#meant to be purely roleplay but just in casee

[pumpkingas]

Md/lb eprocto but w/o the ageplay likee

Imagine sitting in the living room after dinner when your son comes up behind you. "Mm mom my stomach hurts like crazy... Could you help me, please?" He'd plead and lift his shirt up so you can see how bloated he is, maybe you'd make a comment about him being too old but he's still your baby boy after all so you take him into your lap. He'd whimper softly and snuggle into Mommy's arms as you gently rub his aching belly, you'd feel the heat radiating off his skin and the gurgles vibrating his belly. "Thank you, mommy. I'd do it myself but your hands just work so well," he'd moan and tilt his head back before pushing a fart out into your lap. Normally he'd be so embarrassed but there's no need with mommy, he'd just mutter quietly "'scuse me..." Then move on. You'd squish and squeeze his achy tummy as he drills farts into your lap. "Oh fuck, mom, I've gotta take a shit. But I'll thank you properly after, yeah?" He'd give you a small peck on the lips before rushing off, leaving you to either play with yourself while huffing his lingering gas, or be a good mommy and actually wait patiently.

[universalthaumaturge]

Nobilis Dash Simulator

❤️‍🔥 theworkofhellisholy Follow

i love you shipping discourse i love you having to make accounts for everything i love you small talk i love you esophageal cancer i love you deforestation i love you scabs you can't help but pick even though you're not supposed to i love you scabs as in strikebreakers i love you unbearably hot weather in winter i love you people who film strangers in public without their consent i love you prion disease i love you car-based infrastructure i love you gallstones i love you stock market i love you enshittification i lov

36 notes

🌳 sneacensnoveonthesnorldsnash Follow

just ate an elfsciene panini for the first time and cried i love u world

🌺 flore7 Follow

i'm dying of cake so i can't really eat it without being crushed to death by a giant cake mountain but aelfscienne's is so good i don't even care anymore LOL

🌳 sneacensnoveonthesnorldsnash Follow

i want you carnally

🪲 lord-entropy-official Follow

Why do I even bother anymore.

607,789 notes

🐶 surolam Follow

Remember to use miracles responsibly! There has been a surprising increase in dementia animus cases lately.

lakedrinker10000-deactivated60231212

and what if we don't?

👨‍⚖️ locourtbailiff Follow

oh thats simple! TEN THOUSAND LOCUST ATTACK 🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗

12,144 notes

🕵️ illegalregal Follow

ok i know we're meant to "enact vengeance no more than sevenfold unto their crime" or whatever but what the fuck does that MEAN????

🕵️ illegalregal Follow

like, if an excrucian eats the leftovers i had on my fridge, do i eat their food? do i punch them (but softly enough that it's not over 7x as worse as having your leftovers stolen!)?? is there a conversion guide somewhere. how the hell do you MEASURE that?????

7 notes

🦑 yog-sazasthur Follow

Kids these days TOO FOCUS on their damned CELL-PHONES..... They should be Eating... Having Sex... And Wriggling !

30,054 notes

👽 prescottsdaddy Follow

do you think cneph and harumaph ever explored eachother's bodies

cneph Follow

we did

👽 prescottsdaddy Follow

dude's literally roleplaying as the great maker and the angels in the notes are calling ME blasphemous???

90,732 notes

☠️ chattering-monkeys-and-parrots Follow

kys. just in general

🧍‍♂️ the-light-is-perfection Follow

excuse you???

☠️ chattering-monkeys-and-parrots Follow

kys in particular

281,667 notes

👼 graceful-invader Follow

guys the voice of the creator is telling me we should kiss eachother with tounge. this is what heaven needs

733,712 notes

🔨 warry-in-main Follow

just did my first tempering and it turns out the dude was lactose intolerant

🐻 peregrine-twink Follow

aw man that sucks. is there anything we can do to help?

🔨 warry-in-main Follow

take my test boy

1,907 notes

🧸 dailydahlia Follow

Why do people still think i'm a mimic?!

#seriously guys! #longfurby is RIGHT THERE.

1 note

💠 itfuckenwildy Follow

god i fucking hate it here

🎩 qistjannuja Follow

Hate? No no no my enemy, you don't "hate" creation. Not really.

Let me tell you about actual hate. Pure, undiluted, wyrdbound Hate.

I was ROYALTY. I ruled over my lands with a kind hand and an iron fist and we THRIVED. But then, the little prick you call a maker fucking drowned it all in… in THIS. This grimy, glitched, causational mess you dare to call home.

If that was it, I'd be pissed. I'd be furious, even. But that's not all.

It had the AUDACITY to poison me with its substance. I physically can't stay in the void because it leaks out and poisons it too. And when I come back, guess what? It kills me. Over and over and over and over. I've died five times this month. Died of HORSES. Imagine getting stampeded on just for daring to exist, **WHICH I DON'T BY THE WAY**.

And you know what? if that was it, I could take it. If that was it, I would just take the L and try to adapt. I would try to find beauty in the world, you know? stop and smell the flowers? But GUESS WHAT. Your "great maker" DIDN'T EVEN MAKE THE WORLD RIGHT. It's all... eugh.

I can't stand the creation simps who try to defend it but HARUMAPH-MY-WITNESS I FUCKING DESPISE the ones who think they hate it more than me. YOU DON'T. Fuck you. I'll world-breaker's hand you. Bitch.

💠 itfuckenwildy Follow

nvm i love it here. where else would you get shit like this

🎭 gaathika-aupa-yochelm Follow

"i'll world-breaker's hand you. bitch." LMAOOO i bet this dumbass doesn't even have the drunkard's gift

🎩 qistjannuja Follow

It's none of your fucking business, ""Aupa"", and besides, it seems you don't understand what an ANALOGY is.

"World-Breaker's Handing" someone is simply meant to imply utterly and retroactively erasing them, something your deceiveroid intellect probably wouldn't comprehend anyways.

I am a Votary in my Dream-of-Self and a Dustcloak of my Sphere, I don't need some paltry Wyrd-trick to kill either of you.

🎭 gaathika-aupa-yochelm Follow

🌌 not-heritage-posts Follow

Not-Heritage Post

124,801 notes

🌸 botanyhellyeah Follow

my gf mde fun of me bc i cant open the jar of pickle but shes a supernal martialart master and im jsut a little motal i'm not even miraculous in natures

🧘‍♂️ zulander Follow

Rosie, sweetheart, do you remember the miraculous bracers you made? the ones with the oak leaves, that make you as strong as a noble when you say the command word? the ones you're wearing right now?

🌸 botanyhellyeah Follow

FUFK

25,678 notes

👥 weamlegion0015 Follow

normalize consuming peolpe and incorporating them into the unliving matrix of your pseudoself! ^u^

🪀 jojotun Follow

Are you an actual

👥 weamlegion0015 Follow.

no what makes u say that? :P

🪀 weamlegion0016 FOLLOW.

aah it was nohting! my bad XD

20 notes

🤫 iolithae Follow

this joke format is still funny and relevant

5 notes

👚 dionylsus Follow

look it's not a sex thing when i pretend to be a set of human clothes and my partner wears me to the movies, ok? we do it so we don't have to pay two tickets. putting me in the washing machine IS a sex thing though

120 notes

cneph Follow

can someone please get me out of this fiddle. the wi-fi is great but i can't stretch without getting splinters

0 notes

🌟 ananda Follow

I might have accidentally let a few urbana escape into the prosaic. Stay safe out there.

141,235,813 notes

👨 im-an-anchor-you-wankor Follow

WHY THE FUCK IS MY TRASH CAN BITING ME

[dervampireprince]

ASMR | Royalty Roleplay - SFW Teasing The Priest Who Secretly Craves You

[M4A] [Priest kink/heirophilia] [Enemies to lovers] [No screaming but some almost-yelling and angry speaker]

Of course it's going to be a series, I have to give you guys the opportunity to ruin this man. Still working on a name for him but I do know exactly what he looks like, I just need some free time to draw him. I saw people debating after the first audio about whether the listener has been flirting or if they've just been sitting there trying to innocently make friends... As much as it's funny to imagine Father here getting that worked up over nothing, the listener has been staring at him and has been purposely flirting albeit not very intensely, our priest is just very sensitive. And by sensitive I mean touch-starved, affection-starved and if you couldn't work it out from the end of this audio, demisexual and demiromantic and had been assuming he was closer to aroace on the aroace spectrum. 

And in case anyone needs the reminder though I hope it's not necessary, no aroace people 'haven't just found the right person yet', this character is not aroace representation or meant to imply aroace people can 'be changed' or anything like that. I myself am demisexual and demiromantic and this is purely representation for me and any other demiaroace people who might have had the eventual 'oh no' when realising you are experiencing sexual attraction for the first time it's just that you hadn't established a long or close enough relationship with anybody yet to give you the chance to figure that out. All identities on the aromantic-asexual spectrum are valid. Just putting that out there in case any stinky or less-informed people come across the audio.

.

Old public spicy audios on sound gasm (link in pinned post). 2 Exclusive spicy audios on Patreon every month. I also stream on Twitch every week @ dervampireprince . [minors + ageless blogs dni. this blog is for 18+ only.] [do not repost/reupload/edit any of my content]

[thryth-gaming]

My "Home" Games

So, I've since realized this term is a bit confusing because it has since been used to differentiate on-camera Actual Plays from private games. But I started using it because I was unsatisfied with the typical concept of the "favorite" game.

Basically, I have four games that I will always return to if given a chance. These are:

Fate Core

Scion 2e (Storypath)

City of Mist

Monster of the Week

I really can't choose between these four games as to which I enjoy more. However, some people may have noticed that I don't recommend them equally. So here's why Monster of the Week is the game I recommend the most.

Fate Core

Fate Core is one of the more recent variations of the Fate system which descended from FUDGE and first appeared in specific games like Spirit of the Century or Dresden Files RPG. It is a narrative game and uses the Aspects from FUDGE, a mechanic which has influenced a lot of narrative games ever since. It can and has been adjusted to hit a large number of genres with a large collection of much varied official release content, the majority of which is available Pay-What-You-Want, and a very easy to work with open license for making third party material.

However, Fate Core is very much a toolkit system. This means that the base rules are meant to be modded so that you can hit the exact gameplay flavor you're hoping for. This means that a GM will be faced with making a fair amount of homebrewing mechanics to match desired narrative. That mentioned vast library of sample worlds does help as you can borrow mechanics from any of a number of existing world books to make your world, but it still requires some work.

On top of this, as one of the earlier narrative games, it has some rough spots in mechanics and, most glaringly, a lot of tables struggle with getting the Fate Point economy flowing at just the right level. This can cause the game to underperform. This is because the metacurrency of Fate Points generally requires the GM and players to actively engage with it by experiencing problems as a result of the down side of their Aspects. A common story I've been told is that tables will just RP their negative aspects without being encouraged to, which is fine because the game allows for giving Fate Points for that, but forget that it is a thing they should get Fate Points for. More recent narrative games have answered this problem by including purely game play ways for the metacurrency to refill so it isn't entirely dependent on players and GMs remembering to do it.

So, that brings me to the following for Fate Core

Very low buy-in cost, most of the material can be purchased for low cost or gotten for free.

Lots of support and examples.

High flexibility

High GM campaign prep required (session prep is pretty easy though)

The mechanics takes a bit of a re-working some player's approaches to gaming.

Scion 2e

A roleplaying game where you can play a hero with a spark of divinity in a modern day setting where the supernatural is public and all myths are true, especially the contradictory ones. Yup, sign me up. I am always up for this genre of game play. You got a lots of cases of "Jus' Folks" supernaturals alongside the heroes and where magic is a simple part of life.

Also, the Storypath system is a great mix of narrative and tactical. It scratches my desire to do character builds and doesn't require me to perform absurd mathematical gymnastics in order to get exactly the flavor I want for my character. The stunt system is great and seems to take inspiration from Green Ronin's AGE game's stunt point mechanics, but the gem is Enhancements and Scale.

Enhancements range from +1 to +5, with +4 and +5 only possible to reach with supernatural abilities. These are bonus successes that only apply to your roll if you have rolled at least one success on the dice. This keeps the dice relevant, as compared to Scion 1e where eventually bonus successes reached a point that dice just didn't matter anymore. The cap on enhancements would keep the power bound within a certain power level if this wasn't then match with the Scale mechanic which allows the characters to be the demigod or superhero they're meant to be.

The default setting makes some assumptions about the world but also explains how you can adjust these to your desire. For example, I generally ignore the whole idea of the war between gods and titans. So this is neither a good nor bad bit.

The big downside to this game is that the financial buy-in to get into the game is pretty significant. At minimum to play the game you need both Origin and Hero to have all the basic rules you need to play the game at its best. You can play Origin for a good long while and have fun, but it has very limited advancement and scaling, so you're eventually going to want to move on to Hero. Demigod and God are significantly different gameplay feels and you may never end up reaching that level and still be fully satisfied, so you don't need those, but they do have extra Pantheons and ideas about the world setting.

Accompanying this is that the supplements of the game are rather hit and miss. Mysteries of the World, Saints and Monsters, Demigod, God, and Titanmachy are definitely worth a purpose. However, Dragon, Masks of the Mythos, and a few others are sort of middling. Dragon and Masks in particular feel over-engineered and fiddly.

High buy-in cost

Minimum 2 book requirement

Varying supplement quality

Variable gameplay flavor from social to combat

Amazing flavor

Excellent mix of narrative and tactical mechanics

City of Mist

City of Mist is a noir superhero game where you play people who are empowered by their connection with a story (or multiple stories in the case of one of my PCs). This Mythos has a desire to relive itself on an epic scale and will empower your character to do just that. For example, the Little Match Girl mythos will seek to relive her story of deprivation, delusion, and death by exposure and if not anchored by a human will, will spread this concept throughout all of society.

It is a game descended from Powered by the Apocalypse but the extent of its changes are such that I feel that it is its own thing. It still uses the 2d6, but where it uses Fate Aspect-like "tags" instead of the common range of usually 5 stats and the combination of four themebooks instead of a single playbook makes it incredibly different.

The themebook mechanics does make City of Mist perhaps the best mechanics for doing character development out of any game I have ever played. The themebooks are meant to grow in effectiveness and versatility but also to be lost and replaced, granting experience based on the strength of the replaced theme. This process has a pacing controlled almost entirely by the player with dice-based changes well sign-posted as risks so they will never come as a surprise. You can have your character change as much or as little, as fast or as slow as you want. There is also a built in reset option for characters that don't want to retire their character but do want to go back to an entirely fresh sheet.

In addition, the Iceberg approach to planning stories and campaigns is exceptional and it has some truly great advice on how to manage spotlight between players to make sure nobody is recommended. The publishers have also started to make other games based on this system but I do not believe there is an open license as of yet, so for now the only Written in the Mist games (yes, I just made that up) we're getting are going to com out of Son of Oak Games.

However, the mechanics are a bit intricate. In my opinion they are not over-designed or extraneous and move fluidly once you're used to them but they can take a bit of getting used to. Also, while it was originally a single book, the publisher found that it was too large a book to allow for efficient publishing so it was split into two books. This puts its financial buy-in at similar levels to Scion 2e. There are some supplements, Shadows and Showdowns is especially good providing new themebooks to use, but I believe most add setting elements, example cases, and example characters.

Somewhat high buy-in cost

Minimum two book requirement

Somewhat complex rules that do work well after a brief learning curve.

Excellent character development mechanics.

Such flavor.

Monster of the Week

Of the Powered by the Apocalypse games not created by the original designers of the system, Maguey and Vincent Baker, this is the game that most understands both the limits and strengths of the PbtA system. It is a very straightforward and simple systems that knows exactly what it is and what it is here to do. And this self-awareness has allowed it to grow in ways a lot of other PbtA games struggle to do so (without becoming something entirely different at least).

As long as a story fits within the framework of investigative action horror, Monster of the Week can do it. The playbooks represent story arcs for the character drawn from recognizable shows and books like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, Dresden Files, Evil Dead, Penny Dreadful, and even Scooby Doo.

The hunters are able and encouraged to borrow from other playbooks to fill out their personal character build and each move is also an element of the character's story.

To date, all of the supplements have been excellent, and I'm going to say that the new supplements co-authored by myself and Marek Golonka are set to fit that mold. Also, essentially, the supplements do not change the game to such a degree that they become absolutely necessary to playing the game the way some supplements have become in other's game (a certain witch's cauldron for instance). If the only book you own is the Monster of the Week corebook (I suggest the Hardcover edition as it includes some optional rules from Tome of Mysteries) you have everything you need for an excellent game.

I highly recommend each of the supplements but even once you have them, you won't always need Team playbooks and you won't always want to be playing in one of the other world settings of Codex of Worlds. If you get the Hardcover edition of the Corebook you'll already have a lot of the optional rules from Tome of Mysteries, but that book will still benefit you in the form of its more than 20 pre-made mysteries, several advice essays on running the game, and four hunter playbooks: The Searcher, The Hex, The Gumshoe, and The Pararomantic.

The downside of this game is that you're not always going to want to do investigative action horror as a game premise. If I want something that allows for slice of life, then Fate would be the best followed by Scion 2e and City of Mist. Similarly if I want the game to be more about supernatural politics than fighting monsters. The game CAN do politics and slice of life well, but once those become the central focus of a campaign you may want to switch to a different system.

Low to Average financial buy-in

Lots of support

Excellent supplements

Accessible rules

Really needs to be the specific genre of investigative action horror.

[ticklish-touch]

Decided to post my Backrooms chapter illustrations separately. The links to all the (SFW) chapters can be found here:

I really wanted to push myself not just as a writer, but also as a digital artist for this story.

You can read some rambles about my art process for each illustration below the cut.

Ch 1: For this chapter cover, I wanted to do my best to replicate the eerie, sickly vibe of Level Zero. And that resulted me in really playing around with the lighting and shadows in a way that I hadn't before. I also wanted to give it a bit of wonky perspective and feel a bit like an illusion-house.

Ch 2: Lookit this cheeky fucker. Totally isn't a Tower of Terror employee luring you into a false sense of security. 😁 My initial idea for this illustration was to make it look as if the Manager's cuttlefish head was really morphing & bowing out from within the wallpaper. I tried a couple drafts where I attempted to line up his tentacles and facial patterns with the wallpaper patterns. And idk, it just didn't end up looking as cool as it did in my head. (Also hallelujiah for Clip pattern brushes, they helped me make the trim around the elevator.)

Ch 3: Fun fact: This chapter was originally going to be the second half of my hotel chapter. But I'm glad it became its own thing, cause otherwise it would've robbed me of the chance to draw Rags acting like a supervillain in a construction helmet and flannel 👍

also Clip Studio Assets are a godsend, they prevent me from having to draw out an entire freakin warehouse floorplan. I did color it all myself though.

Ch 4: I remember this drawing taking me longer than I would've liked.Then again I've always struggled to draw somewhat realistic-looking water. The shadow off-shooting below the smaller cube pool into the deeper water was actually a complete accident.

And in case anyone was wanting to see a close-up of Lionfish Rags:

And again, Spike and Drake are temporary names for the sake of this AU setting until I think of actual names (for if and when I ever get around to making a Mer-Nautica AU like I've been wanting to). The silhouettes show how big they were when I first saw them in my dreams:

Ch 5: I had visuals in mind for a group of Wanderers/ Survivors since before I wrote this chapter, and grew even more attached to them as I wrote them. I was originally going to just have them depicted here, but I also couldn't get the stupid image of Rags and his megaphone out of my head and decided it needed to be shared 👌

Ch 6: When I tell yall that it was a struggle to get through drawing this. And not because of genuine art struggles; No, because of the pure Lee Panik that gripped my soul when having to zoom in close on Rags' sadistic unhinged Ler face hhhhhhfdhdfjgkfghl-

This was one of the chapters I was most looking forward to writing. It's still one of my favs in terms of pure unbridled ruthless gang-tickling, the culmination of my pred/prey/chasing fantasies revolving around laughter-hungry monsters, along with some good ol Mad Scientist roleplay.

...Oh and the first official introduction of the final antagonist, there's that too 😛

Ch 7: Yall have no idea the absolute childlike glee I felt when discovering that there's a freaking Bouncehouse/McDonalds Playplace level of the Backrooms. But holy hell, drawing the Toon Monsters was more of a challenge than I thought. There's a surprising amount of finesse in depicting that wacky, slightly-unnerving/uncanny toony charm. (Ballpit brush is best brush, change mymind)

Ch 8: Since this chapter was more or less meant to be a sort of mid-series Climax, a hint of what the battle with the Keymaster would be like, I really wanted to push myself with making this chapter cover truly stand out. It was fun to come up with a full-body design for the Court Jester (based on his Wiki interpretation of course), and it was fun to experiment with the ideas I had in mind for his magic visuals.

Once again, Clip Studio assets are a lifesaver, you can catch me actually attempting to draw a rollercoaster or carousel when I'm six feet under 👌

Ch 9: I was both excited about, and dreading, the chance to play around with various different light colors & sources. I wasn't sure how I was going to make neon blues, purples and magentas work in contrast to Rags' color palette, but I'm very happy with what I came up with.

The Dark Sovereign was also a chance for me to play around with chiaroscuro, an art technique that I've always admired (and actually really liked to do with chalk & pastel back in college). As much as I'm a slut for bright colors, I love stark contrasting black & white.

Ch 10: I went through about three iterations of sketches for this chapter cover. I felt like I just couldn't figure out how to angle the perspective of the treeline in comparison to the Giant. I'm still not even sure if I thoroughly pulled off the proper perspective of the greenhouse in the far distance. But once I added all the pretty, spooky fog effects, I became much happier with it.

Unfortunately I do not have a standalone drawing of Naga!Rags. It will definitely happen one of these days.

Ch 11: For this chapter, I wanted to draw a very cramped, stark, foreboding stretch of environment: Basically, a quintessential scene that one would see in the Backrooms if they were wandering through them alone. This is meant to be a much more down-to-earth chapter than the rest, with an air of melancholy and uncertainty. Turns out it actually lined up quite well with some of my own mental and emotional struggles that I was going through at the time.

Ch 12: For the final hurrah, I really wanted to push myself as a digital artist for this piece. (Though that doesn't mean I was about to draw all those goddamn keys from scratch, lmaoo you can thank Clip Assets for that key ring.) I wanted to try and find a way to make the Keymaster the more imposing figure in the piece, despite the fact that Rags is fully powered-up and closest to the viewer. I'm not sure if I entirely succeeded, since my end solution for making him stand out more was "MOAR GLOWY KEYS!!!"

But it was still fun, and very rewarding to get it completed.

Ch 13: I was very happy to finally get the chance to fully render Kenni for this fic. As much as shading his tendrils still drives me up the wall, it felt nice drawing the good soff boi. And I was happy to give an idea of how his Dream realm looks, with all its pastel clouds and close proximity to the Astral plane.

[upon-lavender-hills]

I thought it would be fun to roleplay with my character-ai Runge as Doctor Gillen, and, as I was doing so, I suddenly realized why exactly Gillen did that thing with the out-of-nowhere bus tickets... I am not sure whether this is common knowledge or not, perhaps it is, but to me it came out as a revealation, so I decided to share my thoughts on this matter.

(Warning: long text under cut!)

This particular scene I'm talking about, where Rudy sets it up so that the police would catch Tenma through him, and then changes plans and helps Tenma escape instead, always seemed strange to me. Rudy's scheme was obviously planned ahead, but I just couldn't pinpoint its exact purpose. For some reason, I ended up thinking that it was a two-way plan. My way of thinking was: Rudy planned this scheme ahead, not knowing what decision he would make in the end. As in, he didn't know whether he would give Tenma away or save him from the police in advance, instead, he wanted to see Tenma's reaction and hear what he has to say first, and then make a decision based on that. Honestly, I don't know what made me think that, but that's how I perceived this situation.

But as I was engaging in that silly ai roleplay, it suddenly dawned on me. Finally, it all fell into place. So that's how it goes, and I am pretty sure that this is not just my headcanons, but how it was actually intended by Urasawa. (Is this obvious? It wasn't to me, and I just can't tell by this point. To hell with it, let it just be my rambling/analysis/thought process then.)

When in the medical university, Gillen obviously displayed extremely competitive behavior. He had to be an intellectual superior in his group, and he was willing to do anything to reach this goal. That means it was not as much about knowledge, as it was about status for Rudy. And status means power. I am not saying that he had no interest for knowledge whatsoever, but, judging from his priorities, knowledge for him was a mean to acquire status. Knowledge -> status -> power. Something like that.

While Tenma doesn't seem to seek any power. He is purely knowledge-people oriented. He seeks knowledge, and he has natural compassion ingrained in him. And that, I assume, combined with this outstanding mental abilities, would make him acquire knowledge quite easily. Which probably isn't the case for Gillen, since he needs knowledge not for the sake of pure knowledge, but for another purpose.

With that established, it is clear why Rudy viewed Tenma as a competitor. I guess he wasn't quite aware that Tenma had different priorities. So, in his eyes, it was all about power, and Tenma was challenging him just to get that power over him. And succeeding, too. What a horrible situation. A pretty egocentric way of thinking, too, so Rudy's incorrect view of Tenma was based on two things: his willful, pervasive pursuit of power by the means of knowledge and his egocentricity.

And I suppose he was quite obsessed with Tenma in general, whether due to those factors I mentioned, or... for other reasons. That I definitely can't tell for sure. But, Gillen's pursuit for power, fueled by his imaginary competition with Tenma, lead him to cheat on his Medical Law exam. Because he just couldn't loose to Tenma. I believe Tenma was the only student he viewed as a noteworthy competitor. And during the exam, when Gillen saw that Tenma was watching him, like really watching, which meant that he had definitely spotted him cheating, it was such a tremendous shock to Gillen. Seeing how he judged everything by the position of power, he automatically assumed that Tenma was going to assert said power over him in some way. He must've expected Tenma to call him out, or to blackmail him, but since Tenma did neither of that, he must had come to another conclusion that matched his power-oriented way of thinking: Tenma was asserting his dominance over him in a much more subtle, twisted way. He wanted to humiliate Gillen by making that generous gesture, to show Gillen that he was above him, that he was better than him in every possible way, so superior that he wouldn't even stoop to the level of a dirty cheater. I believe Gillen would think this way, because he seems very insecure. And when he would come to such conclusion, I think his defense mechanism would be anger. He would hate Tenma for being superior, while still realizing, deep down, that Tenma was, in fact, superior to him. And that's what would make Gillen never forget about Tenma.

So the bus ticket situation becomes transparent from that perspective. Gillen never forgot about Tenma's humiliating grand gesture, so he had... artificially created a situation where Tenma would be in danger, and he would show him a similar grand gesture. He had planned everything, starting from how he would evade the police and ending with what exactly he would say to Tenma. And then he put that plan to action. He wanted to save Tenma in order to humiliate him in the same manner that Tenma humiliated him back in the Medical University. That's why he mentioned cheating. It was a direct reference to what he was doing at the moment. And when Tenma suddenly said that he not only viewed Gillen as an equal/superior (stating that he looked up to him and wanted to be his friend), but that he cheated on that Medical Law exam, too, it was an extremely shocking revelation for Gillen. Suddenly, there was no place for competition between them. And it was quite flattering, too, since subconsciously Gillen had been perceiving Tenma as someone superior all along. That's why he became so blindly devoted to Tenma after that interaction. It struck him to the core and turned his view upside down. You can't just ignore something like that.

And since Tenma was cheating, it explains why he was watching Gillen so intently, too. He was probably on the lookout/wanted to make sure that he wasn't alone in this. And when he saw that the best student in their group was also cheating, that probably calmed him down by a lot. Maybe he watched Gillen just to make sure. Maybe he wanted to convey some sort of message with his stare, but didn't quite succeed.

Anyway, that's my thoughts.

[atthebell-moved]

okay one singular person said they'd read an essay so im writing one sorry autism be upon ye. this is not the most organized series of points but i wanted to go through some of my thoughts on qsmp, truman show, and genloss (as it pertains to the themes of truman show). again, this is not me claiming qsmp drew direct inspiration or anything like that; for the truman show and genloss, i'm talking about similar themes and dynamics, and for lost (which i havent talked about yet but will in the future maybe if i feel like it no promises) i would say there's similar narratives going on and a couple (probably intentional but possibly not) references that i think are really neat. caveats over now read my insanity.

in terms of the truman show, i think there's a lot one could say to compare to qsmp. firstly, the theory that the island is in some way a simulation created for the players, and that even their personal relationships (ESPECIALLY to the eggs, but even to one another) are in some ways manufactured, purely by nature of them being on the island and the federation having some control over their actions and reactions. every event, every quest, every dungeon, every block of dirt has been placed for them and is meant to guide them towards certain actions.

this fits almost perfectly with the environment provided in specifically minecraft roleplay-- sure, you have infinite creativity to work with all these different blocks and explore the world, but fundamentally, this world was created for you and everything within it is limited to what the federation wanted you to have. this is why the prohibited items are so interesting, because sometimes it feels like it's an obvious attempt to limit players being too OP (in which case-- is the idea that the federation does not want conflict between players over power? is it the fear that they could use this power to escape?) or that the federation has a certain timeline for players, and that getting netherite or certain armor or nether access will put them ahead of schedule, or escalate the action of the story too fast. and that last bit is a great way to come back to the truman show, or any piece of media that is a self-reflection on how media operates and what it means to create a story, even against the will of its characters. there can be small arcs of struggle, there can be little moments of triumph and loss, but action moving too quickly means viewers (us, possibly, considering our involvement in the election) might get overwhelmed or confused.

and then you can get into themes, which i think compare quite strongly in some ways and differ in others to the way that other current interpretations and references to the truman show take aim, a la genloss focusing on how an audience perpetuates violence towards a streamer/entertainer and that their autonomy is limited in the face of thousands or millions of people's wants and demands. the lack of self-determination, in the face of a world not just made for you but made to shape your actions, makes it a really interesting comparison to draw, and again, the audience's participation in the world of the qsmp is really interesting.

i think genloss gets at this even better than truman show, because it had the interactivity of a livestream that the truman show was obviously lacking but is deeply apparent with qsmp. audience members are not just passively participating in the continuation of an entertainers' loss of autonomy-- we are active participants, choosing to push them towards actions that will enthrall us no matter the harm that comes to the streamers. ranboo did choose to keep the show going despite being injured irl, and that was certainly their decision to make, but i'm also certain that the fifty thousand people watching him live perform a show that he's spent years working on was a lot of pressure influencing that decision as well. an example of somewhat passive influence, in that instance, but still an audience's impact, which is a significant part of what the truman show has to say about entertainment: the drive to please an audience can and often does trump concerns for safety, comfort, etc. ratings are a huge matter of concern for the people behind the truman show, and a huge element of why major parts of truman's life become altered without him even knowing. glancing at your stream and seeing that tens of thousands of people are watching is a HUGE amount of pressure that would make anyone second guess their own needs and wants.

and this is the case for qsmp as well! the time, personal investment, effort, and even money that these streamers have put into this project is insane, and the pressure to do things well or do them the way the audience wants is immense. this is why you have streamers deciding not to be involved in lore at all, or in the elections, or streamers having to repeatedly tell the audience to fuck off when they demand things. the audience has an immense effect on how the story plays out simply in terms of the fact that we can talk to the entertainers, something which wasn't even an element of the truman show but is impossibly to ignore in today's media landscape. active participation and effect on the narrative and the entertainer are now more evident than ever.

on the points of connection and relationships extending beyond the rp, the eggs being admins and, on occasion, needing to tattle on streamers (a la richas having to tell the admin team about tazercraft trying to get into the nether again) is also really interesting; if you've seen the truman show, you'll know that this can compare to meryl, angela, louis-- truman's wife, mother, and best friend, respectively. they're all actors pretending to be truman's closest companions, but as he starts to figure out what's going on around him and tries to escape, they all have to deal with (as part of their job as actors on the show) his increasing paranoia and, at some points, literal violence as he finds out that his life has been a lie. they're paid to be with him, but louis, especially, has genuine fondness for him, and the guilt of lying to his friend for years has eaten him up inside by the end of the film.

the eggs function similarly; they're all there to rp with the streamers, but they're also there to act as admins, and they are playing characters, but have real life circumstances going on and at this point most of them have bonded so much with the streamers that i think they might literally get adopted irl by them lmao. this concept of actors paid to engage with people as characters but having real connections with them, and having to deal with how the narrative continues despite these connections, relates also to the larger idea of how media is shaped by real people and not just fictional narratives, and that circumstances beyond the narrative will inevitably influence them.

and this also goes back to genloss-- within the narrative, ranboo knows the other streamers, their irl relationships are referenced as well as their lives as ccs (see: niki's character being "the nice," referencing her irl treatment by the audience, charlie streaming during the finale and that being a part of the show itself, etc. etc.). the meta-ness of people having irl relationships means that rp is, inescapably, inflected with those connections.

tl;dr i think the truman show, genloss, and qsmp create thematic reflections on entertainers' autonomy and how irl relationships and connections as well as the audience influence a narrative and said reflections are interesting to draw comparisons across.

it's 102° at my house right now so i'm gonna leave off there with that mess of thoughts but someday maybe i'll talk about lost okay bye 👍🏻

honestly the truman show & lost dynamics that could be/are going on with qsmp are so interesting i don't want the fandom to ever talk about them bc i genuinely cannot trust y'all to actually interpret media correctly and someone would have the stupidest shit to say about the end of lost but i just think it's neat & it shows how quackity & quackity studios know how to make reference without overdoing things or just doing a reenactment. like the subtle lost references are perfect as is and the fact that most fans are too young to even get them also helps

[qtipcottonbuds]

𝙆𝙄𝙉𝙆𝙏𝙊𝘽𝙀𝙍 '𝗢𝟮 ; 𝙒𝙄𝙏𝙃 𝘾𝙃𝙄𝙇𝘿𝙀 [CORRUPTION KINK + ANAL]

second entry with a appearance from Childe! a bit delayed from yerstday sorry vv short too 

for clarification, this is a roleplay (between said reader and childe in this scenario, and is just a roleplay (so no dubious means etc, it's just portrayed that way purely for the roleplay, thank you).

warnings ;; hints at corruption kink, degradation kink, power inbalance, anal sex, predator/prey dynamics, rough sex, mild language, dubcon, CNC etc

by qtipcottonbuds 2022. do not repost.

𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗟𝗗𝗘 𝗫 𝗚𝗡!𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗘𝗥;

You weren’t supposed to see it. Or him. You hadn’t intended to, a classic case of wrong place and wrong time. Yet, to him, it meant nothing regardless of what the true intent was behind stumbling upon him gutting someone like a fish, dragging the spear atop his bow from their groin to sternum - you weren’t supposed to see it.

“Y’know, it’s rude not to look at someone when they’re talking to you. And look, I said I’d promise to be gentle - something to be taken at face value, no?” His grip tightens around your jaw painfully, blunt nails undoubtedly leaving crescent marks in your skin. Repositioning his palm, he slides both his forefinger and index finger into your mouth, scraping his fingertips against your teeth and across your tongue. 

It was almost playful. Almost. 

“M’suh-sorry.”

“You keep on saying that. How sorry you are. Sorry people don’t run away though, do they? Pretend that it never happened? Well, some people do; and I think you consider yourself to be one of them. You, villagers, all the same, aren’t you? Like cattle. But, at least the neat thing about most cattle, is how docile they are. Let me in, won’t you?”

A small part of you contemplates biting back at the sardonic remark, irrelevant to how slurred it would come out; Childe (that was the first thing he’d informed you of, his name) was already as ‘in’ as he could physically be. You felt full, almost bursting to the seams with cock, sitting heavily in your guts - yet, it still didn’t numb the dull burning sensation around your rim, surely puffy, still struggling to accommodate his girth.

“Look at that,” a lighthearted chuckle, “You’re stuffed from both ends now, little lamb. You could try and run away again if you’d like, too. I can’t promise I’ll play fair though - I do like a challenge.”

[otonymous]

Good In Bed: A Tears of Themis Pick-A-Card Tarot Reading (NSFW)

Dim the lights, light some candles, slip into those sexy vibes with your favourite Bump N’ Grind playlist cus it’s about to get hot and heavy in this headspace 🔥🥵

That’s right.

In today’s (inaugural!) Pick-A-Card reading from yours truly, we will be harnessing the power of our favourite otome characters and the tarot in order to glean the sexual proclivities and personalities of our future love partner!  And the best part?  You don’t even have to know anything about the Tears of Themis fandom in order to participate!

This idea came to me in the dead of night and just wouldn't leave me alone so here we are! Please feel free to let me know in the comments below if you enjoyed this and would be interested in seeing similar content in the future!

Before we begin, here are just a few things to note: 👀

ABSOLUTELY NO MINORS PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!

These readings are timeless.  You are meant to see them right now, as you are, wherever you are (unless you are driving or operating heavy machinery or operating on someone else.  If that’s the case, please kindly put down your phone.  Like a good lover, this reading is willing to wait 😂) 💌

Legal disclaimer: these readings are made solely for entertainment purposes!  As such, use them for fun and fun alone! 🤩💕

While tarot cards definitely have their own “standard” meanings/definitions, I also like to infuse a healthy dose of my own intuition when it comes to reading them in order to develop a coherent message!  Moreover, because these are general readings, not everything will resonate with everyone.  Please exercise your own discretion and intuition - pick what works for you and disregard everything else!

With that being said, let's get into the reading by first taking a moment to take a few deep breaths to find a sense of calm.  Take a look at the pictures and (as hard as this may be) try not to be swayed solely by the pic of your favourite guy 😂 Maybe there's something in the colours that draws your eye, or perhaps the expression on his face reminds you of someone you know, or makes you feel some sort of way.  Once you make your selection, feel free to scroll down to the reading for your pile of choice!

I hope you all enjoy this! - XOXO, Otonny 😘

Potential trigger warnings: profanity, slight mentions of dominant behaviour, BDSM, roleplaying, outdoor sex, dirty talking, life struggles

Decks used:

The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck (Pocket Edition)

Secret Garden Deck (by Jessica Le)

👇🏼(READINGS UNDER THE CUT!) 👇🏼

The Luke Pile:

(Tarot cards from left to right: 7 of Wands, 6 of Wands, 3 of Wands, Strength, 10 of Cups)

To my dear readers who have chosen the Luke pile:

WOW.

I feel like you’ve hit the literal passion jackpot with the next person lucky enough to win a place in your heart (and your bed LOL).

There is a ton of fiery, passionate energy in this spread as represented by the wands (aka the wooden staffs the folks are holding in the cards), which in turn represent the energy of pure passion, creativity, action, etc.  Think of the fire signs of the zodiac: Leo, Aries, Sagittarius.  Your next lover could very well have a sun sign that falls under one of these signs, or they could have lots of fiery elements elsewhere in their birth chart, especially a rising or moon sign (nb. a birth or natal chart is basically like a map of where the sun, moon and planets were in the skies above you at the moment you were born). It is of especial note that the Strength card (VIII) of the Major Arcana was drawn in this reading, which in itself is representative of the Leo zodiac sign — one known for exhibiting confidence, creativity, passion…and big hearts.

The overall picture I’m getting from this spread is one of warmth, happiness and fulfillment.  The abundance of the colour yellow and blue is reminiscent of sunshine and blue skies (see also the “Relax” card that was pulled, which literally encourages you to “delight in powdered gold sunshine”), and as fiery as this relationship is, it is also one of intense emotional connection and happiness, as represented by the happy couple (maybe even family) frolicking beneath a rainbow in the 10 of Cups card.

Your future lover seems like they are coming equipped with that dominant energy and may very well enjoy playful antics in the bedroom, even play fighting or wrestling (as per the imagery in the 7 of Wands card).  Either way, they play to win and they play for keeps as the notions of victory (6 of Wands) and conquest (3 of Wands) are always on their radar.  They, like the lion in the Strength card, strive to be the king or queen of the jungle, the leader of the pack, which, when it comes to the realm of love, means that there is little they would not do to win (and keep!) your heart.  Want them to fuck you like its their job and go all night without stopping?  You got it.  Just remember to follow the advice of the “Self-Care” card and “tend to your garden” the morning after — the garden here being your sore privates and inner thighs (tmi? LOL)

This person is a beast in the bedroom, and nothing gets this big cat purring as when the two of you can just chill and relax, truly basking in the tender sunshine of each other’s presence.

Dear reader, just know that you, too, will feel like you’ve literally won a prize and found the gold at the end of your own proverbial rainbow when this person comes into your life.  You’ll feel it in your heart as surely as the sun warms our skin on bright summer days.

The Artem Pile:

(Tarot cards from left to right: 4 of Cups, 9 of Cups, 7 of Cups, Ace of Swords, The World (XXI))

Welcome dear readers who have chosen the Artem pile!

Your next lover may seem a bit standoffish at first, perhaps a bit awkward, as if they haven’t had much experience in the realm of dating.  They may even seem a bit oblivious to the signs and signals that others send to them, as in the case of the man depicted in the 4 of Cups card: something is being offered to them, but they either just can’t see it or they aren’t interested.

But don’t be fooled.

For as aloof as this person may appear to be in everyday life, their inner world is one that is rich and full with emotion.  Like the man seen in the 9 of Cups card, they have a lot to give and offer when it comes to love.  It could very well be that your next lover will be a tough nut to crack, possibly because they are too shy to make the first move, or because they are still working through issues of past hurt.  But once they do, you’ll discover a beautiful, sensitive soul capable of great depths of love and romance.

In bed, this person will blow your mind with options (see the 7 of Cups card): they’ve got an entire lexicon of sexual positions at their disposal and won’t be shy about indulging in even the kinkiest of your desires.  From roleplaying and costumes to bondage and submission to the realm of public sex in a variety of locations, your lover is ready to do it all with you.  The sky is the limit when it comes to their sexual imagination.

Speaking of imagination, your lover is most turned on by words (see the Ace of Swords card).  The suit of Swords typically deals with the mind: the realms of reason, logic and razor-sharp intelligence.  They will have a way with words that will blow you away, having mastered the art of dirty talking, and they love to seduce you in this manner. Expect to receive texts from them throughout the day, casually mentioning how they can’t stop thinking about having your lips wrapped around their cock after talking about having a Cobb salad for lunch lol.

Best believe with this sensitive and cerebral lover that they’ll be more than happy to whisper in your ear about how tight and wet you are as they drive their hips against your own.  You’ll literally get your own play-by-play of the lovemaking session.  Your future lover might have some airy elements in their chart (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius) or might have a very Mercury dominant chart (e.g. Virgo or Gemini rising).

“Retreat” is necessary for “Self-Care” when it comes to your lover, and they will truly relish the moments when the two of you can just sit and be with each other, perhaps each doing their own thing but in the same room at the same time.  Whether they show it or not, they pick up on a lot of things like the moods of those around them, and they need a way to process it.  So they really need these moments of peace and quiet just to think and recharge their own batteries, so to speak.  Silence for your lover, dear reader, is just as important as the words they love to revel in once they become completely comfortable in your presence.

All in all, dear reader, you will feel like you have the world with this lover in your life (see the World card (XXI)).  They, themselves, have such a rich inner life that is so incredibly special they don’t share it lightly, with just anybody.  But once you gain access to their secret garden, you will find an exciting lover who isn’t afraid to experiment and is more than capable of recounting your own erotic love story back to you in juicy, explicit detail.

The Marius Pile:

(Tarot cards from left to right: Ace of Wands, 5 of Cups, The Hierophant (V), 6 of Pentacles, 3 of Wands)

Welcome dear readers who have chosen the Marius pile!

Sex with your future lover will legitimately feel like a spiritual experience, one that transcends mere physical lust or superficial feelings of love to reach deep into the psyche for much needed healing.

Your future lover innately has a very fiery, passionate, go-getter type energy (Ace of Wands), but something has happened in their lives to obscure that sunshine in their hearts.  When you first meet them, they may be in the midst of going through some hard times; trials and tribulations that are making it difficult for them to see past the clouds (the man in the 5 of Cups card is cloaked in black and the skies are grey.  He faces the three cups that have spilt while remaining seemingly oblivious to the two cups that haven’t that are just behind him.)

When they meet you, however, it will be as if there is an awakening.  You will help them see that life is not all about sorrow and struggle, and that hope exists even during the darkest hours.  In short, you will help them keep the faith in whatever they believed in before, perhaps via the structure and/or security that your love brings (the Hierophant).

And like the man giving alms to the less fortunate in the 6 of Pentacles card, your lover will see you in very much the same way: someone who has something of immense value to share, perhaps encouragement and moral support.

And so, gradually, the grey skies will recede to produce that burst of sunshine again, as seen in bright yellow background of the 3 of Wands card.  Your future lover, with your love and support, will feel free to take on the world again.  They will look out onto what seems at first glance to be a very barren landscape and see opportunity and adventure, as opposed to a lifeless desert, as they might have before. Their mindset has been completely transformed.

As mentioned previously, because of the deeply emotional connection between you and this person, sex with them is rarely ever just about satisfying an animalistic desire, though your lover is definitely passionate with that Ace of Wands energy.  They are mindful throughout the entire act, “being present” throughout it all. They truly enjoy the entire process of lovemaking and wouldn’t ever skimp on foreplay or aftercare.  Think of them going down on you for hours, their hands tenderly intertwined with yours as they do.  Moreover, I would not be surprised if tantric sex was on the radar with this person.

And as with the word “Wildflower,” you’ll find that your future lover is most definitely that: someone who may be a bit wild in bed and eager to experiment, especially with having sex in unconventional places in the great outdoors.  I’m definitely sensing some sagittarius vibes here.

The Vyn Pile:

(Tarot cards from left to right: 2 of Swords, 6 of Swords, King of Cups, King of Wands, 10 of Cups)

Welcome to my dear readers who have chosen the Vyn pile!

Your future lover will have a deeply healing energy, and your relationship could almost feel as if it is kismet, like you were meant to meet them in this lifetime (if you believe in reincarnation) because they are here to impart some important lessons to you, and not in a bad way either.

At the time of your first meeting, you might be going through a period in your life where you’ve been feeling blocked in some way, shape or form; struggling with indecision or an inability to see the way out of some situation you find troubling.  You might not even be interested in starting a relationship because you’re so caught up in dealing with your own issues (take a look at the closed-off stance of the woman depicted in the 2 of Swords; she is blindfolded and very much on guard).

That is where your future lover will come in, acting very much like the boatman in the 6 of Swords card to take you from one shore to another, showing you the way or leading you away from stormy waters to much calmer ones (look at the appearance of the sea on either side of the boat).  The 6 of Swords typically appears in a reading to signify the act of moving on from something, as confirmed by the “Move” card that was also pulled in this reading.

With both the King of Cups and King of Wands showing up in the same reading, your future lover will have an energy that is quite undeniable, perhaps an aura that immediately draws the notice of all eyes in the room the moment they step into it.  The King of Cups imparts great depth of emotion and the ability to navigate its waters.  The King of Wands, on the other hand, possesses that fiery energy that serves as the spark of creation, igniting engines to get things done.  Taken together, it means that when your lover speaks, people will listen, and you are no exception.  Not only are they charismatic to the core, they are also measured and wise — having them on your team is a giant boon.

As hinted at by the “Generosity” card that was pulled, your future lover will be incredibly generous with their time, feelings and energy when it comes to you, my dear readers.  They shoot straight from the heart and are not interested in the least in playing games when it comes to love; you can be clear of their intentions right from the start.  They will have absolutely no qualms about proclaiming you as the royal partner of their kingdom.  In fact, there is nothing they want more than to give you a life straight out of a fairytale, replete with a happily ever after ending (see the 10 of Cups card).

In bed, your lover knows what they are doing.  Like the kings, they are confident in who they are.  They may be a bit older than you and perhaps more experienced, but they are also wise enough to know that humility is the way to go in the bedroom: there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to love making.  With the King of Cups energy, they will be patient when it comes to discovering every inch of your body and finding out just the right ways to touch you to make you scream with pleasure (which will definitely please the dramatics craved by the King of Wands).  And with the energy represented by the King of Wands, you can be sure that sex will never be boring.  Your partner is a literal fountain of creativity; be prepared to engage in some roleplaying replete with detailed costumes and scripts (how do you feel about being filmed, btw? 😂).  This lover might have a birth chart that’s well balanced with both water (Scorpio, Pisces, Cancer) and fire elements (Leo, Sagittarius, Aries).

Thank you all so much for participating in my first ever Pick-A-Card tarot reading!  I hope you all enjoyed it!  Please feel free to let me know your thoughts and feelings in the comments below! 💕Looking forward to hearing from you, and hope you all stay happy, healthy and safe until next time!

- XOXO, Otonny 🥰

[thatdogmagic]

[THE OC(s)] :: Antonina Micol Cassin-Bonatti

This write-up has been long overdue, woops.

This is Nina.

She is ethnically Italian (Sicilian), just in case her name didn’t make that glaringly obvious. She’s 45 years old, married to her childhood friend Leo Bonatti, and is the mother of two girls, 18 and 21.

In a purely societal sense, she slots in more as father than mother, and is more or less the 80s/90s definition of an Independent Woman. A Gen-Xer who didn’t exactly get a chance to follow her dreams, but lucked out in ju~ust enough ways, and sold out on ju~ust enough of her personally-held values, to forge a comfortable life for herself and her immediate family. Outwardly, she’s a Gloria Steinem success story, with all the baggage that entails.

Inwardly, at the time Sandra meets her, she’s also mostly closeted. No one in her life save Leo (and one or two close friends who have well-founded suspicions) has any idea that she’s attracted almost exclusively to women  (almost).

There’s also the issue of the full-time job that lets her maintain the appearance of success and stability in the first place. 

She works for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE, but I’ll be going with ATF most of the time), ‘basement and/or yeehaw division,’ relegated to the oft-mentioned records department to sift through dust. Her file claims it’s because she’s not a team player, which, though accurate, is a bit misleading. A better way to put it would be ‘whistleblower,’ and the increasingly bullshit assignments can probably be categorized as ‘retaliation,’ but, semantics.

This may or may not be a good time to also mention the ATF’s less than stellar track record with its Everything But the Standard Model employees.

Liner notes:

Though she occasionally makes appearances as a werewolf, that is strictly in her capacity as a character I sometimes roleplay. Both versions have roughly the same background, but diverged when one became a werewolf, and the other started dating one. As noted, you can tell which one I’m drawing based on her hair. If she has highlights, it’s her WtA/F version (which is probably being retired soon). If she doesn’t, it’s her canon version.

She only ever became Italian because I was reading about the first ascent of K2 at the time that I was writing her up. ‘Bonatti’ is a pretty evocative name in that whole saga, which laid a lot of foundations for her backstory and character development.  That being said, her surnames are subject to change. I need to start nailing down the regions her and Leo’s families’ come from so I can be a touch more accurate w/ that.

I use Jennifer Esposito as her base reference. I plan on differentiating her a bit more than I have already, but the reference has stuck now and I can’t shake it. >:[

She was only ever originally meant to be an avatar of the outside world, as it relates to Sandra (and Caroline’s, and Monica’s) decidedly rural hometown. Then I wrote the scene in which she and Sandra first met, and the chemistry was pretty much instant.

In the original notes I have written up for her, her interest in Sandra was going to be a lot more selfish, and a lot more emotionally destructive, for both of them. She was going to chicken out: try to stay closeted, try to let Sandra keep being her dirty secret. Leo, at the time, was less of a positive element in her life, and more of a negative one.

I’m sure there’s more non-spoilery shit I can toss in here. But I’ve been meaning to type something up, at least, even if it’s just some mid-morning blabbing/only a couple-few people find it interesting!

[eddysocs]

Performance Review (Jeri Hogarth x OC)

Summary: At the end of the workday, Jeri isn’t quite ready to be done with Quinn, and decides to play a little game with her.

Word Count: 1,002

Warnings: Power imbalance, role play, cunnilingus, orgasm delay, office sex

"Quinn, my office." Jeri's voice broke over the intercom just as Quinn was packing up to go home for the night.

Quinn pressed the button to reply and bent down so Jeri could hear her clearly. "But I was just about to—"

"Now," came the stern interruption, and Quinn set down her things Everyone else may have been leaving, but Jeri was not someone she wanted to argue with if she could avoid it. With a sigh, she braced herself at Jeri's door and turned the knob.

"I’d like to talk about your future here," Jeri began.

"Okay," Quinn replied, drawing out the word while trying to figure out what Jeri meant. She tried to keep her confusion from becoming apparent on her face, in case this was something that Jeri had mentioned to her that she’d somehow forgotten.

"I know you haven’t been here long, but it is the time of year for employee performance reviews."

"Performance reviews," Quinn questioned, searching Jeri's face to make some sort of sense out of this. Jeri waited her out. The spark of realization ignited in Quinn's eyes and Jeri smiled. "Right," Quinn starts to play along, smiling politely. "I must have forgotten those were today."

"Well then," Jeri started, getting up from her chair and circling around to the front of her desk until she was standing in front of Quinn, "perform. I may have taken you in out of the goodness of my heart, but you have to earn the right to remain my assistant."

Goodness of her heart? Ooh, she really was playing. But Quinn didn’t mind playing her part. It’s not like it was difficult. It was Jeri after all, and Quinn had always had it bad for her, since the moment Jessica Jones had introduced the two of them. And if Jeri wanted to spice things up by initiating a little roleplay in the office, then so be it. She was game.

Quinn dropped to her knees in front of Jeri, her hands already beginning to push Jeri's black skirt up her thighs. She only paused when Jeri reached down and put a finger under her chin, tilting Quinn's head up so she could meet her eyes. "Just so we're clear," Jeri purred, "if I were you, I’d do my best, or I will fire you for real. And you know you won’t win in the court case if you sue for sexual harassment."

While Quinn couldn’t be certain if this was part of Jeri's game or not, she dare not question it. Instead, she nodded, a look of pure innocence painting her features, as if her only aim was to please her, and really, that wasn’t far off from the truth. Jeri leaned back against her desk as Quinn brought her black silk panties down her legs, where Jeri helped to kick them off, sending them sliding across the office floor.

When it was her time to shine, Quinn didn’t hold back. She had a good sense of what Jeri liked by now, and how she liked it, so Quinn pulled out all her little tricks to assure Jeri would be putty in her hands, or rather, on her tongue, as the case may be.

Jeri gripped the edge of her desk so hard her knuckles went white as she used all her strength to stay upright. Quinn had certainly never been bad in bed, but she’d never been quite this good, either. Had she been holding out on her all this time? Jeri wasn’t able to think on it long, as her mind quickly clouded over with an overwhelming feeling of lust. What Quinn was doing to her body surpassed any logical or rational thought she may have been having at the time.

Jeri bit back a moan, not wanting to concede to Quinn just yet. But Jeri was already so close that it was becoming harder and harder not to just give over and let herself come. She hadn’t designed this little game as a competition, but now that she was losing, that’s how she was treating it. And if there was one thing Jeri hated, it was losing.

Quinn could hear Jeri's ragged breaths as Jeri fought to control her own orgasm. She may be able to win any legal case thrown her way, but like hell if Quinn was going to let her win this. Leave it to Jeri to make even sex a competition.

Quinn never relented. When she figured out Jeri was holding back, she doubled her efforts. Surprised, Jeri let a whimper escape her lips. A whimper of all things. Jeri cursed under her breath at the sign of weakness. That’s when Quinn knew she had her. Now, Quinn did the one thing that never failed to make Jeri come, and she felt Jeri's legs begin to shake.

"Fuck," Jeri cursed, angry at having lost her own game. But she allowed herself to lose, grabbing Quinn by the hair and holding her head in place as she rode out her orgasm. If she had to lose at something, this was the best possible outcome.

As her body calmed, Jeri's grip on her desk lessened, her fingers stiff from the force of her hold on it. She released Quinn's hair as well, a few stray blonde strands floating to the ground from being tugged on just a bit too hard.

Quinn stood up, maintaining her place between Jeri's legs. She wore a self satisfied grin on her face, and if Jeri's head hadn’t still been so muddled with the after effects of her orgasm, she would have wanted to slap that look right off of her. Quinn moved to wipe her face with the back of her hand, but Jeri caught her arm before she could. Pulling her in, Jeri kissed Quinn passionately, feverishly, reveling in the taste of herself on Quinn's lips and tongue.

"Have I earned my place," Quinn asked teasingly.

"I think you’ve more than proved your worth," Jeri replied.

Quinn Anderson: @adrianas-ocs-and-such, @borg-queer, @sintember

[alkalinefrog]

may I request your top 10 favorie lawlight fics ?? I’m really interested

AIGHT BUCKLE UP BUTTERCUP because I’ve got a lot of feelings about these! Also, people have been asking me for fics featuring:

Ryuk shenanigans

yagami sibling hijinks

whammy kids found family

----- from my bingo card I made a while back. Tbh, I put those on the list to try and manifest the energy into the universe hoping people would bring fics to ME about them lmao. I do have a couple that check the boxes though! 

Also thank you to everyone who’s been recommending me fics!! You’ve all hit the nail on the head and sing straight to my heart! I’m just slow to make my way through them between work. <3

GOING UNDER THE CUT (rip mobile users)

Aight here we go, in no particular order:

“Change OR the one where L and Light get married” by @translightyagami (I’m so sorry I keep tagging you in these alsfjkalsfdj)

The one I never shut up about and am adapting part of into a comic because it’s just that GOOD. :’’’D Light and L get married in front of Watari and Light’s family back at the Whammy orphanage in England. A melancholy yet painfully sweet tale as Light and L reminisce on their history together while getting ready for the ceremony, and their first night together afterwards. Single-handedly sold me on Kira being intrinsically part of Light to boot.

“the forest holds strange creatures” by @translightyagami (I’m sorryyyyyyy I just love your stuff)

An AU where Light’s a paranormal researcher and L’s a reclusive cryptid living in the forest next to a small town. The writing has a fairytale feel to it, and the romance is so gentle. Light’s bunking at Whammy’s small little house, and Near and Mello are there as little kids pestering Light. It’s ADORABLE. Beyond Birthday also shows up in one of the extra chapters as a creepy cashier at a thrift shop for double the fun!

"Sickness” by BlueberryValentine (more fics on their fanfiction.net account!)

The ultimate hurt/comfort + fluff + angst with a happy ending fic. The first fic I read to get back into lawlight a couple months back! Canon divergence starting during the Yotsuba arc. Light is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer while still under investigation. L has to take care of him, and somewhere along the way they fall in love. It carved out a chunk of my heart but luckily filled it back up with a sweet sort of aching.

“Seeking His Hand” by magic__mind

Historical regency AU! L is a rich nobleman courting Light, a humble farm boy, for his hand in marriage. One of the most romantic pieces of literature that I have ever come across. The prose is pure poetry, and their love so pure! This one also has a special place in my heart for its portrayal of Misa! She’s A)a spy who helps L on his cases, B)totally removed from her co-dependence for Light, C)the  bubbly badass she was always meant to be. 100/10 worth the read!

The “Resurrections” Series by Shadow_of_Quill

A modern Orpheus and Euridice story, wherein Light’s spirit leads L back from Hades while he’s still Kira. L is thereby present for the confrontation at the warehouse. Believing that any trace of Light is lost in the man, he executes him right then and there. However, this was a grave mistake, and Light’s soul won’t be as easily revived. (spoilers, they’re both fine in the end) ******* THIS ONE ALSO INCLUDES YAGAMI SIBLING HIJINKS. Sayu plays a HUGE role in bringing Light back!

“Is This The Way It Ends Now?” by Seastar98

The one that checks off ALL the above three boxes!! A “characters watch their own show” fic, wherein the gang receives a mysterious DVD in the middle of the Yotsuba arc. Horrified by what’s to come, Light and L work to make sure their future is brighter than the one they witness. They bring in all three heirs to watch with ‘em, everyone gets character development, and Sayu comes in like black panther in endgame yet again to bring Light back from the darkness! Ryuk pops up in the end and the epilogue and he’s great. The ultimate and most direct fix-it you’re ever gonna get.

“From the Same Star” by Nilahxapiel

This is my only pure “Ryuk Shenanigans” fic, and it’s really really sad :’’’D A short but sweet one-shot wherein Ryuk traverses multiple dimensions, dropping the Death Note at Light’s feet each time. Light and L were always fated to clash, and it’s just as heartbreaking every time. 

“Primitive Liars” by Nilahxapiel

This one’s super popular in the fandom for a reason! The only omegaverse fic that I’ve liked! The A/B/O dynamics and their affect on society are super well developed, and the writer manages to keep L and Light very in character while still developing their budding romance in a believable way. This is an AU where somebody else is Kira, and Light’s genuinely helping L and the task force hunt him down. ***** Naomi Misora lives, the heirs come in, and Sayu actually hops aboard the task force!!! DUDE. BRILLIANT. I also just love the exploration of gender and identity that the author weaves in. Lots of LGBTQ rep!

“and indeed there will be time” by lawlietismyfavorite

The ultimate soulmate AU. People grow to be 18, then stop aging until they meet their one. L is the greatest detective of not only this century, but of six centuries. And then there's Light. (taken straight from the description!) The prose is absolutely breathtaking; like walking through a dream. Can not recommend this fic enough! It’s got my head up in the clouds and looking towards the stars!

“K” by  Dlvvanzor

AU where Light’s a Whammy with the moniker ‘K.’ He and L grow up together along with kiddos covering the rest of the alphabet. A murder-mystery-thriller on top of the romance featuring Beyond Birthday as a main character! Light’s a pathological liar and L’s super into it. They’re the top students at Whammy’s and are tasked with solving a string of homicides happening RIGHT AT THE ORPHANAGE (guess who dunnit). It had me on the edge of my seat, and I binged the whole thing in two days.

i’mMMMM doing more than 10, this’ll just be my ultimate fic rec post 😂

“Change of Circumstances” by wordbombs

Another AU where Light’s a whammy! It’s just a one-shot though, but one of my all time faves!!! I’ve gone back and reread it so many times and drew some stuff for it a couple weeks back. Much more light-hearted than “K”, Light arrives at the orphanage at age four and meets an eleven year old L, and from there they grow up together and fall in love (the age difference is handled really well, L’s not physically present for a lot of Light’s childhood and they bond on a platonic level first). It’s one of the healthiest relationship dynamics that I’ve seen for these two, which is honestly such a breath of fresh air. Matt, Mello, and Near are there too in the background!

“Dial K for Kira” by @kiranatrix

“Light needs some easy money to finance his Kira plans, and notices there’s a big demand for Kira roleplay phone sex. So he figures, “Why not? Pretty sure I’ll be convincing.”He raises some fast cash and plans to shut the whole thing down and get back to writing names, until he gets a request from somebody who wants to “roleplay” as L....“

Taken straight from the description! It’s very VERY NSFW so be warned. I’m too shy to talk about it more alskfjdasldjf sorry BUT IT’S GREAT.

“Dance with Me” and “Birthday Note” by @dotti55fanfiction

These are both one-shots so I’m putting ‘em together! Absolutely adorable tooth-rotting fluff!! “Dance with Me” has Light and L going to a club, while “Birthday Note” features L trying to think of the best present for Light. The dictionary definition of “warm fuzzies.” (Dotti ilu, I still gotta find time to read your longer works)

“you’re a wasp nest” by  raisuki (inthegripofahurricane)

Blind!Light AU! Light and L are both college students who meet when Sayu dares L to break into her house. Yagami sibling hijinksssss! Their quippy dialogue is adorable and it’s just a fun time watching them flirt.

“softly now” by smallestbird (jenwryn)

THANK YOU TO THE ANON WHO SENT ME THIS REC. The softest lawlight one-shot to finish off this list! Light and L share an intimate moment while painting their new apartment. The absolute JOY this fic radiates in a short 700 words!! Read it before bed for the sweetest dreams!

These are just my favourites, but read anything by any of these authors and you will not be disappointed! I might make a separate post later for soulmate AUs because... There’s just too many. :’D

-Alka

[clockworklozenges]

So, a good five or so years back, I played in one of the best worst DnD games I have ever been in. The DM had bought the Libris Mortis book, which, if you were unaware, was a 3.5 splatbook adding in a lot of undead stuff, including some monsters and undead player races and stuff. Wanting to try it out, me and my gaming group decided to play things from it, our then DM deciding to run a completely homebrewed session. This proved to be a...

Terrible Idea™

(for the uninitiated, never homebrew something you do not fully understand unless it's just cosmetic. If you want to make all elves worship the god of garlic bread, Ultimo-Metatron-Omega, go ahead, but unless you know how the game works, don't make mechanical changes). So we all picked stuff from the books-one player played a skeleton Sorcerer who in life was a tribal shaman, but an attempt at healing went wrong, turning him undead as his life energy was replaced with negative energy, explaining why most of his spells were necromancy and suchlike.

Another player played Krug, an antipaladin in very spiky full plate. He was a zombie made by a necromancer of a paladin who was fighting him, but his allies killed his would-be master before he could assert control, and not wanting to just off him, his allies just...yeeted his body into a portal and hoped it'd re-kill him. It did not kill him hard enough. It did, however, explain his stats which...oof. He had already got debuffs to some stats due to being a zombie, and rolled abysmally. Fortunately for the player, he played mostly to socialise, so didn't much care.

I played... Count Nox Feratu, the Campire. As in, a vampire with a very camp German accent, which I did not break for the whole time I was playing him. To the point where "ach, nein, I haf bin heet! Heal me, meine freunde!" was par for the course. My overly camp vamp was a wizard, but due to level adjustment was a bit of a shoddy one. For backstory, he'd been ousted from his clan for ineptitude, and had sworn revenge. I was going for a swordmage build but never got there. All his spells were utility or just necromancy spells.

Our last player played...sigh...Damien Bloodmoon, cleric of Nerull, God of murder and undeath. He was one of the clerics from the book's murder Domain, meaning that he got buffs to damage. He was a vicious arse both in character and out of it, and was so dripping with edge compared to the paladin with the same IQ as a horse after its trip to the glue factory, the shaman who thought killing fixed people and the Campire that if you gave him a pat on the back you'd have finely diced your hand into a red mist. Not going too outlandish with his backstory of wanting to dominate the world as his undead thralls, Damien F***ing Bloodmoon had only taken spells which either charmed live people, dealt negative energy damage or messed with ability drain and suchlike, which he used with aplomb on townsfolk on our way to our objective. He was also, importantly, playing an elf of some sort, I forget which kind. Meaning that of the party, only one was alive.

So, just as an aside, for those of you that haven't played 3.5e DnD or have only played 5e, in Libris Mortis, undeath was gone over in detail, and had a litany of pros and cons. For one thing, undead had only the HP they had-folks like Damien F***ing Bloodmoon could be 'dying', and had some time to be stabilised before meeting the reckoning of Papa John and dying proper. Undead did not, it was just how much you had and if you ran out, poof, you're dust, bones and fertiliser again. You were also harmed by positive energy, so healing spells hurt you, as did potions of healing. However, undead were kind of hardy - poison immunity, some had resistance to non-magical melee damage, stuff that drained your ability scores and levels didn't work on them, some crits wouldn't do extra damage, and the best part- negative energy healed undead. Meaning all the spells our party had which damaged others like the living Damien Bloodmoon were curative ones for us. Keep this in mind.

So, we began our quest, learning of a necromancer a nearby town was plagued by. After using our skills (to whit: Damien Bloodmoon charming and drawing the life force out of random villagers and the only potion seller in the town whilst we went shopping. Krug got a snazzy hat, which we put on top of his helmet, and we chatted to townsfolk as I looked alive enough to pass as human and the shaman had a fake beard and toupee that people were too awkward to point out was fake so went along with it) we learn that the necromancer has a base of operations in the cemetery. "Oh ja, zo original, dahlink. Ve vill need to educate zis guy on vhat is chic and vhat is just shabby!"

So we head there and the nightmare begins. Damien Leads the charge, using all of his knowledge to deduce that the shambling horde moving towards us were stronger-than-your-average-bear undead, and he was right. These were powerful armoured zombie mages of some sort, casting ability draining spells, negative energy ray spells and even having auras of negative energy that dealt damage on a failed Fortitude save. Even their punch and quarterstaves did negative energy damage as well as the usual bludgeoning or unarmed. However...only one of us was really in danger and the DM's face fell when the squishy casters walked up and began shanking their super-special homebrew zombie wizards, being healed by the damage of their attacks as we cut them down.

Like I said, one of the benefits of undeath is that negative energy actually heals you. So the strikes of the magic staves and punches that hit us did some basic damage. Which was then immediately healed by the negative energy their weapon strikes and spells were doing.

However, you'll recall that Damien Bloodmoon was an elf. And not dead. Being a Cleric of a death god doesn't mean that you have the abilities of an undead. That meant that even with the DM being merciful, by the end of the first fight he was covered in blood, mud and withered away to just above half his original strength and constitution. More were patrolling, so we had to run. But that posed a problem.

Remember Krug had heavy armour? And recall his awful stats? He in fact, hadn't got enough strength to wear the armour he'd been given for backstory. He didn't, according to the DM, have enough to remove his own armour. And we attempted to, but also failed our checks according to the DM. And Damien Bloodmoon refused to help, simply blaming Krug and his player. Krug's player thought it was hilarious, and Krug only had enough Intelligence and Wisdom to say his own name, so saw no problem. And Krug, Nox Feratu and Shaman realised that there really...wasn't a problem.

For us, at least.

We slogged through three combats dragging Krug and wading through the mud with him. His speed was so slow that for every step he took, we took about ten. The DM was confused and infuriated that his encounters weren't working, but refused to change them. So we had fun role-playing. Or at least three of us did.

Damien Bloodmoon refused to roleplay, and none of his ranged spells could affect the zombie mages. When he went into melee, he came out wounded as all hell. He went down twice, and it was only the healing supplies of the shaman that saved him.

All the while, he was... Let's say not best pleased. Damien Bloodmoon was getting increasingly wounded, exasperated and longing for the sweet embrace of death as reprieve from the humiliation. His player was getting increasingly redder and rage-filled as time passed. Each fight ended with our characters stronger than ever and his a bloody pulp on the floor, with poor in-character knowledge (and terrible rolls) preventing him from realising why.

Eventually, we reached the final boss, pausing only to paint Krug's armour in contact poison just in case, and to find a stick to help the now-partially-crippled Damien Bloodmoon, cleric of death and murder, walk after being beaten up by angry zombie wizards for hours. And it had, indeed, been hours. Among us, only Damien had a bonus to strength, and we had two swords, a mace and a staff between the four of us. Meaning it was re-death by a thousand cuts for the enemy and a slog and a half for us.

We reach the necromancer and, having taken so long due to dragging the oblivious Krug with us, his big ritual is complete- he raises a fist-sized black onyx egg aloft, crackles with arcane power and causes the bones around him to coalesce into one massive creature - an undead, giant-sized rust monster, radiating an Aura of pure negative energy. Krug opened his arms wide, eager for the metal-eating monster cockroach to free him from his poison-painted metal prison. It ignores him as he's still very far away. Me and the others have our weapons and armour devoured.

Our DM was very much a stickler for note-taking. So because Damien Bloodmoon hadn't written 'clothes' on his sheet, his armour being eaten by the monster left him naked and afraid.

It became clear that the DM had done another f***y-wucky. See, the Aura of negative energy healed me and the Sorcerer by more than its other attacks did. So whilst Damien Bloodmoon was naked, soaked in mud and bleeding to death almost crushed to a pulp in the fetal position, rocking backwards and forwards as his player seethed with hatred, the Shaman and the Campire set about beating the thing to death with our bear hands and a stick.

The session ended once we killed the necromancer, or rather when Krug walked up to him, closed his arms and just crushed the noodle-armed bad guy to death with the weight of his ridiculous armour and poisoned him with its paintwork.

We never revisited the game afterwards. We were told later on that the DM wanted us to use the non-undead races. But at no point had he said as much, even when we asked him about our characters and the restrictions on them. We also learned a valuable lesson. DM for the players who are there, not the ones who you have an idealised mental image of. Tailor your game, otherwise you'll get a sitcom featuring a camp nosferatu, a shaman with no healing, a paladin who could barely move and a Cleric of murder who was ironically the only one at risk of actually dying.

[tamakiamajikiloverboy]

-slowly, yet nervously and shyly, comes back and approaches (not too close) to one of the Big 3, Tamaki Amajiki-

U-Uuhh... H..Hello... again... -begins to shake slightly, while looking down on the floor but shyly gives tiny glances to Tamaki at times- I uuuhh... c-came back here again, after... after being encouraged and suggested by my childhood best friend... And uh... She mentioned it was White's Day since March 14, so... thought I... guess I.... -a deep shade of red comes across my face- c-c-can... g-give you t..this...?

-shuts my eyes close as I shyly and carefully (shakingly) handled Tamaki a handmade, small square-shaped, white truffle box with a blue and purple lace wrapped around the box and on top, along with 2 hand-drawn and colored blue-purple butterflies on each 4 sides of the truffle box (inside are 16 or 20 round-shaped chocolate truffles with a mix of white, milk and dark ones. Mostly white chocolate ones.). A small folded purple note is attached on top of the box.-

I uh... h-hope you like them. I-I mean, enjoy them-- O-Or they're just ok... -keeps on looking down shyly with a sweatdrop after giving Tamaki my White Day's gift, the blush deepens from pure embarrassment-

-thinks- (I'm not so good with this...)

I'll uh... -slowly turns around to leave, while looking down but having my head slightly tilted over my shoulder to his direction- b-be around... o-or something... S-Somewhere quiet to chill alone around here... I-It's ok i-if you'll come and meet or not... S...See ya... I guess... -gives a slight wave and begins to anxiously walk away to find somewhere quiet and empty to chill on my own-

//The purple note will be read: "Hey... I know this is kinda silly to say in words to you, or I never done something like this in my life ever before... But... I have a (big) crush on you... Tamaki Amajiki. S...Sorry if this totally came from a total stranger, and I understand this is seriously awkward... So... yeah. P.S. Made these truffles at home, along with the chocolate box and its laces, and drew and colored those butterflies."//

(So sorry... ^^; Didn't mean to confuse ya'll. It's supposed to be directed to him... -shyly and anxiously points to a certain elf-earred guy- Plus uh... This is my very first time in participating such RP around here or in a social media, so my apologies... 😅🙇‍♀️ It's quite nerve-wrecking to start off...)

*completly red to ears and neck*

*when you leave, he starts unwrapping the box carefully almost scared it might break something inside*

*As he reads the note his face grows warmer and he starts to shake slightly*

*he thinks* What??? a crush? but why me??? god, maybe they got confused and they meant to give it to someone else. But it has my name on it…. maybe i should talk to them to ask, maybe they are joking or something

*he tries to find you but you don’t seem to be anywhere until he looks at you and you seem to be distracted by something else*

*he gets close to you with box still in hand and tried to give it to you*

Im sorry, i think you must got it wrong… i don’t understand why would you have a crush on me so i think is a misunderstanding.

I give you back your box in case it is. *after that he walks away from you a little sad from the interaction*

(Oh don’t worry, dear. I was just asking bc not everyone is looking for a romantic route. You keep doing this because i love it! Is so fun, it’s actually my first time roleplaying so I hope im doing a good job as well c:)

[lucemferto]

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PH1LZA (or Why Philza is a Victim of Narrative Circumstance)

Heyo! Per request I am posting the script to my video of the same name here on tumblr. I must warn you that just reading the script will probably not give you the full experience, so I would encourage you to watch the video (linked above).

There might also still be a lot of grammatical errors in the text, because I don’t proofread.

Intro

LAST TIME ON LUCEM FERTO

Okay, so! I don’t want this to turn into a reaction channel OR a Dream SMP channel for that matter! [echo]

Well, I lied.

[Intro to “Luc is pretentious about the funny blockmen. Episode 2”]

I swear, I’m working on other stuff. It’s just that my dumb lizard brain has only capacity for one interest at a time!

So, something you might not know about me, is that I am on tumblr – who am I kidding, most of you will know me from tumblr. Before starting this whole YouTube thing, I thought that website died years ago – but as per usual reality proves me wrong. I’m also on Twitter and Reddit, but I get the most engagement on tumblr – by far! – and I need those sweet, sweet numbers for the serotonin!

Anyways, one of my favourite past-times on tumblr is to razz Philza Hardcore Minecraft – that’s his full name – for being a frankly awful father [clicking away] – wait, wait, no! Philza fans, this isn’t a hit piece on him, I promise! Please come back!

This is video is meant to be a companion piece to my previous video about Technoblade and the Doomsday event – you can tell by the shared nomenclature – so you should probably watch that one before you proceed. Unless you don’t want to, which is also perfectly understandable.

DISCLAIMER: This video is mostly about the character Philza plays on the Dream SMP. Whenever I talk about the content creator Philza, I will say so properly. Also, Spoiler Warning for Dream SMP Season 2.

… What is that? You’re wondering what the Dream SMP is? Well, if you had just watched the other video like I told you to do, you would know, because I explained it pretty well there. But in case you don’t know, here’s the cliff notes.

Dream SMP is the hottest New Media Series on Twitch right now! It has it all: gaslighting, child soldiers, Machiavellian political intrigue, Hamilton roleplay, desecration of the dead, shounen protagonists, SO! MUCH! AMNESIA! Filicide, furries, a red egg that’s definitely homophobic and teenagers inventing nuclear warfare. And it’s all done in Minecraft – yes, the funny block game where the only way to emote is to crouch.

And you say the perfect brief doesn’t exist!

Now, you might be wondering, why do I want to talk about this? Well, it’s because Content Creator Philza is one of least controversial internet personalities that I can think of. That man exudes pure comfort. So, it’s just very, very amusing to me that his character became one of the most controversial figures on the SMP, only outshone by Tommy and Technoblade.

And it’s not just amusing, it’s also extremely interesting! I want to dig deep to uncover and discuss the dynamics behind why that is. How did it come to this point? How did a man who appears genuinely so pleasant create a character that inspires so much discourse!

Now, if you watched that Technoblade video – like I told you to twice now! – you might know, that I am the resident character analyses hater of fandom! And that impression is false and slanderous! Don’t tell other people that I hate character analyses! I love them!

It’s just that, in the Dream SMP in particular, there is an abundance of character analyses! Every streamer has at least two very good essays written about them, exploring every possible angle to view their characters and backgrounds and everything. All I’m saying is: I don’t have anything to add on that front.

So, instead I want to pursue a different approach – something, that I feel is a bit underrepresented in the fandom! And I’m not just talking narrative analysis – that’s right, this episode we’re going even more pretentious! – I’m talking Transtextual Analysis!

Now, what is Transtextuality? Well, unfortunately it has very little to do with actual Trans people – #transrights, just in case that wasn’t obvious – but instead describes a mode of analysis with which to put – to quote French literary theorist Gérard Genette – “the text in a relationship, whether obvious or concealed, with other texts”.

Basically, you know how the L’Manburg War of Independence heavily quotes and borrows from the hit musical Hamilton? That’s transtextuality! A lot of the analyses surrounding how Tommy mirrors the Greek hero Theseus, who was invoked by Technoblade multiple times in the series, are already doing transtextual analysis! So, it’s really not something that’s new to the Dream SMP fandom.

But how does this apply to Philza and how he is looked at and judged by his parental skills? Well, there are multiple forms of transtextuality, two of which we will discuss today.

But before we continue, I gotta do that annoying YouTuber thing. I know these videos don’t look like much, but I spend a really long time making them. I work fulltime and I try my best to keep up, but sometimes I can’t. So please, like, subscribe, comment to give me some algorithm juice – I really need it – and most importantly share it! Share it with your friends, share it with your family – I’m sure Grandma is very interested in what I have to say about Philza Minecraft.

And I’m trying to be better! If I sound at all different for this video, it’s because I finally bought a new pop filter, so I can hit my plosives without it sounding like there’s a thunderstorm in my room. I hope it makes a difference; it was a very cheap pop filter, so maybe it doesn’t. Maybe it sounds worse – that would be bad!

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, CHILD NEGLEGT!

 Intertextuality: Why is Dadza?

You know what’s really interesting about the Dream SMP – aside from, you know, most things about it? Very few of the characters have concrete, fleshed-out backstories – and that’s pretty weird! In no other medium or genre could you get away with something like that – at least for long-form storytelling!

So, how does Dream SMP get away with this? Well, it’s because every character on the Dream SMP is basically a self-insert – and I don’t mean that in the “This character is based on me”-kinda way, but in the “This character, for all intents and purposes, is me!”-way. This, like many things that are fascinating about the Dream SMP, is owed to the fact that this series didn’t start off as a continuous drama – it started off as a Let’s Play.

And while we can talk about how someone’s on-camera/on-mic persona is in some ways a character, it’s still miles off of being an actual, fully-realized, separate character in a storyline.

This is where Intertextuality comes in.

Intertextuality is a subset of Transtextuality. It describes how the hypertext, which is the text, you’re currently engaged with, uses another text, the hypotext, to supplement itself. The interconnection the hypertext establishes with the hypotext, through stuff like allusion for example, uh-hum [Hamilton], can colour how an audience interprets the hypertext. Basically, Hamilton and Theseus are the hypotexts; the Dream SMP is the hypertext.

So, what does this have to do with backstory? Simple: The backstories of the characters in the Dream SMP consist basically of nothing but intertextual references. Through intertextuality their content effectively substitutes their character’s backstory.

You can see it everywhere. Wilbur’s and Schlatt’s relationship and rivalry is hugely enriched, if you are aware of their shared history like SMPLive, for example – I think anyway. I haven’t watched SMPLive, because … there’s only so many hours in the day and I cannot keep up with the Dream SMP and catch up on SMPLive and live a healthy life – which I already don’t do, so…

BadBoyHalo’s and Skeppy’s relationship, which has become the crux of the Crimson-Storyline of Seasons 2 and 3, is hugely supplemented if you know that they’re also very close as streamers and in real life.

Another great example of intertextuality is basically Technoblade’s entire deal. If you just look at him completely within the text of the Dream SMP and try to transplant his entrance to any other medium: It would be extremely weird! Like, he’s just this guy that comes in in the middle of a very climatic arc, no build-up, no explanation what his deal is, and he’s treated like he has always been there. In any other medium that just wouldn’t work – at least not without a flashback or some sort of exposition!

But because of stuff like Minecraft Mondays, the Potato Wars, his Duel against Dream and SMPEarth, we understand that he is a Big Deal!

Anyways, to bring all of this back to Philza Minecraft: What kind of hypotext informs how the audience sees his character? Well, this is where I will have to talk about SBI.

SBI is an acronym that stand for State Bank of India, the 43rd largest bank in the world and…

It also stands for Sleepy Bois Incorporated. Sleepy Bois Incorporated is a loose assembly of content creators, consisting of Philza, Wilbur Soot, TommyInnit and Technoblade. It is most well-known for its very endearing family dynamic – a dynamic that is frequently acknowledged and played up by the creators involved. Tommy is the youngest brother, Wilbur and Techno are the two older brothers and Philza is of course the dad. And when I say, it’s played up, I really mean it! Wilbur seems to be especially enamoured with the idea and leaves no opportunity untaken to bring it up – which we will come back to.

And I’m not saying that they’re faking this and this is somehow an act. While I know none of these people personally, it appears to me, that this is genuinely how they interact – if a little exaggerated for the streaming experience. Even when they’re not consciously playing into the family dynamic, their interactions still very much lend themselves to that interpretation by the viewers.

Philza especially just radiates Dad-Friend energy – so much so that it has become a huge part of his brand identity – yay, I can bring that back (check out my Christmas video if you want to hear me ramble about that). The nickname Dadza stuck even before SBI was a thing.

So, even if we completely disregard SBI – which we shouldn’t for reasons I’ll get back to – Philza has cultivated an image of strong paternal guidance. He is, in my opinion completely deservedly, regarded very positively. He is highly respected and in turn seen as a voice of reason.

All of this would eventually inform the hypotext of the character Philza within Dream SMP.

 Interlude: Before Dadza & November 16th

Okay, so now we have established that a) Dream SMP heavily hinges on intertextual readings by the audience to supplement character backstory and b) that Philza’s entire deal is that he’s the dad-friend – more specifically that he’s the dad of SBI (not the bank). I think you know where this is going.

So, yeah, ever since it was on the table that Philza could join the Dream SMP, it was immediately assumed that he would take on the paternal guardian role all these traumatized people on that server so desperately needed – and with good reason! Like I said before, the audience at this point was trained to take intertextual interpretations as basically canon or at the very least canon-adjacent.

I want to emphasize that this is most likely not done deliberately. I’m sure content creators Wilbur and Philza didn’t sit there and said: “Yes! We will rely entirely on the audience’s inclination to interpret our characters intertextually to define character Philza!”. Like, obviously that did not happen.

But it’s also important to remember that unlike with traditional media and the fanbases cultivated there, the separation between the Dream SMP and its audience is almost non-existent – and purposely so. The story events are streamed live, Chats are acknowledged in canon and even outside of livestreams creators are extremely involved with the fandom. So, the weight of fan-expectations is equally amplified and will more likely be incorporated into the writing process. Case in point:

[Wilbur “I miss Philza”/Philza about Wilbur]

During Wilbur’s villain arc, even before his official involvement, Philza became a prevalent point of discussion. The hope that he would be the one to snap Wilbur out of his downward spiral was not only wish-fulfilment on behalf of the fans; it also very much played off of the intertextual reading of the SBI-dynamic in relation to the Dream SMP.

Of course, this still doesn’t make Philza and Wilbur canonically blood-related – but it definitely used the “paternal”-dynamic of SBI to build-up tension and drama.

And that ultimately brings us to November 16th. The Grand Finale of Season 1 and Philza’s first canonical appearance on the SMP.

Now, for this I want to pull back from the transtextual analysis and talk about simply narrative analysis: What is Philza’s narrative purpose on November 16th?

Philza serves as the last threshold on Wilbur’s Villain’s Journey – to appropriate Vogler’s version of the monomyth for a minute here – he is what Vogler calls the “Threshold Guardian”. He is the last enemy the Hero faces before completing his quest – in this particular case Wilbur’s quest is to blow up L’Manberg. Multiple people have at this point tried to dissuade him from this course of action: Tommy, Quackity, Niki and others. So how come this Philza moment is not redundant in terms of dynamics compared to these prior scenes?

Well, it’s through our intertextual understanding of Wilbur’s and Phil’s relationship. Because Philza does not just occupy the role of the Threshold Guardian – he is also implicitly the Mentor. Before Phil there was no character in the storyline that held a higher position of moral authority than Wilbur – Dream and Schlatt, while at points more powerful in terms of actual authority, were never positioned by the narrative as Wilbur’s superiors in the same way as Wilbur was to Tommy, Tubbo or even Niki.

Before November 16th all challenges Wilbur faced were from people narratively subordinated to him. But that trend is broken with Phil. That is why he is the Threshold Guardian, why this confrontation is at the climax of Wilbur’s arc. Because Phil is the last thing tethering Wilbur to whatever morality he held before his villain arc; Phil is the last, moral obstacle Wilbur has to discard before gaining his reward.

And, just a quick sidenote, because I’ve seen it around the fandom a bunch: When I’m referring to Wilbur denouncing his morality, I’m using that in terms of narrative analysis. I’m mentioning it, because Wilbur’s character can very easily be read as mentally ill or neurodivergent and some people have – rightly! – pointed out that the excessive vilifying when talking about his character is … problematic, to say the least.

So, I just want to make clear, this isn’t a character analysis, I’m being purposely broad when talking about Wilbur and Phil.

In the end, Wilbur takes that final step and gets his “reward”: As his final request his mentor takes his life and vanquishes the evil – the dragon of Wilbur’s story slays the dragon of L’Manburg. It’s very Shakespearean in its tragedy – but beyond the larger theatrics it’s not really used to further characterize Phil – at least in the context of Season 1. There’s not a lot of focus on his characters internal conflict during November 16th.

Phil, like Techno, is very utilitarian in how content creator Wilbur writes him: He serves as a moment of hype; an obstacle Wilbur has to face; a participant in the tragic climax of Wilbur’s character and ultimately takes on his implicit and expected role of mentor and guiding figure to the rest of L’Manburg.

I think not a lot of people talk about how Philza does not join Technoblade during November 16th. He takes the side of L’Manburg – he fights against the withers and he joins Tommy, Tubbo and the others at the L’Mantree, thus framing him as loyal to the L’Manburg administration – even though Season 2 would make his loyalty to Techno central to his character. But more on that later.

What’s also important about November 16th is that this is the day when the general intertextual interpretation became canonized text.

[You’re my son!]

Wilbur is made Phil’s canonical, biological son. The intertextual interpretation of SBI as it pertains to these two characters on the SMP was completely reinforced by the narrative. Or to put it in Fandom terms: The headcanon became actual canon. At least when it came to Wilbur … but what about Philza’s “other” children?

Well, that leads to our second form of transtextual analysis:

 Paratextuality: Is Dadza?

These titles are just getting better and better.

The Paratext is defined as all those things in a published work that accompany the text. It comes in two forms: One of them is the Peritext, which are non-diegetic elements directly surrounding the text – like chapter titles, author’s notes, and stuff like that. Translated to the medium of the Dream SMP, it would be stuff like this:

[Examples]

And, trust me, I could make a whole separate video about how people on the SMP use their peritext as a tool for storytelling – I’m looking at you, Ranboo – but that’s not what we will talk about in the context of Dadza.

Instead, we will focus on the second form of Paratext, the Epitext, which consists of all authorial and editorial discussions taking place outside of the text. That’s stuff like interviews, private letters or J. K. Rowling’s Twitter Account – you know, before she decided to become a full-time asshole.

[Wilbur: Transrights]

After Season 1 ended, Wilbur indulged pretty heavily in providing epitext for the Dream SMP, something he had not done prior to November 16th. His paratextual additions ranged from the playful, like assigning DnD alignments to various SMP members, to the extremely impactful, like the whole three lives system!

You probably think, you know where this is going. Wilbur provided some epitext about how Tommy and Techno either are or are not biologically related to him … and I have to be honest I thought that too. But then I began looking into the impenetrable web that is the SBI-canon on the Dream SMP and found this!

[Ghostbur explains family]

So, it wasn’t paratext, it was just straight text. Said in character, in canon, without any implication that we the viewers should question this. The text of the SBI family dynamic was explicitly linked to Dream SMP-exclusive lore, namely Fundy being Wilbur’s and Sally the Salmon’s son. This is as clear as Philza’s anguished declaration on November 16th in establishing the intertext as text. And because Wilbur also had a very heavy hand in the discussion of paratext around that time, it gave his character’s words even more “canonical” weight. Metatextually speaking, this very much read like the author giving exposition through his character – exposition that we should understand as reliable.

And, by the way, before I continue, I need to give a huge, huge shoutout to kateis-cakeis on tumblr, I hope I pronounced that right, who was just so quick in providing me with these crucial clips. Without him I would have looked for days because these people don’t archive their shit! And the Dream SMP Wiki was NO help, by the way! I love what you guys do, but stuff like this belongs in the Trivia section on characters’ pages!

Anyways, basically during the entirety of early Season 2 the SBI family dynamic was basically canon to the SMP. Sometimes it was only alluded implicitly, again letting the intertext fill out the rest.

[Philza clips]

But just as often it was just explicitly talked about – both in the text and in the paratext.

[Fundy clip/Wilbur “Twins” clip/Tommy clip]

So, I know what you’re thinking: “Why is this part called paratext, if the entire family tree is just textual”. Well, that last clip might give you a hint, as to what I will talk about. Notice how Tommy, one of the people most directly impacted by the canonization of SBI lore, is both unaware of and seems generally unenthused about it, to put it nicely? Well, that would soon turn out to be a much bigger deal than anyone could have imagined as he wasn’t the only one.

[Technoblade decanonizes SBI]

Yeah …

This happened on 20th of December. Regular viewers of this channel will remember that I put out a 90-second joke video, where I complain about this very development. And while I was mostly kidding around, the core idea is still true. The paratext provided by Technoblade and established text were in direct contradiction with one another – and that brought a lot of confusion into the fandom. Confusion, that would soon be followed by frustration.

Because Techno only decanonized himself as part of the SBI family dynamic – but what about Tommy and Tubbo, the latter of which was incorporated into the dynamic exclusively within the lore of the Dream SMP. Was this still canon or wasn’t it?

What followed was a muddled mess of contradictions, intertextual implications, text and paratext in conflict with each another. It was for the most part inscrutable to figure out how Tommy and Philza related to one another. I’ll spare you every comment made about this – mostly because I want to spare myself from looking for all of them.

In the end, the current status is that their familial relationship is … unclear. Philza said, again in paratext, that it’s ultimately up to the writers to decide, whether or not Tommy is his son … which, I personally think he and Tommy should be the ones to establish that, but I’ll come back to that later.

But why is all of this important anyway? Why would this ambiguity create such an uproar, such controversy – especially when it comes to Tommy’s character? What makes Tommy’s and Philza’s relationship such a target for discussion in the fandom?

Well … this is where we will have to talk about the storyline of Season 2.

Interlude II: Tommy’s Exile and Dadza in Season 2

Okay, Season 2. This is where the spoilers are, so I will just sneakily drop this again. It took me five seconds to google this gif and I will milk it for every penny it’s worth!

At the beginning of Season 2, Philza’s narrative role has not changed much from where Season 1 ended. He is in L’Manburg dispensing earthly wisdom, being a paternal figure to Fundy, Ghostbur and Tubbo, helping with the nation’s rebuilding efforts; just generally occupying the role of the mentor.

[clips]

And then came … the Exile. The Exile Arc took place between December 3rd and December 15th during Season 2 of the Dream SMP. It revolves around TommyInnit getting exiled from L’Manburg and slowly getting psychologically tortured and broken down by Dream. It’s a really great arc, at least in my opinion, that explores and deepens a lot of Tommy’s character relationships, whether that be Tommy and Dream, Tommy and Tubbo or Tommy and Ranboo. One relationship, however, is noticeably missing.

So, yeah, Philza spends basically the entirety of the exile doing pretty much nothing of consequence. And that’s not a problem specific to him – One big criticism I would levy against the Exile Arc is that a lot of characters are left spinning their wheels. Which is why we get zany stuff like El Rapids, Drywaters, Eret’s Knights of the Roundtable, Boomerville – anyone remember Boomerville, that was a thing for 5 seconds, wasn’t it? – basically a lot of storylines are started and then unceremoniously dropped. Now, I will talk more about this, when I make a video about Season 2 of the Dream SMP … in ten years, look forward to it.

In the case of Philza, this inaction was especially damning, because at this point it was still a considered canon that he was Tommy’s dad. So, the fans were left with a situation, where just a few weeks prior Philza was occupying a paternal role for Fundy and Ghostbur … but now, that his youngest son was in a very concerning predicament – to put it lightly – he was nowhere to be found.

So why is that?

Well, the most obvious answer is that Dream and Tommy didn’t write him into the storyline. We’ve seen that Tommy wasn’t particularly interested in exploring a familial relationship to Philza, at least at the time. And it would just not fit in with what Dream and Tommy tried to do with the Exile Arc: they wanted to tell the story of Tommy being isolated, completely under Dream’s mercy, slowly worn down and manipulated. If Philza had been constant presence for Tommy during that time, it would have definitely shifted the narrative focus. That doesn’t mean that they couldn’t have done that, it’s just a matter of fact that they didn’t.

This also reveals another truth about content creator Philza’s character work, that I think is extremely crucial: He takes what the writers give him. Outside of a few choice moments, he doesn’t seem particularly interested in expanding or even solidifying his character on the SMP.

What I’m saying is that he is very go-with-the-flow: Wilbur wants to enact a Shakespearean tragedy? Philza’s up for it. Fundy wants him as a parental figure and mentor? Philza’s here for him. Tommy, conversely, doesn’t want him as a paternal presence, even though it would make sense for Philza’s character, as it was established so far, to be there? Philza will oblige.

The reason I’m mentioning this is because, while Tommy and Dream were unwilling to utilise Philza in their storyline, someone else was more than happy to. Which leads us back, like it always does, to everyone’s favourite Porky Pig-kinnie in a crown: Technoblade.

Technoblade and Philza, from everything I’ve seen of them, seem to be very good friends – and they share a lot of history even outside SBI. So, it’s commendable that they would collaborate on a storyline together.

A consequence of that, however, is that Philza’s narrative purpose shifts completely with very little transition. His entire character changes from being the Mentor-figure of L’Manberg to being pretty much exclusively defined as Technoblade’s ally; his man on the inside. It is a very sharp turn from the end of Season 1. Their relationship is once again informed via intertext – this time the Antarctic Empire on SMPEarth serves as the hypotext – but there isn’t a huge effort made to smoothly integrate that aspect of Philza’s character into the larger narrative framing around him.

How much the narrative utilisation of Philza has shifted can be very easily observed through the Butcher Army event on December 16th, a story event that I like less and less the more I think about. Here Philza is used to show just how corrupt and violent Tubbo’s administration has becomes. He is no longer the respected mentor, he is now the stand-in for the oppressed populace, similar to Niki’s role in Season 1. On a narrative level, he is here to prove a point.

If you’ve seen my Technoblade video, you know how I feel about … just that entire storyline, so I will not reiterate too much on it. I just want to make clear that I’m not principally against this development – if they wanted to truly explore Tubbo going down a dark path and getting corrupted by power, so much so that he would even treat the person who effectively raised him like a prisoner, I would be extremely here for it, I cannot stress that enough.

The problem I have is that it’s just so sloppily done. It is not coherent with how these characters behaved and, more importantly, how they were narratively framed prior to the Butcher Army event. Fundy gets one token line about Phil being his Grandfather – a far cry from the very emotionally complex relationship they had established at the beginning of Season 2 – and Phil then callously disowns him.

The major problem simply is that we don’t see how Philza changes from Mentor-figure to embittered, oppressed citizen. And there was enough time to build to that. During the entirety of Tommy’s exile Tubbo was pretty much spinning his wheels and Quackity and Fundy were opening up plot cul-de-sacs that didn’t end up going anywhere. This is time they could have spent on developing their relationship to Philza and the dark path they were going down – but again, Season 2 video.

There is not much to say on Philza’s narrative purpose and framing beyond the Butcher Army event. He remains pretty much exclusively Techno’s consigliere with his role as Mentor to L’Manburg a distant memory. He has some cute character moments with Ranboo, because content creator Philza is just big dad-energy whether he wants to or not, and whenever he and Ghostbur share a scene suddenly the narrative remembers that there are people other than Technoblade that should exist in Philza’s inner world. But aside from that, Philza’s storyline in Season 2 remains … pretty definitive is the nicest way I can put it.

Most importantly his relationship with Tommy continues to be completely unexplored – whether by chance or choice – and that combined with ever vaguer paratext leaves “Dadza” in a very peculiar situation.

 Conclusion: Is Dadza a Good Dadza?

So, the question to end all questions. The big, obnoxious text, that I will probably have put in the thumbnail – I haven’t made it yet, but I know myself. The honest answer is: I couldn’t tell you.

I have, in the past, been expounding the virtues of narrative analysis. That is because I feel that Narrative Analysis and Textual Analysis, like in this video, can provide certain tools that Character Analysis lacks. Often times I see people trying to get at a writing problem or query and getting frustrated because they’re not using the toolset, they need to figure out what they want to figure out.

But I’d be a hypocrite if I pretended like everything could be solved through the modes of analysis I prefer. And I think the Dadza-issue is exactly such a case.

I set out to explore why the Philza-Tommy-“Dadza”-relationship has become so controversial. It’s a combination of expectations build up through intertextual readings, that were partly canonized – something that is very common for the Dream SMP – conflicting pieces of paratext, which only serve to muddle the issue further and a text that is not only completely uninterested in actually exploring Tommy’s and Philza’s relationship – as it stands right now they might as well be strangers, narratively speaking – but also completely changes Philza’s narrative purpose as it relates to characters like Fundy or Tubbo about half-way through with little to no transition.

That is why I say, that Philza’s character is a victim of narrative circumstance. Because unwittingly, through all of these factors and decisions, there is not coherent reading of Philza that frames his parental skills in a particularly kind light.

The question of how we can judge Phil as a paternal figure ultimately falls within the purview of the character analysis – and that’s a very multifaceted issue, highly dependent on which POV you focus on and how you interpret the other characters in that POV’s periphery.

To put my cards on the table, I think that Philza is a very flawed father/father-figure – and I find that absolutely okay. Flaws are the spice of character building. He is not Cinderella’s Evil Stepmother – but he’s also definitely not Mufasa. If we were to read Philza as a paternal figure, then he would have made a lot of mistakes and decisions to the detriment of his “children” – least of all everything that happened on Doomsday.

But I also have sympathies for Philza fans who are tired of the Dad-Debate and would like to have his character judged independent from his relationship to Ghostbur, Fundy, Tubbo and Tommy.

Ultimately, to bring it all to a point, I’d like to end with saying, that I think that Philza, out of all the characters on the SMP, has the potential to be on of the most intriguing, multifaceted ones. There are all of these different patches of story, character moments and narrative and transtextual implications, that, if brought together, could create a beautiful tapestry of the character Philza.

You have his relationship with Techno, which holds the potential for so much emotional conflict and vulnerabilities, you have his time as mentor of L’Manburg, which is just criminally underused; the complex relationship between him and Ghostbur/Wilbur; and – for me, personally – most intriguingly this weird, almost uncomfortably distant non-relationship with Tommy. That last one is intriguing to me, because it contrasts just so much with our intertextual understanding of the characters and streaming personas – and it just holds the potential for so much conflict, so much drama, so much angst. Which I live for!

And, yes, I do believe that most of this is narrative happenstance, that this was largely not intended by Philza or really any of the writers. It’s just what happens when hybrid-roleplay-improv a long-running, livestreamed storyline in Minecraft.

But I want them to realize the potential they have on their hands, because it could – with barely any adjustments – turn Philza from a victim of narrative circumstance to a champion of it!

 Outro

Thank you so much for watching this video. Usually, I don’t record outros this standard, but after this beast of a video I felt it necessary. I hope that whether you’re a Philza fan or a Philza critical or just completely uninvolved in the whole thing, there is at least a little entertainment you could get from this.

I want to take this opportunity to say that my next few videos will probably not be Dream SMP related – a sentence which undoubtedly lost me a bunch of subs – simply because I don’t want to burn out on it. I genuinely enjoy watching the SMP and being exhausted by it would be something I wouldn’t want to force on myself.

But who knows what will happen? The Karl Jacobs video was something I did spur of the moment because the idea just came to me – so I can’t guarantee that the next video won’t be a three-minute joke about Purpled or whatever.

Anyway, my concrete plans for future Dream SMP videos are essays on Season 1 and Season 2 as well as one for Tales from the SMP.

Before that I have a longer video in the works, which I’ve already teased a bunch, so I hope it will finally be finished sometime. And I also may be working on something … eboys-related? Maybe. I’m not making any promises!

[madebysoupy]

Kurt's famous Murder Mystery Dinner Parties

This is gonna be a headcanon post about those, since tragically all took place offscreen

Also as a sidenote, this would've made for a great Halloween special

Aight let's go! Starting with some general information

Kurt has a notebook written full of ideas for his next murder mystery (themes, time periods, characters, overall systems)

He makes sure it's something new each time, so no one gets bored

The invitations are handwritten by himself in perfect cursive, ink on thick designer paper

Everyone also gets a short description of their character, and the dresscode

(Kurt used to let everyone pick their character's name but none of them were creative enough, so now he assigns the names)

Upon arrival everyone finds a second envelope at the place at the table, in which they'll find additional character information as well as their own unique set of clues only their character would realistically know

Cheating is frowned upon, it ruins the fun for everyone so don't even come near any envelopes not meant for you

There's no in-game consequences for breaking character, but it's frowned upon as well and everyone will act like they either don't know you or don't hear you

Kurt completely transforms the room everytime. No one knows how he does it, or where he gets the material for it. It's very impressive

Now I'm gonna get a little more specific since there's one specific murder mystery of his I have in mind, as part of the imaginary Halloween special

This one's theme is 1900s high-society

Kurt plays the host's Butler this time around, since the host is gonna be the victim

The other roles could be as follows:

Lady Rachel, owner of the neighboring land who might be hiding a dark secret

Lord Finn, the host's brother who'd inherent everything

Duchess Santana, tragically widowed and already looking for another source of money

horse breeder Brittany, the closest Kurt could get to her request of her character having something to do with unicorns

Count Mike who may or may not have been blackmailing the host

Factory owner Puck who the host may or may not have serious dirt on

Professor Artie, in desperate need of funding

Influential Author Tina who might have been blackmailed by the host

Opera Diva Mercedes who had a more personal connection to the host

Lady Quinn who may or may not have murdered her husband

Now on to the actual party

Kurt greets everyone at the door, already in character (complete with that old timey mildly british sounding accent), and leads them to the dinner table

Rachel's always the first to arrive, she loves the roleplay aspect of it all

That being said, when she opens up her second envelope and finds information conflicting with the ideas she had for her character herself she'll get upset

Quinn's dresses are always the most stunning

Despite literally living in the same house Finn somehow manages to arrive second to last everytime

Puck is always the last to arrive, he thinks if he's late no one will suspect that he's actually really into these murder mysteries

There's an actual in-character dinner first

No one expected him to, but Kurt goes the extra mile of not eating with the others since he's playing a butler

Santana might be enjoying bossing him around in-character a little too much

Artie's just talking about outlandish made-up theories in-character

Quinn just sits back and enjoys the show

Everyone's characters are so chaotic together

When the lights go off and on that signals to everyone that the murder has happened/body has been found

Everyone gets their third envelope, in which they'll find more information on their character's relation to the victim, their possible alibi and whether they are the murderer or not

Everyone's doing their best to keep a pokerface on, because they all know everyone's watching everyone

Once the letters have been read Puck gets super into it, interrogating every attandant one by one

Tina and Mercedes form a partnership and exchange their personal clues with each other

Finn is just confused and sticks to Rachel

Mike surprises everyone by being the first one with a real lead on the case

At some point an argument breaks out between Santana's and Rachel's character who accused each other

Everyone else is listening in, taking notes and taking sides

"I didn't murder her!" "that's exactly what a murderer would say!"

Burt or Carole comes in while that big in-character argument is happening, takes one good look at what's happening, turns around and leaves

The group goes straight back to yelling accusations at each other

Juicy, juicy in-character drama

Kurt, who's just watching and giving hints when he sees fit, was pretty sure Quinn was gonna be the one to figure it out, but in the end Brittany solves the mystery purely by accident

And that's all I got so far

Feel free to add to this! :)