#mostly just cutesy nonsense

[muchmossymess]

give me your headcanons for a minecraft server with the fmab kids

[fawn-paws]

Drawing erotic perfectly normal fanart of a game that has 0 sexual energy (as far as I know) feels so unhinged and almost cursed

[hostilemuppet]

my attempt at redesigning satin & chenille! now, i dont think their original designs were as bad as CREEKS, they just... werent particularly fashionable, is the main thing, which is awful bc their whole thing is fashion! this could have been solved just by giving them new outfits but... wheres the fun in that? more in depth rambling under the cut (it gets long, be warned)

when redesigning the twins, i actually went largely off of this concept art i showed before

i loved how much better it conveyed them being into fashion by giving them a tonne of accessories, and i think them being japanese instead of swedish makes more a lot sense thematically; when thinking about fashion, you tend to picture harajuku before you picture sweden. um. sorry, swedes. im sure youre very snappy dressers!

i kept something similar to their final colour scheme, since pink and blue has a better contrast than magenta and red. while keeping the rainbow accessories might have looked nice, i do like how final s&c have a very neat palette of pink/blue/purple + yellow accents. nice and clean and simple and effective. theyre very colour coordinated. i swapped the skin and hair shades, honestly it was mostly because i knew i wanted their little cheek stamps (which replaced their glitter freckles, so that could be a trait specific to poppy and creek) to be yellow/gold and it looked a lot better on the deeper colours than the pastel. and im glad i did, bc now their hair looks like marshmallow twists! so cute

for their clothes, i kept chenille wearing a kimono (although obviously a much different one, opting for pastel pink and lace instead of highlighter yellow and thin ribbons) and gave her satins leg warmers , while satin has chenilles anklets. for satin, i knew her not wearing a skirt or dress was mandatory; she just looks way better in shorts and trousers while chenille wears skirts. her exact style was VERY SLIGHTLY based on fairy kei, but with how simplified it had to be to fit on a chibi troll body, that isnt particularly obvious. still, i think its sufficiently cutesy enough to contrast chenilles more put together style, which fits since how satin... isnt the brightest, and chenille doesnt tolerate any nonsense (unless it is her own nonsense, of course)

this is unrelated to the design itself, but since they are no longer swedes and are now japanese, for obvious reasons they would not be voiced by icona pop. im not into the jpop scene but im sure theres a popular jpop girl duo out there! or maybe two specific members of a larger group. you 🫵 the audience can decide!

[altocat]

Given the way Shinra market the Firsts - especially Sephiroth - it seems like they're trying to go with some influencer vibes. So my question is this - how far do you think this goes?

Are there make up palettes or nails along the lines of holo taco, an energy drink like Prime marketed as SOLDIER adjacent, Vegas style restaurants where you have someone's name attached to it or even happy meal style toys (moogle meal toys?) in partnership with with other companies? Maybe cafes like you get with K-pop stars where you go and can order a person's 'favourite' drink?

I think they probably tailor brands depending on each Firsts' area of personal expression. Genesis owns hair, makeup, and general fashion. Angeal is outdoor gear, professional clothing, and really anything that involves a level of manly responsibility. Sephiroth is mostly military, with lots of time spent on stupid meaningless things like shampoo, colognes, etc.

That said, I think that Shinra also tends to go apeshit when it comes to cutesy nonsense too--just look at Stamp. So Genesis, Angeal, and Sephiroth are probably subjected to all kinds of silly and unwanted fanfare related to innocuous child-friendly media. The goal is to have them be warm and cuddly mascots for the kiddos to enjoy (SO THEY'LL ENLIST!!!) and Shinra makes sure to have its hands in EVERYONE'S pockets. There's something genuinely disturbing at having Genesis be an adorable chibi fridge magnet one moment and then having a rather scantily clad beach shoot for a men's fashion magazine the next.

Angeal is probably the least popular of the three, and mostly just gets shoved onto "assignments" that don't require that much self-debasement. Which is good news for him because he's not stuck making special guest appearances at the In-N-Out every other week. Genesis honestly enjoys the attention regardless of the circumstances. Sephiroth, conversely, is almost always completely miserable and his clear disdain for the audience requires a LOT of late evening hours spent on the editing floor.

[misc-obeyme]

Happy Father's Day!

It's time for parent Barbatos, but not child parent, pet parent!

I'm not sure what it is about couples having a pet (mainly a cat. I'll be talking about a cat) but I just LOVE it. Like, forget kids, I just wanna snuggle up with Barbatos and watch him play with our cat without a care in the world!

I think it's partly about seeing such a soft side of him, but imagining Barbatos hanging out with a cat makes me melt. I know he would never admit to it, but he absolutely does the high-pitched pet voice when he thinks it's just him and the kitty (little does he know, he's not so sneaky)

From the Raise event, I could guess he'd name the cat Adler.

And from this chat in og (CATastrophe 3), we could assume they'd be besties since Adler could catch rats.

I think it's funny to think that Barbatos would supposedly only want the cat so it would catch rats, but becomes best friends with it over time!

Anywhoosies, little Adler would definitely become a staple in our tea parties

Okay, I apologize for the lateness of this response, but we're not too far out from Father's Day, right??? I'm a lil bit behind on asks...

BUT YO that's like the quintessential Dad Thing to either be like I don't want a pet or I only want a pet if it's useful and then getting ridiculously attached to said pet.

I've thought about this particular type of scenario, too, mostly because I have a cat and I can't help but imagine if she'd get along with Barbatos if she ever met him.

I have come to the conclusion that he would become Cleo's favorite person and I would become chopped liver in comparison.

I like to think of him responding to cat meows with very normal stuff. Like we all know cats will demand food even when their bowl is still full.

I can hear it now...

Cat: Meow!

Barbatos: I have only just fed you, Adler.

Cat: Meeeeooow!

Barbatos: I see that there is still food in your bowl.

Cat: Meow meow meow!

Barbatos: No amount of adorable meows will get me to give you more food when you already have plenty of food.

And then of course the sweet kitty voice is for when the cat isn't being a menace... like if it rolls over for belly rubs or butts its little head into his hand for pets... That's when you can catch him talking all cutesy lol.

I also like the idea of Barbatos having a cat with an absolutely ridiculous name like Mr Fluffkins or some such nonsense. He probably let Diavolo name it al;kdfjldf.

Anyway, this is very much Dad Behavior and Pet Dads are top tier in my opinion. Barb would be the best Pet Dad.

[charbon-et-feu]

I got this ask on my art blog within minutes of posting that Hoenn boys bunny art so I'm pretty sure that's what prompted it. I don't want to clutter my art blog with this nonsense, so I'm not going to answer it there, but I do want to dissect it a little bit.

"You're not even trying to age him up or anything"

It's fascinating (and sometimes a little concerning) to get a glimpse of what people's standards are for what makes a fictional character look like an adult. I can usually see where people are coming from when they assume that a character is young based on their appearance, but it's annoying when people confidently say that a character must be a child if they're drawn a certain way, and then go on to assume the worst of an artist if they draw something a little spicy. It's already difficult to guess most people's ages irl, so it's silly to think you can reliably guess the age of a fictional character drawn in an anime/cartoon style.

People come in all shapes and sizes. People from some East Asian countries tend to be shorter and younger looking, and then you have people from Scandinavian countries who are typically super tall. Idk where anon is from, but a lot of the people who like to fuss over the ages of fictional characters are from the US. This is crazy to me because the US is such a diverse melting pot, so you would think that someone living here would understand that there's no one-size-fits-all definition for what an adult looks like.

And none of this even really matters when you're talking about fictional characters. They're not real. They're objects, dolls that we play dress up with and smush together and use to tell stories. We throw them on a stage to entertain us. Sometimes, it's heartwarming or funny or sad, and, sometimes, it makes us uncomfortable. Oftentimes, we put them through hell, but no matter what, they can't hurt us, and we can't hurt them. So, it's a safe way to explore our ideas and try to understand ourselves and our world a little better.

It's so strange when people judge someone based only on what they enjoy in fiction and art. It really doesn't matter how I draw Brendan or any other character, so I'm just gonna keep doing what I'm doing. But I do want to try to dig into why anon thinks that I'm not aging up Brendan at all, because I think it's interesting to analyze and try to understand the thought process behind comments like these. Feel free to take this next bit of rambling with a grain of salt. I'm mostly just speculating based off anon's ask and similar arguments that I've observed from people who try to argue that a character looks too young to be an adult.

For reference, here's the art that (most likely) prompted the ask:

When I draw Brendan, I'm usually going for older teen/young adult. I did make him a little skinnier than I would have liked here, but he still looks like he could be anywhere from a teen to a baby-faced adult. So why does anon see a child?

I'm guessing one of the main reasons is that Brendan is short. And since Wallace is super tall, it makes Brendan look even smaller. Most of the characters don't have canon heights, but I've seen people estimate Wallace's height at a little over 6'(183cm) by comparing character models in Pokemon Masters, and Steven is a few inches shorter than Wallace. I go with 6'2"(188cm) for Wallace and 5'11"(180cm) for Steven. I think most of the protags are under 5'(152cm), but I make Brendan at least 5'5"(165cm). Even with the extra inches, Wallace still makes him look small lol. Here's a little chart I made for myself a while ago so you can see what I mean.

Could I make Brendan taller? I guess I could, but I'm not going to. The height difference is part of the appeal for me. It's fun to draw, and with certain poses, it can be an interesting challenge. Also, short men exist, and they're valid.

I'm guessing the other reason anon sees Brendan as a child is because I drew him pretty cutesy and baby-faced compared to Steven and Wallace. In the bunny pic, Brendan's bashful expression and somewhat feminine pose and outfit also add to the cuteness. I like to keep the somewhat big, rounded eyes from his canon design, but I do the same thing when I draw Akari/Dawn, and I haven't gotten any angry asks about my volokari art. I just like to draw Brendan cute. Is that the problem? Can someone not be perceived as a man if they give off too much cute, feminine energy? Hmm... That kinda smells like toxic masculinity.

I can't help but wonder if anon is letting common stereotypes rooted in traditional patriarchal USAmerican gender norms poison their perception of what a man should look like. "Real" men must be tall, strong, rugged, etc, and if they don't meet those strict standards then they must be either a boy or a woman. (Similarly, women must be short, dainty, soft, have big boobs, etc, but this is about Brendan so we won't get into that.) If you transfer this mindset to stylized art of fictional characters, I can see how anon arrived at their conclusion. But this way of thinking is close-minded and objectively wrong because the average, white USAmerican's view of the world is not universal. What about short, feminine men? Flat chested women? Trans men? Are we not allowed to draw and sexualize these types of characters? Kinda sucks for all the short kings and petite women out there who want to see a character that looks like them get railed by their favorite blorbo of the month. Sorry guys, you must be this tall if you want a fictional character with your body type to be sexualized. No fun allowed.

Maybe I'm wrong and it's not that deep, but this is how ridiculous people sound when they start breaking out the rulers and measuring the art of fictional characters to determine if it fits into their (often inconsistent) standards of what an adult looks like. Now, I do understand that certain types of art can make people uncomfortable, and that's perfectly valid. I also have a certain threshold for when a character starts to look a little too young and I'm no longer comfortable seeing them depicted in certain ways. When I come across art like that, I just unfollow/block/mute and move on. It's not that serious and definitely not a good reason to jump into some random person's inbox to harass them.

Also, I don't want to get into this topic too much (since this is already really long) but I think it's worth noting that these types of comments usually only start popping up when the art has sexual elements to it. Young Shounen Anime protagonists experience varying degrees of violence regularly, but I can't remember the last time I saw someone question the morals of those creators. Why does the pearl clutching only happen when creators try to dive into sexual territory with fictional characters? Just something I wish these people would take the time to think about.

Anyway, anon can think I'm weird if they want, but I think the assumptions they're making say a lot more about them than they do about me. I'm just here to have fun and draw cute anime boys, and Brendan just happens to be my favorite doll rn. I enjoy playing dress up with him, and sometimes that means he's gotta get in the bunny outfit. It's fine. He's having fun. He told me himself.

I didn't mean to ramble this much, and I don't usually like engaging with discourse, but I had some thoughts, and I wanted to get some of them out. I love art. I think creators should be free to make whatever beautiful, weird art they want, so I think it's important to push back against this behavior when we can. But if I get more asks like this, I promise I won't respond to them often.

If you made it to the end, thanks for taking the time to read all that. I don't usually talk much, so when I do, it's nice when people listen. As a reward for your efforts, please accept this unfinished Steven art.

[vyglitchcraft]

can i request og soap and roach x ftm reader fic ? if you dont do poly, either one is good =] i just wanna take care of them so bad, cuddle up to them, be their civilian house husband!! wanna smooch them when they come home on deployment, and talk about retirement with them. all the cutesy domestic stuff <33

Sure, let's do two separate short fics in one post instead

Welcome Home, Dear!

Chapter 1: John "Soap" Mactavish x civvy FTM!Reader

Chapter 2: Gary "Roach" Sanderson x civvy FTM!Reader

Content: fluff, SFW, brief mentions of funerals and death in Roach's part, yeah literally that's it. Talking about your future with Roach and taking care of Soap! Former 141 member!reader for Soap

Chapter 1

Soap

*chop* *chop* *chop*

You push the knife down one more time, cutting the fruits into bits before it's ready to cook. Music was playing in the background from a music station you randomly picked. You didn't focus on it at all, it was simply background music to you. A TV channel was on too, the war had ended a couple of weeks ago or at least that's when it was known to the public. You remembered in the newspaper, in the page where they showed the names who died in the war, his name was there but you didn't cry or anything, he always kept you up to speed, you were and forever will be part of 141 even if you've retired to be a househusband. He wasn't dead, almost died? Sure but not fully six feet under. He was wounded horribly and considering their last base was shot out by Makarov's men, it's best to stay hidden until they're sure every one of those bitches are rotting in hell.

And that brings you to today, it wasn't directly mentioned but "few corrections have been made" was stated on the new list, mostly ones who were MIA being found and John's name was discreetly taken out of the dead man's list.

You were cooking some apple pie, it was getting cold in the UK, not like it's always cold here. But baking was one of the ways you could warm up. Great thing about having a husband in war? You don't have to worry about someone else finishing your food. Mixing the chopped up apples into a pot with brown sugar and cinnamon to let them caramelize, you suddenly hear a knock on the door. You quickly unlocked it and yelled for the visitor to come inside, you can't take your eyes away from the cooking after all.

All of the sudden, two large yet familiar hands wrapped around your waist, pulling you close. John pressed his forehead to your head, resting and leaning against you. You could feel how tired he was. "Oi, you shouldn't just surprise me like that! I could've clocked you ya know?" You leaned back, your shoulders to his chest. "Aye, i would like to see you try" a soft yet tired laugh coming from John.

You sighed, filling the pie crust up and quickly putting it in the oven all while handling the weight of your husband leaning against you. "John...johnny...you can't sleep like this you know? Why don't you take a bath first? I already prepared it for myself but i can always take a bath later" humming something under your breath, you were strong enough to carry John via piggyback ride and carry him into the bathroom. "Ya know, you don't have to help me with everything..." He moved your hand away as soon as you reached for his gear to help him get out of it "nonsense! You're tired, i haven't seen you for...almost a year, just let me take care of it okay?" Knowing how stubborn you can be, he gave up with a soft sigh, letting you take his gear off and cleaning it up. Taking out all the random brass casings, pens, scraps, shrapnel and even stitching it up before throwing it into the washing machine with all of his other clothes.

Seeing him melt into the tub made your heart warm up, he looked so calm and in peace. You dipped your hand into the water and used it to wipe the grime off his face. "Oh fuck, your hair is all oily...and...Shit, that looks horrible, i'll bandage it up after you bathe...ugh that bruise too and what happened here? It's healed but...Jesus Christ what happened?" You were staring at his newly acquired scars and wounds that you didn't remember him having before.

Soap noticed how concerned you are and softly held your hand "i promise, i'm fine, just another flesh wound right? You survived a hail of bullets and you're fine, i'm not as resilient as you but i can take a couple of hits before dropping"

"Oh shut it, you're way more resilient" a playful punch to his shoulder and a kiss on the forehead from him was all that you need to lighten up the mood.

Squeezing some shampoo on your hand, you ran it through his mohawk "i still can't believe it, they let you get away with this haircut" rubbing the shampoo into his scalp, he leaned into your soft and gentle touches. The water ran black from all the dirt he managed to soak up from the battlefield. Finishing up, you hand him a towel and fetch your med kit from under the sink. Letting John dry off, you soaked some cotton with iodine, it soaked through the cotton pad and stained your fingers but that's fine for you, you were in a rush after all, don't want your husband to get all infected. Pressing the iodine soaked cotton onto his wounds and soon after you stitch him up. As expected, no reaction came from him, he looks relaxed rather than tense like you when Soap had to stitch you up after your chopper got shot down. You were cowering from the needle and here Johnny seems to enjoy this, it feels therapeutic to him.

After finishing up his stitches and Soap getting dressed, you held his hand and guided him into the dining room, serving him some food "i know you're baking a pie, ya can't hide it away from me ya know?" you hushed him and pouted "i'm making sure it lasts longer than 10 minutes, you never leave a slice for me" Soap laughed and pets your head "what can i say? Your cooking is the best, better than any MRE that I've tasted" you scoffed and rolled your eyes "oh please, anything is better than MREs, a can of paint tastes better than MREs"

He only chuckled and started to eat, you already ate before he went home so you only watched. You're still confused how he eats so damn fast, at this point he's just trying to get to the desert as fast as possible. "Fuckin...hoover, fine i'll bring the pie but you better not finish all of it!"

"Fine i'll finish half"

"That's still too much!"

He helped you get the pie out of the oven and you started to cut it into slices. You always wanted to have this life and now you have it, you didn't know what you did to get a life this perfect but you're not complaining. Just making sure to make the most out of the little amount of time you got before Soap gets sent into another mission

Chapter 2

Roach

(Using his MW19 design because i don't wanna use the same pic over and over again...)

You were waiting patiently on the couch, the TV acting as a white noise generator. Your boyfriend should be home by six but it's been an hour and he still isn't home. Maybe he's dead, Ghost told you that the mission with Shepherd didn't really end well but you don't know what he means by that.

You heard a knock suddenly and the door quickly getting unlocked. You were laying down on the couch, staring blankly at the TV, not paying attention to the noise coming from the door. You were pissed. Pissed at your boyfriend. For all you know, he could be dead. And what if he died? You could just move on right? It's not like you've been with this man for three years straight.

That's when you suddenly saw Gary, leaning against the couch, softly looking at you. He was covered in bandages, some part of his body was burnt but you were just glad he was alive. You quickly shot up and sat up, your palm against his masked face. "Bug...you're alive..." He smiled and nodded. "I. Love. You" he signed. You nodded as well "yeah i...i love you too"

He hopped over the back of the couch and sat down next to you. Without a thought, you hugged him. "Did you think of me when you were deployed?"

"Every damn moment...i thought about coming home to you" he replied.

You kissed him on the lips, you didn't care that he was still masked and in full gear, you didn't care that you could taste blood and dirt on him, he was here and that was all you needed.

"I thought about you as well...i thought about our future..."

He tilted his head, curious.

"Retirement..." You continued. Gary laughed when he heard that. It was so sweet and a stark difference compared to the absolute hell that he just experienced. Pressing your face into his chest, he ran his fingers through his lover's hair. You could feel his breathing, he was relaxed, soft breaths as his heart rate slowed down knowing he was finally safe at his home with you in his arms.

"Go on, continue, tell me everything"

"I think...we should live somewhere quiet, you always hated the city. You are always overstimulated when you're surrounded by so many people...let's hide away...together...get away from war and fighting. Let's go somewhere only we know"

He leaned back sighing, thinking about the things you just said. It would be amazing, so so amazing. The thought of spending his final days with you and you alone is nothing but heaven to him. He would stop worrying about all of this SAS bullshit with Makarov and Shepherd, just you and him.

"Will we have kids?"

"Hmm...yeah...i could imagine us having a family...one girl one boy...the girl is named Nina and the boy named Jackson"

You two laughed at the thought. Imagining Roach as a father was so...odd but adorable. Your children would have Simon, Johnny, and Price as uncles and imagining THEM hanging around children was hilarious. The things they'll do. Oh to see Simon trying to be all soft and family friendly would be amazing.

"Our wedding, what will it look like?" You asked Gary, holding his hand softly as you looked at the engagement ring that he gave to you before he was deployed.

"At the beach would be good, i want to watch the sunset with you. Decor, flowers, everything else is up to you, just having you by my side forever is enough for me. We can even skip the ceremony. I don't mind" you looked up at him, watching him sign his ideas out. "What do you think i should wear?"

Gary hummed, thinking about it "how about a nice suit...or a dress, your choice...or maybe i can wear the dress?" You saw his idea and laughed "we should make your team into the bridesmaids, imagine Price in a dress" you added and Gary bursts out laughing. "Ghost in a white dress, still wearing his mask and sunglasses"

"OH GOD don't put that image into my head...you're so...precious you...little bug"

You two slowly calmed down. "But anyway...i already have my vows ready...and i think we should stop thinking about our future, let's focus on the present, what do you want for dinner? Or what do you wanna do in general?"

"Let me have you in my arms for another minute, i missed you, you know? I don't think i can handle being deployed again if it means i'll spend another minute without you being near me"

[tanetime]

I wanted to make bios for Wyneer's masks WEEKS ago to formally introduce them but I've had no time. So, here's the ref sheets I've been using for Art Fight for all of the masks who have portrait art so far.

I hope this helps people who hadn't been introduced them yet understand them a bit better! (And if it doesn't - ask me about them!)

Don't think about Wyneer's masks as alternate personalities. Think of them more as his OCs that he spontaneously manifested into existence via his masks.

I'll talk about each one a little more under the cut.

Fright is the first mask Wyneer made, and acts appropriately scuffed. Constantly throttled by adrenaline, he spends his time having non-stop panic attacks and sobbing his way through awkward social interactions. He chills out when Enlightened... but not by very much. He often wonders if Wyneer made him poorly as a joke.

Lay is just a normal hardworking guy from the South, which begs the question of how he got here, or why he can't remember his name or where he comes from, or what happened to him that he's like this. His stoic and workaholic nature belies an anxious mind that is desperately trying to remember itself... or wonder if there's truly anything to remember at all.

Brave is a tactician who hails from a distant time. Though he looks fierce, he is affable towards fellow Survivors and is very easy to impress. While he is intelligent, there are some things that elude his archiac understanding of the world. He rarely talks, but his speech tends to be poetic when he does. The markings Wyneer drew on his mask bear little significance to him personally.

Boutey was designed to be a leader, and accomplishes it via manipulation. Though he puts on a front of ditzy, cutesy helplessness, he is extremely intelligent and narcissistic. He believes all people are as 'fake' as he is and rarely trusts others. If he becomes fond of an intensely trusting person, he can sometimes become protective of them, fearing others will take advantage of them.

Crimson is loud, dim-witted, obnoxious, and incredibly vain... but loves with his whole heart and is unfailingly supportive to his friends. He is good to vent to if you need metaphorical advice that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. His pyrokinetic powers are tied to his emotions, so Wyneer made him mostly unable to feel anger; something that privately leaves Crimson weirded out.

Azure routinely sets himself on fire to keep others warm. He worries extensively about the wellbeing of those around him, and despises people who are bullies. He tends to bottle up his emotions and lash out when pushed to his limit. He speaks with a Minnesotan accent, but does not remember where he comes from. He considers the other gem masks to be his family and is often apologising for their behaviour.

Blake is lost in his own little world. The arrangement of gems on his mask has caused him to become attuned to an incomprensible garble of otherworldly noise that he claims is the voice of his gods. He is rarely emotive (when not jubilliant), fears nothing, has no grasp of personal space, and often speaks in complete nonsense with the impassioned maner of a preacher. He cares for no one but Wyneer - whom he refers to as his 'host.' He has an uncomfortably clingy fascination with people who work with shadow or lunar magic. Whoever Blake was when Wyneer first made him has been gone for a very long time.

Saffron's mask was created by Blake during an attempt at refining Wyneer's designs. Saffron's magical abilities are more refined, but his body suffers heavily as a result. He is constantly charged with magic from his gems and is extremely irritable and restless if not worn out. He cares strongly about his self-image and will not allow himself to fail, and is similarly critical of others. He is kind towards younger or more anxious Survivors however, and has a playful side - especially when 'playfully' antagonising his friends... He and Blake do not get along. Not that Blake cares about him to begin with.

[pergerinerabbit]

Right so I've been sick in bed all day; and as some of you may know, outside of my business, as in when you're not thinking of the person who runs this shop as a mippy itty bitty brand entity, I'm kind of a Massive Non-traditional Horror Fan? So I finally watched a playthrough oh and picked around the files of Indigo Park Chapter One. And this post will very much contain spoilers for that as I pick it apart in the same way I suck the marrow out of the bones of a roast chicken; but the tldr is that:

1- I feel like game theory is... *mostly* wrong, but they always are. Sensationalist and nuts, for views and in turn, money

2- UNIQUEGEESE IF YOU EVER NEED A MERCH ARTIST *PLEASE* HIT ME UP MY SCHEDULE IS SO WIDE OPEN AND THIS IS A PROJECT I WOULD KILL AND DIE TO WORK ON,,,

3- Rambley Raccoon scratches the same itch in my brain as Ralsei Deltarune, which if you Additionally know anything about me or my shop, you'd know that means that he is My Son Who Can Do Very Little Wrong and I Will Commit Attrocities for Him

So, we Know Isaac Indigo, if he's meant to be a direct parallel of Walt Disney Himself- Must be an absolute Stark-Raving Lunatic. Anyone who likes Disney beyond its brainwashing mouse-eared nonsense knows this. and You CAN in fact, like Disney's body of work and know the guy was just as insane as John Harvey Kellogg.

So i am. Thinking there may be some stuff that alludes to the "Disney wanted to live forever"/"Cryogenically Frozen Head" Theory? It's clear that he's picking animals that are easy to obtain and raise from a very early age, if you happen to be a deranged madman with a ton of extra cash and a clear kind of unethical science-experiment hell center under your theme park. In addition to blood, we do see sparks fly off of Mollie in that decapitation cutscene, so. It very well may be a combination of organic being and cybernetic nonsense, as well as the good ol "placing everyone you love into your mascots/ai so they can live forever" thing (Eat your heart out, GLaDOS!) the creator did say that they were a MASSIVE fan of Shipwrecked64 (aka, the game I affectionately call "Shit-rekt-my-pants, 64 times." I would have appreciated it more if the shock and surprise horror elements werent so heavy-handed. the giovanni goose death scene lives in my nightmares rent free, not inclusive of how much havoc that game's jumpscare-only layers wreaked on my heart condition.) so it would not surprise me that these mascots are human and animal experimentation gone so wildly wrong it warrants a horror title. I definitely CAN appreciate that these critters are actually slightly cutesy and not... gross 80s rubber mask mascot being piloted by a morbidly deformed and genetically altered human, but also I can Appreciate if that's the angle and its just more palpable to the viewer as a sort of fursuit thing... ah, but that's always the surprise/plot of mascot horror-- "what the fuck is wrong with them and why do they act Like That." Rambley is Very Obviously Not The Villain, he comes across more like Ricky from My Friendly Neighborhood. And also he also comes across like a more verbally comprehensible Donald Duck who actually DID take the spotlight over Mickey Mouse, or in our case, Lloyd. He really DOES just want all his pals okay and to not be forgotten about. Also im going to put him in the pear wiggler. Next chapter is DEFINITELY going to focus on the Submechanophobia elements, no doubt. Really love the lil eeyore guy. I think Salem will also get a chapter, but it's really really clear that they're a kind of "bug in the code" here. For whatever reason, Rambley can't form a functional statement about them, and all their traces either disappear or blow up. Its clear the other mascots do not want them there, re: why their shit's just annihilated.. I can imagine that the other mascots aren't okay with humans (their first instinct is to run and hide, not attack. to approach first with curiousity and THEN murderous intent.) Its really clear to me that lloyd is driven off NOT by some noise your cuff makes, but by Mollie mimicking some high-pitched noise she once heard to make Lloyd get away. The other theory im entertaining is that these mascots are Mostly Harmless and the park is Not Actually Abandoned, but something inside them (like an AI chip) is going nutso and telling them to kill and maim. either way Salem isn't the bad guy either, outside of the cartoons themselves, and mioght be something like a "we don't talk about Failures to the Process" kind of thing. I'm betting money that the True Bad Guy is Indigo's Lunatic Hubris and Corporate cash giving him access to tech levels of a Mad scientist. it's said that Ed's full name is a reference to something extremely niche, and I'm going to be so real its probably a reference to some yet unknown by me Theme Park Urban Explorers thing or, my funniest and favorite theory I have ever come up with, its a Reference to Crashbox's Eddie Bull. God I hope its a Reference to Eddie Bull.

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

B3 was so badly planned out and written, when i think of b1 i think of the patrols the introductions and obviously Murphy, b2 being the apartment nd the drive to the carnaval and b3... ? I just think of the poorly written nd quite disrespectful plot of 'human trafficking but make it nice xxxx'. Mishka could have easily made it more respectful by actually writing it properly and not making it seem aesthetic. The whole book was messy and why was the blood drive basically the biggest issue in the book? The detective could easily avoid it, allowing for more space nd focus on the 'Bad guy'. It just felt very rushed. Do you think that the plot should have been altered so it makes more sense and make it more memorable or just scrapped altogether?

Coupling this with a similar ask:

Not to bring back twc3 but like I'm pissed that people are like "Well Book 1 had a dark topic too!" Like yes it did but we actually spend most of the time investigating and it was treated as serious situation you weren't out there having dates and shit while in book 3 up to 40 people got kidnapped and MC had like a few scenes were they were actually concerned for the victims and then we went back to having dates, flirting with you LI and getting drunk...It also seems that the public wasn't aware that people (They just thought it was the kid) were going missing?? And we didn't do anything solve the kidnappings? We just went to a party and that's it. How are people not seeing the difference??.

The thing that people don't get about the human trafficking vs kidnapping thing is that the detective, and by extension we, the player, are allowed to linger in the trauma of the detective getting kidnapped, and we also see the effect the murders have on the town and the people in Wayhaven. The PC is visibly traumatized by it, the town is terrified, and book 2 opens with a nightmare about what happened in book 1. Because yes, it is a traumatic event, and it was allowed to have the weight such an event would have in someoen's life.

Book 3 offers no such weight to the human trafficking subplot. It tries, but it fails in that it 1) centers the detective's feelings of guilt instead of the terror of what's happening and how it's affecting the VERY SMALL, INSULAR TOWN 2) said guilt doesn't translate because we're never allowed to actually see the effect the kidnappings are having on the actual people of Wayhaven. The guilt is always self-inflicted in a really boring, "heroic" way where the detective blames themself but nobody else does, beause we're never given any reason to believe the detective could've stopped anything cuz it's all off-screen. In book 1, the guilt feels earned, because people are dying on the detective's watch, while they're in charge of finding the killer, and we see the consequences of them failing (grieving parents, scared locals etc). Here, it's like "Oh ok ... I guess 40 people got got and this is my fault somehow? And nobody else is reacting at all or trying to do anything? How is this just on me at this point? I'm not in charge of the whole town of Wayhaven."

We're aware of things being bad on principle, but we're never actually shown it. Once the cutesy RO scenes and the blood drive nonsense comes back, it's all mostly forgotten.

If M!shka tries to make the detective seem traumatized from the events of book 3 in book 4, I will laugh, because it would be a huge copout. As previously stated, the most of the emotional impact on the detective from the human trafficking subplot comes at the expense of an unnamed NPC who they never interact with again, and this "emotional impact" is mainly used to get the PC and their RO into the shower together for some cheap Angst. Murphy felt like he had a tangible effect on the detective as a character, regardless of their RO's reaction. There was a perfect opportunity to have Addie be the main driving force behind the detective's actions, but she's completely forgotten and instead replaced by a different, unnamed victim that never gets another mention.

Which brings me to how I'd fix this, because I don't think it's unfixable: Sin attempts to kidnap Addie but fails for one reason or another. Have the detective meet Addie and her parents. Maybe have the parents ask the Agency to protect Addie, and she's put under UB and the detective's personal protection. The parents force the detective to promise to keep her safe. Have Addie form a personal connection to the detective, whatever it may be. Give the victims a face. It's a little kid, for god's sake! The easiest thing to sympathize with and adopt, you had it in your hands and you wasted it.

Anyway, then, let the parents get kidnapped in order to pull Addie and the detective closer to the main event. Maybe even have Sin attempt to kidnap Addie again, but settling for her parents when UB and the detective interfere, so you can have that interaction of Sin being remoreseful and the detective trying to understand his actions. Then, dealing with Addie's fear and how the detective handles a scared, sad child would be perfect character development, and that's before you include the squee-worthy pseudo-parental RO interactions that people love. And finally, Addie gets kidnapped, and that's what kicks off the climax. Throughout this, you can also remind the player that the detective gave her parents a promise to protect her, and that's what haunts them and makes them feel personally responsible when they fail.

This way, the "main" plot is a quiet story about protecting a kid, with plenty of setup for interactions with the ROs (and a good reason for the detective to move into the warehouse, as a bonus), while it's also explicitly connected to the larger plot affecting the town, and you're given a much more tangible, personal reason to want to stop these kidnappings aside from "kidnapping bad," because you don't want more miserable, traumatized Addies in Wayhaven, and your detective made an actual promise to keep her safe and presumably wants to keep said promise.

It's all right there. That's what's so frustrating about book 3. We could've had it aaaaa-aaall.

[onewomancitadel]

I think what's funny about being a very dedicated romance lover is that there definitely times where I actually don't want it in the thing I'm into or at the very least I don't want it to be bland and really boring. I get it, Zelda/Link shippers go way back, but the gestural relationship was always way more interesting as a chaste knight/lady dynamic, and it's just lazy leaning into cutesy wholesome rivals-to-lovers shenanigans. (There are no intended TOTK spoilers in this post). It could not be there, and the story wouldn't really change in BOTW (or indeed even Skyward Sword); it's not achieving overly much except finally leaning into the (ostensible) inevitability of Link and Zelda getting together. Meanwhile - yeah - if I have to draw comparisons, any implicit Beauty and Beast dynamic to Link and Midna actually transforms Midna's character arc and the ultimate tragedy of her disappearance (and inability to reconcile their partner dynamic with who they both are and the nature of the Zelda myth).

Similar to that vein I really don't like companion romances in DW, which is why I feel that (even though she was polarising) someone like River Song was more interesting if the Doctor had to have a romance, but I always preferred the Doctor as a sexless figure/professor/parent type thing. Idk, the companion romances were very clumsy and uninteresting (which is why Donna remains one of the best companions - despite the fat single woman jokes, ugh, I can't believe people say only Moffat's run was misogynistic) and just obviously there to pander to a more familiar format of storytelling by the time of the reboot (self-insert Doctor with a sexpot companion). This is why I really don't like the Thirteenth Doctor's casting as an attractive (relatively) younger woman, just because it's really apparent they weren't thinking too hard about who would actually be appropriate for a Doctor. I don't know if that makes me unfeminist (I don't even like Tennant's Doctor, and Eleven works because he's unconventional) or something, I'm not sure - I think they did her wardrobe well enough but I just can't get over the casting there (and I know she has some sort of a companion romance, again, which it seems like they didn't even commit to with a female love interest, which says a lot. What I'm really getting at here with Thirteen is that I would've preferred a less conventional actress for the Doctor).

But it really comes down to motivated versus unmotivated romance, and sometimes we're not even really talking about the same thing - fluffy superficial shit (and yeah, you can definitely argue Doctor/Rose isn't superficial, but to me it does break part of the identity of DW and the Doctor's dynamic with the companions, and the characterisation of that relationship is exhausting and so fucking boring) is just fluffy and superficial, but from a storytelling perspective I want to be thinking about what these romances achieve narratively. If anything I think what is, say, critical to writing a companion romance with the Doctor is that it should by nature be fraught and taboo, and despite Rose's parallel-world disappearance the nature of them having feelings for each other is just a foregone conclusion and the will-they won't-they shit is just boring romcom bullshit. I find the Davies era mostly unwatchable because of this nonsense now (and then Martha gets saddled with that bullshit too, which brings down her entire run as companion).

I enjoy romance which is narratively justified and I find it tedious and boring when it's shoved in my face where it's inappropriate, which is fucking hilarious because that's a common detraction to the romances I enjoy. But we know it's assigned as a bad faith criticism in these circumstances and rarely do they explain why it doesn't work. But in writing romance, what I think is valuable is asking what it achieves on multiple levels - character, plot, theme - and whether it belongs there, particularly tonally.

I understand it's not a popular opinion (Zelda/Link and Doctor/Rose are huge ships in the General Audience alone, and the reason I think the former especially has been leant into is for an obvious reason) but I think it's worth considering critically for where romance does and doesn't work, because even if those ships are nominally popular, sometimes things are just popular because they hit familiar tropes and feel inevitable and cute.

[lemonhemlock]

What are snapewives?

alright anons BUCKLE UP this is going to be a bumpy ride

i received this ask yesterday & externalised it to one of my friends who is a little bit of a, let's say, MEME HISTORIAN. an internet dilettante. a dabbler. and this is what she so graciously conveyed to me for you all.

"http://web.archive.org/web/20130311072442/http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/1015949.html?thread=134116749#t134116749 ^okay this is honestly the best source if you want a quick and dirty nothing can explain it better than the post that started it all it loads slowly but it is the post I first saw :))) in fucking 2006 bc I've always been an asshole

there's also a journal article on this: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276042424_'Snapewives'and'Snapeism'_A_Fiction-Based_Religion_within_the_Harry_Potter_Fandom :))))

also, as someone who's occasionally dipped into pagan tumblr, the way they used to talk about snape is the way some of them talk about their gods :)))

Lady Darkness: understand, I can only write when I can concentrate on my love for him. Indeed he feels so very close then, like he's looking over your shoulder to see if you do it like he wants it to be.. Sometimes I don't write for weeks, and then suddenly I am a writing machine..endless and full of ideas. Putting on some music helps though..if you know what he likes. Ever tried classical? It works really well, I think he likes it, just like he likes the dark music (not too fast, a little vampire rock style ) I hope he'll be telling you to keep making pictures, they're awesome! Some are so good I feel so moved by them I have to see them, and yes..he feels so close then sigh

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Snapewives ^the fanlore page is easier to understand, but it doesn't have the impact of the original

ETA: On October 14, Lady Darkness and Snapemaniac reconciled. Said Snapemaniac, "I have returned to the Master's Dungeons. My loyalties lie with Severus. As of today, they're talking about how it'd feel to be "caught full force in that glare" of Snape's.

insane :))))

ETA 3: Snapemaniac is just as nuts. "Severus Snape intimidates JKRowling. This is why she wouldn't want to meet him. She is afraid of him."

the comments are also a riot, if you can have a look at some of them (the webarchive LJ link)

Severus is looking over his shoulder at me and he seems suspicious of my laughter- "TELL ME, CAN YOU READ?….MY NAME IS SEVERUS SNAPE, THEREFORE, DO NOT TAKE LIBERTIES WITH IT!"- SNARLED SNAPE The things I feel Severus won't tolerate: 1) Being dominated 2) Disrespect (do not call him just Snape, he hates that.) 3) Prying into his personal life/disregarding his privacy 4) Being told to give up his grudges [talking about Potter] 5) Disobedience to his commands/advice/wishes 6) Being ignored 7) Undermining his authority to anyone else 8) Silly behaviour/childish behaviour 9) Being harrassed/made fun of/laughed at/picked on He really hates this /He sees laughter as nonsense and doesn't waste his time with it./ 10) Wasting his time and efforts 11) Half-heartedness/weakness of any kind/being thought of as weak 12) Shortening of his name and adding 'cutesy' words to it [UGH!!] 13) Improper use of language and misspelling words/vulgarity-constantly 14) Laziness of any kind [All Capricorn No-Nos] Imagine Severus standing at your back with his nose pressed to your ear, growling in that deep voice. Oh Mercy!!

'

you just don't get drama like this anymore

https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/d4wwir/harry_potter_fandom_married_to_severus_snape_on/ ^this post is also a primer of sorts :))

i'm sorry I couldn't provide the full lowdown, but I think this is good bc it's mostly primary sources :)))) you can't beat that"

[zerolostwalks]

“I bought us reindeer onesies.” for Reggie/anyone because HE WOULD

Flynn dubiously eyed the misshapen yellow pile of grainy mush that was supposed to be scrambled eggs. They knew it was a gamble, they were just hoping with the time of year the kitchen staff might splurge on some real eggs instead of this dehydrated rehydrated powdered nonsense. Hansen had been so insistent that it’d happened before.

They pushed their breakfast tray across the table with a sigh and focused all their attention on the bitterly strong coffee. Rashad had definitely brewed it this morning then, fitting that old Navy stereotype. Which in turn meant, they wouldn’t be able to flirt a free cup out of them. 

Not unless they could get Reggie to do the flirting, seeing as he was more Rashad’s type. He probably would to. They wouldn’t even need to ask, simply pout at their cup before he offered.

A box landing on the table with a dull thud pulled Flynn’s attention to the very green eyed mischievous smirk they had just been thinking about. His coveralls had been tied off around his waist much like she had done with theirs. Partly for comfort, mostly for the little game the two of them liked to play around the base.

A game he was currently on the brink of getting a lead on if the subtle head turns were any indication. Thankfully, Reggie seemed too distracted cutting open the box to notice. 

Flynn downed their cup with a grimace in anticipation for whatever had gotten him so excited. 

“I’ve got a new challenge for us.” He chirped, as he straddled the bench beside them. He pulled the box to sit between his thighs away from any curious prying eyes. 

Flynn’s eyebrow rose to her hairline. The white board with the running tally back in the shop, and their constant posturing were the results of the last challenge either of them had issued. 

Without any further ceremony Reggie opened the box to reveal what looked to be a pile of tan fuzzy fabric. Which only led to more questions. 

Reggie leaned over the box, his forehead practically touching theirs. Their heart stuttered loudly, a warmth spreading across their chest. That had to be the caffeine hitting their system. . .right?

They didn’t have time to think about it, or about how flushed he looked-clearly a trick of the lighting. Soon enough he whispered conspiratorially, “I bought us reindeer onesies.”

“Reindeer, onesies?” Either Flynn was missing a vital part of his plan or Rashad had slipped something into the coffee this morning. 

Reggie giggled, nodding so energetically her own neck hurt. “I’m thinking we wear them instead of our usual coveralls. It should add some… intrigue,when flustering people.”

Flynn snorted at that, she knew he’d been finding their usual game a little too easy lately. The two of them had even called a truce a few times to see how badly they could fluster single targets over a single day. Until they flummoxed Julie so badly she nearly walked right off one of the taller catwalks.

However, Flynn wasn’t entirely sure how much difficulty would be added to them wearing reindeer onesies. Reggie had to be underestimating how adorable he-THEY both were. If anything it would be too easy wouldn’t it? 

As if he was reading her mind Reggie continued on, “I think the key would be for neither of us to acknowledge that we’re wearing them. No acting any different or cutesier.”

Oooh. Oh now they got it. 

Their own smile grew across their face, mirroring his. They picked up his hand and pulled him into a standing position. He briefly fumbled the box as they dragged him out of the dining hall and back towards the residence halls. His hand remained a warm solid presence in theirs. 

“All right, let’s do this thing.” Flynn crowed as the two of them practically bolted to get changed in time to start their shift.

[aeide-thea]

[mostly fairly oblique bookthoughts: cw for mention of antisemitic & racist pseudoarchaeological/conspiracy theories]

hm. done with atfots. much enjoyment, some dubiousness, many thoughts.

contemplating (not even critically, just, like, thoughtfully) what constitutes a sufficient & satisfactory Plot. cf le guin on conflict, probably.

also contemplating like. tension between (1) interpersonal visions i'm glad & grateful for in a world-expanding sort of way, & (2) the way in which those visions' non-normativity does pretty directly make them not the key to the lock of my in-certain-ways-very-normative heart. (which is fine! not everything has to be for me! but to some extent my reading practice is for me, so, you know. just like. thinking thru my relationship to that aspect of the text.)

also really not sure what to do with the minor-but-recurring 'ancient telepathic underground dinosaur people' joke. like i'm not actually sufficiently up on my david icke to be sure how much it does or doesn't map onto that nastiness, and honestly i suspect it's maybe closer to von däniken in certain ways, but like. why are we splashing around in the shallows of insidious conspiracy theory land and framing it as just a funny joke it's fun to keep referencing. not real thrilled abt that aspect of the book & wondering what if any discussion there's been of it.

[…fwiw, did go back after i wrote that last graf and poke at the various mentions of the above theme in the text and like. arguably the joke is meant to be that this belief is a delusion based on certain historical truths that got lost/twisted, thus underscoring that it's Obviously Nonsense, but. idk. feels a bit to me like the book's other various coy references to ~historical~ homophobia/transphobia/binarism—like, what are you doing being cutesy about this. why are we going there at all. will we be getting anything out of this that's worth having our bruises poked like this. personally i can't say i did.]

[fablethevoid]

Unfortunately I don't think this is going the same way as nfts. The nfts thing was a new, made up scheme to basically get money for nothing. It was a pyramid scheme for techbros, an extension of crypto with no useful function. On the other hand, "ai" generation actually creates a useful output. An nft is just a weird digital tag with someone's name on it vaguely tied to some art, it's not real there's nothing there. But art, even bad art, is worth something. You can get clicks and views from your shit "ai" generated news or tutorial articles. Your projects for articles and books and games and advertisements all need some kind of art and paying someone for that is always more expensive than getting a computer to spit one out for free. These companies will donate to keep ai running as long as they can so long as it allows them to cut costs on paying artists. There's also the problem of computer generated videos and voices allowing for fake statements from people to be created, which could cause obvious problems in a world where social media can determine whether people get to have a life or not, which is also surely something the world's governments (especially the united states) will want to invest in and make use of.

Unfortunately for all of us, "ai" is probably here to stay for a while and honestly getting rid of it brings it's own problems with expanding copyright. It's essentially a lose-lose, we either expand copyright to disallow free use of other's work which sucks or we have artists phased out by "ai" which sucks. We can basically only defeat it by refusing to engage with anything made with it or designed to expand it and therefore making it unprofitable and mostly easy to spot. And we already have accepted it for cutesy nonsense like snapchat filters and online videos using it for fun. I'd love to be wrong but sadly I think "ai" is here to stay

Hey, do y’all remember how Tencent said they were developing faceID AI to identify people in riots, and then they suddenly created an AI art generator to turn your selfies into anime?

Do y’all remember that time that someone discovered facial recognition cameras couldn't see through Juggalo makeup, then Facebook had a fun “see what you'd look like with Juggalo makeup” thing, and then facial recognition cameras could suddenly see through Juggalo makeup?

Do y’all remember how, on Twitter, Elon started a tirade against artists who ask for credit when their art is reposted, and he suddenly he created one of the first big art AI programs?

Do y’all remember how AI destroyed the field of freelance translation, despite the inferiority of the machine translations, because companies didn’t care about the quality of the translations? They just wanted it done for free?

Do y’all know how companies will see a lot of money going into a New Tech Thing (like, say, AI art apps) and will jump to try and implement that New Tech Thing into their tech? For example, how it felt like every big company and celebrity had an NFT to sell?

Just wondering.

[je-suis-problematique]

Chris' subsystem, otherwise known as the Chris Collective (CC)

Chris has a subsystem of his own which we dubbed the Chris Collective or just CC for short because Discord has a character limit for their usernames, haha. Anyway, in THEIR headspace/inner world Wesker successfully infected the whole planet with Uroboros and is ruling over the ruined remains with an iron hand, or at least that's what it was like before Chris went into therapy. He has a bunch of alters so I'll do my best to categorize them based on their roles and such. The main group opposing Wesker's rule is called the Staya (their name is derived from the Russian Volchya Staya which means wolf pack).

The Staya

Volk — The current standing leader of the Staya. He is a mixture of our Daud and our partner system's Daud in personality and work ethic though he leans more towards our Daud when it comes to his way of thinking and how he behaves. He is a strict no-nonsense guy who can be brutal if the situation calls for it but he is mostly just a tired, middle-aged human man who is doing his best to keep his people safe in a hostile environment.

Prizrak — Prizrak means "ghost" in Russian (the same way that Volk means "wolf") and he definitely acts the part. He is Volk's right hand in all things Staya-related and he is also his romantic partner. Not much is known about Prizrak, not even his real name, and whenever Volk is absent or otherwise unable to lead it's Prizrak who takes charge of the Staya. His specialty is reconnaissance.

Foxglove — The Staya's doctor. He used to be an Umbrella scientist who defected and decided that working for Wesker just doesn't align with his own moral code, believing that Wesker was taking things too far. He has a love-hate relationship with Solomon and everyone else believes they should date. A cat person. Prefers a cup of tea and a good book over the usual chaotic shenanigans everyone else is up to on an hourly basis.

Archer — Foxglove's son and also a doctor. Overall a friendly and open-minded person to be around and ever the optimist, believing in the good in people. Can be considered to be Foxglove's apprentice when the two aren't working separately.

Nīna — Archer's assistant/nurse. She's the youngest in the Staya and gets treated like everyone's little sister. She is quiet and withdrawn, only really feeling comfortable speaking directly to Archer and she's extremely obedient too, making her easy to work with. Some speculate that she has a sadistic and murderous side beneath the cutesy exterior that she puts on for others.

Sawyer — He used to work for Wesker but then defected and joined the Staya instead. He's mouthy, opinionated, and generally hard to control since he butts heads with Volk and Prizrak on a regular basis. He's only interested in following orders if he stands to gain something from it as well and is considered a loose cannon, even more so than Kyzer. A troublemaker through and through.

Esmeralda — A bundle of trauma that joined the Staya mostly just to ensure her own safety. She behaves much like a cornered animal and the only person she kind of gets along with is Sawyer (whom she's dating) because they match each other's freak. Has a problem with authority and won't shy away from spitting directly in Volk's face if she feels like she's being disrespected. Can and will cause problems on purpose if she happens to be in the mood for it.

Solomon — He's just a tired old dad who's been tasked with keeping both Esmeralda and Sawyer in line. He's the Staya's houndmaster so he's got a small pack of dogs to look after but the one that's always by his side is his huge mastiff Zeus. Like I said earlier, EVERYONE wants him and Foxglove to date. The sexual tension is unreal.

Kyzer — Kyzer used to be Wesker's favorite plaything until Volk and the rest of the Staya broke him out. Kyzer still retains most of Wesker's programming so he is EXTREMELY unstable and the tiniest spark could light a roaring flame that will be near impossible to contain, let alone put out. Foxglove and Archer are in charge of his deprogramming though the one holding Kyzer's leash officially is Volk. Kyzer is also a shapeshifting wolf, he isn't human.

Wesker's Bitches Squad

Albert Wesker — The one and only. In this scenario the Uroboros plan was a success and the whole world is in ruins. Wesker is the #1 Persecutor in Chris' subsystem and he has an insane amount of influence and control over what happens in their inner world. He's gross and abusive in all sorts of ways and anyone who opposes him deserves death or better yet – brutal, merciless torture. The Staya struggle against him even though he's just one man but he does have his little lieutenants too just to make things more difficult for everyone else.

Antoine — This guy's Chris' equivalent to Jhin in the sense that he's an artsy serial killer who believes that his murders are art. He's fancy and high-end and the only reason he even supports Wesker to begin with is because he wants access to all of Wesker's resources and influence. Basically he just wants to be on the winning side, he doesn't actually care about Wesker's plan for world domination or whatever. Truth be told he finds Wesker gross and annoying and thinks he lacks vision.

Jack Krauser — Krauser was forced to serve Wesker against his will and following Kyzer's escape and Sawyer's defection, Krauser became Wesker's favorite stress ball. Krauser gets beat up for no reason, r*ped, tortured, and other such stuff simply because he's there and Wesker just so happens to be in the mood to take out his frustration and boredom on Krauser. Krauser and Sawyer used to be close friends so now Sawyer serves as Krausers contact from within the Staya without Wesker knowing (he knows). Krauser is also dating Willow in secret (it's not a secret).

Jett — Willow's twin brother who chose to ally himself with Wesker because he genuinely agrees with Wesker's worldviews and wants to see the world burn. Jett is an angel with black wings (so my best guess is that he's corrupted) and he does a lot of field work for Wesker when he isn't busy sucking Wesker's dick. Jett's alliance with Wesker only deepened the rift between him and his sister over time.

Lyric — Lyric is 100% delulu by thinking that Wesker actually loves him because Wesker gives him preferential treatment and actually treats him like a partner of sorts when in reality he's just using Lyric as a replacement for Kyzer, who was Wesker's ACTUAL favorite. Lyric will do anything for Wesker without second thought and I suppose you could even say he's the second most unstable person in this entire subsystem following Kyzer. Whoever gave this man a gun didn't think twice before doing it.

Miscellaneous

Abigail — I sadly can't say much about Abigail because I don't know shit about her, sorry.

Jasper — Just some guy who's been caught up in all this mess with 0 survival skills. Sticks to Arsenio's camp and is used mostly as comic relief.

Arsenio — Based on Swain, Arsenio is a mage who is in charge of keeping the (system) refugees safe from Wesker's bullshit. Not much can be said about him other than the fact that he's extremely powerful but chooses to maintain a neutral stance and doesn't take an active part in the fight against Wesker.

Avalon — Like with Abigail we don't know much about Avalon sadly. She might be working with Arsenio in a joint effort to keep the peace (to the best of their ability) since she's a Gatekeeper alter and Arsenio's a System Overseer.

Blue — Arsenio's daughter. She acts much like an Overseer's assistant but Arsenio keeps a close eye on her and doesn't let her get TOO involved in system business because he wants to keep her all safe and pure.

Cade — Cade completely isolated himself from the rest of the system and lives a wanderer's life in the ruins/wilderness. He takes care of Leo and doesn't like interacting with anybody else. He's a survivalist who prefers to work alone and doesn't want to get involved in the whole Staya VS. Wesker conflict, preferring to lead his own life and live by his own rules.

Cosmo — Cosmo – alongside Fenrir – answers to Arsenio but otherwise lives separately from the refugee camp and prefers to use Fenrir (who is her slave/partner) for protection and things like scavenging for supplies. She lives a rather comfortable life in her hideout and if memory serves she is also a witch so she can hold her own if the situation calls for it, she just prefers to rely on Fenrir instead.

Fenrir — Cosmo's pet, bodyguard, and provider, as well as romantic partner. He's an Avenger by role so he's fairly adept at helping Chris stand his ground and even lash out in certain situations. He's a wolf and generally depicted with a muzzle because he's a wild card and tends to bite before asking questions (could be why Chris started using offense as his defense lately). As mentioned before he answers to Arsenio but Arsenio's orders are a mere suggestion to him and he usually just does what he wants unless Cosmo chastises him.

Leo — Cade's ward. Not much is known about Leo other than that he's a small child and depends on Cade for everything.

Nyx — Nyx is a spirit of some kind and she's bound to Thresh, being his ward and romantic partner. She's an Internal Manager by role so she's aware of all system happenings but she remains distant from the Staya-Wesker conflict for one reason or another, mostly just watching from the sidelines to see how things play out. She is supposedly the ghost of a powerful witch who didn't move on to the afterlife for one reason or another, possibly being kept in limbo by Thresh.

Ravi — A simple man who takes refuge in Arsenio's camp. He is a Caretaker by role and tends to front whenever Chris needs a little pick-me-up to keep going or to diffuse a high-stress situation. He is good friends with Jasper and he is too scared to venture out into the ruins/wilderness out of fear of being mangled by the Uroboros'd creatures that roam the area outside of Arsenio's camp.

Rune — A System Overseer who oozes Void magic but has sadly been corrupted by the deterioration of Chris' inner world and the Void becoming unstable and volatile. She is brimming with raw magic but her mind is so far gone that she can't distinguish friend from foe and is in a desperate need for rehabilitation before she can properly resume her duties as Overseer.

Thresh — Nyx's guardian and romantic partner. He thrives in the wasteland created by Wesker, reveling in all the suffering and collecting all the lost souls left behind by the mutated creatures he fells. Not a completely neutral entity but not a completely malevolent one either, he just makes the best out of a bad situation. Based on our ex partner system's Thresh.

Willow — Based on Emiya Kiritsugu, she's a mercenary/hired gun who makes a living from taking up contracts around the different survivor refugee camps. She is Jett's twin sister and Krauser's romantic partner.

Xander — Xander is similar to Willow in the sense that he too works as a mercenary but not much else is known about him besides that. He is based on Jetstream Sam.

Things have changed DRASTICALLY since Chris' subsystem was first introduced to us. For example, Thresh and Nyx took Rune under their wing and they have been working hard to rehabilitate her and restore her mind enough for her to reassume her role as System Overseer. Krauser has been in active contact with Sawyer and through him the rest of the Staya (namely Volk and Prizrak) in an attempt to coordinate an attack on Wesker's stronghold to dethrone Wesker or at the very least subdue and contain him. Antoine is on the cusp of switching sides from serving Wesker to serving the Staya instead. Arsenio's group have been becoming more and more involved in the Staya-Wesker conflict. Xander, Willow, and even Cade were recruited into the fighting effort. Avalon has been working on cleansing some areas of the inner world to be served as a rehabilitation center.

The biggest issues aren't even Wesker himself but rather Jett and Lyric who have been disrupting the others' attempts at creating a less hostile environment for everyone else and also challenging Wesker's reign and they've been the main oppositional force to the Staya and their helpers.

Chris, whenever he's inside his own inner world, has been doing his best to help the Staya though Volk thinks he should be kept out of the conflict because Wesker has too much of an influence on him. Whether or not Chris will take an active part in the dethroning attempts remains to be seen.