#its not like you guys where u could say directly yeah my character uses whatever or uses this and that | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

pastelpastryblog · 5 years ago

Text

In love with my best friend 💗 - PH-1 chapter 4

Genre: Everything (angst/fluff/ romance/etc)

Main characters: Y/N (reader), PH-1/ Harry

Prev - Next

Back home before Harry left for university, Harry and I would always go to the theatres to watch movies. He bought tickets for us to watch “Bad boys for life” at 4:30pm but its 4pm and Kimberly is still at Harry’s house. I wouldn’t mind her being here and going to the movies with us if she was at least nice to me, but she isn’t. When me and harry would talk to each other, she makes sure that the conversation shifts to her, its like she really doesn’t want me to be here and it’s making me feel uncomfortable. I just wish that Harry could see that. Time is up and we decide to leave for the movies. Harry offered to drive us in his car, but I insist to drive instead because I knew Kimberley was going to be making remarks like “the girlfriend should always sit in the passenger seat, next to her boyfriend” and quite frankly, I didn’t want to hear it. As soon as she looks at my car, she already had something to say.

- “So, this is the car that you want us to ride in? Jesus Christ, we should have just called an Uber” she torts out loud and obnoxiously

- “Why don’t we ride in your car then, since mine isn’t good enough for you.” I defend myself and my car.

- “Y/N, Kimberley doesn’t have a car. She doesn’t even have a license yet” Harry says silently as he nudges me to be quiet.

I laugh silently when I heard that. My car has 5 doors and 4 wheels and its not a crappy car so what’s the matter with that? Even if it was a crappy car, it does what it needs to do and takes me to places so what’s the issue? I unlock my car and I get in. Just when harry is about to open the door to sit in the passenger seat, Kimberly rushes to harry and pulls him to the back so that they could sit together. I know I said this already but I’m really Harry’s uber driver, aren’t I? first I deliver his food, and now this? Laughable. We get to the movies and Kimberley begs harry to buy her a ticket. Finally, we get into the theatre and I was thinking that because me and Kimberley don’t know each other AND she just hates me off rip, it would be sensible for Harry to sit in between us but nope, Kimberley decided to let a group of four find seats before her and Harry. While all of this was happening, I thought that both Harry and Kimberley were behind me and because of that, I end up sitting by myself and have 5 strangers (including Kimberley) sit between me and harry. I didn’t even get to watch the movie properly because all I could think about was the fun me and Harry could have had. I even started to question why I even took time off from work to come here.

A few hours later, the movie ended. Harry planned that we go bowling and to a pizza place, but Kimberley didn’t want to do that. She had other plans instead, so we went back home. Harry and started to feel very hungry and so we went into the fridge and took out the food that auntie made. Harry happened to have ingredients that should be eaten with the side dishes that his mother made, so he asked Kimberley if she could wash and make the rice while he fried eggs and peeled some potatoes.

- “I’m not your maid for you to be asking me to wash the rice. Do it yourself.” she says while folding her arms with a ferocious expression spread across her face.

- “Kim, just help me this once. I’m already peeling potatoes and will fry the rice. Please? We’re all going to eat this anyway, so you might as well help. Plus, its quicker too.” Harry conveys to Kimberley.

- “I don’t want to eat whatever this atrocious food is. It smells horrible. Ew, is that seaweed? Yeah, I don’t like whatever this nonsense is. Who made this?” Kimberley viciously says while directly making eye contact with me.

While she is pretending to gag at the food, me and Harry make eye contact and just shake our heads. I decide to walk into the kitchen area where Harry was peeling potatoes.

- “I’ll help since I don’t want to wait too long for the food to be ready” I say with a smile.

- “Thanks Y/N. but you’re the guest. I wanted me and Kimberley to show off our cooking skills.” He says.

- “No worries. I’m just really hungry” I wash my hands and g straight to where the containers full of side dishes are and open it and put it in my mouth. “mmm, Harry. Your mom did a really good job at making these. This is delicious.” I then turn around and start washing the rice.

When Kimberley heard that, her eyes widened up. She looked like she messed up. No, she did mess up. She thought that I was the one that cooked for Harry, so she thought that it was okay for her to be rude. Childish.

Harry takes his phone out and makes a phone call. He orders a Pepperoni pizza. I already knew that the pizza wasn’t for me or him, we both hate pepperoni, so I knew he ordered it for Kimberley.

- “P, why are you ordering pizza?” Kimberley says, confused.

- “I ordered it for you, Kim. Since you don’t like my mom’s food, or Korean food.” Harry says with his head down, peeling the potatoes.

- “No, that’s not what I meant.” She says with an apologetic voice.

Harry slams the potato peeler on the counter and looks up at her. He’s angry.

- “then what did you mean?” he voiced, while being exasperated.

- “I meant to say-“

- “Oh, you meant to say that it’s because you don’t like my mom’s cooking? Said it because you don’t like Korean food, Korean culture or me being Korean? Or did you say it because you thought that Y/N cooked it?” Harry snaps with anger in his eyes.

- “ I didn’t-“ Kimberley says silently.

- “The pizza is coming soon anyway, so it’s not like I can cancel it. Just eat it when it comes.”

- “Guys, that’s enough!” I eventually shout at them. “please stop this. It’s a happy evening, let’s not ruin the mood here now. Okay?” I say while looking at them both with a serious yet gentle expression. I lied, the evening was not great, neither was the day, but I just wanted everyone to get along.

20 minutes go bye in silence. Everybody seems to be upset, but me and Harry managed to complete our cooking amidst the silence. All I could do was just stand in the kitchen with my hands on my back, because of how awkward it was, while Harry set the table.

- “Let’s eat, Y/N”

I noticed that Harry had only set the table for two. He completely ignored Kimberley.

- “Kimberley, come eat.” I say, as the peace maker.

- “Nah, she’s good” Harry says, while pouring me some water.

- Are you sure Harry? Because-“

- “Just eat Y/N. jal meoggessseubnida” He says before he starts eating.

15 minutes later, me and harry had finally finished eating. His mom did a great job with the food and so did Harry. It brought back memories on when we used to cook together and rate each other’s cooking skills. I missed it. Harry gets up to wash the plates, but I insist to wash them instead because the air was filled with awkwardness still and I just didn’t want to be involved. Harry didn’t want me to wash the plates because he keeps considering me as a guest, but in the end, he gave in.

A few minutes later, Harry’s phone rings. It’s the pizza man telling him to get the delivery from the garage downstairs. He puts his phone on his coffee table and puts on his hoody. Just as he is turning the door handle, Kimberley runs up to him.

- “P, where are you going?” she says worriedly.

- “Your pizza is here” he says while half ignoring her, face on the ground. “Y/N, Ill be right back.” He says while quickly glancing at me and then closing the door behind him.

Kimberley then goes to the coffee table and grabs Harry’s phone. She seemed like she was going through his phone, while muttering things under her breath. I finish washing the dishes and notice that there’s nothing for me to dry my hands with.

- “Hey, Kimberley, do you know where Harry keeps his hand towels? I gently ask.

- “Shut your mouth. You’re the reason why PH-1 is angry at me. How dare you try and act high and mighty in this house. I wish you never came here. Stupid bitch.”

- “I beg your pardon?” I say, with confusion and shock written all over my face.

- “You heard me, bitch. I said, I wish you never came here.”

- “What’s wrong with you? You’ve been rude to me ever since I got here. Can we just get along, for Harry’s sake?”

- “What if I don’t want to get along with you?” she says with a mean expression on her face.

Just as Kimberley is walking up to me, assuming to slap me, the keys unlock the door from the outside and Kimberley gets shocked and makes an extremely fast U-turn into Harry’s room. Leaving me standing in the living room area alone. Like an idiot. The door opens, Harry looks around the living room and kitchen area and sees no signs of Kimberley.

- “Hey, where is she?” Harry asks, curiously, with a pizza box in his hands.

- “She just rushed into your room.” I say, while being tired of the day, even though its only 8pm.

- “Oh okay, thanks Y/N. Also, I’m sorry about my behaviour earlier. I- I- I just lost it at that moment.” Harry says with disappointment spread on his face.

- “Hey, its okay, Harry. Go in there, she’s probably waiting for you” I say with a smile on my face.

- “Thanks, Y/N. You’re a good friend” he says. Then quickly grabs his phone from the coffee table in the living room and heads to his bedroom.

Its been about an hour since Harry and Kimberley where in his room eating pizza. I got tired so I tried going into his roommate’s bedroom, but it had happened to be locked. I message Harry to ask him how about the sleeping arrangements, but my messages seem to not go through. 2 hours go by and Harry still wont answer his messages. I even call him and its also not going through. As much as I can’t stand Kimberley, I don’t want both herself and Harry to be arguing. So, I end up going to stand Infront of the bedroom, just to hear about what’s going on and I’m hearing giggling. I hear them both giggling because Harry is tickling Kimberley. I even hear Harry ask Kimberley for a kiss, and that’s when I knew that it was time for me to leave. Harry had left my bag on the couch, so I just took it, put on my coat and shoes, then I left. I just sat in my car because I didn’t know where to go and I was just thinking about today. Out of all the days that I have spent with Harry, this one has to be number 1 on the list for the worst. In fact, we barely spent time. Only time we “spent time was while we ate together. I was angry and I was also sad. “What did I do to this girl? Why can’t Harry see that she’s a bad person? Why is Harry making love to this girl why he’s left me all alone for 2 hours, in the living room? Why won’t he reply to my messages or calls? Why is he giving me mixed signs?” That was all that was running through my mind.

I search for hotels that are nearby the highway, that I will be taking to leave this city tomorrow. I find a good hotel and drive to it. I check in and sleep. I wake up the next day and check out. Still, there’s no reply and no calls from Harry. I sigh at the sight of my phone and I just drive off. The car ride home was horrible, it started pouring rain.

Is Harry ever going to text or call me back?

Prev - Next

80 notes · View notes

blookmallow · 5 years ago

Text

I FINALLY GOT SKYRIM MARRIED

i have a BEAUTIFUL WIFE

...who i went through a lot of shit for. this is. a lot of exposition, bear with me :’) im very invested in my character’s personal story here

so astrid had a very important special job for me and sent me to markarth to speak with the client directly

it turned out to be the apothecary’s assistant, who i was passingly familiar with already, so i imagine it was a bit of a surprise to both of us, but she got right to the point - a man broke her heart and ruined her life, used her to hurt the people close to her, abandoned her to go become a bandit, now she wants him dead

u can probably imagine where this is going,

this is the first time ive had a dark brotherhood job i was legitimately PSYCHED to carry out, you BET ill go fuck this guy up for you id do this for free

however, she also had... another request, one that wasn’t required, but something she really, really wanted

see she was very close with/practically another daughter to the shatter-shields in windhelm, the wealthy family who recently lost a daughter to the windhelm butcher

alain had manipulated her and used her to get to the shatter-shields, i dont remember if he stole from them or what happened there, but whatever it was, the shatter-shields blamed muiri for this and disowned her, throwing her out onto the streets with nothing

so she was used and had her heart broken by a man she loved, then was told it was Her Fault, and lost her home and her friends/the closest thing to family she had all at once, and was so hurt and desperate she turned to the dark brotherhood to get revenge on them all

she wanted me to kill nilsine too, the shatter-shields’ other daughter

SO we have this really complicated situation where, on the one hand, she wants alain dead for using her and ruining her life and hurting her friends, and like, he’s a bandit leader now, so he’s someone i probably would’ve easily killed off anyway, by “this is a video game not real life”/skyrim standards that’s a no brainer, i have no moral conflict with that and can’t wait to slash this guy’s head off

but on the other hand she’s so broken she wants a woman who used to be her best friend/practically her sister dead too. i dont know what nilsine’s role in this was specifically but these people were essentially her family, and they victim blamed her when she needed their support the most and threw her out with nothing and nowhere to go

and i had already done quests with the shatter-shields before this, so like, i know them too, and they’re sort of friends to me, i helped solve the mystery of their other daughter’s murder and now I’m being asked to kill the other. not to mention everyone’s going to think the butcher’s back/there’s a copycat killer/something and it’s gonna cause a panic again (even if the game doesn’t acknowledge that/directly show that happening, y’know)

killing someone’s daughter when they’re still in mourning over the first, when they’ve come to trust you, when you’re the one who helped them gain closure over that first death already, is just. a stone cold thing to do

especially looking at it from my character’s perspective, she’d be especially torn on this because she’s a mother herself, but her children are girls she rescued from the streets - lucia was thrown away by her family, sofie was a victim of tragedy and was let down by the people in authority who should have protected and helped her

so medea would relate to tova as a mother and a friend but also relate powerfully with muiri as a victim in this

ultimately i don’t think there’s any real justification to kill nilsine here, i dont think you can really morally defend that, but. i was so drawn to muiri and wanted so badly to give her a shot at a better life and help her heal from all this, and knew she would become a marriage option if i did it bc id seen her name on the marriage options list before, her story fits in so well with medea’s, and like, i dont imagine im gonna have a lot of options for wives who would Know about my connection to the dark brotherhood/the things ive done and be okay with it, so if i went with her, there wouldn’t be a “keeping this horrible secret from my wife” aspect to deal with even though the game probably doesn’t acknowledge it if you do (i mean im still. keeping it from my kids, but. y’know. when they’re older)

and “talk this out with her and help her see how badly her mind’s been warped by the pain she’s been through” isn’t an option given to you, so

in the end i went through with it. killing alain was easy, just like any other bandit camp raid, but to get at nilsine without being caught, i had to sneak into their house when the family was asleep

which i expected would involve a lot of careful sneaking and laborious lock picking

until i realized i could just walk right in

because the door was already unlocked for me. because they consider me a friend and allow me into their home

and that somehow made it so much worse

i killed nilsine with an arrow, nobody heard a thing, and i ran for it before anyone saw me in there or realized what had happened

muiri gave me a special ring as a “symbol of her affection” for doing this, which i think is about the biggest sign i coulda hoped for lmao

i held off on considering marriage for the time though and finally decided i had to go back to windhelm to see if there was anything i could do to make amends to the shatter-shields even though they shouldn’t know it was me/make sure i didnt get seen by a guard without realizing it or something (though it wouldn’t probably matter anyway, guards saw me leave the orphanage immediately after grelod’s death and shrugged that off, so,)

my name’s still clear in windhelm, but...

tova committed suicide after she discovered what happened

she couldn’t cope with losing another daughter

so now the father is the only one left, coping with. the death of his entire family occurring within like a couple months

i didnt see what happened here i came back later so i dont know if this is something you can possibly stop or if its possible to witness the moment they find nilsine or tova’s suicide or if this just Inevitably happens whenever you come back

i feel terrible about this but theres. not really any going back now,

so. i went back to muiri

i dont know if this is what everyone says or not but her response was just. “i mean, yeah, why wouldn’t I be” i love her lmao

i wouldnt choose to get married in riften if it was up to me but thats how it be in skyrim i guess

my babies are here!!!! what!!!!

and a. random guy i dont recognize lmao :’)

just wandered in to see what was going on i guess. or maybe we’re friends and i forgot who he is entirely which would be kind of sad :’ )

maybe it was my long lost father... slipped out before i ever had the chance to realize it

however i actually. ended up doing this scene twice because, fun fact, there’s a glitch where if you don’t manage to catch up to your spouse to talk about where to live before they leave the chapel they can just fucking Disappear sometimes, :’ ) i couldnt find her anywhere after the wedding and finally looked it up and apparently she just fell into the void so i had to reload and run it again. we’re double married now

planned better this time and dressed better but anyway that elf guy didn’t appear this time but some other guy did, who i ALSO cant quite identify, he looks. maybe. kind of like lucas valerian? who is actually a friend to me and was one of the first friends i made so it’d decently make sense for him to come to my wedding, but weird if he came and camilla didn’t, and im not even sure thats him anyway, so i dont know what happened here all around

muiri’s mentor lady came too though which was sweet

im spinning this kind of as... like, medea was so drawn to her and felt so strongly for her she couldn’t bring herself to disappoint her and this was an eye opener for them both as a kind of. “look what kind of people we’ve let ourselves become” and their marriage as a new beginning, love coming from a place of desperation and darkness, starting over and hoping that the divines will forgive what they’ve done

medea’s not leaving the brotherhood but i mmmmmight try to be a little more careful about who i kill

i had intended for her to come live with me in markarth, she’s in on my. assassin life so having kind of this Other Side to my life made sense but... she met my kids at the wedding i guess and she wanted to live with them... which is really cute,

it feels really weird having this huge fancy house all to myself (and uh. argis, i guess) in markarth and having my wife and kids (and lydia, and a fox) all squished into the honestly kinda run-down whiterun house though i think im gonna work on getting the solitude house for them bc its. safer there than in markarth i feel like and ive heard thats like the fanciest/biggest house

there she is..... my Wife

she also sells things now but i feel bad accepting it when she gives me “my share” of the profit like.... babe thats your money i have so much adventuring money and i didnt do shit to help earn that,

i buy things from her sometimes but i refuse to sell her stuff bc i dont want to take any more of her money :’ )

even tho it. doesnt really matter, its video games, i know, but

found lucia, the fox, and muiri all on the bed at once

lydia was just standing like this for a rly long time after muiri moved in i guess she was suspicious but chilled out eventually :’)

gettin along finally

i just realized if we move to solitude lydia’s gonna get left behind though :(

i mean ill still come visit her but. upsetting

my one issue is that muiri still keeps saying “thank you for solving my-....problem.” every time i come in speaking distance of her which is. weird given that its the same line she had before we were married, like, she apparently doesnt get any new things to say, and is Really repetitive (imagine living in a small space with your partner and they say the same sentence with the same intonation every time you step within like 2 feet of them. how long til that gets old, do you think, ) and also its just like??? girl let that go we gotta stop dwelling on this or the kids are gonna start questioning what apparently massively important problem mommy solved

idk why she was laying on the floor but anyway my kids have started calling her “mama” now too and im not crying or anything

#lucy plays skyrim #this actually happened. a while ago but i forgot this post in my drafts bc i didnt want to deal with proofreading it lmao #Nobody Cares Except Me but my skyrim character's life is important business ok #i think im gonna marry sadri on my khajiit file eventually. he was like. my second choice/'If I Had To Pick A Dude'#and that way my dad will stop asking if my character's married anyone yet lmao i can be like o yea i married sadri #little does he know my main file is a woman with a wife and my male character's gonna have a husband. technically im not lying #hoping he wont ask to see how my house is coming along or anything lmao

4 notes · View notes

cruddyborderlandstheories · 6 years ago

Text

the sun smashers are important y’all

so i was rewatching bahroo’s zane stream please dont judge me i just wanted to see how he screamed when he got set on fire

and i noticed something funky about the main quests

tl;dr: the main quest levels are really weird, we go from a level 1 quest, to 2, to 2 (no that’s not a mistake), to 4, to 10!!, to 14, to 13. I theorize that either there is a hidden mission somewhere, or the quests were oddly leveled for the demonstrations and should have been spread out like so: (1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 14) and give my reasoning for that. its still a pretty big jump from 4 to 7 and so on, but its more reasonable to think they wanted to fit in some side quests there

i then go talk about the Sun Smashers! and these guys are fun :)

y’all when we show up at the HBC, we’re already on a mission to “Find the Sun Smashers”. the first time we hear about them during the footage we’re shown is when Tyreen mentions them. The theory is that the sun smashers stole the vault key from the recruitment center (we offered them a place in our family = we recruited them) and they just wanted guns and cash (they betrayed the family = they stole our vault map) and Vaults are a source of both guns and cash

i think when we go fight Shiv, the room back there with monitors is going to give us information on who the sun smashers are and where the vault key is (the HBC) and lilith tells us we NEED to go get it. I don’t think there is any power stealing here and now. Probably later. but not now!

Tyreen also says in the hologram “Like i said, that vault map is super busted”. but she had never talked to us before in the footage we’re shown. I’m thinking there is a point where we do speak with the twins, or we “overhear” something and then they see us, etc, and that’s the reason they cut the footage.

so i think the timeline is:

Get attacked by CoV, head to RC, save Clappy, meet Lilith, learn about Sun Smashers stealing key from RC, maaayybe some talk/introduction with the twins?? idk, head to the HBC, beat up Mouthpiece, get the Vault Map, Hologram time (hi again), Lilith gets her powers stolen and the Vault Map too, we get Sanctuary III (either we find the ship itself on pandora (my vote: we’re probably going to have to clear it of wildlife ew), or we take a shuttle up), head to Promethea to stop the twins cuz they got to teleport with lily’s powers and had time to set up that sweet alliance with maliwan because they have a grudge against atlas for experimenting on them while we’re fumbling on a sand planet looking for an escape

is that good? are we good?

i think we’re good.

so the first quest is level 1, that’s a given

second quest

level 2

also a given

the third quest???

also? level 2?

which is weird cuz im pretty sure the demo streamers were around level 4 for that quest, but the enemies were levels 6-7 so… i imagine the actual level for the quest is about 5?

the fourth quest is level 4, but it might actually be around level 7.

the reason i’m bumping the levels up is because when you get to the fifth quest in the game

the quests jump from level 4 requirement to level 10

and that’s one huge-ass leap to make all of a sudden

not to mention the jump from 10 to 14

slightly better than 4 to 10, but its still a big jump, especially since the characters are starting to level up more. I could believe there’s no gap between 5 and 6 because the streamers start the level at lvl 10, but then the enemies are scaled to level 10/11 so… what the heck. from the HBC footage it’s clear the enemies don’t scale directly to player level (as a lvl 4 amara was taking on level 6/7 enemies) so im wondering if they changed the levels to make it look earlier in the game than i actually is

it’s even weirder because the quest you get when you finish the demo is level 13

usually when you get mainline quests, they try to make it so that they’re in order level-wise. these two are… very much not in order. and i understand that Congratulations was put in solely for the demo players, but the fact that it’s actually a lower level than the quest preceding it is really bizarre. I think the quest log for Hostile Takeover was supposed to be scaled down to level 10/11/12 (take ur pick) for the demo and it wasn’t.

Same for Sanctuary. I think it was supposed to be scaled down as well. That would leave a smaller, less noticeable gap between quests

So we’d have a level 1 quest, TWO level 2 quests, a level 4 quest, a level 8ish quest, then a level 11 quest. Not bad. There’s still the huge gap between quests 4 and 5 but it could be much worse. Could be the 6 level gap we had before.

I do think it could also be that the third and fourth quests were pulled forwards in level. Example being that the third quest isn’t supposed to be level 2, it should be level 4. Then the fourth quest would be around 6/7 and then we’d have 5 coming in at 10, which is just on the mark.

There’s still a lot of awkward leveling here and there but its borderlands? so it’s possible they wanted to fit in some side quests at this point to pad it out. I prefer the theory that there’s a quest that was taken out of the quest logs.

so you’d have something like (and this is going by the original, demo-ordering of the quests):

level 1

level 2

level 4

level 7 (hidden quest)

level 10

level 14

i just don’t understand why from the ground up and cult following are apparently the same level. I suppose that’s where they’re making us believe Lilith gets her powers stolen so maybe its because we don’t get to do a lot of combat at the time so we’re still level 2 when we head over to the HBC? Which… is weird because when they get to the recruitment center, even though Cult Following is supposedly a level 2 quest, the player characters are level 4 while the enemies are ranging from 5-7

it’s possible they scaled this quest up since amara would later be playing with Zane (though she levels up to 5 almost immediately when entering), but i’m thinking of something else.

i want to propose something

I think the sun smashers stole the vault key from the recruitment center. the quest objectives for Cult Following are these:

“Find the Sun Smashers”

Tyreen talks about them a little bit when we first meet her in the hologram but we’ll get to that in a second

so obviously the sun smashers are those purple corpses we’ve been seeing all throughout the HBC. im uncertain if Mouthpiece is a part of their subsect of the cult or not (Tyreen didn’t kill him sooo), as the objective changes to “Kill Mouthpiece” once you enter the arena. I imagine if he is, maybe he’s their leader? Maybe he asked them to steal the Vault Map to prove themselves to the twins by opening a vault by themselves or some shit. I dunno if he is though. Maybe Tyreen left him alive to prove a point to us because she knew we were coming for the busted-ass Vault Map. Like she let him continue to protect it (even though it was broke) because she knew we’d come to get it and kill him on the way. I digress.

Mouthpiece says, when he dies: “I see it… The Great Vault” which I think is once again proving the theory that the twins are saying they’re going to lead the bandit clans to salvation through the Red Vault. Unsure if that’s the wicked Vault symbol we see in the trailers (you know, the biological looking one) or if that’s just a symbol for the first Vault on Promethea, or if they’re the same thing. I dunno, I can’t imagine we’d reach the so-called “Great Vault” by chapter 6/7/8 in the game, but its possible that Vault unleashes a wealth of alien horrors for us to defeat annnd, yeah, you know the drill. Twins either die or join our side to help us defeat whatever comes out of it. Or, the so-called “Great Vault” is a bust and it either can’t be opened yet and other Vaults need to be opened first, or some other inane shit to pad time. I am most curious as to why they’re going to the Vault on Promethea first, though. Randy says Tyreen wants to absorb the Vault Monsters’ powers so she can become the most powerful living being or whatever so going to a Vault that was (possibly) already opened by Atlas seems like a weird choice (still not sure if Atlas ever actually opened the Vault on Promethea or not. Never actually said if it was the Vault or just some Eridian ruins they found themselves that boosted their company up so high. We know Typhon found the actual Vault and Key, though!). Also going for the salvation bit ASAP when u kinda need ur cult to get the other Vaults is really weird.

anyway. I got kinda off topic here. … again.

i imagine our first interaction with the twins is in the recruitment center, but I don’t think they actually show up. More holograms, or an ECHO stream, or whatever. I’m gonna stand by what I said in that one lilith post (one of many ugh) that when we enter the room Shiv came out of, a broadcast is going to start.

I think maybe the twins (or mouthpiece) … (or both) will be broadcasting something detailing where the Vault Key went (stolen by the Sun Smashers) and where they’re all headed (the HBC). that would explain why Tyreen starts out with “did you come all this way just to see me?” and not some sorta greeting like “oh who the heck are you?” (also can I point out that she asks us to thank lilith for the Firehawk powers not during this scene, but during the Promethean scene. just another point in the “they steal lilith’s powers after we retrieve and fix the vault map” box).

She goes on to show off her powers (yay for “we’ve never seen her use her powers before, not even on lilith”)

and then immediately goes on to say “so i offered the sun smashers a place in our family, but they just wanted guns and cash, they betrayed the family” then we get “Gods don’t negotiate” (hell yeah). She goes into this like we have context for who exactly the Sun Smashers are, which is where my theory comes into play. What was the betrayal? Well, we all know Vaults are (supposedly) a source of kick-ass loot. Of guns, and cash. They stole the Vault Map from the twins after they had let them into the “family”. That’s how we know who the sun smashers are before this demo. We have an objective to find the “sun smashers”. why do we need to find them? they took the vault key. lilith thought the vault key was in the recruitment center (where the sun smashers were being recruited!!!) but they had stolen it and brought it to the HBC. The twins show up to make a demonstration out of them and Ty rock-ifies all of them. She knows the Vault Hunters are coming to get the key, and that the crimson raiders were the ones with the vault key in the first place (from when Sanctuary had fallen… in theee upcoming dlc). she probably understands that we have a better idea of how to work it than she does. And I’m betting, the reason she decides to steal Lilith’s powers is because Lilith knows how to work it. So even if we do meet the twins in flesh-and-blood before the HBC? They wouldn’t have a reason to steal her powers then. It’s only after we fix the Vault Map that they decide to come get it back and get the key that will make it work (lilith’s powers. in case that part wasn’t clear lmao).

oh and tyreen talking about the whole sun smashers thing in general is interesting:

Like, she hadn’t mentioned the sun smashers before so… I assume this was mentioned the first time we meet her (or at least during the climb up to the HBC). maybe we witness the twins in conversation (either in-person or through an ECHO stream/hologram/whatever) and they don’t realize (or don’t care) that we’re watching? and ty mentions something about being annoyed they have to get the Map back because it’s broken, anyway and then they’re like “oh! hello! we were waiting for you guys! that was quick!” but they totally knew we were watching because they WANTED us to get the Vault Key, its all part of their master plan

because Ty does say at the end: “go ahead and take it! I’ll swing by later to pick it up. you’re my most loyal follower, Vault Thief :) you just don’t know it yet :)”

i imagine she knows we’re a “vault thief” because we tell her we’re vault hunters and she’s all like “well… that sucks, those vaults are ours, they’re our birthright, you thief”

anyway

i got a little into this lmao

ttyl

#borderlands #borderlands 3 #bl3 #fucking aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh #shock and agh #i fucking lvoe this game os mcuh fuck #fuuuuuck #fuck #the calypso twins #sun smashers #aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

4 notes · View notes

tumblunni · 6 years ago

Text

okay to talk about EXACTLY HOW i would handle giving charon a big good boss fight and also sympathetic backstory and redemption and all that jazz

there are approximately ten million words beneath the cut, and also ten million raspberries in my shampoo, and these charon thoughts are just as sweet as that

alright so ALREADY i kinda did feel like he was sort of a friendly enemy when i first played the game?? like his Thing of being the constantly never fightable dude actually was kind of sympathetic in a way. it always just felt like he was Chilling Out and not giving much of a shit about being evil and also had nothing personal against you the player. he doesnt follow any of cyrus’s big philosophy and he’s clearly only here for the money and really phoning it in, and that kinda makes him not your enemy at all, even though he’s on the team youre fighting. Like I always found it a good establishing moment that in the Valley Windworks when they first introduce “hey this time there’s two galactic teammates here” and all, CHARON IS STANDING DIRECTLY IN EYELINE OF YOU RUINING EVERYONE’S PLANS. he’s just standing there! and of course he’ll never do anything to warn mars about you, the game just isnt programmed that way. but it fits really well with his character if you think of it as an intentional thing? just imagine this random gramps sitting there drinking tea while all his teammates actually Care About Things and Use Effort. He’s always criticizing team galactic’s plan too and like WHY IS HE DOING THAT TO YOU if not because Nintendo Wants Him To Be My Best Friend ok. Like he doesn’t fuckin trust anyone on his team so why would he spill the beans about his big secret plans he has to make money off of this villain plan and then bail before they actually do all the dumb shit with legendaries and such. Yes ok its PROBABLY just because its a videogame and they need to exposit stuff to the player that the character is probably just thinking and not saying out loud. But wouldnt it be so much better this way!!!! Also even when you finally face off against him personally in the postgame for his actual dumb money plan he’s still like ‘lol fourth wall breaking time im gonna not have a boss battle cos if you beat cyrus’s ass i aint got no chance’. Dammit nintend i still wanted to fight him but thats endearing so i cant stay mad at u! And he has several lines during it with stuff like “i like seeing children trying so hard BUT YOURE TOO LATE” and “youth like you can live in idealism but for me its all about the money”. Like man u remember that time i had a big angry rant about how his manga version was super OOC cos they didnt just choose to make him eviler but made him murder a child? like the only time anything involving children is mentioned in canon its him being mildly more polite to children!!! MILDLY FRIENDLY! LET ME HAVE THIS...

okay so YEAH the first big change would be just giving him more screentime and more fleshed out character in these early scenes. Make him a full on friendly character who is technically on the opposite side but has no beef with you and no loyalty to the greater plan of his team. So he’s just comically like “oh hi again! yeah lol today’s plan sucks huh?” and makes idle conversation while the main character villain admin of the day is actually doing important plot stuff. like have him along for everyone’s scenes not just mars at the start, dissappear for hours until the very end. And yes definately keep the thing of the game constantly lampshading that he’s a new character for the third version of the game, and everyone in the team thinks he’s useless and forgets he’s even there. it was annoying in the original game cos he actually didnt get any love from the writers themselves, but yknow you could give him an expanded role and rewrite that stuff to be more like “oh poor guy he’s the underdog”, yknow? am i the only one who felt inherantly sorry for him?? i mean he’s a tiny grandpa!!! and he looks so sad on his official art!! Oh oh and also add the additional running jokes and expanded characterization he had in his very brief anime appearance, which was honestly the only well written part of the entire team galactic arc. It fleshed out a bit of his relationship with jupiter who never really appeared alongside him in the game except to say “im not teaming up with you” at the end. Having the context that she finds him annoying cos she’s very serious and also very dedicated to cyrus so she hates this opportunistic bastard pretending to be dedicated when its an obvious lie. And also she thinks his laugh is obnoxious XD Oh also I liked how they expanded upon that one scene of Saturn being sarcastic at gramps and made it into an actual thing that him and charon most often work together and have a mutually sassy dynamic. I found it humanizing that anime saturn is very serious but can comically overreact to very minor teasing from this grandpa! I thought that was better than the games where he’s just serious or the manga where he was 100% changed to be 100% silly and kinda stole charon’s personality for reasons i will never understand.

ANYWAY! IN SUMMARY! show scenes of charon being endearing by being not really interested in the big evilness, being underdog-y by always failing at his smaller evilnesses and getting disrespected, and also maybe drop in some more interpersonal relationships between the admins to hint that charon does indeed have some friendship going on even if he’s a tsundere bitch who’d never admit it. Also maybe the other thing from the anime where they made him a cool computer guy? cos srsly it was lazy that the games just said “he’s the science” and never clarified wtf he actually does at his job. cos cyrus is already a science boss??? he kinda already did most of the big sciencey plans?? why does he need this man if its not for mechanical or legendary pokemon stuff OK HEY MAYBE COMPUTERS! also its funny to imagine him being a memey blogger but sun and moon actually made faba canonically that so i dont think you could improve on him. TAKE NOTES FROM BEAN MAN, NINTENDO

Also maybe you could hint at the rotom backstory before it actually happens? like could just show some mild implications that he is sad, cos the ‘friendly enemy’ thing would already be decent foreshadowing for him potentially having a soft spot. “Wah i am an emotionless evil money man” says local villain, while gossipping with Dawn about his coworkers and sharing lemon squares. But like I mean i don’t really want him to be LITERALLY that, i still like him being grumpy and guarded about his secret good heart. I’m just saying “friendly” as in.. sort of a disconnect between what he says his personality is and how he actually acts. The stuff he actually says is very grumpy but like.. hey he’s saying stuff to you when he doesnt need to, and nobody else on this team is casually talking to you as if youre not an enemy. Like he’s SUBCONCIOUSLY friendly and doesnt realise it? He’d never SAY “i am lonely hello please talk to me” but he’d sure as hell walk over to you and talk to you anyway. About grumpy things! Grumpily! And maybe express occasional compliments in a sort of “haha im surrounded by idiots you’re way more down to earth than all these adults who act more like children”. Cos in that fourth wall breaking moment he has, he respects that you’re a badass and decides thats why he’s not gonna have a boss fight. “You’d just kick my ass, so lol fight these grunts instead while i run away and do my evil plan” That is the kind of sympathetic charon i want!! He’s doing a douchey thing by breaking the script of how boss battles work and making everyone else fight you instead even though he knows that they’ll lose. But he’s also likeable because breaking the script of boss battles is unexpected and comedic! And he’s also accidentally being complimentary to you so its like SIMULTANEOUS JERK AND NICE AT THE SAME TIME. Thats the good stuff!! That quality grumplegramp content!!! if he got redeemed and just 100% changed his personality to lose all the sass and sneakyness then that’d be boring yo...

OKAY WHERE WAS I? Okay hey once you’ve established that, maybe now you have a basis for the sad foreshadowing!! Like you could have one scene where he’s suddenly NOT friendly, he’s not just grumpy in the funny sort of way but actually seems cold and stoic and actually does something useful to the team’s mission or whatever. Sort of a ‘whoa what’s wrong with him today’ thing and it could be subtle cos on the first playthrough you’d just think he was being a jerk cos he’s a jerk and all. but maybe it happens on a scene of team galactic doing some evil plan in eterna forest/other place that’d potentially relate to the rotom sidequest. like he’s just really fuckin depressed to be reminded of his one big failure in life. OH maybe it could actually be at the unnamed junkyard thats mentioned in his backstory but doesnt actually feature as an area in the original game? It could make sense that it’d be part of their plan cos team galactic attacks various energy sources and other technology related places to find the stuff they need to make the big world erasure machine. could just be simply them robbing some old generator parts after their attempt to take the whole power plant failed.

Oh and also maybe add a lil something to his last scene at the galactic lab? Cos like.. what we already have in the game has potential to be a moment where he did a good thing but no its not. Like when you look at it, hey he kinda helped you out here by being all “hey lol saturn the kid is here, bye im not stopping u, feel free to take the lake trio”. Even if saturn is the one who actually SAID feel free to take the lake trio and actually had a good hint at redemptiveness moment and all. Please never take that away, that was good, you just coulda had both of them do it, yknow? And we dont wanna make charon go full good guy all of a sudden when he hasnt even finished his characetr arc, so instead make it more of a moment where its like “im a bad guy but this is going too far”. Like maybe ACTUALLY HAVE A PAYOFF for the foreshadowing that he has no loyalty to cyrus and is blatantly plotting to betray him at some point. He never actually did!! He only tries to capitalize on cyrus already being defeated in an entirely optional sidequest that fails at delivering a proper payoff.

So hey! My idea! Add some complexity here by making it clear that charon is evil in a more petty and mundane way and not in a.. like.. actually dangerous way. Once things start getting actually dangerous he starts chickening out! Like he’s a jerk who does mean things to get money but he’s just MEAN and not friggin murderous or worldending. Give him a moment of “oh shit cyrus was actually serious oh god how do i get off of this train”. Like it seemed that he never really believed that team galactic would ever truly create a new world, and he certainly didnt give a shit about it, he just thought he found an easy opportunity for a paycheck in some dumbass’s deluded plan that’d never really work. But OOPS i guess it actually is happening, oh fuck! Give him a bit of a crisis where he realizes what he actually helped this man do, but not like a full on “everything ive ever done is bad and i dont wanna be evil anymore”. Not YET! Just friggin.. “oh fuck i cant spend money if the universe doesnt exist and also i am dead”. “PLEASE HELP ME CHILD, CYRUS IS GONNA TAKE AWAY THE MONEY!!” xD It’d be fitting for his character and a good light moment of comic relief after the emotional and dark stuff happening around this section of the game. Like he already kinda does that by having that scene of saturn snarking at him, but it could be even more funny! Move the first him and saturn bickering scene to earlier on and have this be like a satisfying scene of saturn actually winning? cos in the anime it was always charon being smug and making fun of him while saturn gets all grumpy about it, now it could be the reverse with smug charon having a breakdown and realising his whole money plan is in shambles and its his own fault.

Also maybe it could have additional payoff with Charon actually helping you take down cyrus? Again, not actually because he’s switched sides but because he's still evil but evil for different reasons than cyrus. That good ‘reluctant teamup with minor goofy villain to take down big actually scary villain’ thing. With the added bonus that the minor goofy villain is objectively a worse person than the scary villain and the scary villain is still redeemable, as opposed to in the manga where they used this same trope in the form of “cyrus is good now and we’re making charon the big scary villain to prove how good cyrus is cos charon is worse”. That was dumb. It was especially dumb cos WHY ON EARTH would you pick charon for this??? like they still had moments of him being comedic and wimpy yet at the same time wanted us to believe he was legitimately threatening? ANYWAY my idea for this is that charon’s computer skills could pay off and it could be something like “oh i always put a failsafe kill switch in my computer just in case i need to grab the money and run”. Like him being a paranoid untrusting selfish asshole was actually the reason he was able to save the day! Also it would explain why cyrus’s machine only fails and summons giratina in platinum version. the manga actually did say that charon sabotaged the machine so thats one actually good thing that came from it! Congrats u filled one plothole while making twenty more XD

OH and perhaps this same section could also foreshadow the rotom thing? like I was thinking about how he could actually choose to give up and let you take the lake trio and have it still be 100% in character. It could be an extension of his “shit, i didnt think things would get this serious, please save me from the consequences of my own actions!” moment. Cos I think that any normal dumb greedy money man would still be horrified at the idea of mutilating a thousand year old majestic unicorn of mythology and then flushing it down the toilet when it outlives its uselessness. Like he doesnt do it because he wants to help you save the day or anything, just cos the idea of killing the lake trio is just too evil for even him. It could be kind of a meaningful moment about how cyrus is doing all this for good reasons yet they caused him to do these actions that are even more evil than the actual dude with evil motives. And maybe you could establish this through a scene of him and cyrus inetracting, which could also help amp up how intimidating cyrus is, in preparation for the big climax? Have charon trying to wimp out of “disposing of the useless specimens”, but cyrus is having none of it. Like it could start off funny with him making up loads of other excuses cos there’s no way he’d admit he’s having Feelings and all. “Wait but let me have them! if theyre useless to you then i can just sell them right?? ha ha thats the only reason im saying this, lol you know me i’d never be swayed by any sentiment” But cyrus sees through it instantly and gets right up in his face like fuckin Raw Cold Fury, no you are NOT going to disobey me. He is PISSED OFF because the only reason he kept this useless senile old bat around is because he’s the only one in this group who isn’t a simpering moron at the mercy of their pitiful heart. If you can’t even do that, then what’s the use of you? So everything charon tries fails and all he accomplishes is getting fired on the spot for even TALKING ABOUT defying his boss. And cyrus just orders saturn to dispose of the lake trio instead. Saturn of course is smarter and says nothing in defiance, but then the both of them work together to let you take the pokemon and just act like they failed to stop you rather than doing it on purpose. And its kind of an uncharacteristically quiet and intense moment between these dudes that are usually at each other’s throats with funny banter. They’re united for a moment but for very different reasons. Charon knew that cyrus wasnt a good guy from the very beginning and he just underestimated him, and is now feeling in over his head and worried this could be the end. And saturn always thought cyrus was good but is starting to struggle with doubts. And maybe charon actually tries to warn saturn about it? Like “hey i knew this all along but i never told you but HEY CYRUS MIGHT ACTUALLY KILL US ALL” and saturn starts on his usual speech about cyrus being the greatest but he starts to question it and AAAAA! but ultimately this moment isnt the moment where he makes the right choice, and he does end up going back to cyrus and continuing the plan. and also charon is on the edge of actually doing something good and trying to stop cyrus’s big ol doom time (albiet for selfish reasons of No Money In The New World) but he also wimps out from this chance and instead decides to grab as much cash as he can and run the fuck away, as if its even possible to outrun the destruction of a whole dimension. but at least him and saturn agreed on the lake trio rescue operation, thus their moment of almost-redemption helped the player even if they didnt actually turn good. AND then you’d have the surprise moment of charon actually stepping up at the last minute and doing his thing to sabotage the machine and all. which again doesnt really solve the whole thing and doesnt really make him turn good but at least it downgrades the threat from ‘cyrus actually succeeds in destroying the world’ to ‘okay we just need to deal with a slight case of poke-hell and one collossal centipede’. Srsly man sinnoh’s plot has the highest stakes cos in platinum you straight up actually fail and cyrus actually would have destroyed the world if not for giratina! Oh and also a random note is that i think it’d be funny if charon helped you out while still running away? like you just learn about the machine sabotage being his responsibility cos it flashes his goofy hacker logo from the anime or something. Maybe instead he hacks your Poketch and is like HEY HELLO IM GONNA SPLODE THE THING BUT NOT COS IM A GOOD GUY, BTW I AM A SAFE DISTANCE AWAY PLEASE DONT LET CYRUS KNOW I DID THIS

SO YEAH! whatever! whether or not we get that added bit of teamup with charon in the climax, we’ve still given him a bit more screentime so the player actually remembers him and actually cares about doing his optional sidequest in the postgame. so him not having a boss fight would be less of a letdown and all. But having the teamup plot would be a good opportunity to turn the wifi event into not a wifi event! maybe during his panic charon drops the key to his secret lab and thats how you get it? cos really it makes no sense at all that the magic wifi gods can just hand you something you’d have no idea existed and never have an opportunity to get. none of the other wifi items are literally a thing owned by a significant character that needs to be teleported out of his pocket by plot magic! Also it sucks that a chunk of important backstory would be hidden in a wifi event so if they still wanted rotom’s alt forms to be a wifi event then JUST make it the ability to get the forms and not the charony diary bit. Cos it makes no sense that the ENTIRE REASON CHARON EXISTS is to introduce the rotom form event yet you’d have no clue he was connected to rotom until after youve already finished the event. It gave no damn indication you had to take the key to this particular dude’s lab in team galactic!! ANd click on an otherwise unmarked wall!! Put the diary somewhere else and hey there’s a Charon Clue(tm) and now you can actually find the damn event, there you go, fixed. Also annoying cos nothing in the event tells you you have to go somewhere entirely different to catch the one rotom in the game, and click another unmarked piece of scenery that only has a staticky screen to indicate rotom if you happen to be playing at night. Seriously this is why serebii.net was such a lifesaver!!

Okay so WOOP there we go, here we are at a point where the player has seen more of charon and had oppotunities to grow to like him as a character and be suspicious that maybe he could have some sympatheticness. And if he drops an Importante Key Itemme right before the end of the game then thats a hint that postgame stuff exists involving him, and at least one clue where to find it! All the rotom diary stuff would play out exactly the same except that its less of a hell to find, lol.

BUT THEN the big difference in Stark Mountain is that now you have the full context of charon’s backstory and the game actually reacts to you having that knowledge. Like maybe if you dont do that step first then either charon never appears at stark mountain until you do, or you get an abbrieviated version of the quest without the redemption plot? I was thinking actually maybe make it one of those daily repeatable quests, to avoid the player doing the quests out of order and permenantly losing the chance to redeem gramps. Like if you dont see the rotom diary then instead of a big actual quest you just get some five minute “oh we’ve seen team galactic sneaking around stark mountain, defeat them for Some Money Or Something hey thats weird that they were only stealing money hey yknow who’s all about the money? charon! maybe go follow up on his Importante Key Itemme to continue the plot.”

SO THEN once you return Emboldened By The Knowledge Of Good Gramps, you get the proper thing. And... it would actually play out totally the same as in vanilla platinum. Charon doesn’t have a boss fight, all his minions leave him and say he sucks, he gets anticlimactically taken out by someone else in a cutscene, and his last moment is someone making a crack about him being so frail and useless that the hot volcano breeze could knock him over.

BUT THAT ISNT THE END

Its just a fake out that its gonna have the same funny ending as every other charon appearance, and the same lack of him being remotely threatening.

cos NOW WE FINALLY GIVE THE MAN A GODDAMN BOSS FIGHT

and yknow how i said i hate the manga where he’s all super evil and owns three legendaries and kills a guy? okay take away all that stuff but KEEP THE MOMENT OF GRANDPA GETTING TO DO SOMETHING BADASS FOR THE ONLY TIME EVER

Maybe he surprises everybody by actually not being down for the count! And by now he’s just SO pissed off from a whole game’s worth of failing and being disrespected that he does something desperate and stupid at the last minute. If he was meant to be the dude who invented the red chain, maybe he could use it to control heatran even if looker took away the magma stone? like i feel it’d be in character for charon to secretly steal a prototype red chain for himself during the whole “oh fuck my boss is legit destroying the world i need to get out of here” thing. Grab some stuff to sell now your last paycheck is dissappearing into an ominous void, lol. He didnt expect to actually be using it, and if the actually completed red chain puts enough stress on its weilder to make them cry blood then this thing must be even more risky to use! so its a really huge holy shit moment of tiny gramps actually doing something intimidating! and his boss fight could actually be using heatran and actually having heatran get to goddamn appear in this sidequest. it was soooo underwhelming to have to return thru the dungeon a second time to actually see heatran, this time without any story stuff to break up the long walk...

also this entire thing could be a great climax to his character arc and sort of a moment of “okay THIS was actually his motivation all along!” Cos I always felt like Charon’s real motive was low self confidence? Like he’s always on about money but he seems to focus more on SUCCESS instead. Fame and success. “Ha ha i am the greatest scientist and i want people actually aknowledge me” is a thing he repeatedly brings up and also that other characters directly demonstrate in how they act towards him. It just feels like he thinks he can buy that with money if he’s failed his whole life in earning it. And the old “acts egotistical because he actually hates himself” character archetype would work really well as a sympathetic interpretation of his character. It would be like how he’s ‘subconciously friendly’. The thing he actually does (being boastful) is because of a different reason (not believing his own lies and being super insecure about his self worth), but he keeps it so well hidden that not even he realises that its really what he feels. Similar to how he acts grumpy because of a different reason, because he actually DOES want friends and he’s just guarding his emotions under a million walls cos he’s scared of being hurt again. And scared of how he knows he’s a weak willed person who might betray his friends again for his desperation for money. Which is really a desperation to feel valid as a human being, which is really just ‘i want friends’ again under another coat of paint. So depressingly he caused his own problems because of the same character trait that was once a positive in his life! I think he works well when interpreted from that angle, he’s like a dark subversion of a pokemon professor or of your classic ash ketchum figure. Like “the power of friendship” is what turned him evil, and also turned him into a guy who acted awful to his friends. And it could add to this thematic thing if “loving pokemon” was also referenced throughout his plot in a negative sense?

That’s actually one other good thing about the manga, they removed his greedy grumpyness (bad) but replaced it with the same motive as the villain of the 2nd movie (weird flex but okay). Aka “a guy who collects legendary pokemon just as trophies and has forgotten how to treat them like genuine friends”. Even if that wouldnt be his main character concept in this hypothetical rewritten game, it could still be a secondary trait that’s used to suppliment the main emotional arc. Like instead of just saying “money money money” you could flesh out more scenes of him actually talking about HOW he’s gonna get the money and what he’s gonna use it for. Via collecting all the rare pokemon, and to collect more rare pokemon. Which will somehow (in his twisted cynical perception of how the world works) make him a person of value and get people to respect him. It could also tie together pretty much every scene he already has! Cos his backstory is finding this pokemon friend... who was a rare unknown species. And maybe as a kid he decided to become a scientist initially just out of excitement to learn more about his new friend and show them to the world! But then the realities of the difficulties in being respected as a scientist gradually wore him down and he became more cynical, more obsessed with recognition, more believing that the only way to get it was by being an asshole and he’d just get taken advantage of if he kept being soft. And he started to forget why he really wanted that fame in the first place, and instead it just became an obsession, a vain hope that he’d hate himself less if he accomplished his life’s dream. When really from the player’s perspective its obvious that even if he succeeded he’d still be depressed when he realized how he’d lost everything in the process. And it’d be a more realistic sort of way he could have turned from a good kid to an asshole gramps. There wasnt any single day he suddenly made the decision to change, it was just a gradual wearing down of his morals over the years. he became more obsessed and more cynical that normal moral ways of doing things would never get him what he wanted. he started making small sacrifices to his personal sense of morality, and eventually reached the point where he’d completely abandoned it all without even noticing the gradual change. And somewhere along the way he forgot that he started this because of his pokemon friend, and discarded it as “not good enough” in favor of this vain quest to acquire a million other rarer pokemon and just friggin put them on a shelf to boast about them and feel less empty inside. And then also his redemption was a gradual change too? After he reached that point of completely betraying his own sense of goodness, he gradually got sadder and more tired with living this way. By the time you see him ingame he’s not remotely happy with being evil and he’s just a poor dude who’s deluded that being evil is the only way to escape the sadness rather than the cause of it. And thats why his whole ‘oops im accidentally subconciously befriending my coworkers and also the enemy’ thing kinda set him on the road to eventual redemption, cos its the first bit of small upliftingness he’s had in ages. sorta recharges his Ability To Care and he starts realizing what he’s doing and feeling regret. But yeah throughout the main game he never actually acts on his doubts and just repeatedly misses the chance to get redeemed and makes you Kinda Frustrated, similar to zuko or peridot’s redemptive arc? And ultimately reuniting him with his old best friend and showing him that its not too late to fix what he broke = the actual catalyst for his changes to fully stick and he completely switches to the good side.

BUT ANYWAY thats why he needs a boss fight first!

Something like 50-70 years worth of self hate and frustration from devoting himself to a super incorrect way of defeating that self hate, and sacrificing EVERYTHING for the sake of it, and being disrespected the entire time, and being terrified that you’re getting old and running out of time, and almost dying to some guy’s weird void plan, and losing the only thing you had left aka the team galactic job and a few maybe sorta kinda friends you had, and now being disrespected AGAIN by those same people you thought were friends (but never actually admitted it to them) and then also bitchslapped by a frog?? Also this place is real fuckin sweaty?? Yeah stark mountain is a great climactic point for his entire frustrations to boil over and be a bigger eruption than the actual volcano!

Thus we have Grand Dad Gets Serious And Has An Actually Interesting Boss Fight!

but also grand dad is being emotionally open and whoops accidentally might be tearing down those walls he built up around his big ol soft as fuck heart

like the battle would possibly be more ‘you talk him down into giving up, realizing he was wrong, quitting being evil, and going home to his friend that he misses so much. and finally realizing that thats actually the only way he could ever really defeat the self hate that drove him this far in the first place. also he’s not worthless and his friends always believed he was the awesome dude he always wanted to be’. Yknow, rather than actually defeating him and all. I mean you still do that but i think it’d be a case like with the giratina fight where even if you lose or run away you get the same result, just slightly altered text? Just as long as you come here with rotom in your party your victory was already a foregone conclusion. you just get a really cool boss fight as your reward, yknow? cos seriously I WAS WAITING THE WHOLE GAME FOR THAT DAMN BOSS FIGHT!!!

obligatory link again to the cool song i think is a great summary of all of my headcanons for this man’s character arc and would also be badass backing music for a hypothetical boss fight:

youtube

context: it makes more sense if you imagine it as his own internal thoughts of all the stuff he’s been running away from accepting in his own feelings. and/or what he THINKS that the player and rotom would be saying to him, so he’s shocked into speechlessness by the fact that they actually do think he deserves a second chance and has the potential to be good.

actually that could be a really good ending to the fight!!!

like when you get through to him and convince him to stand down, he cowers in fear thinking he’s gonna get the karmic payback for everything he’s ever done. and he tries to run away from reuniting with rotom. half of him is scared that his friend hates him and the other half is.. well..

i think it would be thematically appropriate to end it with a hug

just an image of this lil toy robot pokemon hugging this scared old man, and he’s just so empty and doesnt know what to say. its the last thing he ever expected. and then his shock turns into pain and sadness, as he was really the most scared that his friend actually would forgive him. that everything he ever did really was all for nothing, and he should have done this years ago and saved all that lost time. he’s so scared because he thinks he doesnt deserve forgiveness and he doesnt know what to do now its happening. so he just lets out all those tears he’s never cried over all these years, and the scene ends with him desperately hugging his best friend and never wanting to let go ever again

And then that’d be the big moment that was really the turning point for him, though of course that wouldnt be the end of his redemption and if there was any further postgame content you could show various scenes of him atoning throughout that. or just some images in the second credits scene after you beat the postgame stuff. i’d kinda like if there was some moment of him apologising to the rest of team galactic and joining them in their attempts to rebuild the team into something good. and maybe an extra postgame segment where this redeemified team goes on some bigger quest to try and rescue cyrus from the distortion world and heal his pain too. i think you could get a lot of good scenes out of a redeemed charon being along for the ride! like you’d obviously have cyrus being skeptical that this dude really has changed so much, and probably an extension of that earlier scene where he’s pissed off that the one guy he thought agreed with him about emotions being foolish is actually being the most emotional of everyone. but i think because of that they could also have scenes of relating together and actually starting to form a friendship in the end? like i can see charon feeling guilty for never trying to reach out to cyrus before, and also believing really strongly that cyrus can be redeemed cos like ‘yo i’m way worse than you and i was able to change, please believe that its a possibility for you too!’ Also cyrus likes machines so i think he’d be happy to meet rotom and become friends. And he has that whole grandpa related backstory so it might help a lot towards healing those scars and reuniting the two of them if he starts forming a friendship with a different gramps? THERES A LOT OF GOOD THEMATIC LINKS BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT TEAM GALACTIC MEMBERS THAT ARE NEVER EXPLORED IN THE ORIGINAL GAME

also in the original version of this plotline it was a fanfic/fangame idea of an alternate universe swap where dawn/lucas/other customizeable protagonist is a galactic grunt instead of the hero. so a lot of the details were different but in that version the protag was literally adopted by whichever galactic admin they picked as their main friendship route. entirely because of self indulgent ‘i wish these guys were my dad/sister/grandpa/whatever’ feels cos sinnoh helped me thru a tough time as a kid. soooo i cant really do that charon grandpa idea where he also renovates the Old Chateau into a ghost pokemon sanctuary and becomes like an actual good pokemon professor. (also rekindles his friendship with prof rowan and agatha from the kanto elite four cos thats just a random headcanon i have) BUT i could still do all that except the part where he adopts u cos canon dawn/lucas already has a mom lol. And i think it’d be more fitting of canonverse protag to adopt Cyrus? Like obv in the canonverse itd probably be the main boss of the team who gets the bigger redemption plot and is canonically the best friend EVEN THO for tumblr user tumblunni in particular it is All Grandpas All The Time. And i like the idea of Cyboy being a survivor of child abuse who tries to become a good dad just like his parents werent. But i also like the idea of dawn’s mom adopting him as her new big brother and him getting to experience a genuine loving family for the first time! I think itd work that way cos cyrus is meant to be 27 even tho he looks older, and i dont think dawn’s mom is that young and also i just see no chemistry between them as any sort of ship. (and headcanon cyrus as asexual anyway) But also the family does still keep in touch with all the other galactic friends!!!

hhhh i wrote So Many Word just about grandpa redemption holy shit i’ll probably die if i try and cover all the other teammates now

ok i will leave it here but just know i also have Deep Headcanons about all of them, even if charon gets the most. somedaayayyyay i will share with you more!!

#commander charon #why. why am i like this #okay apparantly i have used that exact tag like 15 times already on this blog and im betting most of them were also about charon #please love charon

9 notes · View notes

braverytaught · 6 years ago

Text

anyway i promised i’d talk about my reaction to cog and like, idk who cares, but i’m here on my soapbox anyway

obviously don’t fuckin read any farther if u haven’t seen it, i’m going in hard with the spoilers

i’ve talked about the mcg cameo and we’re ignoring that

they did dumbledore so fuckin dirty

they did queenie so fuckin dirty

the whole plot was a confusing and kind of pointless-in-and-of-itself setup for the next three movies, which i understand is necessary in some sense for a very long story like this, but if you can’t make a movie’s plot enjoyable and understandable as its own being, then you haven’t done a good job. cog’s primary function cannot be to lay the groundwork for movies that haven’t come out yet; it has to stand on its own, and i’m not sure it does

grindelwald’s kind of a joke

if you’re going to make nagini a character (and we all know the issues with that in the first place), you could at least bother to give her a personality

they did leta dirty too, she deserved more than a one-movie character arc

i don’t think tina’s characterization was badly done, but i do think she deserved more time, and they did a really bad job of showing the status of tina and newt’s relationship in the intervening nine months imo

i don’t think credence joining grindelwald is a bad story choice, but i do think it was handled incorrectly. they should have played into the “i’m being persecuted and i feel alone and scared and he may have used me but so has everyone else in my life and he seems to care about me so i’m going to go with him because i think he can keep me safe” aspect instead of reducing it to “he can tell me my real name”

on the bright side i continue to adore newt and his creatures, and i think eddie redmayne’s acting is fucking fantastic

credence being dumbledore’s secret long-lost much-younger brother is about as farcical as voldemort having a secret daughter with bellatrix lestrange

more under the cut. i’m about to go into highkey analysis mode.

queenie

yeah i’m fucking mad about this. the closest i came to crying in the entire movie was because i was so upset about what they did to her character. not bc it moved me but bc it pissed me off. queenie goldstein is smart, capable, and empathetic. i was so happy to see her again -- for about five seconds, until we found out she’s enchanted jacob so she can marry him without his consent? what the fuck? and then she spends the rest of the movie with no other motivation than to be with a man? she’s apparently so stupid and blind that she would join grindelwald, genuinely thinking grindelwald’s going to create a world where muggles are allowed to marry witches no problem? grindelwald’s manipulative tactics are blindingly obvious, and yet the woman who has spent her life learning how to read people and manipulate them in turn for her own protection can’t see that she’s being played?

fuck that. that’s not the queenie goldstein i know. and i’m not cool with her being turned into the “woman who makes bad, stupid, blind choices out of her desire to be with a man, because that’s all women really want, i guess” trope.

the only way i can see her joining grindelwald is if she followed credence, to protect him, and was a double agent from the start.

grindelwald

not even getting into johnny depp as a person, he’s clearly the wrong person for this part. it would’ve been better to keep the percival graves persona going than to turn grindelwald into a bleached rat who has apparently never seen the light of day. colin farrell was the perfect example of a seductive villain. grindelwald as graves was confident, persuasive, compelling even after you realized he was the bad guy.

grindelwald should have stayed that way even after he showed his true self or whatever. they kept telling us that he was seductive, that he couldn’t even be trusted with a tongue or he’d turn every guard to his side, and yet? i saw nothing of the sort? johnny depp’s grindelwald, both his acting and the character design, screams “i’m the big villain and you should hate me because i’m sleazy and creepy.” but that’s not how you gain followers. tom riddle was charming and handsome and persuasive; it was only after he gained power that he slowly became the inhuman creature we think of as voldemort, and that was after everyone was too scared of him to defect. grindelwald should have been smooth, should have been charming, should have showed a real ability to connect with the people he wanted to convert. and, you know what? he should have been handsome. he should have stayed jamie campbell bower tbfh. people follow a pretty face.

the point is he seemed like a caricature, an obvious villain. not somebody i can believe could genuinely win so many people over to his cause. you can’t just tell me he’s seductive and then make me watch pasty johnny depp make vague, empty speeches the whole time. not good enough.

dumbledore

i mean, i don’t have a problem with jude law. i think he did a pretty good job. so there’s that going for him.

too bad they were off with.....pretty much everything else.

i’ll stick with my two biggest complaints, i guess. the first is that it makes no sense for dumbledore to be out here talking to anyone who asks about his sister and his relationship with grindelwald. the whole thing in dh was that nobody knew he’d ever been affiliated with grindelwald -- his oldest friends refused to believe it. it happened over the course of one summer, they kept their plans secret, and it ended in disaster. and we know dumbledore never talked about that shit, not till he fuckin died. so why would some ministry dude be able to waltz in and say, yeah, we know u and grindelwald were close as brothers, and why would dumbledore respond that they were closer?? why would he ever disclose that??? that was secret fuckin information my dudes

same with ariana. i get the spin on empathy, but i don’t see him just casually bringing up his sister to leta. maybe i’m wrong on this one, idfk, maybe he would use ariana as an example to relate to a hurting student -- but i have a hard time imagining him bringing it up like that. it’s his shame. seems to me like another one of those things he’d avoid mentioning unless he absolutely had to.

and then. then there’s the whole fuckin grindelwald relationship thing in the first place.

i get that they’re trying to correct themselves. “you calling dumbledore gay without making any real references to it in canon does not count as representation,” we said, so now they’re making it real clear. but, really? really? you think dumbledore would look into the mirror of erised and see the current grindelwald? you think grindelwald is the deepest and greatest desire of his heart, and not, idk, his family, whole and unharmed? you think his love for grindelwald defines him more than any of his other motivations? no. bullshit.

as far as i can tell, they made dumbledore’s gayness central to his character in this story -- which is just as bad as not acknowledging it at all. because his relationship with grindelwald doesn’t define him, it certainly isn’t more important to him than his grief for his family, and he has plenty of motivation and character that doesn’t stem directly from his encounter with grindelwald, so (as tempting as it might be for mediocre storytellers) to spin his entire characterization in the fantastic beasts arc around the fact that he was gay for grindelwald when he was 17 is not only a disservice to his character, it’s also just shallow writing.

#cog spoilers //#there's more i could say but i mainly wanted to talk about queenie / grindelwald / dumbledore #so there we go #that's my piece #i'm gonna stop myself from rambling more in the tags #also most of this is negative but let me say that there /were/ things i enjoyed about the movie #there totally were #but it's more fun to analyze where i think they went wrong #and hoo boy were there plenty of places they went wrong #; wandless ( ooc. )

14 notes · View notes

dramarising-replacement · 6 years ago

Text

get madder :^)

hey yall remember that post where i gave a 1-or-2 sentence comment about each fanart that got featured in the community update? many people promptly took their panties and corkscrewed them directly up their very touchy buttholes, so i thought it'd be fun to do a follow-up :^)

>everyone who just said "lol bad post u suck ur opinion SUX"

it's my opinion lol deal w it

>it’s kinda cute how you think we would care about this / nobody cares

clearly u do bc ur mad fam!!! hahaha rekd got u!!1!

>perhaps… perhaps art is subjective and they wanted to make some community members happy by featuring them?

they couldve picked a little better was my only point

>"It’s people like this who give new artists anxiety for posting stuff online" / everything about how mean i am bc it will make newb artists feel nerbous :'(

hey guess what! it's the internet where literally everyone can see and say whatever they want. that's the risk ya fuckin take when u post online :^) waahhh

>"It’s called a personal art style"

its common knowledge by now but "its muh style" is not an excuse and yeah its subjective but also sometimes aspects of a pic are just bad

>"how does desnik only get a 5/10 lmao. Amazing shading, a super unique and difficult perspective that brings life to the whole piece? Ye nah that’s shit, apparently."

i said the shading (painting) was pretty good, and they lose points bc "bringing it to life" with a weird pose only works if the anatomy and perspective (which i specified) isnt so off that it takes away from the entire piece pretty significantly, which imo it does. also that pose isnt unique i can find u 10 pics of furries in that exact pose on like the front page of furaffinity or wherever. also i didnt say it was shit LOL

>"“this is anime uwu garbage” is not criticism OP"

fuck yeah it is, you ever been to the front page of deviantart? i assumed the implied "stop using super stylized shitty anime pics as a reference bc ur overall "style" is severely and obviously suffering for it" was kinda evident but i guess not

>"why the fuck do people get so butthurt when someone says their art is bad"

dude THANK you i mean i was expecting pretty severe backlash but i was as least expecting more creativity than literally just "bad post op" 20 times. tho i DID see enough to make this post i guess? this blog is fun but like in a painful way

> “not to be rude to the featured artists, good on them” pick a tone and stick with it

sorry man i really just do have a rude-sounding speaking (,,typing) voice and i dont mean any bad feelings towards these artists, my literal only point is that that one pic has some problems and maybe staff had some better pics to spotlight instead (and i don't even mean that for all of them. top, middle, and bottom left were all good choices and so was desnik's tbh. but i figured id ""review"" them too cuz they were there) i usually even pointed out something i liked about it? but i gotta move fast here cmon 100 character limit

>"dude… do you even know what a sketch is? because that’s in no way a sketch"

what do YOU define as a sketch? i guess the snapper one could also be lineart but its in 2 midtones (which people do when theyre "sketching" out values) and they used a messy brush so my mind went to sketch. and the coatl one looks like they did it really fast and slapped some flat colors on it. actually my point was literally that it looks like they did it fast, like a sketch rather than a lineart

>"at least put in some effort in writing a couple of sentences on each drawing on what, why, and how to improve the drawings. Seeing that some of the art is clearly from amateur artists, some words of advice would at least be helpful here."

yeah u right they definitely deserve better. but i was going fast cuz i just have an affinity for short snappy reviews i guess. like i tried to do cliffnotes, just "this part is good but this part is bad" and then a meaningless number score cuz i aint even addressing this to them, i posted it to a drama blog to complain about staff basically

>the nocturne guy who wrote a lot

alright cool. you totally have gotten a lot better. i never meant to discourage you for drawing in the first place. incidentally i said u had potential bc u were obviously a new artist, but like u were OBVIOUSLY a new artist with a loose understanding of depth and shading and stuff, and again this is a front page spotlight yadda yadda. ill fuckin hit u with a review right now:

you clearly understand shading and anatomy way better, and that coatl actually looks pretty fuckin good. the lineart is more consistent, it's framed way better, the proportions are WAY better, and it's really clean and stylized. the shading is infinitely more convincingly shiny and reflective. from here, imo you could benefit from going further with shading (darker, more dynamic, leaving little to no flat spaces like the crest fluff and tongue), and maybe polishing the lineart a little more too, like coloring/highlighting it and really pushing/polishing the linewidth (there are tutorials for that). overall that coatl is v cute, keep on pushing poses & shading

>"i bet OPs art sucks ass"

fIT e ME IrL

anyway thanks 4 reading my fucking essay and i'm super high. if you read al lof this then shame on you

#Drama #Praise #Flight Rising #Cursing #Sarcasm #Art #Long post #Petty #submission

55 notes · View notes

evakviigmohns · 7 years ago

Text

punk chick [richie tozier]

request: hey could I request an aged up Richie x reader where Richie is transitioning into his bad boy style because of the reader because to impress her because she's a badass punk chick.

A/N: i!! had!! so!! much!! fun!! writing!! this!! I hope that the anon who sent this doesn’t mind that these are headcannons¿¿¿ cuz I just thought it was easier & im trying to get my shit done LMAO,,,,, soooooo hope u guys enjoy this!! don’t forget to send me request or such cuz i still have time until school begins & I want to write as much as I can before it does. i hope u have a great day!

-okay so let’s say you are the new girl in school at 11th grade (i would say freshman sophomore or whatever it is but I have no fucking idea how that works lol) & u came in with all of this bad punk chick vibe and everyone just went nuts

-bc its fucking derry, here everyone is just kind of average and the cliques are not really empathized or anything so seeing someone just look so much like a character from a movie and all of that is just different, u know what I mean?

-soooooooooooooooo, it’s your first day at school, you walk in and you literally feel how everyone turns around to look at you, which you just kind of brush off cuz just fuck it, you know what I mean?

-okay so you go into your first class and you just sit like in the middle of the classroom cause even though you are interested in this subject, you are not interested enough to sit in the front seats and wait to until the class starts; everyone is sitting with friends or such and you are still alone but you really don’t care cause you might as well just turn around and make a lil chit chat with the people sitting behind you because for fuck’s sake if you aren’t charming

-sOooOo as I was saying, people keep walking into the room and you see a guy with such an adorable smile and just looks like a real-life bunny and he gets closer to the seat where you at and he just smiles directly at you and nicely asks if he can sit next to you and you reply yes.

[MORE UNDER THE CUT CUZ I DONT WANNA FUCK UP YOUR TIMELINE]

-It turns out that his name is Ben Hanscom and he is the nicest boy you’ve ever met. The conversation between you two floats easily and right before the ring bells, he invites to hang out after school with his friends and you immediately agree; everyone could use some new friends and even more when you are the new girl at school/now.

-your day just floats normally, until you reach your final period, but you decide to skip it because who fucking needs to P.E

-so you are just hanging out behind your school, smoking a cigarette as you just look around waiting for the final ring to make its appearance and you see a couple of boys who are walking around and you just follow them with your eyes as you keep inhaling and exhaling smoke (out of context but if u smoke pls be careful bc of fucking cancer) apparently one of them notices you.

-and they just pull the shirt of the other as they keep staring, talking about being lowkey, the other guy who is wearing glasses and is just fucking tall smirks at your direction and tells something to the smaller one and he just starts walking in your direction as his friends follows him.

-once they reach you, your halfway trough your cigarette and you just look at him until he says something.

-“well, hello there” the glass-wearing boy tells you and you just nod your head at his direction “uhm, my name is Richie and this is Eddie” he said as he looked at his friend next to him “and I was just wondering what is doing a lady like you out here all by herself” “what you think im doing?” you say as you put the cigarette in your lips “to smoke? Yeah, well, im here to take a smoke too.” As soon as he said that, eddie looked at him just shocked bc for fucks sake Richie doesn’t smoke¿ wth is he doing¿

-but you have no fucking idea and you just take the cigarette off your lips and give it to him, so he can take a hint of it, to which he just opens his eyes and grabs it and puts it in his to give a big blow of smock and not even five seconds in he just starts coughing

-you just start laughing and so does eddie, you look up to Richie and he is still coughing a little bit and he is just blushing like a bastard

-you quickly look at the watch in your wrist to see how much time you had left until you and ben were going to meet up, 2:55 pm; since your school day ends at 3 pm you just grab your backpack from the floor and start walking away

- “bye eddie, see you later smoker-boy” you say as you leave bc yeah you might a badass chick, but you are also really fricking polite so

-you walk slowly and once you reach the entrance of your school, ben is already there with his friends and he just waves at you as he smiled bc ben is a fucking ray of sunshine

-so, you stand next to him and all of his friends just stare you, maybe because you are wearing all black, maybe because of your eyeline or probably just because ben aka cutie managed to talk to you aka punk chick

-ben clears his throat and starts introducing you to his friends: bill, stan, mike and bev, his eyes showed such an adoration as he introduced Beverly and you immediately realized how lovestruck he was for her, and he introduces as (Y/N) (Y/L/N), the girl on his history class who is super sweet when she wants to

-hardie outside softie inside TM

-but it turns out that they still have to wait for 2 other guys, so they can go to a little forest that it’s pretty much theirs by now

-the conversation between all of you floats so fucking easy that you are shocked like ??¿¿ beverly even asked you if you can give her tips on how to do her make up and you immediately agree bc she is just so great smh

-just imagine punk chick!reader and softie!beverly teaching each other to do their make up JNKJVDNVKDFNVKJFNKD, im so fucking gay im SORRY

-let’s get back to it

-so, you hear stan say that the guys who you were expecting are already coming and you turn around to see the infamous smoker-boy and eddie getting closer.

-once they’ve settled in, ben goes “okay, (Y/N) these are-“ “Richie and Eddie, I’ve met them before” you interrupt him “and Richie trying to make himself look cool or something just chocked in my cigarettes smoke” you say with a little smirk as the rest of the group just starts laughing at the brown-eyed boy.

-“well thank you for embarrassing me, princess” “suck it up, dickhead”

-also, you swear like a freaking sailor and literally 20 minutes in, everyone already knows it

-so you and your new gals are walking towards the forest and you are just amazed because everyone is just so nice¿¿

-you feel really welcomed and you are happy that ben spoke to you in the first place

-OKAY SO, the weeks pass by and you keep hanging out with them and you’ve gotten insanely close to ben, bev, mike and richie

-you keep showing Richie your favorite bands and you just kind of ignore the fact that he gets really fucking red when you get close to him

-because he is really fucking cute when he wants so he get’s a free pass at being lowkey flustered around you

-so, one day you are all hanging out waiting for classes to start but Richie hasn’t arrived yet, which is not weird because he is usually late

-but then he does, and he is not wearing his usual stuff, but he is wearing a sex pistols shirt and you are like ?? since when does Richie like sex pistols??

-and he is just smirking like an asshole and just winks at you when he realizes you are staring him and you just reply by flipping him off and then the bell rings

- so, you have physics now and you share this class with Richie, and you just walk to the classroom together and he keeps making remarks about how cool you two look all punkie and stuff and you just wink at him and all of his coolness is long gone bc you never wink at him????????

-physics just go by very lowkey because you really like this class and in middle of it you feel Richie pull your arm

-“hey, (YN), look down” “for what” “just do it for fuck’s sake” and you do it, and guess what

-Richie Fucking Tozier is holding a box of cigarettes under the table and you are just shocketh

-because like two months ago he almost chocked to death for smoking and now he does it

-like what the fuck Richard

-and you ask him what the hell is up with him

-and his explication was that it looked fun

-but in reality it was just because he had a silly crush in you. I mean, he is Richie fucking tozier, he doesn’t need to change to be liked by girls but he wants to be liked this girl.

-he even asked bev about it

-because he realized that you two became really close

-and she explained to him that you never really spoke about boys and such but that you were single but not lonely

-u know what I mean 😉

-SOOOOOOOOO, he is like fuckfuck what do I do now, so his best idea is to turn into a bad boy version of himself

-cuz that’s what all punk chicks want, right? -in reality, you knew about richie’s plans and you found it adorable and you also didn’t really have a type bc life’s too short to think about having types so

-but you also had a crush on him HDFJHFKJDJN, ben, bev & mike were the only ones who knew about it because even though you liked all the losers you trusted them the most

-soooooooooo, let’s say its Christmas break or something

-and there’s a party where everyone is invited but you reach there earlier because you weren’t in the mood to wait and you just wanted some alcohol because life is stressing oKAy

-and it’s like 11 pm when you see the rest of your friends getting to the party and you are really happy bc you were tipsy, not drunk, tipsy

-everything is going super great and then you hear someone say something about Beverly and you are like ??? protective gf activated

-it turns out someone was calling her a whore bc apparently she slept with someone named Patrick

-but you know it aint true and you also know that the girl who is talking trash about Beverly has done it for some time

-so you walk up to her and you ask her what did she say

-she says without looking ashamed any second that Beverly was a disgusting slut and that it made sense that you were her friend

-and wait?? Is that your fist against her cheek?? What is she doing on the floor?? Yeah you just punched her cause she deserved it

-so, you kneel down next to her and softly say: “say anything about Beverly or my friends ever again and I will make your life fucking impossible, understood?” the girl just nods, and you go to your group of friends and everyone is just in shook and bev just hugs you and you just hug her back bc awe <3

-richie’s brain kind of stopped working and it’s insanely cute

-like, he is just staring at you, with his lips partly opened and his hair is just a big mess and wow, is he wearing a leather jacket??

-“Richie, can we go to talk outside?” “what? Oh, okay, yeah, sure” talking about being flustered

-the moment of shook is long gone and as soon as you walk off with Richie everyone is just freaking out because you two have been pinning for the each for a long ass time now and everyone knows it except you two, like how stupid is that?

-they had bets and all of that going on to see how long it took you two to date LMAO

-so you and Richie are outside of the house and you just look at him and he looks like a damn mess but you need to get this out of your chest

-also Richie + leather jacket is a combination made by the gods

-“Richie, I like you” and before you even manage to say something else, his lips are already on top of yours, his hands are on your waist and at first you are kind of shocked

-but a few seconds in and one of your hands was on his chest and the other one was in his hair and if this wasn’t one of the greatest kisses you’ve gotten in a while

-so after a while you pull away from each and you just smile at him and he just smiles back nsjkfd

-“I like you too, princess.”

-“yeah, you’ve kind of made it clear” you say scrunching your nose a little bit

-“I’m trying to have a moment, for fuck’s sake YN”

-you just laugh at him and kiss him again and he doesn’t complain

-because your lips are really fucking soft and he just wants more

-so by the end of the party you two are officially A Thing and everyone is really happy for you

-also make out sessions as you listen to The Ramones? SING ME UP

-so yeah, lol, you and Richie re just a happy punk couple who smoke together and are just really fucking happy with each other

-THTAS IT BC ITS ALREADY 2.4K WTH

#it 2017 #it imagine #richie tozier #richie tozier headcanons #richie tozier x reader #richie tozier imagine #sofia writes it #sofia writes richie #the losers club

71 notes · View notes

punkcherries · 7 years ago

Text

get ready to rrrrrumble

jesus christ this is a long ass submission so uh puts it in a read more also puts my txt in bold so its easier to read 👍

Right, so I’ve just read everything that happened in the last few asks you got and I’m just gonna sit down and tell you this right now. You better strap the fuck in because this is long and if you’re not gonna read it, shame on you, because all of this is specifically about YOU and the problems people have with you (the people Blu mentioned). First off, I’m not Blu, so don’t go and start calling him names in your server because you’re finally, FINALLY, being called out on all the bullshit you do. I used to be your friend, I left on semi-good terms, and this entire thing is going to explain WHY I left + why you need to square the fuck up.

sounds like fun whoever u are

You need to get your shit together and seriously change yourself, but of course you’re not gonna do that, because you’re an incompetent piece of shit who has your head so far up your ass you can’t see all the things you do wrong. You act like you’re the person who suffers the most, and that anytime anyone is rude to you it’s THEIR fault, not the fact that you did something terrible to someone or that you started some drama. I’ve been fed up with this shit for months, and have been hesitant to say anything directly to your face, because you don’t even know me that well and we hardly talked. We did interact a few times, but those few times were absolute hell to me, because I must have literally retracted some kind of disease just from being near you. You are the fucking EMBODIMENT of tumblrina, and it’s so fucking sad because you weren’t like this before (based on what a few others have told me).

the use of tumblrina here is jus makin me laugh ur a funny guy buddy but i feel like my past self is worse thn my current self like past me participated in cringe culture so like ew

The way you talk? Absolutely fucking horrid. Sit the fuck up and talk like a normal goddamn human being. I’m here to talk to you, not to decipher some 57 commas and abhorrid shortening of words. Jesus fucking Christ Sombre, I can understand Internet slang and cutting some words up, but you fucking butcher the English language so bad it literally sounds like a toddler having a stroke while mashing at their keyboard. It’s “that” not “tht”, it’s “thing” not “thng”, it’s “something” not “smth”, and for GOD FUCKING SAKES IT’S “THE” NOT “TH”. ARE YOU LITERALLY SO FUCKING LAZY THAT YOU CAN’T EVEN TYPE “THE”, A THREE LETTER WORD. I don’t give a shit if you’re talking like this to sound like an anxious uwu tumblr piece of SHIT, it sounds fucking IDIOTIC and it’s an ABSO-FUCKING-LUTE PAIN TO READ.

language is fake and is mostly just sounds we give meaning, im very sorry if you have trouble reading the way i type and id be more than happy to try and not speak to you like i usually do to everyone else if you just asked politely and talked it out with me (tho the idiotic part is accurate im not very smart lmao)

SPEAKING OF YOUR TUMBLR, LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR UPSET.TXT TAG. If you think anyone is gonna pity you, SPOILER ALERT! THEY’RE FUCKING NOT. Unless they’re your shitty “friends”, NOBODY fucking gives a shit, alrighty? Speaking from my perspective and a few others, nobody’s gonna see this venting on their dashboard and give two shits. Unless they’re your mutuals, they won’t care and it just leaves a bad impression. It’s pathetic how when ANYTHING negative happens to you, you decide to take to Tumblr to boo hoo crypost about it. You wanna vent? You wanna cry yourself to sleep? Cool, talk about it on your server, NOT FUCKING TUMBLR, WHERE LITERALLY ANYONE CAN SEE IT. This is just like how Facebook used to be, you see these posts of people posting personal shit and getting bit in the ass for it later, YEAH WELL THAT’S WHAT’S HAPPENING TO YOU RIGHT NOW BUDDY. DON’T LIKE IT? DON’T FUCKING VENT ON TUMBLR.

i rarely vent on here dude like?? do you see the time gaps between the posts in my vent tag? its also my blog so i can post whatever i like as long as im not hurting anyone yo, plus the point of venting for me at least isnt to like get attention or sympathy its to let off some steam not to mention most to all of my vent posts are vague as hell so like…. why do you even care though?? if i get bit in the ass then thats my problem not yours

Right, so let’s talk about your “im gay” tag too! You identify as male, correct? That’s cool! Congrats. But you’re not gay if you clearly show an interest in girls. Doesn’t matter if they’re fictional or not. Your “im gay” tag is filled with girls (Bismuth, some anime girl, pinup girls). NEWSFLASH ASSHOLE! You’re male, those are females! Opposite genders! That means you’re NOT GAY! WOAAAAAH! So who are you to be reblogging and posting all this shit about how hetero people are the devil, hetero people are the worst wah wah, when you yourself identify as a guy and clearly seem to be interested in girls, even if just a little?

dude i used to identify as nonbinary i only recently started identifying as male, hell i used to identify as female ages back so like? the posts in that tag are most to all old and i do realize my attraction to girls isnt gay, hence why ive only been referring to my attraction to dudes as me being gay post-male identification i guess

Speaking of all the heterophobic shit you reblog, have you not considered it could make some of your followers feel absolutely terrible? I’m bi myself, I like both guys and girls, but holy FUCK when I see that shit on your blog it makes me feel guilty for liking guys at all! Is that how you want people to feel? Whether they’re pan, bi, or straight, that shit’s literally so fucking damaging and it sure as hell hurts to see! And don’t throw that “some of those posts are jokes” bullshit at me, because guess the fuck what! They may be jokes to people who aren’t hetero, but they sure as hell don’t seem like jokes to those who are! How would you feel if I made a joke that was even SLIGHTLY negative towards homosexuals? Wait, no, don’t answer that, because I already know how you’d feel. You’d get pissy, you’d stomp your little baby feet over to Tumblr, and then crypost about it, saying you’re facing homophobia and being harassed blah blah blah.

HETEROPHOBIC IM LAUGHING…. buddy…. pal…. heterophobia is fake and im very sorry if those post make you feel bad as a bisexual person (im also bi so) but heterophobia isnt actually a thing, comparing jokes directed at straight people to lgbtphobia is inherently lgbtphobic as it compares little jokes most to all directed at bigoted/ignorant straights to something that can often result in the actual literal death of hundreds of people for their gender/orientation- that doesnt happen to straight people dude

Also: you don’t have autism. Were you officially diagnosed? Because I’m gonna be real fuckin’ honest, it doesn’t sound like you have autism. You sure have something, hoh yeah, but it’s sure as hell not autism. You put your “autism” up on a pedestal and act like it’s one of the only things about you, like no hunty, your mental illness doesn’t define you. Nobody gives a shit, okay? Your mental illness isn’t an excuse to act like a literal fuckface, it’s not an excuse to treat people like shit, and it sure as hell isn’t an excuse to blame everything on others and make yourself out to be the good guy because “my autism made me anxious or forget things ;w;”. This is the exact kind of tumblrina thing I’m talking about, people on this goddamn website act like their mental illness is the only quality about them and that not being neurotypical makes them special. NEWS-FUCKIN-FLASH, it doesn’t. It really doesn’t. You don’t see me using my mental illness as an excuse for my actions, because I actually step the fuck up and take responsibility for shit I’ve caused. My mental illness does not define me. There’s more to me than that. You need to realize that your fake-ass autism isn’t an excuse for you to be a fucking asshole to the people around you, and that your actions do have consequences. Stop blaming others for shit you’ve caused, stop calling people jackasses when it’s YOU who’s insulting people and twisting the truth, and for the love of God tell your white knights of friends to shut the FUCK up if they don’t know all the details of a situation.

i was technically diagnosed albeit in a nontraditional fashion (a psych at our middleschool was the one who diagnosed me) and i have never defined myself solely by my autism nor have i used it as an excuse for my fuck ups, ive literally apologized and stopped doing the things i did since the blu incident, i recognize i fucked up there and i apologized and i havent done the whole lying out of anxiety thing since, also my white knights of friends??? YOURE the one coming into MY inbox to tell me how shit i am after i blocked blu i literally just want this to be over leave me alone dude

Alright, so now that we’re done talking about YOU, let’s talk about your fandoms. You like Osomatsu-San. Okay, that’s fine. What’s not fine is how FUCKING obsessive you are about it. There’s nothing wrong with liking something and being attached to characters, making art of it, having a blog, reblogging it, talking about it, that’s okay. That’s okay! But you? You fucking hold the characters so close and act like they’re your own characters. You get upset when something doesn’t go your way in the show. This was evidenced by how many times you’ve complained about episodes (guess where? upset.txt) after they’ve come out. That anon about the straight joke? You got so heated over that, didn’t you? Saying Chibita was “out of character”, BITCH, what do you fucking know? He’s not your goddamn character! The writers will write him however the fuck they want. It’s THEIR fucking show, it’s THEIR fucking characters, and it’s THEIR decision of who does what and who acts like what. There’s a VERY thick line between canon and fanon, and you can’t seem to distinguish that AT ALL. You merge your shitty headcanons with the canon universe, and when something doesn’t go your way, you FREAK THE FUCK OUT and go crying about it in your server or on your tags.

youre blowing that ONE FUCKING POST so out of proportion ive never complained abt ososan in upset.txt outside of MAYBE episode 4 and that would be because of the NONCONSENSUAL SEX SCENE i KNOW my headcanons arent canon i KNOW that the chibita/snowtoko complaint was MINOR and i fucking LIKED THAT EPISODE A LOT!! i didnt cry i just felt that based on how the staff have characterized chibita up until that point it was a little jarring to see him react like he did THAT IS ALL! what the fuck!! how would you even know what i talk about in my servers!! youre obviously misinformed my guy!!!

Lemme tell you something, Sombre: Karabita isn’t canon. OH SHIT! I SAID IT BOYS! THAT’S A FUCKING CURSE ISN’T IT!! No, sorry, sit the fuck down and suck those tears up, because it’s true. It’s not canon. It isn’t. You grasp at straws to say it is, but it isn’t. Chibita wore somehing blue? Oh shit, it’s Karamatsu! He’s clearly in love with him! No, sorry honey, that’s not how it works. Of course Chibita would feel pity on him and let him stay with him (ep 24), because who wouldn’t? That doesn’t mean they’re dating. Karamatsu may be the most bisexual person ever, but he sure as hell isn’t dating Chibita (at least, not canonly). Speaking of Chibita, you need to stop acting like any other Matsu x Chibita ship is literal hell. They’re not. There are some decent ones out there, and although they’re rarepairs by now, they’re a lot better quality than the Karabita bullshit you spew out.

me saying karabita is canon is a joke, and my disdain for non karabita matsubita ships is based half in coping reasons and half in chibita has literally no chemistry with the other matsus and seems to not like any of the other bros at all whereas hes actually shown some level of tolerance or interest in karamatsu

While we’re on the subject of non-canon ships, Atsutodo isn’t canon either. Fuck’s sake, they were on screen together for 10 damn seconds. Yes, I’m aware there’s card art of Atsushi and Todomatsu having a meal together, but they’re very clearly not dating if Todomatsu is still going out with girls and holding their hands etc. Oh, speaking of Todomatsu: Your trans hc of him? Generic as fuck. He’s not trans. Call me a transphobe, I don’t give a shit, but he’s not trans. Look at the -kun animes. He’s a guy. Where in his life would he have magically been a girl and then go right back to a guy? The time span between a 12 year old and a 21 year old isn’t long enough to allow you time to transition. In that day and age, it wasn’t even acceptable to be transgender. So none of the Matsus are trans, get that out of your head. Get those “autism hcs” out of your head too, because I KNOW you hc Kara and Jyushi as autistic (and I’m aware you used to headcanon Ichimatsu as autistic too, but we’ll get to that later).

i know atsutodo isnt canon i never said it was all the “x ship is canon” jokes are about karabita and theyre jokes dude, i just think atsutodo would be cute. why the fuck do you even care about my trans hcs?? theyre HEADCANONS they dont HURT ANYONE and like dude there are trans children out there….. stop being a fuckface about simple headcanons what the fuck.

Lemme tell ya something. Karamatsu sure as hell isn’t autistic. Literally the only reason you headcanon him as such is because you yourself claim to be autistic and because “uwu he’s m fav,,,, i relate to him,,,”. Also, I realize “jyushi is autistic xD” headcanons are common, but JESUS FUCK it’s time for them to die. Jyushimatsu is just bizarre in and out, it’s his personality and his way of life. If you’re gonna hc him as autistic for his personality, you��re obviously ignoring his physical abilities. What about that time he cloned himself? Grew different sizes? What about how he seemingly has no bones (tentacle arms)? But oh, let’s ignore that, because he’s always got a smile on his face and he has a childish personality so DURR HE’S OBVIOUSLY AUTISTIC. Also, you used to headcanon Ichimatsu as autistic, but as soon as you started hating him you threw that headcanon out the window. This is PROOF you only headcanon your favorite characters as autistic, and that’s some of the STUPIDEST shit ever.

literally just let people headcanon what they want if it doesnt hurt anyone, im sure in canon theyre not autistic but this is HEADCANON. and is this also to imply that just because a character can do bizarre thing with theyre body they cant also be autistic?? what the fuck does that have to do with anything??? and i didnt throw my autistic ichi hc out the window because “i hate him” i dont even hate him im indifferent to him i hate his fanon incarnation because its stupidly out of character and one note, i also didnt even drop the autism hc for him i feel like he definitely 100% could be autistic but i just dont think about it as much because i think about other characters more than i think about him

Oh yeah, I’d love to hear why you hate Ichimatsu so much? Shut up, I know it’s because “hhhh he abuses kara” but that’s fucking wrong. Listen, Ichimatsu isn’t exactly my favorite either but at least I don’t make him out to be a fucking asshole to Karamatsu. All of the brothers have treated Karamatsu like shit at one point or another. They’ve thrown things at him, ditched him, called him names, ignored him, it’s a fucking trope in the anime that Karamatsu was the one to get hurt. Sure, season 2 has kinda turned that around, but the whole “Ichimatsu is bitter to Karamatsu” thing is the dynamic between them. They DO have moments where they’re not onto each other, though. See how Ichimatsu followed Karamatsu into the woods? Remember the episode where they switched clothes? They didn’t kill each other neither of those times, did they? And yes, I’m aware Ichimatsu has hurt Karamatsu at times (the bazooka, I think smacking?) but he doesn’t LITERALLY ABUSE HIM. You don’t see him kicking him around, PUNCHING HIM, HITTING HIM, EVERY SECOND OF HIS LIFE. Yes, he calls him names. Yes, he’s threatened to hurt him (“I’ll kill you, Shittymatsu.”) but he’s been stopped or HAS stopped every time. If he really was so intent on hurting Karamatsu, don’t you think he wouldn’t ignore his brothers and hurt Karamatsu anyway? But no, he didn’t, and he stopped each time he grabbed Kara. That’s because the entire “Ichimatsu despises Karamatsu” thing is a GAG in the show. It’s meant to be funny. It’s not meant for your negative ass to label it as abuse and then boohoo about it every time Ichimatsu is mentioned. That’s not a valid reason to hate a character, hell, even Karamatsu’s seiyuu said in a Doramatsu CD that Karamatsu was just comic relief. And if you’re gonna look for a reason why Ichimatsu dislikes Karamatsu, consider the hinted and well-supported reason: Ichimatsu “hates” Karamatsu because of how confident he is and how he can always be himself. Ichi is insecure. Ichi is antisocial. Kara, on the other hand, can express himself and show how “cool” he is. Consider that Ichimatsu wants to be more like him, hence why he said he’s the “number one Karamatsu boy” in that one episode.

okay this is just ridiculous i DONT HATE ICHIMATSU and i KNOW its a GAG, i KNOW they get along sometimes i KNOW all the brothers have shat on kara I KNOW THIS abuse takes many forms though and in a more serious anime the way the bros treat kara would probably be depicted as abusive, but it isnt a serious anime so its a gag and i understand that thats FINE, did you even watch the ichimatsu incident? ichimatsu got plenty fucking pissed off at karamatsu and stuff and the “number one karamatsu boy” nonsense was him being concerned about how karamatsu might think of him as such not him calling himself a karamatsu boy, and yes i know the whole ichi wants to be cool and confident like kara thing i understand that but even so that wouldnt logically excuse his bitterness toward kara but again, its a gag anime so its whatever, youre also ignoring the facet of his disdain towards kara being in part because kara is also vain and ichi finds this annoying and thinks kara is fake as hell because of it there was something in i think a magazine where the bros are all asked what they think of eachother i think and i THINK ichi said something along the lines of him not liking kara because he fakes being nice for the sake of his own ego or something (which is likely ichi just having a negative image of kara rather than that actually being the case because i dont think karas that smart but who knows i dont!!) so like y’know

In conclusion, I would like to say you need to shut the fuck up and chill with your fandoms and headcanons, realize headcanons aren’t canon, and also get your head out of your ass. You’ve done so many wrong things and need to stop blaming them on others. You’ve lied, insulted, and put the blame on so many of your old friends, you’ve avoided people who you deem “toxic” (simply because they have different opinions than you), you think people can’t form their own opinions, and you don’t back up your friends when they’re getting shittalked. You act like an assoholic brat and cannot, for the life of you, open up your eyes and see this. You’re lucky the dicktwats on your server are there for you, because if they weren’t, you’d be all alone, and honestly? That seems pretty good at this point. Fits you perfectly.

i know headcanons arent canon, i know ive lied (though ive really only insulted people who were dicks to my friends and maybe blu which probably not a good thing but i mean hes also insulted me so?? even i guess??) and i regret that, im more honest now and try my best to show kindness to people who have done me and my friends no wrong, ive only ever put blame on blu i literally dont blame anyone else for anything, i dont avoid people i deem “toxic” i avoid people i dont get along with because if i dont get along with them then theres no reason to talk to them im gonna let them live their lives, of course i think people can form their own opinions what on earth are you talking about???? when did i not back up a friend when they got shit talked?? i dont remember that but id like to deeply apologize if i ever did, unless youre talking about when someone in my server insults blu over ykno… him not leaving me alone and harassing me when ive done nothing but mind my own business since the incident, then while it was kind of uncomfortable for me because i felt it was the wrong thing to do i couldnt exactly muster the words to protest it. im very sorry you feel that way im always trying to improve and i like to think that im making some level of progress in being more sensitive and kind to those around me. but also dont insult my friends they didnt do shit weve been minding our own goddamn business this entire time blu is the one who started it back up again.

Now, go back to crying in your server and soaking in self-deprication, fuckass.

yknow i get the feeling i know who this is but i dont want to jump to any conclusions so, uh, okay! see ya my dude :0c

#shut up sombre #drama /#heres to hoping this is the last thing i get abt this bc this is jus really dumb and im tryna move on over here #ask to tag /#submission

1 note · View note

slushblock · 7 years ago

Text

Fell - Chapter 6 - Paving the Road

Alternate title: Bones Shatter. Because I like that song. Dug it up yeears ago when trying to find character songs for an old RP.

This is a longer chapter.

It gets... a bit dark.

The final stretch approaches...

It was time to head to the dungeon.

Without going to Hell, the trio of explorers had pretty much explored everything else. The cursed stronghold and the mysterious islands in the sky were all that remained.

Naturally, it was easier with Ren’s network of mine tracks. While the trip there by foot was more than familiar, not having to slog through snow or slip their way through icy caverns was a welcome reprieve. They’d chained three minecarts together, with Ren in the back on the brakes, and Axl sitting in front casually slouching with his back to the direction they traveled. It’s not like there was any need to steer.

Aura sat in the middle cart, fiddling with a short, tattered red scarf wrapped tightly around her neck and looking quite stark in contrast to the two purple-clad men. She was finally wearing armor, but armor lightweight enough to tolerate, made from sturdy, golden honeycomb they found in the jungle. Donning it gave her quite the rapport with the wildlife; three large hornets now sat inside the cart with her, buzzing their wings as they snuggled up to her ankles, trying not to be blown away by the wind over top the cart.

To Axl’s half-relief - he’d stopped actually caring after the third day or so, but kept up the act for the simple humor of it - she finally decided to leave the slime at home, but the large insects were arguably, or at least objectively, worse; he was, after all, deathly allergic. Not that it meant much when the aggressive specimens in the jungle could literally run a human through, rendering an allergy the least of one’s problems.

He suspected she chose to do it on purpose just to bug him, so he tried his best to ignore it after getting smacked for the initial, obligatory pun on the subject. Whether she was irritated by it was up for grabs, though, as she had also laughed, “It’s funny that it’d come to this. You know how I was in a band? Before I came here? Wanna know what it was called?”

Axl leaned forward, “Sure, hit me.”

She did. Literally. But also while snorting, “None of Your Bees Knees.”

Axl joined her laugh, “Wow, that’s an awful band name!”

“Well it wasn’t my idea! I was just the guitarist.”

Things were not looking quite so jolly now. Knowing what was ahead of them knocked the mood down a peg, as hard as Axl tried to keep it up with his humming, which wasn’t ever any real good to begin with.

The fact that cart rides didn’t tend to spur much conversation didn’t help, but as they exited the icy caverns, a burning question in Axl’s mind for quite some time finally decided to surface, “So… uh…” He tried to figure out the best way to level the concern, “Don’t… don’t take this the wrong way, but that guy who knows way more than anyone should-” he coughed, “...well, he mentioned something, and it’s been bothering me,” Axl took a moment to reconsider his curiosity, only to reconsider his reconsideration, holding up his hands, “What’s the story about the name ‘Gus’?”

Ren pulled the brakes on the train of carts so fast it nearly flung the other two out. They stared at him and he glared right back, and Aura turned again to stare at Axl, mouthing ‘why would you say that??!’

“Get out,” Ren muttered, simply.

Axl shrunk away a bit, looking exceptionally guilty, “...Is it really that bad-?”

“I said get out. Not go away,” Ren clarified as he hopped out of the minecart, himself, “I’ll answer your question on the surface, kid.”

That rapid change of tone took both Axl and Aura by surprise as they watched Ren turn, heading back through the track’s tunnel. They followed behind him as he quietly counted torches, tapping at the walls, before opening one of the many hidden passages into the surrounding caverns. The ascent to the surface was relatively smooth and well-lit, emerging in a lightly forested area not unlike where they’d started.

The large man winced at the sun as he looked around, then up at the sky through the canopy of trees. The dungeon could be seen in the distance, and a floating island overhead gave him the points of reference he needed as he waved his hand to the others, silently beckoning them to follow.

It was nearly directly beneath the island above, though offset in the dungeon’s direction. A small, naturally-formed alcove emitting a spring of water, flowing in thin streams down to a small pool. Under the shade of the unusual formation was a rough, almost sign-like structure made of wood, already beginning to be overgrown with moss. There was a name on it, mostly-obscured.

It took a moment for Axl and Aura to realize it was more than just a signpost; it was so strange to see a grave marker. As far as either of them knew, people didn’t die here; not permanently, at least. Axl removed his helmet, and Aura, seeing him do so, followed suit.

“Served together,” Ren started, looking down, not bothering to remove his, “Weren’t that close at first, but he was the only person who called me Gus.” He glanced back at them for a moment, before returning his gaze to the makeshift memorial, “Had a cousin nicknamed Ren that he didn’t like much. Didn’t want it impeding with our assignment.”

The younger adventurers looked on in wonder; Ren’s voice didn’t seem to carry much in the way of sentiment, but all the same they could feel there was at least some emotion in there as he continued, “Found the mirror on deployment, in an abandoned house we’d ducked into. Thought it was some kind of optical trick. Tried to figure out how it worked. Took us both.”

He knelt down, brushing some dust and leaves from the top of the marker and trying to peel back some of the moss, “Nothing seemed wrong at first. We tried to figure out this stupid world together. As you know, it’s easier with a competent buddy who’s got your back.” Axl nodded, his frown deepening at the upsetting implication.

“Ain’t perfect, though. Not when both people make the same stupid mistake,” Ren narrowed his eyes, then closed them, shaking his head, “Didn’t listen to that old man. Figured he was crazy.” Axl cringed reflexively. Aura merely looked away; having heard the story from Axl, she had no intention of checking for herself, but probably would have done the same thing out of stubborn curiosity otherwise.

Feeling the knowing silence, Ren continued, “Well, we both died that day. I came back…” He closed his eyes tighter, clenching his teeth, “Mitch didn’t.”

“But… how?” Axl whispered to himself. It was still loud enough for Ren to catch. The large man shrugged.

“Don’t know how or why, but apparently this world didn’t take a hold of him. Maybe the mirror wasn’t supposed to bring two people over. Don’t think I’ll ever know…” He looked up, off in the direction of the dungeon, “The best I can do now is get even. ...Heh,” he half-laughed, “Funny you’d bring it up today, of all days.”

“Yeah, strange coincidence,“ Aura put her helmet back on and crossed her arms, tilting her head at Axl. One of her hornets landed on her shoulder, buzzing and tilting its own head in mirror to her own.

“Don’t look at me, I was just making small talk,” Axl held up his hands defensively, “I kinda wanted to ask for a while now.”

“Whatever. Let’s get going,” Ren sighed, “Could use the walk.”

“Why’d you go off on your own, anyway?” Axl tried to keep some kind of conversation going, as it looked like it would be a while, “Maybe there’d have been more help if you stuck around.”

“Neither of us liked that smartass who was trying to lead us around with his ‘advice’, so we made our own way,” Ren huffed, “After Mitch died, though, I couldn’t go crawling back to ask questions, so I didn’t. However, I was losing my mind day by day. I just wanted to get out of this madhouse, even if it meant dying permanently, too. That’s why I’ve been digging around in the dark places of this world. Trying to find wherever death is hiding,” Ren paused for a moment, looking down at the ground… and projecting his thoughts to what lay even deeper, “I think I’ve found the answer… The truth. but I won’t be certain until we’ve killed that thing in the underworld.” He looked up, “I thought I could do it on my own… but the help is certainly appreciated knowing what I know now.”

“Where did you learn so much?” Aura asked, genuinely curious. It was hard enough making heads or tails of any of the madness around them without the guide’s help, vague as it could be at times.

“I’d rather not talk about it,” Ren shook his head, “Just that I’ve been digging around in the shadows for a very long time, before you kids even showed up.”

The dark undertone of that statement halted any further conversation for the rest of the walk as they all mused to themselves, and they arrived at the dungeon just as the sun began to set. The ragged old man was waiting outside for them. He nodded at their approach, recognizing two faces who had ignored his warnings in the past.

“So you’re finally ready?” He rasped, standing up, aged bones shaking.

Aura looked off towards the sunset, then at the others as she drew a new weapon; a strange-looking gun that looked like a hive, alongside the chakram she’d crafted before. They all exchanged knowing glances and nodded in unison, turning back towards the dungeon and its keeper.

“If I’m ready for anything, it’s for revenge,” Ren growled, the healthy side of his face cracking a half-smirk, “The question should be if your ‘Master’ is ready.” With those words, he reached into his bag and pulled out the largest gun either of his companions had ever seen.

Aura gawked, “...Where did you get that?” It didn’t seem real; too large even for the man who was wielding it. It appeared to be a chaingun of sorts, but without the chain… and more bizarrely, it seemed to be stuffed inside of a shark.

“That gun dealer who’s living at your place had it,” Ren tilted it up for a moment, keeping his eyes firmly on the old man, “Wasn’t cheap, but I wasn’t doing anything else with all the money I’d collected.”

“...Riight,” Axl seemed dubious, but wasn’t about to argue, “Not gonna ask how it was made…” He drew his own enchanted sword, which continued to glint even as the last rays of sun vanished beneath the horizon.

Just as they did, the old man nodded, then stood up straight; straighter than they’d have expected someone of his supposed infirmity to be able to. His eyes glowed blood red and he let out a low, haunting groan as a cloud of red mist formed around him and coalesced high above, towering over the adventurers and dungeon alike as the human it emerged from collapsed in a heap in the brick entryway.

The vapor shifted and solidified into a massive skull, oozing with spectral blood, almost shaped like a human’s if not for its sharp teeth. At its sides were a pair of long, skeletal arms and similarly bony hands, with reach long enough to grab any of the adventurers where they stood, even as high up as the skeletal monstrosity floated.

Indeed, grabbing was the first thing it tried to do, reaching out for the obviously slower Ren, who spun up his gun with a shout as he unleashed an inaccurate but no less impressive round of meteor bullets right into the approaching bones. It didn’t seem to do much damage at first, but the giant spirit shrieked and pulled back all the same, swiping out at the other two with its other hand.

Aura dodged the swipe easily, holding out her arm and sending her new hornet assistants to attack the head directly as she unleashed a torrent of smaller bees from her strange firearm. Though it was merely a skull, the insects swarmed its eyes on some kind of instinct, and despite there being only empty sockets, doing so caused the skull to reel, spinning in an attempt to shake off the buzzing assault.

Axl, meanwhile, twisted out of the way to be merely glanced by the giant hand, using the momentum to spin around and swing the sword. It missed. The blade of energy that flew from it, however, didn’t, striking the hand and cracking some of the bones.

What should have been a harrowing fight was barely a problem fighting together. The large presence could not direct its own attacks at any of its smaller attackers without leaving itself open to relentless onslaught from the other two, and while it managed to deal a few choice hits of its own, it was shortly reduced to little more than shuddering splinters of bone.

“You’re saying this thing killed you instantly before?” Aura put the gun away, giving the returning hornets a light scratch on each of their heads as the rest of her bees dispersed, “Doesn’t seem like it was all that threatening.”

“Well, the old man did say something about this only being possible at night,” Axl shrugged, taking out a potion as he leaned on his sword’s pommel.

Ren put his large, unwieldy gun away, taking off his helmet to wipe his brow, “Element of surprise, too.”

“Yeah, and that.”

As they approached the entrance, Axl held up his hand, “I’ll go down first. If that old man wasn’t lying, I’ll give a holler,” he smiled, “If he was, no point getting us all killed if there’s another big skull guy down there still.”

Ren nodded and stood back as Axl pulled out a torch and headed down into the darkness. After a few moments of listening to the dwindling footsteps, a shout echoed up, “Well, I think we’re good!”

Aura looked over at the large man, “How does he know?”

“Trust me, kid,” Ren sighed, “It’s frustratingly obvious.”

The walls of the dungeon were bare, stripped of anything remotely interesting to the point of seeing where shelving had been pulled from between the bricks, until they reached a very conspicuous bit of corridor, which would have seemed unremarkable if not for the thick coat of spattered blood on those six or so feet of floor, walls, and ceiling. Just beyond that, an eerie blue glow beckoned. Axl stood on the other side.

“You know, looking at it now, I have no idea why anyone would look at this and think, ‘Hey, it’s fine, there’s just blood everywhere right here, what could possibly go wrong?’” Axl let out an awkward ‘heh’, “I’m kind of glad I’m not the only one who fell for it the first time.”

“In my defense,” Ren grumbled, “We examined everything very carefully before proceeding. The bricks here are airtight, there were no pressure plates, or anything indicating traps we’d seen before.” He placed a hand on the blood. It had long since dried. “Thought it was just a scare tactic.”

Aura kneeled to look more closely at the blood and shivered. It brought back unpleasant memories. She coughed softly, scratching at her neck, “Let’s just get this over with.”

The path down was uneven and crumbling, leading to a slow descent. The blue glow came from unnatural candles lining the walls, illuminating skull-shaped pots and books of all sorts. There would be no time to collect or go through them, though, as many as they’d taken before the bloodstained hall. The occasional, faint lantern lit the ceilings, casting eerie shadows at every corner.

Axl pulled off his helmet to press against his temples, eyes squeezed shut tightly for a moment as he took a deep breath, “Ugh, something about this is making me dizzy…” He shook his head, replacing his headgear, “Like there’s something in my head.”

“Yeah, I can feel the haze,” Aura nodded, adjusting her scarf, “The air is thick with something down here. I don’t like it.”

“I feel it, too,” Ren confirmed, grimly. He placed a hand on an eye-shaped engraving, feeling the bricks themselves radiating a certain, chest-tightening anger, “Whatever cursed that old man didn’t stop at the giant skull guarding this place…”

Almost as if cued by the word skull, a full skeleton in tattered red rags burst from around the corner. In spite of the surprise, Ren’s shotgun was out in a very deliberate and decisive instant, blasting the animated bones at point-blank and shattering its skull to tiny splinters. The whole thing clattered to the ground in a heap.

“Whoa, dude, chill,” Axl held up his hands, tone almost standoffish.

Ren glared back at him, “Kid, you’re asking me to-”

“No, not you…” Axl waved, then pointed, “That.”

The disassembled bones on the ground continued to shake, twitching despite not being held together into any particular form with which to move. They weren’t even moving in such a way as to imply an attempt to reassemble, rather like they were trying to continue to attack of their own accord.

“Oh,” Ren put his gun away. His eyes narrowed, though his expression was otherwise strangely unreadable as he knelt down, grabbing one of the bones. The moment it was off the ground, it stopped moving, but he could still feel the agitation in the air surrounding it. Muttering something, he grabbed more of the bones and stuffed them into his bag.

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Aura asked as they began to move again.

“Maybe not,” Ren mumbled, “But anything potentially enchanted is something to look into. Could be useful.”

“Not like there’s any shortage of them,” Aura pulled out a torch of her own, holding it out into the room around the corner, “look.”

The room was a towering cathedral of catacombs, rune-lined recesses in the walls containing countless bones. Menacing iron spikes jut from the walls, while even more skeletons hung from chains between them and from the ceiling, and ancient blood could be seen spattered everywhere, especially around the spikes. In one corner, a faint glimmer of a chest, barely shining through the grime that coated it.

The sight caused even Ren to shudder slightly, but Axl was surprisingly unperturbed as he stepped into the room, walking over to the chest,“That was quick. How luck-” Axl began before frowning. He kneeled down to look more closely, then groaned, rolling his eyes and standing back up, pulling some webbing up with him before kicking the chest in mild frustration. The chains on it rattled, initially obfuscated by the cobwebs and thick dust now shaken off by the kick, “Damn thing’s locked.”

“Well, we’re just going to have to find a key,” Aura’s brow furrowed as she looked around. The room itself branched off into multiple tunnels, snaking off into unknown depths, “Better start marking our path. At least this one’s near the exit, but I do not want to get lost down here.” She huffed, pulling out another torch as she wedged the one in her hand into the rungs of some of the chains on the wall.

They moved into the rightmost passage, each taking turns to mark the walls with their torches to signify their progress. There were lots of catacombs, and the occasional piece of strange furniture crafted in the likeness of the pinkish bricks, and one more large room containing yet another locked chest, much to everyone’s gradually escalating annoyance. A few more exceptionally angry skeletons took offense to the intrusion, but were quickly put down, their quaking remains violently scattered or collected by Ren to keep them from possibly piecing themselves back together.

Axl’s attempts to hum eventually dwindled, giving way to silent trudging and echoing footsteps. Eventually, the group found themselves back in the first room via the central tunnel, resituated themselves, and then took a left.

At the end of that tunnel was a precarious drop into another, large room, with fewer catacombs, but far more spikes than the last. Ren was the first to step to that edge, carefully kneeling and tossing a torch down to get a better look. There was barely any footing in the lower room for the amount of spikes on the floor, just a handful of sturdy shelves, a sliver of brick leading to the exit at the bottom, and a thin walkway around the very perimeter.

“Well, this is great,” Axl sighed as he walked up behind the larger man, wedging his torch in a cracked brick, “What the Hell was this place even being used for?” He cocked his head, crossing his arms and looking down at the spike-laden floor below.

Aura adjusted her scarf before pulling out a length of vine with three ends, each tipped with organic, flytrap-esque clamps, “Whatever it was, it couldn’t have been anything goo-”

She was cut off by Axl raising his hand sharply, “Wait, do you hear th-”

Ren stood up and turned around. The sudden silence allowed them to hear the deep grind of bricks shifting against one another coming to a halt, followed by a soft click. Axl’s eyes went wide and he shouted, “Look out-!” just in time to grab Ren’s shoulder, using nearly all his strength to hurl the large man out of the way. Ren couldn’t shout a retort in time before a massive, spiked morningstar swung down the corridor, striking Axl in the chest, sending him off the edge with a sharp gasp, followed by the shriek of metal piercing metal and a soft, gurgling groan.

“...Idiot,” Ren mumbled, gritting his teeth. Aura gasped and threw her vine hooks out, easily descending to the safe foothold below.

Had he been hit just a little harder, Axl would have cleared the spikes. Instead, if the height of the unaided fall after being hit by such a heavy object hadn’t killed him, being punctured through at least four times by wrought iron - with one spike squarely through the center of his chest - certainly did. Aura cringed. It wasn’t much worse than some of the other deaths she witnessed, but something about seeing the lifeless gape of someone who’d just spared another that fate was incredibly upsetting.

As she heard the sound of Ren’s armored feet touching down on the safe ground beside her, Aura turned to him as he retracted a set of weblike grapple ropes, “Should we… uh… leave?” She eyed the corpse, uncomfortable, “Not far, just not...here. Maybe closer to the entrance, so he finds us easier...”

“No,” Ren grunted, narrowing his eyes, “I need to know something.”

“I just don’t think it’s tasteful to-” Aura began, eyes darting warily.

“No. It’s not tasteful,” Ren interrupted, “And neither is this.” He gestured at the body, “We all keep moving and don’t have to deal with being reminded, but maybe he’ll think twice about throwing himself away if he is reminded.”

Aura shook her head, feeling irritated at the callousness, as she turned to pace around the safe edges of the room. There were fewer books on the shelves, but way more of the skull pots. After two impatient laps and a frustrated groan, Aura reached out and swept an entire shelf of skull-shaped pots off onto the ground, where they shattered in that satisfyingly ceramic way that it’s rarely okay to allow ceramics to.

There was a small, gold key among the shards and various other scattered items contained in them.

“...Huh, will you look at that,” Aura mused, leaning down to pick it up and keeping an eye on the spikes, “I guess we should be breaking more of these.”

“Good to know,” Ren rumbled, having been leaning in the doorway to keep watch for approaching skeletons. “We can look for more once-” The sound of quick metal steps cut into his train of thought, “Nevermind, there he is.”

“Sorry that took so long,” Axl apologized, though sounding a little irate, as he grappled down to the others, “Found anything interesting?”

“Well, the pots have keys in them,” Aura recapped what little had happened while they waited, “We didn’t do much more. We were waiting for you.”

Axl regarded them incredulously, “...Why? You could have made a lot more progress if you didn’t.” He didn’t seem to even notice the body, even as he stood practically over it. “I think we can all agree we shouldn’t be hanging out down here.”

Ren snarled, “Are you serious?”

“Serious?” Axl grunted, “What are you talking about?” Aura drew Axl’s attention with very deliberate eye-contact, then gestured with her head and eyes down at the corpse without saying anything. She cleared her throat.

Axl looked down at it for a moment, expression indifferent, before looking back up, “...Yeah? So?”

“...Does seeing your own dead body not bother you?” Ren growled, clearly displeased that his intention was so easily brushed aside, “Do you not feel like this is probably something you shouldn’t be letting happen so casually?”

There was a pause, which would have seemed pensive and thoughtful, but without warning to either, Axl began to laugh. It was a soft snort at first, but quickly climbed to a nearly teary roar. He shook his head, looking down at his lifeless body, then back at the others, who stared at him, wide eyed. He took his glasses off to wipe his eyes, “Ooh… ooooh man.”

“What’s so funny?”

Axl continued to chuckle, “Funny? So, so much. Oh man, I didn’t-” he paused to snort again, “I mean, who cares, right? There’s probably just more slime down here to strip these bodies to the bone, just like everywhere else. Why should I care if it’s lying around here, of all places? At least I don’t have to dispose of it myself!”

“That’s not the point,” Ren stepped forward and shoved Axl in the shoulder, harshly, “How can you be so-” suddenly Axl’s words hit him, “...Wait… dispose of it yourself?”

“Look,” Axl shot back, his facade of cheeriness tinged with a touch of ire, “This whole world is a fate worse than death. Death is the easy part here. What comes before, and possibly after, is so much worse,” He raised a hand, slowly, then pushed Ren away, “If we’re afraid of death, then what hope have we when the inevitable worse rolls around?” Axl straightened, taking a single, heavy step forward, “I’m not afraid of death. I made sure of it!”

Ren’s diseased cheek twitched, “You-?”

“You want to see something funny?”Axl arched his eyebrows, taking out his sword, “Here’s something funny.” Axl’s tone went flat as he turned his sword over, raised it above his head, and brought it down on his own corpse’s neck with a wet crunch. Aura, who’d been trying to ignore the conversation, couldn’t help but yelp and bring her hands up to her mouth when she saw that out of the corner of her eye.

Ren’s eyes went wide, expression twisting into appalled surprise, “What the Hell are you doing?!”

“Immediately after being eaten by that wall of flesh, before I really thought about what I’d seen in there, all I could think about was how I didn’t think I could handle what else this world could throw at me,” Axl chuckled, darkly, as he leaned down and picked up the severed head, “I just about gave up. It seemed like everyone else did.” He pulled off the helmet, so that the face beneath was clearly visible, even in the low light.

“But sitting around doing nothing helps nobody, so I decided to make make that time… productive,” he took his sword in hand again and lifted it, bringing it down once more, this time on the corpse’s shoulder, the sides of his mouth pulling into a very insincere smile, “So I killed myself.” He stabbed again, “Over,” and again, “And over. And OVER. Until I no longer hesitated.” Leaving the sword there, he took the head in both hands, facing the others. Its lifeless expression contrasted so jarringly to the madcap smile above it. “Suffice to say, this is nothing. I got pretty used to seeing my own dead bodies lying around.”

Even Ren looked a little sick at both the sight and the story, taking a step back, hand reaching down to his gear pack, “Th-the Hell-?”

“So you think this isn’t the way someone should feel about dying,” Axl smirked, “You don’t like that I’m tougher than you when it comes to this. Fine. I get. The point,” to emphasize his last word, he leaned down again, thrusting the severed head onto one of the floor spikes, “Frequently.” He punched it down as he spat the word, then narrowed his eyes, still grinning, “I’ve stopped caring.”

Aura had taken to pacing around near the walls, trying her hardest not to watch this scene unfold, and it was almost like she’d disappeared as the sparks continued to crackle. She just muttered indistinctly to herself, occasionally clearing her throat loudly, trying to drown out their argument as she shook her head.

“Oh, and you can bet I made it hurt,” Axl continued, eyes now wide and manic to match his smile, “As much as I could manage.” He took a step forward, posture hunching slightly, gait threatening, “There’d be no point otherwise.” He spat the word again, trying a little too hard to overuse the pun.

“Enough!” Ren roared, grabbing Axl by the collar of his armor and lifting him up almost effortlessly despite the weight of the metal, giving him a shake, “So it’s not just a product of you being as dense as you are? You’re just some kind of sick freak?” He slammed the smaller man’s feet on the ground, nearly on the spikes, “You talk big, but I won’t believe a boast like that with no scars to prove it.”

“Oh, but dying doesn’t leave scars. I count that as a blessing!” Axl hissed, grabbing Ren’s hand and dislodging it from his armor roughly, “That dying just… resets us to the last time we slept… like waking up from some horrible dream... but oh, not dying, there’s a real kicker,” he pointed upwards to nothing in particular for emphasis, “Get a nasty scar from surviving and getting patched up, then sleeping on it, and now there’s a permanent mark.” He shrugged melodramatically, shaking his head, “Honestly, it makes me pretty happy I’ve died all these times, considering what I’ve gone through. There’d be nothing of me left! But it’s not like you’d know anything about that, since you’re just so awesome. Oh, wait,” he jabbed a finger at the disfigured half of Ren’s face with a viciously sarcastic smile, “I suppose you do.”

“Why you-!”

Aura growled quietly. She wanted to break them up with a swift punch or other outburst so badly, but the sudden mention of scars drew her inward. Her hand trailed to the scarf around her neck, reaching under it. She was always careful enough to avoid such nasty injuries that’d leave her with such grave marks, but not that one time. Not when they’d found that strange, overgrown temple in the jungle, covered in intricate engravings. They’d gone to investigate… only to be ambushed by a large, imposing, lizardlike being. It just about tore Aura’s throat out, leaving her to die sputtering in a pool of her own blood before lifting Axl up and slamming him into a pressure plate he’d sidestepped. Aura didn’t get to see what the trap did before she got her mirror, only that it was undoubtedly fatal as Axl was back at the manor shortly after she was, in perfect condition and apologizing profusely as she had her neck tended to.

The nurse was able to save Aura’s voice, but that scar stayed as a constant, vaguely sore reminder. It gave her a slight understanding for Axl’s decisions. She almost wished she’d died there, herself.

But not as much as she wanted to kill these two bickering idiots now.

“SHUT UP!” she hollered, whirling and blindly flinging her stinger-laden chakram in their direction. It barely missed both, and Ren had to dodge it as it hit a wall and returned to her hand. The outburst was enough to stop both men in surprise, leaving their fight and her shout to echo down the corridors, “I swear to Horus, you’re not yourselves!” She snarled, ferally, “Get whatever the Hell it is you want done here quickly because whatever’s down here is wrong.” The bee-clad adventurer pulled out her own sword - a thin rapier shaped like a barbed stinger, and pointed it at her companions as her hornets buzzed loudly and threateningly, “Or gods help me I will kill you both to get you out of here before using my own mirror.”

The return of aggression seemed to cause a spark all its own, like a circuit completing, as everyone suddenly snapped out of it in that moment, realizing they’d all drawn weapons on one another; even Axl and Ren, with sword and shotgun respectively. They blinked, nearly in unison, then backed up, gasping.

None of them saw the faint outlines of skulls quickly vanishing into the walls.

“O-oh… Oh god,” Axl dropped his sword, holding his head, realization dawning, “What was..? Was that..?” His eyes fell on his corpse and severed head, now mangled. That didn’t bother him… looking back up at the others, however, left him mortified, “O-oh god..”

Aura pushed past them both into the hallway past the door, putting as much distance as she could between herself and having to look at the now extra-mutilated body.

“Nice job, kid,” Ren chided, tone grim yet smug, “Or should I just call you freak from now?” He smirked, glaring with his mutated eye for ironic emphasis as he shouldered past to follow after Aura, leaving Axl there in shock.

Ren caught up to her as she kept walking down the curving tunnel, not intending to stop her, “Not just going to leave?”

Aura shook her head, “We got one key…” She held up the item in question, “We should at least use it before getting out of here… or this would have all just been a huge waste of time.” Ren smirked.

“Heh, finally some sense.”

The tunnel looped around to the second room they’d found, the one containing a chest, which Aura quickly opened, hoping to get this whole ordeal over with. The longer they stayed, the heavier the weight she was feeling on her mind, and every negative thought she had. She narrowed her eyes at the chest contents, reaching in and pulling out the strangest thing yet in how out of place it felt; a very normal, modern-looking handgun. She turned to Ren, very gingerly making sure not to point it to him, “I suppose you’d be interested in this.”

“...Yes,” his eyes lit up as he reached over to take it, “Ohh, yes, this’ll do nicely.” Aura backed up a bit, certain that she didn’t care for that tone as he examined it, mumbling something about infusion and something called hellstone. It didn’t really register, her mind had wandered, as she looked at the door leading back to the entrance.

Ren noticed her drifting attention, “You’re not actually worried about that freak, are you?” he pulled back the slide with a hearty k-chack, still looking pleased, “If he didn’t mirror home he’s probably gone and impaled himself on something.” He aimed down the sights with his good eye and pulled the trigger, the gunshot sounding off the walls so loudly that the shattering of the pot he’d aimed at was lost in the din.

“...I don’t care,” she muttered after wincing at the noise, reaching for her sword as she headed to the door, “I just need to know.”

Ren shrugged, “Suit yourself.” He reached for his scroll, unloading the magazine that the gun came with and replacing it with what appeared to be one of the scroll’s slots, pulled right from the silvery surface and turning into an appropriately-sized cartridge. As Aura left, she heard a few more gunshots as the large man tested the new ammo. She disregarded any qualms about splitting up; he’d be fine by himself.

Not wanting to go deeper into the madness-inducing depths, she decided to first check the way back, following their torches, her sword and hornets taking out any straggling skeletons. Many of the pots along the way had been smashed. To her relief, she found Axl back in the very first catacomb room, sitting in a corner, surrounded by twitching bone shards. The chest in the other corner was conspicuously open. He looked up and winced, “...Sorry.”

Aura felt a great difficulty in bringing herself to look at him, but still had to ask, “Was what you said…” she stepped closer, forcing herself to look him in the eye, “Was all of that true?”

Axl frowned deeply, “N-no, I don’t… I didn’t want to...” he inhaled sharply, then let out a long sigh, “...It’s true… I… I really… didn’t want anyone to find out… It’s… it’s embarrassing…” he took another deep breath, “Not something to be proud of...” He clenched his teeth, looking up at the ceiling, clearly trying to fight the stifling atmosphere, “Ughhh, this is like some kind of Swamp of Sadness crap…” He whined, “Like… Asylum of Anger… Ruins of Rage,” He closed his eyes, “Prison of-”

“Gods, just shut up,” Aura interrupted, trying to return to their more typical style of banter. Axl tried to laugh. He paused, then leaned forward.

“Anyway… I found this.”

He stood up, slowly, and reached into his bag to extract a truly remarkable sword. After all the blades they’d seen, it was unusual to see one styled like a katana, albeit forged from a glowing blue metal, with a strangely uniform, wave-shaped hamon.

Axl forced a weak smile, “Pretty sweet, huh?”

Aura put her hand over her mouth, trying not to smirk, “Oh gods, the world has bestowed the weeb king with king of weeb weapons.”

“Say what you want,” Axl flipped the blade around, then gave it an effortless spin, “It’s really amazing. I don’t think it’s quite as strong as my other one, but it’s so beautifully made… I feel like I could swing it forever and never get tired.”

Ren arrived in the room shortly afterwards, and he was surprised to see not only Axl, but the sword Axl was holding. He gasped.

Axl continued, “I almost want to name it. Something legendary… Like…” he tried to remember, “...Like Masamune. Or… what was it… Mu-”

“Muramasa-” Ren finished, voice carrying a hint of reverence.

“Yes, that one,” Axl paused, trying to think back to his nerd cred, “Wait...weren’t those supposed to be ev-”

He wasn’t allowed to finish. Before he could perceive Aura’s shout of “Ren, what are you-” he found himself being lifted off the ground, with the large man grabbing him by the neck in one hand, right wrist in the other. By the time it registered, Ren had already spun around and planted him roughly against a wall. A wall lined with more spikes.

“Oh, don’t take it personally,” Ren smiled, wrenching the sword from his victim’s grasp, using the tip of it to lift Axl’s chin so that he could look him in the eye, “After all, I thought you didn’t care about points.”

He laughed at the indignant sputtering he got in response. Before Aura could stop him, Ren pulled a mirror from his pack - an unusually ornate one that looked like it was made of ice - and vanished in a flash of blue light.

#the wall of text has awoken #long post #fell story #this chapter is... ...i suppose illuminating is a misdirecting word #but appropriate

20 notes · View notes

ladyloveandjustice · 8 years ago

Text

The Great Ace Attorney Replay: Trials and Tribulations, Cases 2 and 3

Once again, it’s me chatting about the third aa game with my gf as I replay it. I’m Caitlin, she’s luci. It’s mostly me talking this time, since the responses were mostly delayed/wrapped up in other convos since I was texting while she was asleep.

Caitlin: On case 2 so I'm back in the present day hanging out with Maya as Phoenix.

awwww. Stuff is happening and Maya told Phoenix it was okay and she believed in him

and his reaction is genuinely:” *sniffle* I think I'm going to cry.”

the real title of the game is Ace Attorney 3: Phoenix Wright Cries A Lot

ffff I just presented Mia's profile to Maya

and Phoenix is all: If it wasn't for Mia I wouldn't be the ~person I am today~.

Maya: Yeah, she told me you used to be really useless.

MIA CONTINUES TO BE BRUTAL

Maya: I guess compared to then, you're downright responsible now! Though you haven't really changed all that much.

Maya is brutal too, but that's not a new thing.

Phoenix: (Hey, Maya actually praised me for once...wait a second...)

I should probably stop playing for tonight. Sorry if I'm talking about it too much. It's just fun. The third game would totally be my favorite if it didn't have the worst character in all Ace Attorney in it.

The best thing about this ace attorney game is presenting profiles to everyone I meet. Especially since we have one for Phoenix which means according to the game he's just carrying around a picture of himself and showing it to people.

Maya even calls him out on it if I show it to Gumshoe like "why are you even carrying that".

luci: loll

Caitlin: also we have a picture of Maya which means I'm showing people a picture of the person standing next to me and asking what they think.

If u show the Phoenix picture to Maya she's like "ur not very photogenic are u Nick. Don't show that to people without warning."

And then Nick's all internally "maybe she's right...but i've been carrying this face of mine all my life and showing it to people without warning too...I can't do anything about that...."

and then Maya's like "NICK COME ON I WAS JUST MESSING WITH YOU YOU DON'T HAVE TO MAKE THAT SAD EXPRESSION."

luci: omg that made me sad just reading it

Caitlin: Nick's been extremely emotional this entire case. Maybe it was remembering his college dayz.

We did find out he will still get all choked up over romantic stuff. Wait I think I screencapped that part for my liveblog first time i played.

luci: show

Caitlin: Yep, I did. This was after the lady told us the touching story of how she met her husband (a robber took her hostage and her future husband started crying and flailing at him and it freaked out the robber enough he ran away):

http://ladyloveandjustice.tumblr.com/post/58312450071/nick-has-been-crying-over-everything-this-entire

CASE 3

Caitlin: I forgot the "Maya is a cat" gag is pretty much in the game too...we're investigating a poisoning and Phoenix told her not to lick up the spilled stuff and she was like "WHY WOULD I DO THAT. I'M NOT A CAT"

and he's like "but I can picture you doing that."

luci: i could definitely see her tasting poison

not licking it up like a cat though

Caitlin: I always get super surprised whenever Ace Attorney is the faintest bit raunchy for some reason. I don't remember any of this stuff.

Like Maya called one dude an attention whore and I just examined a coat and Phoenix said it looked like a pimp coat. I don't know why I'm so surprised every time.

[So i had previously explained to my gf that Phoenix had a doppelganger who took his place and pretended to be him in court and everyone was fooled despite the fact this guy looks NOTHING LIKE Phoenix and this definitely might be the stupidest case in the entire franchise but whatever. GOOD TIMES. If someone who read this never played Ace Attorney, here’s Fake Phoenix for your reference]:

Caitlin: haha the fake Phoenix's badge really was made of cardboard i knew i remembered that.

Now Maya is pointing out all the Japanese stuff in this office and explaining to us what it is. She read a book once so she's super cultured, see. We're definitely still in America.

"Is she really human? She seems more like a ghost in a shell". Oh my god game. I wonder if that was in the original.

Apparently the orangeness is supposed to be a bad tan/sunburn. Phoenix finally pointed out to our client he's not orange.

Apparently Probably Phoenix told her he went on a business trip to Hawaii

totally believable

luci: is that where he got the scar

Caitlin: I guess so. Hawaii is just full of dangers.

the cardboard badge is a different color than the real one so Probably Phoenix said the BADGE ALSO GOT A TAN

oh no poor nick. He's actually mad again.

We just found out our culprit ~pretended to love someone but he really didn't~ and Nick is all "UNFORGIVEABLE"

"HOW DARE HE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF HER INNOCENCE AND DESIRE TO BE LOVED.IF THERE'S ONE THING I HATE IT'S BETRAYAL." He does not still have issues over the time his girlfriend framed him for murder in college AT ALL.

HE'S FINE MAYA. NOTHING'S WRONG.

Maya's like "wtf". Talk to her about ur feelings Nick she'll understand.

NOW HE'S MOUTHING OFF TO THE CULPRIT ABOUT IT DIRECTLY. NICK NO. HE'LL BEAT YOU UP. (The culprit is also Fake Phoenix).

DON'T TELL HIM YOU'LL EXPOSE HIM IN COURT DID YOU LEARN NOTHING FROM VON KARMA.

he got punched in the face.

"that was so stupid why did i do that" well at least you know.

Gumshoe saved the day again.

I feel like Gumshoe knows him well enough he figured this would happen and has been following us.

stop trying to confront vicious murderers outside of court Nick u have no self defense skills whatsoever.

luci: maya you gotta keep your nick under control

and not let him get punched

or maybe let him get punched if its funny

either way

*Now we’re in court*

Caitlin: prosecution says something about "what defines a true gambler" and Nick is like "Wow. He makes it sound so cool."

and Maya is like "DON'T BE TEMPTED NICK. YOU DON'T HAVE THE WILLPOWER FOR IT".

this feels like foreshadowing for the fact Phoenix basically becomes a gambler when he loses his lawyer's badge for a while, but there was no way they'd thought about that plot point yet.

Maya tried to warn u Nick.

#the great ace attorney replay

7 notes · View notes

cosmonucleic · 8 years ago

Text

YURI LEONOV’S RP PLOTTING CHEAT-SHEET!

Want new-and-exciting plots for your character? Long to reach out to more of your followers, but don’t know where to start? Fear not! Fill out this form and give your RP partners both present and future all the of juicy jumping off points they need to help you get your characters acquainted.

Be sure to tag the players whose characters YOU want more cues to interact with, and repost, don’t reblog! Feel free to add or remove sections as you see fit. Template here.

Mun name: Pigeon OOC Contact: Tumblr IM’s a good way to contact me. Asks, too! I’ve got a Di.scord you can ask for --- Sk.ype too, but that’s mostly reserved for good friends, so you can ask for that once we’ve broken the ice a little >:0

Who the heck is my muse anyway:

Organism One, the more glass canon-stat’d member of the Deoxys pair owned by Giovanni in the PokéSpe manga. It’s especially skilled in its species’ shapeshifting capabilities, allowing it to make itself completely invisible in the manga and alter its appearance as much as it likes using light manipulation and general dna manipulation, at the cost of Organism Two being the one to really master large-scale self replication.

Points of interest:

He’s a shape shifter, obviously. He’s actually got a bunch of different personas in assortments of different ages, genders, appearances etc. but his favourite at the moment by far is Yuri. He works as an astrophysicist at the Mossdeep Space Centre as a cover while he conducts general studies on humanity; despite working as an astrophysicist he personally considers himself an anthropologist because of this.

Yuri’s species is ridiculously OP and is given a plethora of weird superpowers across the different canons Deoxys shows up in, so he’s got a majorly high-and-mighty disparaging view of humanity at large. He likes them in the same way a human likes hamsters; they’re cute and incredibly entertaining to watch, but there really aren’t many expectations for anything brilliant to come out of them.

His home planet Allele was destroyed millions of years ago. It was the blast that trapped his nucleocapsid gem core in the meteor he’d eventually crash to Earth in, so even though he’s Really Hecking Old the vast majority of his life’s been spent in a sort of suspended state floating through empty space for a few million years.

Those regenerative powers sure come in handy a lot. His only point of weakness is the gem in his chest, but if you manage to shatter that it’s lights out for good. Minor damage to it like scratches or cracks mess him up bad enough to completely incapacitate him.

On that note magnets and strong enough solar winds or electromagnetic waves badly affect him, too. It’s a good way to mess him up pretty bad without doing any direct damage smh.

He’s on an indefinitely long hunt to collect all the fragmented pieces of the meteorite he fell to Earth in, since it’s the last scrap of his homeworld he can reasonably find. These are the meteors throughout the games tat allow Deoxys to freely transform, so if you happen to be playing a character that owns one or lives nearby one ( Molayne, Prof. Cozmo, Maylene etc ) and you aren’t willing to give them up it can be a point of contention between our characters.

Speaking of Cozmo, Cozmo and Lund are two rare exceptions to his ‘all humans are entertaining but mostly worthless’ ideology. They’ve both researched and contributed to a lot/all of the information about Deoxys as a species in-canon, so he’s got a very strong emotional affinity for them.

He doesn’t like Giovanni. The man treated the pair of Deoxys he owned like tools, literally, to the point that he willingly ( thought he ) worked Organism One to death in the FRLG chapter. Org. 1 returns in ORAS to exact revenge many years later by attempting to slaughter him and all of humanity with him, so yeah. He isn’t a fan smh.

SUPER INTO STATIONERY for reasons even I cannot remember. It’s one of his absolute favourite things to collect even though he never uses it. Give him some as a perfect gift for him.

Due to general rp experiences with certain characters + everything that happened with Giovanni he’s absolutely unwilling to let anyone know his whole not-actually-human secret, primarily because both pop culture and personal experience suggests to him that anyone discovering his alien status will lead to very invasive painful testing and containment, which he isn’t about, and more minorly that any appearances he might make as himself will cause an immediate reaction of panic and disgust since Deoxys are essentially giant viruses, so they’re... Literally scary looking space parasites smh.

What they’ve been up to recently:

As I said above, he’s been on a never ending quest to locate and extract all the individual pieces of his old meteorite. Other than collecting all the samples he could find within Meteor Falls and becoming aware of Cozmo holding one he hasn’t had much luck, though lately he’s heard some curious things about a meteorite in Hokulani’s observatory...

As afraid of Giovanni as he is ( and really, he’s the only human he fears ) Yuri still majorly wants to wipe the floor with him. While it isn’t as active as his other stuff, he’ll hop to any opportunity he sees to get revenge on his old trainer if he can.

Yuri’s always on the lookout for Organism Two, the other Deoxys he’d fallen to Earth with. He isn’t sure if his companion’s alive or dead or what since he himself receded back into his core for a while due to general abuse from Giovanni, but the hope is always still there that they’ll meet again.

Where to find them:

Anywhere where Kris Clarity is, to be honest. She’s his best friend and another exceedingly rare exception to his ‘humans are basically gnats’ rule, so he tends to like accompanying her along whatever misadventures she lets him rope himself into.

Mossdeep City. Yuri Leonov is an astrophysicist working there and he lives in an apartment on the island, so naturally he spends plenty of time there.

Birth Island. Any time he isn’t spending living in Mossdeep is spent living in Sevii. This island in particular is a place fiercely important to him, though he cannot say why. Due to all the time he spends there the island’s gotten a reputation among Sevii locals for being ridiculously dangerous; any fishing ships that draw too near suffer a near-total breakdown of all technology within five nautical miles of the landmass, there are often aurora sighted above the island despite it being in balmy, tropical Sevii, and anyone who dares get too close often experiences heinous attacks by a ‘ghost’ or a ‘monster’ that moves too quick to be seen. No boats will dare to go anywhere near it unless someone has an Aurora Ticket, and those are exceptionally old and only ever really given out to experts.

Meteor Falls, for obvious reasons.

Current plans:

Continuing to do general research on people, having him bond with more human beings and learn more about Earth life in general, etc.

Eventual friendship with @rebursting and bonding over their whole Look We’re Totally Normal Humans experiences!! Gotta bond and all that BV

The Suffering with Kris, since learning your best friend isn’t actually human can be pretty hard to come to terms with smh

The Suffering II with Vesper whenever that happens ( wink wink @ pops BV )

Desired interactions:

General conflict. Somehow Touya’s been the only one to figure out his secret in the whole time I’ve been playing here, and the thread that ensued was hecking delightful. Not everything needs to be hunky dory!! Have your character figure him out, try to capture him, attack him, what have you

Friendship. That goes directly against the top point, but KRIS IS STILL HIS ONLY MAIN BESTIE SO IT’D BE SWEET TO BOLSTER SOME NEW RELATIONSHIPS. Give him people to get along with, have adventures with a secret alien, do the thing >:V

Anything with Giovanni. Anything. I’m always down for the idea of Yuri going to try exacting revenge on him and Gio just. Recapturing him like ‘yoink remember I still own you’ and using him to do stuff with Team Rocket, that sounds d e l i g h t f u l to me

I’m open to anything if you want a Deoxys to interact with!! Hit me up >:V

Offered interactions:

If you need literally anything with a Deoxys I am your guy my guy

You want general conflict with someone? Just have your character find out someone isn’t human and BAM, insta-conflict, just add water BV

Really anything smh, tell me what you wanna do >:V

Current open post/s:

JUST TELL ME... WHAT YOU WANNA DO... I don’t have any specific posts open right now I think but that doesn’t mean I don’t wanna do stuff >:Tc

Anything else?:

Aliens are neat :T

Tagged by: @pxgtails since pops just HAS TO ROPE ME INTO EVERYTHING APPARENTLY, G O S H, UGH BT

Tagging: EVERYONE’S BEEN TAGGED SO YOU, YOU, YOU DO IT, GOOD OL’ PIGEON’S TAGGED YOU THERE IS NO ESCAPE I WANNA LEARN ABOUT ALL OF YOU >:V

#『 ☾ 』 TRANSCRIBING RNA INTO DNA [ DASH GAMES ]#『 ☾ 』 MAYBE IT’S THE STARDUST IN MY HEAD [ OUT OF CHARACTER ]#『 ☾ 』 X-FILES THEME PLAYING IN THE DISTANCE [ HEADCANON ]#;long post for ts

0 notes