#many of the later OGs would probably be like HOW DID YOU EVEN GET THAT??

[tastycitrus]

looking at super robot wars again

i know they said if they were able to continue the OG series they would only do one more game to finish off the story, but i wish they could get up to at least T before they call it quits because i think the final boss of T in the context of OGs is really funny to think about

it would basically be dyma going "aren't you tired of being nice? don't you want to go apeshit?" at the steel dragons after however many years of biannual alien invasions

[oh-no-its-bird]

Who do u guys think makes bingo books. Is there like. A committee? Are there village specific bingo books? I feel like there is, right? Does that mean all the villages are just constantly playing catch up with eachothers books?

Before the villages, did they still have bingo books? Who made them then? Did each clan have their own books? And different webs of allied clans would have better, bigger, more informed books because they had access to eachothers information? If there was a general "good" bingo book with the best, most reliable information, then who was compiling that? Was it a specific guy or a group? With how isolated and uncooperative so many clans were back then, if the books were maintained by individual clans, then there must have been so many types of bingo books. Or maybe there were a few specific clans who would produce them...? I can see that as a Nara thing.

Id like to believe some nin like collecting old bingo books.

From enemies, as trophies. Bought from markets or found in old abandoned shinobi bases and clan homes. Passed down from a grandfather along with stories of having faced off with the unfamiliar, powerful nin from ages past recorded inside them.... the options are limitless.

I think many nin add their own little notes to their own bingo books, opinions, doodles, theories on enemy nin, etc. So collectors will value books with notes in it, especially if the books used to belong to a famous shinobi (cool insight into their mind !!) or is really old (cool time capsule comments on shinobi from forever ago !!)

You can make some serious money on an old bingo book filled with personal notes that belonged to a famous shinobi...

Rumor has it the first Hokage's bingo book was sold off by Tsunade to cover her gambling debts. And that when the Nidaime's bingo book dissapeared into the pockets of one of his students after his death, people were straight up ready to kill to get it back— but no one knew who'd taken it (it was Danzo)

Jiriyah lost his old bingo book from the war in a bet, and was surprisingly, genuinley upset over it die to the sentimental value. It was sold for some crazy money later on, as it had personal notes and doodles from all sorts of famous shinobi inside of it

Jiriyah, Tsunade and Orochimaru all drew over eachothers photos in their section of the book, and all three left sarcastic comments in many a corners. Minato left his own comment or two, as Jiriyah asked him to sign his own page after he broke S rank, to celebrate. Then Sarutobi also left some comments here and there too, and Sakumo had actually left more than a few— signing his own page, writing a little congratulations under Minato's S rank, drawing a wolf in the corner of Orchimaru's page after Jiriyah insisted he join him in defacing it, etc.

Jiriyah's bingo book being his team's official unofficial shared bingo book... all three of the sanin tossing it around and marking off shinobi they'd fought, leaving stupid notes and doodles for the others to find later, getting other shinobi to sign it on their own pages.....

I think a lot of shinobi do similar things with "personalizing" their own books, but the sanin certainly ended up creating one of the most valuable with their own endeavors

And then in Boruto, bingo books are probable even more of a collectors item. Especially w shinobi becoming even more commercialized / sort of idol-ified

Just like how some middle aged dad's will save up their baseball card collection to one day sell, telling their children it will be their college fund one day, shinobi are doing similar things with their bingo books

(One of the most valuable editions of the bingo book was the one produced exclusively during the war with Madara, covering many, many shinobi, both dead and alive. Only so many ended up being printed, as the war ended up being shorter than expected, and while there are newer knockoffs and reprints, OG books from that period can make some crazy money.)

[t1oui]

going to school and being friends with percy jackson would be REALLY WEIRD so let's discuss it rq

he gets dropped off every day in his stepfather's car, which inexplicably has hoof prints on the hood?

the panic attacks... there's a lot of them, and nobody can even tell what's triggering them at this point

the old counselor disappears about a week into his first year at AHS (here's some cotg lore for yall) and is replaced by a weird lady who finds a way to bring percy up to every. single. student. who visits her office.

randomly disappears multiple times throughout the year

very very sea green eyes and a gray streak in his hair

once got out of the pool after swim practice and was completely dry (he insists it was a trick of the light)

the blue food obsession ofc

talks about his girlfriend annabeth all the time... even his friends are convinced it's a "my canadian girlfriend" situation bc he never calls her. he doesn't even have a PHONE

always carries around a pen in his pocket and even though it's just a shitty old ballpoint, NOBODY IS ALLOWED TO TOUCH IT. also he never uses it. ever.

every teacher has sent an email with their concerns about him to the counselor and when that doesn't work to his parents. the responses are always very awkward and vague

talks about his bio dad a lot... never explicitly negative but bro clearly has daddy issues lol

will sometimes randomly mention camp/war/gods and then brush it off like it never happened

absolutely vibrated in his seat the entirety of the greek mythology unit... told the teacher "a demigod named perseus fought ares once" and the teacher just assumes he means the og (aka the one he's named after)

that one upbeat popular guy everybody knows absolutely nothing about, his friends included

they probably have a spreadsheet with all the info they actually DO know about him

finds a way to brag about his mom in every conversation no matter how irrelevant... his friends are used to it atp

everyone's so used to seeing him smiling and laughing that when, say, he catches a younger kid being bullied, it's actually terrifying to see how angry he gets. everybody in that hallway gets chills

there's something off about him and nobody can tell what. that's just how he is

sometimes weird people in weird outfits are hanging around the school and they're ALWAYS looking for him.

every time someone asks what college he's going to he gives a different answer or straight up avoids answering so nobody actually knows

(if he says a school and someone is like "omg me too" he changes his answer right then and there lol... he's like "oh nvm i forgot i'm actually going here my bad" and the person is so confused)

nobody ever sees him working on college applications but he complains about having to do them all the time... bro is like "yeah i had to go through a sewer system but at least my girlfriend and my best friend were there" and his friends are like yo HUH

never explains anything he says

presentation night presentation = all the shittiest things my family has done and he's laughing about it but wdym your aunt kidnapped you and gave you amnesia???

sometimes he's getting fed up with a teacher or another student and a pipe randomly bursts in the school. like it's weird how often his anger ends in a plumber being called when he's nowhere near the problem

where everyone else is excited to watch a movie and chill in class, percy complains through the entirety of hercules - not just "oh this movie sucks", more like "god hercules is such a dick, idk why they made him chill in this movie"

the weirdest part is how, when percy complains about zeus being a good dad in the movie, it starts thundering outside

nobody can keep track of how many schools he's been to at this point... there's a whole section of the spreadsheet for this

when percy's friends finally meet annabeth they are SHOOK bc they truly did not think this girl was real

alright i can't think of anything else but if i DO i will add on later

[tenpintsof-sundrop]

My Top 10 Fics Of 2023

So, because it is the 'wrapped' time of year where everyone looks back on their year through playlists and other types of stats - I thought that I would look back on my year through something completely nonobjective and based on exactly 0 data - my favourite fics I have written this year that are based completely on my personal enjoyment of them.

Last year, I did something similar to this where I counted down the top ten fics based completely on data - how many notes each fic had gotten on tumblr. But most of the posts were shorter fics that I hadn't spent a lot of time working on that I wasn't very proud of. (Like the fact that my current most popular fanfic on my sideblog for fanfiction is the shortest in word count.) So I have decided to go over the fics that are the most popular in my heart - countdown style.

This year I have written 39 different fics and I have written over 395,000 words, and these are my favourite fics that I have written.

Honorable Mentions:

Black Suit - Emily Prentiss x Fem!Reader (2,900 words). One of the most well-rounded fics I have written in such a short word count. And just - look at her.

My Bleeding Heart - Draco Malfoy x Fem!Reader (3,400 words). I have never used Death Eaters as the basis for angst in a fic and I had so much fun with it. Plus the kidfic fluff at the end was really fun too.

IFHY (I Fucking Hate You) - Abby Anderson x Fem!Reader (8,100 words). So @holy-minseok made a post about how there isn't enough fics with reader characters that aren't nice and sweet and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. Because I have so many fics with rude, toxic readers and this is absolutely one of them. This reader is a Grade A Bitch and that's a huge reason why I had so much fun writing it.

Better Than Sleeping - Jason Todd x Fem!Reader (5,300 words). This is some of the best quality smut I have written this year, hands down.

The Patron Saint of Liars and Fakes - Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader (8,200 words). I love writing fics based on specific episodes of a show, and this definitely helped to fulfil my whump quota for the year.

Sweet Revenge - Ellie Williams x Fem!Reader (16,200 words). This is a fic that definitely converted me from a hardcore Abby girl into an Ellie girl. I am very proud of it. (And eventually I became an EllAbs girl, as god intended.)

Free Use Day - Poly!OG!Titans x Fem!Reader (14,300 words). This is probably my most epic and honorable of the honorable mentions. This is the first time in years that I have written such a long pwp, and it's written about some of my ult favs. So I fucking love it. (It came so, so close to making the top ten.)

(Now, onto the top ten.)

The Top Ten:

10. Dreaming Of You - Gar Logan x Fem!Mute!Reader (31,300 words)

You and Gar have been best friends for a long time. Nothing could disrupt the harmony of such a perfect friendship. Nothing except maybe… your usually predictable powers going haywire and somehow showing you all of his heated daydreams about you. But he couldn’t possibly have romantic feelings for you. He couldn’t possibly want anything more than your close platonic friendship and the occasional steamy fantasy. Right? Gar Logan x Fem!Mute!Powered!Reader. Best Friends to Lovers. Smut and (Slight) Angst. Set during Season 2.

At first I wasn't even sure if I should put this one on the list, because it's technically a re-post, but I was like fuck it, I make the rules here. And the reason it's at 10 is because technically I wrote most of this in 2021 originally (though it feels like longer ago than that omg), but this year I heavily updated the fic, including writing some new scenes for it that flesh it out very nicely. To me, this is everything a good re-post should be. It cleans up what was already there and amazing about the fic and it enhances it so much.

I loved the concept of this fic from its core, and now I get to be so, so proud of the way I have enhanced it years later. To me, this will always be my core Gar fic (as much as I will always write more for him) - and it is something I am truly, genuinely proud of. If you love Gar and you love smutty fantasies involving him, I highly recommend checking this fic out.

9. No Brainer - Derek Cho x Fem!Reader x Melanie Cross (Mayhem (2017)) (7,100 words)

When the ID-7 Virus, aka the Red Eye Virus hits Towers and Smythe Consulting, it throws the entire office building into chaos. With a mandatory quarantine from the CDC in action, that chaos builds in on itself, and somehow, you, Derek, and Melanie get everything that you want. aka You have something Derek and Melanie need. Derek and Melanie have something you want. You all agree to make an exchange, and everyone ends up more than happy. Derek Cho (Steven Yeun) x Fem!Reader x Melanie Cross (Samara Weaving). Co-Works to Lovers. Smut. Based on the film Mayhem from 2017.

This is one of my personal favourite fics of mine that I believe very few people following me have ever read. I absolutely love writing fics based on random one-off horror movies - I have way more in my drafts, and one of my goals for 2024 is to complete and post more of them. But one night I was laying in bed and I randomly watched this film because I knew Steven Yeun was in it. I had seen a lot of clips of him covered in blood and yelling, and I found him really hot in those clips, so I knew that I would enjoy the film. And I absolutely fucking did. Not just based on his hotness, but just - the entire film was so, so enjoyable.

Also, the ID-7 Virus, a fictional sickness that lowers your inhibitions (something that is shown in the film to work like sex pollen) is the perfect basis for a fic. So I literally started writing this on my phone before I had even finished watching the film. And I posted it a few days later. I think it's just pure fun. One of my favourite things to write about is a healthy combination of horror and sex, and this is definitely toeing the line perfectly in my opinion. If you haven't seen the film, I highly recommend it - watch it, and then come back and read this fic.

8. My Heart Is The Worst Kind Of Weapon - Ellie Williams x Fem!Reader (9,600 words)

Ellie confronts your abuser, and after years of torment, you finally feel free. Ellie Williams x Fem!Reader. Strangers to Lovers. Hurt and Comfort.

This is a fic that is very close to my heart. Not only is named after a tragically underrated Fall Out Boy B-Side, one of my favourite songs ever, but it is a fic about conquering the abuse of a family member - and when I wrote this, it was coming from a place of the utmost sincerity.

I am someone who has experienced abuse from a family member, and it felt so entirely empowering to write this - to write about someone coming to your rescue so honestly. Someone rescuing you out of pure want, not because it's an obligation or a burden. But because they are compelled by their own morals and they feel that your abuse is a cruel injustice against the world. This and the companion fic I wrote for Abby with a similar storyline are two of the most important fics that I have written this year.

7. Ghosting - Mike Schmidt x Fem!Reader (3,700 words)

Mike has been in love with you for as long as he can remember. For about as long as the two of you have been best friends. He always thought he would have more time to work up to confessing those big, dangerous feelings for you - until something more dangerous swooped in and stole any time he had left with you. Mike Schmidt x Fem!Reader. Star-Crossed Lovers. Pure Angst. Set during the events of the movie (and features spoilers for the plot).

I feel like this list would be incomplete if I didn't pick at least one of the FNAF fics that I wrote (and two of them ended up on here). With how much it was delayed, it was actually wild to see the FNAF Movie actually come to life before our very eyes, and it was amazing to actually write some fics about it. This is the first time (in a very long time) that I have written pure angst with no sense of fluff at the ending, and it was actually so much fun - it's fun to give into the darker side of a fic, and to write about the most torturous human emotions with absolutely no relief.

Also, I think dying in someone's arms (especially holding your lover or your would-be lover) is such a compelling trope and I loved writing about it. This was so much fun for me to write, and it was something so interesting to explore aside from the usual smut that I write.

6. From Your Lips - Jennifer Jareau x GN!Reader (3,000 words)

After JJ is attacked by dogs on the Hankle farm, everyone is busy worrying about Reid’s missing status, but you take the time to check on JJ and try your best to calm her flustered mind. Jennifer Jareau x Gender Neutral Reader. Friends with Benefits. Smut and Angst. Set during Season 2, Episode 15.

This year, I had another large foray into the Criminal Minds fandom, and I wrote a JJ fic for the first time. And just in general, I am so proud of this fic. I think even for a short fic, it has such a great essence - again, I love setting fics during specific episodes, and I found it so fun to play around with the religious imagery and the religious themes already in this episode, as well as the imagery of rabid dogs.

To me, this is what truly makes fanfiction great - taking details of the canon, chewing them up like bubblegum and then adding something else in to make them your own. I had so much fun writing this fic, 10/10.

5. Love From The Other Side (aka The Golf Club Fic) - Abby Anderson x Fem!Reader (5,600 words)

Abby kills the man that has been haunting your nightmares for years. You find it only fitting to give her a proper reward. Abby Anderson x Fem!Reader. Established Relationship. Smut. Set during The Last of Us Part II. (aka - the fic where Abby fucks the reader's pussy with the golf club that she used to kill Joel.)

So, as you will notice with this fic and the next one, 2023 was the year I truly said fuck it. There used to be a time when I was afraid to admit my weirder kinks and fantasies (like, I used to be afraid to even say that I read A/B/O), but then I realized that this is the freak-nasty website. And way too many people are shy. So I must be the one to provide the freak-nasty fics.

This is a fic I had in mind since the very first time I watched TLOU2 gameplay. And originally, it was going to be a simple, purely pornopraphic fic about Abby fucking the reader with the golf club - but as I was writing it, it turned into something that I find oddly beautiful. And (again, just like with the next fic) I find that writing about kinks in long-term relationships, especially the kind of relationships that have come to be co-dependent - it's like writing this toxic, cathartic poetry.

It's writing about two people who need each other but can be so horrible for each other - and it is one of my favourite things to write about because it's so damn interesting. This was a slay, and generally awesome because it was getting out an idea that's been in my head for years.

4. Damn The Man, Save The Empire - Vanessa Shelly x GN!Reader (6,100 words)

Vanessa has always taken care of you. Since the two of you were kids, she has put her neck on the line for you, and you rarely knew how to return that epic kindness. One night, while both of you are raw and on-edge, the dark cloud of your strange past looming over both of you nearly swallows both of you whole - and once again, Vanessa is right there, taking care of you. (Dark)Dom!Vanessa Shelly x Sub!Gender Neutral Reader. Toxic Co-Dependent Relationship. Smut and Angst. Takes place before the main timeline of the film (features spoilers for the movie).

Again, like I said with the previous fic - this was one of my favourite fics to write because it is so delightfully unhinged. I really enjoy exploring toxic relationships through fiction because - for one, writing healthy, functioning relationships is not always interesting. And there is something so beautifully dark and poetic about writing two people who have grown into each other like twisted tree branches and need each other, but are so bad for each other.

And this year I have been exploring gender neutral smut a lot more. I used to always write fem reader smut as my default, but I have been having a lot of fun with the creativity of writing smut without describing the reader's body in detail. I love coming up with metaphors and describing around the body parts. I find it to be a fun creative challenge. Anyway - this was a lot of fun to write, and I highly recommend it if you enjoy reading darker fics.

3. Lessons For A Genius (Lesson One) - Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader (17,200 words)

What could a certified genius possibly have to learn from someone like you? Turns out - a hell of a lot.  And the real ‘teaching’ started when your graphic explanations of slang toward Spencer for the sheer shock value of it turned into something a lot more… hands on.  Sub!Spencer Reid x (BAU)Dom!Fem!Reader. Co-Workers to Friends with Benefits. Smut. Set during early Season 2.

I feel like it would be a miss to make this list without mentioning a fic that I obsessed over for two weeks straight - a fic that drove me insane in the best way. Of course, there is also the sequel, but I personally prefer the first lesson. This fic has been brewing in my mind for a very long time, because it is painfully obvious to me that Spencer (in the early seasons) is an awkward virgin, and I have always wanted to ruin him.

This fic is a lot of my fantasies brought to life, and I feel like it's a really masterful painting of those fantasies - for once, without overly focusing on the murder mystery aspect of Criminal Minds fanfiction (which I have a tendency to get distracted by). I am really, really proud of this fic, and I know you guys enjoyed it. It is definitely a highlight of my writing this year.

2. Emergency Contact - Jason Todd x GN!Reader (10,500 words)

After Jason miraculously comes home from his brush with Deathstroke, you’re both feeling it in very different ways. You have an unexpected physical wound from the battle, and he has many (very expected) emotional wounds. You help each other heal. Even if it’s very stubborn on both your parts. Jason Todd x GN!Powered!Reader. Enemies/FWB to Lovers. Angst and Hurt/Comfort. (Slight Smut). Set during Season 2, Episode 5.

This is a fic I have talked about a lot recently, because I have been working on the sequel. (I was hoping to get the sequel finished and posted before the end of December, but it's gonna be a longer fic, so it's looking like it's gonna be one of the first fics of January instead.) Anyway - to me, this is by far one of my best fics and one of my most important fics of 2023. This was battling for the top spot.

But even if it's second place, I am so incredibly proud of this fic. I think it's beautifully written, I am incredibly proud of the literary references I worked in with The Great Gatsby - especially because I feel like Jason would be the type to read Gatsby and compare himself to someone tragic and doomed like Gatsby (he would soo compare himself to Gatsby, especially because he was also a poor kid who was randomly sponsored by a rich man who saw potential in him). Overall, I just had a very distinct vision when writing the fic, and that vision came to life. And I really, really hope that my vision comes to life in the sequel too.

1. King For A Day - Poly!Golden Trio x Fem!Reader (22,400 words) 

You have always had a special relationship with Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and the one and only Harry Potter. When you set out to help them find and destroy Lord Voldemort’s Horcruxes, it seems that your intimate knowledge of them is the one thing keeping them together - until the unique dynamic shifts, thanks to one of those pesky pieces of dark magic. Angry voices carry, and it turns out - moans of pleasure do too. Poly!Golden Trio x Fem!Reader (Fem!Reader x Harry Potter x Ron Weasley x Hermione Granger). FWB to Poly Lovers. Smut (with a slight bit of Angst). Set during Deathly Hallows.

And finally, we get to my favourite fic of the year!!

So, I'm gonna be honest, a huge reason that this fic gets the top slot is because of my nostalgia for Harry Potter. This year was the first time in a long time that I have written Harry Potter fanfiction, and it felt like a reawakening of my soul. I was genuinely happy, and I was spending time enjoying concepts and characters that I have not thought about for a long time.

This fic in particular, I feel like I have been working on it for years in my mind. This fic is a culmination of all my thoughts about these characters, all my time in the Harry Potter fandom, and generally, I am so, so proud of it. I am proud that my love for Harry Potter has come to fruition in this form - a poly smut fic, something that is just so me.

Overall - I had such a great year chasing fic ideas that make me happy, despite the popularity of the characters or the fandoms, and I encourage you guys to spend 2024 doing the same. Cheers!

[wrenkenstein]

OC creation musings + Juno retrospective

I was rewatching this video by Rea, and it struck me that this exact phenomenon happened to me in 2022, with the first inklings of Juno's design - back when I couldn't decide on whether or not her name would be "Juno" or "Kite", and desperately trying not to make her a scientist. She's obviously come such a long way since then, having now become a very well-known character in the fandom, but I often think of the fact that had she not become on of my artistic passions, I probably wouldn't be anywhere near where I am today.

Juno is absolutely everything to me. She is a representative of my passion for storytelling, and she connected me with so many of my now closest friends - one of which is currently living in my house! How crazy is that, man! All of which I can attribute to simply becoming so fixated on my own OC that I couldn't stop thinking about her, or drawing her.

Of course, that's come with some highs and lows. She's getting a professionally done cosplay, a 3D model and potentially a Battlefront mod - but she also has her own dedicated group of haters who think she represents the 'wrongs' of fandom, lol. I certainly have recieved my fair share of 'Juno hate' in my 3-4 years here, but the positivity and support make it well worth dealing with a few rotten apples. It's radiant and outpouring, like a warm ray of sun, and it keeps me going deep into the night.

Anyways. Total tangent. Want to see all her design iterations? Yea you do ;) Here's the first ever Juno ref!

I made this on my phone in 2022, at the tale end of watching TCW and back when TBB was just one season. You can definitely see that the idea was always there, just a bit disjointed in its application. That gas mask on her helmet ended up causing a lot of confusion, so I removed it in later iterations - but to this day, I think this one picture is what really captivated me. Something about the aura, man,, she scary lookin

Then, of course, I had to draw what her face would look like - if it hadn't been for a RP, I don't think I would have.

Woah - she's like a whole different person! And you can see the beginnings of her white hair streak, though back then, I wanted i to be really subtle. And I was soooo adamant about this lol. She also was almost beat for beat Ellen Ripley, and you can see me paint over a picture of Sigourney below with her OG faceclaim haha.

Then we have the Juno-ing... part two. Where I went darker!! Both in themes, and in her color scheme. This one still has so much personality, and I remember being obsessed with how I drew her eyes and face back then. Nowadays, I think it's hideous. xD This was also around the time I was phasing out her gauntlets and oxygen mask, but both still remained for practicality purposes, even if they didn't serve anything to the design. Oh, and the hair streak. Now it's a Thing :tm: but it isn't really flowing well with the design - not yet, anyways!

We finally get to a point where I, begrudingly, accept the fact that her white streak is going to be her facial focal point - and at this point I'm laughing about how much I tried to avoid it LOL. But here, we also see her get more and more refined. Her face is still a bit wonky, but the stern vibe and posture are starting to come together and tell more of a concrete story, even if the reference doesn't have as much color or personality as the last one. I also did this one for my senior year of college!

I even designed her some totally BS civvies - and I gave her a s2 paint job, which admittedly looks hideous LMAOOO but we ball regardless. The second design was scrapped anyways almost immediately. The civvies stayed!

And then, of course, THE FINALE! Her face went through so many iterations with her current ref, but thus far, it's been the longest standing and most accurate one. It atually started out just as me goofing off with a marker pen in CSP, that quickly changed to "hey... this could be something good." And I was right! This is the Juno that's currently circulating today, and I've been polishing and refining her as I go, since I still feel as though I could perfect things.

And then, of course, her various outfits, which I posted about a while back. Oh - and have you seen Baby Juno?

Well now you have. :)

I think it's so cool to see how someone can fixate on a character and pour so much love and thought into them, that this character becomes their entire brand. Juno inhabits every part of my brain space and is what I think about 24/7. I'm so proud of how far she comes, and she reminds me about how incredible fandom can be and continues to be! Something about her is just so intoxicating to me. I can't get enough of her, and I can't wait to keep developing her over the years to come.

Which then begs the question - what is your equivalent to this entire thread? Do you have an OC like Juno, who you're fixated on and who dominates your creative pursuits? Do they have multiple artistic iterations? Because if you do, share them!! I WANNA SEEEEEE.

Anyways, that's Wren's Ramblings for today ~ I got bored haha

SHARE YOUR OCS!!!! >:0

[a-stormie-crt]

Loser, baby reprise idea

If we get a reprise of loser, baby in season 2 I want it to be the opposite of the original song.

like wether that be something going on with alastor, his gambling/ alcohol tendencies, or the fact that he hates he’s a winged cat. Maybe, if we wanna be angsty, all three. 

Like how the OG song was a combination of ANGEL’s relationship with VAL, his self destructing habits like drugs and alcohol, and his self hatred for his body and being a toy for Val, (or a PET, like how Alastor sees husk!) 

And then I believe this would take place somewhere more personal like in a enclosed room or bathroom or even at the hotel bar, where the OG was in a messy open setting on some rando street.

Preferably it would be later in the season so there would be a bigger break and relationship development to help the reprise hit harder since it has ALREADY become their song. (And to help the pacing)

So husk would be all down in the dumps and Angel would lift him up the same way Husk did to him all those months ago but since then, their relationship has become deeper and sweeter so it would be slightly more… cute? 

Like I don’t want something as light as the more than anything reprise compared to the original song where it just becomes lighter and more natural, no.

I want it to be sweeter in a way where it reflects how these two are still struggling together, are still losers together but it’s become less insulting and more lighthearted and teasing. like we already see in episode 8 that the losers thing has become a cute lil joke. 

So, it developed even more to where the reprise makes it genuinely sweet while not dumbing down on the purpose of the original song? That would be PERFECTION.

It would be shorter than the og since it is a reprise, and it would NOT be where they kiss. I have many ideas for when they kiss (if they even do cuz omg I love slow burns but idk if I could wait ANOTHER season if we even get a S3) probably about a minute long like the other reprises.

Since I’m so hyperfixated on this idea, I already imagine the main line is changed ever so slightly. 

Instead of ‘you’re A loser baby,’ it’s something super sappy and romantic like ‘you’re MY loser, baby,’ and they would both joke about how soft and stupid they’ve become?!?! I would MELTTTT.

I highly doubt if this were to happen these would be the lyrics by here’s my idea of how it would kinda go 

Angel to husk: so things look bad, and you’re back’s against the wall… *much slower, lighter, softer.

You’re whole existence seems, fuckin’ hopeless..

You’re feelin’ filthy as a {I feel like they would change the lyric here, but it would depend on the context and setting to make it work. Like how the og was outside a gross bar, the line ‘dive bar bathroom stall’ fit for that situation. Or it’s just a general metaphor and I’m insane.}

Can’t face the world sober, and dopeless… [ok imagine instead if it getting higher here like the OG song it gets LOWER? It would be a nice change for a reprise : o]

You’ve lost.. you’re way… but you know you’re life ain’t wrecked {There’s two ways the buildup to the chorus rewrite could go. - 

They could keep it the same, or change it up in a way to where Angel is referring to how Husk already helped him through this and this situation and how he knows it’s pointless to dwell. Which is why he’s helping husk now with the same problem, but he’s just a dumbass because he knows this! Reflecing on the original song idea of ‘yeah you’re pathetic but so am I with you’ kinda mentality.}

So I guess we’re correct… {or, as I originally said, OG lyrics BASED ON story context. Obviously idk what S2 is gonna be like lol}

You’re my loser, baby, my loser, goddamn baby you’re my fucked up little whiney bitch, you’re a loser just like me.

*And I would adore it if husk just did a sarcastic scoff and said ‘thanks asshole’*

You’re my screws-loose boozer and only one star reviewser [this line on they would sing it togetherrr]

You’re a {Depending on if the OG song was saying that Husk was also a power bottom and that was his company or if he just generally had company is still unclear to me, so they could hypothetically keep that line or take a spin on it where they joke about, say, husk being a submissive top? I’m just flowing with ideas gosh} [I wouldn’t be able to make a clever rhyme for that joke except for this so why not] >>>>>>

You’re a sub top at/off the highest rooftop, but you’ve got company~* in a more flirty and teasing tone cuz husk was also teasing him a lot in loser, baby* 

I will not explain the joke but it’s pretty self explanatory [The roof is considered either the most empty or luxurious part of a building, it can also be roofs, flying, wings I THOUGHT ABOUT THIS! And off if we want be a lil… dark if we ain’t referring to flying 🤨] 

|Anyways I ain’t no professional songwriter in any way that’s just a little personal dumb line|

And then it would end! Like I said not in a kiss like the more than anything reprise cuz I don’t really want another chaggie parallel? (Not saying the chaggie and huskerdust parallels are bad it’s just parallels between the f/f couple and m/m couple when they’re both very different I don’t want to be many) - 

I think it would be a hug or a soft snuggle or something more simple get intimate like that : P since Angel needs sweet stuff not more ‘sexual’ :/ advancements.

Or this whole thing is pointless cuz the point of the song was Husk telling Angel once and for all that he’s not alone and they wouldn’t need to bring it up again? But we already got the instrumental so there’s slight hope…

Anyways, if we were to get a loser baby reprise that is just my personal idea of what I think would happen! Obviously the second season is already written but if something even remotely similar happens to this I will be happy. Hell maybe I was right on point but it’s highly unlikely haha

Toodles~ |I didn’t write this at 2 am instead of sleeping on a school night cuz I had 2 assignments due whatttt|

[yarameijer]

hi, I'm the one who sent in the Deaf tenma and coach kageno fic ideas awhile back, and I thought I'd get your feedback on a fic I'm trying to write

it was a while ago, but I read a ina11 fic that had a female oc. I'm not going to name it here because my opinion on it is... very not positive. either the writer of it was male and (probably) sexist, or had some internalized misogyny to work out, and that's all I'll say on that. but it got me thinking about the way ina11 handles its female cast, which, after a lot of thought, isn't much better. and sure, the og was in 2008, and it was a different time then, but even today I'd still say it's not this shows strong suit. and frankly it pisses me off

it made me actually put (metaphorical) pen to paper, and start writing my own fanfic

the problem is, I have absolutely no idea how to progress the fic now that I have chapters posted, and now it's been several months since I've posted, and I have no clue how to get the ball rolling again. whenever I get an idea like for the fic, I'll be sure to write it down, but all the scenes I'm getting inspiration for are several episodes away, so to speak. I don't know what the very next scene should be. is this a problem you've encountered before, and if so what do you do (please don't suggest a kidnapping, it would not fit the vibe of the story.... unless)

Heyhey! First of all, this sounds like an interesting idea! I'm a bit torn on how Inazuma Eleven treats their female characters, on one hand they're pushed to the side quite easily sometimes, but at the same time they are relevant and relatively developed as characters. To me it seems like they're treated the same way as some of the other characters on the Raimon teams (in both the OG and in GO) - they're side characters. They've got a role, but not a major one, so there's not much time spent on them. Compare them to, let's say, Hayami or Kurumada, they don't have a lot of screen time or depth either.

To be honest, I think it's partly got to do with the target audience, and also the fact that during tournament Arcs, girls aren't soccer players (I just realized though, that outside of OG season 1 and 3, and GO season 1, which are all tournament Arcs, the other seasons all have female soccer players. Not many, but again, target audience explains that, and the fact that girls are involved at all is pretty notable for a sport's anime).

The girls are quite variable in personality, too, when you think about it. I really don't like how they made Rika's dominating personality trait her obsession with Ichinose, but at least that's just her. I mean, Touko is pretty tomboyish, while Natsumi is a stubborn know-it-all in season 1. The OG has quite a lot of female characters withcrushes on Endou, which I think is unnecessary, but it's not their dominating personality trait and I can overlook it (though I haven't watched the OG in a long time) - and they did this a whole lot better in GO, because there's no real focus on romance there, except Endou being married and to be honest I liked that little snapshot into his life ten years later (and the relationship between Endou and Natsumi gets so little screentime that I honestly don't think it's any fuel for shippers or distracts from the main storyline, plus, in the games he married Fuyuka - honestly, complaints about this specifically is just because the fandom's got such a focus on romance, not the anime). In GO, Kinako is a mix between ''mother figure'', ''excited puppy'' and ''confident striker'', and Midori is a hothead (but also badass, I love her). You could argue that they're pushed into stereotype roles, but it's not super extreme, and they're all individual characters. They just lack depth, but, again, side characters.

So yeah, I'm torn! I love the girls and I love writing about them and including them, I've never been super bothered by how they're depicted in the anime, but I agree they're lacking depth and could be considered stereotypes. It could be a whole lot worse though!

As for the actual writing part of your ask - yeah, I get that. I totally get it. Writing connecting scenes suck, so much, if you've got no idea for them and it's something I struggle with writing to this day, unfortunately. I'll try and give you some tips that I usually try, but I can't promise they will always work. Still, I hope they might help a bit!

First of all, have you considered kidnapping??

Lmao no I'm kidding, only add kidnapping if it actually adds to the story :'D

On a more serious note: if you can, add time skips.

This isn't a perfect fix-it, and sometimes it just doesn't work because you need a buildup for the next 'big scene'. But sometimes you're so focused on ''how do I move on from what just happened'' that you might not realize - the aftermath isn't relevant. You can skip hours, days or even weeks in a story without it messing up the story. Don't write filler scenes if they don't have a function in foreshadowing, character development, or fun for you. I've read the advice that you shouldn't write filler scenes at all, and, respectfully? Bullshit. I love developing my characters by having them goofing off or doing irrelevant stuff, and the scenes could be taken out of the story without impacting the plot. I write them because I like writing it, and I'm having fun with it, and I notice that those are the scenes that readers comment on to say how much they enjoy the depth I'm giving characters. Scenes that are, plotwise, incredibly irrelevant, but I'm having fun and the readers do too.

So, to keep it simple: you might overlook that you don't have to write connecting scenes, and only write fillers if 1) buildup between planned scenes is necessary, 2) they have some sort of function in the story, or 3) you really want to write them for fun.

But, let's say you can't skip the connecting scenes. What then? A trick I've started using is POV changes. If a scene doesn't work, or you don't know how to advance with the character you were previously writing, try and switch POVs. A lot of the time when you're stuck in your writing, it doesn't matter how much you push it, it's not gonna work, or you're gonna hate what you wrote. Switching which character you're writing about keeps it fresh, keeps you thinking (and thus inspiring you!!) about the other parts of the story, and might even bring twists you hadn't originally planned for. This even works if two characters are together the whole time - sure, they go through the same events, they experience the same things, but they look at it differently and their thoughts on it won't be the same. Switching to the other character keeps it fresh and allows you to focus on details that character 1 was too distracted for.

If that's not it either, if you really have to stick with the character you were writing, or switching POVs still leaves you hanging, try to figure out what has to happen to get from Scene A to Scene B. Is it just time passing between these scenes that you have to fill? Try to add some slower, ''calm before the storm'' moments of daily life - Big Event A happened in the morning, Big Event B is happening at night, you could write your character going through their normal life (going to school, getting groceries, walking the dog, etc.). If they know Event B is coming, you can dive into their mental state here (and add some character depth while you do it) - are they distracted? Nervous? Does another character pick up on it? Or do they not know about Event B, but they're trying to process Event A? And if it's neither, just adding the contrast of calm, regular, slow versus Big Event Happening can just add some character depth, story depth, and/or give the reader some room to breathe in between.

But maybe it's bigger than that. Maybe it's more than ''just time passing''. Maybe they need to learn skills, or travel, or get something and it's not enough for a ''big scene''. What I see a lot of writers do in this case is writing shallowly. Zooming out. Just describing their actions ''They traveled there, then got lunch and caught a train there.'' That's fine, because too much detail is distracting, but you can add some filler details to make it more interesting: ''They traveled there, then got lunch - which first resulted in a heated debate between character X and character Y about whether pancakes were a suitable lunch food, and then nearly made them miss their train to [location] because they lost character Z when trying to find a toilet''. Quick, not a full scene, bridging - but with some details to keep it lively.

Alternatively, if that's too fast paced for you, I personally like zooming in on smaller moments. Let's use Inazuma Eleven as an example - if they need to train for a match, and you don't want to describe the hours of training they've done, or spoil what they've been practicing, you can focus on shorter moments instead. Have them talk during their water break. Describe your character getting ready in the morning, arriving for the training and then skip over the training itself in a few shorter, summarizing sentences (like I did above with the ''they traveled there, then got lunch'' thing). Maybe take it slower during the water break again and have characters complain about the grueling training they're doing, and then messing around. Or focus more on the thoughts and worries from one specific character, get into their head, go introspective. All of this adds to character depth and story depth, and most of all the pacing. Is it a ''necessary'' scene? No. But it gives more details, makes the story seem more complete in the end, and most importantly, gives you a chance to explore the story you're writing and add little, ''insignificant'' things. It gives the reader room to breathe, instead of going from Action A to Action B to Action C to Action D. That's similar, in fact, to how I write angst - it's not Angst A Angst B Angst C, it's Angst A, Humour, Angst B, Slow Scene, Humour, Angst C. Why? Because if something is 100% angst, then it's not as impactful. It hurts so much more to see a character sad and desperate when you've seen them happy. Similarly, action is so much more fun to read when it's been slow-paced and insignicant, too. It's all about finding that balance.

Whoo, I think I went a bit overboard here, lol. I hope this helps you though! Again, this is a struggle, and it's going to keep being a struggle, and tricks that work for me might not work for you. Sometimes you just gotta get through that annoying scene and it's going to take ages to write it. Just try to keep having fun in your writing, that's really all I can say about this - the most demotivating thing is if you're not having fun with what you're doing.

[shadowknightapologist]

how would your mystreet rewrite be impacted by your mcd rewrite? you said they’re in the same universe right

your writing is really cool :))))

thank you so much!!

(tragic how huge this thing is, but i guess that's the price i pay for self expression.)

also i'm so sorry this is late, i forgot i started this ask </3

WARNINGS FOR: potential inaccuracies, a lot of this is probably subject to change but it's a general idea!

GWGFGD (MCD) spans entirely over two eras in myverse history—"B.P" and "D.D"—and then a very small portion of the current era, "A.G". currently, GWGFGD contains at least 850 years of history, as well as a number of crucial developments within geography, religion, government, society, and of course, the final defeat of the true king/shadrach. a lot of these changes were done or at least started by eurydice and co., including:

de-stigmatization of magik and its users;

reduction of species-based stigma/discrimination;

reduction of religious dominance;

actual abolishment of monarchy and development of democratic systems;

development of states, cities, etc. and infrastructure;

genuine unity between countries;

etc.

because of this and magik enhancing technological advancements, the beginning of A.G is about the 18th/19th century in real world equivalents (i say this because the current world year when the MCD storyline is over is 1350). politics at any point are largely underdeveloped but i feel i can solidly say about a century after GWGWGD, people are not going to war. bc actually i don't like war and i think it's largely, if not entirely, unnecessary. but anyway.

at this point, everyone knows that the divine warriors existed and most are also aware that massive portions of their mythology is incorrect (i have an eventual religion post that'll explain this more). because of this, religions surrounding the divine warriors become less about the warriors themselves and more about the themes and ideals people associated with them. for example, "solusism" during GWGFGD is about worshipping eirene as the sole goddess—and even creator—of the world, while solusism in myverse is centered more around the belief that all creatures deserve to live uninterrupted from start to finish (so a solusist may practice vegetarianism/veganism to uphold this idea).

now presently, things aren't awful, but there are some misconceptions, flaws, or gaps in the history that would still have the GWGFGD cast rolling in their graves, like:

shadow knights being rebranded as demon subtypes (like imps, succubi/incubi, etc.), and eventually completely replaced by those subtypes (only the most dutiful of history/theology nerds can find information on shadow knights; trying to explain the difference to the masses usually kills the soul, though).

many characters, especially shadow knights, are forgotten or removed from most historical accounts despite eurydice and co.'s best attempts. this includes characters like vylad, dante, lucinda (who's only known as "the White Witch"), several of the lords eurydice befriended, etc. essentially, anyone dubbed "unimportant". this is a persistent issue with myverse history, as they did this with the divine warriors as well. maybe one day they'll learn.

relic holders are assumed to have been reincarnations of the divine warriors, which is almost entirely false.

eurydice gets "mother, maiden, crone"-d and largely stripped of the individuality she fought very hard for. later, in the actual myverse roleplays, aphmau also ends up struggling with this and is believed to represent the maiden (eirene = crone, eurydice = mother).

lastly, i'll discuss some of the bigger changes to the myverse roleplays.

the biggest one is probably going to be names. a majority of the myverse cast will be descended from GWGFGD, so instead they more "represent" the OGs rather than being them. this means almost no one has the same name because it would make me tweak. the exceptions to this are the shadow knights and travis.

an example that's already come up is aphmau. she's actually born with the name "elissa", but adapts "aphmau" from final fantasy and eventually it catches and it becomes her preferred name.

the myverse cast is also supposed to look different—probably still recognizable, but individual. once again, the only exception to this is shadow knights, but this is because (as briefly stated before), shadow knights are sentenced to an automatic, reincarnation-adjacent fate. i say adjacent because instead of being reborn as something new, shadow knights are always reborn as, well, shadow knights due to the way their soul is corrupted. their reincarnations are supposed to be opportunities to live as they should have been, but there's always a chance they'll end up the same as they did in their first life (that is, a frightful husk of heated armor, boiling with fury all the time). afterlife never is and never will be an option for them. they're reborn again and again, filling in the holes where their soul belongs, and when they die they do it all again.

(how aging and death work for reincarnated shadow knights, i don't know yet.)

(the only shadow knight who doesn't follow this system is shadrach. after GWGFGD, he's employed as "judgement". when his time is served, he'll join the rest of the divine warriors, save one, in the afterlife, where they will never be reincarnated.)

[altocat]

*gives Cloud garlic bread*

Okay so here's a Cloud question, how would you describe how Cloud feels about Sephiroth?

Just interested in perspective.

Like I'm pretty sure it changes a lot. How Cloud feels in FF7 is definitely from how he feels Post FF7 or even years later in AC.

I think Cloud's feelings for Sephiroth are simple in a lot of ways and complex in a lot of ways.

Firstly, I think he hates Sephiroth's guts and will never EVER forgive him. And I wouldn't expect him to. Sephiroth killed Cloud's mother, along with his hometown, Aerith, Tifa's dad, etc. Sephiroth has done so many terrible things to Cloud that Cloud has every right to hate him to the very end of his days. And it's no surprise that Sephiroth's presence triggers feelings of fear and trauma within Cloud.

There's the middle gray area as well with Cloud still feeling some measure of attraction towards Sephiroth. Especially whenever Sephiroth manipulates Cloud into being his "puppet". But this could probably be chalked up to the whole Reunion concept and likely not personal feelings. That said, the way Cloud vocally describes Sephiroth in the Nibelheim flashback also suggests that, personal feelings aside, Cloud might still find Sephiroth alluring. Or at least the OLD Sephiroth that was his hero.

Post-OG, things get interesting. Maybe it's just time or maturity that does it but Cloud seems to have "softened" slightly. I don't mean he's forgiven Seph--he still hates Sephiroth for everything. But he also seems to understand the nuance behind him. He was gentle towards Kadaj at the end of AC. And in Opera Omnia he acknowledges that while he and Tifa can't forgive Sephiroth's actions, he won't hold it against other people (Angeal, Zack) who still love and care about him. Cloud points out that even IF Sephiroth was being possessed by Jenova all this time, he still wouldn't be able to let the past go with what Sephiroth did. But he also sympathizes and seeks to help those close to Sephiroth who want to redeem him. It's a surprisingly layered reaction from Sephiroth's arch enemy. Cloud can move on from the past. But he won't forget it either.

It leads me to believe that, were Sephiroth ever to get "redeemed" in canon, Cloud probably would never forgive him or consider him a friend or a good person. But he also would have the nobility to recognize that Sephiroth is someone's loved one, someone worth preservation if it meant reconciling other people's relationships. If Sephiroth can't change, then Cloud's course is set--he's gonna keep killing Sephiroth over and over until he finally dies for good. But there is some measure of respect for Sephiroth there even after everything. It isn't love or exoneration. But there IS empathy.

And it adds a neat layer that suggests that Cloud is made of stronger stuff than Sephiroth will ever possess. He doesn't have to forgive or forget. And he WON'T. But he can still rise beyond the limitations of his own vendetta.

[duhragonball]

Requiem for a Bio-Broly

So I looked at the new Sparking Zero lineup, and it's currently at 184 characters, if you count the three DLC guys. And once again, Bio-Broly did not make the cut.

I'm not really surprised, but it is kind of interesting that this guy has never made it into any of these fighting games. He's in Dragon Ball Heroes and Dokkan stuff, and I'm pretty sure that's because those card-based style of games need as much variety as possible, which is why they do all those what-if characters and scenarios.

It only really surprised me when Budokai Tenkaichi 3 skipped him, because that game had a ginormous roster, to the point where it was tough to even guess how they'd fill all the slots. And unsurprisingly, often-overlooked movie villains like Garlic Junior and Dr. Wheelo were on the roster. But not Bio-Broly. I think that's when I first got intrigued about his exclusion from these games, because BT3 was the first game to get all of the other Z movie villains in it, and that made Bio-Broly conspicuous by his absence.

The later games had smaller rosters, but they also seemed eager to add some special attraction, usually a character who hadn't been used before. Raging Blast 2 had Hatchiyack, but also Androids 13 and 14. Battle of Z really touted Beerus and Whis, since I'm pretty sure that was their video game debut. And Xenoverse 2 has been adding DLC characters for the better part of a decade now. You'd think one of them might toss in Bio-Broly, if only for the novelty of it, but no.

I don't want to sound like some kind of Bio-Broly fan. The character sucks, and so does his movie. But he was still a movie villain. Like, that's kind of a special status in these games. They get used as bonus stage bosses or special unlockable guys, or whatever. GT is pretty awful too, but it's still fun to see Omega Shenron and Baby in these games. I would argue the games are the only time GT characters are really handled properly. I'm sure someone could come up with a cool story mode segment involving Bio-Broly. The quality of his movie is irrelevant.

So with this game, Sparking Zero, I figured he was probably going to finally get his spot, if only because there were so many spots to fill, and why not toss him in there, if only to get a complete set of movie baddies? But it looks like he got shafted again. I mean, they could still put him in as DLC, and I would think they'd just about have to. I mean, they probably want to do lots of DLC characters like with Xenoverse 2, but they already put so many characters in the base game, so who's left? They could do Cell Max, and some Daima characters, toss in some OG Dragon Ball and more Tournament of Power guys, but it's weird that we're even talking about this when there's a Z-Movie guy they've never used.

Like, imagine if Metal Cooler never got to be in any of these games. Everybody else, but for some reason Metal Cooler just never shows up. Movie 5 Cooler's there, and so is his final form, but no Metal Cooler, no explanation given. That'd be weird, right? After a while you'd wonder why that is. I mean, Cooler's henchmen have made it into some of the games. There's room for Metal Cooler, so why wouldn't they use it?

I think it's widely understood that Movie 11 is one of the worst, if not the worst of the DBZ movies. But I've never really seen anyone actively hating on it. It's more forgettable than offensive, and yet, Bio-Broly's exclusion from the games makes me wonder if that movie did more damage to the brand than I've ever known. Like, maybe it performed very poorly, or there's a lot of hard feelings over that production, so everyone at Toei just keeps the character as obscure as possible. I mean, they put him in the Dokkan and DBH games, but you never see like ads for that. Maybe they're worried that putting Bio-Broly in one of these roster reveal trailers would be so offensive to fans that it would hurt the sales? That seems pretty far-fetched, but that's where my mind goes on this.

Most likely, they just don't put him in because there's so little interest in the character, and there's always someone else they can stick in the game instead. I think there's a very real case to be made for adding in more Tournament of Power characters. If they put the whole Universe 10 team in a DLC pack before Bio-Broly, I'd be like "Yeah, that makes sense."

I just wonder where the bottom is. How big does the roster have to get before Bio-Broly becomes the next best choice for a new addition? 184 isn't the answer, but what about 200? 250? 300? When does it just get down to Bio-Broly and like... Shu wearing his fake Goku disguise?

I mean, obviously Fake Goku should be added before Bio-Broly. Look at this guy. He's great.

[oskidontle]

Heya just discovered your AU recently and I'm really enjoying it I have some questions though 1. how did this start off? Like how did the hunger start manifesting and what were the very first signs? 2. is Mr boss evil? 3. what do the others think of the fact that pim starves himself of flesh? Do they encourage him to eat Orr? 4. Can they still eat normal food? And if so do they have like a strong adversion to it orr? 5. Who did the hunger take the biggest toll on mentally 6. Are you planning on making some sorta comic or some other to tell your story I'm pretty sure there's a story here but mabye I'm wrong idk 7. How'd you come up with the designs for their hunger forms and the AU in general?

OG AU Post for the confused

1. The very first signs are subtle enough no one notices, not even themselves. The only evidence something is off is animals start to steer clear. Maybe they sense something more instinctual, feral, about their aura? Scent maybe? However it is, animals with their superior senses know something is wrong.

They didn't start noticing anything themselves until they started to see things in the mirror for just slight glimpses. Glimpses of something but they could never make out what.

It's only days from there when the cravings start. But many times someone can crave something and not know what it is they crave until they find it. As you can imagine, because of this, each of their first hunts were unexpected. As such, people can get caught in the crossfire. Important people.

It was unlucky that Pim had to learn what he was craving when he did.

2. Mr. Boss is not evil. But he has a job to do, one that he has been tending to for many years. 18 years to be precise. He hopes to complete his job soon enough.

3. Allan and Glep care but they don't try to stop him. Instead they just check up on him often, bring some drinks, normal food. They don't really know how to approach him in a way they perceive as meaningful.

Charlie despite his desperation for a way to fix all of it still encourages Pim to eat. He reasons with him that there is no point in Pim or any of them starving themselves. After all it always ends the same way, a loss of control and an inevitable rampage. Why loose control and possibly hurt someone you don't want to hurt, when at the very least the hunt let's you know the victim ahead of time.

It's not much of a compensation. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. Unfortunately it's his own choice at the end of the day.

4. They can eat normal food, in fact they still have to. The Hunger has just added another part to their diet that their body perceives as crucial for survival.

5. That's hard to answer, depends on what you put value on in this toll. In my opinion I'd say it's either Glep or Pim.

6. Maybe, maybe not. If I'm honest I don't know yet. I might make occasional snippets of moments I imagine happening. They wouldn't be in chronological order, just whenever I feel like making them. If I don't make a master post later on then I would leave the chronological order left for any interested to piece together using context clues I leave throughout different posts.

Like I said, this is a big maybe. Ideally I would make a fic but I have never been able to finish a single chapter of a fic in my life. I loose focus too easy.

I have a story to tell but I suppose I haven't decided how I want to tell it

7. If you want me to be truly honest, I didn't think that much. I built lore after designs. I wanted them each to have a sort of gimmick going on while being kinda cohesive simultaneously. I also knew I didn't want to go with a hyper detailed or overly realistic look.

In-universe they probably look terrifying but to you or I, they look just kinda uncanny. A little gross.

After making the initial designs I started to come up with lore and adjusted details accordingly.

As for why I came up with it?

Two words: For fun! :)

[felikatze]

ANOTHER au that has been slow cooking is the fucking dadow AU and i am thinking abt what 300yrs postcanon shadow is like

i think he's like. chill. all his friends have died five thousand times over (exaggerated) so for like the era immediately after sonic and co he had it Fuckin Rough but eventually made like new friends probably had a whole adventure saving the world as the wise old mentor of a new gen of heroes or whatever and he has had to embrace the sonic attitude of live every day as you go By Force or else he would have Fucking Imploded

so now instead of dissociating and having a mental breakdown when thinking abt his friends too hard he just gets wistful nostalgia and melancholy. good for him. i think he'd have The Most Peace over maria by then because he knows he's fulfilling her wish and protecting the world even while also living for his own enjoyment

also omega is there. and other robots probably. the new adventure of saving the world could've just also been sage going ballistic after eggman dies (of old age eventually) so she tries to conquer the world in his name or something and shadow gets closure over grief by paying the lessons he's learned forward

honestly i have not considered whether silver has another parent in this AU at all. and i think part of that is silvace's fic where shadow just. reproduces asexually. which is very funny and also in that fic i want to throw him down the stairs.

ANYWAYS. POINT IS. shadow has embraced the Transience Of All Life over the past couple decades and omega has been ship of theseus'd several times over and then shadow has a kid and wait a fucking minute. is that silver. is that silver. is that

(yes it is)

and THIS is the first time shadow gets a Fucking Crisis in thirty years because he actually recognizes someone for once and he gets full force slammed thinking abt the past and also he's thinking abt how fucked he knows silver's original childhood was so he needs to make it a point of pride to be The Best Dad Ever because. did his other timeline self just abandon his kid or what. is og future shadow dead. is he a fucking clown

so all around silver does have a decent childhood in this. his dad is Super present in his life and sometimes silver got the feeling his dad wasnt really looking at him and wow how does he know how silver's powers work this well???

but all is good until silver approaches Age 14 and shadow needs to consider how time travel works. because there is a very real chance he's gonna lose his son without the kid even dying. and he is Used To Grief but he's never experienced grief like this before. (i think in his many years he did also have a phase of not getting attached to others because he knows he'd have to grieve them later but he got over that but now he's REMINDED of it and like he's had friends family but he's only got The One Kid and wurgg.)

so he's just dreading it. considering talking to silver about this showing him the records but too afraid he's gonna box silver into an identity that might have retconned itself out of existence anyway and shadow knows what it's like to be defined by your misery so.

which of course means he spends too long pussyfooting and the Time Travelling happens and silver just shows up at the house one day with 14yrs worth of new trauma

i ran out of steam but anyways how do you connect to your son when he is both your son but also an ally you have rose tinted nostalgia for, a reminder of the first rough years of your existence and all the things you've lost and now you wonder if all the love you scrounged up to give him ever made a difference or whether it was all just doomed to end up like this

and silver gets the dilemma of how do you connect w your dad when you remember how much he loves you but also his past self got into an argument with you yesterday/three hundred years ago. and there's two versions of yourself running in parallel and one of them loves him so much and the other one doesn't even know who he is

inherently viewing each other as two different people and feeling like two different people shoved into the same perception and unwilling to let this fall apart for the half of love that's there yet so incapable of properly reconciling everything into a neat and tidy existence <3

also the sequel to that fic would be silver getting invited to a extreme gear race via dedicated silver timecapsule (it's always in the same spot and it works by putting in a message that gets sent to the future, silver reads it and goes back in time, and by him going back in time the message can be taken out of the capsule for a different one and the original message is retconned out of ever reaching the future and silver arriving in the past for whatever he was invited for becomes a minor paradox. to sonic and co it's like instant messaging because they only have to put the message in until the actual event and the timeline where they had to protect this thing doesn't exist)

anyways. when silver gets invited to something low stakes and silly, shadow decides to tag along because he wants to reconnect with his kid (who was just normal yesterday and now there is an infinitely deep rift between them) and silver cant bring himself to stop shadow (because suddenly since a day ago they're closer than ever) and what ensues is a cat and mouse conflict of silver trying to keep shadow's identity a secret from the people of the past as shadow tries to be the most obnoxious supportive dad ever

[whateverfiction]

M & F.

Hitting it up with the small questions and the big answers, once again typing about the Cold War of black ops.

You should know who M & F are. Mason and Woods.

“Did Mason and Woods know about Bell?”

You catch my drift?

Interested? Go read. Today marks day one of ‘The Cold War Files.’ A series of blogs about the lore of BOCW.

Allow me you to take you back to 1968 for us to begin. So in 1968, there was fracture jaw. However, in the season one cinematic, we do see Adler interrogating Stitch, the knife and how Stitch pretty much lost his eye.

You see, when it zooms onto the picture of rebirth island, you can see the words ‘Operation Rebrith’ and the year 1968 on the picture.

On the wiki, it states that Adler took Stitch’s eye in an act of revenge for Weaver. So it wasn’t just to send a message to his boss.

Adler knew Weaver.

Why is this important? Well, we have to take a look at Mason first to further look at Adler.

Every black ops OG out there knows Weaver from black ops 1.

And while I’ve never played much call of duty and I am not an OG, I know Weaver was the voice asking the questions to Mason. He helped Mason out of brain washing and so did Hudson.

So, intially I thought that Mason and Woods were possibly fed different info as to who ‘Bell’ was because everyone on the team we know, knew about the brainwashed ‘Bell.’

There’s a lot of different info you could tell them as Adler. Adler is as much of an enigma as he is smart.

Such a topic might’ve been risky to let Mason or Woods know. Adler knowing Weaver opens up the possibility of knowledge that Mason was brainwashed.

Now you might think, yeah they didn’t know.

But there’s one hole in that logic.

Mason and Woods seen ‘Bell’ at the airfield which is the second mission you play on the game when trying to get Arash.

They would’ve recognised the masked face joining the team. That is, assuming ‘Bell’ still wore the mask upon joining.

Even if Bell was still wearing the mask and ended up ‘co-operative’ it still wouldn’t work and here’s why.

Adler talks to you as if he knows you. But it feels ‘distanced.’ A result of not letting your guard down.

So, I reckon ‘Bell’ might not of been wearing the mask since joining the team.

The whole Vietnam thing wouldn’t work as well if they recognised you from the airfield because how would that have worked, you wouldn’t be a ‘friend’ as such. So then they’d be keeping an eye too.

Everyone in the safehouse is wary of you throughout the whole game. The only people that seem not so suspicious of you is Woods and Mason if you watch or read all the dialogue. It’s not the same atmosphere. Woods after a moment of silence in one of the dialogues in the safehouse, chuckles with Mason and says that he’s just joking around. It’s like a ‘shoulda seen your face’ kind of thing. People don’t tend to poke fun so easily when things are tense and high alert. It’s a breath of fresh air when everyone else seems serious and wary of you. Something just feels different.

I wonder why Adler would’ve let you go with Woods alone that one mission called “red light, green light.” Woods was never going to ask anything if he did or didn’t know.

There’s many ways to go about this.

But both possibilities of them knowing or not knowing at all are high.

They don’t seem wary of you.

But if they didn’t know, would they have asked about the ‘live one’ from the airfield to see if there’s any info from them. Alder couldn’t say anything to suggest disposal of the first key crucial piece of evidence they’d found; being you. It wouldn’t sit right if the man who knew the most about Perseus just discarded the first real lead they got just like that.

Adler is a man on a mission, someone who does whatever it takes. He’d probably say that nothing is coming out of them. Someway somehow though, wouldn’t the question be raised again later?

Well by ‘Bell’ joining the team, there is new *stronger* lead. There’s no use for the previous one who gives nothing, is there? Bigger leads provide more. ‘Bell’ provides most because they have more personal ties to Perseus than Alder does.

Those months of ‘Bell’ and their mind being used as a tool gradually builds the brain of ‘Bell’ to trust Adler subconsciously. The subconscious is manipulated into feeling safe so they’ll actually give the info. It’s why the mission for Fracture Jaw is easy to give to Adler compared to when you’re out of the brainwashing and giving the whereabouts of Perseus. Your mind is now feeling something is wrong and is trying to fight it. It’s more evident if you choose not to listen, especially when the red doors start slamming down in front of you. You’re trying to ignore it but eventually you can no longer fight it, you see the answer of where Perseus is and then you get to tell the truth or lie. It’s like ‘Bell’ doesn’t want to know they answer so they cannot give it. But that’ll be explored more in another post.

But do Mason and Woods know that the masked person from the airfield and ‘Bell’ are the same person or the same lead?

It’s much too hard to truly put a finger on it. It’s highly possible that they did know. But they did know you were Russian or working for Perseus possibly. In the bad ending of the game, Woods will say “It’s him/her/them! They fuckin’ lied to us!”

They knew you’d told Adler where Perseus would be.

That doesn’t mean they knew you were brainwashed though, it could mean they were given a different story.

Adler asking “is this true, Bell”, says to me that everyone in the team knew you were working for Perseus initially before helping them. Had he told Woods and Mason everything and just left out the brainwashing is the most likely story. So it’s evident that even if he once knew you, you’d long been gone. That version of the story is the one Mason and Woods would’ve had if they didn’t know about the brainwashing.

Let’s narrow it down.

Woods and Mason simply knew and didn’t bat an eye because you weren’t one of their ‘own.’

Or……

Woods and Mason didn’t know because Adler left it out because he knew Mason was once brainwashed and it wouldn’t have been ideal to know that his own people were possibly no better than Russians. Mason was through hell, that we know. It wouldn’t have been a reassuring topic if he needed Mason’s mentality in good shape instead of possibly being reminded of the experience he’d been through.

Woods and Mason were the heavy hitters of the team and a duo. Them together is a combo.

So did they know?

It’s up to you.

[dyradoodles]

Hiiiiii! 💕 I was just wondering….. what are your preferences for Zack & Seph? Do you ship ‘em, is it up to circumstance, does the age matter to you/do you consider their age and their gap? Why not even throw in how you fell in love with Zack & Seph to begin with? Do you have sources?? MLA format for Zack’s fandom page???

*plops down on floor*

Details plz! ❤️

Ah yes hello person that I definitely do not know, who definitely didn't see me say I could write an essay about this very subject on discord LMFAO

I'll put the actual essay under a cut for people who don't want to scroll through my Many Feelings about these two lol As a TLDR to your questions:

Yes I ship them, but also Yes it's up to circumstance! Yes I consider their canon ages/the age gap (which most visibly manifests in me only drawing them platonically if I'm drawing Zack as a Second/with the puppy hair, or writing a fic taking place during CC)! I was actually into Aeriseph first and stumbled into ZackSeph fics, and realized it was a similar dynamic, but with someone who spent time with Seph canonically before he went bananas! All of this was before CC came out and I've been loving these characters for 20+ years!

To borrow a phrase (from crylin iirc), honestly, I like just seeing them standing next to each other, romantic or no LMAO <3

NOW, FOR THE ESSAY.

So to expand on what I said earlier, I think it's obvious from my blog and ZS server that I ship these two LMAO That said, the way I ship them is based heavily on the era of fandom before CC was a thing. I got into FF7 around 2002 (possibly earlier, I just don't have the dates on drawings that old), five years before CC came out. At the time, we knew next to nothing about Zack beyond the very short clips of him in OG. So, fandom did what fandom does best, and tried to fill in the blanks!

Some of the efforts to figure out who Zack was went all the way down to his name, because it's Zakkusu in Japanese. So you'll see him as Zax, too - There were heated debates on whether to use Zack or Zax. And no last name! Fandom had to come up with surnames themselves. We also didn't have much of a reference beyond his polygon model, which seemed to have darker skin and, (as many fics described it) violet eyes. It was also assumed that, since he was a First who worked closely with Sephiroth, he was probably around Sephiroth's age. You likely already see where I'm going with this, laying all that out lol The Zack I draw and write is very much based on that time period, and if I'm honest, that's the character I really ship with Seph. I still joke in my fics sometimes that Zack's last name might be Donovan or Darklighter, etc., which are old fandom surnames!

Now, obviously CC came out and threw all this on its head, because we finally got a whole GAME about this (important!) minor character. I have many beefs with CC's writing and Square's insistence that so many of their characters need to be child prodigies (they can't ALL be prodigies, Square!!!). With Zack going from an assumed early 20s to suddenly being 16, and all the craziness of CC's plot, the way I approached the ship changed as well.

This is where I would firmly say my stance is: I don't think Seph had any interest in Zack romantically, in CC. Because that's a kid lmao If I'm engaging with the Compilation as a whole, I definitely lean way more into the mentor/mentee relationship for the two of them. As a personal rule, I only draw them platonically if Zack's got the puppy hair, because that was the most obvious visual cue I could think of that could draw that line between Zack's teen years vs. adult. If Seph managed to not go insane, then yeah, later in life I could still see them getting together! But clearly that's already AU territory lmfao

Ultimately, what I like best about Zack & Seph is how they treat each other (while Seph is still sane lol). That goes for platonically and romantically. Zack is so genuine and kind, and treats Seph the way he always wanted to be treated - like he's human. He can joke around with Seph in a way most people simply can't. Meanwhile, Seph treats Zack's feelings with respect, even during the times he's laughing at Zack for being ridiculous. He's also honest with Zack. He answers truthfully when Zack asks what's wrong, and it's clear that it's because he knows Zack is not a threat; Zack will take Seph's feelings seriously, too. I can enjoy the drama of the trauma and heartbreak that comes with Sephiroth's descent into villainy, but my favorite stuff definitely involves a lot of Nibelheim fix-it fics lol

Despite all the changes CC made to Zack and his relationship to Sephiroth (RIP Second in Command Zax Donovan/Darklighter/Knightblade, my beloved), their actual dynamic with regard to how they treat each other stayed, miraculously, intact. That's the real reason they're still my favorite characters, and how my enjoyment of FF7 has remained as strong as it is after literal decades. Square can retcon as many things as they want in the Compilation, but they'll never stop me from making art and fic of the characters I grew up with. Unless I get a C&D for some reason LMFAO Until then, I'll keep enjoying my AUs (and if anything, I have even more reason to enjoy them now that AUs themselves are canon - you bet your ass I'll be in the AUs where ONLY OG happened and I can ignore everything else LOL)

Thank you for the questions!! It was fun to get all my thoughts written down in one huge chunk, as opposed to my typical disjointed ramblings to my friends. Hopefully it was an interesting read!

Sources:

Fanlore. “Zack Fair.” The Organization for Transformative Works, 2 Jan. 2023, fanlore.org/wiki/Zack_Fair.

Doodles, Dyra. "Way Too Much Fandom Lurking." Dyra's Childhood to Adulthood, Copious Amounts of Fanfiction, 3 Apr. 2024

[dangthatscrayz]

heyhey! im loving your slay the monster au so far, and i was wondering what the names for the monster would be in the chapter 3s? like what is the burned grey’s version of The Smitten called? same for all the other monster vessels

Tysm I love the support!

Like a sane person I’m up at almost 3 am typing this.

Also I’m probably going to add more chapters and endings for the other routes for funsies

But here’s the whole list of names and chapters just because

(Btw unless you kill the monster expect it to just slay itself like how in the actual game if you slay the princess yoru stuck in the voice until you do something and since all of them want to leave they just hit that slay button)

Chapter 1’s:

The hero (if you don’t bring the blade)

The captor (if you bring the blade)

The contrarian (step off the path)

Chapter 2’s:

Literally all the same as in the game minus ‘the voice of’ part

Chapter 3’s:

The Betrothed (I got plans for the smitten’s burned grey route it’s gonna be kinda crazy based on the name)((the voice of the damsel is just going to be hauling everything and since she’s controlling everything now, no sane decision will happen))

The Hunter (the hunted third chapter where if you die to his claws now the roles reversed from him being the scared animal to now being the one hunting the player)

The Empty ( if you kill the cold again or just go out and kill the cold after he asks to escape you come here similar to the spectre and wraith routes but less ghosting but still kind of not really tangible activity is happening)

The Bewildered (if for some reason you decide to hand the knife to the opportunist will stab you and like the witch did in the thorn chapter get so confused that he doesn’t even want to hurt you anymore he just doesn’t know why you did that or why he wants to hurt you anymore)

The Truth (basically the wild chapter)

The Rebuilt (the broken’s apotheosis, the voice of the tower is hyping up her new priest/pet/whatever he is to her)((do expect to be King Kong style yoinked by this kaiju and carried out this forest))

The Resistant (no matter how many holes you make in the stubborn body he somehow keeps getting up, he does not look very healthy after some point)((eye of the needle version of the stubborn btw))

The Savage (if you somehow screw up on the broken or stubborn chapters you end up here and like the fury in there game your options are ‘dying or dying’ goodluck, when the pristine cut comes out I’ll definitely update this)

The Cacophony (like in the moment of clarity for the paranoid all the voices are here.)

The Cheater (the cheated starts playing dirty therefore now a cheater idk what to say, it’s in the name)

Chapter 4’s:

The Winner (the cheated is the only one with a chapter 4 unless I add more later or the pristine cut comes out)

Also I wanted to add here that chapter 1 will always be grey (not the contrarian he doesn’t play by any rules anyways), every chapter 2 has added 1 color to the monster, chapter 3 has 2 colors in its monster, and every chapter 4 will add another color. I wanted to add some other elements of other monsters in it paralleling how in the og game the more voices you get each chapter. Like the betrothed will have some elements from the cold since that’s who you get if you kill the princess in the og game. Also some other additional stuff like extra eyes to look extra biblically accurate and because it’s hard to make a monster look more monster with each chapter so I’m doubling down on stuff like limbs and eyes so it looks kind of like there’s more than one in there

The voices for the third chapters like you saw with the witch in the current route the princess voices are also going to be swapped around to fit the personalities more.

[offshore-brinicle]

That was one hell of a part 2 good lordy. I have SO many thoughts but I cannot put all into words for now, here's some though.

Dante is being real quiet [sus especially after how much they talked in canto 5, plus how they seemed seemed realise that they need to actually take part in helping the sinners proper] and they are [seemingly] the only sinner one could connect to Carmen [literally all of the chirstian symbolism, the way the static on her appearances was similar to the static Dante has seen on AFD and their overheating, the fact she seemed to speak through them at that point]. I am probably just reading into things but after the whiplash of how much they usually talk - internally and externally - I am very much getting a sinking feeling something's wrong.

Basements are evil. Hong Lu is rich enough to have a basement in his houses. He will probably have an evil basement. I would bet money on this, especially if its a sort of 'other world' as alluded to in his book (that I have not read. It does mention a Land of Illusion if i recall, however, so possibly a door to that). Bonus points if it ends up being upside down or smth.

Would the 'chaotic' part of the golden bough ( of 'em at least) have any sorta relation to why we Heath's E.G.O seemed unstable? I know most of the other distortions/E.G.O awakenings happened near boughs - which connects to the theory that they are directly related to Carmen and thus allow her to talk to people more easily like with the monolith - either Dante's fragment or a full one, but the specific mention of a chaotic one could mean it's responsible for Bodysack seeming to have corroded, as one can see the warning labels typical of a corroding E.G.O.

Given Faust's change in behaviour - namely stuttering for what I believe to be the first time - regarding the conversations around the 'creation of humans' I do believe this was how she was made. Yi Sang did say he made the tech used within the pods in that very basement, and the fact that he was the first recruit could mean that the Faust who approached him is not the same Faust on the bus. The idea of her being a metric fucktonna ID's layered on top of each other firstly explains the Council of Fausts theory, wherein she is able to talk to other versions of herself, in this case because that's what she is, as well as what Dante says about her looking somewhere else before answering. Mirrors alter perception, so her looking at a different Faust for answers could explain that as well. Work's too with her base E.G.O, wherein three shadows seem to point out an answer on her wall of notes. She has all the knowledge, she just needs her other selves to point it out when needed - thus her evasive attitude when it comes to answers, she needs time to get it pointed out.

On that note, do you think her attitude in Selva Obscura is a reflection of og!Faust, but she drops the act later on once Dante has fully forgotten their past? She doesn't really get that jokey after that.

Like how the middle seemed to be the antithesis of Ishmael in C5 part 2, the ring seems to be Heath's. The middle represented how Ishy as a person was mostly incompatibility with 'the bit', in the form of a situation that is remarkably silly on paper but ended up in near total annihilation of the group. The ring may represent how some may look for deeper meanings in all things from arts to people, which clashes wickedly against Heathcliff's more straightforward approach when it comes to handling situations. The dredges of the ring are those parts of him that overthink and he solves the problem as simply as he's been solving many others.

Cathy in a Coffin reminds me of when Carmen was content enough to haunt the narrative from her Bucket. Nothing else to say here except for the fact it's funny.

But back to Carmen, and more particularly 'fate' regarding distortions. The theme of denying of what 'should've happened' is a decently big theme of limbus - from the rewinding death to even subverting what happens from any literary source material - so if they end up going 'Carmen no Carming' to her later on, defying someone who seems to be as much of a god-like entity as the Head in some ways, I would not be surprised if we either get a visit from Iori, one of Demian's lot or another Lo9 member - x or current. Additionally, defying fate may just be what brings back Heathcliff from the edge, keeping Cathy alive in this mirror world but presumably in a weird weirdass way. My guess is that she distorts and gets nabbed by LCD - but I also just wanna see Moses so.

Also hey what happened to the seven strikes of lightning. Are they gonna be in Heath's distortion dungeon or something? No clue.

And I think that's it. Gonna stare at a wall for a while now methinks

OK SO FIRST UP THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS HERE SO I'LL TRY TO ANSWER TO THESE CONCISELY

Now that you mentioned it, it was always very strange how Faust is Number 2 despite being there first and her mugshot having already been in uniform, so now that you mention her different attitude in the Prologue I honestly see a lot to what you are bringing up here. It was always a personal theory of mine that Faust's real "Mephistopheles" was Sang Yi or Yi Sang somehow, since Sang Yi still to seems to be a rather...odd entity that doesn't correspond to any particular mirror world and is implied by Yi Sang to have some degree of omniscience (and there's also that marked part in the dungeon where he "mysteriously dissapeared" for some time with no explanation), so she might have gotten Yi Sang to do the procedure that would give her this infinite knowledge, specially since even Yi Sang himself emphasizes on her having been "gifted" with omniscience, I Highly doubt he's being figurative here, even more with her EGO's background being the shadows of multiple people.

In regards to Dante not speaking I think it's simply because of the difference in situation, unlike Ishmael who was very clearly out of control due to her own mindset, Heathcliff is being driven over the edge by circumstance -- and some quite insane circumstances at that, so it might be why they could not intervene, but hopefully they'll step up when we get to the next part, specially since we'll be dealing with Distorted Heathcliff....and also, it's very interesting that we actually got Heathcliff's POV on how it felt to Distort. It might be Dante's connection to Carmen and The Sinners aligning at once.

And also, Catherine is def a Carmen expy (I actually did my own analysis some time ago in similarities Kromer, Ahab and Dongbaek had with Carmen too but this one is the most. Insanely explicit similarity) and the fact that she speaks to "Welcome Heathcliff home" at the very end in her own voice alongside Carmen...I can't help but feel she might have been planning to get Heathcliff to Distort all along as part of her personal plan that they can be together happy in Hell. The Overclocking symptoms seem to have been an indicator of Heathcliff approaching Distortion, I really like how...drastically different it feels from the awakened Crow's Eye View and Snagharpoon, and just in general how they completely threw the formula that had been built up until now out of the window (heh)

Either way, thanks for shooting me a message! It's always fun to get to hear other people's observations and theories and share my own two cents along the way

Edit: I forgor but frankly if Hong Lu has yet another Creepy Rich Person basement I think I'll bash my head against the wall. The real moral of Limbus is that basements are bad and evil. Sorry there are just So many good observations here and I'm a bit scatterbrained at times shfhh

In regards to the "fate" thing, I feel like that will be a big part of dealing with Heathcliff next part, Limbus Company as a game and story is built on the reimaginings or "what ifs" or classics, and we've seen it with Yi Sang that his ending was changed in the end; the original Yi Sang died and the protagonist of The Wings commits suicide, but he rejected all of that, while Ishmael was on her path to repeat the cycle of the story of Moby Dick but thanks to Dante and Heathcliff she rejected that as well. And the title of "Clear All Cathy" really establishes from the first moment the goal this time. We'll have to wait another week to see how it rolls.