#like who wins so easily at monopoly though

[clairdelunetarot]

I’m pretty new to this MBTI thing, but if I’m supposedly an ENTP, the stereotype definitely is playing against me. I’ve taken this test twice in the last few years (and the michael caloz where i got entp too), and it always came out as ENTP. So I took the test again (keys2cognition), and even though I got ENTP out of the 3 options, it was the second one.

So now for the first time the first option was ENFP, and I refuse to believe I am.

Because the last ENFP friendship I had (which, despite being as fun and dynamic as I like, with the Ne in common) ended up in a huge fight. She was really sweet, and i get i am not the most sentimental person but I appreciated that in her. My friend, at one point, was so focused on the incredible emotional possibilities that a relationship would bring to her (which, knowing her track record… yeah girl, no…), and I just kept thinking about how it lacked any logic whatsoever. I did the “debating” thing with her (she asked me! i don’t usually do this), i thought it could bring some sense to her but she was so optimistic and in love that it went right over her head. After cutting off the friendship with a lot of tact~ (I admit it, tact is not my forte), she made a show on her Instagram stories about how the people closest to her had betrayed her again. I bit my tongue and still got a callout post LMAO. The worst part is that a mutual friend (she is also an isfp, but I find her very healthy tho) sent it to me. I didn’t search for it. I rolled my eyes when I saw it, and now I refuse to believe it wasn’t a clear use of Ti at the time. I mean, it hurt, but I went about my day. I just got so frustrated with her lack of logical thinking. I believe I came across as controlling, but she asked me to be insistent with her because she had that habit of going all Fi with new relationships. In the end, I had to bite the bullet! But well, this is why i am struggling to believe there’s any Fi as an auxiliary function in me.

[pookietv]

pub golf | arthurtv

me when i don't upload in ages and come back out of nowhere (sorry pookies ily all)

this is obviously not too accurate to chip's pub golf or anything but yeah whatever!!!

but yeah enjoy this poorly constructed and half proofread fic about close friends arthur and y/n getting all drunk and maybe a little flirty :)

as a youtuber in your friendship circle, it becomes somewhat of an initiation ritual to be involved in a pub golf video, so when chip decided on making another monopoly pub golf video, you weren't all too surprised when he decided you just had to make your pub golf debut.

so that was how you had been roped into standing in a park in london, at 3pm on a tuesday, waiting to be assigned into your pairings for this pub golf.

chip stood with a grin on his face, announcing teams of george and harry, chip and theo, steven and chris, and finally, you and arthur, who gave you a grin as you stood next to him.

"the dream team!" you laughed, and arthur nodded as he looked down at you.

"we better win, so you've gotta bring your a-game," he teased slightly and poked you gently in the ribs, "you're gonna owe me big time,"

you narrowed your eyes at him playfully, "oh yeah? and what will i owe you exactly?"

he grinned, "you've gotta sit and rewatch all the harry potter films with me if we lose," he said, causing you to groan out in mock annoyance.

"fine, fine!" you laughed slightly

arthur was easily the one you were closest to in your friendship group: it always ended up being you two paired up together, or nattering on about something no one else seemed to care too much about, and it had become somewhat of a joke to the group, you had been deemed 'future mrs. television'.

and in all honesty, though you would never admit it, you did have a tiny crush on arthur. or you insisted to yourself it was tiny because the reality was you had a big fat crush on arthur and you were embarrassed. but to you, he was just so easy to be around, he was always sweet and listened and you two were always just close.

and of course, what other embarrassment ritual would kick off pub golf like mortifying monopoly themed costumes. george and chris getting stuck as sailors, chip and theo being dogs, steven and chris being penguins, and you and arthur being stuck dressed as the 'wheelbarrows', in hi viz jackets, builders hats and a small childs wheelbarrow, which seemed more like a weapon of mass destruction.

on the walk to the first pub, the boys were already hyper, which did not bode well as their pre-drink states, with chris and george flirting and arthur almost hitting everyone with the mini wheelbarrow, finally getting there.

and the drink to start was of course a double vodka, which arthur had cockily turned to you, "i bet i can finish my drink quicker than you," he said, and you rolled your eyes at him.

"in your dreams you sad little man," you laughed, picking up your drink with a small little nod, as you both began to drink.

you beat him, only just, watching him wipe his mouth with a dejected little sigh, grinning to yourself at your victory whilst teasing arthur.

along with a shot due to the hole being a bunker hole, to which everyone called chip inane, insisting that three units on the first hole was a recipe for disaster.

and you felt they couldn't be more right, as arthur already gave you his slightly dopey grin, the one where you could tell he had maybe not eaten enough so the drink was hitting him a little too quickly.

"so, who do you think is winning this thing?" he asked you, raising an eyebrow in curiosity, and you rolled your eyes with a playful laugh.

"us, obviously," you said, and he gave you a little look as if to say 'come on, no way'.

"you really think we're beating the team of degenerate alcoholics that are harry and george?" he joked, "i mean you know i can barely handle my alcohol, and i've had to carry you home more times than i can count," he teased.

along the route, the drinks only continued, leading to what could be summed up as mass chaos - with george and chris flirting so much you had to seriously question if they were single by choice or to cover up some secret feelings for one another, and steven and chip making friends with some random guy who had the misfortune of asking for directions from them, and you and arthur, walking miles slower than everyone, yapping on whilst holding the vlog camera at your own faces.

"y/n's gonna crash after her next drink, i can feel it in my bones," he smirked to the camera, causing you to reply with a face of mock anger.

"can't be worse then the crash bicycle kick you attempted in the pitchside charity match," you quipped back, a self determined grin on your face as you leaned on him slightly for support, almost tumbling yourself over.

"whoa, there, you good?" he sniggered a little as you caught his arm, his hand gently on your back to stop you from falling.

"uh huh, 'm brilliant, was just making sure you weren't falling behind," you said sarcastically.

"yeah, right. you're the one who needs a babysitter after a couple of sambucas," he jided, leading you to grin a little more.

"well, lucky me i have the most willing babysitter ever, right?" you teased, poking him slightly in his sides.

after being forced into a duet with harry after he had made to do a forfeit for knocking chip over twice, and steven almost throwing up after being forced to chug a bloody mary after insisting that he hated tomatoes, you had wound up waiting on a bench outside one of the pubs whilst the rest of the boys went to the toilet, finished up their drinks or otherwise messed around.

you on the other hand had been dying for fresh air, so ended up drunkly watching the ground as you waited for them to finish up.

arthur approached you on the bench, giving you a small smile as he drunkenly slumped himself next to you.

"you good?" he said, and you smiled and nodded back to be reassuing.

"uh huh, 'm all good, just needed some air," you babbled out, a little breathy.

"no worries, just wanted to check," he said, before hiccupping slightly, making you grin.

"i'm glad we're on the same team," he continued, and you giggled a little, nodding.

you felt your cheeks heat up a little and silently willed it to not be too obvious, "yeah, me too. always great to have a babysitter," you joked back in response, trying your best to stay casual.

"you have this thing where you make everything better, in all honesty." arthur drunkenly admitted, looking slightly down at his shoes, slightly embarrassed himself to be admitting it. he wondered if he might regret saying any of this in the morning, but when he looked up to see the smile spread on your face and the slight pink tinge to your cheeks, he determined that anything he said that made you look so adorably happy was worth saying, at least in his mind.

"you're going to give me an ego, at this rate." you joked back sarcastically, and he rolled his eyes in response, chuckling to himself.

"anyways, whats in it for me if i keep playing babysitter?" he asked, a small smirk on his face.

"well, you get the pleasure of my company, obviously," you replied in a mocking tone

he laughed slightly to himself, shaking his head. "c'mon, i deserve more then that surely?"

your eyebrow raised slightly, "like what?" you giggled out.

"we go out for drinks? like, not in a group. i'll even babysit then, i swear," he joked.

"are you asking me out, mr television?" you asked, your heart racing slightly as you felt determined to keep your tone light and playful.

"depends, are you saying yes?" he asked, leaning slightly closer.

you looked down at the floor for a moment, in mock contemplation, "well i guess that's conditional of how good of a babysitter you are tonight." you teased, before standing up to go find the other boys.

the rest of the pub golf had ended in a twisted drunken blur: with arthur insisting he was at least a ninety-percent on the drunk scale, to harry almost stacking it on a lime bike, in the last pub everyone had become a drunken state, all calling ubers back to their home once revealing the winners of the pub golf - an unsurprising win for harry and george.

since you and arthur lived in the same apartment building, you had decided to book one uber, sitting on the curb and sipping a bottle of water each that you had bought from a nearby corner shop in a desperate attempt to sober yourselves up and stop yourself from gagging every two minutes, your head leaning on arthur's upper arm in attempt to stop your vision from spinning.

"so, put me out of my misery already. was i a good babysitter?" he asked teasingly, but you could tell by the half softened but still half serious look on his face that he was anxiously waiting.

"the best babysitter," you drunkenly babbled in response, leading to a grin spreading across his face.

"good. feel like i'm always about to lose my nerve or something around you, cause i've had a crush on you for the longest and you're so... i don't know, like effortlessly flirty with me, so i didn't know if it was intentional, or if you didn't even realise, but it was just driving me crazy 'cause i never know how to be around you without being some idiot that has an obvious big fat crush on you so... uhm, yeah. suppose i'm waffling a little now."

you let out a grin of relief as you pulled your head slightly from arthur's shoulder so you could look at him, your eyes half lidded from drunkness and a tired but deliriously happy smile across your face.

"i like you too, arthur. 'm glad i seem cool and effortless, cause i'm really just an idiot with an obvious crush too," you laughed a little to yourself.

he let out a small breath he didn't even realise he was holding, "god, that's a relief. um, so, maybe we could do the drinks we mentioned earlier?" he offered with a small grin.

"uh huh. as long as your babysitting skills are still up for grabs," you giggled in response.

"for you? always."

[lady-boketto]

Gaming Headcanons (Call of Duty)

A/n: This is not canon at all and I thought it would be fun to think about what kind of games and gamer the CoD men would be

Price:

Price does not have a lot of gaming experience but he likes to be included in game nights

He's the one who rages the most when he is playing games (but it's mostly when he is playing multiplayer games)

Price prefers board games rather than digital ones (likes the atmosphere that is created when gathering around the table with close friends to sit down and have some fun it)

Don't ever ask him to play poker because he can and will kick your ass (unless you are a poker legend or you manage to cheat without him noticing)

He has his own personal chess board to play with (it's a nice quality wooden one that's not too big so that he can bring it with him to pass time when he doesn't have access to the internet)

Gaz:

A true master of gaming, like there's no game out there that this man won't be good at

Also kind of a sore loser when someone finally manages to beat him, Gaz kind of lets out this big sigh and crosses his arms over his chest while looking off into the corner but he doesn't stay this way for long, it more of a 'in the moment' situation (Gaz is more frustrated that he wasn't good enough to win this round but knows there will be other chances)

Gaz equally enjoys playing digital games as much as he does when he plays a board game (his favorite board game to play is monopoly, since he can get very strategic while he plays and is very easily annoyed when he's sitting in monopoly jail)

Soap:

Johnny is the person who tries to tell stories over the mic only to realize that he's been on mute for the past ten minutes (the rest of the group was wondering why he was so quiet all of the sudden)

He also has a Nintendo switch ( He has a Nintendo lite in the color blue) but he loves playing Mario Kart or any of the Mario Parties and loves it when you get frustrated when he steals first place or star from you (he gives his famous laugh and pecks your cheek while telling you how much he loves you while committing the vile act)

Trolls/griefs a ton. He thinks it's funny when other players scream curse words at him and never misses an opportunity to provoke them even further. (he laughs his ass off when they rage quit or if he has to read their attempt to argue back at him in the game chat)

He actually likes spending multiple hours on a game. Grinding to get the best stuff just so he can brag about it the next day.

Soap also does occasionally broadcast his game play with others (because he likes to look back on the memories when he feeling alone or that he just needs something to cheer his mood up a little)

Ghost:

Ghost is the type of person who would say they only play multiplayer games but likes to secretly play the cozy single player games like animal crossing and Stardew Valley (he rant to you about how unfair Isabella is when rating his island a mere 3 stars or how he often forgets to go back to his house before 2 am because he was too focused on the monsters and loot in the mines.)

Even though he doesn’t mind online multiplayer games to play with the rest of squad 141, he also doesn’t mind to play co-op games with you (his favorites to play are it takes two or playing some version of call of duty zombies on a split screen, he takes pride in protecting you in co-op games or he shyly admits a thank you when you revive him)

He just likes strategic games in general, you will find him often playing chess with Price ( when you watch them play, they always take the longest time possible to make their move, it seems like they both go through every possible move until they find the best position to move forward but the game is always interrupted by something that needs one or the other’s attention)

[waitingforsecretsouls]

Zahard downplay is crazy. I'll grant Phantaminum (though regardless of how easily he could have defeated Zahard, fact of the matter is also that for some reason he didn't *shrug*). But Enryu (in its extent) and Urek?

Enryu fought an Admin (whom I, and that's just my personal opinion, believe to not be categorically more powerful than fully realized Irregulars outside of their supposed administrator monopoly over shinsu and its distribution, at least no to the point of categorically out fire - powering said Irregulars) and some fodder but people make the gulf between him an Zahard akin to heaven and earth (nevermind that Enryu is not an administrator, so the whole "but he killed one, and SIU said Zahard could never do it!" is somewhat of a false equivalent to draw for a hypothetical Enryu and Zahard battle. Anyone remember the whole "King of the Tower" Zahard deal, granted said position by virtue of the administrators? Of course he couldn't kill an administrator, he's the Irregular with the most known administrator contracts ("shackles") out of them all).

Mind you, I'm not even saying Zahard would win against Enryu or anything, but he IS 1) a fellow Irregular capable of Shinwonryu 2) a physical anomaly and durability machine, so I don't think it's weird to grant him better reaction times and endurance to say, a first volley of "Red Rain", than background rank and file Rankers. He also categorically doesn't underestimate people, even his far younger and inexperienced data only gradually tested Bam because he absolutely trashed him in their first encounter and wanted to have some fun, so it's unlikely Outside Zahard wouldn't realize the threat Enryu poses (SIU did say he had excellent survival instincts as befitting an adventurer) or not start all out. I'd even argue that to Outside Zahard a nearly hopeless fight to the death would be the equivalent of the fun his data self had with Bam, whether he himself has realized that or not (as reckognized by his data <3).

Urek punched through some scenery, fought an upjumped administrator parasite, needing Bam's help for the finish and had an exchange of hits with Luslec who chose to bounce. The fact of this extended battle screentime alone makes it narratively unlikely that Zahard is only going to be slightly more dangerous, because I see no way that wouldn't feel highly underwhelming to the audience. But even with those "feats" trying to argue that he's more powerful and how widespread that opinion seems already is kinda crazy. There's a reason 90% of Urek>Zahard is based on the old blogpost info about Arie Hon saying that Urek was "far better" than him when they fought at his floor (which. Big whoop, so was Zahard, 10:1 in that regard for him, since we're using blogpost info and such).

And again in reverse, I'm not saying Urek is not incredibly powerful in his own right or deserving of his high ranking, simply that he has yet to tangibly demonstrate something that would put, say, his physical strength (something I've surprisingly often seen as the edge people would give him over Zahard, when imo, giving him an advantage in speed seems far more likely, given his signature technique of "firing shinsu at the speed of light" and everything about Zahard's highlighted monstrous strength) above Zahard, who has the entire Princess of Zahard stuff on his side as a "feat" in that regard alone (creating Princesses out of not only Great Family members but even random Towerborn physically superior to all Ten Great Families average and the (physical) equal of Rankers even all the way back on the Floor of Tests with just a little of his power).

I'll also say that the whole concept of "yeah, number 1 and 2 are definitely stronger than number three (this checks out), but ACTUALLY number four was also stronger than number three all along!" (Uhh, what? In that case, don't give Urek a definitive ranking built into the earlierst lore, that so far checks out (Phantaminum>Enryu>Zahard), and make him a Traumerei or something) would just feel...Random. Especially since number three is the primary antagonist of the whole series.

Tldr; I see the gap between Zahard and Urek as likely to be wider than the one between Zahard and Enryu.

[uummyuu]

im probably not the first to request this but could you do invincible united headcanons? 🫣🫣

invincible united headcanons

unironically you are the first request, so here's me going off about men who should probably be in jail but aren't for plot convenience :))

in other teams' headcanons i call them family/fandom of space nerds but these guys? nah, they only tolerate each other because they keep each other out of jail (or at least vince does).

honestly vince probably just has some sort of mafia like underground connections to keep these guys out of jail, moreover how he even got dooma OUT in the first place.

the only (somewhat) sensible guy i can see in the team is automatic but even he's kinda pushing it. like bro what kinda rage do you hold inside you to be able to throw that hard??? he and dooma are easily the guys who could actually murder someone and get away with it.

dooma's definitely a wall puncher, like his wall has several fucking holes in it from the times he goes into rages. (the team have literally learned to cage this man in his room when he's angry, barrackading the windows included, one time he escaped through them and god—)

dooma's probably taking anger management somewhere but hell it ain't working all that well, his therapist probably needs a fucking therapist.

anyways onto dingaan my sweetie <33, he's just so head empty but loyal in a misguided puppy kinda way i can't help but be endeared to him. but also the way skarra keeps bringing him into his shit is so funny because bro you KNOW dingaan of all people ain't qualified to operate a freaking crane are you insane.

i hope dingaan's happy honestly he deserves it. (probably knows skarra is kinda using him as a placeholder for his long broken friendship with shakes which bums him out a bit but he wants to be there for skarra no matter what).

anyways onto skarra, considering he's the antagonist of the show i don't really have too much of an opinion on him?? probably laments his relationship with shakes (platonically or romantically take your pick) but he's too deep into the schtick of hating him he can't get out of it now. he sees no way out for himself or even a method of how to return things to the way they used to be between them.

oh but i felt pretty bad for him in rookie season when he failed to pass for supa strikas just cause he wasn't ready to die for a couple of people he'd just met. like i dunno i thought he was reasonable for that even though the show kinda pictures it in a "he deserved it after sabotaging shakes" kinda way. alternate universe where both he AND shakes get into supa strikas where they can slowly patch up their friendship and develop a healthy relationship when?

anyways invincible united tried to hold a game night once. keyword tried. they were not invincible, nor united.

dingaan wanted to play monopoly of all games and uh, yeah. didn't end well dooma smashed the gameboard in half when he kept having to pay skarra rent. also landed in jail way too many times. they learned not to do that again, but in the first place they were never really a buddy-buddy type of team.

some players just see it as a job while the others see it as a way to flaunt themselves and prove their skill to the world. football isn't really a dream to this team, more of just a way to show off while making money.

honestly no shame there, whatever works for them and they're clearly skilled enough to have this sort of mindset. but the so-called "beautiful game" is more of a hollow reality to them. get up, practice, play football, win. do whatever it takes.

[itzpris15634]

In the Heights (ft. Russell x Vinnie x Sunil)

Sunil, Vinnie, and Russell revisit some old memories in Russell's childhood treehouse.

===

“Say, uh- your treehouse is so cool, Rusty! We should start hanging out here more,” a young Vinnie beamed at his friend seated across him.

“Trying to distract me with compliments so I forget to shout the important word? Not a chance!” Russell glared at Vinnie, before placing down his second-to-the-last card, “UNO!”

“Aw, man, I was looking forward to giving you the shame of having to pick up a few extra cards…” Vinnie said, dealing one of his cards as well.

And with that, Russell placed down his last one, “I win! Gimme the cards you have left so I can count the score.”

“Hnngg- fineee,” Vinnie did so, handing them over in defeat.

"So, I take that you two are done?" Sunil was sitting in the corner of the treehouse. He looked up from the child's magazine he was reading to look at his friends.

"Mhm. And even better, I win!" Russell cheered.

"Not fair!" Vinnie crossed his arms.

"Well, maybe you should have been a bit more strategic."

"How much strategy can I really use? If you want strategy, let's play something else."

"Okay, fine. Do you wanna play Monopoly next time then?"

"…N-nevermind. Let's stick to UNO…"

"Umm…" Sunil stepped between his two friends, "Hey! Uh, I was reading this magazine, and… I found an idea that might be really cool to try!"

"An idea? For what?" Vinnie asked, curiosity piqued.

"You know how we keep growing?"

"I mean, of course. It's a natural part of human life, where we grow and develop our minds and bodies as time goes on-"

"Okay, nerd, we get it," Vinnie interrupted Russell's little monologue.

"Hey! You say nerd as if it's an insult."

"Get to the cool idea, Sunil!!"

"Uh, w-well… Russell, is it okay if we write on the walls of your treehouse?"

"As long as it's easily washable, maybe."

"Would chalk work?"

"Sure."

"Alright! So, I was thinking… what if we marked our heights? And- let's say, every year, we can record how much taller we've gotten!"

"Sunil, that's a genius idea!" Vinnie exclaimed.

"Yeah, we could totally do that! Lemme just go back down to ask my dad for some chalk," Russell said, opening the door to exit the treehouse, and climbing down the ladder.

"Woah. You guys actually want to try the idea?"

"Why not? It sounds fun!" Vinnie said, "You're so smart Sunil, you know?"

Sunil blushed at the compliment, "I-I guess…"

"Found some!" Russell climbed back into the treehouse, a box of chalk in his hand.

"Let's start then!"

The three boys got to work, though not without a few obstacles.

"We'll mark our own spots with the same color as our hair!" Russell declared, bringing out a green chalk from the box, "Vinnie, you can go first. Alright, so, take off your shoes just for a bit, and stand right there… hey, no tiptoeing! There we go. And… done!"

Once all their heights were charted, they took to making observations.

"Hmm… I'd say generally, we're all the same height right now," Russell started, "And differences are minimal."

"So no teasing about who is shortest or tallest?" Sunil asked.

"Nah. Not yet, at least," Vinnie whispered to himself.

"Yet?!" Sunil cried out.

"Hey, you never know! Russell said it during his nerdy rant- we'll keep growing! And what if we don't grow the same amount? Then there's gonna be one of us who's shorter."

"Fair point, Vinnie," Russell said, putting one arm around each of his friends, "Though, I like to think that one day, we'll all grow big and tall!"

"Yeah!!!"

Several years later….

"Well. Introducing our relationship to Jerry went better than I thought!" Vinnie stretched his arms up above his head, feeling the cool breeze of the evening air hit his skin.

Russell and Sunil followed. The three of them found themselves in the backyard of Russell's childhood home.

"I'll say. I felt like I was gonna faint back there..!" Russell put a hand on his forehead, a bit dizzy…

Sunil knelt on the ground and took hold of Russell's back, pressing a little kiss to his cheek, "Russell, relax. It went well! And we're still here, together. We don't have to worry about it anymore."

Russell felt himself smile.

"Th-thank you…"

"Anytime, dearest."

"No, I mean. In general. For everything. And to both of you. Thanks for sticking with me."

"We're your boyfriends, Rusty! You think we wouldn't?" Vinnie bent down to join the hug.

Russell relished in the sensation. Vinnie and Sunil. Love. Warm, fuzzy, happiness…

"Hey, Russell?" Vinnie said, "Can I ask something?"

"Anything."

"The old treehouse… is it safe to go up there?"

"The treehouse?" Sunil asked, "It's been a long time since we've last been in there, don't you think? It might have been worn down by the elements, or…" Sunil shuddered, "…eugh, perhaps bugs have taken over."

"If what my dad said is true, he's been looking after the treehouse all these years. Even though, well, it's been forever since-“

"Good enough for me!" Vinnie said, already climbing up the ladder to the treehouse, "Come on!"

"I- Vinnie! WAIT! WAIT FOR US!"

Sunil and Russell followed right after.

-

"I know it is the fact that we grew, but it more so feels like this place shrunk…" Sunil said, crawling around the perimeter of the little treehouse. If he stood up at full height, he'd have to bend, which wasn't very comfortable. He'd rather much crawl, in such a case.

Russell and Vinnie were a bit luckier- while Vinnie had to duck a few headboards here and there, he could still walk and stand well enough. Russell could just walk normally like he does anywhere else.

"Your dad wasn't lying when he said he's been taking care of this place… The goddamn electricity still works!" Vinnie repeatedly flicked the light switch, watching as the bulb that hung by the ceiling switched between on and off, on and off, on and-

Russell grabbed Vinnie's hand and pulled it away from the switch, "Please don't do that."

"Okay okay! Sorry."

"Either way- I think my dad moved a lot of the things back into my room in the house-" Russell talked as he approached a toy box in the corner of the treehouse, opening its lid, "-though a few things are still here- Monopoly, surprisingly. And…"

"Oh hey, my UNO deck!" Vinnie reached into the box and grabbed the aforementioned card game. "I was wondering where it went! I knew it was probably somewhere in here."

"Well, that's one happy reunion. Hey, Sunil! Come on, there are a few things we can check out in this box, and- Sunil?"

Sunil was elsewhere- physically and mentally. He was seated in front of one of the walls of the tree house, reminiscing…

"Oh, right. Our little height chart," Russell approached Sunil. He took a seat next to him and leaned on his shoulder, "Been a while, huh?"

"Mhm…" Sunil hummed, "I'm surprised rainwater hasn't washed the chalk away. It looks so fresh and new."

"Like Dad said, he's been taking care of the place. Maybe he redrew over the old lines to keep them looking new?"

"That seems likely."

Vinnie, from behind the two of them, said, "Hey, idea- what if we recorded our heights right now?"

Sunil scoffed, "If you are willing to break the ceiling so I can stand properly? Then sure."

The three of them shared a laugh.

"I don't think it'd be a problem for itty-bitty Rusty over here." Vinnie chuckled.

"Hey! I grew, like, what? One foot? Two?" Russell retorted playfully, "Not that bad, right?"

Vinnie finally took a seat- just next to Russell, leaving Russell sandwich between the two.

"I don't think it matters. You're our Russell, and we like you just the way you are."

Sunil nodded in agreement, "Absolutely."

"Oh? Awww…"

Russell must have done something very good to deserve these two.

===

Day 18: tree house

🎶 I must have done something gooooddd…. 🎶

Aaaaand yeah I think i'll start putting summaries for the fics now.

I intended this to be a platonic thing but whoops my hand slipped I wrote polyboys.

this fic is very specific to my humanizations, since Russell is shown to be the shortest one. not just out of the boys, but like- all of the main 7 lol.

[natasha-in-space]

HELLO!! I wanna request something yay. I dont really have anything concrete in mind tho lol just that I want something with Zen.

Whenever I think about Zen usually domestic fluff (or angst) comes into mind so maybe something with that? Or if you wanna just completely throw me off that's totally welcome too

I'm being really vague here so I'd get if you didn't wanna write something, no pressure, totally up to you lol

~ <3

Zen might be a beginner at computer games, but he's definitely no stranger to board games... And, he's a way better strategist than you'd think at first glance! Too bad you got too cocky for your own good and ended up completely bankrupt in your weekend session of monopoly. Granted, you really shouldn't have underestimated a man who had to get by practically on his own since he was a teenager. Zen knew planning, and Zen knew finances.

And so, one last horrified gasp was all that accompanied your eminent defeat, as you stared, utterly appalled, at the amount of debt that was steadily increasing, until you had no choice but to accept, that it was way more than you could ever pay off, however lucky your next hand could have been.

Who could possibly know that a relaxing session of some good old monopoly with your handsome boyfriend might turn so competitive and heated in just a few hours of playing? Maybe you shouldn't have boasted about your long-running winning streak as much as you did. To say that your pride was mercilessly destroyed and smashed into pieces would be the understatement of the century, that's for sure. You couldn't really blame Zen for bursting out laughing at your utterly dumbfounded reaction, especially considering all the cocky teasing you put him through just a few minutes prior.

Cruel is karma.

"My, what a thrilling turn of events! And I didn't even have to charm my way to victory. Or maybe my beauty is just so blinding to my adorably smug opponent?" Zen chuckled, mischievous twinkles slowly creeping its way to his beautiful ruby eyes as he watched you gawk, his chin prepped up comfortably onto his palm. He was clearly enjoying this way too much for his own good, which only made you feel more embarrassed by the stupidity of it all.

Finding your mind completely blank for any believable excuse that would save you face from the inevitable session of some well-deserved teasing that was coming your way hard and fast, you found nothing better to do but to grab the nearest pillow to you and hide your burning face in it, crawling back further into the couch you were sitting in. Maybe if you hid yourself from his piercing gaze well enough, your dignity will somehow make it out of this alive. Albeit barely "I just- Got distracted! That's all. Don't be so proud of it."

Yeah, right.

You knew you were acting sort of childish right now, but admitting your own defeat was not something you ever did easily. Especially not in monopoly, a game that you've, supposedly, always been a master at. Well, at least that's a good and valuable lesson about pride you just got served hot and ready right on your plate. Your own competitiveness has led you to your demise. Oh, the the poetic irony.

"Oh, babe~" Zen practically purred out the nickname you knew so well, slowly but surely crawling over your way, until you could feel his rich cologne surrounding you in its enticing presence. Now your face was burning up for a completely different reason than before, only making you burry yourself further into your protective shield in the form of the fluffy pillow. Though, try as you might, you could do nothing to stiffle back a choked gasp as your boyfriend placed one single heated kiss right underneath your ear, making you shiver with delight as the sensitive skin of your neck tingled with a rush of warmth. "Do you have any idea how adorable you look right now? You're only making me want to beat you at other board games as well, just to see you pouting and trembling like that. Are you doing it on purpose?"

You gulped, finding your heart beating wildly right in your throat at such a bold proposition. You thought you'd surely get mad at him for suggesting putting you in such an embarrassing situation ever again, but, instead, you only felt a small rush of anticipation trickling down your neck and settling somewhere deep in the pit of your stomach. Loosing was always something you hated, but...

For Zen, you just might make an exception.

[inserttemptitlehere]

That's fair, but I feel like "stuff the game doesn't care about but players do" isn't really "fighting against the game".

There is still tension and stakes, it's just shifted to something players actually care about rather than the extremely unenjoyable death consequence.

Like, Monopoly is a game where you win after everyone else goes bankrupt. But this takes a long time and is generally unenjoyable for the people who have to sit around while bankrupt not getting to play. So many people change the win condition to something like "Most amount of money after x time/turns". And the game really doesn't care about turn number or game time! But by adding this external condition, people find the game more enjoyable. This 100% doesn't make Monopoly a good game on its own merits though.

And yeah, it can create new abusive play styles - people deliberately taking long turns to run out the clock or mortgaging everything on the last turn or something. But that's stuff you can (hopefully) talk through and have people not do.

You might suggest just playing a different game, but if you enjoy 90% of monopoly's gameplay, then it's not unreasonable to tweak the last bit of it - assuming the uh "banker" doesn't feel too pressured by it and also is happy to play with those rules (metaphor breaks down a bit here).

Like, sometimes you want to play a game with dungeons and a dragon, and the dragon is also the estranged father of the sorcerer in the group. It's just more fun if the sorcerer is alive at that point.

I do wholeheartedly agree that planning out a whole 5 act story is unreasonable because player agency means that things can easily derail.

A lot of people's issues with modern D&D would be immediately fixed if they accepted the game for what its rules actually say the game is trying to achieve (even though the rules are usually not vocal about it and you kind of have to divine that purpose).

Like, a lot of GMs seem to stress over making their games challenging enough but not too lethal because if the dreaded TPK happens or a character dies before fulfilling their personal arc then the narrative momentum of the game dies. But like:

Death is pretty much the only consequence of note in modern D&D. It might not be a fun consequence but without it you lose all tension

The fact that death is always on the table should be an indication that the game itself does not care about narrative continuity nor your characters' personal arcs.

Despite all the modern guardrails and mechanics like bonds and ideals that are supposed to add character death, D&D is ultimately a "some assholes go to die in a ditch" type of game. And that's okay. But playing it as a "I must preserve narrative continuity and make sure characters stay alive or else my plans are ruined" game means an uphill battle against the game itself.

[thenighttcat]

a rundown of my chaotic journal from last year and a bit of this year

10 June

I am on my way to the Monopoly tournament when I nearly fall asleep while standing on the train and fall over. Fortunately, I catch myself in a startle just before I trip and end up on the ground. The spillover effects of jet lag have not yet been eliminated. Hopefully i’ll finally be able to fall asleep tonight and sleep till sunrise. i’m so tired inside that i’m even half hoping that i’ll lose the first round so I can go home early and hit the sack. Not quite the sporting spirit, I have to admit, but you’d be surprised what lack of sleep can do to a person.

I don’t expect to win, even though there’s always that tiny sliver of idealism within that believes that somehow with a stroke of luck (a very great stroke indeed) i’ll go away with the champions trophy and a hundred thousand bucks. Oh how id like to be a hundred thousand dollars richer!

 12 June

One of the most important traits, if not the most important, that a friend needs to have is dependability. Can you depend on him? He might be a kind-hearted, good-natured person. He could be extremely talented and tell the best jokes, he might be able to play the guitar and be willing to go on the craziest adventures with you. But at the end of the day, when you are in need, will he be there for you? Because if one day you find yourself caught in a thick fog that you cannot escape from, and when you call out but there is no response, no figure emerges from the smoke and appears, if at the end of it all when all's been said and done, if in times of trouble you have to walk alone, then what sort of a friend is your friend?

 Not the sort I am that is for sure.

 17 June

Emotions are all just smoke and mirrors

 28 Nov

 Free beer from mini bar. Full and bloated, poured a good deal of it down the sink. Wasteful, need to learn to say no. Endowment effect ruins us all.

  2 Dec

Back in Singapore from Vietnam Trip. Going to Laos on Tuesday, savouring this in-between rest in SG. Thinking of M, why do I fall in love so easily? I don't want to sleep.

 6 Dec

Dazzling sunset, muted purplish hues. Soul deadened to the beauty. Unable to feed awe. Thinking of Miss A.

 7 Dec

Sitting alone with my bottle of beer at a gorgeous beach bar. Strings of bulbs create a warm, relaxing atmosphere and in the middle of the beach they even set up a campfire. Wondering if I am relegated to a lonely, selfish life.

 25 Dec - went berserk on christmas day????

I have no idea why I am writing this. I'm just bored I guess. I used to write with pen and paper but now I decided to use the computer because at a certain point we must all stop clinging on to our anti-technology ideals and grow up I suppose. What should I title this? Hmmm let me think. Lol.

I have a rule when I write. I must keep typing non-stop and no matter what no hit the backspace button, unless there's some serious spelling error I guess. I try not to be strict with myself too much, but also not so not strict because either way you find yourself in an extreme and we all know that extremes are generally not healthy.

I wanted to talk about something that happened today. It was a very unfortunate happening and it scarred me for like, life.

So what happened was that I walking down the main street casually and in a cool, fashionable sort of way. I can't help it, I just have an effortless style, I was born with it what can I say. Some people say I'm an unreliable narrator but let's not get too caught up in that haha. Anyway, as I was saying, I was strolling down the street in a casual and cool, fashionable sort of way when I met this dude named Greg. He started telling me all about his life story. Spilling it loudly out like it was a bag of beans and he wanted the whole world to know it. I was like:  "Hey dude, whose name is Greg, who I never met before, why are you doing this? Don't you think that maybe it's not a good idea to randomly share your life story with strangers?"

And Greg was all tears and red-faced, because he was telling a sad and embarrassing story about his ex-wife who took his kids away from him. He said, "After forty years of living a phony lie, I have decided to become an authentic man. An authentic man, I dare say."

This morsel of truth rather shocked me. Why would anyone want to be authentic when they can be phony. I mean, who wants to bare their true selves, whether it be to friends, family or random strangers you meet on the street. It was unnatural and I would have told him so, but I'm not an authentic person as you can see and so I withheld that piece of information from him. Anyway, after he was done with his life story, which was tragic and full of bumps and plunges, he shook my hand in a very formal way and then we parted ways, never to meet each other again I'm sure.

As I was walking away, I began to think about what Greg said about authenticity, and found that it rather bothered me. Authenticity, authenticity, authenticity. What's the point of authenticity really? What we want is solutions ain't it right? We want to better ourselves and improve our miserable lives. Why be so caught up instead in being "authentic" when all that authenticity really is, is coming face-to-face with your damned problems and seeing how miserable you are and parading that misery around wherever you go. That makes no sense to me. And so I decided that I was going to write this Greg guy off.

I went back to my apartment.

Haha it isn't actually an apartment. It is a FACILITY. It is a facility for all the homeless failures like me. Except that I'm not a failure. I refuse to believe that I am. NOOO. I am just staying in this temporary abode, and one day I tell you I'm gonna get out of this dreadful place. Nobody will dare take pity on me then.

Anyway, the facility is empty because most people are at work. This makes me feel even more like a failure because even the other homeless failures have managed to get a job during the daytime unlike ME. There is one other guy in the facility at this time of the day though, and his name is Sarah. Or rather her name. Doesn't matter. I treat all the people who live here as guys because I don't want to fall in love with nobody, no way I'm not. That's pathetic. Genetics determine that failure + failure = double failure. And boy I don't my kids to turn out that way that's for sure.

Anyway, as I was saying, Sarah is mooching around the facility with a vape in her mouth. I wonder where she managed to get the vape from. I mean, it costs quite a big deal of money right. If she doesn't have a job and stays in the facility, what money does she have to afford all this? I ask her this and she tells me to mind my own business, and so I do. I go into the room and mind my own business, but the only problem is that I don't have any business and I am at a point where I can't even be bothered to switch on my phone because that just means hours and hours of mindless memes and looking at Instagram  and just feeling like crap because everyone's lives are shinier and better than mine. So no thank you. In the end I just decide to lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling and the blank walls wondering how on the earth I managed to finish up in this state. PATHETIC if you ask me.

  1 Jan 2023

I feel a pang of sadness in the knowledge that not everyone made it to the new year

 2 Jan 2023

All that accompanied me in my loneliness were my imagination; shadows cast by a flickering candlelight that vanished the moment the fire died.

 7 Jan

On the train ride home tonight I was thinking about how it will never work out with Faith, and it was a wearisome thought that spun off many more wearisome thoughts that I could not even comprehend myself. It then occurred to me that the thoughts and feelings of a person are such wearisome things, along with the opinions of others towards you and those you have of others.

I'm done with living in this sphere where there isn't very much that I can do. The creatures here are wild and cannot be tamed. No one lives forever, and it is time to stop wasting time. I'm leaving, and focusing on what is important - ACTION. That is something I can make up my mind and commit to.

15 Jan

 Me and JC are too stingy

 We meet our destiny on our the paths we take to avoid it. Defense is a poor strategy.

 Learning to let Miss A go. Realising that appearances are deceiving, and that love at first sight may really be an open door to catastrophe

[weekly-fandom-rambles]

Hellooooooooo I have a request!

What if the Demon brothers played monopoly? Who would win?

Board Game Brothers

Headcanons on what types of games would be the brother’s favorites.

Been having a rough time writing fics, so hope these headcanons will suffice. -S

*Obey Me Masterlist*

Lucifer

In dealing with mindless paperwork constantly, Lucifer has found a twisted sort of enjoyment in Management games.

Whether it’s because of the sense of control and power he gets, or because he is frighteningly good at it, Luci is a self-proclaimed master at these types of games.

This takes form in quite a few ways.

There’s the casual farming simulator on his D.D.D., which he optimized in no time flat.

Or the money-based board games he plays with his brothers.

Lucifer absolutely kills at Monopoly, to the point where it might as well be torture for the other players.

Everyone always tries to gang up on Luci, until he puts the tiniest amount of effort in and crushes his opponents.

The brothers have decided to only play Monopoly when MC is out of the house. Otherwise, there could be a major injury without them even playing the game.

Mammon

It might be because of his sin, but Mammon’s favorite games are those of chance.

Cards, dice, roulette, slots. All right up his alley.

However, it’s not just the incentive of money that makes them Mam’s favorite. (although that does sweeten the deal)

No, Mammon likes these games because of the statistics and psychology involved in them.

Understanding how your opponent thinks or what odds he has changes the games from chance into games of skill and patience.

Mammon is scarily good at understanding these kinds of tactics and using them to his advantage.

Not that it always works out in his favor.

And not like he could articulate that clearly to anyone else.

Leviathan

Of course, Leviathan’s favorite games are JRPGs

There are so many aspects of the game he can fall in love with.

There are characters and storylines that he can easily get immersed into.

There are stats, resources, and speed runs to optimize.

There are easter eggs and developer details he can gush over with other fans.

Levi can spend days invested in a single game and be the happiest demon in the world.

Only to have it swapped out with the next JRPG that catches his eye.

Even though he hates it, please remind him to touch grass.

Satan

Wow, a shocker. The book nerd likes visual novels. /sarcastic

But, no, seriously. Satan gets really into visual novels.

At first, he didn’t get it. Why clutter a perfectly good story with unnecessary game elements?

But just as Satan learned to like other media, he grew to find the additional elements charming.

How the music and visuals of the game serve to enhance the experience of the novel.

And especially the choice options, letting him enjoy the same story from multiple angles and multiple endings.

Satan tends toward more story-based visual novels rather than the relationship otome games.

Also likes the human world games over the Devildom games. (please don’t actually put him inside the game again)

Asmodeus

Asmodeus doesn’t play many games, but the ones he does play are often rhythm games.

It started with dancing games to stay in shape, but it progressed beyond that.

Asmo has one or two rhythm games on his D.D.D. that he plays when he’s not busy.

The main draw for him is the game’s music.

He gets to enjoy the music in his daily life, even if he doesn’t play the game constantly.

Despite being a “casual”, Asmo is shockingly good at all the rhythm games he plays.

Like, he put a high score on one of the arcade machines without breaking a sweat.

Levi is annoyed at Asmo’s effortless skill, but can’t really stay mad at him.

Beelzebub

Beelzebub is another who doesn’t game much, but his favorites are side scrollers.

They’re easy to get good at and fun to play.

Especially when he gets to play with other people.

Both in co-op multiplayer or switching competitive, Beel likes to have a friend to enjoy his gaming time with.

Super Devil Bros. is probably his favorite game, despite how hectic it gets.

Everyone’s yelling at each other and trying to outdo one another in-game, but they all get invested.

The common goal is enticing in the same way Fangol is for Beel, and he loves it.

That is until one of the controllers gets broken in a fit of rage.

Belphegor

Belphegor likes search games, like spot the difference or “find x number of object” games.

Firstly, it prioritizes mental power over actual gaming power (a plus for this lazy demon).

Second, the skillset has real-life benefits.

Someone misplaced something in the room? Belphie can see it in 0.5 seconds flat.

Also lets him have the best hiding spots, for his stuff and himself.

Third, and most important to him, he’s better than his other brothers.

He doesn’t gloat much, but when he does Belphie will rub it in Lucifer’s face so much it’s not even funny.

Hides all of Lucifer’s left shoes just to piss him off. Only the left ones. Luci takes 3 hours to find them all.

Requests are closed.

[diovstheworld]

La Squadra and Games Night

another one of those ones that i have no idea why i thought about it lmao. anyway, enjoy! also, sorry if this has been done before

୨ ╭ ୨୧ ✦ ︶꒷꒦・⎯⎯・⎯⎯・₊ˎ✧๑

Ghiaccio:

probably the one who wanted a games night and is arguably one of the worst at whatever game they choose to play

unless it’s something like wii sports or mario kart. he’s a god at anything on the wii tbh

he’s not necessarily bad at board games it’s more that everyone is just better than him (maybe apart from pesci) and he lacks strategy

his least favourite game is monopoly. he always goes bankrupt and the game always causes an argument amongst the group (and normally results in ghiaccio storming out the room and formaggio laughing his ass off)

gets very excited when he wins a game of mario kart and will not shut up about it: ‘remember when i just came first in every single race and you guys didn’t?’

normally results in him getting slapped with a pillow by illuso or formaggio

Formaggio:

good all rounder in any game they play, even if it’s a strategy game. it’s not that he exactly has a strategy, he just gets lucky.

his favourite game to play is just dance if they’re playing the wii or something and if it’s a dance that requires two people he’s normally playing with illuso. they both take it equally as seriously and it often ends in them shoving each other so they mess up the moves

also a big fan of mortal kombat. he finds playing any fighting games like that against ghiaccio to be funny as hell because he normally wins. he always gets a kick out of ghiaccio losing the rag

would take video games over board games any day lmao

Prosciutto:

unlike ghiaccio, he loves monopoly and it’s definitely his favourite to play. he’s is definitely the best at monopoly and it annoys all the members of the team, specifically illuso and ghiaccio

not good at video games at all and hates when one of the team members chooses to play a video game instead of a board game

this is mainly because he doesn’t understand the controls but he’s too proud to ask for assistance. pesci can often be found trying to subtly help his big bro <3

normally drinks too much wine when they have a games night and gets even more competitive than normal (many a wine glass has definitely been broken during a games night)

coincidentally, the only time you’ll get prosciutto to play just dance is if he has had a few glasses of wine lmao

Risotto:

another good all rounder with any type of game except unlike formaggio he actually does have strategies when playing games. he might seem like he’s losing at the start of the game, but this is just part of his plan. he will probably end up winning

his favourite games are normally board games and such. likes connect 4 and jenga because he can easily work out strategies for winning

and he’s probably one of the few that has the patience in jenga so he normally wins anyway and has slowly became a game he liked because of this reason

also the one who’s normally calming down the fuelled-by-drink competitive prosciutto

but if you get risotto on the drinks, he will probably be just as wild. just don’t bring it up the next morning, you will regret it. he’ll deny all knowledge and probably bring up whoever called him out’s own most embarrassing moment of the evening (and in the hitman team residence, there is always someone who does something more embarrassing than him lmao)

Illuso:

again, really good at just dance even though it’s not necessarily his favourite game. he won’t admit it but he loves doing the dances for two players so he can play with formaggio. he thinks the pair make a good just dance duo

loves sabotaging games when people have to take bathroom breaks (this normally happens they’re playing bowling on wii sports and the second someone leaves he botches their turn)

definitely a sore loser.

the kind of guy who plays the games over and over when he’s on his own to try and practice to get better as well as figure out all the ways he can win. i can imagine him doing a lot of research online for good ways to cheat and not get caught lmao

Pesci:

definitely the worst at games night. you can normally find him losing most games (though isn’t a sore loser unlike some of the other guys)

he does have a hidden talent for the mario games though, but he doesn’t often get to play them apart from mario kart, which is coincidentally one of the ones he’s the worst at

i feel like some of the other gang members often try help him cheat

but when they do that ghiaccio definitely loses his temper lmao

his favourite game is animal crossing and he does often try to get the others to play with him during games night! most of the time his requests are denied because it doesn’t have enough ‘action’ for the other guys but they probably end up caving in at some point and play for an hour or two at the end of the evening

Melone:

another one joining in the excessive wine drinking of games night

better at video games than board games for sure but honestly he has good strategies for both. since they’ve played so much, he’s picked up on how the others play and uses this to his advantage

doesn’t necessarily brag about his wins but he definitely has a smug little smile on his face every time he wins a game

also not a big lover of monopoly but he won’t get mad about it if the guys want to play it

honestly i think just dance would be his favourite too

Sorbet and Gelato:

probably play games as a team. the rest of the guys allow it because they don’t win often anyway lmao

if it’s games like mario kart then i can see one of them being the person participating and the other giving emotional support from the side

and in board games it’s mostly the same. you may find them rotating between each other each time it’s their turn

[applestorms]

okay i took a shower and thought about this a bunch more so a couple sporadic additional reflections:

one: homestuck is surprisingly coherent for such a long & convoluted story, which i think in large part can be attributed to the fact that a lot of hussie's process for writing seems to be based around creating rules for the world and then sticking to them. this is what leads to the callbacks, both in terms of pictures/positions (dave/jake/tavros lying on the ground) and words (blank like a blank and blank on your blank), but it also shows up in other areas (john's dad only ever speaking through notes, typing quirks, etc.) and is what contributes to a lot of homestuck's Vibe that is so difficult to get across to people who haven't read it before. it's also what allows for an incredible number of fan theories, as you take basically any repeated image in homestuck and extrapolate meaning from there (see the entirety of malo's blog for the application of this to somewhat horrifying ends)

two: the idea that the kids' fetch modi can be read as representations of how they think works better and better the more that i think about it and i kind of love that? to go through the first four kids:

john: starts w/ the stack modus & very few cards: very basic, he can only focus on a few things at a time and kinda lets every new thought drag him around (adhd john headcanon is winning). queue/array are basically the same thing, and combined they really sum up how sporadic his thoughts are. he's very in-the-moment, in a classically prospit-dreamer way.

rose: if we're to understand the structure of homestuck as a whole as evolving off of itself like i mentioned before, the tree modus could maybe be interpreted as representing rose's intuitive understanding of the story as a whole. also could show how rose's thinking is very organized, particularly in how if you take away the root item/idea the whole branch falls apart and she has to reorganize (thinking of grimdark rose's arc).

dave: there's a lot you can get from the hash map modus, actually. the fact that the name of every item is encoded could reference the typical strider Facade that he is basically forced to uphold living under bro and layers of irony that cover sincerity w/ those boys. the fact that items are ejected so easily could be a reference to his constant freudian slips that are also a product of those same layers of facade, or how dave's thinking is almost more structured than rose's in a way with new ideas violently replacing others? can't ignore the fact that he literally has a giant "potentially dangerous" eject-all button on the back too.

jade: 12 separate fetch modi. the intellect of the harley-englishes is something that flies under the radar a lot because of their outward personalities. iirc a lot of emphasis early on is put on how confusing/mysterious jade is as a character, though that is later explained as being a product of her visions from prospit and the secrets she is thus forced to work around in conversation. anyways, quickly glancing through a lot of the individual fetch modi reveals that they're basically all games; specifically, mostly multi-player games (monopoly, yahtzee, pictionary, etc.) adapted slightly so she can play it alone. jade's loneliness is emphasized a lot later on in the comic, particularly in the post-retcon timeline (and pesterquest, if you wanna believe in that), but i don't remember how it shows up earlier on. guess i should pay attention to that once i get to her introduction.

alright,

i am well in need of a proper homestuck reread by this point, it's certainly been long enough since i went through the comic as a whole instead of just skipping around to different acts and conversations. to anyone following me rn who would like to avoid possible post spam about this, i'll be tagging everything with "#astronaut reread" so feel free to filter that. dunno if it'll be that spam-y though tbh, i'm trying to be more careful and take my time going through each page and image to really Pay Attention this time round to make sense of all of the theories/analysis i've been reading lately, but that may also make my liveblogging posts longer so. idk we'll see how this goes

initial thoughts: i've always been drawn to the emptiness of early homestuck, the whole aspect of the kids shitting around in their rooms doing basically nothing of real importance (ignoring hs's love of callbacks) feels very true to the experience of being a teenager in the last few decades. it's quite slow story-wise, of course, but it genuinely does set up a lot of the story later on (john's posters all foreshadowing/inspiring later plot points, etc.) and the vibe is just. man idk, i've seen people criticize act 6 for being slow in that nothing really happens since all the characters are just Waiting, but reading through the very beginning again that almost feels more true to the core of homestuck, or at least where it started. and i like it, sometimes it's nice to just slow down, even though i get the frustration w/ that later in the story after the plot has so much more baggage. but more reflection on that later.

john is an interesting character on a meta level in how he represents the most basic entity in homestuck: the first kid, upon which all other kids evolve off of, but what's more interesting about that fact to me is how his original Home plays into that character. maybe i'm biased by nostalgia, but (A1:82) is such an interesting page, it's like the first point where the comic hints at taking itself more seriously by marking just how empty the space surrounding john is, houses all copies of one another and far apart along the streets. not to mention the wind running through the windchime, perhaps another instance of foreshadowing/inspiration? hussie mentions the idea of vriska being tied to the image of the sun that page ends on in the commentary notes, troll gods not yet conceived of but looking down and watching all the same. honestly all i can think of is a section from the start of ch2 of the zhuangzi:

Master Dapple said, “My, isn’t that a good question you’ve asked, Ziyou! Just now I lost myself. Do you know? You’ve heard the pipes of people, but not the pipes of earth. Or if you’ve heard the pipes of earth, you haven’t heard the pipes of Heaven.”

“May I ask what you mean?”

“The Big Lump belches breath and it’s called wind. If only it wouldn’t start! When it starts, the ten thousand holes begin to hiss. Don’t you hear the shsh-shsh? In the mountain vales there are great trees a hundred spans around with knots like noses, like mouths, like ears, like sockets, like rings, like mortars, like ditches, like gullies. Gurgling, humming, hooting, whistling, shouting, shrieking, moaning, gnashing! The leaders sing ‘Eeeeeeh!’ The followers sing ‘Ooooooh!’ In a light breeze it’s a little chorus, but in a gusty wind it’s a huge orchestra. And when the violent winds are over, the ten thousand holes are empty. Haven’t you witnessed the brouhaha?”

Ziyou said, “So the pipes of earth are those holes, and the pipes of people are bamboo flutes. May I ask about the pipes of Heaven?”

Master Dapple said, “Blowing the ten thousand differences, making each be itself and all choose themselves—who provokes it? Does Heaven turn? Does earth stay still? Do the sun and moon vie for position? Who is in charge here? Who pulls the strings? Who sits with nothing to do, gives it a push and sets it in motion? Do you think it’s locked in motion and can’t be stopped? Or do you think it’s spinning out of control and can’t slow itself down? Do the clouds make the rain? Or does the rain make the clouds? Who rumbles all this out? Who sits there with nothing to do and takes perverse delight in egging it on? The wind rises in the north—now west, now east, now dilly-dallying up above. Who huffs and puffs it? Who sits with nothing to do and blows it? May I ask the cause?”

(translation by norden & ivanhoe)

perhaps that's fitting with all the talk of transformation & flexibility/adaptation in that chapter.

you really can't get away from the names "homestuck" and "s(u)burb" with this beginning to the comic. john, as the quintessential homestuck kid, trapped in his house in the empty suburbs, stuck not because of any physical boundaries/walls, but perhaps because of a lack of them. massive roads and sprawling suburbs that make it impossible to get anywhere on foot is a pretty classic image of modern america, so john's desire for breath, for movement, makes sense in that regard. homestuck has always been most appealing to me in how it doesn't shy away from reality, as messy as that engagement often is, and this beginning feels like it gets at some of that emotional core that homestuck started with. it's immediately followed by a joke about pissing/shitting in the mailbox too. classic.

[zachsreaderinserts]

sleepy boys inc x gn!teen! reader headcannons

trying something new! i like bbs and all, but i wanted to write for other youtubers! lemme know if yall wanna see more content like this lol.

this takes place in a minecraft au!!! also, mentions of bad parenting/abusive parents

wc: 2,319

okay the sleepy boys

chaos incarnated, all of them. you can’t deny it

so, when tommy invites a friend from a local village, at first, everyone else is skeptical. since when has tommy made a friend who didn’t hate him within 20 minutes from all the screaming and insults he spewed?

unlike his friends, phil is more excited than anything. though he isn’t tommy’s dad, he feels like it sometimes, so he really wants to meet this new person who has caught the youngest’s attention

techno is very much not on board. he has a hard time trusting people at first glance and having been friends with tommy for the longest, he knows that tommy readily jumps the gun and attempts to befriend literally anything just because he can

and wilbur? indifferent for the most part. yes, he feels the need to make sure tommy is protected and cared for, but he also recognizes that this situation is out of his hands. the best he can do is hope that their friend isn’t an absolute asshole

so, it’s saturday. all three men are sitting on the couch in phil’s cottage, talking amongst themselves as they wait for tommy to come back. techno makes a joke about murdering them, which leads to phil scolding him about his violent tendencies

“you haven’t even met them yet, techno, what the fuck.”

wilbur is simply adding fuel to the fire, making little remarks here and there and watching the whole thing escalate to phil lecturing the piglin hybrid.

because of this, not one of them had noticed that tommy returned, with his newest friend. they both stopped at the sight of phil in dad mode, tommy considering just turning around and taking his friend as far away as physically possible

too late, since techno’s sixth sense made him whip around and stare at the newcomer. this made phil stop lecturing and wilbur quit giggling long enough for tommy to introduce his friend

after saying their name, the friend lifted their hand shyly, face burning from slight embarrassment. their other hand was latched onto tommy’s, feeling intimidated.

can you blame them? the fucking blood god looks like they wanna skewer them and cook them over a campfire.

tommy took notice of their shyness and cleared his throat, “we were planning on going to the carnival in their village if you three assholes feel like tagging along.”

like there was any way they were gonna let tommy and his friend go out without chaperones.

tommy turned back to his friend, “give me a second, i’m gonna go grab my sword just in case.” and proceeded to run up the stairs and towards the guest bedroom in phil’s house that he claimed.

the millisecond he was out of earshot, techno grabbed his friend by the front of the shirt.

“what are your intentions with tommy?”

the friend blinked once, twice, then bit back a smile. “you’re asking that as if i’m about to date that motherfucker.”

this time, it was wilbur who bit back a grin of his own. who would’ve expected the originally shy kid to have replied like that????

techno’s brain short circuited and his grip on their shirt loosened slightly. did.... did this kid just brush off his question???

“can you put me down? you’re gonna stretch my shirt.”

techno’s brain blinked back into focus and he gripped the kid’s shirt harder, shoving them against the nearest wall. “i asked a question, kid.”

“you know, tommy told me something like this would happen. i’m glad i came prepared.” and then, tommy’s friend sucked in a deep breath. techno leaned back, expecting the worst...

“MWISTER TECHNWOBWADE, PWEASE PUT MWE DOWN BEFWORE I SCWEAM”

oh god, this was far worse than anything he thought of.

he dropped the teen out of disgust more than anything, reeling backwards. if there was one thing that haunted his dreams, it was uwu-speak.

phil started howling of laughter, clutching his stomach and hunching over. originally he was going to stop techno from threatening a literal child but this outcome was so much better than anything he was anticipating

wilbur was no better, already tearing up from how hard he was snickering. he started choking on his own spit at one point, smacking his arm against the couch.

tommy was so fucking confused when he came back down the stairs, seeing the mayhem that was, for once, not caused by him. he glanced at his friend, who had the world’s biggest shiteating grin.

yeah, they were gonna fit in just fine.

and they did! phil took them under his wing (both physically and metaphorically) and allowed them to come visit his home whenever they wished. and whenever they did, phil was the first to ask how they’ve been and what they were up to

to phil’s surprise, the kid was overall calm in their choice of activities. things like playing soccer or drawing or figuring out how to learn instruments in their free time. it seemed like they were desperate to get their hands on anything and everything just to learn

he found it funny, though, when their chaotic side shone through. they easily were on tommy’s level when they got into that headspace and it was so hilarious to him.

his favorite memory of the kid was when they walked into the house and marched right up to where techno was reading idly in the corner. planting their hands on their hips, they spoke.

“if you were to fuck a clone of yourself, would it be masturbation or would you be considered gay?”

phil, who was washing the dishes six feet away from them, just about crumbled into a ball on the floor from how hard he was laughing and sobbing.

of all questions, that was the one that came out.

but he had no idea that the chaos was a coping mechanism. he just thought they were naturally like that in their free time.

he soon found out the truth when they came home with tommy, who was cursing up a fit, visibly angry. his friend was slumped over, as if trying to hide themselves from the world

when phil asked what had happened, tommy exploded.

“their fucking dad took all their money from their savings! said he needed it more than them and when they asked for it back, he called them a fucking disappointment! that fucking bitch--”

phil can count very few times when he felt true anger and he can confirm that when tommy had told him what had gone down, he saw red.

but he knew better than to outwardly show it. judging by how hunched over and defeated the kid was, what they needed was a stable support system

so he walked over and shut tommy up with a hand on his shoulder, “why don’t we take the rest of the night to build up that game room you wanted in the basement. i’m sure if we knock it out before techno and wil are supposed to be back, we can all play something like monopoly.”

seeing where phil was headed, tommy nodded and brushed away his anger. he knew that what his friend needed was a serious cheering up. tommy ran towards his guest bedroom, claiming that he was going to find his blocks.

phil crouched in front of the teen, tilting their head up to look him in the eyes. “you’re not a disappointment. you’re an amazing person with a chaotic joke machine going 120 kilos over the speed limit in your head and you are talented. your dad doesn’t know shit about what you’re capable of doing.”

oh boy, the kid’s crying. those are tears, full on tears.

that night was one of the best nights of their life, however. they enjoyed the entire three hour long game of monopoly where they watched the light leave everyone’s eyes. it was funny when wilbur lunged across the table when he landed on a railroad, out for phil’s blood.

speaking of wilbur, he enjoyed every minute in the kid’s presence. they often asked creative and random questions and went along with the abstract jokes he made, the two of them laughing heartily the entire time.

when the kid first mentioned wanting to learn how to play the guitar, he practically burst through the wall of the room next door, breathing heavily and exaggeratedly.

“did someone say guitar”

yeah, he’s feral. that’s canon.

they proceeded to spend the entire day in phil’s garden, each of them equipped with a guitar. despite their outwardly smooth brain and stupid demeanor, the teen was a fast learner and could play the most basic chords by the time the sun was setting.

wilbur’s favorite moment was the first night they met, when they went to the carnival. there was the game where you shoot the water and fill up the balloons and the kid was going head to head against techno and tommy.

it was when techno won that the teen turned to techno with murder in their eyes and spoke in a deadpan tone of voice,

“you’re lucky you won this time, you gentrified mayo monkey.”

wilbur’s jaw dropped, as did techno and phil’s. tommy was already in hysterics, smacking his hand against the counter that held the guns.

needless to say, wilbur found his favorite, not-quite sibling in a heartbeat.

techno was the last to come around with the child. can you blame him? every time he tried to threaten them or had beaten them at something, they would respond in a cryptic threat--

“i’m going to pee your pants if you don’t let me win”

or just brushed him off. without a second thought.

“anyways, i was murdering a chicken the other day, and the fucker had the audacity to ribbit at me.”

to say he was confused was an understatement. he was terrified of the fact that a literal child held so much power and disinterest in things like their own life. so for the first few months, he avoided them.

but he had seen past that when it was around midnight on a weekday. tommy was hanging out with tubbo and ranboo in their village miles away from the area. wilbur was out drinking with schlatt, niki, and fundy, and phil was already asleep.

techno wasn’t too far behind, sitting in front of the fireplace and staring out of the window that showed the front yard. it was only then when he saw the flash of a familiar face and looked closer as the teen walked up to the house quietly. their head was down and they carried a small bag with them.

techno opened the front door with a long creak as they reached the porch steps. it was only when they jumped and looked up in surprise that techno had noticed a deep bruise on their left cheek in the moonlight.

despite the fact that he kept away from them, techno was very protective and territorial of tommy, phil, and wilbur. and since they were attached to the teen, he became protective of them as well.

so all the voices in his head went quiet for a second. before exploding into a mixture of screams and threats, all leading back to protecting the child in front of him.

without thinking, he reached forward and cupped their face for a better view of the bruise. at the warm and soft touch, tears slipped down the kid’s cheeks and they sniffed pathetically.

the voices quickly took a 180, all screaming to take care of them. make them feel better. so, techno led the kid inside and let them spend the night in his room, with them falling asleep on the bed and him falling asleep on the rocking chair in his room.

phil did not hesitate to officially declare himself as the teen’s official father, saying that their biological father was a “little bitch”

now somewhat living with the teen, techno found an appreciation for their quieter moments, when they were reading or simply daydreaming. it was cute, in his eyes. but he also grew to enjoy when they were absolutely feral, especially toward tommy.

his favorite moment with them was when they had gifted tommy a music disc for his birthday. it was sweet and sentimental and tommy just about burst into tears when he saw it.

all of the sappiness quickly vanished when tommy put it into a jukebox.

“FUCK THIS PUSSY, BOY, FUCK. FUCK IT RIGHT, BOY--”

tommy had let out the most terrified scream and it practically engrained itself into techno’s brain. it was the first time he ever laughed at something the teen had done and the teen felt proud of themselves.

and finally, tommy. he was already happy to call himself a friend of the teen’s. they were like peas in a pod, working together.

tommy came to them when his insecurity felt heavy and they came to him whenever their dad’s words got to them. they had a nice system of dependency on one another and neither of them would trade it for the world.

tommy’s favorite moment of being friends with them was during their first birthday living in phil’s house. it was a birthday befitting their personality, with brightly color streamers hung and confetti all over the floor. he knew that they enjoyed it severely and once the cake was cut, the kid turned to phil.

“phil, where’s the big tiddy strippers i requested?”

tommy was GONE

he all but choked on his slice of cake and walked away, shaking his head while trying to stifle his giggles. but when he heard phil’s scream of “WHAT”, he just lost it.

all in all, his friend had made a fine part of the sleepy boys. they were a happy face in an otherwise somewhat bleak and dangerous world. and all four men appreciated it.

[memryse]

okay actually I would LOVE to read a deep-dive on Lizzie in all this. Everyone still obsessed with Renchanting (myself included) is guilty of focusing more on Ren, but Lizzie is a FASCINATING character and player herself, and I would adore some analysis on her series so far.

oh hell yeah! i think part of the reason lizzie's character doesn't get much focus is the length of her episodes - not a bad thing, i appreciate having someone who makes shorter episodes tbh. but it does make it a little harder to get a read on her character when a lot of the time we have to rely on others' povs for her. i'll do my best though! :D

as one of the three new players, you can't talk about lizzie without talking about her comparative naïveté to the 3rd lifers. i think i'd have to touch on this for all three new members, because it really shapes how they interact with the others. session one, for example, sees lizzie be very very explicitly warned about the flammability of her base. she realises she's made a mistake, but commits to it regardless (despite how terrified she may be of cleo). this session is pretty terrifying for her; i'd say she has it the worst of the three newcomers, being first terrorised by scar and grian and then having to deal with cleo's threats on top of that.

but she adapts quickly. of course, the fairy fort is eventually burned to the ground by cleo. lizzie builds a new mushroom home in the grounds of the shadow tower, and it's still made of flammable materials. she says she clearly hasn't learned anything, but this time it doesn't feel like she's being naive to me. i mean, she could quite easily just tear it down and rebuild a little stone hut if she was truly that worried about it burning down again. to be honest, it feels more like lizzie is showing her defiant side. she'll build something beautiful, knowing full well that it could go up in flames within minutes, because she's not going to let cleo fully extinguish her spirit. genuinely putting effort into making something actually nice is rare to see on this server, and it's even more rare for that thing to survive - the monopoly mountain tower, the scottage, joel's cottage, etc. even the crastle was blown up a couple times. so... i don't know. lizzie refusing to give in and insisting on a cute little mushroom hut just stuck with me this session, for some reason.

i think what draws people to her is her down-to-earth nature. the shadow fairies revolved around her (even the name), despite her never insisting on being in charge or anything of the sort. lizzie, cleo and bigb all just happened to make friends, but lizzie had become the de facto leader of the alliance even before ren devoted himself to her. after ren becomes her knight, she still never refers to herself as the shadow queen or anything of the sort. actually, she directly tells martyn, "the shadow queen is more of a nickname anyway, i do not actually consider myself royalty in these lands". she later assumes the alias "the shadow fairy" too, rather than using this existing nickname. i think this nature of hers is also what made her such a convincing boogeyman; scott and pearl somehow didn't realise it was a trap, they trusted lizzie enough to follow her down.

another point of evidence about how smart and adaptable she is would definitely be her involvement with tango's bet in sessio 2. she sees joel's success (or lack thereof) in getting a boogeyman kill, and has the forethought to go and place a bet on him turning red. joel's deaths are publicly viewable, everyone can see he's having a terrible time and she's not the only one who knows he's the boogeyman, but she's the only one to think to go and place a bet on him. her handling of her winnings is fantastic too: many people think that having more lives equates to having more power. and it does, to some extent - rather, having a sensible amount of lives gives you power. but having five or above just makes you a target. lizzie recognises this and trades three of hers away - with the added bonus of earning herself three allies, one of whom is now a ride or die knight, and the enchanting table. the next session she gets rid of it in exchange for some much more valuable gear.

lizzie keeps to herself. she doesn't go looking for power or allies, but they seem to gravitate towards her regardless. she's loyal and empathetic - which only makes things harder for her in situations like the cleo and bigb one, where she's torn between her two closest allies on the server. ultimately though her empathy for bigb as a fellow victim of the curse wins out - she knows how it affects a person, and she won't throw him away, even if it means losing cleo. she stands by her decisions, not only keeping him in the alliance but warning him to hide from cleo, even opening her home to him, knowing that cleo has deemed her as equally traitorous.

(i just also feel the need to point out how amazing it is that she just casually set up an enderporter and got it to work first try, given that last season the enderporter was best associated with "my redstone didn't work". and then she had the forethought to trap it when she realised cleo might try and use it against her. queen.)

[thatmexisaurusrex]

I'm not sure if one person can suggest more than one prompt but if you have any space left could you please do #5?? Already dying thinking of all the mess that could result out of these two playing board games together haha, great fun

Thank you so much for the prompt, @allcolorsoftherainbow (by the way, you're allowed to send in prompts as many times as you'd like whenever I do any of these events, I don't have a limit, so don't worry about it!)! I hope you enjoy this fun board game night! 😆

Date 24 of 28: Board Game Night

| - 23 - | - Prompt - | - 25 - |

"Oh, I don't have to pay that," said Bucky, Sam quirking an eyebrow.

"Oh really?" said Sam, amused, "Okay. Tell me. Why don't you have to pay me a hotel amount for Park Avenue?"

"I'm squatting," said Bucky, shrugging, "Squatter's rights."

Sam's head fell to the table, giggling.

"That's - That's not how the game works," said Sam, between wheezes, "You keep making up rules."

"I don't know. I'm really liking this squatter's rights policy," said Sarah, "I should have invoked it when I landed on Park Avenue."

Sam didn't know why AJ chose Monopoly for the game they would play on game night. It always devolved into this particular brand of madness and, in the end, they rarely finished a game. Maybe that's why. For the chaos of it all.

"Monopoly was also made to show how the system of renting is messed up," said Bucky, "So, I choose to fight against the corruption of a system in which our main goal is to crush our opponents and force them into bankruptcy."

Sam laughed.

"You're doing this because you're losing," said Sam.

"I'm doing this because I'm losing," said Bucky, AJ and Cass cackling, "But also because I'm a rebel who doesn't play by the rules."

"I don't," said Sam, still fighting through fits of giggles, "I don't know why we let you play. You're always like this."

Bucky stood up on the table, tilting it a bit, but getting his balance, speaking to the room as if it were a crowd, and now even Sarah was laughing.

"Join me. Join me in my rejection of systems which do not let Bucky Barnes win easily just because I keep forgetting what the good places are or forgetting how much money I have. Join me in my revolution!" said Bucky.

No one joined him.

"Just declare bankruptcy and sit next to me, sweetie," said Sam, gesturing for Bucky to get off the table.

"Ugh, I always get out first, though," said Bucky, handing Sam the last remainder of his money as he sighed, relaxing next to Sam's sighed, "Loan me money so I can get back in?"

"I'm not doing that," said Sam, giving Bucky a kiss on the cheek, "Maybe you'll do better next time."

Sam highly doubted it, but who knows?

Bucky cuddled close to Sam, huffing, but he didn't seem too displeased with his current situation. He seemed a little relieved to just watch; happy next to Sam, watching him try to make moves when everyone knew Bucky just started the decline of people trying to get away with making their own rules.

❤️ ❤️ ❤️

Want to choose a date for Sam and Bucky to go on during this special February Daily SamBucky Fluff Diary event? Check out the prompts here and send me an ask! I’ll write you a drabble as one of my Daily SamBucky Fluff Diaries!

[shepherds-of-haven]

No thoughts, just the Shepherds playing monopoly

I could have sworn I answered this before, but apparently not! Get ready for some chaos...

Blade: he is peak... him when playing Monopoly, because he keeps insisting on playing it like a war game and waging guerilla tactics against his competitors in order to bankrupt their “forces” and claim their land as his own. No one knows if he’s doing it out of malicious compliance from being forced to play, or if he’s sincerely, earnestly unable to play a game without making it about battle and violence. Anyway, he won one time and was silently insufferable about it--nothing is more irritating than the Commander’s stoic face looking just slightly smug without him saying anything--so no one wants to play with him anymore, which suits him just fine because then he can stay a champion without having to constantly defend his title. He also has fairly bad luck when it comes to gambling, so the dice seem to conspire to screw him over quite a lot. 

Trouble: he gets excited and jubilant to play every time, but hits a breaking point when the other players start playing “dirty” and not “playing fair”--IE using tactics and techniques that he can’t keep up with or manipulating him. Then it’s the time for Rage and shouting and violence and indignation. He insists on keeping a “judge” or referee around whenever they play so the referee can comment on whether or not certain moves are fair and allowed, but he always ends up bullying the ref and yelling at them, too, leading once to tears on Shery’s part, which led to Briony and Ayla getting into an all-out brawl with him. He won that fight, but has never won a single game of Monopoly. Still, his dogged determination to keep playing never wavers. More on his violence in the other entries.

Tallys: she played with them one time before realizing how unhinged they all were. Here’s part of her journal entry for that day: Never before had I contemplated what a thread-thin line it is that separates us from the demons. Each of us possesses the power to bring an entire city to its knees, and it would not take very much to tip us over that precipice. Even a mere game is enough to tempt us to the path of darkness. Pride cometh before a fall, and I fear we are all balancing precariously on the edge of a knife.

Long story short: she has the smarts to win, but it’s just not worth it.

Shery: she is actually very competent at Monopoly and is good enough strategically to keep up with Red, Lavinet, and Riel, sometimes showing an unpredictable streak of merciless logic. However, she tends to feel bad about rubbing things in or making others feel bad, so she sometimes quietly makes wrong moves and mistakes towards the end of the game. Riel called her out on it once, and she admitted she likes commiserating with everyone and having fun with them instead of winning, because everyone loathes the victor lol. But she could destroy at Monopoly if she wanted to! She puts on a pot of calming tea whenever they decide to play, but assures everyone it’s caffeinated lol. Regardless, it never helps...

Riel: he is not allowed to play with them. He is horrible with Monopoly. But not in that he’s bad... in that he’s way too good. And competitive. And ruthless. And the whole “he can think twelve steps ahead of everyone else” intelligence and analytical skill is combined with an insufferably condescending attitude (not even really on purpose... that’s just how he is). Imagine having an opponent who absolutely destroys you every time you play with him-- sometimes yawning while you play, sometimes sighing and explaining to you what exact moves you could have made to actually put up a fight against him or even have a chance of winning, and exactly what you did to go wrong. Imagine buying a Monopoly property and glancing across the table at Riel, who looks like:

One time Trouble physically reached across the table, grabbed him by the shirtfront, and dragged him across the board game to throttle him. The worst part about it was that, when it upset the game pieces and overturned the board, Riel commented that he had memorized every piece position and each player's money exactly, so there was no need to stop the game. Another time, Ayla actually stood and gave him a black eye for buying Reading Railroad when she had been saving up for it (well, it was really when he answered, “I know.”). This violence shocked Riel--who had never really been physically hurt by another person before--so deeply that he didn’t speak for the rest of the game. However, he still won, even with only one good eye. 

After that, it was decided that Riel can only play the game through a proxy, and to cap him further, that person has to make half of the decisions while Riel is allowed to suggest the other half, with no discussion between the two of them. Unfortunately for Riel, the only person who would want to be his proxy turned out to be Caine, whose blithe spiritual resilience and enjoyment of winning allowed him to withstand Riel’s controlling demeanor. However, he also drives Riel insane because he’s 12 and makes the unpredictable moves of a 12-year-old boy. 

Chase: Truth be told, he never learned how to play Monopoly or what the point of the game is, because any time anyone tries to explain game rules to him longer than five seconds, his eyes glaze over, or he even get bored and wanders off. Now he plays only to amuse himself by trolling the others; his favorite past time is to replace other players’ pieces with stupid things and see how long it takes for them to notice. The thimble becomes a button, the dog becomes a nut, and etc. Interestingly, he has extremely good luck, and whether by cheating or fortune, he can make the dice roll to any number he wants. Briony, Lavinet, and Red regularly bribe him to help them out with important rolls; thus, another rule has been instated that he can only roll another player’s dice once per game. Typically, they bribe him with more stuff to replace their game pieces with.

Red: he has a strategic mind to rival Riel’s, but he lacks the desire to crush his enemy under his bootheel in order to win at all costs. He tries to make it light-hearted and good, wholesome fun, but it never really goes that way. Still, somehow things work in his favor anyway, and he can cheerfully go, “Oh, I can buy Park Place!” as if just realizing it, an attitude which drives most others crazy. After Riel, he is technically in second place for most games won; he would be tied with Shery if she actually won the games she was in the position to without pretending to lose. However, everyone else being so competitive has made him reluctant to play, so typically he can only be persuaded to if everyone is extra nice to him and promises not to scream to the gods for the others to drop dead on the spot. 

Ayla: you might think Trouble is the likeliest to flip over the game board/table, but it’s actually Ayla. She gets easily confused and irritated, bending over the pieces and scratching her head furiously like “wtf is going on??” This makes her angrier, and when Riel starts to gloat, she’s lunging across the table and having to be held back by Briony or Blade; one time she even tried to bite him. She doesn’t even want to play nowadays, but can’t stand to be left out. When she's not so angry the room is spinning, she does alright, and generally can do second or third-best if Riel or Lavinet are not involved (for some reason she does better against Red or Shery).

Halek: are you joking? you think he would play an hours-long game with those maniacs? as soon as he hears the rattle of the game board, he dissipates into the air like smoke

Briony: Briony’s got the spirit of things, but she’s not quite cut out for Monopoly. She keeps trying to bend the rules to work on teams with other people, proposing combining their finances and working together to win the game, like “yay okay let’s be allies ❤!!!” This works out in her favor like 50% of the time; sometimes someone like Red or Shery agrees, even though that’s not really how you play, and they might win; sometimes she gets absolutely burned, notably once by Lavinet, because her partner will then betray her in some way. This drives her to hysterical tears, but otherwise, she can generally handle losing with a smile and a desire to keep the peace. However, she can get riled up when the others get riled up, like “okay Trouble stop yelling and settle down, you’re going to knock over Shery’s tea...” *Trouble knocks over Shery’s tea* *Briony tackles him* “I SAID SETTLE DOWN!”

Lavinet: Behind Riel, Red, and Shery, she’s the best at the game, since Monopoly is fairly similar to the work she does for the fiefdom. She’s also the best at manipulating the others and occasionally even flirting her way to Pennsylvania Ave. She doesn’t care about winning as much as the others--she is very good at dismissing any loss as “just a game” or “it’s not that important, darling”--but is a smug winner just like the rest of them, unleashing her ojou-sama laugh at the moment of her impending victory. Trouble once described that laugh as “the shrieking of a thousand harpies”. Other than that, though, she’s a fairly normal player, though she barely bats an eye at the violent extremes everyone else takes it to.