#just to be clear I'm bandit in this scenario

[cynarisgayass]

hear me out: billy takes a commission to capture a criminal/bandit reader, but falls in love with them on accident. sorta hero x villain trope type of scenario idk

𓍊𓋼~Caught with your heart on fire~𓋼𓍊

Type: Oneshot

Description: I'm hearing you loud and clear hehe! Honestly one of my favourite tropes! Also I'm sorry but I was so hungry while writing this and it shows a little. I hope you still find it enjoyable T-T

Rating: Fluff/ Funny

Reader: GN criminal/thief, a little sassy

Featuring: Billy kid

Billy kid:

" Hey! Wait up! Can't we just chat?? You look like a fan of TV shows!! We could watch one together sometime!" Billy called out to you from about 40 feet away, trying to close the gap so he'd have a easier time apprehending you...and failing miserably. You were faster then him and wayy better at navigating areas, but he did have you beat on charisma...or so he thinks.

"Sorry, not interested fanboy~" You winked at him, clicking your tongue at his lack luster attempts to catch you...he was clearly not great at it. "Maybe after a few drinks and a whole lot of cash..."

He chuckled loudly, enjoying your banter, "That seems harsh, but none the less, I'm sure I could win you over! I make a mean Mac n cheese and don't even get me started on my dinosaur nuggets!!" He lunged at you, lazily and you dodged with ease...always keeping that distance between the two of you.

"Mac n cheese... dinosaur nuggets...? What are you? A five year old.." Your words were dripping with sarcasm and your smirk could kill, but then it hit you. When had you fully stopped trying to get away?? You could literally leave him in the dust and yet you were drawing the conversation out...

"Are you saying you don't like Mac n Cheese and dinosaur nuggets? Cause we may not be compatible then.."

"..." You bit your bottom lip as he tried to step closer, "I think thats enough chatter for today. I have things to steal and people to see." Your body moved further away on instinct and yet you were starting to feel a bit anxious, knowing you didn't mind talking to him...was freaking you out a little.

"Awe but we haven't even gotten to if you like toast yet! What about a dinner date?? Or movies? Come on...you know you want to talk to me a little longer." He made a pouty face at you, putting the tips of his pointer fingers together like a shy anime girl.

You had to hold back your laughter at how silly he looked, "Maybe another time. Byee fanboy~~" You threw a smoke bomb at the floor and quickly scurried away, leaving him happily counting down the minutes till the next time the two of you would play this game of catch me if you can.

Feel like I should write a part 2 where they actually get together.

[adiduck]

hmmmmm hmmm hmmm questions

ice and mav fly the mission, and they end up in the f-14 together…but who gets shot down first, and who goes back

See, this is what I'm talking about! Knocked this out just for you, friend ;) Since I JUST WROTE IT it's a bit rough--please forgive my first pass here! It'll get better in edits.

-

“I’m out of flares,” Bradley says, sounding panicked.

“Rooster, evade, evade,” Maverick says, but he can already see he won’t be able to. There are two SAMs locked onto him, closing in fast--

“I can’t shake them,” Rooster says, and Maverick’s already moving, flying in low under Rooster and then up in a Cobra maneuver, fast as he fucking can.

“Deploying defensive measures,” he says as he hits the flares, and for a moment it even works, one of the missiles hitting the flare and exploding--

And the other follows Maverick’s flight path up, while he’s still vertical, and slams straight into one of his wings.

-

“Dagger One is down,” Rooster says over the radio. “Repeat, Dagger One is down--shit.”

“Shit,” Maverick echoes, as Cyclone’s face falls next to him.

“I don’t see a chute,” Fanboy says.

“Agreed, no chute.”

“Dagger Two is coming around,” Ice says, voice firm.

“No, tell them to head back to the boat,” Cyclone says.

“That won’t work,” Maverick says.

Cyclone rounds on him. “One of our planes is down, and at least three of the remaining five are out of flares,” he says. “There are bandits in the air, they need to cut their losses.”

“I agree,” Maverick says, “but Lieutenant Kazansky isn’t going to.”

“We need to go back for him,” Rooster’s saying.

“Rooster, he’s gone,” says Phoenix. “There’s nothing we can do--Iceman, he’s gone.”

“Starting a search pattern for a chute,” Ice says firmly.

Cyclone genuinely looks surprised. “Tell him it was an order.”

“What are you going to do,” Maverick asks, voice wry. “Court-martial him? For two weeks?”

“Iceman, return to the boat--”

“Dagger Two has opened fire on an enemy bogey.”

“Dagger Two is evading SAMs--”

“Dagger Two is hit! He’s going down--”

“God damn it,” Cyclone snaps.

Maverick sighs, rubs his hand over his face. “Is there a chute?”

“...There’s a chute,” the radio operator confirms.

“Well, there’s that,” Maverick says philosophically. “How long until we can send search and rescue?”

“We have to wait until the bandits clear,” Cyclone says.

“Then we have to hope Ice gets out of sight,” Maverick says. “That did we call this? Failure scenario number three?”

“Not yet,” Warlock says, hands gripping the chair tightly.

Cyclone inclines his head, stiffly. “Not yet,” he agrees. “Get the rest of them back now.”

-

[tododeku-or-bust]

Not a question but a follow up to the last submission, you coincidentally having four of my favorite gods as patrons/potential patrons for your characters is just 🤌

(Ft. Ares, Aphrodite, Artemis, and Apollo)

Lmao yeah okay Team Troy. We don't take too kindly to y'all round these parts 👀 jkjk. Though i must say, I'm surprised you like my stuff if that's how you lean. I try to be fair in my depictions, mainly bc i genuinely believe The Iliad is a Catch-22 "there were no winners in this and there never would be" "war is terrible" scenario (except Menelaus, he made out like a bandit!)

Despite my clear enjoyment of the field, I'm actually not a fan of the Olympians at all fr in terms of people, as much as I am in storytelling and how messy they are. Like i love what they represent and how they are symbolic to humanity, i love the stories and everything that comes with, but the shit they pull? whew 🤣 its probably all the God of War i played growing up in tandem to reading the stories 🤣

[flouwuer]

I often find that rules light systems are tool for group of bored forever dms to gather thrice a year to have a one shot or short scenario

To me there are two main functions of rules. First of all by codifying part of the world you set clear guidelines that communicate to players how they can expect things to work and most importantly that work is off your shoulders. Sure you might need to rule how this or that should be interpreted but in fact rules are work that was put into how this should work and how it would interact with other systems, seriously huge thing that is just puff, not your problem anymore, dm, it's been done and prepared. You can adjust if you need to but for most part you don't need to put in this work

Second thing is that to me in every system those hard coded rules represent some sort of check for players as a group. So let's say we are playing my lovely starfinder. Players get to location, they have social interactions, gather information, explore, etc. then, knowing the context of whatever quest they have, they can make decisions, they can prepare, they can go somewhere, this all leads to what is main focus of path/star-finder, namely: combat. This is world saying to players okay, you've made some decisions, let's see if you can live with them, you want to help those poor people and not take their rescources, you want to anger the bandit lord and on your way steal prescious nequal eggs from Akata? Great, role play and walking around is done, now we see how you deal with consequences of your actions, but remember, getting through this is not enough, because consequences will make your next social-exploration-combat loop harder if you don't deal with them correctly.

It is inherent narrative tension, coming from the system that is just like real world physics - uncaring, inherent to existence, constant, this is not even dm killing your character, this is average difficulty combat encounter number 4, for which you were not prepared because you wanted to be so noble you practically sacrificed yourself. And this comes naturally from the fact that we just choose this book as basis of our game

Sorry, I'm being rambly, the point is that I used to believe rules light was what I wanted but turns out it's rules that flesh out the narrative that I wanted to focus on so badly

I'm not personally a fan of free form or rules light table top gaming. I need to feel like what I'm doing is a game, not just a creative storytelling project. And I need the rules to be clear and consistent, so the game feels fair.

I've just been seeing some stuff on my dash lately about how annoying it is when the "rules get in the way of the fun" and how the only rule in your game should be making sure everyone has a good time. That's all well and good in theory, but in practice, the rules make it way more fun for me. Curious to see if anyone else feels the same.

[kiruuuuu]

Thank you both for the prompt, first anon and second anon ♥♥ If anyone missed it or has an atrocious short term memory, these came in as a reaction to this post and to @spacecreatorart‘s marvellous art here! Please enjoy :) (Rating G, fluff/humour, ~1.8k words)

.

“- effects are hardly anything groundbreaking, the CGI isn’t actually that well done but the film is fun enough”, Mute finishes yet another of his annoyingly informative rants. Whenever they watch anything together, he somehow manages to conjure up facts about it out of thin air – Rook has tested this ability on various occasions and even drunk, Mute is a fountain of fun facts about any series or film in existence. Normally Rook doesn’t mind listening to him spewing knowledge as he’s curious by nature, but today is… a little different.

“I have to pee”, Rook announces.

“Can you get some more popcorn on the way?”, Glaz replies before turning back to Mute. “I liked the premise but it wasn’t really that scary, I saw it as more of a comedy.”

Rook is glued to his spot on the armchair. The other three are lounging about, Twitch sipping her ginger ale while spread out on the beanbag chair and Mute and Glaz lazing on two different ends of the couch, all of them relaxed, visibly having enjoyed the film and looking forward to watching more. Rook still isn’t moving. It’s only eight, they started early because some of them are planning to go out for drinks later, Rook definitely not among them, and yet he’s frozen and his knees are weak and just thinking about the long way to the toilets makes him nervous.

“Oh, we can watch the original to the Ring or the Grudge next”, Twitch suggests with sparkling eyes, “I’ve seen both and they’re great.”

“Ask Ghost Boy over here whether that’s alright with him.” Mute points in Rook’s direction and the two other pairs of eyes follow the indication. He must be very pale because Twitch’s expression immediately grows concerned.

“Julien, is everything alright?”

“Splendid”, he lies through his teeth and forces a smile, “does, uh, does anyone else need to use the bathroom? Maybe?”

Mute is the first to start laughing. “Are you – are you fucking serious? You’re too scared to go alone?”

“Listen”, he begins but realises soon that there’s no coming back from this since Mute hit the nail on the head, the long hallways freak him out and the flickering lights and all the doors and he’s not going to go alone, he’d rather piss in a bottle than wander through the corridors when the base is this deserted already and fine, he’ll let his friends mock him if only it means he won’t have to venture out all on his lonesome.

“You’re adorable”, Glaz says with a grin. “We haven’t even started with the really scary ones.”

“Are you afraid of the ghosts haunting this place?” Mute raises a meaningful eyebrow. “Hm? Just imagine how many people must’ve gone through training here at Hereford only to end up dying in the field, being executed or just bludgeoned to death, dropped in a pit and forgotten. And what about the ones who died here? You’ve heard the stories from Mike.”

“This isn’t funny”, he murmurs but Mute quite obviously disagrees as he’s wearing a sickeningly gleeful expression now.

“Maybe they shuffle through the halls when we’re not here, looking for meaning in their undead life, rotting and festering corpses, the combat gear falling off of them in pieces – and they can still fight, you know, probably have more experience than we do, so if they see you and if they’re hungry, you’d better run – and they’re always hungry.”

“And maybe”, Glaz adds, “they’re clowns.”

Rook rolls his eyes and refuses to admit that the prospect of hearing dragging feet while stumbling about in the darkness is now not only going to strike fear into his heart but also make him run away screaming. “You guys suck. The only stupid clowns in this building are you.”

Even Twitch is joining in now, stabbing Rook in the back: “All I got from this was two zombies eating a clown, asking each other ‘does this taste funny to you?’.”

“Hey, I’m not making fun of your weird phobias either”, Rook pouts and earns a collective snort.

“You superglued a rubber spider to my hand while I wasn’t looking”, Twitch reminds him with a sour smile.

“You hung up a bunch of fake snakes in my room”, Glaz contributes.

“And you always make me order on the phone.”

“To be fair”, the Russian addresses Mute with a chuckle, “hearing you switch from your usual snarky self to a stuttering teenager as soon as someone answers is pretty entertaining.”

“I’ll go with you, Julien”, Twitch butts in before a fight can break out on the sofa. “I can get the popcorn and you don’t have to die of fright. Alright?” He just nods meekly and pulls her up on her feet before they step into the hallway. “At least you’ll have Elias keeping you company later, right? So you don’t even have to be alone.”

She’s right and it’s the only reason why Rook agreed to watching scary films on Halloween of all days – if it’s on his mind, he sees shadows flitting about everywhere, feels someone’s gaze in his back yet never catches anyone looking at him, has the odd sensation of being followed. It even goes so far as for his brain to make up noises, like the one he just heard at the end of the… wait a second. “What was that?!”

Twitch frowns and stops walking when she notices her companion is petrified, both unwilling and unable to take even one more step. The corridor is long, some of the doors ajar and the lights relatively low which is why Rook has no idea how she can look this calm. “I don’t know. Something. Come on.”

He’s shaking his head insistently, jumps when there’s a different noise now, coming from directly behind them. Slowly, he turns around, catches a glimpse of movement and then all of a sudden, someone – or rather something – steps out into the long corridor, moaning and moving decidedly inhumanly, and all that Rook sees is a mouth full of needle-like teeth, blood-spattered clothes and fucking clown make-up.

The very first thing he does is scream in panic and has no brain capacity left to realise just how high pitched it is; the second thing is starting to run. He turns tail and books it, ready to outrun this monster, escape this fucking building and run to the SAS living quarters because he’ll be safe there. Instead, he collides full force with Twitch, making her scream, and together they tumble to the floor in a heap of flailing limbs and panic. He tries not to let this deter him from getting away, begins crawling blindly and only then the laughter and the soft words register.

“Julien, Julien, please. It’s me. It’s okay. What are you doing?”

At first he can’t place the voice because there’s no logical scenario in which this person should be here, but when he peeks over his shoulder, the nightmarish, grinning mouth has disappeared and given way to a wide smile which can only be Blitz. Next to him, Twitch groans and slaps at him in dismay. “If you reacted this way on a mission, we’d probably all die. Get off me!”

Even a few seconds later, after the frightening apparition who really turns out to be none other than Blitz has helped them back up, Rook is still struggling to slow down his breathing and his pumping heart. Fortunately, Twitch doesn’t seem eager to gloat and instead takes pity on him, excuses herself for the sake of popcorn and leaves him alone with his lover. Who is grinning like a fox. “Shut up”, Rook snaps at him, “that was not okay.”

“I’m so sorry, I really didn’t mean to startle you”, Blitz replies softly, peels off one of his gloves and cards a soothing hand through the young man’s hair. “But I’ve been working hard on this outfit and wanted it to be a surprise for you – Dom told me you love the design of scary clowns, so I did my best. How do you like it?”

That fucking - “I hate it. I hate everything about it. I absolutely despise clowns, mon cœur, and had you asked literally anyone else, they would’ve told you. Don’t ever do this again, goddammit, my knees are still weak.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that.” Blitz actually looks sheepish and disappointed and yet Rook wants nothing more than to tear off every single part of his costume.

“Why do you have this anyway? Why did you think this was a good idea?”

“I love Halloween”, he replies timidly and okay, at this point Rook really can’t be upset at him anymore. With a sigh, he pushes his lover back into the room he came from – Blitz’ own room, so Rook really could’ve guessed who it was – and makes out with him for a while, both to cheer him up and to calm himself down. Regardless, the outfit doesn’t get any less terrifying, not even if he stares at it for a while.

“Alright, but I don’t”, he grumbles and snuggles up to his German who gladly uses the opportunity to lightly massage his back and pull him closer, clearly intent on making it up to him. “But it’s not your fault. I’m fine as long as you don’t leave me.”

“Well”, says Blitz and his tone of voice indicates nothing good, “I was planning on going out with the others dressed like this in about an hour. But you can join us and I’ll hold your hand the entire evening, if you like.”

Rook is about to give him the puppy dog eyes and whine about being scared when he’s alone (which wouldn’t even be a lie) but halts all thoughts upon hearing voices. Very familiar voices. He twists out of the hug, puts a finger to his lips and motions for Blitz to pull his balaclava back on. Blitz complies, grinning, obviously aware of Rook’s spontaneous plan, and they exchange a series of gestures, nudges and waggling eyebrows as they wait for the two people to come closer.

As soon as Blitz throws himself through the doorway with a truly frightful snarl, Rook peeks out after him so he doesn’t miss anything. He catches the momentary surprise on both Montagne’s and Bandit’s faces, the two previously deep in conversation, yet whereas Montagne’s expression remains slightly shocked, Bandit’s turns to genuine horror – he lets out a terrified shriek which somehow ends up even higher pitched than Rook’s but instead of running away, he jumps into Montagne’s arms without hesitation. The gentle giant catches him competently, holding him bridal style as Bandit keeps screaming and at this point, Rook barely manages to hold back his laughter.

So much for appreciating clown designs, he thinks. Maybe Halloween wasn’t so bad after all. And maybe he should go out for drinks after all because he bets everyone is dying to hear just how heroic Bandit acts in the face of danger.

[yanderecandystore]

Imagine if reader is the imposter and goes yandere over a crewmate, how would they court their future mate?(this is a request)

An Among Us request on the year of our Lord, 2022?

I'm actually pretty happy you did request this cause I was worried I would never use this scenario again 😭

Like I'm not exactly the most proud of it but at the same time like- I like it ���👈

It's kinda short, summarized af and based mostly on my other posts about Among Us (like, completely non game cannon I presume 💀)

TW/Tags: Yandere! Reader // Alien!Imposter! Reader // vague mentions of cannibalism// mentions of gore // traumatized oc // Reader has a questionable (by human standards) upbringing and culture // mentions of children/mating and also probably mentions of nsfw (not much tho, just mentions of it) // chopped off/ severed head // I had so many other things to write about but this sparked something in me that I can't even begin to describe 🗿

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

This game isn't so bad after you look at it outside of the meme filter, at least that's my opinion [Crewmate! Oc x Yandere!Imposter! Reader - Headcanon]:

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

In the previous posts we've discussed how Imposters can either be human or alien, and can be of varying alien species so I'll leave it up to you what's your flavor of little space freak~

 Though your request says "mate" so I'm assuming we're talking about an alien Reader, so let's talk about that for a second-

 Are you an alien form that lives on consuming life forms that drift aimlessly in space, lost travelers being your favorite meal? Or maybe you were a lonely bandit operating on their own (for personal reasons) and decided that the one-by-one elimination method would be the best one for being able to take this alien ship for yourself! Or maybe you were sent here as an assassin, as the small ship of "humans" was wandering too close to your contractor's ship, despite the unidentified ship posing no actual threat your contractor still gave clear instructions to wipe out any possible danger that may come their way.

 Whatever your role is I think you would be quite surprised to find something more to these people than annoying relationships forced by the circumstances or sentient food you have to "butter up" before getting to the good part.

 Oh no dearest, you would find yourself being captivated by one of your captives! It is pretty unfortunate to be a "predator" longing for a "prey", to be enamored with one of the people you swore to kill!

 But life is cruel, isn't it? What will you do, what would you do!

 Whatever your reasons and goals for being here may be, your species have a sort of a- ""Ritualistic expression of desire and an instinct-based comprehension of mating urges that are currently over taking your priorities in relation to your situation inside this alien ship"'.

 In other words you're horny and your instincts are clouding your better judgment, especially since your mating rituals may not be compatible with human mating rituals- And we didn't even mention the amount of suspicion that this ordeal has brought upon you!

 You have tried flirting before, you understand the concept, sure- But ""human flirting"" is a lot tougher than your specie's idea of flirting! Who would have thought that humans didn't like the severed heads of those who failed to court them outside their door!

 Thank the stars none of the humans found out it was you who did it, and thank FUCK that in the heat of the moment you didn't say it was YOU! When the head was found the first thing they did was call an emergency meeting to discuss it and you felt terrified because not only could your disguise be completely ripped apart you were a bit embarrassed at the love confession being now brought into everyone's attention-

 On your planet, this sort of thing is considered normal although really juvenile, it would be the equivalent of high school students writing and exchanging letters to one another- And then having one of these letters be read to everyone else out loud!

 Yeah it's a bit "cheesy", but come on, that head was a private message! Ugh, DAMNIT-

 Damn these people are starting to piss you off, at least they eliminated one of their own people instead of you, and thankfully it wasn't your-

 Y-Your crewmate! Your totally platonic crewmate!! Which you're totally NOT obsessing over despite trying very desperately to court them in any way, even going as far as trying to learn human tactics when it comes to courting and mating.

 And failing, miserably, of course. So horribly in fact that even your other "fellow humans' ' have started to comment on it, calling you out in every attempt you give to be close to your darling.

 "- I don't really get what you're talking about, [Y/n], but like if you like them just go for it like, gawd, it's so obvious and honestly who cares- We're all stuck here anyway so let's enjoy our time, right?~"

 "- Yeah no, I won't be giving you their "phone number" because you should ask THEM for it, not me. Also we're in the same spaceship…? You see them everyday, what the hell [Y/n]-"

 "- I shouldn't have to talk about it considering it's not exactly the company's policy and more of a common sense rule amongst co-workers. Though it's understandable that our current situation may lead some to… Act out on "instinct", please keep in mind that seeking romantic relationships with coworkers during work hours is very frowned upon and heavily discouraged and although technically it's not officially an police (yet), me (and others, probably) would be more comfortable if you didn't-" [Really long one-sided rant-conversation about your recent behavior towards one of your coworkers]

 It can be pretty discouraging to hear that even another species can see your blatant fascination towards that one specific individual, it almost seems foolish to keep going after them like this! If only you two were from the same planet, at least you two would have an easier time communicating.

 Oh stars, what's with you lately?! Taking people's heads and giving you someone you barely know? Who is also from a COMPLETELY different species than you?? Damn, you're kinda embarrassed at yourself for that one, but you just couldn't help it~

 You tried focusing on the task at hand SO many times yet every single time you tried to be a cruel, cold hunter there they were again! Being all- 𐌂𐌵𐌕𐌄 like that!

 You wish they could just stop being so distracting but you're not a fool, you know that technically they didn't do anything, you're probably suffering from one of those human crushes you have heard about. It's just psychological torture, you'll get over it.

 You just have to keep ignoring them and keep making the numbers of this ship go down, more and more- I mean, you WILL have to kill them, right?!

 It- It's not like this would ever work out anyway, you're too different and besides you're on a mission of your own, they're nothing but fresh flesh to you.

 Maybe if you keep your distance, act more bitter and cold, they'll just- Just-

 Just leave you alone, f-forever. I mean you can't kill them now! You're too attached to them, you just have to get tired of them and soon enough everything will be okay! You just have to kill everyone else to really revive that hunter mindset you have pushed down so aggressively.

 But then again… Sounds so convenient, to leave them as the last survivor…

 "- [Y/n], come on let's go-"

 "- Hey can you help me out, [Y/n]?"

 "- I'm feeling like we're not safe here…"

 "- Can you hold that flashlight for me? I can see a thing in this darkness!"

 "- Pfft- You're just so weird!- Hey don't be sad, I didn't mean it like that, I genuinely think you're funny!"

 "- … Can I be honest with you? I need to get something out of my chest…"

 "- I've been having nightmares about- That THING I saw that day… It was awful and I can't get the image out of my head!"

 "- Y-Yellow didn't deserve that- No one would ever deserve that! None of the others deserved that!"

 "- Just the head… Just the head…"

 Yeah … You thought you could easily ignore them and push the thoughts of them further into your mind but deep down you just couldn't resist it, it's too tempting. The sweet memories and good times you've spent together, even if they were really short, were still the best thing you could ever wish for.

 Ya know it's a little fucked that you haven't been able to treat them like any other victim, specially when you're part of the reason they're so terrified of being lost in space in the first place- But you don't feel bad about it at all, nothing will stop you from your goals, even if that means terrifying your darling with each friend and colleague deaths that they have to witness.

 But isn't it more messed up that you're enjoying this a little too much? I mean, clearly you can't look at them with platonic eyes anymore, heck you can't even imagine seeing them as just prey at this point! So really, maybe these killings haven't lost their meaning, but have completely changed directions to when you started at.

 You can't deny dear, you lost control of those feelings and have taken advantage of your previous goals to make this all about them! All these deaths, are for them, in their name and in the name of their 𐌋Ꝋᕓ𐌄!

 All because you wish to mate with them, to mate with the human who is desperately clinging at any survivors left just to feel a tiny bit safer, and you seem to be willing to provide that-

 Or are you? Are you the sadistic type? Do you enjoy the fact that their human naivety blinds them to the gruesome feelings you feel for them? That although they cling to you for comfort you're still very much aware you're the monster they wish to hide from? Are you impatiently expecting the right time to tell them the truth just to see the horror in their eyes??

 Or perhaps I'm assuming that the grotesque way your species is raised has influenced your morals to the point you wouldn't recognize the clear implications of YOU killing THEIR friends, making them a possible next target- Which would leave any creature understandably not trusting you, perhaps even your own kind!

 So what dear, would you choose to make things right by their human standards? Try to soothe their worries and hold them close as you unceremoniously claim them as your mate? As you try to comfort the person you have severely traumatized? Maybe you don't really enjoy your own predatory nature, especially when being put together with your darling's fearful and avoidant state, maybe instead of trying to bring them to your culture you could try being closer to theirs.

 Then again, the choice is up to you, the silence echoes through the whole ship, there's nothing but ghostly remains of what was once a group of space travelers who got stranded deep into space with limited communication to their home planet. You won, you got the prize.

 As the second last innocent person has been voted off and thrown into space, desperately trying to prove their innocence while also cursing out both you and your darling for being either partners in crime, or for being puppeteered by one sick individual, you can see a lot of guilt in your darling's eyes.

 That guilt being slowly transformed into a slight realization of something terrific- What if they really WERE voting the wrong person? But at this time, the only other option would be- You! But that couldn't be possible, right?!

 Oh dear, it's not like the truth would have never come out! To think this wouldn't have happened would be foolish.

 As they're shaking, crying their eyeballs out as they keep running away from you in the empty labyrinth that you created. You can choose whatever pleases you more now, however your pleasure will soon be cut short if you don't make a decision as to what your next step will be moving forward.

 If you had anyone waiting for you to come back, like an assassin's contractor, a planet with friends happily awaiting your arrival (hopefully with some leftovers), or maybe some sort of space police searching for their lonely bandit- How would you bring back this human with you? Would you just ditch all of your responsibilities and ignore all dangers for them? What if you felt hungry again? The food is now scarce…

 And what about mating!? Oh dear, you'll need to search for food for you, your new partner and the future children you'll have, correct?? Oh my- Just thinking about it makes you a bit nervous, it's good to think ahead but perhaps you're overcomplicating things, try focusing on the now, and the now requires you to make amends with your new partner.

[discet]

Not sure if or when you’ll see this, but I know you’re busy so no pressure to bother with this one. With that being said, figured I’d throw my hat into the AU ring. Ever played Fire Emblem Three Houses? If so, I raise you an AU where the girls wind up in Fodlan, with Anne in the Kingdom, Marcy in the Alliance, and Sasha in the Empire. This thought was originally inspired by the fake Sasha in All In cosplaying Edelgard, but in general it’s a pretty interesting scenario to me given the surprising amount of parallels between the two series’ main trios. Insofar as “Dysfunctional trio containing one angry red short canonical bisexual with big ambitions and daddy issues who betrays everyone to forge her own path, one deeply empathetic blue paragon who presents as always friendly and approachable, but is actually just really good at hiding their deep seated trauma and at any moment is 5 seconds away from snapping and going apeshit, and one upbeat and chipper super smart and tactically adept archer who is actually quite sneaky and duplicitous, willing to use very underhanded methods to get what they want without running it by their friends first, but when the chips are down has a good heart and intentions, and is also a mostly a bystander to the blue and red characters conflict and really just wants them to knock it off already, and also is an *epic gamer*.” I feel like each of the girls would have a good bit to talk about with their respective lords, and that there’s a lot you could do there. Plus, a lot of the deeper lore of Three houses (spoilers) revolves around an alien entity who came from the stars to save or destroy the world, depending on who you ask, so there’s definitely something there.

Hey Cynda! this is a pretty interesting premise. I played most of a campaign of Three Houses and was having a blast right up until the orbital magic death laser threw me out of immersion so hard that I never went back to it. So please take any insight I have here with a grain of salt.

I think your right that there are some good parallels going on between the girls and the main trio of 3 Houses and the overarching lore. However while I feel they would all vibe with their respective counterpart, I don't really know where to take it beyond that. Even if you aged the girls up so that they weren't being trained as child soldiers(Even Cyril is 14 in the academy phase), I don't know if any of them would have much motivation to enlist at Garreg Mach.

Anne wouldn't go for it both because she wouldn't want to kill anyone or do that much work. She'd probably sign up for kitchen duty if anything if they had to stay in the monestary

Sasha wouldn't unless there was some clear reason maybe if Rhea had a way to transport them home? But then what's Rhea's motivation to keep them there?

Marcy honestly might enjoy learning strategy and the magic creatures of this world (and magic and archery). I think she would be hesitant of the 'murder bandits' curriculum and more so would only join if Sasha and Anne were up for it.

Like I think there's enough here for just some fun chat fics but I'm not sure isekai'ing the girls into Fodlan would make for a super compelling story.

I think the approach I would take if it were up to me would be to have the girls be born in world, replacing their respective parallels as leaders of the 3 houses. Edelgard and Demitri were already childhood friends, so you'd just need to tweak it so Marcy was also in their little crew. (Maybe Anne and Sasha ran to the alliance rather than be split up?)

Definitely would have them reconnect at the school and maybe Sasha would bring them in on the plan? I'm not sure, since I don't have all the context for Fodlan needed to fully flesh out this AU

[border-spam]

Hello! I've been reading up on a lot of folks' critiques of BL3's writing here & there, including the writing quality of the twins, but I'm curious as to what you'd think of instead of the twins as the main baddies, we had the other two we saw a couple times, Pain & Terror, as the primary baddies. I personally thought they'd have made for more entertaining baddies, where they host a reality show that attracts all the bandit gangs to them, instead of the cringe inducing Twitch stream references.

Ah yes, I’m right back on my shit again. Buckle up!

I want to get off Border-Spam’s wild ride.

OK, so! Pain and Terror. Great stuff. Dramatically theatrical entertainers who live stream sacrifices and raids in honour of the beings they worship? Nice.

Know what’s juicier than that though? 

Two cursed twin Sirens (one a male!!), locked in a spiral of both loathing and relying on each other to reach their goals while they lead a massive pyramid scheme scam-religion as self-made false Gods, bleeding their followers dry through predatory megachurches and donation tiers while they scrabble against the Crimson Raiders in a race for ultimate power. 

So.. how come the Twins were completely shit then while Pain and Terror, who you had about 2 hours with, came across great?

It’s because Pain and Terror got a short, satisfying arc of introduction -> threat -> urgency -> climax -> payoff... and the Twins got fucking 30+ hours of non-stop TELL don’t SHOW while Randy Pitchford made fart sounds in the background.

And guess what, every “bad” character mostly disliked by the fans and every “good” character that’s mostly liked, follows this same pattern. The longer their screen time within the story, the more likely they turned into a trainwreck. Essay under the cut. /dab

One of Bl3′s main failures in writing (bar all the other shit everyone and myself has brought up 1000s of times jesus christ oh god oh god hhh), is the complete lack of “Show don’t Tell”. 

“Show don’t Tell”, for anyone who’s not heard of it, is one of the crux points of any characterisation or story writing. It’s the idea that if you only tell a reader about something and it never actually takes place as a tangible scenario or character action, it ceases to actually have any weight. 

Now I am not a professional writer, I’m a tool with a Tumblr blog and a bad case of loving a pair of fucking atrocious characters, but the Bl3 writing team are professionals. They know this rule, so I still maintain this isn’t their fault and whatever crapped all over the plot of this game was out of their hands.

Either way though, any character who was in the spotlight for more than 1 or 2 chapters was a complete shitshow. Yes, you may have your favorites within them, but looking at the game while unbiased shows too many pain points to ignore, even when it’s with a character so many people including myself love... like Tannis. 

The Twins and Lilith are great examples of how  “Show don’t Tell” being ignored destroys characters completely regardless of their backstory or what possibilities they had to be amazing.

We are told that the Twins lead a mega religion. That Troy is desperately cunning. That Tyreen is horrifically vicious. That their sway over corporations and billions of followers is so powerful, they have an unstoppable army of unlimited, deathly devoted followers.

We are told that. What are we shown for 30 hours?

Idiots. 2 people who barely are even shown on screen, have absolutely no sway over Pandora bar mayyyyybe a couple of hundred poorly equipped bandits we mow down, and who’s Grand Cathedral had like.. ten people in it. Two fucking morons who kinda hated each other just a lil bit till one of them popped his clogs and the other shrugged and walked on. The COV isn’t even the main enemy in the game. That’s Maliwan... for some reason. COV forces just randomly show up in between Maliwan fights. Even the takedowns are Maliwan. Maliwan is on Necrotafeyo long after Katagawa is dead with no logical explanation other than the only other enemy option was the COV, and they held so little threat that no one playing would have cared.

We are told that Lilith is an incredible commander, that she’s seen as some kind of awesome leader, worshiped as a hero across Pandora. That she’s trusted to lead the entirety of the crimson Raiders to the point of not being questioned by her subordinates, that after the events with Hector, she’s reaffirmed her maturity and prowess as someone to follow.

We are told that. What are we shown for 30 hours?

Idiot. Mistake after obvious mistake. Clueless leader. Atrocious at managing even a tiny crew. Acts like the VH’s victories are the raider’s, then sacrifices herself at the end while we are treated to a montage of everyone loving her so much as Thiiis girl is on fiiiiyaaaaa plays, like we are meant to actually be remotely invested in an NPC who did nothing but sniff her own fingers and proc “Speak to Lilith” quests the entire game.

The characters who survived this slow assassination are the likes of Winny and Hammerlock, Clay, Katagawa, the ones most fans agree are good.

But they are only good because they got short, concise story arcs that weren’t stretched out into absolute bullshit by atrocious writing for the entire rest of the game. It’s the same reason the DLC’s are so much better than the main plot, the story is clear, has an actual flow, and always follows introduction -> threat -> urgency -> climax -> payoff... the main game didn’t for any major character.

If Winny and Wainwright had been main story characters for more than 1 or 2 chapters? Folks, I can assure you they would had ended up terrible. If Katagawa, P+T, or Aurelia had been the main villains instead of the Twins? They would have been assassinated the exact same way. 

All the characters in BL3 are good characters, Ava included, the bad ones were just handled so poorly that they were ruined before they got the chance to shine.

Asks are Open!

[giorgiastastes]

Cidade De Deus (2002)

“Why return to the City of God, where God forgets about you?”

 Let’s start from the title, which is certainly enigmatic. Calling city of God, a suburb that is the scenario of a reality abandoned by God is not a mistake, nor is the frequent recourse to religious faith seen as the only motivation, the last hope of these young men for a better life, that does not lead them in a coffin before the age of twenty. I am in favor of full religious freedom and belief, but I cannot fail to notice how, if faith can lead to extremism, bigotry and fanaticism, very often it is also the only light of those who have already touched the bottom or are about to do it.

Speaking of the plot, the film begins in medias res, in the Cidade de Deus, one of the most dangerous favelas in all of Brazil.

The initial scene, so frenetic and almost surreal, is part of the history of cinema, with the chicken running away through the alleys of the neighborhood, while at least twenty boys chase her, trying to catch her with guns and rifles, as if it were Pablo Escobar reincarnated.

The chicken finally ends up clashing with our narrator, aspiring photographer, now stuck between the street gang and the police.

 Masterfully we see the camera rotating around this boy, over and over again soon becoming an hypnotic rhythm, while at the end of the last turn we find ourselves in another time space, in the 60s, accompanied by the phrase A PHOTO COULD HAVE CHANGED MY LIFE, BUT IN THE CITY OF GOD IF YOU ESCAPE YOU ARE DONE, AND IF YOU STAY YOU ARE DONE, IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN SO, SINCE I WAS A CHILD.

The protagonist, faced with such a difficult choice, returns to the past with his mind and begins to tell us about a naive gang of thieves in order to narrate with their story, also the reality of the favela, which, using the the film’s wording, is too far from the idea of a Rio’s postcard that the government wanted to portrait at the time.

After a series of episodes that I don't want to spoil, we will move on to the next decade. This initially will seem like a positive turn and then will turn out to be only a patination of the neighborhood, which in the end is even more socially structured and cruel than how it used to be.

 Finally, let’s move to the strongest part of the film, the children. They are the ones who make the choices that will most mark them.

In the city of God you cannot live your childhood with carefree, you must immediately decide which side to stand on, and this childish decision, you will take to your grave.

Among the children there are those who immediately think of themselves as an outsider in that climate of crime and violence, but according to them, not because of a sense of morality,but simply because they’re afraid of getting a bullet.

Then we find those who were born for it, and even plan for new robberies, who feels strong and great showing off a gun often bigger than their head.

To say that the film offers us several times the philosophical doubt of WHO ARE GOOD ONE AND WHO’S THE BAD would be redundant and perhaps too direct even to be discussed, with the police who often behave worse than the bandits, and the only “non silent” citizen is the one acting the most violent crime, so I want to focus on other points.

 

Can you choose which side to fight for or are you facing a one-way street? And then, badness, evil and violence are innate or you learn them, you discover them with living?

Answering the first question, the most objective and direct of the two, there is certainly no doubt that in such ill-famed neighborhoods, it is the crime that pursues us and not the other way around. When you are so abandoned by institutions and authorities, often even with a lack of reference figures from which to take example, Crime is not a choice, simply because there are no choices, it is the only option, even if unjustly glorified.

About the second question, on the other hand, in my opinion, the evil is innate, but not because it is to be considered hereditary, more because but it is part of the human nature, of the animal part in each of us, which, unfortunately, is not held back by human intelligence, but brought to extreme sadism from this intellectual capacity which other animal species lack.

It is morality that then represses these instincts, but if we left the world to anarchy, only a few would stop, and as Plautus says, Homo homini lupus.

To better explain my thoughts, I must refer to another masterful work.

I'm talking about Dogville by the controversial but brilliant Lars Von Trier. I won't talk about this film, but just to summarize the idea, we are faced with a town where cruelty is so eradicated in the population that it is a same child who starts the cycle of violence and abuse. This episode perfectly reflects how human’s evilness is, in my opinion as much as that of the director, genetic, and that can also be seen in City of God.

The undisputed head of the city, Ze Pequeno, begins his rise to power at the age of eighteen, as soon as he realizes that he wants to become the absolute king of the favela.

But if we were to talk about his desire for blood, that was born much earlier, when he was still a child and, as the narrator tells us, "he wanted to act out his whim of killing" and then took advantage of the robbery at the motel to make a massacre.

Certainly the number of its victims grows with its age and so its desire for power but, however questionable this choice is, it was not homicide for futile reasons. In fact, he decides to exterminate all the main drug dealers in the area with the intention of becoming the only owner, when he begins to understand that it was necessary to switch to the drugs field.

What makes me reflects is that, although the character will always be easily triggered, and it is not uncommon for them to put a hole in someone’s head, the reason why he killed as a child was not even money, it was just an innate desire to kill, to take the life of another human being and watch him take his last breath.

 

His disturbing laugh proves it.

Even the punishment, albeit excessive, that will lead him to death, inflicted on children who had robbed a rotisserie, is still part of his plan to be the owner of a favelas that respects him because in good or bad it is he who protects the city.

And it is precisely in that scene that we see how the cycle begins again, when Ze Pequeno forces a child to kill another child, or when those same children make up any type of story just to receive a weapon or the same one who will then take control of the city at the end of the film, probably taking the man they killed as an example.

They are always the victims and executioners, as well as the heart of the story. Of course, in the seventies we see the protagonists grown up, but of adult men they only have the appearance.

Their character is still that of the decade before, as well as their choices and behaviors. One of them was marked by the sight of a camera as a child and this became his greatest passion as a teenager and then an adult. The same one, despite knowing who his brother's killer is, decides not to take revenge in order to respect the choices he made years before, that is, to abstain from evil.

I don't even need to dwell on the exceptional and impeccable shots because, although there are unforgettable scenes such as the death of Benny between the screams and the intermittent lights of the disco, each shot would have to be studied and likely more than that, the transitions between one and the other.

The plot remains a rhythmical crescendo, we never get bored and the story remains in evolution: we don't have a real incipit, a problem that upsets the balance, a resolution of the problem and then a conclusion, it is a story that it follows changes without actually being a real beginning and end, just like a cycle.

Another and final theme is the power of art, the only means of escape from such a difficult reality, but art itself can often be used improperly to advertise and almost glorify this underworld. In this case we are talking about photography, but it could be any type of art from poetry, cinema to music.

The film must be said that it has no clear defects, but if I could have put my own I would have made the symbol of the camera even more important, since mainly we see it in the very first scene and in the change of decade, and then obviously for the whole last half an hour, while I would have made each photograph part of a chapter of the story, which did not happen.

All in all, I went too far and if you still didn't get the message, run to discover this masterpiece of cinema.

[xilirite]

Not to be argumentative but I love me some Edel discourse and I wanted to offer an alternative perspective, and I'm gonna try to do it without using the easy arguments like "Edelgard hired the bandit to kill the other house leaders," since they aren't exactly relevant. Edelgard is uniquely antagonistic in BL because it's the only route with no auxiliary conflicts that aren't purely internal. Despite this, I don't think it's fair to say she isn't intended to be pitied. In fact, I'm impressed how well she fills both protagonist and antagonist with only minor tweaks to her behavior. She's consistently one of the most human characters in the game, in a way that makes her very easy to relate to regardless of her status as a villain or otherwise.

There's a reason Dimitri still reaches out a hand to her after the battle. In fact I'd argue that, relative to Golden Deer, she's portrayed far more charitably, as you get an in-depth explanation of her motivations, justifications, and her history. Furthermore, she's given several humanizing moments where it's made abundantly clear that she isn't a bad person, even if she does bad things.

She's not being portrayed as heartlessly evil or inhumanly monstrous, it's clearly meant to be tragic. Just as you're supposed to pity Dimitri in BE route for being consumed by his lust for vengeance, you're intended to pity Edelgard for being consumed by her unwavering commitment to her ideals.

Her pragmatism leads her to the point of literally becoming physically monstrous in a desperate bid to secure the future she believes in. It's a representation of her lost humanity, yes, but Dimitri himself spends most of the route in angry feral mode, acting the part of an inhuman beast, and Edelgard's more literal transformation is very much so a reflection of Dimitri's struggle than an indictment of Edelgard's beliefs. Even after she hits rock bottom in her desperation, she's still portrayed as being worthy of redemption right up until she rejects Dimitri's forgiveness in the final cutscene.

You're absolutely meant to sympathize/empathize with her, but in every route but her own, she's the villain, and her being portrayed as such isn't a misrepresentation of her character. If she's made to rely solely on herself, never receiving crucial support in the form of Byleth as you pointed out, her pragmatism will run unchecked and TWSITD will be able to exercise greater control over her as she lacks the means to defy them. She's still the same character as always, but her more tragic traits come out in full force with BL As such, I'd say her portrayal in BL is less bad or uncharitable and more her worst case scenario.

I have way more I wanna say bc overall I think Edelgard is the best villain in the franchise and an incredibly interesting and multifaceted character, but it's too bedtime so I'll leave it at that.

I really hate how Edelgard was treated at the end of the BL route. You’re not meant to empathize or sympathize with her (almost – maybe – especially when she and Dimitri have their conversation, but all chance of that is stamped out later on) and instead see her as a monster who’s lost perspective and her humanity. If that’s the first run for someone playing 3H I can see why they hate Edelgard, but it’s still such garbage. Dimitri is obsessed with his hatred and desire for revenge, but he’s not demonized like this in her route. He’s pitied and in his route it’s all about his redemption. On top of that I had to deal with Dimitri being in a Mood™ for the majority of the game. BL route was a huge drag, even the Church route was better (and Edelgard, while still absolutely an antagonist and made out to be the Big Bad Guy, wasn’t this harshly portrayed).

I get it’s a reference to her losing her humanity (since Byleth isn’t there) and her perspective, but I don’t think it had to be done like that. I also know a large part of resenting this ending for her is me loving her, but even if I didn’t I still think it went a little too far. The game pushes you to despise her and see her as undoubtably deserving of death with little room to think she’s able to be or deserves any redemption.

I also resent how Rhea gets away with what she’s done (the crest stone, creating/experimenting on women to try and bring back Sothis). There’s no mention of it in the BL route and all she does is step down as archbishop. She’s never made out to be the antagonist that she truly is, and that greatly frustrates me because not only it’s such a huge part of Edelgard’s route and even brought up in the Church’s route, but it only goes to further cast Edelgard in a suffocatingly negative light where she is the only one in the wrong and needing to be criticized and cut down.