#its uh. part of her backstory actually

[lokisis]

These guys are actually from the first spiderverse, I just never got around to drawing them again until now. Hopefully it's obvious what spider Adus is based off of, but another fun fact is that Lupulella Adusta is the scientific name for the striped jackal (part of canine family). Penny does have a costume, I just gotta redesign it, since I never really liked how it looked.

[not-the-cheese]

one sentence(ish) summaries of every magnus archive episode PART 2

(eps 61-110) thank u for the funny comments and tags on the last part i love u guys

the rest of these may take a while as i've caught up to where i am currently in the podcast but i will finish them like in a month i promise

----

61. the thrilling sequel to man does not open coffin: man DOES open coffin.

62. surely this doctor can find an easier way to scam people out of money than putting them in a little book.

63. THE DARK ATE MY BROTHER IN LAW.

64. this is possibly the plot of laura croft tomb raider

65. mmm crumchy

66. what's the opposite of an unboxing video

67. as close to a coffeeshop au as you're going to get from this podcast

68. Doctors hate him! Man REFUSES to die from tuberculosis!

69. your college's psych department has the worst idea ever.

70. reverse death note

71. not even death will stop this woman from taking the british subway

72. man doesn't want to be low key racist in his last moments before getting eaten

73. police versus the second coming of dark jesus

74. lady is haunted by an ad for coffee

75. mike crew says "uh fuck it let's just put this guy on a skyscraper forever"

76. ryan from buzzfeed unsolved breaks into a train yard and suffers consequences

77. you're not a enough of a bitch to be my real mom

78. man gets harassed by his cousin and then exorcises him

79. you know that chase scene in scooby doo with the doors

80. stupid idiot motherfucking jurgen leitner

81. i have been personally victimized by the sequel to the hungry hungry caterpillar

82. pov: elias threatens to cancel you

83. mannequin takes matters into its own hands after people don't like its pitch for a new window display

84. a hoarder put newspaper on my friend's face :(

85. hey there's maybe a little man upon these stairs?

86. man gets got by a squiggly thing in the dark.

87. plumber is so oblivious to spooky happenings around him that it possibly saves his life.

88. guys i think this guy likes to dig

89. lesbian investment banker finds a new, less evil job: arson!

90. guy who turns people's bones starts a gym where he promises not to turn your bones! (he is lying)

91. i was stalked by lightning for 10 years and i all i got were these stupid scars

92. jonah magnus is a bad friend // another day another elias slay

93. ocd is no match for purple fuzz

94. let the bodies drop gently to the floor let the bodies drop gently to the floor

95. im so sorry my brain refuses to remember what the war ones were about but i think one guy got gently kissed on the forehead so that's pretty nice.

96. diversity wins! the not-quite-human delivery men who stole your identity and business are maybe gay?

97. man gets gaslighted by an entire town about a hole

98. 🎶mister sandman bring me a dream, actually don't, please stay far from me 🎶

99. another one bites the dust

100. archival assistants face off against the general public (they lose)

101. jon finally levels up high enough to unlock an eldritch horror's tragic backstory

102. LOCAL MAN MARRIES BUG

103. peppa eats a clown and they cover her in concrete instead of congratulating her.

104. pennywise stole my brother's skin

105. it's world war z baby

106. Something Big Is In Space.

107. man is interrogated about the time he saw thomas the train roasts people alive and also sans is there

108. actor is stalked by mask who liked his monologue so much that it tells its mask friends to come watch.

109. sometimes a family is just a serial killer's daughter and that guy who maybe killed some vampires

110. yeah man those spiders be eating

Part 1 |

[randomnameless]

Why do the FEH devs insist on ignoring Nabatean lore so much?

I recently had a surprisingly cordial discussion on redshit with someone about the "nabateans = colonisers" take, and one of the main points raised was that the game was purposedly foggy around Nabateans/Sothis/their story because it would obviously favor a certain narrative (and thus make another narrative look, uh, not that marketable anymore).

To be honest, we still ended up with a product that had a lead go "this race and its blood* is the reason why the world sucks" and yet that lead is still marketable enough to have raunchy cipher cards and 5 FEH alts, so I actually wonder if, while pissing on that lore had that purpose, it was ultimately pointless since Supreme Leader can still sell goodies despite her incarnation in FE16.

And not only Supreme Leader - but the entirety of WC where we basically have 70% of the cast crying/complaining about their "mixed blood" or lack of and basically adding their 10 cents to the "this race and its blood is the reason why the world sucks".

I mean, can you imagine Sylvain selling any goodies and alts if Flayn replied to his "wah wah people only are kind to me and want to fuck me because I have Nabatean blood :(" by some uncharacteristic "good for you, I have to hide my ears, had to dye my hair, have to lie about my family because if the truth is found out about my identity, I will be hunted and vivisected like an animal and harvested for parts by people who call my kin abominations - just like what happens in the game where the same people who call my kin "abominations" ally with a classmate who calls me a creature and pretends I am incapable of human feelings based on my race".

FE Fodlan's main selling point is its cast of students, for various reasons, but even if I tried to kid myself, Nopes and FEH made it clears : students are the main selling point.

If you spare more time and attention to the Nabatean plot/lore, the students either grow from "likeable" to "despicable" or worse, you won't gaf about them because yeah sure, Hilda might be upset because people expect things from her due to her crust, but it would feel like a "peanut" compared to Seteth's irrational (granted, it's not so irrational since GW exists) fear that Flayn's newest friends would dissect her if they learnt she was a Nabatean, and being conflicted by finally letting her have human friends and form bonds she crave, or protect her due to the trauma from the genocide of their species.

Don't get me wrong, I love peanuts, I mean, not everyone can have a tragik of loaded backstory!

And yet, given how this verse's DNA is "can you fight against the red emperor who uwus about you", they had to add copious amounts of Earl Grey to their games so there's no clear-cut factions :

The "Your alien blood and its influence on the world corrupted it, so I want to reform it under my command" vs "I don't want to die and you oppose me due to my race and side with the people who genocided my kin"

is turned to :

"Your alien blood Crests and its your church's influence on the world corrupted it, so I want to reform it under my command"

"I don't want to die and you oppose me due to my race and side with the people who genocided my kin"

Sprinkle with the cast's hammering here and there that the "reforms" might be needed - but never develop on what they are - and add a few baseless and groundless takes as a toping (basically everything Claude says about tolerance and the general "isolationism/foreign policy" stuff) and you get FE Fodlan where the Red Emperor's war isn't seen as the catastrophe it is in the other entries from the series!

Now, for FEH...

FWIW, the F!F!Billy's trailer had them try to explain that Sothis was a bit pissed about her slaughtered/massacred children when Nopes never gave any reason about why she was pissed - maybe on Billy's behalf bcs Jerry's dead, but come on, she would indeed deserve the medal of the worst parent in the franchise if that was the case, since Billy can murder her daughter without Sothis taking over ! - but given that they cannot write/go against the source game those characters are from.

They tried a bit, with B!Supreme Leader and Hegemongard's FB, but then it stopped (because she had no "new unit" released since then lol) and I can understand why : Hegemongard came out before the Supreme Emblem, and Hegemongard hates dragons who are seen/perceived as gods by some of their human followers. Come FE17, and now Supreme Emblem accepts Alear because they are "one of the good ones". We can come up with HCs and details and talk about what are emblems or if Hegemongard's views were only hers at the end of AM all day long... But imo, Doylist wise, it still feels it's a retcon because the devs from the main games tried to scrap and remove the most "controversial" traits she had.

For the other characters... Well, you see what Marianne is in FEH (but even in her base games), she's one of the few characters who reacts - in a way - to the partial history about relics and demonic beasts and all... only to give sad uwus to Maurice.

FE16 (and Nopes) refused to have any "student" character react to the Nabatean lore/reveal, about what are relics and all. There are no lines, Claude shared some knowledge in the explore section of VW's last chapter, but we don't have anyone muse or think or even talk about what are relics, what are crests, and what kind of fuckery their ancestors or the ancient humans of Fodlan did.

With that in mind, FEH can't do much : either they write Marianne in a retcon-y way like what happened for Hegemongard (and they're not afraid to piss on characterisation, look at Lyon!), or they flanderise her "character" and develop her around 3 lines she had in the game in her paralogue, and continue to give sad uwus about Momo when he was at best a guy who slaughtered and murdered so much that he abused the Nabatean turned into a relic to the point where he turned in a demonic beast even if he had a matching crest, or at worst, had been part of Nemesis's piñata party in Zanado and was something of a genocider.

Tldr :

Why FE Fodlan never gaf about Nabateans : earl grey + the marketable cast has to stay marketable and you can't sell peanuts at the same price you'd sell swordfish

Why FEH dgaf about Nabatean lore : they can't afford to retcon characters + they have to sell peanut alts with the same seasoning they had in their base game.

For what it's worth though, I think FEH is more daring than the base game(s) given how they gave more lines and screentime to Rhea - through her different alts - than GW. And they even designed her Halloween!alt's lines to piss on some of Claude's assertions, while the various FB involving members of the church also - indirectly - reply to some accusations thrown their way in FE16 when, FE16, never gave them an opportunity or lines to explain that those takes were full of dung.

*"but random, maybe she doesn't know that the crests she often decries is "dragon blood"!"

It's highly debatable, especially given what she and Hubert throw to Billy in CF - but even if she doesn't, Doylist wise we still have a character who, knowingly or not, says "this race and its blood* is the reason why the world sucks" and who is never called out on her prejudice. That's more of an issue regarding the general writing though, she has to be a red emperor and took pages from Ashnard's book, and yet, the player must still feel bad and want to romance her, so her mindest/goal cannot be looked at too closely, because, I guess, even the devs thought it would be difficult to romance her (thus sell goodies!) if more light was shed on the "blood from this race corrupts our people" schtick -> which in turn would also make characters whose backstory and gimmick rely on "crying about crests" be way less likeable, thus marketable and able to sell goodies.

[sporesgalaxy]

Hi, I've been meaning to get into dunmeshi for a while, but I'm unsure about it due to hearing about some people getting turned off from it due to cannibalism themes/implications, and I want to be sure before I really delve into it

How much is it there in the manga? (and anime too)

Ok I'm maybe not the best person to ask but I'll do my best. I last read dungeon meshi sometime in the middle of last year, and I never completely finished it. So, with that in mind, here's what I know/remember.

Cannibalism is first definitively touched upon in a character's backstory, and in that case it's not for certain-- as a kid among a group of adults in a starvation situation, the character was given some suspicious food of uncertain origin, that circumstantially seemed like it may have come from a person who'd recently perished. The anime has not made it to this point yet and won't for a while.

The other really overt cannibalism is eating Chimera Falin at the end, which I actually still haven't quite gotten to the part where they actually eat her, so I don't know how it goes. She's a big popsicle where I left off... but the gang was clear about their plan to eat her, for magic reasons I don't completely remember anymore.

Now you may wonder why I'm emphasizing "difinitively" and "overt" here. That's because dungeon meshi is a fantasy manga so cannibalism isn't totally clear cut? There's some.....uh, without super spoiling anything, it can soorrrt of be described as eating a person's soul? And that can be kind of visceral, because it's a demon...magically phasing its head partway into a person's torso with its mouth open as though eating, basically? And the person is fully conscious for all of it, not necessarily in physical pain but definitely horrified.

Uh, anyone feel free to add on with anything I forgot.

[clonedchaos]

GUYS GUYS GUYSSSS IM LOSING MY MINNNNDDDD TRANSFORMERS ONE WAS SO GOOODDDD THIS IS LEGIT ME RN:

Okay, but seriously though, I really enjoyed it and want to make plans to see it again. So if you haven’t already, I highly recommend the film. It’s criminally underrated in terms of the box office, so go show it the love it so rightfully deserves!!! 🥰

Anywho, if you want to hear nonsensical spoilers, feel free to read below the cut.

Childhood me would never think I’d be somewhat shipping Optimus and Megatron but like… yeah I understand what y’all are getting at in your tumblr posts. (Fr though, their friendship was so sweet. D-16’s betrayal really did hurt. And it’s been a while since I’ve seen such a well done relationship like that in the media. They’re just two silly lads who genuinely cared about one another and yet got driven apart by vengeance.)

Every single time Bee said “Badassatron” I’m sobbing— He’s such a goober. Bumblebee was always my favorite as a kid, so I have a soft spot for him (even if Orion and D16 were my favorites in this film). “KNIFE HANDS” he’s a safety hazard. (Also him being slightly insane and making inanimate objects his friends to talk to and being self-aware that they’re fake— I AM STEVE?!)

Sentinel essentially saying “Nu-uh” to D-16 when he was rambling about his plans.

Why did they keep saying miner? 😭

Starscream is such a neeerddd per usual. Dang he’s simping for Megatron (I’m kidding y’all, I miss poking fun at the silly plane man)

Trion basically adopted these tiny 4 robots and yes it is canon 💯 (Bro shouldn’t have died, I wanted silly dad shenanigans 😭)

Orion- “Hey Darkwing, my finger can transform”. Meanwhile D16: *knocks Orion the heck out and then proceeds to get punched by Darkwing* My favorite part of the movie ngl

I am very Bumblebee core tbh. He’s just a silly little guy. A silly guy with knife hands.

Bee saying his dream was to work for the government had the theater and I howling (this was a very fun theater experience actually, loved the vibes)

The boys are just casually scared of Elita. Girlboss 💅 (Also I love that her and Arachnid had a fight. I vaguely remember them having a fight/maybe rivalry? In Transformers Prime. Speaking of which, I need to rewatch that. Its been years and I never finished it)

I’m sorry but the whole “Starscream” namesake and then D-16 damaging his vocal cords is obvious irony but still. Nice touch.

”Why did you gag him?” “He wouldn’t stop talking.” “Even when he was unconscious?” “ESPECIALLY WHEN HE WAS UNCONSCIOUS!” Bee’s certified yapper moment

Orion’s whole arc and relationship with D-16 is sad when you pair it with how they are in other iterations. Like, the reason Orion/Optimus would’ve been a stickler for the rules and order was because he was afraid of losing someone again like he lost D-16. (I can’t remember if their backstory is the same all across the board, its been a while since I brushed up on transformers stuff)

The animation was genuinely very pretty. I love the little magic sand particles and the way Megatron’s eyes have a glow trail as specific examples.

The child in me kept kicking my legs and screaming at the references. The mask! Roll out! When D got his signature arm gun I internally lost it. And Chris Hemsworth’s voice at the end of the film was a really really good Optimus voice.

“Is it… getting closer?” Meanwhile Bee: *running away for his life* (both him and Orion running at the start of the film absolutely took me out)

Okay I might do a follow up to this tomorrow, it’s late and I have work in the morning. I’ll think on some more things I want to add as well as some headcanons! Stay tuned!

[strangersteddierthings]

Untitled Song

An installment in the The Interview universe.

"This is a love song."

"What? No, it's not!" Steve argues, looking back down at the notebook.

"It reads like a love song. The little bit you just sang for me has love song vibes," Robin leans more of her weight onto Steve's back, where she's standing over his shoulder reading the lyrics.

He stares down at the page. "Yeah. Okay. I see it. But, like, I didn't mean it to be all love song vibey."

"I would do it again if I could hold you for a minute," Robin reads in a flat tone, unimpressed.

"Okay! Stop, I don't- I mean- ugh!" Steve slumps forward, resting his forehead on the page of lyrics. "Okay, fine, but like, in context I'm clearly talking about like, reliving my whole life. I would do it all again."

"Did you just say that this is clearly about your whole life because if so, I want to be on the same drugs as you," Robin pushes off of him to move around the table and plop into the chair across from him. She tries her best to level him with a stare, but he doesn't give her the satisfaction by refusing to lift his head. The downside of being soulmates, she decides. He knows what she's going to do and when and can, therefore, avoid it. "Look, I get that he was, like, your first love and high school sweetheart but he couldn't have been that good of a fuck. It was just inexperience that made-"

"Robin!" Steve shouts over her, looking at her now so she can see his scandalized expression. Ha! She takes it back. It's an upside to being soulmates because she knows exactly what to say to rial him up. "It's not about the sex! It's about all of it. Everything. I don't- what Eddie did was shitty and it fucking hurt, but that was ten years ago. This song is about everything."

She doesn't see it that way, but even with how well she's able to read him, Steve's mind has always had its own way of thinking she can't quite nail down. With a sigh, she says, "Alright. Benefit of doubt time. Explain the song to me."

"It's not just about Eddie. It's about my whole life. You know how my parents were, how high their expectations were and how I had to hide almost everything about me while I lived with them. That's the my life was a storm since I was born. How could I fear any hurricane bit. And if I hadn't dated Eddie, like, at all. Well, I was already on the track to being an asshole in elementary school. Can you imagine who I would have been in high school if I was still that kid?

"It's also, like, if Eddie and I had stayed together... If we hadn't- I hadn't broken up with him, would I have met Dustin? Or Lucas and Max? Will or Mike, Nancy, and Jonathan? It's like, the years directly after Hey Steve were absolute dogshit, yeah, but it brought me all the people I love now," Steve looks down to the page again, either avoiding her eye contact or finding it too much. She's not sure which one. "If Eddie and I had stayed together there was only option for my future. Once the car had been fully put in my name, I'd have told Eddie to pick a city and we'd have left, for Eddie to chase his dream while I chased him. I wouldn't have gone to Chicago with you, never had the money to purchase that first place to live with you. Maybe never have discovered I loved interior design and house renovation. So, I would do it all again. It brought me my family."

She understands, now, what the lyrics really mean to him. However, she's also the one person in the whole world close enough to Steve to actually see it. "I get what you are saying. But these lyrics do not tell that story. Knowing your reasoning behind it does make me see them that way. But no one who hears that is going to know your tragic backstory."

"So, should I re-write this?"

"Depends. What is your goal with this... statement. What is the best case scenario."

Steve blinks at her. "Oh. Uh, best case, huh? I guess... I want to talk to Eddie, again. We parted on real bad terms, and I think I want closure from that?"

She narrows her eyes at him, judging. "Are you angry, like, at all?" She is. She's still furious with Eddie. His fucking song had blown Steve's life up virtually overnight. But also, she had thought they were friends, too. She hadn't realized their friendship was conditional, with that condition being he and Steve having to be in a relationship.

And, yeah, logically she knows she was Steve's friend first and it would be easy to default to believing she'd be on Steve's side but she wasn't. Not at first.

When Steve had shown up at her house, having gone straight from Eddie's to hers after he told them they were over, she'd held him through the night as he cried. But in the morning, she'd told him she needed to check on Eddie. He was her best friend, too. But Wayne told her he was gone, left last night to Chicago. Wayne had offered her a ride there with him, after he got Eddie's van running again and went to take it to him.

She said she'd think about it. Tried to reach out over all the socials, but Eddie didn't even check them, and then Hey Steve came out and there wasn't any room left in her to care about Eddie and his emotional state.

Not anymore. Not when he'd left her, too. Not when, even after Robin had made her own way to fame, he declined to meet with her. She'd tried to reach out but who was she, a new comer to the music scene and barely known, to Eddie Fucking Munson, lead guitarist to Corroded Coffin?

"I mean, sure, but like... it's been ten years. I don't- I have better things to think about than how mad I was... am? at Eddie. We were friends, first, y'know. And it's complicated. You know this," Steve says.

"Yeah, yeah," Robin waves off his words, "you're whole Eddie was a part of my life for longer than he's been gone from it thing. I'm not sure that the fifteen years of your childhood should be counted the same as this decade of adulthood."

"I get that you don't want to forgive him, and that's fine. But, forgiveness or not, I want closure."

"Okay. Keep the song as is."

"Really?"

"Yes," Robin says, a Cheshire cat grin spreading across her face. If Steve records and shares what sounds like a love song, there's almost a 100% chance that Gareth will reach out again. She knows they're expecting to see an angry and hurt Steve, but instead they'll get this? Robin's not above playing unfair. She hopes this breaks Eddie, consumes him with a guilt as deep as the original hurt felt. "I think we should let everyone think it's your sad, pathetic, pining for a decades-old-love song. It'll definitely get Gareth reaching out to me and my team again."

"Gareth's reached out?"

"It's his job. He's Corroded Coffin's PR Manager now, apparently. When Lauri told me Gareth had reached out, I asked to be included in the call. Anyway, not the point. The point is, if you want to talk to Eddie, this love song is the trick."

"It's not a love song!"

"Whatever you say, Dingus. Sing it again so I can imagine the music to go with it."

[sadisthetic]

hi. this is my dnd character for toonkind dnd that i first made 7 years ago that ive recycled twice now because i wanted to finally play an ongoing campaign with him. for his third life, not only did i give him a design update, hes also has undergone a MAJOR overhaul in terms of personality and backstory tho i kept some bare basics the same (human ranger with urchin background who LOVES swords and knifes A LOT. and that he has an ambiguous age) the overhaul includes the isekai. and that hes a cunt now. but hes funnier now too lol.

im adding some more details and trivia about him under the readmore

so like if it isnt obvious the double isekai is meant to mirror the fact that i fucking played with him in 3 separate campaigns now. its part of him metatextually now lol. he was such a different guy tho. an EXTREMELY LOYAL guy. now hes significantly more selfish. and rude as hell. but hes not that to be mean or malicious. hes actually a pretty nice guy hes just extremely inconsiderate bc he prioritizes his own wellbeing most of the time. its how he had to grow up

copy pasting this tweet i wrote about him "blade at 15 was a guy that shouldve been playing halo while drinking monster but instead hes a guy stealing apples and eating mushrooms off tree bark. miraculously few instances of poisoning all things considered"

he wouldve been a fucking gamer otaku fr. he got isekaied in the mid 2000s and as a kid he fucking LOVED watching dragonball on saturday mornings. if he got to be a teen on earth, he would eventually found the anime and gaming subcommunities online BUT ALAS. he grew up trying to catch fish with his bare hands. or at least he did until he gave up quick and ate weeds.

also. despite the hardships. hes like. fine? somethings wrong with him. but its not trauma. he didnt mourn his parents much although its not like he couldve done anything with their freshly isekaied corpses when immediately hes being chased by fucking beasts. its okay they were like b-tier parents. (hes definitely not a normal person.)

he wandered the woods trying his best to survive alone and in spite of everything trying to kill him (including the shit he ate...) he ended up in a nearby(?) town and things got a bit easier after that. because he could fucking steal to eat real food now. he stayed in the woods on the outskirts of town bc no one showed grace to a thief and just dropped in every so often to swipe shit. steadily he learned forage (through sheer trial and error)

he was highkey a menace. but eventually in his late teens, a traveling party gave him an idea to like fucking. get a job. as something. he managed to make it work as a ranger/guide for hire

he fucking loves booze. he absolutely underage drank. when he could steal it. and later pay for it. and also even though he could pay for things as an adult, he still steals shit if he thinks he can get away w it (he has an absurdly (or at least pretty) high sleight of hand stat)

before he got isekai'd a second time, went through a CATASTROPHIC DIVORCE with an elf woman who he met in an expedition party who became enamored with him after he saved her life. the uh. fallout happened bc blade didnt realize (and still hasnt realized) that hes kinda aro (fundamentally did not understand her romantic intentions and thought she was just a friend wanted to hang out w him a lot. those were dates.) and his ex didnt realize how onesided it was bc she was so love with him. geez.

also. he was from arizona. hes half white half mexican. but with all the time spent not speaking spanish in a different fucking world, it made any spanish speaking skills he had atrophy to hell. it happens and it was bound to happen bc he was so young and had like no reason or opportunity to practice.

also he chose his name. he hated his lame ass name so much he was like "wait. i dont have to use it anymore." but he was 13 fucking years old. anyways he thought blade sounded cool for a name. knifedad happened later when he got his first knife. he still had a bad naming sense. he was 14.

also although his ethics are kinda wack, whats important to note is that he ultimately doesnt want anyone to like. die. its like his policy. save people that he can while trying his best to not die himself

he also has a soft spot for kids. whether hed bc a good dad is debatable but like. i think hed be a nice one

most important note: his longsword is named Darla, his dagger is named Samantha, the knife in his pack is named Nicky, and his newly acquired strange glowy sword is named lucia, and he wants a cool greatsword very very very fucking bad

i drew him in his under clothing also so that i could have a better sense for his body type when i designed his new outfit im adding it here too. he has a shitton of scars bc hes the type that pisses ppl off that they wanna shank him and also he routinely eats shit a lot. a lot of the scars in this sketch are pretty random except for one specific injury for a certain backstory event i have in mind

[the-owl-tree]

I'm sorry if I've asked you this before, I genuinely don't remember, but why does everyone dislike yellowfang's secret? I like it a lot as a story, I find her powers silly but no one seems to have that issue... What is it?

It's been a while since I've read it so I'm going off of memory but my general reasons why I had so many problems getting through the book were:

Yellowfang herself isn't really Yellowfang? She's not snappy or grumpy and doesn't really act in the same way she does in TNP. She's just kind of the punching bag of the book without any of her signature sass to at least make her as a protagonist enjoyable.

The power in itself is an unnecessary retcon, it's only there to force Yellowfang into becoming a medcat and, well, there lies an even bigger issue: we are once again recycling the plotline of a cat forced to be a medcat when oooghgh they just wanna be average :( it's frustrating to me that Yellowfang gets so much of her own autonomy ripped away in this book, to the point where she can't even CHOOSE to be a medcat.

Her backstory in the original books was that she was a Warriors turned medcat and that's interesting. The life of the warrior is glamorized, it's the ideal life for Clan cats, so characters who CHOOSE to turn their back on it to heal are really interesting conceptually! The powers completely ruin this, it's a cheap cop out that's forgotten as soon as the book doesn't have to force Yellowfang into a job she should've wanted.

Why do books treat this position like a punishment or something embarrassing. It's Bad Writing above all because the position is important! It is a necessary part of the Clan to function, medcats should be treated with respect! But that's a whole other response.

That's also where Sagewhisker comes in, the mentor figure who, uh, pressures Yellowfang into doing something she doesn't want to do and yet the narrative continues to affirm is Correct.

I could go on but Bonefall has a good post on Sagewhisker that I personally agree with that adds screenshots and details.

It's just....miserable watching Yellowfang be dragged into a position she doesn't want and I don't know why they would choose the most miserable possible route with this character.

That's not even getting into Raggedstar, the good ol' abusive male love interest who's actions are swept under the rug as he guilt trips, berates, and generally treats Yellowfang like garbage! Despite an entire super edition of abuse and the website acknowledging he's abusive - his actions will never fully be held accountable and he will consistently be portrayed as the Nice Leader who just wanted what was best for his Clan <3

His own abuse of Yellowfang is never acknowledged and fuck's sakes the books play the Nightcloud card and go "well, guess what, it's a WOMAN'S fault that Brokenstar happened!"

In a book already swimming with misogynistic writing, the authors decided to up the ante and introduce Lizardstripe: the mean bitch mom who doesn't want to be a mom and that's all you need to be told to know she's an abusive evil woman.

The book will never actually show you scenes of her being abusive, they will literally just write scenes of her saying she doesn't want to be a mother as a shorthand of her being abusive.

I'm sure this definitely doesn't factor into the writing team's incredibly conservative ideology towards motherhood's and women's roles.

I'm gonna link Bonefall again, he's just good posts that really delve into the problems with this and I'd honestly just be reiterating a lot of his posts if I talked on my own lol

Yellowfang's Secret takes everything interesting about Yellowfang and just flat out ignores it or makes it worse. It's miserable to read, it's just page after page of Yellowfang getting beaten down.

And you could argue that's the point, that Yellowfang believes she deserves her troubles, but I don't think that's the case. I think the book is just troubling in its handling of motherhood and abuse, it handles them poorly.

Bad Book i guess. sucks! i think Yellowfang as a character could fill up an entire super edition, but the one they wrote is miserable garbage.

I can't even remember the plot outside the medcat stuff. Idk mean clan cat invasion time for no reason?? Uuhh kittypet attack?? i don't find it memorable outside of the stuff that actively upset me.

[chuckeroo777]

Dungeon Meshi Volume 12 Part 2

Things keep getting hairier! And slimier. Let's see what happens next!

Gold star for effort guys.

But, a paratenic host is one in which the parasite doesn't actually do anything. But in this analogy, it's the only one you actually parasitised.

Tags: Feral Pred, Willing to Unwilling prey, Full Tour, Non-Fatal

Well well well, if it isn't the consequences of my actions.

Also, did the Lion already eat her hair desires, or is she just too flustered currently to bother?

See? Chilchuck said Dwarves live 2.5 times longer than Tall-men. If their average is 200, that makes Tall-men's 80. Kinda makes the Half-foot thing kinda pointless if it's only a 17% difference from Tall-men.

Uh, okay? Why? In the demon backstory chapter, it's suggested that wishes caused the changes in lifespan, but how did they do that without enveloping the world like Marcille wants to do? I

According to the adventurer's bible, Tall-men can produce fertile offspring with Ogres or Half-foots. Do these hybrids have longer lifespans? Wait, she specifies long-lived, so I guess not?

Izutsumi knows bullshit when she hears it. Seriously though, the lion continues to spit smoke. We know exactly what the lion will do once it escapes. It's not using half truths, it's just straight up lying that it wants to help Marcille with her goal.

An important image.

Yes Izutsumi. That's generally how it works. You'd know if you actually knew your parents.

The plot thickens.

Ooh, is Chilchuck making lasagna?

Laios gets real handsy when the monster is passive. Actually, since doppelgangers rely mainly on chromatic illusions, shouldn't it feel off? Maybe they supplement it with actual illusion magic.

If I remember correctly, she really liked the dryad pottage. She even has Dryads as a major portion of the army she's raising. I also spotted some elephants in the wide shot. Do those ever show up later?

A precious image.

Geez Marcille, at least stir in some butter and garlic salt.

Also, rare footage of Marcille not wearing that stupid choker.

Marcille. This is a sad scene. Stop making me laugh during your trauma.

There is something deeply funny about Izutsumi being the most worldly of these idiots. I mean, it makes sense. Senshi spent most of his life on the island, Laios is young and doesn't pay attention, and Chilchuck has always lived in urban areas. Meanwhile, Izutsumi has been shunted from owner to owner her whole life.

When you roll an abject failure, but the DM wants to move things along anyway.

Wouldn't you be hungry if this was the first non-monster food you had eaten in weeks?

I love the silly shit this manga pulls sometimes. Everyone literally just refers to it as "the island".

Agreed, it's very silly. But more importantly, what kind of magic nonsense allows a three-way meeting between a fairy, a crystal ball, and a telephone?

Actually, the dungeon is acting more like a slime right now, attempting to flip its digestive system to envelop external prey.

Lots of short chapters this volume, but the density is high! We might end up with four posts on this one! See you in a bit!

[empire-of-the-words]

I'm 10 and a half episodes into Young Justice (the TV show), and I feel like I should record my feelings for posterity's sake, so here we go (under the cut because it got too long 😅)

(Also I will be using superhero names for the most part since I don't want to look up how to spell Miss Martian or Aqualad's name)

Spoilers: I already know the Red Arrow thing. I'm also pretty confident I know Artemis's backstory. This doesn't bug me, because I love storytelling. A lot. So I keep looking at it from the writers' POV and it's honestly very fun. I also know a piece of Miss Martian's backstop, and the same as above applies

Investment in the characters: Honestly the show is doing a great job at this. So far it's had an episode focusing mainly on every character except Robin (who I'll talk about in a sec). The show is doing a lot of one episode character arcs (which is a great way to get you invested in the characters). Superboy and Superman both have obvious season character arcs going on, but the others have enough stuff that I'm confident they can do stuff with them

Robin: He is so competent in this, and I love it. Him being too competent to lead the team is both funny and adds another layer to both him and Aqualad. He actually hasn't had an episode really focused on him yet, just side plots. But this kind of works, since everyone knows Robin and there's less of a need to make sure people like him. (And this works. I didn't need to get as invested in Dick and Roy (and Bruce and Clark) since I'm already invested in their comic versions)

I also love that he hasn't revealed his identity yet. The little things about it (like in that episode the League of Shadows was trying to hack Wayne Enterprises). Especially with Artemis heading to Gotham Academy, I'm really hoping she has some fun interactions with Dick

Ships: Miss Martian/Superboy is pretty cute. I passively ship it. Just hoping they have real relationships with other members of the team. Kid Flash/Artemis (does she have a hero name?) is a bit more interesting. The amnesia episode did a good job selling it to me, as it shows they don’t necessarily hate each other at a basic level. Also I hate Kid Flash's crush on Miss Martian (or at least how he acts because of it), and rooting for another ship is the same as rooting for it to die. No real love triangle stuff for now, and hoping it stays that way. There's also the ship getting its own category:

JadeRoy: Starting very different from the comics (where they basically started as Enemy Lovers), but, uh, I Don't Care. I love this ship, both in comics and here. They're entirely enemies right now, but they've started to attach extra emotions to each other (not good ones, don't get me wrong, but they're singling each other out). And I know Lian will exist in this universe (thanks dc wiki), so I'm happily excited for Slow Burn (with the back of my mind preparing for disappointment, just in case). Not sure if this is going Enemies to Enemy Lovers or just straight up Enemies to Lovers (since it's a kids show they might give them a happy ending) but either way I'm down for it

(I'm actually horrible at watching shows in their entirety (instead of dropping them after a few episodes) , and the way I actually got myself to push forward and get invested was the knowledge that Cheshire appears in episode 6, and I really wanted to see her)

I'm super invested in the Superman/Superboy plotline. Also, Martian Manhunter giving Connor the last name Kent was just hilarious. The whole League is just like, "you will parent this kid, clark" and I love it. It's also got me thinking about how comic writers indirectly said Bruce wouldn't be great in this situation despite this version of him pushing for it, but that's an essay for another time (possibly never since it might involve reading Morrison!Talia which I desperately do not want to do 😭)

Speaking of Talia. I am dreading it. I know Damian’s just a cameo and it's a kids show, so it can't get as bad as the DCAU (knock on wood), but this is 2011. This is peak Morrison!Talia, and I do not want to see my favorite character's characterization get spit on

Moving on the nicer things, Batman is Peak Batman. He is a dad, and he’s trying his best, and they better not ruin him

The Light: I guess it makes sense that all these secret organizations are secretly all 1 secret organization, but I'm not quite invested yet. Also finding it hard to believe Ra's al Ghul would join an organization where he's not in charge

Also! I have figured out the usual formula. They start the episode with both a mission usually, and give one character a personal conflict. Things get to their worst at about the 16 minute mark, resolve at about 20/21 minutes, have a final scene with the team and a final final scene reveal the bad guys were actually part of the Light conspiracy thing. Honestly it's kind of comforting having a formula

Overall, pretty good. Can't say how quickly I'll watch it, or how often I'll post about it, but I'm going to keep watching it, which is pretty good, particularly for a kids show

Also if someone's reading this and really curious about what I think about something specific, feel free to send an ask, it'll be fun :)

[radroachrepellent]

Skin Deep

Cherry Feltman (FO4 OC), John Hancock (FO4), 926~ words

shoutout to Hancock for glitching through this aesthetic video I tried to take of Cherry <3 wrote some of cherry backstory and early Hancock interactions because why not

In the heart of the wasteland, Cherry, a scientist with a knack for unconventional experiments, works tirelessly in Sanctuary and shares her latest project with everyone's favorite ghoul.

Cherry wiped the sweat from her brow, her eyes scanning the cluttered workbench covered in medical instruments. The dim light of Sanctuary's workroom cast long shadows, making the array of scalpels, syringes, and papers seem almost alive. It had been another long, uneventful, humid day filled with her personal projects. Her thoughts drifted to the Sole Survivor, hoping they'd return soon and break the monotony with some excitement or a brilliant idea.

With a heavy sigh, Cherry slid to the floor, leaning her back against the bench. "This totally blows," she muttered in her soft, country drawl, unsure if she was talking to herself or the scattered tools.

"Doesn’t look like blow to me."

Startled, Cherry looked up to see a pair of familiar, dirty boots. They looked ill-fitting. And kinda ugly.

"Hey, Hancock," she greeted him without moving her gaze from his ugly boots.

"Whatcha' doin' on the floor?" Hancock asked, amusement in his voice.

"Thinkin'. The usual," Cherry replied meeting his gaze.

Hancock scoffed a laugh, moving past her to rummage through the workbench.

"Wait, don't mess up my stuff!" Cherry jumped up, clumsily bumping into Hancock. He turned, an amused grin on his face.

"Uh, how 'boutcha listen to my new project. Pretend like you're a doctor and don't mess with this workbench, and I'll donate you some of my most valuable grape Mentats," she added, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

Pavloving still worked, right?

It did.

Hancock sat on a stool by the workbench, idling with his knife and waiting for her to start.

Adjusting her glasses, Cherry giggled and displayed the workbench a little too upbeat. "From hot dogs to deathclaws," she began.

"Can I, uh, get the Mentats before all of this?" Hancock raised an eyebrow, already clocked out.

"That's the name of my study," Cherry explained, completely ignoring his comment, which caused a scoff. "I grew up in the countryside of the wastelands with my pop. Learned a lot about food, people, and bioengineerin' crops through the family business. I hated the old pre-war dream we was chasin' of a fancy hot dog company, so I started experimentin' with it. Y'know, bein' all adaptable to the wastelands. You know how Jet is made from brahmin dung fumes? Well, think of a similar chem. And, uh, one that could be injected in hot dogs. Mostly as a joke. Or teenage rebellion.” Cherry tucked a stray lock of blonde hair behind her ear, an ill-fitting chuckle escaping her lips.

Hancock blinked a few times.

“My pop was furious. Didn’t understand why I was doin' it once he caught me sellin' 'em. Baby's first hot-dog-drug deals. I ended up replaced from the lab department and moved to work the farm."

She pouted, her freckled face looking contemplative. "Anyway, what was I talkin' about?" Cherry's face quickly brightened. "Oh yeah! I’ve moved on to bigger projects now. Somethin' to actually help people. That was just the from hot dogs part."

Cherry gestured to the work table, pointing at what looked like descaled skin on a dish. "I’m workin' on a therapy for y'all ghoulfolk. Nothin' too crazy, just to help cosmetically and maybe regeneratively. In theory. I was harvestin' a deathclaw after a rough fight and noticed deep in the skin—its texture and elasticity. I might have been on somethin' then, but I dissected it, tested it, and have been experimentin' since. My idea is to use this as a skin matrix on ghouls, a graft for injuries or skin blemishes. Maybe we can patch people up, make 'em smile, or even slow the feralization process if I figure out this regeneration thing…" Cherry frowned, glancing at Hancock. “Though, people round these parts don’t care much about ghouls either way. If someone was rich enough, they’d just get their noggin put in a synth or somethin'."

“Woah woah woah, so you'd rather make me into another Nick Valentine?”

“No, the opposite, ideally. My father got all ghoul-y. Only found out he'd been hidin' it after I started workin' on the farm. He used to be vain, doin' interviews and advertisements with whoever, chasin' some image of the family business that hasn't existed for centuries. It’d… be nice to help him, and others like him. Even if it’s just cosmetic, to smooth out the ridges caused by radiation. Make 'em feel better. I need to do more research on the tissue regeneration aspect, and make sure there's no cross-species diseases…” Cherry began to ramble to herself on the so many things she still didn't have answers for.

Hancock's eyes softened as he looked at her. "Cherry, most folks just see us ghouls as monsters, but you're trying to give us a bit of our humanity back. That's something special.”

Cherry smiled, a faint blush creeping over her freckled cheeks as she was taken out of her ramble. "Oh, huh? Thanks, Hancock.” She had been wandering alone with her ideas for quite a bit of time before meeting the Sole Survivor and their companions.

Hancock chuckled, his grin returning. "Just keep doing what you do, doll. Who knows, maybe one day you'll be the hero ghouls never knew they needed." He winked and got up from the stool, pocketing the Mentats laying on the bench. "And hey, if you ever figure out how to make me look as pretty as a pre-war movie star, I’ll be your first test subject."

Cherry laughed as she rolled her eyes, the tension easing from her shoulders. Maybe, just maybe, she could make a difference in this shitty wasteland

[shootingstarrfish]

Yay, you finally reblogged it!! <33

Might as more some other time, we'll seeeeeee

⸺ RELATIONSHIPS & PERSONALITY ⸺

02: On a scale of 1 to 10, how annoying are they to Lucifer? :) Had to hehe <3 017: What is a side of themself they don't want other to see? When does that side reveal itself?

⸺ CONCEPT AND DESIGN ⸺

08: Anything you heavily associate with them? A color, a word, a picture, or something else? 10: How about some angst headcanons? >:)

⸺ HUMAN ⸺

01: How old are they? no ulterior motive behind asling this one nuh-uh

YAYYY THANK YOU MELLLL

02:

100000 lucifer is so sick of this bitch send tweet

017:

OOH BOY he tends to come off pretty carefree, and sometimes mayyybe a lil bit shallow? but he tends to contemplate things very deeply, which he sees as a flaw since it makes him overly emotional about things that other people perceive as small so it's not a part of himself he really enjoys sharing

that side kinda just reveals itself normally anyway, he's not exactly great at hiding it, but a part of why he gets along with Belphie so well is that he feels more comfortable willingly sharing this side of himself since Belphie gets it

who else are you suddenly gonna ask "do you ever think about what death is like" and immediately be met with an understanding "yeah"

08:

this is really silly but when a person's jacket falls off their shoulder... it always makes me think about him he is like the brothers, incapable of wearing a jacket properly

10:

it's definitely not unique to say that post lesson 16 was his lowest point, yes because of *gestures at everything that happened* but it was made worse by his interaction with asmo before shit really hit the fan asmo genuinely appreciates the fact that sidra doesnt really care about his appearance or popularity and what he values is who asmo actually is, so the second he believes that their entire relationship existed so sidra could get to belphie, he's absolutely crushed and he begins to doubt all their previous interactions

so while sidra's trying to process the fact that he was killed, he can't even turn to the person he was closest to because, even though it was a big misunderstanding, he did accidentally end up hurting asmo and he just feels way too overwhelmed with everything going on to even think about trying to patch things up at this point even though in the long run it'd make everything a lot easier but it's hard so he just isolates himself further and sends himself into an even worse spiral and-

its ok tho the purgatory hall gang helps him a lot at this point and eventually they sort it out

01:

wowie thank you for asking!!!!!!! he's 33!!! which has the most stupid backstory that i will explain because i want to hehehe

so originally he was going to be like 25 or whatever, not for any particular reason it just seemed fitting enough but i remember seeing a tweet about how kasane teto being in her 30s was very important for maximum cuteness and i thought to myself huh... that's a good point actually, sidra needs to be in his 30s too for maximum cuteness

and also hit japanese singer mafumafu is in his 30s and he is very cute so it just made sense at that point

and then he was gonna be vaguely somewhere in his 30s for a while UNTIL ex and bee happened and i thought itd be hilarious if he was 1 year younger than ex and ex was really mortified about being the same age as sidra so now he's 33...

mc ask game!

[rontra]

Do the chess moves translate into your OCs’ world btw. Are they normal humans or made in some kinda substance. Do Kaitlin and Erin ever interact and if so what’s the situation there

YAYYY MORE OC QUESTIONS TEEHEE thank u! letssee... oh god it's another long post 😭😂

chess moves NOT SO MUCH because in the setup we've got here its really hard to incorporate something like that beyond like. the vaguest gestures hahaha maybe if the magic system was more tangible and active we could play with stuff like that, but as the setting is right now there's not that much to work with in-depth. much as i might dream

(like you can give the rook a bow and say its because it attacks in a straight line from far away but beyond that its like...well... MDSJHBBG)

they are normal humans made of normal human stuff, much as they might wish otherwise at times. the magic in their world governs the structure and laws of reality and doles out punishments when said laws are breached. it's not really a magic Powers system as much as it's a magic Penalty system. this means that almost everyone (with a few exceptions) is just like a normal human being with no special powers or attributes, but the world itself will retaliate by magic if its tenets are breached. basically it's a nightmare and everybody hates it

(the main exception is people from outside this reality, like kaitlin and aster, who sit somewhere in the middle: right above ordinary humans, but very far beneath the Unseen Structure(tm) that holds the world together. they are subject to the same retaliatory destruction as everybody else, but they often have some degree of supernatural commanding force that beings belonging to this world find difficult to resist. ethical implications are Very Dire and basically aster wants kaitlin to use that power in her final duel so that the guy she's killing won't be able to defend himself. kaitlin uh does not want to do that to be honest with you!)

👆 this all is kind of important for your last question. when kaitlin first shows up in this world she's actually in alabaster, where erin is queen. so she's delivered to erin after some hijinks and they meet very early on in the story. their backstories and general personality inclinations have some pretty serious comparison points actually, but this isn't something they realize until wayyyy later (if at all)--they have a lot in common to compare and contrast. tbh they're foils but what else is new am i right. anyway;

erin is the first person kaitlin uses her command powers on, by accident, and they both hate it and it sucks very badly. kaitlin presses her to answer a question and erin has to obey and they're both understandably very freaked out by the whole thing. this direct confrontation with kaitlin's power is part of why erin is immediately like. "Oh It's OVER Over". it was erin's first time being directly exposed to this kind of magic--but she immediately felt how strong it was and understood what aster is planning to use it for (total crush victory)

erin and kaitlin do not really ... like each other very much after this and remain very wary of each other (kaitlin is very intimidated by erin but also feels guilty for what she did to her, erin sees her as a representation of aster's win/their upcoming confrontation + obviously does not feel great about having her free will messed with even if it was accidental). kaitlin is very timid and can't fully conceptualize how deeply uneasy she makes erin after their first meeting, because in her mind erin is very strong and unreadable and scary 😭 which is very fun to me personally

for a long time after that whenever they're forced to interact, erin defaults to treating kaitlin very like. detached, perfunctory, polite but not Friendly. and kaitlin is scared of her. LMAO

however they both have close ties with aster and aren't truly "enemies" either, especially as kaitlin starts to get her feet under her and push back against the less savory parts of aster's schemes. it's very obvious that erin never believed kaitlin would be anything more than aster's pawn, so when kaitlin finds her own opinions and starts rejecting things she doesn't like, it's kind of a change in her relationship with erin too. they start actually trusting each other as allies and people yknow. the "these assholes keep saving each other via ruining each others lives" cycle does absolutely include kaitlin rekindling erin's hope that things can be different (after first ruining her life w/ the IT'S OVER!! day). love world 🫶

also once theyre more comfortable with each other its very funny that aster's wife and gf(?) are hanging out talking shit about her 😭the relationships chart in this story is so.......................

[meadow-roses]

Meet the Family - Part 3

This scene is around three years old, and was started as a character study/exploration for Grace and her friends to get a feel for how they are involved in Felix’s backstory plot. This is not a scene in the actual story and a lot of the “plot” is not canon, but I thought it would be fun to share with you guys! Enjoy!

Part 1 * Part 2 * Part 3 * Part 4

*******

Dinner with Grandma. A very normal family event. Why Grace was taking him to meet her Grandma before her parents was making Felix rather curious, but he had baked a batch of cookies and gone over his alibi in preparation for all the nosy old lady questions.  He was nervous, but he was ready.

He had offered to do the driving, but Grace had politely declined. He was still recovering from an accident, she said, and she was happy to drive for him. Felix felt the familiar tinge of guilt at her belief in his lie, but he had shrugged it off with a smile and thanks. Hopefully soon the world would be safe enough for the truth to not be dangerous. 

Felix watched the city pass by out the window of Grace's old-fashioned car. He realized, as each turn brought them closer to the more shady parts of town, he really should have asked her where they were going and given the address to someone just in case. Although, if Grace wasn't to be trusted it would be unlikely she'd give him the correct address. Kidnappers aren't known for being particularly honest people. And while he trusted Grace, his agent wasn't going to be happy about this. 

The city looked very different here in the outskirt neighborhoods. Instead of the uniform rows of identical houses, exact replicas of each other down to the matching hedges underneath the front window, the homes here were all unique, reflecting the personalities of the people who lived inside. A hodgepodge of shapes and sizes in various states of repair, their roofs were dwarfed by the colossal skyline of the rest of the city behind it. They drove past disheveled apartment complexes, cozy looking cottages tucked behind fairytale gardens, homes of painted wood, plastic homes with their faded colors, metal homes with rusted tin roofs, some that looked inviting while some… that didn't. 

He shifted his grip on the arboform tub of cookies in his lap. He could trust her, right?

"Speedbump!" Grace called out cheerfully as the wheels hit a bump of cement in the road.

The little blue vehicle jostled its passengers against their seatbelts as it tumbled itself up and over. Felix was watching the street signs pass by, making careful note of their route so far. It had been a long time since he had last been in this section of the city- on this specific street actually. He wondered who was living in Edward's house now, and if they would have taken down the ridiculous looking flamingo in the front lawn. 

Oddly enough, he realized after a moment's thought, it had actually been only a little over two years since it had all started. Strange how much could fit into such a small amount of time. 

"Well, here we are," Grace said, gently easing down on the brakes as she turned into a cracked asphalt driveway. 

The car shuddered and lurched in protest until it finally came to a stop. Felix made a mental note to remember to take a look at her rotors. 

Grace turned the key in the ignition and shot him a grin before jumping out the door. An exceptionally wide grin, Felix thought, as he opened his own door. She must be really excited for me to meet her grandma. 

Felix slammed the car door shut and took a look around. 

He had been here before, to the house next door. He stood for a moment staring at the faded lawn flamingo with its plastic santa hat. Someone had added sunglasses and drawn a mustache over its beak. That was… weird.

"You coming?" Grace called from halfway up the walk. 

"Uh, yeah!"

He caught up to Grace at the front door. She looked *really* happy now, practically bouncing on her heels with excitement. 

"I forgot to mention this earlier," She said, overemphasizing her hand gestures. "But Grandma invited over some extended family for a quick goodbye party and because they wanted to meet you too. I hope that's okay?"

Felix tried not to express the sudden twist of apprehension he felt in his stomach. They were Grace's family. He *did* actually want to meet them- maybe with a bit more time to prepare himself- but surely it would be fine.

"Oh yeah, that's fine," he said. 

"You sure?" Grace asked, her hand on the doorknob.

"Yeah! A little more warning would be nice, I'm not sure if I'll have enough cookies," Felix laughed nervously. "But I would like to meet your family."

Alarm bells were going off in the back of his head, but he ignored them. If this was an ambush why would she have warned him ahead of time?

"Great!" Grace grinned. "Let me know if you want to leave, sometimes they can be a little much."

Felix grimaced internally and wondered what exactly that meant as Grace turned to knock on the door. Maybe he had enough time to text the address to his mom, but it was already too late. Grace had skipped the knocking step altogether. She punched a four-digit code into the lock- too fast for Felix to catch the combination- and threw the heavy front door open. 

"We're here!" She announced loudly as the door banged against the opposite wall.

Felix heard shouts and the sound of chairs squealing across the floor and footsteps thundering down stairs. It sounded like a few more than just "some" extra people. 

He clutched the container of cookies closer to his chest as Grace beamed in expectation. 

He was prepared to be assaulted by an exuberant crowd of loud, running people, but instead they filtered into the room from the various hallways and down the staircase completely silently. This he found was almost more intimidating, especially paired with their curious, friendly smiles. 

Not a single person entering the room looked like they could be directly related to Grace, or even to each other for that matter. 

The alarm bells in the back of his head took this as an opportunity to remind him of their presence. 

Once he was thoroughly surrounded, Grace put a hand on his shoulder and gestured wide to the crowd.

"Everyone, this is Felix! Felix, this is my family!"

Felix made his best attempt at a smile and waved to the group with his free hand. 

"Uh, hello. I brought… cookies." He held out the tub of cookies to the crowd as though it were a peace offering to a group of uncertain natives. 

The crowd of people made no move to accept this offering.

 Felix threw a glance in Grace's direction to find her practically glaring at the group of people arranged in front of them. 

She mouthed the question, "*What are you doing*?" 

The members of the crowd smiled broader in response.

Felix threw another uncertain glance in Grace's direction, but the moment he took his eye off of them the situation changed. 

The two people standing directly in front of Felix stumbled to the side with shouts of alarm, attempting, and failing, to shield their heads from the cane waving wildly in the air. 

The lady on the other end looked particularly fierce, glaring at the startled assembly behind wisps of unruly curls.

"What in the world are you all doing?" She shouted, making a point to catch a tall blonde man over the top of his head with a solid thunk. "Are you trying to terrify that poor man?"

Felix was feeling like the old lady with the walking stick was far more intimidating than the silently smiling crowd.

Huffing, she slammed the cane down on the floor in front of her and threw one last glare around the room.

Grace made a wide gesture around the room. "What the heck are you guys doing?"

"I don't know," the blonde man said, wincing and rubbing the top of his head. "We were told to not be intimidating, so I suggested we try being quiet and friendly. Like making friends with a cat."

"Seriously?" A woman towards the back of the group asked as she crossed her arms.

Grace threw her hands in the air in exasperation. 

The man shrugged apologetically in Felix's direction.

"That was, not what I was expecting for sure," Felix said, choosing his words as he spoke. "But I do appreciate the gesture."

This situation was nothing like the one he had been imagining and mentally preparing himself for. 

None of the people in the group seemed like they could be secretly malicious as they all chimed an apology and the old lady nodded approvingly. 

He realized how tightly he was holding the container of cookies and loosened his grip, allowing the feeling to rush back into his fingers.

"Um, I made cookies," he tried again, hesitantly offering the tub to who he assumed was Grace's grandma. 

"I wasn't expecting this large a group so I'm not sure there will be enough but-"

She cut him off with a smile and wave of her hand.

"Don't worry about that. You're our guest here and we made plenty of food. You can hand that to Lyra if you'd like and she can take it to the kitchen, or I suppose you could continue hugging it like a teddy bear."

Sheepishly Felix handed the tupperware to the girl that stepped forward.

She had long, silky, black hair and amber-gold eyes set in a completely expressionless face that seemed familiar somehow. She accepted the tub and was gone the next moment, slipping between two people and through the doorway into the kitchen.

With the tub of cookies relinquished, Felix awkwardly shoved his hands into his pockets.

"So you're Felix then," the old lady said, taking several steps closer. 

Grace beamed.

"Uh, yeah." Felix held a hand out to shake. "Nice to meet you."

"My name is Kate," she said, giving his hand a strong but firm shake. "But most everyone calls me Grandma. You're welcome to do the same." 

"Thank you."

"Well," she said with a sharp inhale of satisfaction. "Make yourself at home, ask a lot of questions, tell a lot of stories, and have a good time. Don't let these wackos strange introduction bother you too much."

Felix gave an awkward laugh, unsure of how else he was supposed to respond.

Kate gestured down the hallway towards an open doorway. "Go on everyone, to the den. Let's not make things weird by just standing around in the doorway!"

Grace grabbed Felix's hand and led him at a brisk, excited pace to the indicated room.

“Come on guys, I want to do introductions!" She called over her shoulder to the others. 

Kate took up the rear with a well pleased smile on her wrinkled face.

She hardly seemed to need the cane, Felix noted. He wondered if she carried it mainly to hit the unruly youngsters.

[is-that-plural]

Okay this one may be reaching super far HOWEVER

Judith Ford/Natalie Cook from 36 questions! (Its a podcast musical so I will mention music and stuff)

The basic plot is Judith meets this guy named Jase, and- in an effort to get away from her past- changes her name and entire identity to hide who she is! During the 3(?) years they’re married she goes by Natalie Cook, forged documents, makes up a backstory, etc. Jase finds out, things happen, and then Judith finds her way back to Jase and then the plot of 36 questions happens. Basically they go through *the* 36 questions (look it up if you want) they went through the first time they met, and then fun things happen that we don’t fully care about. All you need to know is she goes by Judith (her true identity) throughout this.

Now we can get to the possible system implications.

I don’t want to claim that alters are fake identities, because they aren’t, but I feel like I can justify a case for Natalie possibly being another alter!

It is implied that Judith had childhood trauma/a generally unstable home life, as she mentions in the song “Our Word” where she says she continuously lied to “[keep] the waters calm”. She started doing this around ~8, so it’s implied that things happened beforehand. It is also implied in the same song she has some kind of depression, which is common in trauma survivors. Don’t take this as hard evidence though.

The main part I want to talk about is in the song “We Both.” She literally starts the song with “When I was with you, I was real.” This is probably meant to read as, despite her identity being fake, the love she felt for Jase and her personality were real. However, through a plural lens, you can see this as Natalie signaling to Jase that she was quite literally herself with him, despite having to “fake” her identity. Similar line from the song: “When I was with you I didn’t feel lost, confused, or frightened, or scared to be who I am.” Jase also near the end of the song talks about Judith and Natalie as if they’re separate people “But now I’m reevaluating how similar you are to her.” There’s also the line from the end “When I am with you I am actually too real” which can be read as Natalie almost giving away the fact she was an alter?? Maybe??

Some more evidence comes in “A Better Version” where Judith sings about how she felt like her life with Jase as Natalie was better. Which actually can count as some counter evidence for this theory as she specifically states she “heard the perfect opportunity to be someone else entirely” and says it was to be “free from [her] history”, but I digress. She says “And I loved who I was with you.” Which is, again, treating Natalie and Judith as different people! She also has an entire verse about how she loved doing things she used to hate (which even though it’s supposed to be read in a romance context, can be taken as Natalie having different opinions to Judith!) Judith also says “Natalie, your wife, she was a better person” again referring to the two as different people!

In “Answer 36” she’s talking to yourself using “you” as if she’s talking to someone else! Which, I admit, is extraordinarily common even in singlets, but it’s something! This is also after something that was very stressful for her, and it could be Judith and Natalie talking possibly! Again, this is meant to be a coping mechanism and is common in singlets, but I’m trying to get as much as I can for this theory over here.

Wow, uh— that was a LOOONG rant. Sorry about that! Just wanted to talk about some possible plurality in a very niche fandom :3

!!

[ we are in this fanbase actually !! huge fans of the show <3 ]

Whilst canonically its very much just the biggest lie Judith got herself into (on Purpose, mind you; a huge part of Jace's problems with her Lay in the fact that Judith did all of this as a Choice and i think that's the biggest evidence countering it as sadly shes just a singlet with ptsd and depression and possibly other disorders that dont seem to be plural), She does have some aspects of plurality in her character overall though ! we see where you're coming from !!

so: is that plural

Rating: not really, but there's definitely some 'ingredients' of plurality in her character !

[anxiety-elemental-kay]

Jade Shadows: Reactions and Gender Thoughts

I know opinions about Jade Shadows are a dime a dozen, but! I also have some Gender Thoughts I need to get out of my skull.

Spoilers under cut, natch.

There’s two things I want to talk about: my reaction to the quest itself, and Jade as a playable Warframe.

Part 1: Jade Shadows Story

I agree with a lot of people that the hype surrounding the quest was ultimately harmful to the story itself. The devs promised Stalker backstory, and we only kinda got that. I still don't know what a Low Guardian is, or even what the Stalker’s deal is. So he and Jade are sentient warframes like Umbra, I guess? And they were punished for being together? Why though? And despite this punishment the Stalker still hates Warframes and their role in the downfall of the Orokin? I feel like I'm missing a critical piece.

If the messaging had been more along the lines of “We’re getting an insight into the Stalker as a person and find out what he’s been up to lately” I think it would’ve had a more positive response. Instead it was framed as if we’d be getting answers, which we didn’t. Even upon completing the quest there’s a cheeky line in the codex about being left with more questions than answers.

That’s fine in a general sense, but that’s not what was promised.

As for the mystery of Jade… I’m disappointed that Jade turned out to be the Stalker’s romantic partner. It was the most boring option they could’ve picked. I was on board with the speculation that Jade Shadows was going to be a transition story; either the Stalker finds peace with herself and becomes Jade, or he used to BE Jade, but after the fall of the Orokin became the Stalker. At the very start of the quest when we see that Jade is, in fact, a separate person, I started to wonder if maybe Jade was his mother.

Jade just being his girlfriend who pops out a baby then dies… sucks ass. It’s boring! Even more than the problematic elements of this trope, I’m disappointed by this direction because it’s BORING! Warframe is a lot of things, but even when I don’t understand or don’t like the story, it’s at least interesting in its insanity and incoherence.

I desperately wish Jade was an actual character in the story. For example, since Jade is associated with the Jade Light, she could have been an executioner for the Orokin. That’s why she’s ready to give up her life to have her baby, her guilt about her participation in that system, and feeling that making a new life might begin to atone for taking so many. Not the best way to take her story, sure, but it would’ve been something!

At the end with the Corpus standing down when they realize the Stalker has a baby with him and letting him go felt dissonant. Especially with, uh, the state of the real world. There are people out there who are totally cool with murdering children, and I don’t believe the Corpus would ever let something as unique as Stalker’s baby go without a fight.

Since I’ve rambled about things I didn’t like, I want to spend some time talking about the things I did like! Because there’s plenty of that too!

Although the Ascension mission isn’t part of the quest itself, I really like the stuff with Parvos and Ordis! I’d never expected these two to interact, or for Ordan Karris to be brought up again! There's so many nice lore tidbits in there, as well as great character moments and animosity between the two. Delightful! Get his ass Ordis!

Speaking of Ordis, I loved him so much in the quest! I love Space Dad so much and it's always a delight to get to see him do things.

There was a brief mention of Umbra in the quest! When Stalker is trying to sneak onto the Orbiter and Ordis is patrolling, he calls out asking who’s there “Operator? Umbra? …Helminth?” I’m still disappointed he doesn’t get to be a character in the rest of the story after The Sacrifice, but its nice to acknowledge that he’s not just doomed to sit in the arsenal.

The message from Hunhow at the end of the quest was touching too. Jade and Stalker might not be trans but Hunhow is, or at least Sentients don’t adhere to common human understandings of sex and gender. Which still counts because I say so!!

I’m not wild about how the baby (I named him Orion) entered the story, but he’s a possible interesting thread for the future. How will the Stalker change going from a hunter to a carer? What does this new kind of life form mean for the rest of the system?

Whispers In The Walls is already setting up a longer story arc, so I’m okay with stuff just planting seeds for now! I know I was just talking about how a big problem with Jade Shadows was it failed to deliver a payoff after years of speculation, but I have enough respect for DE that I’ll wait and see. I always appreciate that they’re willing to take risks (I totally misunderstood how to do the, uh, mini game… but still… won???) even if those risks don’t pay off.

Part 2: Jade as a playable Warframe

Okay, so…

Here’s a bit of background for me to establish where I’m coming from when I talk about Jade: I’m an AFAB nonbinary person, and pregnancy is one of my few dysphoria triggers. I’ve talked before about how I would rather die than give birth. Any discussion of how precious or important motherhood is feels weird or gross to me, because I know I’m perceived as a woman, and those expectations could be projected onto me.

…So keep that all in mind when I say I think Jade being pregnant as a playable Warframe is interesting!

I don’t yet have Jade as of writing, but I’m still excited for her and hope to play her a bunch! When I watched the devstream where Pablo showed off her kit I was excited! She has a fun theme, she has interesting abilities, I love her visual design, and I love Titania so I’m happy to see another warframe that can fly! (I low-key keep forgetting Hildryn can fly because I almost never use that ability oops)

The reveal that Jade is pregnant was shocking during the quest, and sure I feel a bit uncomfortable thinking about equipping a pregnant frame… but that pregnancy is entirely aesthetic. The Jade we build is not the person who died, there’s no baby in there, and like any other frame, we can equip and unequip Jade as we like. In the same way the Tenno are not locked into one gender when picking a frame, Jade’s pregnancy doesn’t feel like a cage or a parasite the way real pregnancy seems to me. There’s no permanence or consequence to Jade appearing pregnant.

Additionally, being pregnant is entirely unrelated to any of her abilities or signature weapons. Though she was just Pregnant Girlfriend in the story, as a warframe she’s primarily Avenging Angel who just also happens to be pregnant. She’s still powerful and capable, her pregnancy doesn’t take that away, and that’s cool! People get Weird about people who are pregnant, like it diminishes their personhood or capability forever. This isn't a topic I know much about, because of the aforementioned dysphoria, but those are the vibes I get, especially from some of the critiques of Jade herself.

Thanks to everyone who stuck around for this whole thing! I know there’s been a lot of negativity around this quest, much of it earned, but I’m enjoying the update as a whole! Even if I have mixed feelings about the story, I’m not going to linger on the negative aspects because I don’t think that’ll do anyone any good. The devs will hear the criticisms the players have, and we all move on. I’m excited to get Jade and BE NOT AFRAID my enemies to death.