering how long it took her to tell Ben. She’s growing!! Augh you love to see it

Their domestic loveliness even when no one else is around to see- be still my heart (I see clover feels the same LOL)

Penelope what the fuck dude… this whistledown is awful. Girl is full on getting on my nerves dude……

Are we going to get to see Anthony and Ben’s convo? I would love to know how that went

Ah Ben is teaching clover how to lie to his family lmaoooo

NO FUCK NO FUCK FUCK FUCK NO NOT HER MOM FUCK OFF TO HELL GET OUT OF HERE RUN CLOVER FUCK FUCK FUCK

Fuck yeah clover!!! Put her in her place!!!

Ugh I had suck a sinking feeling in my stomach reading what her mom said. I still have the heebie jeebies she is SO gross. I hate her SO SO SO much; I just want to scream AUGHHHHHH

(Seriously my entire body language changed the more she talked. I am so tense now lmao heart racing for an entirely different reason)

(Lowkey reminded me of my mom)

FUCK

Okay now that that’s out of my system (/lying) FUCK I am so proud of her for being able to walk away and be rational and not panic; good for her! But fuck that was/is a terrible feeling

I am glad that we got to see clover’s growth and everything, but this is such a terrible way to see it.

I know that this chapter was necessary and it was mostly good but that bit at the end slightly tainted things. Like again, I am proud of her, but fuck if that doesn’t leave a bad taste in your mouth.

Dream I hope there will be more fluff to come after this shitshow…. I don’t use this term lightly, but what a monster, my god……

CMA darling hiiii! ❤️

Yessss exactly! Like, being with Benedict and also being surrounded by her real family made her feel so safe that her parents showing up didn't have the same impact on her as it would have at the beginning of the story! ❤️

Artists 😂

Omg honey that's so sweet of you! ❤️I enjoy writing sibling dynamics so much! ❤️

You caught that detail yessss! 🥰 Clover pays attention to everything he does even if she plays it cool 😂

Yesss she is! ❤️ She feels very comfortable with Violet, she knows she's very different than her mother ❤️

We will have more domestic fluffy moments 😏❤️ Very soon 😏

Pen is making moneeeey 😂

We can get a HC with Anthony and Benedict's convo if you'd like? ❤️

Oooh that reaction to her mom is a great sign! ❤️ That was exactly what I was trying to do, because I wanted to make her a bit different than the father but still keeping her as her horrible self😂

Yessss, I think this chapter was important to show Clover's progress in general and how she changed ❤️ She would have reacted very impulsively and then crumble after that conversation if it had happened earlier, but Benedict helped her get stronger against anything and everything❤️ So no matter what her parents tell her, it barely has any impact on her ❤️

More fluff you say? Oh I think you will like the next chapter very, very much 😏

Thank you so much for this love! ❤️

[cantalooprat]

Don't Pick Up Boyfriends from the Trash Bin (re-read)

one sentence summary: I’ll never go to any world where he doesn’t exist

i'll format this a bit differently and just go along editing this post as i read for a play-by-play reactionary review because i'm so down bad for trashbin boyfriends

in short i just want to yap into the void

the initial honeymoon phase halo i had back in 2022 has faded somewhat so i'm a bit? apprehensive? because what if it's not as good as i felt lmao but i guess i'll find out how i feel about it now, after more than two years since i read it for the first time

250209 / genius cannon fodder's counterattack record

world 1 backstory is like actually hella dogbloody lmao but also not unrealistic bc it reminds me a lot of them r/aita posts on reddit, when the op is getting gaslit and manipulated into leaving their social circle and only being able to depend on their toxic partner and trying to find a way out before it's too late. in this way, cxc does a lot of good manipulating the scum gong back but also does it in a very gentle, elegant, harmless way that it brings pain to the scum gong and related scummy parties but he also helps the og host repair the relationship he has with the people who truly care about him... and i've said it before in my prev post but i'll say it again, this really is one of my favorite parts of trashbin boyfriends. transmigration stories in general are made for wish-fulfillment tropes with questionable morals because what does it mean to take over another body in another world, where does the original soul go? and it usually either gets glossed over by "they're actually the same soul, just transmigrated... twice... from the og fantasy world to the modern world and now back to the og fantasy world" or "the og soul died/is a shitty person/both and everyone is better off with the new soul inside the og body". i guess trashbin brings a subversion to the trope because the og body is always a victim and cxc is there to make sure that the og body will have a better life after he leaves and uses his acting prowess to not go ooc so people won't notice the discrepancies. but of course he's only there to help and in the end, the future is up to the og soul to grasp.

abt louchi in the first world: damn i didn't realize the author has already been dropping hints since the first world goddd rereading it really gives a different perspective. cxc's insomnia, touch aversion, the seemingly devil-may-care attitude he has when facing the world juxtaposed with the softest part of his heart that's reserved only for his lou-ge. 061 looking for 023 to download cxc's movies, 023 getting shocked at the request and telling him that he had them all downloaded because of "a brainless fan from the same world of cxc, whose life revolved around him" and then later cxc calls 061 for being a brainless fan, rendering him speechless? peak fiction. it's such an offhand comment but it's nothing else but the truth. then the first movie that cxc starred in where he plays the role of someone whose best friend died protecting him and how he's able to portray him so well like he doesn't need to act, he experienced it all... the knives are crazy lmao

then ofc there are the moments when cxc shows just how much his lou-ge means to him, when he visited the grave to make sure his lou-ge was alive, when he played the game with 061 guiding him, the bit about sirius black and how ly still wanted to protect cxc by telling him a seemingly harmless lie. and the way he seems to use ly's name everywhere, as if it's his own way of trying to keep him alive in his memories, like as a cover for cheng yuan's "childhood friend", the livestream room name having both lou ying's and his name in it. it's really these small things that makes me feel so much, because cxc doesn't make him a secret or anything, he talks abt him still, but still... it's all only surface level, and only cxc himself knows how deep his love runs, how ly means the world to him. they even already mentioned his english name "july" which only gets explained later... and of course the absolute knives that comes from lord god projecting ly's real appearance to make cxc's emotions go haywire and 061 assuming that cxc would want to stay for him, to which cxc answers:

"To me, only the Lou-ge from the world I came from is real. I won't go to a world without him." - ch 21

this line is really one of the most defining of the webnovel.

i also really love how their relationship starts to develop from two strangers, a system and a host, to a friendly cooperation. like 061 has always been friendly so him being nice to cxc is prob par for the course, but i like how he has these streaks of... cold curiosity? like him testing out the waters with hand-guiding cxc playing games and the bit with reading him harry potter as a bedtime story, things that are cxc's sore spots but something 061 wouldn't have known. like lowkey that's an asshole move but i kinda like it, he doesn't know the extent of their importance to cxc so he dares to probe but only that. once it's clear that cxc is even the slightest bit upset, he stops because he's still respectful, just kind of curious. and cxc is prob just acting the way he usually does in his original world, seemingly frivolous while hiding his sincerity underneath, very unlike how he would've acted towards his lou-ge. it's really nice partially bc of the hindsight, like these are sides of themselves they prob won't show to each other otherwise. and i love how 061 falls for cxc later anyway like... regardless of how cxc is, he will always fall for him. he's still the cxc that belongs to ly. but now 061's still at the stage where he reacts "..." to cxc's outrageous words and ideas and actions, he's still helpful and kind of indulging but also reserved and not fully corrupted (lmao) by cxc just yet.

it's also really nice how the entire system team supports 061 and his goal to return to cxc's side, that's so sweet we love a supportive friend group!

and a bit abt this world but i love that cheng yuan's ending is that he repairs his relationship with his family. i might be projecting somewhat but across the worlds cxc visited, there are so many forms of love he comes across, and one doesn't always need to have "romantic love" to fully be happy i guess? like obviously cxc's happiness is being w ly, but at the same time, ly is so much more than just a lover to him. he was his best friend and that was all there was to their tragically short-lived relationship---the love is something cxc realized later after it's all too late.

also i must've had reading comprehension problems in the past or just glossed over it but even the overarching plot with lord god is already dripfed from the first world, with cxc questioning the way the lord god gets the energy to power up the systems and how previous hosts and systems seem to just do things in a tragically standardized way that brings no clear benefits to anyone involved. i'll give it a closer read this time! definitely!

250209-250211 / getting rid of that bigshot

for some reason i forgot abt this arc and thought love song on ice was next and got so shook when cxc woke up in pain and i was like. oh yeah there was that one where the shou is literally trapped and ended up marrying his lawyer or something. anyway i kind of forgot abt the plot in this world and uh. ngl the racism part shook me a lot like i was like oh.. oh yeah... that happened... and ofc the ending where shen changqing ripped the stamp album apart was so satisfying lmao

more louchi: more knives i love how cxc was falling asleep watching a movie and asked 061 how it ended and 061 lied to him that it was a happy ending, and how cxc liked how even the way he lied was similar to his lou-ge. i love the mangosteen part where cxc said he'd marry anyone who peeled 15 for him and im sure 061 peeled enough. i love how cxc was happy simply being a cheerleader by ly's side but after ly left, he got used to doing everything alone, but there were still things he couldn't do, things he wished his lou-ge would still be around to teach him... and of course, how his expression didn't change even after he thought about it all. and how cxc has started to let 061 touch him and be comfortable! 061 washing his hair, cushioning his forehead against the car window, it's so bittersweet. and also... the rolling cxc into a sushi roll... he sleeps like that because ly used to roll him up... ahhh and this is also when they bring up the part where cxc's parents fight and he'd run to ly's place and ly would cook him noodles and get the double-yolked egg then feed their dog with the portion left for it... i love how these bits and pieces are scattered throughout and it seems like a bittersweet flashback of the time they spent together but then the author never fails to bring them up in a parallel situation in the present to twist the knife.

and like ofc cxc isn't dumb so he started to suspect that 061 was his lou-ge but then quickly dismissed the idea when he found out 061 already had someone he was waiting for and it couldn't be cxc bc cxc assumed they were too young to understand love and 061 looked? sounded? so in love ugh ahhhh so close yet so far!!! and ofc when 061 tells cxc that he can tell him his plans and he'll help him, and how cxc feels he's a little familiar (ofc!!! that's his lou-ge!!!!) and then the way they sweetly banter like they've always gotten along as friends so it's no wonder that they've fallen back into step so easily.

then also when 061 beat up the scum gong i was like bro so much for maintaining a proper distance with your host, you're going rogue??? isn't this a bit too fast??? and then a few paragraphs later the author addressed it with 061's seemingly "nice but boring" persona and how meeting cxc seems to have brought out the self he had forgotten post-formatting and in just one and a half worlds he's already become so wild lmao. 061 says himself that he's thankful that he's met his "fate", that he's started to regain the feeling of being "human" instead of play-pretending to be one after meeting cxc. they save each other in little ways that the other doesn't know.

i like it though, it's a nice parallel to how they were as kids, even though now ly is amnesiac and no longer remembers cxc and cxc thinks of himself as no longer being the innocent boy he once was. even now, ly is still trying to protect him, just like he did all those years ago, as if loving cxc is an instinct carved into his bones, something that goes beyond his memories.

also i love how his system friends are so ride and die and how 089 even promised that he would "drag 061's fate to him" like it makes me wonder if he was the one who arranged 061 and cxc's partnership bc i've completely forgotten abt this plot point, i guess it'll be explained later

and like belatedly on a reread it's so clear why cxc always has a violent plan c hidden in his sleeves because he's been a victim himself, he has a personal vendetta against these sorts of scum. like ofc he'd want to run yang baihua over with a car and even dare to hide a knife for self-defense against zhou kai.

omg and the bit abt dog meat/maimai made me cry lmao god and then 061 got him the little dog plush authornim why are you hurting me like this then cxc just had to ask if he can bring 061 back to his world and im just there like... yeah... aoe emotional damage... this is also when 061 seems like he's starting to fall in love, like when he got a teeny tiny bit jealous when cxc called the lawyer that's similar to someone he knew back in his world lmao

there's even more plot abt 061 leaving his host presumably to meet cxc which leads to his reformatting and him leaving backup data to 089 i love these little bits of overarching plot peppered in each world

also the author stated it: xiaochi is lou-ge's medicine, and lou-ge is also xiaochi's medicine. the mutual salvation is canon /cries

250211 / love song on ice

ok it's finally love song on ice i remember it being my fav arc so im excited to reread it

[aliveandfullofjoy]

elaborate on the ana de armas vs janelle monae thing please?

I’ll do my best!

(Glass Onion spoilers below.)

And to clarify, this isn’t meant to pit these actors against each other or to diminish their work. I find it to be a natural point of comparison since the roles they play in the Knives Out movies essentially serve the same function. I also think both give very effective performances.

I think de Armas gives the richer performance, but I also think this partly because her film is more focused on her. She’s our point of entry. From the beginning, Marta feels like a live wire, someone living through a nightmare. From the flashbacks to before the murder, through Blanc’s entrance, to the reading of the will, to the killer ending, I think de Armas does an exceptional job tracking Marta’s arc. It’s a dynamic role, but she finds a lot of surprising and exciting texture in her performance. One of her best assets as an actor are her expressive eyes: Marta may not be able to tell a lie without vomiting, but her eyes almost betray her more. In every scene, before she says anything, we know what she’s feeling.

Monáe, meanwhile, has a wildly different role and set of challenges to overcome. The film’s structure is one: where Marta is the true protagonist of her film, guiding us through the story, Monáe’s true purpose in the narrative is only gradually revealed. They have less time than de Armas does. Andi is, necessarily, an enigma for most of the first half. Monáe’s eyes are also a great asset: if de Armas’ default is expressiveness, Monáe’s might be elusiveness. Rian Johnson knows that Monáe has a striking screen presence with unreadable eyes — that’s what makes the Mona Lisa parallel in the final shot so effective. When she’s silent, we can tell Andi is keeping something from us. We just don’t know what.

The reveal of her purpose in the story (and the reveal of Andi’s death and twin sister Helen) is thrilling storytelling on Johnson’s part. Monáe clearly has fun recoloring our perception of the character they’ve been playing, even with some technically shaky moments (including their questionable accent work, lol), and the raw physicality of their performance at the end is a blast to watch. Theirs is an entertaining, effective performance that I find to be a little inconsistent.

I’m not sure if any of this made sense, lmao. To review: both are great roles, but I think de Armas’ characterization is richer and deeper than Monáe’s. The excitement (and awards run) in response to Monáe’s performance is, in my opinion, mostly in response to their role in the narrative and not so much about their actual performance.

(Worth noting that this is not new or unique to Monáe — Oscars are given out to the role rather than the performance all the time. This comparison had just been on my mind since rewatching Glass Onion.)

[lovelybarnes]

berlin- b. barnes

pairings: bucky barnes x reader

warnings: mentions of blood and dying, fighting, weapons, avengers stuff, it’s not fluff

about: a challenge “berlin in the cold/ all that fighting/ all that snow” for @sventeen-daybreak

a/n: i hope this is good! it’s only 1k words or so, so i hope that’s enough lol i'm also so sorry for any mistakes, after reading it for like the third time, every word i read was just horrible so i stopped reading lmao

also i am currently working on the loki part 2, so i'm hoping it'll be out by thursday (aka my normal posting day)

"berlin in the cold,"

the cold air is nipping at your uncovered skin, numbing your nose and your cheeks, but you don’t seem to notice. your evening breaths are visible, swirling in front of you as white puffs. your fingers are tapping slowly against the leg of your suit, staining the color with the dark red on your fingers. you can still feel the wound they pressed on, the thick vermillion coating your fingers while you struggled to keep it in. you can still hear the whimpers and the screams, and the eyes that stared up at you, pleading for you to do something you were unable to.

the snow you’re standing in is pure white, a stark contrast to the carmine colored you can still see. very little of it is yours, but it’s a meaningless comfort with the reminder of the pain heavy, and it’s barely noticeable that the avengers came to help with so much death.

your legs still ache from the excessive use, thighs sore from squeezing heads so hard, the bodies belonging to them fall to the ground; dead or passed out, you didn’t bother to tell because you’d cracked their necks already. the weapons you used sit uselessly in the pockets of your suit: bloodied or chipped knives, broken tasers, and guns emptied of ammo.

you can still see the bodies, both human and alien, and a few in between, strewn across the white, but your face remains expressionless, the hate for the things that caused the destruction loud and clear as it runs in your blood, making your fingers reach out to take the lives you’ve already taken, not that you’d be able to with how exhausted you are now. the evidence of that, though, is nonexistent, and will be until you’re in the compound, free to pass out as you please in the confines of your own bed.

the presence behind you- familiar and comforting, a striking change from the ones you’d been encountering for the last hours- gently reminds you it isn’t your bed only anymore, but yours and bucky’s to share. the thought draws a relaxing sheen over your thoughts, the thought of hands and touches that don’t bring with them murderous intent a large enough relief to let your shoulders drop a little.

just a little, though, because even if you close your eyes, the metallic smell of blood remains, burning in your nose, appearing on your tongue, and the still bodies are still there, all life drained away.

“you’re cold,” bucky says quietly, and you don’t mind it; his voice is always soft, gravelly in a way that should shatter the war-ridden silence, but it doesn’t, only makes it tremble, as if he’s handling it with the same tender hands he handles you with- only light touches, as if you aren’t the opposite of the most delicate thing in the world.

you don’t respond, but you don’t need to, bucky has already slipped his arms from the coat you made him take, draping it over your shoulders. the only reason he doesn’t turn you around and puts it on you correctly is the eerie silence there rarely is when you’re around him, and the complete lack of your touch. you’re always at his side, hidden under his arm while you ask him if he’s okay because you always are.

you aren’t this time, he recognizes, watching you absentmindedly scratch at the dried blood on your thumb, the red speckles harshly interrupting the bright white as they land. “i don’t understand why they came here like that.” you think out loud, voice soft yet cracked. you mean suddenly, without the warning usually given and taken advantage of by arriving earlier, stopping most of the chaos and coldblooded murder.

“they’re aliens,” bucky points out dumbly, because he doesn’t know what else to say. he doesn’t understand either. this is something he asks you, and you answer with something true and honest because that’s what you are. you blink, not moving from the place you stand, watching the ruins of what was once a home. “but if we got here sooner-”

“you know what thinking like that does,” bucky interrupts carefully, and you do. you’ve seen the tears that tinge his eyes red and roll down his cheeks, the nightmares that limit his rest to only a few hours. yet, you can still only remember the little girl, whose blood possibly wouldn’t be caked on your hands if you’d gotten here earlier.

she was so little, you think, sniffling. “you’re cold,” bucky repeats, attempting to ease you into the quinjet where the rest of the avengers wait, friday doing her job stitching up natasha’s wounds. the stinging on your calf reminds you that you should probably be there too, but you remain still. “it was so pretty here,” you whisper, remnants of the place it used to be still floating in the air like a shadow. you wanted to take bucky here one day, show him how beautiful the cold could be; but the scarlet covering hides the beautiful, the bodies smearing the illusion, only confirming bucky’s views.

the snowflakes that fall from the sky mask the devastation with a sheen of peace, landing gently in yours and bucky’s hair in a way that makes him look angelic. it’s nearly ironic, with his gun shoved in his holster, bloodied and used. he’s still on your side, bright blue eyes staying frozen on you.

you’re standing in snow up to your knees, the ice unkind to your raw skin. the flakes only continue to fall, and you know that everything you can see will be covered by a new layer by tomorrow. it makes you upset, hand curling into a tight fist, sticky with blood. “why hasn’t anyone picked them up?” you ask.

“too much snow. shield didn’t have enough manpower to get them all,” bucky replies, staring at the alien carcasses that remain, shriveled and ugly, one caught in mid scream. you shake your head, “i don’t mean that,” you state, voice slightly raising, nearly breaking your facade. “i mean them, they don’t deserve to- to lie there with their murderers.”

“y/n…” bucky begins, your breathing catches, murmuring a no under your breath, “they didn’t deserve for their last memories to be fighting. they don’t deserve to be buried under so much snow.”

you turn to bucky, finally moving. “they didn’t deserve that.”

“i know,” he responds, voice hushed while he comes closer to you, wrapping his arm around your shoulders and waist. “i couldn’t help them,” you snivel, letting yourself fall against bucky completely until he’s practically carrying you, his body enveloping yours till you aren’t visible anymore, safe in his embrace.

“you did everything you could, you helped so many people,” bucky murmurs, pressing his lips against the crown of your head, “not enough,” you counter, cold tears bleeding into his shoulder. “so much, y/n. people are alive because of you.”

your arms finally go around his back, pulling him closer, “then why does it feel like i did nothing?” bucky shakes his head, squeezing his eyes shut at the sound of your broken words. he didn’t know how to make this better. seeing you cry was new to him, it was always you comforting him, hugging him tightly and whispering loving words in his ear until he calmed down and clung to you as you ran your fingers through his hair.

“you did everything you could,” he repeats quietly, rubbing small circles on your back. “i really hate being an avenger sometimes,” you mumble into the ripped material of his suit. “i know. i do too,” he nods, kissing your head repeatedly. his body heat is melting the cold off of yours with each second that passes by. if you close your eyes, you can pretend you aren’t where you are, and the liquid coating your fingers isn’t what it is, but something less gory. not a heavy reminder of what happened.

“i don’t want to be here anymore,” you start, “i want to go home with you and never see anything like this again.” your words are unrealistic, and both you and bucky know that, but he nods anyway, pulling away from you and tugging the coat tighter around your body.

you walk next to him towards the quinjet, the snow you used to love stained with the ghost of the decimation that had just taken place.

"all that fighting; all that snow."

[fictionalreads]

Euphoria Season 2 Episode 6

Rue

You look rough.

Oh that’s gross. I didn’t need to see that snot.

GIA POOR BABY

So a liar who’s honest with themselves. At least she ain’t trying to lie to herself about who she is.

An unfortunate truth of the world, we all judge.

Damn the Ali thing was sitting heavy on her. I didn’t like it either Rue.

Ah shit. I forgot about her and Ali with all the Maddy/Nate/Cassie drama.

Why are they going to sleep when the sun is still out?

Of course you don’t know about her life, you’ve been getting too high.

Awe Leslie.

Ali

Ali is better than me.

He pulls no punches. I love him.

HES LOOKING OUT FOR GIA

He definitely don’t sugarcoat nothing.

Nate

Seeing Nate smile without some gross ulterior motive is weird.

Wait they left the pee? Like not even a towel thrown over it at all? That shit gotta stank.

Nah she had a point. Your anger isn’t specific.

The idea of a pregnancy keeps popping up. What the hell is this leading to?

His mom is gross too. He really got two fucked up parents.

Nate? Sweet? I can’t see it.

Oh so he wants the business.

IS HE ABOUT TO KILL MADDY?! OR HIS DAD?!

Nate. So you’re not an angry person? This ain’t proving that.

Leave Jules alone.

I don’t trust anything he says.

Maddy

Maddy as much as I want to see you lose it, I also wanna see you be smart about this. Play the game.

Do not get caught trying on those clothes Maddy.

Fuck you left the phone.

Why are all the adults on this show complete trash? Except Ali. We love him.

Maddy I really hope you made copies or put it somewhere safe. NATE CAN NOT WIN!!

This is weird. What am I watching?

Kat

Kat you sound wishy washy. Like an “oh I knew it all along” type when you didn’t know nothing.

WHILE AT DINNER WITH ETHAN!!

I know you don’t love him but damn at least respect him.

....A brain disorder? Terminal? Girl if you don’t just tell him you don’t feel the same anymore and go on. He know you lying, this hurts him more.

LMAO The waitress!! She said “I’m not getting in this. Let me walk away.”

Lexi

MS HOWARD IS TOO FUNNY

Lexi wondering if it’s necessary to hide the knives and her mama like yeah she’s very emotional. I fully believe she’ll stab herself.

THE COUCH SCENE

WAit. Fez knows the play is close to reality? This means they’ve talked more than we’ve seen. I feel robbed.

But also, 😂😂 he wants the world to know he beat up Nate Jacobs.

We love a supportive King.

You are the bad guy Cassie. You AND Nate. If not you two, who?

Cassie. They may have been broken up but that’s still your best friend. You shouldn’t have looked at Nate as an option at all.

LEXI OUT HERE TELLING CASSIE THE TRUTHS SHE NEEDS TO HEAR “you don’t know why he beat Nate up. I do but I’m not gonna tell you because I don’t trust you.”

Time out Cassie. You don’t get to go after Lexi cause you fucked up.

MORE COUCH SCENE!!

Is Lexi high?

THEYRE HOLDING HANDS

Miscellaneous

WAIT A LESLIE EPISODE oh no it’s not.

As a Christian, being Christian doesn’t make you a good person.

Should have known you would end up alone Cassie. Nate will always run back to Maddy.

Ashtray where are yo antennas tonight?

Faye don’t you screw over my boys for him. They took you in, kept you safe and shit.

Cassie you are disgusting. Why the hell are you jumping for him?

[zhanyes]

19 days pandemic version / living together headcannons

I just want to imagine the boys living together because let’s be honest it’s going to be so chaotic but they deserve each other’s company

P.s. I know nothing about how China dealt with the pandemic so this is purely self-indulgent

- When the lockdown happened they were all at He Tian’s for a sleepover so they were forced to stay there for a few weeks until everything settled

- Mo guanshan kicked up a fuss over it but was actually just worried about his mom being left alone at home

Mo guanshan, already taking note of what to put in the pantry: “THE FUCK YOU MEAN WE’RE STAYING HERE?! NO!”

- Zheng xi is surprisingly okay with staying at He Tian’s for the time being, Jian yi says it’s because He tian has a ps5 (He’s not wrong)

-Mo Guanshan lost all respect for Zhengxi when he said “It could be fun.”

- Both Zhengxi and Guanshan’s parents agreed that they should stay for a bit just to be safe

- Jian yi is a panic buyer and with He Tian’s money they bought enough food to feed an army

- He forgot to buy necessities and Guanshan wacked his ass

Mo guanshan looking at the 9 full plastic bags of groceries: “You’re telling me OUT OF ALL OF THIS, you didn’t buy a single toothbrush?”

Jian yi, a dumbass: “I didn’t know we were having toothbrush for dinner?”

Mo guanshan brandishing a knife out of thin air: “Come ‘ere I’ll show you what's for dinner.”

- He tian is a menace in the grocery store, he’s bought about 4 pots, 2 pans, a new dish set AND knives set, 6 new mugs of different colors (Yellow for jian yi, blue for zhengxi, red for guanshan and black for him; the other two just looked nice) and a dozen of scented candles

Zheng xi, trying to keep Guanshan from committing murder in a grocery: “Why did you do this?”

He tian: “They were in sale! Buy one-take-one!”

Mo guanshan: “WHY WOULD YOU BUY 4 POTS OF THE SAME SIZE?!”

- They make it out of the store and Guanshan vows to never let jian yi and he tian do groceries

- Guanshan mostly cooks for everyone and Zhengxi helps out but jian yi is surprisingly a decent cook???

- He needs to be supervised tho because his attention span is limited to 5 seconds and he’ll forget he was boiling water

- He tian canonically can not cook. He is BANNED from the kitchen after he put sake in a pan thinking it was water

- He tian has 2 guestrooms in his apartment but he locks the other one and assigned Zhan Zhengxi and Jian yi to the other room

- Mo guanshan forces his way into Zhanyi’s room and He tian follows. That’s how all of them ended up sleeping in a single guestroom on the floor with mattresses stacked and pushed together

- Zhengxi introduces them to anime and Jian yi’s favorite genre is surprisingly action with a lot of fighting scenes and Mo guanshan (and He tian) likes slice-of-life

- He tian and Jian yi strays away from animes and movies related to the mafia and Zhengxi and Guanshan never asks, it’s an unspoken rule that those types of stuff are banned

- They have game nights because Jian yi thinks bonding is key to make their friendship last longer (and to avoid having anyone murdered)

- Every board game turns into a disaster. There’s no exception.

The boys playing monopoly:

Jian yi: “THAT WAS MINE YOU DICK! I WAS SAVING UP MONEY TO BUY IT!”

He tian: “Have you tried not being poor? No? Well that’s too bad.”

Zhengxi, is safe in jail and has the most land: “Lmao losers.”

The boys playing uno:

Mo guanshan: “Don’t do it…”

He Tian: “I’m sorry Mo this is the only way”

Mo guanshan: “No please you can find another way…”

He tian: “Goodbye, my love *puts a plus 4 down* Uno.”

Mo guanshan: *unintelligible noises of a loser* 

Playing scrabble:

Jian yi: “The fuck you mean gorjeus isn’t a word? That’s what I am.”

He tian: “You’re right, that's what you are. An absolute idiot.”

Chess:

Mo Guanshan to He tian: “You might be smart and winning but I have the power of violence and nothing is stopping me from flipping this table over.”

Word guessing game:

Jian yi: “It’s loud, annoying, depended and cries a lot.”

Zhengxi, guessing the word baby: “Is this you?”

Jian yi: “I- okay yeah that’s valid.”

- Zhengxi is very observant, he knows Jian yi well enough to know when he’s having anxieties about the pandemic, he knows when Guanshan needs some time alone, and when He tian is getting too lost in negative thoughts. He does what he can to help

- His bonding moments with Guanshan consists of listening to pop music and staying quiet

- The apartment is almost always alive and noisy, whether it’s Jian yi suggesting another game or Guanshan screaming about something, He tian takes joy in the fact that he’s with people he cares about

- He’s thankful for the noise after living in silence all alone for a long time. Jian yi knows the feeling of going home to an empty apartment and vows to visit more often with Zhengxi once this is all over (and drag Guanshan along assuming he’s not here already)

- Over time He tian smiles and laughs become a lot more genuine. Once, He tian laughed loudly at something Mo guanshan did and the only thing he can think of is, “Oh shit, happiness looks good on him.”

- Queue gay panic to Jian yi

Mo guanshan: “WHAT IS THIS?!”

Jian yi, remembering He tian doing the same thing yesterday: “Natural selection.”

- Jian yi loves all of them, really, but sometimes he feels claustrophobic from being kept inside for so long

- Zhan Zhengxi always notices, and he would sneak Jian yi up to the rooftop and they would stay there for a while so they can look at the stars, the city lights and Jian yi can breathe easier

- During those times, He tian relishes the alone time he gets with Guanshan, sometimes they talk and banter, but sometimes they just stay quiet and secretly enjoy each other’s presence (they steal glances at each other when they think the other isn’t looking)

- They grew so used to living with each other that they developed a shower schedule and Zhengxi wakes up the same time as Guanshan to help prepare breakfast

- He tian and Jian yi tends to wake up a little later and Jian yi gravitates closer for warmth so they end up cuddling until they’re forced to get up and eat

- Zhengxi takes a picture of them and sends it to their group chat

- He tian has hundreds of pictures of him and Mo, just Mo, the group, Zhengxi and Jian yi, and a lot more stolen shots that he keeps in a separate album in his phone

- He prints out his favorites, hangs them around the bedroom and frames some of them to put it in the living room. None of the other boys have the heart to take them down after seeing how happy He tian looks every time he sees the pictures

- Jian yi asks He tian to share the pictures to him too, he doesn’t print it out but he uses one of the pictures of all of them together as his lockscreen (his wallpaper is a stolen picture of him and Zhengxi He tian took when they were stargazing on the rooftop)

- When everything settles down enough for them to go home, they’re actually reluctant to go

- Still, Mo Guanshan and Zhengxi go home to their families. Jian yi stays with He tian since he knew his mom wasn’t at home anyway, at least this way they’ll both have company

- Guanshan claims (loudly) that he’s glad to get away from them but still video calls with them everyday anyway

Mo Guanshan, in the videocall for the nth time: “I’m SO GLAD. Those were the WORST weeks of my life.”

The others, hearing the same lie for the nth time: “Mhm. Whatever you say, Mo.”

- They have discord sleepovers because they all miss sleeping in the same room with each other (they never mention it but everyone knows)

- Mo Guanshan cooks meals for more than him and his mom and have it delivered to He tian’s and Zhan Zhengxi’s. When asked he claims it’s just leftovers

- Zhan Zhengxi’s body clock is fucked, he grew too used to waking up early so he just went with it and helps his mom prepare breakfast

- They all silently agree that they wouldn’t mind living with each other again in the future (again none of them ever mentions it but everyone is aware)

[miserabull]

A very long meta-analysis on P2 Bad Grief

So, I've gone over every dialogue with this guy a few times, and there is some stuff I've never seen addressed before. This is a mix of analyzing and theory that have been in my head for a while, and I’d love to know if it all also makes sense to other people

The thing about Classic and P2 Grief, is that they are very different characters playing the same role. Who is Bad Grief? A thief, a kingpin of the town's criminal underbelly, and a smuggler working for Big Vlad. In P1, he's also a dangerous murderer who kills people for fun, but denies it, even claims that he kicks people out of his gang for daring to take up knives. Dude lies a lot. In fact, he maintains the lie up until the last route, the Changeling's, and then tries that on her too but ends up confessing. This is my very wordy way of saying that while I kinda agree with people who are like "he's not a violent murderer like P1 Grief", P1 Grief also claimed to not be one up to the last minute. I don't think they are making him a sadistic killer this time, yeah, but I'm pretty sure he's a liar, and that there's a darker secret. The game implies Grief keeps his cards close to his chest and there is more to him several times, like here, when you talk with Lara's reflection

Lara's Reflection: You see, she puts her stock in deeds and not in words. So Stakh was always close to her; for he would hear his heart, and act. A trait you share, Burakh.

Haruspex: And the most taciturn of us all, Bad Grief.

Lara's Reflection: He speaks so much yet does so much more.

or when Artemy confronts him at Aspity's Hospice:

Bad Grief: You heard about Rubin? Know why the Kin wants him dead? He's walkin' around all downcast, doesn't sleep. Says not to ask. Says it's safer like that. What's he done, I wonder? I wanted to ask Sahba, but maybe you know?

Haruspex: You're lying. That's not what you wanted to ask. I can tell.

Bad Grief: If I did lie, I wouldn't tell you the truth now anyway, would I? So back off. 

I'm not gonna go over the blowing-the-train tracks quest now, though I have some thoughts on it/what I think might be his plan there. For now it suffices to say that that whole thing is very odd, that his plan doesn't make sense(yeah, blowing up the tracks is a bad idea for his business. kinda meaningless though if the alternative is being hanged). That is to say, I'm pretty sure there's a hidden agenda there that we're probably only finding out in Changeling route.

So, what I mean is, if you think P2 Grief is harmless, or just a clown, or became a gang leader by accident, then, well. I think honey, you got a big storm comin'

A few more notes on Grief's character, and what I think of what we got so far:

-I believe the reflection(I have some thoughts about the nature of those too, actually lmao) is telling the truth, mostly. He is terrified, he doesn't want Artemy to think badly of him, he never wanted violence. P2 Grief is younger, more sympathetic, and very obviously more scared than his P1 counterpart. I don't think he's out there killing for fun. Still, I think he has a lot of blood on his hands anyway.

-I think his loyalty to his friends is sincere. He's kind of really big on companionship and loyalty, which fits, as a gang member. I really think that he wants to belong, to a gang, to a friend group, somewhere. Artemy mentions he's "always been weird" a couple of times, or stuff like "I knew you'd end up like this." and that thing with Lara's reflection... I think Grief was always a little bit on the margins, even in his own friend group, and that's why he made a place for himself as the leader of the misfits, of the people who don't fit what the town considers to be good society. I gotta get on with this because this is gonna be long enough without me rambling about every single thought and feeling I have about this bastard though

-He doesn't give away Stakh's hideout accidentally because he's goofy and dumb. He mentions more or less where it is like, three times. I think it's obvious that he's practically asking Artemy to go check on him, but he doesn't want to be a snitch, so he plays the fool like "Oooh no I gave you a hint, I sure hope you don't go looking for him now, don't ask me because I’d never tell!!". He's playing the clown, he's not that stupid

Okay, now we're getting to the heart of things. In P1, along with the reveal that he's actually a violent murderer who played another violent murderer(Barley) into taking the fall for his crimes, we get something else: he's working under the patronage and protection of Vlad Olgimsky. In P2, they put a lot more emphasis on that, Grief will tell you about it in the first AND second conversation you have. There is even a certain imagery associated with it... actually, allow me a quick digression here, I wanna go over some motifs around Grief. 

Grief is pretty into clockwork and gears, going by his choice of decoration for his Lair. The town itself is compared to a machine several times, by himself, by Big Vlad, and regarding how the Kains view it. I risk to say that the way Grief sees it is rather different from the Kains, at least at first.  For him it seems to be more of a blunt factory machine, while to the Kains...it means something else, more complex. Grief seems to have glimpsed what that is inside the Cathedral, near the end. That reminds me of something else, in the Diurnal End when Grief talks about how he used to be a clocksmith before, and now he's going to be "another kind of clocksmith", I don't think he's necessarily being literal in either case. Curiously, there's also a Clocksmith inside the Cathedral in Marble Nest...but I'm going off topic again

Bad Grief: Not a keeper of stores, but stories. This town, this great machine, the gears don't turn on their own, no, not till they're slick with secrets. 

But so, webs and puppets. We return to Vlad Olgimsky(old), who uses the metaphor of his “web”. There's also an important character in Grief's journey that is strongly associated with (spider)webs and strings, and that's Aglaya. The most notable time Grief himself refers to it though, I think, it's in the Theatre of Death, if you let him die:

“My path was not called 'The Spider'. No, think wider. It was 'The Silkworm'! The end of a railroad, I pulled strings firm; unaware someone more cunning pulled mine upstairs.”

So about that. He’s referring to the PTB right? Probably, but not only. A theme in Patho is like...these layers of manipulation. I’m gonna pass the mic to P1 Clara and Saburov for a second:

Alexander Saburov: Begin with the Olgimskys. That is the most important sin for me, and the least for him, for it is not his fault. So did Olgimsky protect his illicit trade? Did he benefit from it?

Changeling: He didn't just benefit; he presided over it. Grief was his stooge.

Alexander Saburov: Now then, we shall skip the issue of the barber gang, since it's clear now who their true mastermind was... thanks to your courage, my brave girl.

Changeling: Don't skip it just yet. Barley was as much of a puppet in Grief's hands as Grief himself was for Olgimsky. Everyone has their toys.”

Grief is a puppet in Vlad’s hands both in P1 and P2, as there he says he’s Vlads “eyes and ears” in the warehouses. In the Cathedral, he seems to more or less realize the extent of it, and how it goes against what he always wanted in the first place: to not be trapped by anything. 

Bad Grief: I used to be a thief, yet they made me a storekeeper. And what a perfect fit I made! I got my Warehouse kingdom, and with it, the insides of the Town's great machine. I kept Vlad's riches while havin' all I could dream of. Can't imagine a sweeter life.

Funnily enough, by that time he’s trapped in someone else’s web: Aglaya’s. That seems to be his thing, he thought he was in control and playing everyone, knowing all the secrets and pulling strings. In the end, he’s a Silkworm in the web of bigger fish. I mean, spiders.

Bad Grief: ...Yet they, too, are controlled by someone. Insane to think what kind of teeth you need for that.

But okay. Back to the start, I believe Grief has a lot of blood in his hands even before shit breaks loose. The things he seems to be most afraid of are also… interesting. This ties to his connection to Big Vlad, and the Kin.

Grief’s role in the payroll seems to be as a stool pigeon. He knows where everyone goes, what people are talking about, what they don’t want to become public. And he responds to Big Vlad. What I think is, hm, you know, even after Victoria passed it seems like the Kin and the Bull Enterprise never really defied Olgimsky, or had a leader in any way. Grief, too, seems to enjoy a pretty comfortable life for a gang leader. As an important piece to Vlad, he really doesn’t have that much to fear, since the guy “owns everything” and is very explicit to Artemy about how he can destroy anyone who doesn’t obey him. And probably has done that before. My guess is, Grief kept the machine working right by tattling, so no leadership or enemy to Vlad’s Enterprise could rise. I’d speculate that Vlad possibly paid the favor not only financially, but by maintaining Grief in that position. Basically, I think with Grief’s info, Vlad could eliminate any potential problem. That would mean that maybe without even having to shed blood himself there might be a lot of deaths Grief is responsible for, not to speak of the maintenance of that horrible system in the town. I think the route they are going for here is that Grief is a class traitor.

Why do I say that? Well, first let’s look at Grief’s relationship with the Kin: he’s remarkably close to them for a townie. Geographically, obviously, and also in the sense of living on the margins of society, but he also shares many of their superstitions, and seems to hold Aspity’s opinion in high regard(even calls her Sahba). I find it easy to believe that many of his men are part of the community as well, due to not being welcome in the town. At that time we see him in the Hospice though, and talking with the Kin people there, it’s pretty clear that they are planning some sort of uprising. That it’s imminent. Grief seems to know it. Seems to be absolutely terrified of that too, and to feel betrayed by Vlad.

Bad Grief: It's too late for me, Cub. I've only got one road ahead of me now. Perhaps the outbreak is for the best... Plagues are like fires, people forget old scores. And all hell will break loose here soon.

Haruspex: Any dark prophecies to share? You're the criminal mastermind here, after all.

Bad Grief: No need to prophesize. People fear hunger. Even honest workers will turn their hatchets and hammers to crime. Burglin' houses, lootin' corpses, guttin' each other. They will. Oh, they will.

Haruspex: Not all of them, Grief. Not all.

Bad Grief: The turf's so dry, you don't even need a match-a glare would start a fire. And when the Kin bares its teeth, that's when we'll all dance! They're slow on the start, but oh so fast on the draw! The Master likes them mute and obedient, but apathy makes them that way, not stupidity. They're only obedient till the time comes. And here it comes.

And the people who lose their jobs? They won't be too fond of staying home. They'll find new hobbies, like looking for food, or venting their anger. ...And Fat Vlad shut his facilities down the day before yesterday, didn't he? Crafty... Didn't whisper so much as a single word to me. Do you think he knew?

At the same time he seems to think that he deserves this, and it’s inevitable. “We reap what we sow”, paraphrasing him. He talks a few times about how there’s a vile beast inside each person in the town, about how they are all wretched and everything, including him, which I think might just be a way of coping like “yeah, I sold out, but anyone would do the same if they were in my place”. 

So, yeah. What I think is that Grief was a guy that had no power and money, with absolutely no perspective, who due to his very particular skills had an opportunity to climb up and took it(all while still getting to pretend he’s an outlaw, free from the chains of society!). And it’s...very bad. And he knows it’s very bad, and he’s not evil or sadistic, but he’s immature, cowardly, and desperately wants to be in control of his own destiny, and to not be alone, and all that. He’s still Artemy’s childhood buddy, a loyal friend, and someone who never really wanted to cause that much damage. He also knows that what he did is unjustifiable, and that no matter what he truly feels, the damage is done and he’s guilty of horrible shit.

[elemental-daddy-neos]

Gonna do the obvious character: 📝👗📺🃏🌈😺🍳🦋🗡 with Sora~

My son my baby

(Couple spoilers below for synchro dimension)

📋- Jpn, his last name just sounds nicer and has a very ominous meaning, though I appreciate the dub for giving him a last name that just means "purple" iirc

👗- Probably his hair most of all, there isn't a thing I don't love about his design, but blue hair has always been a favorite of mine

Also look how small he is, he is so so tiny

📺- The scene where he confronts Tsukikage in the synchro dimension and basically tells him "You can do whatever you want with me later, just let me fulfil this promise to Yuya first" has always been my favorite moment for his character because you just Know that he's saying he's fine with dying if that's the fate Tsukikage thinks he deserves for what he did to his brother, just not with Yuzu's safety still depending on him. It's also the moment where he finally breaks away from Academia after all this internal struggle over where his loyalties still lie, and man. It was really fuckin good. I can't wait to rewatch that one.

🃏- Aesthetically I would pick Fluffal Mouse because look at this absolute unit

He so fuckin ROUND I love him... But! I love Frightfur Chimera and Dangerous Frightfur Nightmary for the fucked up symbolism

(No I didn't actively read the manga unless Sora or Yugo were involved, so she was one of the few things I Did absorb and hoo boy was it fucked)

🌈- I've always thought of Sora as pan c: All of the people he's shown interest in have been strong duelists (Yuya, Reiji, Yuto, Masumi) so gender isn't really a factor to him, if you're interesting enough then you'll catch his eye

😺- Probably not lmao, stuffed animals are a big thing with him but I interpret it as a metaphor for his fucked up past and loss of childhood innocence more than anything

🌼- Sora is a complex character with many facets to him, but one flower I can pick to tackle at least a little of that is daffodils, symbolizing rebirth and new beginnings, something that I think is fitting for him due to the changes he goes through over the course of the show

🦋- Sora is probably fascinated by a lot of insects and would probably keep some awful ones as pets (I just Feel in my heart that he'd have a pet centipede), but he also wouldn't feel bad about killing any stray insects that happen to get into his space, like spiders (though now that I think about it I could see him keeping a pet tarantula too)

🗡- Magic user feels most accurate for him, but if I had to pick a physical weapon... He does have a thing for getting up close and personal when he fights, so hm. Brass knuckles and knives both feel like something he'd use in a fight. I think he deserves to punch and stab.

[potatotrash0]

Okay so!!! DESPAIR Ult Murder Komaeda now :))

Things pretty much go as normal. Enoshima fucks things up, Hajime becomes Izuru, etc etc etc

During Despair, he ended up killing nondiscriminatory for a while. (Seeing Makoto and his killing game changed that eventually) He saw you, he got you, he may or may not have dismembered the corpse, he left. He didn’t cut off his arm in this one, but there was a Little bit of fucking himself up. As a treat.

(After waking up from the simulation, he found quite a few scars, most noticeably on his face. The mask he wears on his “patrols” is one he made just for himself, the base of it being a gas mask. The part above it that covers his face (it only covers the right half in a sort of crescent shape), the eyehole is the top X-like shape of the first kanji for hope (希).The rest is smaller and written beneath it in red. He has the X scarred over top of his eye (though his eye was thankfully not damaged or exchanged for Enoshima’s), and the rest of the kanji also below it, though he can thank his eye-bags for obscuring that usually)

(Also Towa went a lot different. He didn’t collaborate with the WOH, but he was definitely present there. Mostly trailing after Izuru, but he did have a good time getting caught up in the “game” and causing problems)

Anyways. So the simulation!

The prologue goes about the same, minus the Talent Complex (Ult Murderer Komaeda judges people by their actions, not by their talent, though he definitely expects more of people with talent) and the hope rambles (saves those for his vigilante time). Chapter one, however, goes DIFFERENTLY. Komaeda HATES meaningless killings. Every single trial makes him Mad. He is more than determined to sus out the killer, and, honestly, he would do the executions if Monokuma didn’t. Feral bastard would 100% lunge across the courtroom. They’re lucky he doesn’t have his favorite knives, though he is a bit sad about that. (Favorite items are the knives just for that purpose. Comfort Item)

They didn’t lose as much trust in him because of that, though they were more wary of him because of his fury. It was kind of scary how quick he could turn against someone, not to mention he could probably kill someone if he wanted to. (He definitely could, they just don’t know. He didn’t tell them he was the Ultimate Murderer because that’s a horrible way to introduce yourself)

So when he gets the file? Oh does he SNAP.

He’s even more ruthless in the fourth trial. Practically snarling. He keeps scratching his nails on his podium and on his arms and cracking his knuckles. Has to find something to do with his hands because oh they ITCH for his knives. He tears into everyone for the slightest mistake (Kazuichi cries) and finishes the trial a lot faster than Hajime usually does.

Chapter five? He tries to convince Monokuma to let him just kill them all himself. He nearly sways him, but Monokuma decides “hm. No. Kinda anticlimactic lmao just for that you can only kill one person now I’m making a rule ❤️”

So his plan proceeds as it did in canon, except the threat is similar to the one from chapter one in, like, regular SDR2. “You’re all disgusting, I’m going to kill all of you. This is justice. This is what you deserve. I built my name and my life on protecting hope and working as its hands and teeth, and I refuse to stand by and allow you to go on living. Only one of you deserves to live. Unfortunately, you’re a necessary sacrifice. I’ve planted bombs, enough to sink these islands and become the next Atlantis, and the only way to stop them is to find them. You have less than a day.”

Working as hope’s hands and TEETH? Pretty big giveaway. Sonia knows who he is immediately. Akane tries to stop him from leaving the restaurant anyways, and he just tosses her to the floor, resist the urge to stomp on her, and leaves. Panic ensues and Hajime is very very very upset. He holds himself together until they find the body.

The rest of the sim goes as usual! Fuck Enoshima.

Moving on! Post-NWP is the happiest time for them. Therapy, reconciliation, Komaeda has some sense beaten into his stupid little mop head, Hajime accepts Izuru and comes to terms with his identity, they live together, they get at least one gecko, it’s great. Funny that this is the one with the happier ending huh?

I see Feral Komaeda and I’m thriving imagining it?? God he’d be terrifying, I’d probably also cry with Kazuichi I will not lie, but also whoa is that something I’d wanna see hhhhhhhh

Anyway gecko dads Komahina :OO

[kevinwastaken]

okay so idk if anyones done this yet, but this has been in my mind ever since i got into omori lmao

so uhHhHhhh heres my idea for an identity v omori crossover! just because i think it would be neat

this is going to be a super long post (probably), so if you want to read it, just hit read more or whatever

i also want to say that some character choices are gonna be taken from my friend, @/kami.rikki on instagram. but she didnt think as hard on these as i did so like idk

there Will be spoilers for omori, so just be warned of that lmao

so as i said before, this has been on my mind for a HOT minute. and i think it would be a cool collab

for starters, this crossover will be split up (as is every other crossover) in two parts, with one hunter two survivors. i know essence usually have one hunter three survivors, but theres not enough characters for that, and six can be split up evenly sooo

i was thinking that the skins could be like the ones from the persona 5 crossover. like, they can be “awakened” in a sense. the base costumes will be the dream world versions of everyone, while the awakened costumes will be the real world versions. i wasnt here for the persona 5 crossover, so idk how many of those spirit things you had to collect, but i Do know that omoris spirit things could be. uh

well actually i dont know. initially i was thinking lightbulbs, like the one in white space, but the lightbulb isnt too important in the game i dont think? and im not sure about clams either. i know theyre dream world currency, but??

oh actually, maybe you can collect Something to awaken the costumes. because something is a representation of the truth in sunnys mind, and by awakening the costumes, you get to see the characters as their real selves. yeah lets go with that, you collect something from the essence

i swear ive been thinking this out shut up

the hunter costumes wont be awakened though, and i have a reason for this

anyway

part one

the characters that will be present in part one are sunny, basil, and aubrey. i chose them first because. ofc, sunnys the protag, basils his best friend and helped cover up maris death hes important to the story but anyway, and aubrey is <<33 yuh

so heres whos going to be who:

sunny/omori as wu chang

so let me preface this by saying that im not a hunter main. never have been, never will be. and ive never played wu chang. but i swear thisll make sense, im doing research

wu chang is actually composed of two characters, with two different stats: xie, the white guard, and fan, the black guard. i cant tell the difference while im playing, considering the fact that my ass is either running away or decoding. but theres a difference i looked it up

sunny would be the white guard. xie is a fast chaser, but has slow attack speed. ie, slow hits, slow pallet breaking, that stuff. this reflects how sunny is in the real world. he can run, yes, but hes still physically weak due to being locked in his house for four years and spending all his time sleeping. he would be better for chasing than attacking

omori would be the black guard. fan is the opposite of xie, having slow chasing speed but faster attack speed. this reflects in omori. omori is Very apathetic, and really, i dont think he would care to chase anybody unless it was for a quest. though, i guess killing survivors Is a quest for hunters, but. anyway

in battle, omori is a good fighter. his attacks are strong, (although not as strong as say. aubrey or kel. but who am i to say, the playthrough i watched had omori constantly sad) out of him and sunny, omori would be the attacker. so theres my choice for them

the umbrella can probably be switched for a knife. maybe an elongated knife. im not entirely sure, but i know the umbrella wont stay as an umbrella

basil as kurt frank

so i know what youre thinking. why is basil “the explorer??” hear me out this is actually a really good idea

the true best choice would be emma, since shes the gardener, but idv doesnt like giving characters skins of the opposite gender if you know what i mean. anyway

basil isnt a fighter. hes an assist, yes, but that was only for a crime four years ago. not my point, he wouldnt want to be in the action

i think he’d be a really good decoder. especially a good kurt

i originally wanted him to be prisoner, out of no bias whatsoever (/j) but kurt is a good fit for him

basil hides. he hides from things. he hides from the truth just like sunny, and he hides from others. albeit he still goes outside

i will not lie, i have a very personal grudge against kurt players. i dont want them to have anything because every kurt main ive come across was toxic to me specifically. but anyway

so one of kurts abilities is that he can go smaller to run around undetected and/or hide. i find this perfect for basil, because. yknow. hiding

his other ability is to find password pages and use them to decode ciphers faster. i think this would be funny because basils existence in headspace leads sunny to remembering the truth about maris death. i mean, if he werent in headspace, omori and the gang would continue going on adventures like nothing is wrong, so basil sort of speeds up the acknowledging process

this sounds dumb actually. but it makes sense in my head

anyway, the book would be turned into basils photo album, and he wouldnt have a backpack like kurt does. theres my answer

and finally,

aubrey as margaretha zelle

aubrey was actually really hard to pick out. none of the female survivors really fit her, aside from maybe coord, but i dont know what her gun would turn into. i will admit that her section wont be as detailed as basil or sunnys. but anyway my choice is with margie

aubrey imo would be a good kiter. she has strong stats all around, so i feel as if she’d be a great fit for margie. not to mention her speed boost when falling from large heights, which would make her a faster runner and harder to chase if used right. aubrey would be more physically fit since shes a fighter and seems to do a lot of stuff with the hooligans, which also helps prove that she should be a kiter. ANYWAY

so margie has these music boxes that can mess with the hunter, right? some of aubreys attacks can mess with enemies iirc. soooo theyre kind of similar in a way, arent they?

im not exactly sure what the music box can be turned into. maybe a small piano? aubrey cares about mari a lot, and the reason shes so pissed at everyone and rebellious is because she felt like everyone had forgotten about mari and moved on with their lives. so the music box could be a tribute to mari

i dont know how many changes they made with ann tamakis costume in the persona crossover, other than cosmetics for the skin only, so im not sure if the music box was changed at all. i can dream though

in the case that its changed, the blue box could be the song from the playground in headspace (yknow the one) while the red box could be the final duet song. but just with the piano, not the violin

essence

because yes, i thought about the essence too

of course, aside from the skins, there will be other stuff in the essence too. so itll be as follows:

for portraits, theyre going to be the neutral battle portraits from headspace. aside from basil and mari, who do not have battle portraits. theirs will just be of their neutral expressions with the neutral emotion backround behind them. i would add pictures, but the character pictures add up to six, so i’d run out of room before reaching part two

for graffiti, im not really sure. maybe everyones overworld sprites in headspace? along with maybe one of Something

for accessories, i actually have an idea of what thesell be. theyre going to be character exclusive accessories, just like how tpn did theirs

for aubrey, she’ll have mr plantegg. i was thinking of maybe having her bat as an accessory, but

OH ACTUALLY her bat could be a shop accessory that changes the music boxes!! probably an a tier tbh

anyway, the essence accessory for her is mr plantegg, and its there strictly for cosmetic purposes. for basil, he’d get either a pair of garden shears, or a basil plant, since yknow. his names basil. this is also for cosmetic purposes

they all are. i should say that now, the accessories are all cosmetic except aubreys a tier shop bat

finally, for sunny, im not entirely sure what to give him. i could give him a knife, sure, but then he’d have two knives because of the umbrella. maybe a steak? or a pair of red hands? im torn on this

and that concludes part one

part two

**PLEASE BE AWARE THAT MARIS IMAGE HAS THE PHOTO FROM THE TRUTH ALBUM WHERE SHES HANGING FROM THE TREE. IF YOU DONT WANT TO SEE IT, SKIP PAST IT. SHES THE FIRST CHARACTER IM PUTTING ON HERE

part two consists of mari, hero, and kel. do not separate them </3

here are my character choices:

mari as yidhra

so i know yidhra may seem like a weird choice. i originally thought of maybe mary, but this makes sense to me

yidhra herself will be mari. im not sure which version, but even though i have real world mari in the photo, maybe headspace mari would be better. nobody can see her anyway lmao

yidhras servants will be, again, mari, but she looks as she did when basil and sunny hung her on the tree. her hairs covering her face, with her right eye being visible. kind of like the girl from the ring, but anyway yeah

yidhra is the dream witch. she haunts your dreams and she haunts mine when i go against her. maris death haunts everyone, especially sunny and basil (whom know the truth of what happened,) so this just seems like a perfect fit

her death is “leeched” onto everyones minds (pun entirely intended), so attaching herself to survivors with only her death appearance visible is mmmm

instead of an axe, maybe her weapon can be the jump rope she was hung from? and it can be used as a whip? that makes the most sense to me idk

im not good at explaining things, but if you were to see dream witch in a match, youd know how good this would work

also brings a new meaning to “my thoughts will follow you into your dreams” HELLO

hero as norton campbell

so hero was kind of hard for me to pick too. i wanted him to be a support character, but looking around, there are. barely any that would work. my closest choice was victor, but?? the letters???? they dont correlate

hero doesnt give me kiter vibes, but nortons good at rescues too, as long as youre in an area with obstacles. and usually, when someone dies in battle, hero can make life jam to revive the fallen party member

nortons magnets are used to either bring the hunter closer to him, or push the hunter away. both can be used to stun with obstacles. while hero doesnt have any stun attacks that i can remember, he does have charming abilities that can be used to take damage for the other party members. so similar stuff? idk

i guess his magnets can be turned into chocolate chip cookies, since thats what he uses to heal everyone. if not cookies, then i dont know

oh actually one of nortons abilities is called “attract.” thats so funny if you put hero as him lmao

heros section is kind of short, my bad

kel as william ellis

come on. who else were you expecting me to use? its the basketball man as the football man

while kel is a fighter in battle, he can also be used as a backup healer. aubrey is the main fighter of the group, and hero is the main healer. so hes kind of a catch-all in a sense

kels an athlete. he plays basketball. williams an athlete. he plays football. need i say more

im not gonna lie, this is kind of a don tpn situation where it just Makes Sense that kel would be william

the football will probably be replaced with either a rubber ball or a basketball, depending on which skin youre using. the former is for headspace kel, the latter for real world kel

the buffs and debuffs for william makes sense on kel too. kel would probably have trouble with something as (probably) complex as the cipher machines, and the struggle and vaulting buffs show off his athleticisim

same with the football, using rush to rescue is such a kel thing to do

essence

for part two, there will be about the same things as part one

the portraits will be the neutral battle portraits, this time with the real world counterparts of everyone. basil and maris will be their neutral expressions on the neutral battle background. though, since mari doesnt have Real real world portraits, i guess they could use the one from the one i used on the mari yidhra picture

for graffiti, it can be the real world overworld sprites

in terms of accessories, theyre still cosmetic and character exclusive. maris can be the white egret orchid, since thats the flower that represents her. heros can be a spatula, as thats his weapon of choice in headspace. for kel, im not sure. hes using the ball as a weapon so???

maybe he can get a cactus, because thats his assigned plant

in terms of shop items, i think i know the perfect thing

mewo as a pet

mewo my beloved. nobody could ever forget you

mewo would be a hunter pet. she would be cool for survs too i guess, but considering both her owners are hunters.....

mewo would probably follow the hunter around, not really doing much. i think it would be Extremely funny though if every time a survivor was chaired, she just chilled next to them in the pose shes always in in white space

thats pretty much it. if you got this far, thank you!! i spent like two hours writing this whole thing out LMAO damn

[dorksndisasters]

Session 1

[[NEXT>]]

We’ve been here before, haven’t we :P

 But here’s the storied version of the first session! Does this make it any clearer than the notes lmao

 If you want to read ahead, the next two sessions are up on my patreon right now! that’s patreon.com/scmalarky :)

players involved; Ophibwynn, Carric, Uriel, Siana

##

In the world of Guilene, in the Citadel of Malpha that has been built up around the waygate to the Mist between worlds, there is an inn that has boasted music the likes of which isn’t heard much elsewhere.

The half-elf has played there for several generations of the inn’s owners, since she arrived in the city almost a hundred years ago. Each night, she whittles a new instrument from a vegetable that doesn’t make it into the meals that the cook makes, and plays strange and wonderful music. At the end of each shift, she feeds the instrument to her rabbit, and thus the contract between sorcerer and patron is kept.

The inn is called The Knave and Cauldron, but no one remembers why any more.

On the night in question, the half-elf (named Ophibwynn) is, in turns, captivating her audience and letting them pass her by in waves as she plays alone by the side of the fire.

She’s watching a table towards the back of the inn, where a human and an elf are sitting as if watching her, but their attention is anywhere else. She sees one pass the other a pouch, and her music falters ever so slightly.

An elf by the name of Uriel is standing in the shadows of the corner of the room, recently arrived in the city and the borough and the inn, and marks the same pair of people. She stalks them with all the grace of a wild creature in the forest, but of course an inn is not the forest and she trips as her foot catches on a chair leg. She crashes to the floor in front of the table and springs back to her feet just as quickly, but eyes are turning in her direction. The pair sketch a look over her, the man more so than the elf.

She sits at their table and orders a round of drinks, and asks them what they’re doing in town.

“Merchants,” the man says, after a pause as if to see if his companion will say anything. “We deal in decorative goods.

Uriel asks about the pouch, because she too had seen it, and the pair deny all knowledge.

In the rafters above them perches a half-elf named Siana, who is generally more at home in the heights of a forest. She has crept inside at the sound of music, and now seems just as interested in the pair now. She creeps closer and misses her footing to fall onto their table, knocking herself out.

At that, every patron turns their attention to that table. The original couple stand somewhat abruptly and make as if to leave.

Ophibwynn, seeing the patrons getting restless, plays the finest flute solo that has ever graced a carrot, and order is restored.

On their way out, the couple run into Carric, an elf who gathers mushrooms because she believes that in their effects can her patron be found.

“You sell these?” the elf asks, slowing to talk to her as the man strides on ahead.

Carric agrees and offers her some, extolling their virtues as “energy enhancers”.

The elf laughs knowingly and, seeing her companion leaving without her, asks Carric to meet her in the nearby market the next day.

~

In the market the next day, Carric and Ophibwynn wait for the meeting. Uriel strolls through the market, largely unnoticed, running a sort of perimeter but... mostly looking for easy marks.

Siana, as is her wont, perches on the rooftop and scans across the market, keeping an eye out for any kind of trouble.

It is the human that comes to greet them, not the mage. Carric expresses confusion, a little bit of hesitance.

The man smiles, unconcerned, and introduces himself as Aelfswild. “Now, you had mushrooms, I believe?”

“Yes,” Carric says, slowly. “For gems.”

He sucks in a breath. “Depending on what kind you want, it may become rather... pricey.”

“What kind?” Ophi asks.

“Cut, or uncut? I can gather cut far more easily, but they come with... certain risks attached, you understand.”

Carric and Ophibwynn share a glance.

“Uncut,” Carric says. “For these energy enhancing mushrooms. They can be very beneficial.”

Aelfswild smiles. “Be that as it may.”

“They are rare, too. I’ve spent a long time gathering them, I know where to find them.”

Aelfswild raises his eyebrows. “Very well. Shall we say... a pound and a half for a pound? Mushrooms for gems.”

Ophibwynn scoffs, and starts to protest.

Uriel takes the opportunity to walk past, bumping into Aelfswild briefly before she corrects her course and disappears into the crowd, with his coin purse and a folded piece of paper in hand.

“We’ll take that deal,” Carric says. “I assume you don’t have all the gems on you this instant.”

Aelfswild laughs and dips his head. “You’d be right. Meet in, say, an hour by the Knave and Cauldron?”

Carric nods, and she and Ophi watch as Aelfswild disappears into the crowd.

“Uriel?” Carric asks, after a moment. “What did you find?”

“A map,” says the elf, stepping up beside them. “It’s the area around the city. Something marked on it.”

Carric glances at it, briefly. “We should find Siana, then, and see what she’s found out.”

Siana, meanwhile, is in close pursuit of someone who’s stolen a statue of an Elder God – not something she would have thought worth it. It’s certainly bigger than the usual items pilfered from a market, and so she gave chase.

When he enters what seems to be a dead end of an alley, she leaps from the rooftop to confront him. Misjudging the distance from roof to ground, she lands badly in a heap, which startles him into almost dropping the statue.

“Now, just wait-”

Siana slaps a glyph onto the ground and aims it at him, but it’s been damaged in her fall and sends her shooting back, instead.

When she gets back to her feet and returns to the alley, the thief is gone.

Irritated and nursing a sore leg, she re-joins the others in the market.

They plot, briefly, and split up again. Uriel and Siana head out of the city, to the mark on the map. Ophi and Carric make sure they have enough mushrooms and head to the inn to lie in wait for their next meeting.

Uriel and Siana find the camp easily enough – they have a map, and Uriel knows the area surrounding the citadel well, after all her time trapping and hunting in it.

“There must be guards,” Uriel murmurs, as Siana almost walks straight in. “But I can’t... spot them. They’re good.”

“Wait for the others?” Siana asks, sighing.

“Wait for the others.” Uriel nods and settles back.

Siana starts foraging for mushrooms to pass the time.

By the Knave and Cauldron, Ophi and Carric are on the verge of impatience when Aelfswild appears.

“My apologies,” he says. “I had to reorganise a few things, you understand.”

“Of course.” Carric steps up to meet him. “But you have the gems?”

“You have the mushrooms?” he asks, smiling slightly.

Carric glances at Ophi, who’s standing back. She opens the small sack in her hands, showing the mushrooms inside.

“Excellent.” He brings a pouch out from under his cloak, and allows them a glimpse of the gems inside. “All uncut, as you asked for.”

Carric holds out a hand for the pouch as Ophi steps forward to hold out hers.

“A pleasure doing business.” Aelfswild smiles. “I’m in here the occasional evening, should you ever feel like another deal.”

“We’ll consider it,” Carric says, and watches as he walks away. “Ophi?”

“Right.” She focuses and tries to summon a portal to meet the others.

It sputters out before it takes hold, and she sighs. “Sorry. Looks like we’re walking.”

“Alright.” Carric stows the pouch of gems. “Better get moving.”

It is growing late by the time they reach the others.

“What happened to magicking your way out here?” Uriel asks, balancing knives on her fingers.

“Didn’t quite work,” Ophi replies. “But at least we found you.” She glances at Siana, who’s face down in the moss and giggling to herself. “What... happened?”

“Ate a bad mushroom.” Uriel stands. “So.”

Carric skirts around Siana and peers out over the camp.

They’ve lit a fire in the centre, between the three tents, and she can see five figures standing around it.

“Shall we just-”

Uriel interrupts Carric by firing an arrow into the nearest tent. Someone yells, in shock or pain it’s hard to tell.

Ophi quickly casts a silence spell across the whole camp, but the figures seem to be growing alert now.

Carric shrugs and catches one of them in a tight spell, cutting off his oxygen and laying him on the ground unconscious.

Uriel runs for the tent she shot into and, upon seeing four people in there, lets her tarantula loose.

Ophi races after her and whirls the ashes of the fire up to blind the remaining four people outside, and hits them with her staff as they stumble around. Carric takes out one of them, too, as Uriel slips inside the tent.

Finding them all blinded from her tarantula’s venom, she makes quick work of killing them all before stepping out the entrance.

Carric has stepped inside one of the other tents, and her eyes widen as she gazes upon a veritable treasure trove of goods. She beckons the others in after her, and they set about looting for their own gain.

[kashilascorner]

Tagged by the wonderful @harlotrouscorduroy to make a list of text fragments I have memorized off the top of my head! Thank you so much 💕💚

Ok first of, I don't have a very good memory so this is HARD. Don't expect verbatim 😅

1. "But how could you live and have no story to tell?" Fyodor Dostoevsky, White Nights

2. "I dreamed a dream tonight / and what did you dream? / that dreamers often lie" (or smth like that) Is a verse from Romeo and Juliet (which I literally haven't read) but lives in my mind rent free. Also "doubt though the stars are fire / doubt thou the sun doth move / doubt truth to be a liar / but never doubt I love" (which i might absolutely be misquoting because i memorized due to a song lmao)

3. "Then you hold life like a face and say 'I will love you again'". From The thing is by Ellen Bass (I remember the quote, but had to google the source hehe)

4. "We hate the sin but love the sinner" That is from Neil Gaiman's Coraline which blew my mind at the ripe old age of seventeen. Also there's this whole paragraph from American Gods about how people are islands and they don't let things come into their islands or else they'll crumble? And also that part from Sandman in which Morpheus says something like hell would hold no power if those there didn't dream of heaven

5. "Cuando estaba frente al pelotón de fusilamiento el coronel Aureliano Buendía recordó la vez que su padre lo llevó a ver la nieve" Or something along those lines, which is the beginning of Cien años de soledad, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez a book which I absolutely adoreadored but will need to reread as I can't remember the details :(

6. And that part of the Genesis that goes something like dust you are and dust you will become? Haunts me literally every moment of my existence

7. And this verse from the Quran which idk why but gives me too much to think about, this language of the birds thing... Yes. I can't explain. (Also I REALLY need to look into its context)

8. Sappho/Carson's "you burn me".

9. "Madrid es una ciudad con un millón de cadáveres" From Damaso Alonso's poem Insomnio which is a post-civil war poem that is desolate and soul crushing and truly impacted me when reading for the first time. And the second and third and fourth...

This is fun!! I tag: @marwoood @collapsology @dreamliar @estellainthedark @n-fwmb @cucullas @ladywithalamp @ciao-knives @reyavie @epic-summaries @littleblairwitch @maskedlady @hairpoofs @frenchmurdock

[clockworkrosea]

911, what’s your emergency? (4)

→ summary: they were dangerous. she knew that, and yet, she continues to hunt them. and this? this is her retribution.

→ pairings: jeon jungkook/fem!reader, kim namjoon/oc

→ warnings: pretty tame compared to my last chapter lmao. mentions of the mafia, mentions of blood, mentions of arson, a couple threats are made towards the reader, mention of injuries, 911 call.

→ a/n: wooohooo no month-long wait :) this one is alright. a little shorter bc a background drabble is also coming out soon.

→ wc: 1.1k 

→ disclaimer: this is not an accurate depiction of bts and anyone else mentioned in this fic. this is also not an accurate depiction of seoul’s police department, government, and any other institutions mentioned in this fic. 

series masterlist

“Kim Seokjin. I’ll get you medicine, bandages, etcetera. Once we’re done here, of course. Your precinct knows me as Bangtan’s doctor.” So she’d guessed correctly. He didn’t seem exactly like the type to kill, out of all of them. 

“Min Yoongi. I burn things. You aren’t excluded from the list of things. I’ve been told I’m the arsonist.” Again, Y/N was right. The twitching hands was the only thing that gave it away. It showed signs of a hyperactivity disorder, common in most serial arsonists. He was probably used to flipping a match between his fingers too, based off his fingers’ movements. She hadn’t seen them before, but small burns were just visible under his jacket. 

“Kim Taehyung. I deal drugs. I also usually get paid to kill people. I like chemicals better than blood, blood is hard to get out of Gucci.” Well. Y/N wasn’t usually wrong, but apparently he wasn’t the interrogator. She looked at him again, noting miniscule details that should’ve revealed his affinity for poison. The placement of his clothes, not one hair out of place, indicated the extreme control poisoners often displayed. 

“Jung Hoseok. I like to bomb things. Usually I just kill people though. I use knives. Your little team doesn’t like my kills very much.” That was slightly concerning. It meant that they had watched her and her team. Y/N was already here, but she desperately hoped that none of her team would be harmed.

"Relax. Your little investigation isn't going to go anywhere without you, so we won’t be taking anyone else. Or killing them. Besides, we only need you. Anyways, let's hurry this along. Jimin, go." Hannah said, looking at her amusedly. Y/N wondered if she had other emotions. Probably not, but Y/N wasn’t planning on staying around long enough to find out. 

"Park Jimin. I don't deal much in death. My official title is consigliere. Most of our intel on you is from me, with thanks to a couple other people.” He’s inconspicuous. Obviously, he was talented at hiding himself, so much so that he'd probably be able to hide himself in a lineup. 

“Jeon Jungkook. I’m the interrogator. I’m sure you’ve seen my work.” He’s gruff and intimidating and exactly what she expected. Other than the leaders, this was the one man she wanted behind bars. The countless people who had died to brutal torture were good motivation. 

They were criminals, but they were also humans. Y/N’s moral compass is a little too strong to let that fact deter her. 

“Kim Namjoon. The other leader. Now that you know all of us, I suppose we should allow you to sleep. Jungkook, show her to her room and keep an eye on her. Either Hannah or I will be around later.” Namjoon ordered. Y/N quickly formed a basic escape plan, in hopes that she would be able to take advantage of the switch. Even if she couldn’t, there was probably a window she could jump out of. 

She smiles to herself as she follows Jungkook out of the room. 

In her temporary room, she first noticed the window and what was beyond. As far as she could tell, there was a forest outside, which would pose an issue. Y/N knew she still had everything she'd brought with her, so they were extremely confident she wouldn’t escape. 

As soon as the door closed, she pried the window open and looked down. It was about a one or two story fall, so she could probably survive and escape as long as she didn’t break any part of her legs. Briefly glancing back, Y/N swung her legs out the window, carefully lowering herself into a hanging position and let go. 

Free falling is one of the most terrifying feelings, she thinks. 

Y/N bent her knees, making sure to land on the balls of her feet. As soon as she felt her feet touch the ground, she rolled forwards, distributing the impact throughout her entire body. She stopped for a moment, catching her breath as she checked to ensure she wasn’t too injured in any one area. Her spine and neck felt fine, but her ankle was probably strained and she’d probably pulled a back muscle, judging by the pain. Still, she picked up her bag, darting into the forest to avoid being seen by them. 

Since Y/N didn’t know where she was, her best bet was probably to call 911 and hope they could find her, somehow. Not to mention she would have to evade them for at least three hours, if not overnight. Speaking of which, she had forgotten to take a blanket, or anything that would keep her warm through the night. Seoul nights were cold, especially since it was autumn, so she might have to head in one way in hopes of finding society. 

Y/N glanced back in horror as she heard sounds coming from the house, sounding suspiciously loud. She quickly pulled out her phone, screen slightly broken from her rolling over it, and she dialed 911 with shaking hands. Before they could see her out the window, she ran into the forest, hoping that she’d have enough time to at least finish her 911 call. 

“911, what’s your emergency?” Here she was, a police officer, now calling 911 for help. The irony was unbearable. Y/N glanced back quickly before whispering, “I’ve been kidnapped, and I don’t know where I am.” 

“Okay. Stay calm ma’am. Do you know who kidnapped you?” Of course she does. However, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to take her chances that this operator wasn’t paid off by Bangtan or their associates. Instead, she lied, even if that would increase the amount of time needed to get to her. 

“No. I was blindfolded and drugged.” First part, a straight lie. Second part, not so much. The effects of the drug had been strong, considering it was now almost 1am, and the meeting had been at 9pm. 

“Alright. We’ll trace your location ma’am, police officers will be there as soon as possible. If you can, please stay on the call.” No, no she couldn’t stay on the call. Y/N heard voices approaching her hiding spot, so she would have to be on the run. 

They’re annoyed. Neither leader nor the rest of the group are sure how Jungkook had overlooked the window. Now that he had, they’d have to spend time searching for the girl, instead of sleeping, like most of them wanted to do. 

It's an embarrassing oversight.

Hannah sent Jungkook out first while the rest tracked her phone down and called around to contain the police response. Jungkook grumbled as he walked out, clearly unhappy. He slunk through the forest, carefully listening for any sounds that would indicate where the girl was. It was only a couple minutes before his phone vibrated slightly against his leg. 

She hasn’t gotten far. 

�� tagged: @btstxtgenre​

→ a/n: i think this one is a little less confusing? anyways hope you enjoyed :) questions are always welcome. keep an eye out for the background drabbles, they’ll be released as the new chapters come out 👀👀👀. feedback is always welcome !!