#like once i have a max level character then i'll use the shit out of it

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Finally Watched Cinderella's Castle Digital Ticket (Twice) and I Gotta Get My Feelings Out Somewhere, Somehow (Part I)

Feel free to light up my DMs to chat about it!

And now, for my personal highlights/live reactions:

immediately I'm drawn in by Nick Lang's silly narrator voice and the way he warns us of what's coming. Especially the "muRrrDder!"

Jeff Blim cut his hair. JEFF BLIM CUT HIS HAIR. Not that I didn't like the long locks, but something about his Aladdin Era short hair gets me, man.

Jeff Blim literally getting to own the stage like the man was born to

Jeff Blim's slutty bard getup with the artfully messy hair and the heavy guyliner. That sinful bastard.

"Let's go." I'll follow you anyway, slutty bard.

Okay 80s rock jam! Hell yes.

idk why but I just love the line "There are tales in those walls, are they true or are they tall?"

THIS SET, THO. 80s vibes. Muppets vibes. Princess Bride vibes. Spooky, ethereal fairytale vibes. I love it! Props to the team who designed and built it.

prance, slutty bard boy, prance around that stage.

Jesus Fuck, I've only seen Joey's puppet but I'm already SOLD. Nick and Matt Lang and whoever else had a hand in making these puppets fucking OUTDID themselves! Did they use the Black Book and resurrect Jim Henson?

Throughout the show, the muppet vibes just absolutely amaze and delight me. Makes me feel like a little kid, spellbound by this fairytale. Except it's much darker, more gruesome, way more explicit, and extremely horny.

Oh look, it's Joey's Jingle/Jangle (whichever elf he was) voice from Black Friday.

Love me some o' dat non-binary representation from Ragweed. Starkid once again screaming GAY RIGHTS bitches.

I'm getting some of Jeff's Aragog from AVPS in this Narrator. Anyone else?

Stupid STUPID butcher!

Jon Matteson's accent. *giggles madly*

Angela IMMEDIATELY having to pause for applause before she finishes her first freaking line. The queen deserves it all, though.

The foreshadowing of the Stepmother cutting off Ella's feet. O_O

"It's furryyyyy and fouuuuul and full o' maGOTTTSSaaaaaggghhhh!"

Angela doing the little spinny finger thing in a guy's face to fluster them just like Max did to her character in Nerdy Prudes. I love these physical running gags. My fave being the Smoke Club, though.

OIIIINK oinkoinkoinkoinkoinkoink

Sir Preston asking for help from the audience. His "ELLAaaaaa....nooooo....."

The lighting in this entire show is SO COOL.

Again, Jeff just louging like a whore about the set like its his bitch. I live for it.

James' COSTUME. He looks SO FUCKING GOOD. Props to the costume folks...and to James' rockin' genes.

"But nothing compares to the juice and the hairs..." Oh no. Ohhhhh no I see where this is going. Don't say it, James, don't-- omg he said it.

er ee er ee er ee *window rolling down*

I thought the Prince drawing bewbies on the frosty window was funny already, and then he goes WAH WAH WAH and pretends to pinch them and I fucking lost it.

The Prince checkin' out DAT AZZZZZZ XD

"I'd wager she's wetter now than when I first found her bobbing in the river." OH MY GOD. PRINCE. THAT'S HER NOT-MOM.

If his highness has had every STD and beaten it, that's so fucked up but also damn, that boy's immune system is killin' it. Literally.

"Poor mad EllaAH"

"This is one thirsty FUCKING house." For real, omg.

"The offer stands firm. Come calling if you are!" *screams*

Jeff miming being crew and pulling the ropes for the curtains.

*audience member sneezes* "Bless you."

Angela's diction is next fucking level. PUNY. PINK. KIND.

The epic troll reveal! The puppets are SO GOOD.

THE FROG FUCKING TURNING AWAY AS SHE ASKED FOR IT TO DO SO SHE COULD KILL IT. CHRIST.

This bayou boogie song of Ella's is an absolute KILLER BOP. Holy shit. And it's SO perfect for Bryce's funky, sassy voice.

Speaking of which, BRYCE'S VOCALS. I'm gonna scream about them for forever and ever and ever. I love her voice SO FUCKING MUCH. I could listen to nothing else for the rest of my days and die a happy little gay.

"ohhhh woah woah waohhh" *flips the bird* She's such a queen for that.

"It needs oregano" WORK BITCH

Bryce's stage presence is fucking INSANE. I dunno how she's not on Broadway, but thank goodness we got her!

SIRE MANY TADPOLES!

GOD I love this absolutely depraved, horny little bastard of a prince.

It's amazing Tadeus hasn't murdered the prince yet. The man deserves a medal for the literal shit he's put up with.

Bugette?! I thought you choked on shit died and were consumed by the Hive Queen?

Rancilda being a typical troll and loving lurking under bridges and telling riddles.

Schuyler Sister vibes from the song with Justine and Lucy. So cute.

Justine and Lucy are SUCH real ones for IMMEDIATELY believing Ella about her family being trolls and for saying "fuck the ball, we're leaving NOW."

Shake dat ass, Mariah!

Lauren's physical comedy as Rancilda is NEXT LEVEL. I'm wheezing over here!

iSNn'tT it A BiiIItTcH?!

I LOOK GOOD IN THIS. What an absolute fucking BANGER. This song is gonna play in my head on repeat for the next decade. What a next level villain song.

Also this gives me some strongass Joan Jett vibes. "I love wearin' the skin of dead girls rock 'n' roll!"

and I hEEeaARr yoU'Re RiiiCCHhH

Seriously, is this the next Top Chart breakup revenge song? It should be.

"I really LIKE that song!" XD Putrice. I love how much of an absolute BIMBO she is.

Rancilda singing the song again. "SHUT UP STUPID BITCH, THE SONG'S OVER." "Okaaaaiiii"

Matt Dahan's ability to riff off the main songs and create motifs is otherworldly.

General MacNamara? Is that you?! Oh wait, nope. Still my slutty, slutty bard.

I LOOOOOOOVE this badass electric guitar intro, holy shit.

Kim Whalen, the queen, getting the bitchin' entrance she deserves.

Starkid is so, so good at their sound design to help immerse you in a scene without blowing a big budget or doing anything elaborate.

...Kim. My girl. Your arms must be tired.

She's just standing there, but Kim's stage presence is still so strong.

I can't get over how Jon's Sir Hops-A-Lot's voice is just a small...ahem. Hop, skip, and a jump away from Wiggly's.

JOEY. THAT ACCENT. You ABSOLUTE genius idiot. I love you for this stupidass voice.

Joey's bowl cut makes me giggle like mad.

I love these two puppets SO much.

GIT IT, KIM.

The call and response bit with Ella and the Goddess reminds me of Hamilton when Washington is dictating his Farewell Address. I know it's gotta be in other musicals, too, but that's the clearest comparison for this nerd at the moment.

Jeff sneaking in the "castle on a hill" song reference in this song.

Kim and Bryce dueting together is just Power incarnate. Holy cow. It's so good.

"You shall be as radiant and terrible as I." Ooooooh. Yes. Gimme.

The Narrator sneaking out from amidst the ensemble to finish off the song was really neat.

That fading spotlight before curtain for intermission with just Ella's face in view is so beautiful and haunting. What an epic close to Act I.

Also, it seems like this was also a strategic way to imply Ella's outfit being transformed there on stage during the song without actually having to do the tricky costume designing quick-change theater miracles of an ACTUAL outfit transformation. Which is really brilliant. Leave the audience to wonder until post-intermission about what Ella's starlight dress will look like.

[imawreck]

Unsaid Goodbyes

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier x Original Character

Summary: You should read it, then you’ll know.

Author’s Note: Heyyyy… I’m sorry okay 🙏 forgive me. Also, I'll be back on schedule with posting tomorrow, but for now this is all you get. Please, if you're interested, vote on my poll!

Warnings: Wounds, violence, shit ton of angst, Death

Word Count: 5,422

Max-

Hulk's roar rattled my very bones as I fought to find a way out of the cell. The solid wall of Vibranium-lined glass caged me behind it and refused to waver. I had no idea what was going on outside or why the security measures hadn't been tripped the moment that prisoner escaped as I pounded on the glass, eyes frantically searching for a weak point.

This glass was stronger than that of my cell, but maybe I could get through-

The thought died out of my head as an ache ran through my body from my side straight to my arm, resonating over my torso. No, I couldn't get out, not in this state. I was too weak. There wasn't enough time to take in what was going on outside the glass either, not with an enraged green giant trapped in a confined space with me.

Natasha's red hair caught my eye as another bone rattling roar tore through the cell. I stared wide eyed as she held her hand out, muttering something soft under her breath towards the enraged form of Bruce's alter ego. I watched in horror as the muscles of his massive shoulders flex before his arm raised, threatening her with a painfully abrupt death.

I moved as fast as my body would let me, my side screaming in protest as I made contact with her just in time to send us tumbling out of the way as Hulks' fist slammed into the pavement right where she had been standing. I picked myself of the floor, taking in the silver clouded reflection of Hulk's eyes, the way his body shook in rage and his lips pulled back in a snarl. It must have been the injection. Whatever it was, it had taken control of his mind, driven him mad with rage.

I caught Natasha's arm as she pushed herself off the ground to stand defensively next to me. "There's no use trying to talk him down, he's under some sort of influence. He can't hear us."

Just then he swung again, making us both leap apart as his fist once again slammed into the concrete, a spidering crack trailing up the floor as sprays of rubble shot across the cell. I scrambled to get as far away from him as I could. There was no way out of here, and if he got anywhere close to me, I wouldn't have enough energy to keep him off for long, if at all. Then there was Natasha. Natasha wasn't a super soldier, so if he got ahold of her, it would be the end of that. If Hulk killed her, Bruce would never forgive himself.

I couldn't let that happen.

I clutched my hands into fists, cursing myself for taking the time to change out of my tactical suit before coming down here. I didn't even have enough energy to grow a useful set of claws. So, I would focus on defense. All I had to do was make him tire out before I did.

I took off sprinting, sliding between his legs and clutching at the ground to bring myself back up again. Natasha trembled, looking as frantic as I was and put her fists up too. I called over the alarms, "Get to the doors of the cell! I'll distract him and see if I can't get him to bust out of the wall! Try and get anyone's attention."

The part of the cell level had a smaller cell that Bruce had turned into his personal lab after the experimental incident. He explained to me once that it was the safest place for him to be, because there was double the security measures. The cell would close, and there was a wall of glass and Vibranium that would encapsulate the whole half of the floor. And it had done exactly that. Little did we know it would bite us all in the ass like this.

I shouted over another angry scream from the Hulk, "Hey big guy, over here!" I waved my arms, running away from where Natasha stood wide eyed and gawking. "Come get me!"

The gigantic heap of muscled whipped in my direction, growling and grunting in frustration as he sprinted towards me with his arms raised. I jumped as high as I could, clinging to the metal exterior of the wall and heaving myself up towards the tall ceiling. I had an idea, but it was a big risk with my current state and crucial that his attention remained solely on me.

He tore up the wall hauling himself upwards after me. He was bigger, stronger, but I was faster. I kept at it, shouting down to him. "Come on dummy, you can do better than that." Each insult was rewarded with a shout or a grunt and an increased urgency to pummel me into the wall. I stalled once I decided we were high enough, turning to peer down at him and allow him to catch up. My chest was heaving with each breath I took, and my side sang in pain. "Come on Greenie, take a swing!"

Hulk clenched his fist in a fit of rage and leapt up a few feet, slamming his fist against the wall and denting it. I grinned, "You can do better than that!" I stuck my tongue out at him, dangling from a steel beam an uncomfortably close distance to him.

Once more, he swung his fist and I hauled myself up just in time to grip onto the next beam as the force of his fist rattled the wall. The metal groaned where he had hit, and I knew a few more hits like that would surely break through. And the quicker he got through the faster I could get Natasha and myself out of harm's way.

I swung my weight into the crater in the wall he had created, waving my arms and plastering on another grin. "Man, you can't do any better?" I was sweating with the effort it took to prevent my body from trembling at the exertion it took to maintain my posture alone. My strength was waning.

This time, he roared in fury and threw himself upwards, both fists raised to smash me against the wall like a bug. I leapt off the edge just in time, careening through the air and sliding down his back to land harshly against the ground. The landing vibrated through my legs and they throbbed in pain. Still, I forced myself farther away from his screams of anger.

Light streamed in from the whole in the wall, bright and hopeful. I smiled victoriously now, turning to catch Natasha's attention. Something slipped in through the hole though, slapping the ground and was followed quickly by another and another. I frowned, sparing a glance up at the hole where Hulk still clung near. Three distinct ropes slung through the opening and reached towards the concrete floor. I nearly cried in relief, hoping that my teammates were finally here to aid me.

The hope was quickly squashed the minute a black clad soldier slid swiftly down the rope and landed easily on the ground. Hulk didn't seem to notice him slip past, didn't even blink in his direction as he slammed his hands around the wall and continued to scream. The bright red emblem sewn into the front of the soldiers' uniform had my heart beating out of my chest and panic squeezing my lungs in a vice grip. My body took an involuntary step backward as I clutched my chest, fisting the fabric of my shirt in a weak attempt to reassure my heart it was impossible.

But he was right there, eyes staring at me through the ski mask he wore, and the ropes behind them slapped against the wall as more soldiers identical to him filed through the opening. Each and every one emblazoned with the ugly red skull of Hydra, and all of them hid their faces in those ridiculous masks. I continued to back away, fighting my panic and trying to figure out a way out. There were only three of them, surely I could handle three.

Just as I clenched my fists and readied to attack, two more slid into place at the mouth of the hole, blocking the only exit. They only moved to allow more men to slip down the ropes and join the others stalking closer and closer by the minute. Dozens of them.

"No," barely a whisper, "No, please no." I didn't realize it was me that had spoken until I forced myself to take a breath. This couldn't be happening. It just couldn't be.

Hulk suddenly swung his head around as one of the soldiers spoke from the mouth of the hole, pointing towards me with a quick gesture of his arm. I watched Hulk mindlessly turn to me and drop heavily to the floor. His fists pounded against the ground as he roared out and took off in a charge towards me.

And I screamed.

The sound tore out of me, echoing over the walls and ringing in my own ears. I could feel the helplessness that had engulfed me. I knew that my body had met its limit, for I could only run a few feet before my knees gave out. Hulks form towered over me, and I scrambled away as his fist rained down on the concrete once more. Someone screamed from the other side of the cell, and it took me a moment too long to realize it was Natasha. She stood there, horrified and pounding against the glass of the cell. I could make out silhouettes of people on the other side, but the glare from the light streaming in through the hole made it hard to distinguish their faces. The soldiers stood scattered on the far side of the cell, hands on their guns as they watched the scene play out.

Hulk bellowed, distracted by Natasha's scream long enough for me to scramble onto unsteady legs. His body turned to hurl towards her, and fear was a living thing inside of me. He was going to kill her.

My muscles burned as I pushed myself with every last drop of energy I had, tearing past his towering form and slamming into the wall besides Natasha. I fought to stay on my feet as my vision sputtered and smudged with black spots. I blinked rapidly enough to clear them in time to turn my body, caging Natasha between my arms and the wall. The panic building in my chest tore out of me in another scream as I let the tears fall down my face.

It was like time slowed. I knew Hulk was only seconds away from hailing down on us, every nerve in my body was screaming and my instincts were pleading with me to turn and run. But I couldn't, not even for my dislike of the woman caged in my arms. She was important to people on the other side of this barrier, she was important to a group of people who saved lives. My face was inches from the glass, close enough to clearly make out the faces on the other side.

A red suit with an arm raised fired beams at the glass in a desperate attempt to break through, a figure weaving around people and attaching devices along the wall with a bow strapped to his back, and finally the crystal-clear eyes that stared at me from behind the wall right there in front of me. Those wide, agonizingly beautiful eyes. I couldn't help the wave of tears that poured from my eyes as I took in his face, saw the desperation written across his features as his voice barely met my ears through the glass. His hands were planted over my own on the other side as he screamed, begged for them to stop, for everything to just stop. But I knew what was coming.

I was going to die, and there wasn't anything to be done about it.

I simply stared at his face, forcing myself to smile just for him this one last time. Tears slipped down his face as his mouth moved in the same way over and over and over. 'Please, not her. Please, please, please...' I knew I couldn't be the one he was begging for, and it hurt.

But my time was running out, the few seconds I had were slipping by as my senses warned me of the oncoming hit. So, I held my smile and burned the image of his beautiful eyes into my memory, recalling his smile and the soft way he laughed. Letting the memory of his hands on my body flitter through my mind. My time with him had been the highlight of the century I had lived and suffered, and he would be my light until the end.

I pressed my forehead to the glass, letting my tears fall as a sob wracked me, trying and failing to think of anything other than the end nearing. I would protect Natasha so she could return to his side. If she was what he wanted, I would make sure I did everything I could in my last moments to keep her alive for him. I opened my mouth to tell him as much, perhaps finally confess in these last few seconds.

But my sentence never made it past my lips as the force of Hulks assault battered into my spine. I felt the impact, my eyes widening, before my bones shattered and all I felt was pain.

White, hot, all-consuming pain.

I watched vacantly as Bucky slipped from my vision and something cool pressed up against my face. I hadn't realized I had fallen until Bucky's face pressed against the ground on the other side, his mouth open in a cry I couldn't hear. But I could see his pain as it mirrored my own. I couldn't do anything but watch him sob and scream, throwing his fists into the cell until his blood smeared across its surface but he still kept trying.

I wanted to say something, to press my hand on the glass one last time and reassure him that everything was going to be okay even as the pain wracked my broken body. I could feel myself fading as I watched the black spots merge and expand over my vision, stealing my last glimmer of hope as everything was claimed by darkness.

_____

Tony-

I hadn't felt this helpless in a very, very long time.

I had tried and failed to get my systems back online, to tear my way through the wall just like the other two men beside me, but I had made this wall impenetrable. And I had never wished for something to fail so much.

Despair wracked me as I watched Max envelope Natasha against the wall, tucking her body away from harm and using herself as a shield. Bucky had begun yelling as he pounded away at the cell, screaming so desperately for Bruce to stop and get ahold of himself. His voice cracked and strained as he screamed, only stopping to breath in and start all over again as he put all of his effort into getting through to her. To Max.

But he couldn't. None of us could as we watched them on the other side of this god forsaken cell. We could only watch as Hulk's fist connected with Max's frail and battered body. Could only listen as the sickening crack of her bones echoed loud enough to reach us on the other side. Her scream would haunt me until the very day I died.

Bucky had crumbled with her as if it was him who had taken the blow too, pressing his face to the cold concrete and sobbing, begging whatever god watching over us to stop them. His fists clawed at the wall as the soldiers gripped her ankles and dragged her body away from the glass as her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Bucky began pounding at the glass again, cursing Hydra through his cries and tossing promises of painful deaths.

I had dropped my arm after the overheat warnings began echoing in my helmet. There was nothing to be done, no way to get to her even if we could get out of the building and get around in time to get to her. They would be long gone by the time we managed to get everything back online, and they were smart enough to trap us here so I was certain they would cover their tracks and prevent us from finding them.

And Max was dead.

In a matter of minutes, they had gathered Max's broken frame up on a stretcher and hauled her out of the crater in the wall. Two men turned with their guns and fired at Hulk's looming form, littering several rounds of darts up and down his side before they scrambled up the ropes and disappeared behind the others. Hulk's body crumbled to the floor as he shrunk back to normal, out cold on the floor. Natasha still quivered against the glass with her eyes clamped shut and shaking. We were just left with the blood splattered on the floor and the consuming silence that always followed these kinds of things.

Bucky remained on the floor, sobbing and clawing at the glass. I had never seen a man so broken, so torn apart. I hated him once, but I had learned to endure his presence. I had once wished that he would die and pay for all the pain he had caused just as I knew he thought too. I regretted ever even thinking of those things as I watched him break apart on the ground. His very soul seemed to shatter with every broken cry that tore through his body, drifting away on every plea that echoed in the room.

Clint stood with his shoulders slumped and his eyes on Natasha. I knew he wanted to get to her and comfort her after what she just witnessed. He hadn't even had the chance to hack the security to reach them before the damage was done.

I had failed them, and I had failed Max.

The lights flickered back on and a moment later a body burst through the stairwell door, drawing all of our attention to the ragged form of none other than Cap himself. His chest was heaving and his shield was gripped in his hand as his wild eyes took in the situation.

Once he realized there weren't any hostiles, confusion spread over his face. "What happened? The lights and everything went out, I couldn't even get to Friday. And the alarms-." None of us dared to answer as another one of Bucky's sobs ricocheted off the walls, tearing Cap's gaze to his fallen comrade. He was taking hurried steps the next few seconds and dropping to the floor beside him, his arms hovering over Bucky's back and worry lacing his words. "Buck, Bucky what's going on? Are you alright?"

The soldier wiped his eyes on the harsh fabric of his uniform and clenched his teeth as he tried to compose himself, "They took her." Bucky's fists shook against the ground beside him with restrained anger and sorrow.

Steve's head shot up, "Who took who? What happened?" His hand finally dropped to Bucky's shoulder in a firm grip, an attempt to console him I'm sure. I could only watch in defeat as I processed it all.

Steve's eyes lingered on the fallen form of Banner, dragging over to Natasha who now sat slumped against the wall with a hollow look in her eyes as she stared at the cracked concrete below her. Then he studied the blood on the floor inside the cell, then the smears of it in front of his friend before he finally dropped them back to the Bucky. Bucky's knuckles were busted and surely fractured from hammering against the glass. Steve picked Bucky's right hand up and examined the bloodied mess before he set it back on the concrete to return his palm to Bucky's shoulder to wait for his explanation.

With pinched brows and agony in his eyes, Bucky met Steve's eyes and I felt my heart shatter all over again. He sucked in a breath, "Hydra infiltrated the Tower and shot Banner with some kind of serum and he went all mad, triggered the security section of this room. He..." Bucky bit down hard on the inside of his cheek, so hard I was sure when he swallowed it had tasted like blood. "He tried to attack Natasha, and Max distracted him long enough to cause him to tear a hole in the wall as he went after her. Max and Natasha were going to escape before the other Hydra operatives came in through the hole and ordered Hulk to get them. I heard it. Then he- he started going after Max and she was so weak, so weak she could hardly stand." Bucky's throat bobbed as he choked back another wave of sobs.

I clenched my fist, "Max gave her life to save Natasha and they took her body."

Steve just stared at me, "How did they get inside?"

I moved, shifting out of his view to allow his eyes to find the crumpled body of the prisoner we had taken earlier. Bucky had killed him seconds after Banner had been injected, but things had already been set in motion. "I'm guessing they used our prisoner as an inside man."

Steve's brows pressed themselves flush together, "That would mean the whole thing was a setup. They had been planning this deliberately." He shook his head, clasping his fingers in a fist. "I told you we shouldn't have taken a prisoner."

Appalled, I stepped forward. "Now is not the time for 'I told you so's. Max was just killed!"

Cap shifted his shoulders, "She was a killer!"

"Max was not a killer!"

Every head in the room snapped the the curled form of the Super Soldier on the floor. His eyes were trained on Steve with anger like none I had ever seen on him before, not even the cold eyes of the Winter Soldier had ever met the ferocity that I saw roiling in them.

Bucky's chest heaved a breath, "She saved those people. The people living in that valley, they're rebuilding their town with Tony's help because Max told him they needed it. Max got them out before she flooded the valley and saved every single one of them." His metal arm groaned against his grip, "Don't you call her a killer unless you're ready to call me one too."

Again, we all sat in silence as his words sank into Steve like a lead weight. I could see it in the way his shoulders sank and his eyes glazed over. He felt the guilt too. "I'm sorry, Buck."

"Save it," He snarled suddenly, wiping again at his tear stained face. "We all know you hated her anyways." Bucky pushed away from the floor and brushed off Steve's hand. "I'm going to find that jet."

"Barnes, you can't go after them alone." I stepped forward. "We just got back from a mission and you're tired. We can-"

"No. No, I want to find them now before they've gone underground and we really don't have a way to get to them." Bucky's eyes blazed as they held mine, "I want them to pay for this."

I sighed, "They will Barnes, they will, but we have to think this through. They just hacked my system and broke into the Tower like it was nothing. They lured us into a trap and then sent us back with a trojan horse when we managed to evade it. Obviously, Hydra has gotten some kind of upper hand and we have to remain careful." I hoped that he would understand, but I could tell that he wasn't thinking straight. Hell, I was hardly thinking straight. The image of Max's body hitting the floor continued to replay over and over in my head.

Steve remained knelt on the floor with his empty eyes set on the tiles while Bucky clenched and unclenched his fists repeatedly. Clint took to hacking the doors and I... I needed to reboot the systems. "Everyone needs to get some rest and we will reconvene for a meeting later tonight. That's an order." My words were empty, everything felt empty, but they had to be said for any one of us to be able to put our minds to finding those bastards.

_____

Bucky-

Thirteen hours, that's how long it had been since Hydra had obliterated any semblance of safety in this tower.

Thirteen hours since they had stormed in and murdered Max.

Everything felt numb, every part of me ached with the effort it took to simply walk or breathe, to live. I hadn't slept, couldn't. I knew what waited for me on the other side, the demons that would rear their heads and laugh at the misery I had fallen into. I knew that I would see her battered body on the floor, feel the desperation I had just hours ago all over again on a loop of torture.

So I remained awake.

I had retreated to my room, locking the door and refusing to see anyone while I tried to process what I had seen. I didn't want to accept that she was gone. Maybe it had all been just another nightmare and I would wake up any minute to her soft knock on the door and her voice filtering through that little sliver of light to ask me if I was alright.

I could almost picture it, the way she would smile at me in her oversized T-shirts she loved so much as she leaned against the doorframe. She was so small that her body barely filled half the frame. Her eyes, softer in the dim light from the hall, would warm my heart and melt away the panic that had held me. She would crack some witty joke to lighten the mood and scoot under the covers, never flinching when my metal arm wrapped itself around her waist. Strong and steady like she always was.

But I knew better. Max was angry at me, hurt by my stupidity and harshness. Trust was a fleeting an unsteady presence in my life, and I had let it take to the hills the second I doubted her. Max had never once hurt me and I knew, even in the past I couldn't recall, she had always been that way. Her purpose with the enemy had been to protect me and she had done it, and she had continued to do it even after they fell, not out of obligation, but because she had wanted to. She had been a friend, perhaps more, and I had let her die thinking that I hated her.

Guilt consumed me, swallowing me up and holding me in a vice grip. I couldn't even move, not an inch of me followed my internal pleas to get up and find her. My mind had convinced my body that there was no use in trying anymore.

I laid there in my dirty tactical suit smeared in my own blood in the darkness of my room. My feet hung off the end of the bed and my hair blocked most of my vision. Tears still fell from my eyes no matter how hard I tried to stop them. I wanted to be angry, I was angry, but the anger was nothing compared to the crippling sorrow that drowned my heart.

I didn't even flinch when Friday's voice met my ears. "Sergeant? Mr. Stark has requested for all Avengers to report to the meeting room."

I curled my fingers into a fist, the first movement I had made since collapsing on the bed. The stiff ache in my muscles reminded me of the very real circumstances I found myself in. "Tell him I'll be down in a few minutes." I needed to collect myself before I faced the rest of them.

Friday chimed in again, "You might want to hurry. The tower is receiving an incoming video call. The source of the call is unknown."

I shoved into a sitting position, eyes blowing wide. "What?"

"Mr. Stark is trying to single out its' transmitting location now."

My stomach dropped to the floor. I knew it couldn't be good, not so soon after everything. I took to the elevator as fast as I could, figuring since Friday was back that Tony had finally regained control of the Tower's systems. I gripped the sides of the elevator for support as it lowered me through the floors, finally releasing me to join the ruckus in the meeting room. Shouts of confusion and panic filled the air as I walked through the doors into the chaos of the team.

Everyone wore exhaustion on their faces, purple bags lingering under every eye I saw. On the TV monitor mounted on the wall there was an incoming signal, and all of the team were in an uproar of confusion. Tony was furiously typing away on the keyboard in front of him, the table having been turned longways so everyone could see. Each of us watched the screen with pensive eyes. I took a seat right as the video crackled to life.

The distinct lines of a hand were the first thing we saw as a man in a lab coat haphazardly adjusted the camera lens that went in and out of focus rapidly. The sound of metal clinking against each other echoed over the speakers as he finished fiddling with it and took a large step away to let us take in his face.

He was young, probably in his mid twenties, with blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He wore a blinding smile that sent an unwarranted chill down my spine despite the dim lights and the seemingly unthreatening appearance he sported. Something about the whole situation was off, but I didn't have much longer to analyze what was going on before he started talking.

"Hello! My, I must say it's a dream come true to finally meet the Avengers. I wish we could meet in person, but the circumstances haven't been exactly ideal." He gave a sheepish smile and continued with a disarming gesture of his arm. "My name is Roman Giles."

He waited for a long moment as if his name might hold some kind of significance to any of us. It definitely did not.

We all startled as he clapped his hands, "Well, anyways, let's get to the point, shall we? You took something that belonged to me several months ago. A certain weapon more valuable than anything else. Then several months later you stole another weapon. One nearly twice as important as the first. Can you guess what they were?"

The meeting room had gone deathly silent save for the heartbeats hammering in each of our rib cages. Tony finally cracked the silence with his shaky reply, "The Winter soldier and The Ghost."

Roman threw his arms up almost triumphantly, "Bingo! What an accomplishment." He bent forward and peered into the camera, "Hello Sergeant Barnes, enjoying your newfound freedom?"

I swallowed, the feeling like sandpaper. I didn't reply.

With a sigh, he stood again. "As you can imagine, the loss of our two most valuable assets was quite the problem. Our Fist and Shield had been stolen and we were left weakened. But, with a little bit of thought and recruiting, success was within our grasp once more." The smile he wore had soured, morphing into something wicked. "Your building has one of the most advanced security systems I have ever seen Tony Stark, it was quite impressive. Fortunately, we have an equally impressive team on our side and with your recent shortcomings in defeating Hydra's active bases you were just so eager for information. It was too easy to infiltrate your fortress, to get our weapon back from you. I would've liked to have you rejoin us Sergeant, but one of you will do just fine." He threw his head to the side and tossed an order in Russian, a moment later the distinct sound of a door opening filled the speakers.

So did the screams.

Tags<3

@hzdhrtss / @imdoingathingmom / @cjand10 / @calwitch / @blackbirdwitch22

[wewebaggit]

I think it was because he was abused or something and apparently had drinking problems? Like bruh you cannot claim to use subversion of 80s horror genre tropes and at the same breath make your black character one of the victims without even focusing on it. Its just...? St can really use some criticism sometimes

Yep it was because he had drinking problems and was a disgrace to his family as per the voiceover that Patrick and we hear as he's riding in the car with Jason n the gang. And then Lucas mentions that he once saw him with a black eye. That's it. That's all.

Patrick deserved way better. Even discounting the fact that he's black. The same episode had the stupid mid air fight between Murray Yuri and Jim's girlfriend. That lasted longer than necessary. That existed. Both valid reasons for having a more fleshed out buildup to THE MOTHERFUCKING SACRIFICE FOR ONE OF THE FOUR (NOT FOURTEEN) GATES.

Maybe if they cooled it on Eleven slow jogging through the lab, eyes wide, breathing heavily and emoting nothingly, Jopper doomsday fucking, Elmike/Mileven, (God stop milking it, it's not great writing, we are gaslighting ourselves to believe it is cuz there was a time we thought the most they'd do for gay Will is have his best friend say something INCREDIBLY HOMOPHOBIC to him), a Russian plot sillier than season 3's - fucking talent, I could go on we could've had something justifying (at the risk of sounding repetitive) A MOTHERFUCKING SACRIFICE FOR ONE OF THE FOUR (NOT FOURTEEN) GATES.

Also leaving you with some of this:

Jason to Patrick

Mike to Lucas

Billy to Max about Lucas

Mike about the science fair contest

(Let me elaborate: It was a state competition and the result was political? MY conjecture is it was not because of frogface or a boy with no teeth or a boy who his town thought was queer - I'm suspecting it wasn't a statewide consensus. Who's left?)

Jason with Lucas

Andy with Erica

I'm not American so I'm not someone who gets the whole American experience of it. But American cultural colonisation means I'm somewhat aware of the tendencies in media. N to me personally I don't resonate with a white/black/brown American character on a racial level but just by how they're written n how well the work is performed. I do not live in a post racial world bt my country has its own different version of racism. That is to say any character being white/other colour is of ZERO value to me. So when I am consuming foreign media, I'll be like this is well written that is not. But then when I arrange them in order of well written to not or underwritten, it's a shade card alright. (🙋🏻🙆🏼🙅🏽🤷🏾🤦🏿) So ya. It's like white ppl tend to write white ppl better. What a discovery. Idk if to call it racist or "I don't see colour" in that I only see white cuz it is not a colour. (How is that for colour theory?) That is NOT to say that X CANNOT at all write about Y. Writing is after all a collaborative effort. It just means you gotta do both: collaborate and put effort.

ST exploits the tropes more than / before it subverts them. And like not in a good way. It's a fantastic show with plenty of opportunity to love it and shit on it in unequal measure tipping more in favour of shitting. And I'll be doing both. Especially regarding the characters that don't go by the name of Mike or Eleven. But them too.

You'll also see me Kali raging soon. Very soon. She might also be (DEFINITELY IS) why I have this whole new account anyway.

El's abuse > Kali's abuse. Okay. At least accepted within text by the writers. Want the "yass girlboss El shoulda snapped Angela's neck for....er...breaking your diorama and ....er......throwing milkshake on you" crowd to respectfully go. Just go. Go Away!

[bonefall]

Quick question, how do you do the family trees? as in, what program do you use? because that looks like a simple art program. You're so powerful, I'm scared of you even. Also, I've noticed some level of consanguinity but not sure how much, how far apart do these dudes need to be in order for you to consider their reproduction not nasty? What do you personally think of third cousins once removed having children? this fandom makes me write the weirdest of shits...

It's all just Clip Studio and elbow grease. No preset tree-maker tool program can track so many cats and separate lines the way I need it to. I use Family Echo for personal OC projects, but it weeps in the face of so many separate ancestral lines as seen in Clan cats.

It's been a while since I went over my Three Strict Rules so here's a refresher for everyone! If you want to see the big post explaining it all in depth, Go Here

Starting with the most important rule;

RULE 1: THREE GENERATION SEPARATION

No cats are eligible to be mates if they share a simple grandparent. No first cousin pairings, ever.

This rule applies to an extra generation, to the great-grandparent, IF the great-grandparent is still alive, or if there are two or more grandparents alive to remember this fact. This rule is called Onestar's Exception.

It was named after Onestar's SE, where he makes the connection that his sister -> Crowfeather -> Breezepelt, and thinks it's just dandy that his daughter became mates with her First Cousin Once Removed (FCOR). It made me so uncomfortable I made the rule immediately.

This is the chart I use to check;

[ID: A family tree chart]

First Cousin is banned entirely. FCOR and Second Cousins is the Onestar's Exception that invokes an investigation on my end.

So third cousins are allowed. I simply do not have the Clan population density to be choosier. I would need to bloat the Clans with a bunch of unknown side characters, destroy the concept of exploring in-Clan romance, or not think about ancestry in the Cat Ancestry story (the way that canon just conjures up cats outside of ThunderClan).

I'll demonstrate why mathematically; Ancestry is exponential. 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 G-grandparents, by the GG-grandparent generation you need 16 ancestors. More than the population of ThunderClan in TPB.

RULE 2: TWO-KIT MAX

I can demonstrate this problem with my ThunderClan Family Tree diagnosis, but I have to ask you to just trust my authority here for this summary.

The biggest problem in the canon ThunderClan family tree is that THREE of Frostfur's children went on to have kits of their own, and then they gave Frosty 7 grandchildren who had kids of their own (soon to be 8 if Shellfur and Fernstripe get busy.)

By adding the simple fix that only 2 from one parent can have reproductive kits of their own, the exponential problem is massively shaved down. It encourages you to choose carefully and go down the line, adding generations vertically instead of building them out horizontally.

The exception to this rule is that kits can get "exported." If they go to another Clan to have children, then they don't count towards their parent's max.

For a BB!Example, Mousewhisker is moving to RiverClan in ASC and Hazeltail was saved from the chopping block, so there's a possible scenario where Berry, Hazel, AND Mouse all have kits. (Kept possible by the fact that Toadstep's kittens with Lionblaze, Snaptooth and Flywhisker, are no longer part of the Clan.)

RULE 3: SINGLE-PARENT LITTERS

After the drowning of Mapleshade's kittens, the Queen's Rights were introduced to the Clans. All parents have the right to keep the other parent of their litters unrevealed.

This is in effect after the start of the Crusade Era, and it is an in-universe law, unlike the Two-Kit Max or even the Three Gen Sep. So, there are times in history (TigerClan, Oakstar's ThunderClan) where I need to be careful about using it.

But, that said, this is my most useful tool here. It allows me to create extra generations without having to work with TWO parents. However, it never matters if the kittens are adopted or surrogated, unless it is an honor-siring situation where the other cat is acknowledged publicly.

I NEVER get free "orphan warriors" past the Crusade Era. EVERYONE needs 1 parent (or joined as an outsider), and I do not track biological genetic makeup in these trees. Frostfur is, secretly, the daughter of Featherwhisker and a kittypet... but that will not be reflected on the tree, because ThunderClan acknowledges her as the daughter of Weedwhisker and Stonepelt.

Make sense?

The trees I'm creating are social. Not genetic. I don't calculate blood quotients.

And that's that! Them's the rules! You can compare the diagnosis to my ThunderClan WIP to see these in action.

[bardicbeetle]

hey. Hey. You got any analysis of the Lost Boys or thoughts on the movie to share? who's your favorite character in it and why??

@abalonetea

Analysis on the movie I've been many levels of obsessed with since age 14 you ask?

...this is going to end up undercut for length I can already feel it.

The Lost Boys is my comfort movie, my I-feel-like-shit-nothing-is-fixing-it movie, my I-can't-write-please-help movie and my go-to for when I am inflicting media upon a new friend. I know it backwards forwards, upside down and inside out, I own the out of print novelization written by Craig Shaw Gardener, I posted the original prequel script to fanfiction.net in the early 2010s because I found it buried in a forum post and wanted it to be easier to find, I have listened to every version of cry little sister that G Tom Mac has ever put out in addition to the entire stage musical he produced. The fic I wrote for it in 2011 is still on Wattpad and to this day for some fuck ass reason gets 1000s of hits per year. I have another fic for it on ao3 that still takes up brainspace for me on a minimum weekly basis.

I.

Honestly do not know who I am as a writer if not for this film.

It is such a huge part of who I am as both a fan of media and a vampire writer and as a horror enjoyer in general.

And it is undeniably, baked into its bones, queer as fuck.

Not just from the overt point of here is a film in the 1980s about men sharing blood, directed by an openly gay man, hands us platonic and familial and romantic interactions between male characters, who are allowed to hold one another, allowed to express emotion, allowed to exist freely and without shame I am--so very abnormal about this movie.

I'll be the first to admit it's not perfect by any means, it very much exists a time capsule of its era, but also, to momentarily put the bar on the floor, it isn't slur laden and full of take-backs for any of the emotional vulnerability like other things around then were (see: Once Bitten, which while unarguably very much more on the comedy side of horror-comedy, i'm going to put into the same category by virtue of Camp Vampire Movies of the 80s).

It hands us one of my favorite mothers of all time. Lucy Emerson is a treasure, she spends the whole movie trying her goddamn best to remember that she is stronger than anyone gives her credit for. That she chose to divorce an abusive man, pick up her two sons, and leave without more than signing the papers and getting out. She doesn't care if they're poor, she doesn't care if she could have gotten something from her ex-husband, she wants her boys safe and there is a very large implication that sticking around to do the whole song and dance would have ended badly. Lucy lives for her sons, she wants so badly to make the world easier for them than it was for her, she wants to be part of their lives and part of their interests even if she does not understand them, and I maintain that Had Max Actually Succeeded, it would not have been long before the Lost Boys themselves were Lucy's as much as her own two sons, and that would not have ended well for Max. Protecting mother, lioness, made to be underestimated so you are always caught off guard.

Edgar and Alan Frog are near and dear to my heart, these idiot vampire hunter children were just so very much what my brother and I were in terms of Making Up Games To Play--ignoring the fact that for these two it's real, not that it ever had been before the Emerson family rolled into town and Sam's brother got mixed into the Lost Boys group. Edgar wanting to be in charge of things and wanting to protect the people he cares about and the town he is too stubborn to admit he loves despite being what, 12? 14? Alan being quieter but just as absolutely ready to go "yeah we are totally experts at this" as his twin, the fact that neither of them have any idea what they are getting into. Dipping barely into the sequels territory (which...they aren't good. by any definition. but Edgar and Alan are the best part of them both) we get Edgar dealing not only with his perceived loss of Alan to half-vampirism, but his whole loss of Sam after having to kill him and I just.

Ugh.

NOW, dipping into the main event there is Michael, who spends this whole movie just trying to figure out where the hell he's supposed to belong at this point. He doesn't see any point in starting a new high school in his senior year, he doesn't want to upset his mother by just absolutely dropping off the planet, he cares deeply about his family and wants to help however he can because they are struggling for money. So what does this seventeen year old kid do? He starts picking trash up off the beach for eight hours a day. He gives that money to his mother under the guise of it being "leftover from christmas" because he doesn't want her to worry about him working. He feels so fucking lonely without the friends he left behind in Phoenix and he feels like he's too old to supplant himself into a new friend group in Santa Carla before everyone goes their separate ways after high school anyways.

Enter Star and the Lost Boys.

Yes, Michael is taken in by Star because she's beautiful and mysterious and he's a teenage boy seeing nipples through a tank top, but beyond that he sees in her, in David and the others, how self sure they all are of the decisions they've made. This group is all within his age, they're all living in a goddamn sunken hotel half claimed by the ocean, they have motorcycles like him, they smoke weed and eat chinese food and Marko keeps pigeons and Dwayne can skateboard and Paul is a music nerd and what the fuck how do they manage to seem like they have their lives more together as a group of teenage runaways than he does?

He's enamored with it, obsessed with it, the movie speeds up a timeline of something that does in fact happen over the course of a couple weeks, of him hanging out with them, slowly experiencing more and more symptoms of vampirism from the blood he drank the first night, unable to stop coming back, unable to really figure out what it is they have figured out that he doesn't, and hoping that maybe if he stays with them he will eventually feel the same confidence in his own existence that they do.

But couple that with the horrifying reality that he is becoming a monster. His younger brother is terrified of him, the family dog bites him, the horses won't go near him, he pulls a mouse out of a trap freshly dead and squeezes it like a spent juice box into his mouth, he is falling apart at the seams by the time David decides it's time to finish things. And that's what David wants, he wants Michael in a position where he is no longer lucid enough to resist once there's blood in the air.

And it almost fucking works.

I stand by my belief that the entire movie hinges on the beach party where the Lost Boys kill a whole bunch of Surf Nazis. The whole thing, the outcome of the final fight, the failure of Max's plan, all of it hangs on that one night, and whether or not Michael can actually manage not to give into the bloodlust. He does manage, obviously, he leans into the shock and fear and near throws himself out of that tree because he knows that if he doesn't, he will join the blood bath happening not ten feet away. He is starving and exhausted and everything in him is screaming that if he just gave in, it would all feel so much better.

But he doesn't.

He lays in the sand until he cannot hear any heartbeats left.

Lays there clawing his hands into the ground like if he can hold himself still enough then maybe this will stop being real.

Three of the four boys don't pay much mind to this, Dwayne Paul and Marko have slipped back into regular antics despite being coated red. Their faces have returned to normal, their eyes no longer brilliant gold rimmed red, they are laughing and shoving and having a good time.

But David is furious. He's quiet about it, he isn't loudly angry, something I think he probably absorbed from Max over the years, he tells Michael what needs to be done if he wants to stay with them, and then he and the other Lost Boys leave him there in the sand, burnt flesh and ashes drifting down to him on the breeze.

The thing about David is that he realized the night on the train bridge that he didn't care about Max's bullshit plan. He didn't care that he was originally going to feed Michael to Star. He is fixated on getting Michael to join them, not just for himself, not just to keep Star around, but also because there's a refusal to give up in this kid that has him excited, a stubbornness that he wants to break. It's the thing that eventually leads to his death.

ANYWAYS.

I think, perhaps, I have yelled enough.

Oh, shit, favorite character.

I think without any doubt it has to be David. Especially after reading the novelization, the comics, the original prequel script, he's just, he is such an interesting character and his motivations are so obvious despite how much he would appear to hold them close to his chest. He's a root character I can trace a lot of the tropes that carry over in my own antagonists to, and some of my protagonists as well.

double anyways, camp vampires from 1987 my beloved.

Thank you Katie <3

[gubbles-owo]

How's Arknights going? Tried out any of the funky side-modes yet? Did you already get 4 of the same clue dropped on your desk by someone? (the essential AK experience)

YOU

WHY CAN'T I HOLD ONTO ALL THESE BLACKSTEEL CLUES YOU DUMPED ON ME For real tho, big thanks for all the clues!! Pretty sure I've at least once managed to fill the board entirely with cards from you LMFAO paragraphs of unnecessarily detailed answers under the cut

Arknights is going alright! Still on chapter 5 of the main story, progress has been slow cause I've been focused on upgrading the hell out of a few specific ops-- first e2'ed Manticore, then Matoimaru the other day (i love both of 'em sm). Definitely ain't maxed out, dunno if anyone would actually use em as support units rn, but regardless I love my arknights children just look at them they're so fcukfign cool

I adore the extra stories and insights that come with building trust and unlocking modules, and at the end of the day I'm ultimately here for the characters! Still figuring out who to promote next... Exu would be useful as heck but oughhh the materials required for her look like hell XmX I haven't really done all that much of the side stuff, tbh? Not out of lack of interest, but because shit just feels too difficult? I've been discouraged from doing all that much in events or novel modes because I inevitably get roadblocked by raw numbers-- my ops are too low level, enemies throw waay too much damage, mechanics and enemy types I've never seen or had explained are suddenly thrown at me and I'm expected to know how the heck to deal with 'em, etc etc. In all honesty it's a lil frustrating as new player to try and keep up, to curb the rampant FOMO from things I can't quite fully participate in yet. I'm sure I'll get there eventually, it's just a bit of a struggle >w>` Strategy games 'n tower defense usually ain't my thing, so admittedly there's a looot I still gotta learn, through both practice and example. Simply put: I'm babey xD I have been learning and discovering cool lil strategies tho! Random fun fact, while figuring out a better strategy to grind out 4-8 than the guide I originally followed, I discovered that you can get two sarkaz casters to bind the same target if you time your deployment just right

punished gravel jumpscare

(and yes, i am still working on texturing the low poly manticore model, progress has just been extremely slow sdhfjsdgh)

[furryprovocateur]

if you only read one of these update posts, read this one.

i am just going to say it: this is the chapter that bested me. why do i say that? well, it's because of this.

these are the directions i eventually had to write out so i could consistently RNG advance this chapter to get a favorable outcome. the character order mattered heavily. the pararentheses are how much i advanced rng by and who i used to advance it (the latter for consistency in replication, it doesn't matter who you use to RNG advance otherwise.) i only did the first four turns because those are, far and away, the most crucial ones to map out. why? multiple reasons.

a. kishuna leaves at the end of turn 4, but you want to attack him at least once so that way you can get him to spawn in 4 units that each drop something (basically a prize for being able to reach him). reaching him isn't hard, per se, but it relies on his AI cooperating with you and putting himself in positions you can reach. i was able to consistently get him to go into the left part of his trio of blocks and get close to the wall such that i was able to get florina to attack him. if he leaves by the end of turn 4, you're stuck with stronger enemies that don't drop items. on the one hand, it's more experience, but on the other, funds is more of a concern to me and this chapter already has enough difficult enemies to worry about.

b. this chapter is fucking PLAGUED with long range units. there's a sleep staff user, a berserk staff user, and a silence staff user that will all be pelting your shit with statuses (even with kishuna's magical seal, they'll find nooks and crannies to cast in.). look, i get it. statuses are meant to be difficult to deal with. but, up to this point, you've only been able get ONE restore staff, and it's entirely missable (granted, if you miss it, asses to you, it was right near your starting position.). not only that, but you have limited deployment in this chapter, meaning that if your healer (should you bring one) gets silenced or (god forbid) sleep'd, you're losing a shitload of progress at best and you're fucked at worst. by far the worst one to deal with is the berserk staff user, but he's simultaneously the easiest one to counterplay. he will always go for the unit that has the lowest resistance and is not a healer/ninian. so, he's at least manageable. the silence staff user though? fuck that guy SO hard. he always goes for your healers (obviously) and it feels like the dude is nearly incapable of missing with silence. i would estimate i dodged his silences maybe 20% of the time at most. the rest of the time i was eating shit and losing priscilla's ability to do anything but rescue and trade. so, i absolutely NEEDED this guy dead asap, and turn 4 is the first time i could kill him. i had to RNG advance a critical hit with hawkeye to guarantee his death (thank god for hawkeye being a berserker and not a warrior or something. innate berserker crit was a lifesaver here.)

c. level up control is not only very convenient if you can help it, but it also makes a good indicator of your placement in the RNG. if you're getting the same level ups, your strat is consistent with the RNG and you can manipulate it. it helps that i was getting pretty good level ups for raven, so this was sweetening the pot even more. seriously, raven's walking away from this chapter at level 18 with 19/20/20 offensive stats, max HP, and pretty good defensive stats as well. if anything, i'm very tempted to promote him before FFO, but i think i'll wait until he hits 20 to do so.

d. this is slightly related to b, but shit rolls downhill and it snowballs in this chapter. one mistake will lead to a bunch of mistakes and a lot of lost time. this is THE chapter i need to maximize the most amount of corner-cutting out of as possible, so something like a 20 turn clear might look acceptable, but, for me, it's not. i even skipped the silver blade for this exact reason (to be fair, the thing's only 1800 gold and the most out of the way chest to reach. it's a calculated risk.).

so, with all of this in mind, genesis was my ordeal. but, i did manage to overcome it. i even got eliwood to level 16 (which was a way huger pain in the ass than it needed to be, but whatever). i'm over the moon about how this chapter came out overall, because it was giving me probably the biggest hurdle of all the chapters thus far, second maybe only to 13x, which i had to do a similar "follow these directions" setup for. RNG advancing is a double-edged sword in that it's very convenient to always be able to follow exact instructions, but good god i would trade it all just to have RNG that rerolled every time. i know, i know, limitations of the GBA cartridges, but still.

so, with linus' FFO, i am now at promotion time for many units. i need to seriously contemplate who i'm going to be using long-term in this playthrough. tentatively, i'm thinking sain (lol), florina, raven, heath, kent, guy, bartre (i want karla damn it), and probably fiora (only iffy on her because having 3 fliers might be redundant and she's basically turned out to be an inferior florina.). as far as the healers are concerned, i'm not sure if i really need to promote either of them. if funds will allow it, sure, but pent is my expected endgame staffer, and while serra + priscilla have been doing wonders for my experience rank, that drops off precipitously after promotion. still, physics are going to be consistently useful, so i'll likely be using them for most of the rest of the game. it's more just a matter of seeing if they hit 20 by that time. again, if i have the funds to swing it, i'll try it. but, for all these funds considerations alone, i made a safety backup save in case i really shit the bed on funds like i almost did in the HNM warm-up run. i have a way better idea of how to manage funds + what i'm doing overall, but i'll be damned if i let mismanagement rob me of this S rank.

no one's going to ask, but i used afa's drops on ninian for the unbelievably high swag levels. afa's drops might as well be a "who do you want to see when you take a picture of your S rank", and ninian has arguably the best quote out of all the possible choices. for anyone curious about seeing what quotes are available, all of them are listed here.

seriously, i would do unspeakable shit to that silence staff guy. i would feed him to dogs.

[crimsonxe]

Um, Amanda is nothing more than soft, femmed up, traditionally attractive, "nice girl", lipstick lesbian with the chemistry of a damn rock Chloe knockoff. Cause Decknine prefers femmed up types over more futch ones. They also don't like an abrasive, take-no-shit, badass futch lesbian that according to an ex-staffer they deem as a "manic pixie girl" as bullshit as that is. Amanda is an ant to Chloe's fucking planet, where I end up rolling my damn eyes at Amanda's ass more than anything else.

Gameplay mechanics: I guess though its hard to really compare given the different power sets in play. LiS1 = Rewind; DE = literally going between branches within a multiverse.

Graphics: Already said that this was indeed better, though some would argue the stylized look of LiS1 gives it more uniqueness.

Character work and writing: ROFL, um fuck no. Like maybe the new characters but it completely and utterly fucking character assassinates the shit out of Max and Chloe (I'll save more detail in this for a later part since I see it in the list). It fails at addressing Max's trauma as its instead too focused on trying to push its garbage ass romance; does an eye-roll inducing bathroom where Max for some reason is put in the shoes of Nathan; makes the Storm not a Max thing as anyone with powers can set one off; and the entire finale with Safi is wtf Heroes level shit. Do yourself a favor: go read the LiS comics, where they do all the same things DE fails at and are great; because they're handled by an actual fan vs. DE's clearly know-nothing disrespecting biased ass crew.

Let's see: Max in her journal pulls the "Rachel trauma" card against Chloe, which Max wouldn't do. Max is constantly "thirsty on main" which Max wouldn't be. Max doesn't at all fight for her relationship with Chloe, which Max wouldn't do. Max has the option to fucking CHEAT on a romance interest or override one that rejected her via the other branchline. And since I did say I'd touch back on both

Chloe leaves Max, which wouldn't be a thing cause once someone is in Chloe's inner walls her loyalty is locked-in. Chloe uses a letter to do the leaving, which Chloe wouldn't. Chloe comments/jokes to Max, her gf, about a threesome with some dude; Chloe wouldn't. Chloe starts talking up Victoria of all people, which Chloe wouldn't.

Basically Decknine took Rachel Amber, split her into two forms, and slapped on name tags "Max" and "Chloe". Rachel would leave; would joke/comment about threesomes with guys; be thirsty on main; would give up on a relationship; would cheat (granted it'd be towards a goal); and would be friends with Victoria.

Its a stab in the back because Decknine chose to break up a 9 year old iconic LGBT+ main pair in their garbage fire of AU with shitty ass character assassination reasons. They then proceeded to try to shove in the soft, femmed up, traditionally appealing lipstick lesbian Chloe knockoff as if all LGBT+ is the same and so LGBT+ should be appeased just having that in place of Pricefield. A digusting ass view. Worse is that its validated anti-Pricefield and anti-Chloe shitbags, regardless of Michel from DontNod coming out to directly state that there is a multiverse so everyone can be happy and that Max and Chloe would NEVER break up just have "bumps in the road"; but that type ignores that to say it'd never work out period as they proceed to shit on Chloe.

Gwen is the shining gem of DE. Max being bi has always been the case but clearly its being very much turned into a fanservice type of thing, cause of Max being "thirsty on main" ALL THE TIME. Also stabbing LGBT+ in the back and LGBT+ friendly aren't at all at odds, the game stabbed LGBT+ in the back by off-screen breaking up the iconic 9 year old LGBT+ pairing that put the first game & franchise on the damn map cause 2015 wlw romance was awe-inspiring; on top of that character assassinating the fuck out of the characters to do it. If anything Decknine's issues stem from an attitude of "we're more progressive" + "we know best" that leads into them stealing player choice in wanting Chloe cause there is no Chloe option and instead shoving in their new preferred type. Like a parent who tells their kid they can't be with the poor punk kid they actually like, instead shoving them towards the rich handsome well off one cause they know what's best for them. Decknine thought they were "fixing" LiS1, when they didn't at all and just showed why DontNod are the only ones that should ever touch it or its characters.

Also all of this is from Bae over Bay, where Chloe lives.

Two chapters into LiSDE and i don’t know why so many people hate this game so much, it’s an upgrade from the first game on every level .. the writing is tighter “so far” , the mystery is more interesting and Max grew up as a character, plus the two timelines gameplay is so much fun. I miss Chloe , Victoria, Kate and even Warren but I’m willing to play this new chapter of Max’s life and see where it goes.

[pigeon-feet]

god fuck i gotta. i gotta level my main so i can actually participate in BfA

[koala2055]

Yay opinion time:

Volume 2 kind of sucked.

Like sure, it had some great parts and I guess the plot worked, but it could have been so much better.

Eddie's death made no sense. I get that they wanted him to have a resolution of him not running for once and shit, but it didn't make sense for him to die because of it.

a) Steve survived numerous demobat wounds

b) All the bats died literally seconds later

It really didn't do much for Dustin's character growth either, tbh. Like sure it encouraged him to be responsible for the others but like really, Dustin was doing that anyway.

And Eddie had so much potential. The fandom loves him. There were so many things they could have done with his character, but no, they stuck to their formula and killed the new guy.

Which brings me to Max.

In that brief moment where I believed Max was dead, it hurt. Especially with Lucas and El there, unable to do anything about it.

It was powerful. And exactly what the group would have needed to push themselves forward.

I'm not saying I wanted Max to die. She was a brilliant character and this season she had so much development. But it would have been an amazing plot point, so much better than killing Eddie. It would show us that there are actually stakes here, that the characters aren't indefinitely shielded by plot armor.

As for the other deaths... I'll be honest I barely even realized Jason died. It was so fast and it really didn't mean anything.

Brenner's death was painted as a tragedy and I fucking hate that. I suppose I could understand his apparent change of heart with the whole Nina project, but after he trapped Eleven again- I don't understand how they were trying to paint him as a sympathetic character or whatever they were doing. That man was a monster and he deserved to die.

The cast and advertising for volume 2 promised deaths and we just... didn't get any good ones.

Which brings us to the other part of the false advertising, the queerbaiting.

There were three super strong queer ships after volume 1, and they were byler, steddie, and ronance.

Now I never put too much faith into ronance, it didn't seem like it made sense since they just introduced a love interest for Robin, so that wasn't too significant.

Steddie had a lot of support. And it definitely seemed like a possibility. But assuming their plan was to kill off Eddie anyway, I'll let it slide.

Byler.

The level of teasing and hinting at Byler from the cast was unprecedented.

And what happened?

Almost nothing.

Sure, we get more hints that Will is queer, but nothing is explicitly said.

And worst of all, they used Will's unrequited love to further mileven. That made me furious.

Complete queerbait.

I don't know why I expected better.

And many people have pointed out the problems with Mike's love monologue to El, so I'm not going to bother. It was stupid.

Mileven wasn't terrible at all, it had genuine build up and wasn't just romance for the sake of romance. But claiming that Mike fell in love with her the day they met is just- stupid. And making El need that speech to motivate her instead of just finding the strength within herself was a bit meh.

I'll probably make another post with the things that they did right, but for now I'm done ranting.

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

Maximus if you are still accepting ! The problematic face who brought us together!

give me a character and I'll answer

do I like them: I love that horrid little shit

5 good qualities:

Does Max even have 5 separate good qualities? Hmm......

1. Brilliant - Max is obviously a genius, and will whip up amazing machines to save the day......if he feels like it.

2. Imaginative - this goes hand-in-hand with brilliance, but Max comes up with out-of-the-box solutions, and dreams up machines no one else could even imagine.

3. Witty - especially in Soule's Inhumans and Ewing's Royals, the most recent Maximus characterization is this very sarcastic, witty person who is very fun and entertaining to read, and honestly kinda charismatic, even if he's a complete bastard.

4. Determination - you've really got to admire how Max just keeps reaching for that crown, not matter how many times he gets slapped down.

5. He loves his family - despite all the torture, mind-control, attempts to kill them and general fuckery, I do think that Maximus, on some level, does kinda love his family in a very twisted way. I also think he wants what's best for Attilan (or at least he believes he does), as he's been willing to help the Royal family in a lot of recent stories.

3 bad qualities:

Gosh, only three?

1. Ruthless - Max will do anything for power, including holding his family hostage, selling half his people to the Kree, murder, mayhem, torture, all sorts of awful shit. All that matters is the glory of King Maximus!

2. Cruel and vindictive - in contrast to Black Bolt's constant mercy, Maximus hurts Black Bolt every time he has a chance and gets a tiny bit of power over him. He's, uh.....not a very good brother. He also goes out of his way to hurt other family members, and generally anyone who pisses him off.

3. That whole thing with Medusa is creepy and gross, and I'm glad that recent writing has had Max completely back off on any romantic interest in her. Now he's just a power-hungry, all-purpose jerk.

favourite episode/etc:

-Inhumans: Right of Birth has a more sympathetic Maximus, who befriends an old man (that unfortunately ends badly), and who is very clearly mentally ill. Not just old-school megalomaniacal mentally ill, but actual hallucinations, and showing how he suffers from his illness.

-Inhumans limited series by Paul Jenkins - a Maximus who is both horrible and sympathetic, and very fun to read.

-Silent War - magnificent bastard sneaky plotting Maximus.

-War of Kings/Realm of Kings - goofy mechanic Maximus, who talks to Groot and builds weapons of mass destruction and is almost wholesome, if not for the weapons of mass destruction thing. Starts the trend of Maximus being....not exactly a good guy, but someone who is willing to help the family in his own way, even if you can't trust him at all.

Future Foundation - Maximus is freed from his cell by Ahura, raids the fridge, wears a robot's skin, helps build a portal and gets shrunk and stuck in a jar. It's very entertaining.

Inhumanity/New Avengers/Time Runs Out - Maximus runs around doing secret sneaky missions with Black Bolt, then inevitably back-stabs him and runs off to join Thanos' Cabal.

Soule's Inhumans - chaotic Maximus holds Black Bolt hostage, runs around with Triton, the Unspoken and Lineage, builds a giant robot with Kludge. He came out to attack people, and he is honestly having such a good time right now.

Inhumans: Once and Future Kings - baby Max who is less terrible than usual, and who at one point absorbs some of Spiderman's psyche and becomes extremely protective of Aunt May.

Ewing's Royals - some actual great development and almost a little hint of redemption, as Maximus is revealed to be receiving visions from his future self, and seeks to prevent a horrible future for his people. He also seems to have lost some of his mental illness by the end, an interesting future development that gets completely squandered by Cates' shitty Death of Inhumans. But don't worry, he's still a terrible person.

otp: Someone who can handle his bullshit, ideally someone as awful as Max himself. Maybe Max/Black Swan, they seemed flirty in New Avengers. I've read some fic with Max/Namor, and while I think Namor is much better than Maximus, I can enjoy this as an AU pairing.

brotp: Max and Groot, Max and Kludge:

ot3: No idea, really.

notp: Max/Medusa or Max/Crystal

best quote: There are so many, he gives great speeches in Silent War, and is incredibly witty in a lot of the newer stuff. But for now, I'll go with: “God is dead, fellow Inhumans! God remains dead! And we have killed him! Is not the greatness of this deed too great even for us? Yes! You’re right! Why stop now? Let’s steal God’s car!”

head canon:

-A few early stories have suggested that Maximus is faking mental illness to get out of trouble, but I think he is legitimately mentally ill. I also think he was already somewhat unstable before Black Bolt rattles his brain, and that just brought his existing illness to the forefront.

-I don't think Maximus ever truly loved or even sexually desired Medusa. She was always just a shiny toy to take away from Black Bolt. As soon as Medusa and Black Bolt are separated in the comics, Max quickly loses any interest in her.

-Sometimes Max makes little inventions for the family, little toys for the kids, and no one can figure out whether they are dangerous or not, so they just get shoved into the Chamber of Devices with the other dangerous stuff. He's made a couple of point-and-click adventure games for the kids that Ahura has secretly tried to play, but the logic of gameplay makes no sense.

-I think Max is genuinely fond of Ahura, he loves that Ahura was thought to be "crazy" like him, and probably wants to win Ahura away from Black Bolt. "See? Your father mistreats us both, you should love me, your wonderful favorite uncle!"

-Like Toad, I think Max enjoys video games. In fact, he's probably become one of Toad's voice chat online friends. Black Bolt lets him do it, because anything to keep Max occupied and out of trouble.

-I either head-canon Max as being completely asexual, just not interested at all, or pansexual and up for anything, I can't decide.

[siren-virus]

Time for another set of questions, yet again only 1 for each idea/au/project you have :D FLEE: Have there ever been an ocassion where the trio is separated and they have to find their way back to eachother, either in a small town or in different locations altogether? SWUP: Can we get a bit more about Courtney, Charlie and Derrick? Courtney sounds like would have to fight a bit of the bias present in the books she studies from, and it seems that Charlie, her little brother, is in love with James XD Derrick meanwhile doesn't seem like a bad guy if he keeps his fight outside of human eyes/influence if he can help it; wether that's because of the goverment or because he really worries about the humans is another story :V LuckyBen!AU: Has Kevin ever in this AU got transformed by his many attempts to absorb the Omnitrix? Considering all the things that are different from the OG series in this AU, I'm not sure if he's even been able to do that in the first place, or how it could've been solved if he managed to do so Gecko: Here I'll help you focus a bit on the writting of your story and throw you a bone, please tell me as much as you can without spoiling anything of the story. Usually just writting what you have already or telling someone else can get your creative juices running, and help you focus enough to continue the story :D Welp, that's all for today's batch of questions, good luck focusing in your current projects so they might sail smoothly from here on out :3

Lovely!

I'll jump right in.

FLEE:

Many times, I mean one is always with Robin because, poor baby can't defend herself. Much as she likes to say otherwise.

It generally happens when Trisitan loses his patience to Leo's hostility. Otherwise he'd always track Leo down when he has one of his tantrums.

An exception to this is when they'd be forecably seperated, be it from humans, hybrids, goliath bobbit worms, OR zombies.

No specifics of course, without spoilers...

SWUP:

Oh lord I have to think about other characters. deep breaths!! Jk, good writing practise.

Yeah Courntneys major character arc would straight up have her having to rethink her whole career, and life. Aliens exist, the police aren't so great, being by the books has consequences when it comes to street smarts. Speaking of she has none.

Her little brother, Charlie- less so in love with James, more so idolises, like to an unhealthy extent (don't meet your heros kids.). No teen romance for Charlie.

Derrick, I actually had a design for him, I refuse to show it off cause it looks hella crusty dusty musty. Like my deviantart days had me drawing shit haha ;; His original personality was the worry wart mum friend, but no. That character trait belongs to someone else.

Derrick though, he's not a good guy, he's not a bad guy. Chaotic? yes. Neutral? Also yes. His original intention for coming to earth was to look into suspicious unicorn activity on a Level 1 civilisation. Finding that Vicky was originally human, he's decided to stick around and figure out why some humans are being turned.

A big dragon policy is not to mess with lower level civilisations. They're harmless and mostly defenceless.

LUCKYBEN!AU

For the most part it happened once- the first and the last time he dared to approach Gwen without a backup plan. It happened during Gwen and Max's summer vacation- (which Ben missed out on).

They had met, Gwen and Kevin, a few times before, some were on good terms others were on bad terms. This day was a bad term.

Max had gone into a petrol station (gas station) to grab snacks and Kevin used that as his chance to attack. Gwen, unprepared used her omnitrix arm to shield herself from any blows. Kevin accidentally absorbed the omnitrix, but fortunately (for him) it was in small volumes until he was blasted away by the omnitrix's power surge. Also sent Gwen flying.

His arm was stuck as heatblasts for almost 2 weeks, but it made him realise pretty quickly that the omnitrix was too powerful for him to absorb. This universe's Kevins quite smart.

IT wasn't difficult to resolve the issue of his arm, but it also wasn't easy. He just had to really relax for a bit. Hard to do for an edgy bastard.

GECKO:

ooh. tryna make me think huh? well, ok.

Here's what I got for ya: (incoming biiiig paragraph.)

Mac is the protagonist of this story, he suffers from some mental health issues- but it's a common theme through most of my storys.

Mac moves to a small isolated village after the death of his mother, inheriting his mothers, mothers house- which was devided into a duplex. After settling in he starts to enjoy his life, far away from the busy city, only to find his world tilted in the wrong direction after discovering a talking gecko. Dubbed as Skittles, from Mac- because the gecko wouldn't say his name and there's no backsys.

Their meeting did not go well, Mac had launched the poor Gecko after discovering it talks, nearly killing it. So for the gecko to survive it merely asks for some blood. Some little shop of Horrors vibes going on there. https://youtu.be/L7SkrYF8lCU (if you haven't seen it it's really good)

To Macs surprise Skittles pulls and uno reverse and enters Macs blood stream- now Macs forced into - what he calls a parasitic- but is actually symbiotic relationship with his new friend.

As Mac continues living his life in this town he realises things aren't exactly normal, I mean he's gotta gecko living in his brain, duh.

Especially with these odd people who keep approaching him, normally dressed in some form of black. Who also are in the same predicament as him- but their's is SEEMINGLY by choice. And their geckos don't talk to them.

There also seems to be quite a fair few monsters in this town, they usually stay hidden from humanity- but Mac has been forced to fight them more than once.

gotta be vague here.

Join Mac on his journey of discovering the secrets of Mint Town - (which has herbs as its street names - hehe)

Thank you once again for your questions, and today I had great focus- I lost some blood to a blood test- but iron tablets help for that

[captastra]

how dare u offer angst XD "no! don't you dare! don't go! if you die, i'll blame myself for the rest of time! and that'll be your fault! so stay alive!"

Angst is what you want? Angst is what you’ll get! But seriously I hope you enjoy this. CW: blood, character death; spoilers: final mission

The sound of gun and plasma fire surrounded Rhea as she made her way along the next level of Tartarus. Rhea hadn’t known what to expect when they first arrived, only determined to finish out their mission: save Phineas at all costs. It was a mission that Rhea could feel everything had been building up to and she had been frightened by the prospect of it ending in failure.

Rhea made her way quickly through the levels, Max and Felix right behind her. Everything was turning out better than she imagined when other groups started appearing on Tartarus to aid them in their fight. Apparently her secret mission had not been so secret and yet instead of ignoring what they were doing, the other groups came to their aid. 

All of this helped her in making her way quickly from level to level, the MSI and Iconoclasts helping her with the last two levels before she ran into Chairman Rockwell. He was a piece of shit but Rhea thought it better to deal with him once she had saved Phineas. 

The next level appeared to be the same as the others, guards scattered about all on alert waiting for her or anyone else who was trying to come through. Rhea turned to Max and Felix as they waited for a moment to catch their breaths at the door. They were all breathing heavily but they both gave her a nod, signaling they were ready to move forward. 

Taking a deep breath, Rhea moved through the metal doors. Max and Felix followed quickly, moving as far as they could before the guards would inevitably see them. Yet they weren’t even 10 feet in the room before the sound of more glass breaking could be heard followed by the shouts of battle cries carried over the alarms that had been blaring throughout Tartarus. 

Glancing at where the noise came from, Rhea saw what appeared to be the Mardets, the guards from the Groundbreaker, storming the room. Their sudden appearance tipped the fight in their favor as guard after guard started to fall, not reacting quick enough to fire back or run for cover.

“Ha, looks like Junlei decided to send in help too,” Felix yelled out to be heard over the sound of more gunfire and shouts from everyone in the room.

“It appears your ability to get on the good side of most groups in Halcyon has fared in our favor, Captain.” Max appeared calm as they started to run past the guards whose focus had turned away from where they had entered towards the breached walls..

“Told you my charm would wo...Felix!” Rhea had turned just in time to see a guard sneak up behind Felix and prepare to run him through with a plasma cutter. Without thinking, the world turned purple as Rhea slipped into her TIme Dilation. Everything came to a stand still around her as she ran to push Felix out of the way. She had hoped she’d have enough energy to get herself out of the way too but right as she moved Felix, her world caught up to real time as the plasma cutter cut through her armor and her.

Rhea let out a gasp followed by a scream as the guard made to move it up her body. The pain was immense and burning as she fell to the floor while Max and Felix took out the guard.

Her pulse raced in her ears as she looked down at the weapon still pulsating in her body. That's not good was the only thought that went through her mind as she broke out into a cold sweat. Strong arms wrapped around her and lifted her up slightly off the ground. The shift sent another flash of searing pain through her body and she let out a cry in pain.

“Rhea, rhea talk to me please.” Felix held her tight as she finally heard his words over her own racing pulse. His eyes had gone wide with fear as they glistened with tears. Rhea moved her mouth to speak but felt a warm liquid fill it instead. She coughed and saw Felix's eyes go wider in shock. Something seemed to register in his face as his lower lip began to tremble. She had realized it too.

"No! Don't you dare! Don't go! If you die, I'll blame myself for the rest of time! And that'll be your fault! So stay alive!"

She was dying. It was obvious now. There was no way to come back from this, not with the limited time she had.

 Rhea attempted to smile at Felix’s words but more liquid bubbled in her throat and she coughed up what she assumed was blood. It was hard to tell what was happening in general as she realized her body was starting to go numb. She couldn’t feel her toes anymore and her eyelids and limbs were starting to grow heavy.

“Please...please finish….”

“No! Architect be damned you are finishing this with me.” Tears were streaming down his face now as he yelled. Rhea could barely focus, her only thoughts focused on wiping his tears away. “I’m not joking this time Rhea! You can’t die! Not now! Not after everything we’ve been through!

“Don’t cry….you can….can do this.”

The world seemed to go silent as only the sound of Felix’s pleading floated about her head. He shifted her higher in his arms, pulling her closer to his chest. Rhea used the last of her energy to reach up and cup his face, using her thumb to try and wipe away her tears.

“Felix…”

But he wasn’t listening. Rhea watched in a haze as he looked up and began to yell...something at someone, it was hard for her to make out the words now. She continued to run her thumb over his cheek, taking in his features, the way his beautiful nose stood out on his face, his hazel eyes red from crying. His hair was slick with sweat from their non-stop movement and fighting since they had breached Tartarus. Even now she felt her love for him surge one last time. He had given her life meaning these past few months, purpose to keep fighting. Even though it had led to this moment, she wouldn’t change it for the world.

The edges of her vision began to darken. She knew her time was coming and she had to tell him. One last time.

Forcing him to look at her, Rhea told him the three important words that she wanted him to carry with him always.

“I love you.”

And then her world went dark.

[yuvon-writes-letters]

Hey guys,

Yu, Rai and both Jakes.

Actually..If I talk about my feelings I'm pretty well. Don't tell Jake I said that, but I couldn't be happier about our situation. I mean, we can talk again. Without me being kidnapped and finding a weird Tumblr profile of him. (Which we think was a set up by one of the entities of my world since he obviously doesn't have one. Jake thinks it was goldies doing, I on the other hand don't believe that. Don't ask me why, but it feels like goldie wouldn't do that. And it didn't help me either but only made problems. I was distracted because I was writing the profile (you read it, right Yu? I don't know about the others) and angry. Like, really angry.)

Putting that aside, Jake called me, like he promised :) And it was the longest phone call I had for some time. Most of the time I talked and he didn't get distracted once, just listened to me and everything that happened. And then he started cursing, which is kind of understandable. He apologised for being into stasis. And for this other version from before the 'time setting back' thing. Because I don't find a name I'll call it TSB from now on.

The only problem I have now is going to work, I guess I'll take me some vacation...But at least I'm not as scared of the raven-ass anymore. I mean, I still am, but in the moment I know his steps. And I am not alone.

Jake, I intentionally write the next part in red, please don't read it. That's for Yu.

I know you think that Jake sees you as a threat. If it still is like you wrote in the letter. Jake knows that, too and he doesn't like it. You know him better than I do, of course, but without saying too much...I think it's quite the opposite. Talk to him about that. Even though it's probably not the best circumstances I think he enjoys being with you :)

The next part, purple (damn, I need more coloured pens), is for you Jake.

You already told me that you don't like that Yu thinks you see her as a threat. I only have to say one thing, if it still is like that, talk to her about it. Earlier than later.

The new thoughts about the blood ritual are really interesting. But please don't put yourself in this danger (or not, but I think it's understandable what I mean?) if it isn't necessary. But I also agree with Rai, I thought the same thing for a while. That you desired having someone, Jake, with you. It sounds plausible.

What more was there...Wait, let me reread the letters.

Oh yeah, Rai! One, till now my crow crew seems to still be in stasis (Jake realised that now, too) and two..Please try to take care of your health, yeah? I'm worried for you.

Lis🐾🔥

Ps. Damn...I'm writing this exactly when I wanted to leave the house (I mean, I sadly cannot hide my face forever).

Two new things...I got a message. I mean, it was a threat (because I am the obviously the bad girl that kidnapped Hannah), but I don't care. Maybe that means the stasis is slowly dissolving!

But number 2...I didn't get the vacation. My boss called me almost immediatly. "Under no circumstances [a word is blacked out] Liska. We have July and Alice, Tim and Jenny all want to take free time, too. You are one of our best workers and we can't afford you leaving now. You have no children so you have to wait. Also Max told me that you don't have any problems in family."

So long story short: He wants me to be there tomorrow. Argh, if he would pay me like he's talking that would awesome. And I'll kill Max when I see him next time. (My cousin that thought it was fun to try and steal my work so we both got the rank of 'one of the best workers'. The only problem: Max' title is official. -.- Overall, I'm so much more annoyed than some time earlier. Maybe I should ask Jake for help

Lis,

Okay, the Crow Crew drama is fading a bit, so I'll answer this now. Sorry if I seem disjointed at all, I'm probably going to be going back and forth from conversations to this letter a lot. I can't afford to have them all think I'm compromised, I need to focus on getting out of here and I don't want to deal with their pressure on top of everything else.

Yeah, I don't think the Tumblr profile was Goldie either. Goldie seems to try to be very much a "hands off" sort of entity, like my own. The Tumblr profile thing seems a little out of character for at least my Jake. At least, publicly answering your submission certainly was, though he may have panicked since you sent it in on anon and answered publicly without really thinking about it. I guess I could see him having a Tumblr profile for purposes of following people on social media and watching what they post, though. And then deciding he likes the media and posting a little bit of impersonal things that can't lead back to him. Probably my Jake will say something about that when I hand this letter over to him, stay tuned.

Yeah, I at least read some of the things you sent that profile, and I showed what I had to my Jake too. I'm not sure if I read all of it, since it was a bunch of printed-out screenshots in an envelope, but I read the ask where you told him you hated him (fair at that point but ouch that's got to have hurt) up to when you said you'd found Hannah. After that you sent me your letter telling me time had turned back and the Tumblr screenshots ended.

I'm glad you and Jake managed to talk things out. I was sort of worried about how he'd react, but it sounds like he took it pretty well, considering. I'm... not exactly sure he should be apologizing for the stasis, though. Or the TSB!Jake. Maybe especially not the TSB!Jake. Jakes seem to be oddly different from timeline to timeline, just based on what I've seen of them. TSB has been one of the most different so far.

Oh. One thing I should mention that you might not have seen from the profile: The MWAF used your phone to mock the TSB account, and mentioned that TSB wasn't the only person who could hack, and the MWAF blocked TSB from finding your location. Might want to warn your Jake about that.

A vacation sounds like a good idea :/ It's really hard to go back to normal life right after tragedies or trauma. It feels like the world keeps moving on and you're still stuck in place, and you just want to scream at them that they need to slow down, can't they see that the world is

Good. I'm glad you don't feel alone. It's easier to deal with this stuff when you're with someone else, even if it's not physically.

(Jake, my Jake I mean, if you're reading over my parts of these letters skip to the ||| now please.) I'm not saying he doesn't also enjoy my company. I can tell he does. That doesn't make me not a threat. Like how early on I suspected Thomas, but still thought he was a nice guy and enjoyed talking to him. (Obviously I don't suspect him any more XD ) Still, if you think I should talk with him about it, I'll try to find a tactful way to bring it up.

Yes, because obviously tact is my greatest strength. Sigh.

Like I said to Rai, the underlying desire thing is definitely possible. That'd either mean I'm more obvious about how I feel for Jake than I think I am (very possible, I'm not great at hiding how I feel in person) or the entity has some level of telepathy/mind reading. The reason is that chessboard. Since Jake likes chess, it's clear at least to me the entity expected him to come here at some point. I THINK, if the underlying desire thing is true, I can manipulate myself into wanting specific things by doing things like writing it over and over and repeating it out loud when doing the ritual, but I'm not sure.

|||

It's probably good that your Crow Crew is in stasis, like how it's objectively probably good my outside life is going on without me. Less drama, less pressure.

Huh. The harassment is definitely a promising sign. Maybe you should try contacting Darkness again, same way as I suggested near the beginning? That feels so long ago, but it really can't have been much more than a week, can it?

You... didn't get the vacation. Fucking hell. Is there ANY way you can convince your boss? You really should have time off. Maybe your Jake can help you come up with ideas.

Or at least maybe he can come up with a way to have your boss give you a bonus for your trouble -_-

Oh shit Cleo's interrogating me I'm gonna hand this to Jake now

(The handwriting changes to Jake's.) Hello, Lis.

I agree with Yuvon: "TSB" acts markedly different from myself. There would be no benefit from me promising to be there to find you in the moment, and indeed I would have been falling for a very transparent trap. Even in my possible state of panic, I cannot see myself being there physically, much less revealing myself physically to authorities in the process, unless I was playing the role of bait in a counter-trap. While it is plausible that this was TSB's plan, TSB gave no indication that Yuvon or I could tell that this was the case. Of course, I would have done my best to be there physically in the aftermath of the kidnapping, but not in the moment.

I also agree that the Tumblr profile seems to be out of character for both myself and for "Goldie", though I hesitate to judge TSB's actions by what I myself would do. I seem to vary in surprising ways across universes and even from timeline to timeline, based solely on your current Jake's reactions thus far. I do actually own a Tumblr profile for the exclusive purpose of following social medias I wish to track, but I used a random username generator website for the username and not my own name, and I certainly never posted anything.

The news about the MWAF being able to hack is new to me; I must have missed that the first time I read through the screenshots. That is quite troubling. I suppose I will need to be more careful in future.

I am sincerely sorry your request for a vacation was rejected. I do not know how much you intend to separate your personal life and the Duskwood case, but if your stasis is truly wavering, you may be able to reveal some measure of the danger you are in to convince him to let you flee the area for a small while. Especially since you mentioned in your Tumblr post that you saw a raven note in your wor

Oh.

You need to leave that place. Now. Do not inform your employer of the danger you are in, reveal nothing to him or to anyone, take unpaid time off if you need to. Get your cousin and anyone else you care overly much about out of there too. Invalidate any information you can your employer or coworkers knows about you. Do not tell the truth to anyone, even your cousin. Make up any excuses you need to, ask your Jake for help with ideas if you need to. You may also wish to check that the coworkers your boss listed who are going on vacation are ACTUALLY going on vacation.

This is a priority, Liska. You need to tell your Jake all of this too, especially the part with the note in your workplace. You need to get out of there.

Good luck.

—Jake & Yuvon

(The letter tucks itself into the paper clip with the others.)

[handern]

Hi, so I noticed you play D&D and you're the only person I follow who does and I have a question: can your character really just straight up die in the game? like your health goes to zero and you have to stop playing and you can't use that character ever again? Do you just show up and watch everyone else play for the rest of the sessions? I want to make a D&D character but I'm afraid I'll accidentally kill them and be miserable :(

Aw, these are the kind of things you have to discuss with your DM!

Dropping to 0HP means your character is unconscious but bleeding out

you need to roll against death for three turns, to see if you stabilize or die, but another player can come and heal you before you even have to roll, so it's good to have someone with the Medicine skill (it's not even healing spells, it's more like first aid ability : they stopped the bleeding, did mouth to mouth, managed to get rid of the water in your lungs, etc.)

True DeathTm only happens if :

- you get down to the same number of max HP you have (if your max HP is 8 and you take 16 damage or more, you drop to -8, therefore you die instantly)

- you failed three rolls against death (rolled lower than 10 three times and no one came to help you out)

- you got caught in something you can't avoid like, lava, crushed by rocks, executed by a baddie, etc

If your character does perma die, what comes next really depends on your DM, I'm lucky to be playing DND with two DMs who aren't taking it all too seriously like some ~high level DMs~ jerks out there.

The first one lets us go away with the most ridiculous reasons to get our characters resurrected it's sometimes hilarious (our bard has clones of herself, my tiefling was killed near some paladins who got worried it'd make them look bad if they didn't help her, our sorcerer had flirted with Loki once who now refuses to leave him alone, our barbarian died like 6 times but he has a Destiny that's stronger than death, our archer was resurrected thanks to Loki convincing Diyonisus it'd be fun, etc.), and the second DM discussed true death beforehand with the players and as a general rule, they makes sure the encounters aren't deadly even if they can be hard sometimes

As a DM I'm careful to let my players have access to healing potions and stuff and I don't make them start the game as level 1 bc they really are too squishy at level 1

There ARE jerks who can go "but there's no challenge if you can't diiiiie" and while I understand the idea, enforcing stuff on your players or party members just sucks. It can be heartbreaking to lose your character if you're attached to them! It's a game for fun!! Don't be a jerk, ask your players first what they're comfortable with!! You're not a pro player in a competition!! Ugh!! Rant over.

If your character does die, you're not kicked out of the adventure, dw, it's long games so it wouldn't make sense

You might have to sit out for the rest of the session if there's no way to introduce a new character in the current situation, and then either you can get a new character who will be introduced to the party the next time, or the other players can find a way to bring your dead character back

If your idea of having fun playing DND is different from your DM's or the other players' and instead of being understanding they want to force situations on you and your character that you're not comfortable with, find a new party, it's ok to leave the game even if it's good, you'll have more fun elsewhere

The threat of perma-death can be fun or feel like a challenge for some players though, so really, it depends on both the player and the DM

And it's important for the DM to know about that too like, be honest. Once we had a new player join the party and claimed he was ok with perma-death bc he's ~a gamer not a quitter~ and when his character perma-died he tore down his character sheet and walked out all angry to have "lost the game" then refused to come back at the table which is,,, very yikes and makes no sense,, esp since we were playing with the DM who lets us get away with a lot of crazy shit

ANYWAY I'm unable to answer without making walls of text but it boils down to : talk about it with your DM first! You might even come up with fun or weird ideas about why your character might come back if killed! Or you might one day end up going "hey can you kill my character, I want to pepper in some tragedy in there", who knows

Have fun and don't worry about talking with your DM about what makes you nervous in general! It has to be fun for everyone else there's no point