#neither one was given a choice thanks to you - the player

[brodygold]

The Decision Part 2

Part 1 here

Liam sat on the edge of the empty soccer field, the sun dipping low in the sky, casting long shadows over the grass. The events of the day played over and over in his mind—the confrontation with Kareem, the cold dismissal, the shunning from the Vanguard. He had given everything to that team, and in a moment, it was all gone.

He thought about the white and green jersey he had worn only yesterday. It no longer represented pride or honor. Now, it was just a painful reminder of what he had lost. With a heavy sigh, Liam put his shoulders on his knees, thinking about the team that had abandoned him.

The sound of footsteps behind him broke through his thoughts. Liam turned to see a familiar face—Brody, the rising star of the Golden Army, walking toward him with a calm, steady stride.

“Liam,” Brody called out, his voice warm, carrying none of the judgment or pity Liam had expected. “Mind if I join you?”

Liam shrugged, too tired to put up a front. “Sure. Not like I’ve got anywhere else to be.”

Brody stopped beside him, looking out over the field. For a moment, neither of them spoke, just standing in silence, watching the last rays of sunlight fade.

“I heard what happened,” Brody said finally. “It’s rough, man. Really rough. But I wanted to tell you that you don’t have to be alone.”

Liam scoffed softly, not turning to meet Brody’s gaze. “Don’t have much of a choice, do I? The Vanguard made sure of that.”

Brody shook his head. “That’s not true. You’ve still got options. We’ve been talking, and the Golden Army—we want you to join us.”

Liam blinked, finally turning to look at Brody, surprise evident in his eyes. “What? Why would you want me? I just got kicked out of the Vanguard like yesterday’s trash.”

Brody smiled slightly. “Everyone makes mistakes, Liam. What matters is how you move forward. You’re a good player—one of the best. And more than that, you deserve a team that has your back, not just when you’re winning, but when things get tough too.”

Liam hesitated, the offer both tempting and terrifying. “You really think I’d fit in with the Golden Army? After everything?”

“Absolutely,” Brody said, without missing a beat. “We’re about more than just rules and discipline. We’re about supporting each other, growing together. And yeah, we push each other to be better, but we don’t abandon our own.”

Liam felt something stir inside him, a flicker of hope he hadn’t felt since he was cast out of the Vanguard. But with it came a fear of the unknown. He had spent so long adhering to the Vanguard’s rigid structure—could he really start over with a new team?

Brody seemed to sense his hesitation. “Look, I know it’s a big change. But I think it’s exactly what you need right now. A fresh start, a new beginning with people who won’t judge you for one mistake. Give it a chance. If you don’t feel like it’s right for you, no hard feelings. But at least try.”

Liam looked back at the field, the place where he had once felt at home, now a source of pain. Slowly, he nodded. “Okay. I’ll give it a shot.”

Brody’s smile widened, and he reached out, placing a hand on Liam’s shoulder. “Welcome to the Golden Army, then.”

Liam couldn’t help but smile back, a small, tentative smile, but genuine. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“There’s one more thing,” Brody added, reaching into his bag and pulling out a golden jersey. He handed it to Liam, who took it with a sense of reverence. “When you join the Golden Army, you get a new name. A fresh start, like I said.”

Liam looked at the jersey, then back at Brody. “What’s the name?”

Brody’s eyes held a spark of excitement as he answered, “Griffin. It’s a symbol of strength, courage, and loyalty. Qualities we see in you, Liam. From now on, when you’re with us, you’ll be Griffin.”

Griffin. The name resonated with him, filling the empty space that had been growing inside since his departure from the Vanguard. It was more than just a new name; it was a promise of a new beginning, a chance to be part of something greater than himself.

Griffin felt a weight lift from his shoulders as he pulled on the golden jersey. It fit perfectly, like it was meant for him. The uniform changed him slightly too. His hair lightened to a light brown. His pecs grew out slightly with more muscle and his facial hair fell away, revealing a clean shaven face.

He also started looking at Brody in a new light. Before, he was into women, but looking at Brody's plush lips sure made him want to try guys for the first time. Griffin found he didn't mind the feeling at all either.

As they walked off the field together, Brody and Griffin talked about the upcoming season, strategies, the team’s dynamic, and their own dynamic now too. The more they talked, the more Griffin realized that he was no longer just a player who had lost his way. He was now part of something bigger, something that valued him not just for his skills on the field, but for who he was off it. And he had a new boyfriend to thank for everything.

The Vanguard had been his past, but the Golden Army was his future. And with his new name, Griffin knew that the future was bright.

[mamaestapa]

I’m gonna need to see Dad Joe with two little ones that he has to take to training camp because Mom has something come up.

Daddy Daughter Day|| Joe Burrow x reader

•pairing: Joe Burrow x reader

•summary: Joe has to take his young daughters to training camp with him for the day after you have something come up

•warnings: none, all fluff :)

"Come on Josie girl." Joe spoke sweetly to his three year old daughter as he brought her out to the practice field with him. His other daughter, 6 month old Hazel, was being held in his arms as the three of them walked out to the practice field.

It never crossed Joe's mind that he'd have both of his daughters at camp with him today, but here he was. You had something come up today where you couldn't bring the girls with you. Your sister is expecting her first baby. She has an OB appointment today but her car is in the shop, and her husband is out of town, so you offered to take her to her appointment. Which means, Joe is stuck bringing the girls with him to training camp today.

The coaches didn't really get a choice if he brought his kids with him or not (and neither did Joe, really). But none of them had a problem with the Burrow girls attending practice with Joe for a day. Joe made the decision to not participate today so that he could focus on his daughters. The three of them walked over to the sidelines, Josie making sure to say hello to everyone that she saw as Hazel flashed gummy smiles at all of the players. Joe grinned at his daughters as they interacted with his teammates. Every one seemed to be in a great mood today, the Burrow girls being in attendance definitely helped with boosting their moods.

As they reached the sidelines, Joe laid the pink blanket on the ground that you had given him to take with him. Once the blanket was spread out as far as it would go, Joe sat down on the ground with Josie and Hazel. Josie watched the field in awe as her Uncle Tee and Uncle Ja'Marr were running drills. Joe gently held onto the sides of Hazels tummy as he stood her up on his thighs, letting the infant bounce around on her toes a bit. The three of them watched the players practice for about a half hour before Josie wanted a snack.

"Daddy," the little girl said, pushing out her bottom lip as she reached out to rub Joe's scarred knee, "My tummy's hungry."

"Your tummy's hungry? That's not good, do you want a snack?" Joe asked in a tone he only used around kids. The little girl nodded. He reached for the diaper bag that was full of snacks, bottles, diapers, and wipes. He put the bag down in front of Josie and opened it, pulling out the variety of snacks you packed for the girls and Joe.

"It looks like we've got goldfish, animal crackers, some puffs, protein bars, but those are for daddy." Joe said, taking a cookies and cream protein bar out of the bag and putting it to the side. "What sounds good sweetie?"

"Mmm," Josie said, bringing her finger up to her mouth, thinking about what snack she wanted. "Goldfish."

"Good choice." Joe said, grabbing a pack of goldfish from the bag and opening it before handing it to his daughter. Josie thanked her dad in a sweet tone before she started eating her snack. As Josie munched away at her goldfish, Hazel started to grow restless in Joe's hands. Her little feet kicked wildly as she started to cry. Joe frowned and took Hazel off of his thighs, situating her so that he was now cradling her in the crook of his arm.

"Is your tummy hungry too, Hazel, huh?" he cooed sweetly at the baby as he pulled out a bottle of milk from the diaper bag. He brought the nipple of the bottle to his daughters lips, making her cries stop instantly as he happily drank her milk. "There," Joe sighed, smiling down at the infant in his arms, "All better."

As his daughters ate, Joe watched his teammates practice. Part of him wished he could be out on the field with them right now, but he was enjoying every second of being on the sidelines with his daughters instead.

Soon enough, the day was over. The rest of practice went by quicker than Joe thought it would. As players started to exit the field, Ja'Marr, Tee, and Sam all came over to the sidelines to see the Burrow girls before they left the practice field.

"Uncle 'Marr!" Josie squealed as she saw Ja'Marr walking up to them. The three year old took off running. Once she was close enough, she jumped into Ja'Marr's arms, giggling happily as he held onto her.

"You're gettin' so big Josie girl," Ja'Marr said looking at his "niece". He smiled as he looked at the baby girl in Joe's arms, "So is your sissy."

"She's growing like a weed." Joe said with a smile as he kissed Hazels chubby cheek, making the infant flash her gummy smile at her uncles. The guys broke out into a chorus of "awe's" at the babys smile. Sam reached out for Hazel, which Joe happily handed her over to his best friend. The baby girl looked so small in Sam's arms, it was actually quite sweet.

Joe, Sam, Ja'Marr, and Tee all stayed after practice for a bit. All of them taking turns driving Josie around on the cart that was next to them on the sidelines. Josie giggled happily beside in Tee's lap as Joe drove around the field, the wide grin never leaving his face as he listened to the sound of his daughters laughter.

Despite today being unplanned, Joe had the best time with his daughters. The only thing that could possibly make it any better would be having you there, that way Joe could have all of his girls at practice with him.

hi loves!!

here’s another blurb. i’ve got three or four more written ones to post still, but i’m still writing more! lots of blurbs tonight lol

it’s a little on the short side, but i thought this idea was cute. plus, i love writing joe with daughters. joe would be the best girl dad!🥹🩷

i’ve got some more cute ones coming soon, and an angsty one…but i promise it’ll end fluffy ;)

tags: @erinmartin1987 @klips118 @burrowstyles5 @caroline1019

[murkycran]

Staticmoth/Voxval Fic Rec List

Welcome to my Staticmoth/Voxval Fic Rec List! :D

I will keep updating this periodically as I read more fics, so feel free to check back every once and a while! I'll reblog it when I update it, plus make a note with the date at the top. Trust me, this is by no means a complete list; there's fics I still want to add to this that I just haven't gotten to yet. I just decided to go ahead and post it anyways, because if I kept waiting until I ran out of fics to rec I'd probably be working on this forever.

These are not in any particular order; I'm going by both my Bookmarks list on AO3 and my memory of fics I forgot to bookmark. I also tried to make notes on what fics were written before season 1 released, but I might have missed some, so keep that in mind.

Please let me know if any links don't work!

✨Before you proceed:✨ read the tags on these fics if you decide to read them. Many of them have heavy material - no surprise given the fandom, but still, felt like this needed said. On that note, there's also fics with explicit material and some fics are straight up PWP. Again, read at your own risk/heed the tags.

Fic Rec List Masterpost

Radiostatic Fic Rec List

Misc. Vox Fic Rec List

------

Freak-A-Zoid by Femalefonzie

Summary: A shortage of suppressants in Hell means that Vox is going to be enduring a heat for the first time in years. Who better than the Vees' resident pimp to help him through it? Afterall, the last thing they need is for someone to complicate the situation with "feelings" and Val was the best at keeping love and lust separate. Until now.

TLDR; Valentino plays himself.

Notes: SO FUCKING FUNNY. Cannot read this in public bc I laughed too much. Val and Vox are both idiots. Perhaps the most human depiction of them that I've seen, especially during sex. Neither of them are suave or coordinated, but by god are they trying.

system takeover by Subedarling

Summary: Velvette has never been the type to play hero. But when a mysterious new player enacts a dangerous plot to usurp the Vees' power, taking her two idiots hostage in the process, that's exactly where she finds herself. Now she has no choice but to go on an impromptu rescue mission, maintain the facade that everything is fine to the outside world, and prove why she's the backbone of the Vees—and she hasn't even had her morning coffee yet.

Vox and Val are going to owe her so hard after this.

Notes: Technically Velvette-centric but I'm including it anyway bc it does have Staticmoth; found family. She's so badass in this, I love it. The Staticmoth is very sweet. :3

even if i quit there's not a chance in hell i'd stop by Subedarling

Summary: Valentino stretches his arms over his head as he enters the kitchen, yawning. His robe is hanging loosely around him, and God, if Vox were to run his hand down his chest he could probably count all his ribs. He stops short when he sees the plates waiting for him on the counter. His eyes narrow. “The hell is this?”

“You know, most people would say thank you when their partner makes them breakfast,” Vox says dryly.

Notes: Very tender. A good kind of hurt. Deals with ED.

Parvulus by Heliosolar

Summary: Vox woke up to something... unusual. Terrifying, even. He calls Valentino, desperate for the help.

Valentino is, of course, irresponsible, and Vox is exhausted.

He just wanted to get through the day like normal, why did this have to happen?

Notes: Written before season 1. The art of Tiny Vox is not linked, but I've seen it before and it is SO CUTE. If anyone has a link, please share with me so I can link it here!

A Wager of Desire by Heliosolar

Summary: Valentino and Vox have a small dispute over something meaningless, so they make a bet.

Vox has to last an entire dinner while at Valentino's mercy.

What could go wrong?

Notes: Written before season 1 release. One of the first Staticmoth fics I read. :)

Venenum by Heliosolar

Summary: During an uneventful meeting, Vox makes the mistake of stealing a drink from Valentino.

Notes: Written before season 1 release.

Getting Railed (By Child Support) by Charnel_Goat, spappest

Summary: The female of several species can store sperm for many years prior to using it to fertilize her eggs. As it turns out, spider trains do this too.

Decades after their romantic fallout, Overlord Choo Choo Charles is knocking on Val's door to demand he take responsibility for the results. By way of kidnapping his boyfriend to lure him to his den.

Notes: One of the crackiest fics I've ever read. Vox is an idiot with a horrible sense of self-preservation and Val fucks a spider train without birth control. Just...read it, okay? I literally cannot think about this fic without giggling like an idiot every time.

Beautiful Monster by IceBlueButterfly

Summary: “You’re late,” is the first thing that comes out of Vox’s mouth.

That sharp smile somehow grows wider.

“I believe the term is ‘fashionably late’ baby,” a smooth voice with a light Spanish accent replies.

Which… okay if Vox is being honest, is kind of hot.

Screen heating up a little more, Vox shoots a bored look.

“Or just late,” he snips back. “Oh well,” he claps his hands. “Doesn’t matter, you ready to get down to business?”

“Oh baby,” a bright gleam in even brighter eyes, “I’m always ready to get down.”

Vox is already regretting this decision.

OR Moments in time throughout Vox and Val's relationship. Vox may have no idea what the moth demon will bring to his life, but neither does Val.

Notes: A very nice exploration of how Vox and Valentino's relationship evolves.

Only a Shadow by passthevoxcord

Summary: Vox shows up on the hotel’s doorstep with no memory of how he got there or who he is. They agree to house and heal him, and slowly but surely he finds joy in becoming better. Then Valentino shows up and is forced to choose between self-altering addiction and the closest he’s ever come to love.

Meanwhile, Velvette has a new potion brewing, one that will grant her more power than the Vees ever had. Only Vox and Val can stop her, but will goodness really overcome evil? Or will they be only a shadow of their former selves?

Notes: The Voxval is currently toxic and only just now being touched on in Chapter 9 of the fic; I say 'currently' because the author explains in the AN of the first chapter that both Vox and Val will go through some "self-discovery and healing". Seriously, just read it. It's very good!!

You Found Me by passthevoxcord

Summary: Long before Velvette came along, it was just them. Vox and Valentino. Valentino and Vox.

Notes: Includes some interesting headcanons for Vox and Val.

Virtual Reality by passthevoxcord

Summary: Vox gets tired of his cybernetic biology being a barrier to his sex life, so he starts a new project to fuck Valentino in VR. Val will try anything once, but he has something else in mind.

Notes: Surprisingly sweet. ^_^

Muted by passthevoxcord

Summary: Val helps a nonverbal Vox deal with sensory overload.

Notes: Sweet and tender. :)

Freaky Friday by passthevoxcord

Summary: Vox and Val wake up stuck in the other’s body, but it’s no big deal because they both know how easy the other has it. Right?

Notes: Written before season 1 release. Sweet take on the different challenges Vox and Val face in their daily lives.

Something Akin To Love Series by Awesome_Possum

Summary: Vox's taste in partners is delightfully self-destructive and that's an itch Valentino is more than happy to scratch.

It's not safe or sane, and whether or not it's technically consensual is heavily up to interpretation, but what they have is probably something akin to love.

A collection of StaticMoth fics set in generally the same continuity.

Valentino is awful and Vox is unfortunately really really into that because a control freak in the streets is a masochist in the sheets.

Notes: Has 2 parts, both very much worth reading. Very funny, lol. Vox is in a hell of his own making but enjoying it at the same time.

Update Prescription by innerfray

Summary: Vox tricks Valentino into getting his eyes checked. They're forced to confront the nature of their partnership.

Notes: One of my favorite Staticmoth oneshots. Felt like an interesting take on Val's blindness. Angst so good...

Like Moth to a Flame (Or to a Bright Blue Screen) by datweirdo

Summary: Valentino is a moth after all

Notes: Cute and funny!!! "You fucking murdered him" lmao

30 Decibels by Shortsighted_Owl

Summary: Somewhere, under the low humming of the monitors, the quiet gurgling of replacement coolant being piped into Vox body, a new noise - dry, yet somehow viscerally wet, and so very soft - made itself known, but only just.

And Valentino almost missed it. - After a fight with Alastor, Valentino watches vigil over Vox’s broken form.

(What if Vox still has organic vocal cords, and after a fight with Alastor, the synthesiser he uses to amplify his voice is destroyed. What if Valentino hears Vox’s real voice for the first time?)

Notes: Heed the tags, there is in fact body horror lol. Sweet but mildly horrific. <3

Priest, mailman, cruise captain or chef? by Destabilize

Summary: Inspired by Vox's outfits in Stayed Gone - Val and Vox try out some kinky stuff with a priest outfit, to mixed success.

Ah ha!” Val squealed with delight, wine glass drained and thrown on a sofa, “This!” Val was standing proudly by the wardrobe holding up a long red robe with a hat and some kind of sash. Vox scowled, “Is that a fucking priest outfit?”

“Si! Isn’t it fun- it’s in your colors too!”

“You wanna be a priest?”

“No baby! You be a priest and I can,” Val sidled up and leaned down, puffing some smoke in Vox’s face, snaking an arm around his waist, “lead you astray...”

Notes: Surprisingly cute and funny! Vox fails epically at roleplay and it is hilarious.

riding out the drop by spoondrifts

Summary: Like he’d said before, killing Alastor was Vox’s kink, not his. He had been prepared to sit back and enjoy the temporary chaos until Vox got over himself.

What he hadn’t accounted for was the possibility that Vox was exactly as obsessive, bitter, and desperate for Alastor’s acknowledgement now as he had been seven years ago. Distance hadn’t made the heart grow fonder: distance had made a highly detailed revenge scrapbook complete with a conspiracy corkboard done up in red string.

Or: Valentino gets fed up with Vox's fixation on the radio demon. They fuck about it.

Notes: Features (sex favorable) asexual!Vox! :D (I lowkey headcanon him as ace ever since the "better than sex" comment)

Featherstone by spoondrifts

Summary: “To me,” Vox told the baby, “it seems like bad parenting to leave your helpless kid for a whole month with two unstable psychopaths and their parole officer. But hey. Who am I to judge.”

No intelligent reply was forthcoming.

Or: not-so accidental baby acquisition, starring the three least responsible idiots this side of the Pentagram.

Notes: Big Vees as family vibes. Wish so desperately this was canon.

vark attack by tarltonnnnn

Summary: Valentino has to petsit Vark for a day. Chaos ensues.

Notes: Written before season 1 release. Vark is a big dumb (and very cute) baby.

Unplugged by pinkpunchy

Summary: Vox looks like he’s going to vomit. Valentino frowns.

“For the one who suggested this, you’re being a real pussy.”

“Fuck you! Just give me a sec.” Vox spits out, muttering darkly as he adjusts his shoulders on the pillows, trying to arrange his body for the moment he loses all function. Valentino, despite his impulsive nature, waits patiently. His manicured nails drag along the spot where cable and port connect, thumb smoothing up and down the flat surface surrounding it. Vox’s breath is coming faster now, not slower, something Valentino is tuned into as naturally as his own breathing.

“Hey.”

A large hand grasps a corner of Vox’s screen, tilting it up and putting an immediate stop to his fidgeting. Valentino smiles, red eyes narrowed to slits.

“Do you trust me?”

Notes: Sex as a...trust exercise? Lol I'm joking, but seriously. Sweet and hot at the same time.

Electric Desires: Lust, Power, and Unspoken Longings in Hell by Dani69696969

Summary: Vox is starting to get fed up with Angel Dust being the only thing Val talks about when Vox is right there, ripe for the taking. Inspired by Vox looking happy that Angel might have quit in Episode 2.

Notes: Very sweet. Plot with porn. :)

The Art of Pimping by MarenRose

Summary: Desperate to close a deal with one of the most lucrative investors in Pride, Vox does the unthinkable and pimps out Valentino for a one-time date. What could go wrong?

Notes: Vox's jealousy and possessiveness really brings out his stalker side in this lmao. Vox is a little pathetic and that makes his jealousy all the more funny to me. :D

Welcome to VoxTek Enterprises! by MarenRose

Summary: Subsequently, Valentino, of all people, has become the office’s saving grace.

(A series of VoxVal ficlets through the eyes of Vox’s assistant)

Notes: Pretty funny! Vox's assistants are really going through it. One of the tags is "Imagine being happy to see Valentino" lol.

(Fic rec list to be continued)

[new-tella-us]

Up next Matthew! (22) 

If every child is made for a reason, Matthew was made for magic. He is a perfect breed of brute and succubus. The best of both worlds. However, he was born...different. He neither had the strength nor the height that reflected his brute origins and, for a while, it seemed that he didn’t have much magic either. He was the runt of the nobles. This caused the Demon Lord to lose all interest in Matthew quite quickly. Aezera was both offended and pleased. She knew better as she went through this same “runt phase” when she was young, but the speed in which the Demon Lord abandoned Matthew left him at the sole mercy of his mother.  

Matthew would learn everything James learnt under his mother’s control. The pros were that Aezera was a loving mother that encouraged Matthew to hone his talents, even the “useless” ones like making toys. He was also given more free time for roaming the castle to figure out what made him happy in life. He would become more well-rounded than his brothers overall. 

The con was that Aezera is highly possessive and controlling. While Matthew was given more free time, that doesn’t mean he was given more freedom. He had to wear certain things, eat at certain times, his training was just as rigorous as James or even more since he often worked harder for more free time, and it was hard to do anything without his mother knowing. Privacy was a luxury he never had.  

Also, she was heavily jealous of all the brothers, especially Damien. How dare they take up her son’s precious time that he could be spending with her or training? And why does her son see that whore’s child as an equal? He’s what wrong with this family. Matthew tries to not acknowledge that...uglier side to his mother. 

When he got the chance to go to the human world, he wasn’t trying to hurt his mom. In fact, he left so many toys for her before he left. But he needed some freedom, he needed to be off the leash, and if he was to be honest with himself, he needed to feel grown. Grownups don’t have to hold their mother’s hand for every decision, but she would accept no less so, he needed to leave. 

Meeting Mika was the first time he really got to speak to someone unrelated to him in a casual setting. Their meeting was of course awkward, him bleeding all over her house before giving her a murderous doll and all but she seemed chill and fun. She matched his energy perfectly. Their playful energy bounced off each other at rapidly increasing speeds, he was finally able to just have fun with someone. No formalities or expectations. 

He loves Mika’s fun personality, but he knew that was only the surface of her and there was possibly something darker underneath. The “Pre-kiss turning point” happens while they are out at an arcade, Mika seems off. From the player’s perspective, the world seems a bit duller as the day of the homecoming party slowly arrived. This is Mika’s mild depression kicking in and it happens in every route, some boys notice, others don’t. Matthew does and asks if she’s okay.  

You can either choose to say, “I don’t know” or “I’m fine”. For Matthew, answering honestly is the correct choice. 

Mika mentions that this happens sometimes, and the world just seems duller than normal. Matthew is concerned and doesn’t fully understand but appreciates Mika’s honesty. (Frankly, I think a lot of the boys have some form of depression thanks to their upbringing, but I don’t Matthew is one of them. He has issues but depression is not one of them.) 

From then on, Matthew’s behavior does slightly change. He seems more attentive to Mika’s needs. He was always fun loving and kind, but this is the first time he’s realizing that he can’t fix someone with just toys. So, he tries to pick up on what Mika really needs and the ways he can be there for her. This would be where Mika acknowledges that Matthew seems a lot more mature than his personality would give off. 

This is also where Mika notices how Matthew’s brothers treat him like a child. Even Damien, to a certain extent, is reluctant to rely on Matthew. And it’s clear that Matthew is bothered by this. He doesn’t say but there’s sadness in his eyes when strangers ask him if he’s old enough to be in certain places or drinking certain things or when his brothers shirk off his concerns or valid points because he didn’t say it in the most “adult” way. 

Even Mika must get over her own biases, which she does over time. 

During the Malix battle, like every other boy, Matthew tells you to run. The correct option for Matthew is to run. Mika needs to have faith in Matthew’s abilities and trust that he’ll keep her safe when he says he will. Any other option reinforces this idea that Mika doesn’t fully believe in Matthew. 

Like Erik, there’s a harsh temperature change in the air, the air feels of heavy blues and purples, fading as she runs from the warehouse and into the forest. A few minutes later, she hears Matthew calling for her in the distance. Whenever you choose the “run” option, the incubus you left will get hurt; for Matthew, this is a slice to the leg. When Mika finds him, he’s limping instead of walking. After all is said and done, Matthew thanks Mika for trusting him. 

Post Malix/Diana Arc- Matthew is really trying to show how much of an adult he is. At this point, he knows he has feelings for Mika and she’s the first person to truly treat him like a trustworthy adult. He doesn’t want that image to slip. Sometimes it does come off as a bit “try hard” but Mika appreciates the effort. Mika affirms her faith is Matthew while reminding him that he doesn’t have to do everything. He’s perfectly dependable just the way he is. 

The final choices with Diana then are 

“I love him!” and “He’s not a child” 

“He’s not a child” is the correct choice. 

Mika says that Matthew isn’t a child that needs his hand held through every decision. He doesn’t need to be held to a decision either, he can be trusted to stick to his word no matter what it is. Diana shouldn’t underestimate him so much. 

This is the true ending, so Matthew stays with Mika. 

~~~ 

Final one! (And my personal favorite) Damien (20) 

Remember what I said about some boys having depression? Yeah....that’s absolutely including Damien. He is the illegitimate son of the Demon Lord and his favorite concubine, Omaizel and OH BOY did no one let him forget that for even a second. With no favor from the Demon Lord and no claim to the throne, servants and acolytes alike treated the boy like trash. The wives, for the most part, despised him, the Demon Lord didn’t acknowledge his existence (at first), the only people to treat him right were his brothers and mother. 

To rub salt in the wound, the only time his father acknowledged his existence was to make sure that the magic infused chains on both Damien and Omaizel were still on and working. The Demon Lord didn’t want either of them escaping. Damien never understood why. He vaguely understood –and hated- the reason for his mother’s chains but why did the Demon Lord care if Damien escaped? Maybe it was just to make him suffer. 

At first, he was made to be servant, but Damien didn’t just lay down and die. He was defiant during his chores and with the endless support of his brothers, eventually, the Demon Lord simply gave up. Damien’s defiance wasn’t worth making all four of his heirs angry. From there on, Damien would wander the halls endlessly. His mindreading made him terrifying to some servants, others simply saw him as a nuisance. They thought that if he had even a small amount of intelligence, he would never get violent. And for the most part, they were right. 

But one day, Damien was going to get violent. He would finally put a particularly annoying servant in his place and get his peace, only to be stopped by his mother. Unbeknownst to Damien, his mindreading or more specifically, his lack of enough social skills to know not to blab about his mindreading slowly eroded his mother’s sanity along with the many nights under the Demon Lord’s... let's say “treatment” ...  

It was not that Omaizel didn’t love her son anymore, she was brought to the brink. If she could have killed the Demon Lord and taken her son out of the castle, she would have. But she couldn’t so she decided to try and kill him. To get away from his mindreading, to have some peace. Of course, it didn’t work, and she ended up killing herself instead. 

This is when the Demon Lord finally noticed Damien and not in a good way. His brothers may have been able to convince their father to spare his life but the number of scars and injuries that would appear on Damien would grow exponentially. 

Damien would be the first to hear the “angel” that would save them all. Harold Anderson, the most powerful warlock. Harold would offer Damien a way out and Damien would take it immediately. But how would he leave with the chains on his legs that prevented his escape? Harold didn’t have the magic necessary to break the chains, but he could put a buffer on the magic until he could obtain the holy magic necessary to break it. And with that, the boys escaped. 

Damien was the only one to enter the mansion knowing that it was Harold’s. The ghost of Harold guided him towards the mansion knowing “someone that could help you boys”. 

Meeting Mika, Damien recognized her immediately as the young woman who served them in the Pink Lady Cafe, the woman who called Harold, “Grandpa”. This put him at ease around Mika immediately. Anyone related to Harold must be a good person, right? (Clearly, he hadn’t met David yet) This feeling of calmness would only increase as she showed her generous and understanding side.  

Damien doesn’t fully understand social cues, he’s the type of guy to break into your room and hold you, despite not knowing you, simply because you had a nightmare or watch you while sleep then carry you down a flight of stairs, despite you not asking him to and barely knowing his name, because he’s worried that you can’t walk. (yes, he does both of these in canon) Over time, Mika gets used to his antics and comes to appreciate Damien’s straightforward way of thinking while also reminding him of the wonderful value of privacy. 

The “Pre-kiss Turning Point” happens when Mika wanders near the bedrooms on the other side of the house, where the boys stay. She notices that Damien is sitting on his bed, spacing out. It’s the first time Mika has seen the heavy dark circles under Damien’s eyes, he looks tired. Damien hears Mika’s thoughts and tries to be encouraging, offering to simply talk to her as he “needs a distraction from his thoughts”.  

As they talk, Damien seems so out of it and Mika finally asks what happened. He explains that while demons don’t need sleep, and it’s not recommended in the Abyssal Plains anyway, they still need rest. But Damien very rarely rests as he never truly felt safe to let his guard down in the Demon castle. He never shook the practice, even after six months in the human world. 

You can choose either “say nothing” or “Do you want me to watch over you?” 

The second one is the obvious correct one. 

Damien, at first, turns down her offer but Mika insists saying “You’ve protected me while I’ve slept before. I can do the same.”  

After some thought, Damien agreed and, for the first time, felt safe enough to fall asleep. 

During the Malix fight, Damien is the only one whose correct answer is “Stay”. The scene would play mainly like normal but instead of Mika joining the fight, she helps Damien by warning him of incoming attacks. Malix notices and tries to attack Mika only to be blocked by one of Damien’s shadow clones. This is enough to make Damien stop toying with Malix and just straight up kill him. He asks Mika to close her eyes and she does so, feeling the air turn ice cold and heavy with purples and blacks. Damien’s voice gains an echo and a harsh tone. Mika can hear ripping flesh and Malix screaming. Unlike James and Sam, Damien is not morally hung up about it.  

During the Diana Arc, the new concern is the mutual breaking down of emotional walls. All the boys would, eventually, acknowledge that Mika isn’t as happy as she seems, but Damien? He knew that shit from day 1 and he finally has the confidence to talk to you about it. So basically, mutual trauma dumping. It starts lightly but when Diana reveals Damien’s past with his mother, Mika felt it was only fair to be completely honest with him and just let the mask shatter for a while. This draws them closer to each other 

Now Damien’s route is different from the rest because Diana isn’t trying to take him away, so the “final choice” is really the final two choices and for once, I’m not changing which choice you should choose. 

The first one being “I love you” or “Cup his cheeks” when Damien asks Mika if she loves him. 

The correct answer is “I love you” 

Mika still goes on about Damien though, how kind he is, how strong he is, how much she’s come to trust him and how every day is made better because he’s in it. She doesn’t care about his mind reading, his status, his powers or even his species. She’s come to love Damien the person. 

The second choice is...his humanity. 

Okay small rant, love Michaela, love seduce me, why did there have to be any form of dubious consent in this route? Or lowkey trading sex for a desired item/outcome? Like, it’s bad enough for any route to have that IMO but it being in Damien’s route is extra seedy seeing that a major part of his past is “His mother was horribly assaulted constantly, and he was probably a product of that.” 

Eeeeeeeh so, I don’t usually change canon events but for my own comfort, we’re gunna change this deal a little. 

The deal is now that Mika is fully aware of her powers, including her angelic origins, in Damien’s route. She figured this one when she was able to snap off Damien’s chains after it was made clear that only holy magic could fully remove them. Diana wants Mika’s magic, all of it. She would have no magic at all (and that would affect the second game, unlike all the other routes) and she would lose any chance at connecting to her heaven side, but Damien would be human. 

Of course, you can choose to agree to those terms or not. The correct option is to agree. Mika wakes Damien up and tells him about the deal. He's concerned but agrees to the deal knowing what she's is willing to sacrifice. Diana takes all of Mika’s magic and she becomes a plain human then takes Damien for the ritual only to come back a few seconds later with a “human” Damien (we all know that’s not the complete truth). Damien hugs Mika and thanks her for turning him human and that is the end of Damien’s route. 

TL:DR- Matthew’s route is about being honest and learning to rely a little bit on Matthew. He gets to be the man he wants to be. Meanwhile, Damien’s route is about mutual trauma dumping with a big change to the final deal you make with Diana. 

A little bonus fact about the Malix Fight changes. It doesn’t change that Mika doesn’t know what their demon forms look like, no matter the option you choose.  

If you fight, they’re in their regular form until Mika gets hurt. No matter the boy you choose, they outright enthrall Mika to make sure she stays curled up, in the corner, putting pressure on her wound. They aren’t risking you bleeding out. 

If you stay, it’s the default fight but they ask Mika to close her eyes, to which she complies. Once the scene is said and done, Mika will ask if she can uncover her eyes, but they’ll puts their hands over her eyes to make sure she can’t see. This is where Mika gets the closest to “seeing” their form as their hands feel more like armor than skin. 

If you run, you obviously run away before they transform, and they go back to normal before they find you.  

And on every route, with every choice, after they’re done, they summon their brothers to help them get back to normal. 

This is the final part of 3 1| 2| 3

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

In chapter 7 part 3 when the gang was cooking food for the Lilia, Baul and the soldiers Yuu was also cooking along with Sebek and Silver. Which means they can cook. Has there been any mention of Yuu in previous being able to cook food? Do they take part in MasterChef classes?

I think you mean book 7 part 4?? (More specifically, 7-62.) That’s the only instance I can recall of Yuu cooking (but with all the content that TWST now has out, I wouldn’t be surprised if I missed other instances). In any case, if it is mentioned elsewhere, it’s not something that comes up often.

I don’t associate Yuu with cooking for themselves since Grim eats straight out of tuna cans most of the time + we see Yuu eating in the cafeteria frequently. (cbsvwjsnekw Ramshackle is also sort of run-down until the end of book 6, and I’m not sure if Yuu has the pocket money for weekly ingredients??)

While he and Silver are cooking for the troops, Sebek mentions being thankful that he “took Master Chef”, which is an elective students can choose to enroll in. Yuu is then granted two dialogue options; the top one implies Yuu is glad that they “learned to cook for themselves” and the bottom option is Yuu being happy they don’t have to eat lizards or rats.

How I interpret this is that the top option gives players that want to self-insert (or put their OC in Yuu’s situation) the chance to characterize Yuu as someone who can cook. The bottom option doesn’t inherently imply cooking at all, so it may be for someone who wants their Yuu/OC to be someone who can’t cook and is instead waiting for Silver and Sebek to finish cooking for them. This would make the dialogue choice similar to the ones in the Harveston hometown event and White Rabbit Fest, where Yuu is given dialogue options to indicate if they can play an instrument or not.

In regards to the first option, the wording is dubious enough to neither confirm nor deny that Yuu took Master Chef. It’s not specified where or how Yuu learned to cook; it’s just said as a comment after Sebek specifies that HE specifically learned to cook from Master Chef. I’d imagine that Master Chef does happen to be one of the classes Yuu (a non-mage) can take, as it doesn’t require the use of magic (and actually forbids its use).

[20forty9]

I Didn't Mean To Haunt You

Chapter VI - Smiling At The Ground

Summary : Maheas is getting irritated from his lack of progress, meanwhile Venick is a natural at whatever she picks up in her hands. This time, he pushes things too far. A new player joins the game in your life! You find yourself getting attached to him very quickly. You share a moment of tenderness with Nanami and Haibara. Meanwhile, Gojo is haunted by nightmares.

Word Count : 7.8k

Contains : Vague representations/allusions of sexual abuse, disturbing imagery (?), gross scenes (descriptive vomiting), etc. Let me know if I missed anything

Pairings : Gojo Satoru/Reader, Geto Suguru/Reader, Nanami Kento/Reader, Yu Haibara/Reader, Everyone/Reader (Reverse Harem)

Cross-posted on Ao3

A/N : Vomiting will become more of a theme throughout the story, sorry LMFAO. Thanks Ethel Cain and Elita for that I guess. Also, good golly gee a quote that isn’t inherently about curiousity?? Fourty are you feeling alright???? Also I’m not a swordmaster so I apologize for any inaccuracies on my uh. sword swinging or whatchamacallit. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, I put sweat and tears into this chapter. Sorry it's a bit late! I had planned to post it Friday or yesterday but half the chapter got suddenly deleted out of nowhere so I had to rewrite it from my memory and notes.

All bleeding eventually stops. ~ Jeffrey M. Goller M.D.

More time passes by for the spirit, Maheas and Venick without much excitement. Days seem to blur into one, the repetitive schedule rarely being interrupted ever since the rumours about defectors turned out to be true. Security around the area became more tight, and the ever watchful eye of Suliman never truly disappeared; to avoid punishment, the spirit continued the training of the two kids without any delay. 

It notices that they’re both improving their fighting capabilities quite well for such a short period of time – Venick especially. She has a natural aptitude for it, nearly immediately adapting to whatever weapon is given to her. Whether it can be attributed to her sheer will or the possibility of a technique, the spirit must admit she is talented. Though, even throughout all of this, her beloved bow is still her favourite weapon of choice. She doesn’t use it nearly as much as before, but it always lays in the grass with the rest of their belongings, not too far away from where they train. 

However, Maheas is slower to adjust to different weapons and scenarios. And ever since he was able to land that blow on the spirit that particular night, he hasn’t been able to do it since then. 

And unfortunately, he’s too aware of this fact. When he can’t get the weapon or scenario down correctly within the first hour, he considers it to be a complete failure, and gets incredibly irritated, then moves onto something else. Inevitably, the cycle continues, and the spirit notices that Maheas is stuck in a constant loop of anger and irritability. 

It all comes to a breaking point on a sunny day – one of the last overbearingly warm days that fall has to offer before the refreshing cool permanently sets in for the upcoming months. The spirit is sweating profusely from having both kids attack it at once; an exercise for them to learn how to work together as a team instead of individually. 

Venick and Maheas are both using a weapon neither of them have ever tried, but of course Venick is an absolute natural at using the katana, however the latter struggles to hold it properly. As Maheas brings his arms down to swing his weapon down, his grip on the handle wavers slightly, making it slip out of his hands and drop on the ground pathetically. The spirit notices, immediately moving out of the way to dodge the rest of his failed attack, quickly taking him by the arm and twisting it behind his back, pressing a knee against it and sending him into the ground face-first. 

Dust and dirt kick up around them from the impact, but before either of them can catch their breath, Venick runs up from behind and tries to land a blow behind the spirit’s back. With ease, it rolls out of the way and watches as the young girl’s eyes widen, the katana still held high as it now targets Maheas. Her mouth opens widely in exclamation, her lips forming his name, and thankfully, his reaction time is fast enough for him to move his head by an inch right as the blade pierces into the grass, right next to his ear. 

Both of them exhale in relief before Maheas suddenly kicks Venick in the stomach, making her drop down breathlessly on the ground next to him. He shouts obscenities, face going red with rage, raising his fists to punch her repeatedly like a madman. The spirit’s eyes widen, and it moves swiftly, arms wrapping around Maheas’ biceps and pulling him away from the poor girl. He kicks and flails around, going as far as to bite its right arm until his canines puncture its skin, drops of blood pooling and smearing across his lips and teeth. 

Suliman’s men rush over to control the situation, one of them pulling Venick away from the spirit and Maheas as the others try to calm the young boy down. 

“That’s enough!” One of them says, firmly grabbing him by the cheeks to make him look them in their cold eyes.  “What are you doing?!” 

Two other men pull the spirit away from the boy, each of them holding him by his arms as he continues thrashing against them. 

“I’m so sick of this! Why can’t this fucking work?!” He cries, tears of indignation running down his cheeks. “I can’t get anywhere like this!” 

He’s obsessed, the spirit thinks to itself. Nobody can learn so many different strategies in such a short span of time, Venick is just simply blessed – or cursed, depending on how someone views it. If anything, Maheas is still learning quickly; just not as quickly as he would like to. 

Its thought process is interrupted by the familiar deep, royal colours of Suliman’s favourite robes appearing in the peripheral of its sight. Turning its head to look at her, she approaches the group with a frown donned on her face. Her cold, calculating eyes take in the scene before her, and the spirit ponders if this is the most emotion it has seen from her since it got here. 

“What is going on here?” She asks them, her gaze locking onto Maheas, who instantly collects himself, straightening his back as he notices her attention on him. He can’t exactly meet her eyes, the look on his face bashful as he looks down at his feet. 

“...I got angry, Madame,” he admits. With a wave of her hand, the two men holding his arms back let go, taking a step back as she walks over to the young boy. “And I took it out on Venick.”

“Dear boy, why would you do that?” Suliman scolds him lightly, the look on her face not quite replicating anger, but trying to. “Look at her, the poor girl is terrified.” 

Admittedly, Venick is scared. She presses herself closer to the man who pulled her away, but as the spirit approaches her to offer some semblance of comfort, she launches herself into its arms. 

Maheas’ eyes become slits as he glares at the girl, feeling the hot rage boil underneath his skin all over again. He clenches his fists, trying to keep his temperament under wraps. A snap of Suliman’s fingers brings his attention back to her. 

“Answer me, why are you so angry?” She asks him once more. 

“I– I’m not improving fast enough,” he replies, looking regretful. “But– but Venick just has to be perfect and everything! It’s so annoying! I hate her!” 

He must be so used to getting everything handed to him on a silver platter, because no boy of his age should be acting that way or throwing a tantrum like this. And like always, Suliman gently places her hands down on his shoulders, her thumb rubbing comforting circles into his skin through the fabric of his shirt. Like always, she’ll comfort him with her sugar-sweet words in that motherly way she does. 

“I know, Maheas. You’re a failure,” she says. The spirit’s eyes widen slightly – it didn’t expect that. That crosses the line from being passive-aggressively disappointed into being genuinely cruel. “I’m truly disheartened by this.” 

“Madame…?” The boy’s face becomes crestfallen, eyes glossy with unshed tears, skin becoming sickeningly pale. His lips press tightly together, chin trembling. 

“But I can shape you into becoming something truly marvellous,” she continues, a small smile spreading across her painted lips. “Something people will fear. But for that, you have to work hard every second of the day.” 

He looks at her hesitantly, but manages to muster a weak grin of his own. “...I– I won’t let you down.” 

“No, you won’t,” Suliman says, her face immediately dropping to a neutral, far-away stare as she releases her hold on him, walking over to the spirit. 

“Come with me,” she completely disregards the young girl still clinging to it. “We need to discuss some things.” 

The spirit gives one last pat to Venick’s back, ushering her towards the man who had initially pulled her away from the scene earlier before walking away with the shaman. She walks it down along the gardens until they are a fair distance away from anyone who could listen in to their conversation. 

“You’re not pushing him hard enough,” she starts as soon as they’re out of earshot. “Are you trying to make a fool of me?” 

The spirit immediately shakes its head. Of course not. 

“Then, tell me why you have had no success in making him use his abilities?” 

“ Because that’s not the focus of their training. They have to learn how to work together and learn how to handle different weapons, ” it signs back. The sign language book that Suliman had given it had, unfortunately , proven to be incredibly useful. “If they want to get any further, that is how they will grow stronger.” 

“I’m telling you now to change it. If I don’t see an improvement within the next week, I’m putting you back in that room,” she threatens, subtle glare hardening. The thought of being put back between those four white walls makes the spirit stiffen up. “You’re weak, you’re too afraid to push him any further. Don’t hold back. He needs to learn somehow.” 

“ If we push him too far and too quickly, it could kill him. He’s still young.” 

“He’s more resilient than you give him credit for, spirit,” Suliman’s eyes drift to where the two of them came from, in Maheas’ direction. “I’ve changed my mind. If I don’t see any changes within the next three days, I’ll put you back there.” 

With that last warning, she shoos it away to go back to the kids, leaving her in the garden. 

The spirit takes heed, a constant frown pulling at its face the following day as Venick and Maheas approach it with their things in tow. The girl keeps a fair distance away from the latter, anxiously looking over at him every five seconds. As soon as they put their belongings down on the grass, they hear a quick snap followed by a bright flicker of light as cyan flames approach them at rapid speeds. With quick thinking, Maheas and Venick dodge the attack by jumping in opposite directions, rolling down on the ground before getting back up and staring at the spirit, baffled. 

“What the hell was that for?!” Maheas exclaims, raising his katana up. 

“ Train, hard, ” the spirit signs back simply, knowing that both of the kids are just starting to learn sign language in their other classes. 

“At least give us a warning!” Venick says, also raising her matching weapon in her arms. 

Usually, the spirit would use its polearm so that the fighting could be more balanced, but Suliman’s threat nags away at the back of its mind — it refuses to go back into that room, no matter what. With another fast flick of its hands, more fire spews from its fingertips, targeting both of the kids. They have to evade the attack again, unused to being on defence. 

“How are we supposed to fight against fire with swords ? ” Venick asks Maheas, bringing the blade up as a guise of protection. 

“I don’t know…” Maheas’ anxious eyes are locked on the spirit, who stares back at them emotionlessly. “We just have to keep fighting.” 

They prepare themselves to pounce, both of them launching at it at the same time, and the spirit easily sidesteps them, a wave of fire gusting around them all, throwing Venick and Maheas back without the flames touching them – just enough to feel the heat biting at their skin.

“ You have to synchronize together, or else I’ll be able to kick you back at the same time,” it signs to them. “ Get back up. ” 

Maheas gets back up first, the frown on his face deepening. His chest puffs out, spreading his feet apart as he clenches his jaw so hard that a vein bulges in his neck. His eyes are wide and gaze unwavering as he rushes forward, the grip on his katana tight. He slashes at the spirit, sending it staggering backwards from the shock. He swings again, blade continuing to cut into the air haphazardly until it catches on the skin of the spirit, who suddenly feels hesitant to fight back. However, Maheas continues to attack it.

“Come on, fight back! Give me your all!” He says, and as the spirit’s eyes focus on his mouth to lip-read, that distracts it long enough for Maheas to bring out his katana’s blade down onto the arm of the spirit, imbedding itself into the meat of its forearm. 

The only reason why its arm doesn’t end up completely chopped off is because he doesn’t put an incredible amount of strength into the blow, but out of instinct, the spirit rears back its other arm, harshly snapping its fingers to unleash a powerful blow straight at Maheas, violently throwing him backwards and rolling onto the ground, his body hiding behind a thick veil of steam. 

Oh, fuck. 

It immediately runs over to his crumpled form, waving the steam away to look at the damage. A large burn bubbles along the entirety of Maheas’ left forearm and neck, the skin red and raw. He clenches his teeth, and as the spirit gathers the young boy into its arms to check over any other damage, it feels him vibrate underneath its palms – it realizes he’s screaming in pain through his clenched teeth. Maheas clutches his arm in agony, foot stomping on the ground aggressively to distract himself from the pain. 

Completely focused on tending to the injured boy, the spirit completely forgets about Venick, who had been disregarded when Maheas tried to attack it. It isn’t until it feels a large slash against its back, so utterly excruciating that it immediately lets go of Maheas from the shock, feeling slash after intense slash against its back. It presses a foot against the ground, launching itself out of the way before another attack can hit it. 

Weakly looking back, its eyes lock onto an enraged Venick – a long whip made of pure cursed energy held tightly in her hand, knuckles turning white from her grip around the handle. 

“Get away from him!” She exclaims, preparing to rear the weapon back once more. 

The spirit raises its arms, hands splayed out in front of it to show it wasn’t going to hurt him. The commotion attracts the men standing guard near the greenhouse, one of them followed by Suliman. 

Her eyes actually widen as they land on the young girl, then move onto the injured boy until she locks eyes with the spirit, whose arms wrap around itself tightly to let its hands grasp at its back, trying to relieve the pain. 

“You did it…” Suliman mutters as she looks at Venick. The second the raven-haired girl realizes all focus is on her, the whip dissipates into nothing as she seems to retreat in on herself. “Girl, you’ve done it.” 

“D– done what? Did I do something wrong?” She stutters, hands coming up to her chest to  curl in further. 

“No, not at all, dear girl,” the platinum blonde replies, the smile on her face reaching the tip of her ears. 

Suliman walks over to her, a hand coming up to delicately stroke her hair. The spirit feels disgusted seeing the sickly-sweet affection in the older woman’s eyes. 

“You’ve just discovered your curse technique, darling.” 

As Suliman continues doting on Venick, the spirit’s eyes drift over to Maheas, who looks at the two from his spot on the ground, still clutching at his arm, with pure hatred in his glare. 

If looks could kill, Venick would be a dead girl standing. 

 

You're woken up by your phone buzzing underneath your pillow, violently vibrating against the sheets. The skin of your arms is uncomfortably itchy, having forgotten to take off your bandages the previous night before you passed out in bed. Soundlessly grumbling to yourself, you squint your eyes as you flip the phone open, staring back at the screen. It’s a Saturday, who the hell is waking you up at the ungodly hour of… 

Oh. One in the afternoon. 

Not so ungodly, after all. 

Yaga’s name greets you on the screen, followed by a sunglasses emoji. 

- Are you busy tosda [Sent 12:47pm] - *Today [Sent 12:48pm] - ? [Sent 12:49pm]

[One missed call from Yaga.] [1:03pm]

Your fingers move lazily across the small keyboard, the sleep in your eyes still clouding your vision. 

- No :P Why

It only takes a few minutes until your door suddenly swings open – you’re certain you locked that last night, by the way – revealing Yaga in his usual workout clothes, minus his sunglasses. 

“ Good, you’re up, ” he signs, hands going to his hips. 

You don't bother signing in return, simply waving him off and shoving your face back into the pillow. You feel the floor shake as heavy stomps cross the floorboards until the bright afternoon sunlight hits your eyes again, the pillow held high above the teacher’s head as he holds it out of your reach. 

“ Nooo…” you mouth, trying to give your best puppy eyes to Yaga. 

“I have someone I want to introduce you to.” 

“ Can’t this wait? ” You sign, hands moving slowly from how tired you are as you squint at him. 

“You’ve been in bed long enough,” he chastises you. He then proceeds to wrap the duvet around you, effectively cocooning you, before he grabs your legs and drags you out of bed. 

Your reaction is instantaneous – you claw at the ground, trying to thrash your body back and forth, but all you look like is a dying worm on the pavement when the sun finally hits after a long rainstorm. You try slapping at Yaga’s hands but can’t even manage to reach them, and you try one last ditch effort to escape which proves to be fruitless. 

“Nothing you do will make me let go,” Yaga turns his head to address you, mirth swirling in his eyes. 

Exasperated, you sigh out deeply and completely let your body go slack as the teacher continues to drag you outside of your dorm room and down the hall. As you walk past the communal kitchen, you feel dread run through your body as you realize there are people already in there. 

“Good morning, sen–” Nanami and Haibara’s mouths both close shut as they look at the scene in front of them. The blonde has a cup of coffee held in his hand, halfway up to his mouth but his body is frozen as his lips subtly quirk up. Haibara is sitting at the table with a bowl of oatmeal and fruit, a shocked look on his face. 

You look back at them in disdain as Yaga greets them normally, as if he doesn’t have a person wrapped in a duvet-burrito. 

“Um, w– what’s going on there?” Haibara asks, tilting his head quizzically, but he looks one step away from blowing up into laughter. 

“ S.O.S, S.O.S ,” you sign repeatedly, eyes wide as you give them a terrified expression. 

“Ignore them,” is all Yaga says. 

“ I’m being K.I.D.N.A.P.P.E.D,” you continue to look at them desperately, going as far as to mouth the words. 

“They’re a drama queen, did I forget to mention?” 

Yaga is about to continue trudging forward but is met with the doorway being blocked by three familiar bodies. You cringe, jaw clenching tightly as you bang your head against the floor to try and end your misery. 

Shoko leans to the side, peering past her sensei and giving you a good once-over before she bursts out laughing, immediately pulling out her phone to snap a picture while her shoulders violently shake from laughter. Gojo and Geto both follow along, looking incredibly amused. 

“ That counts as blackmail! Put that fucking phone down,” you glare at her halfheartedly, signing aggressively even though you know she can’t understand you. 

“Language, please,” the teacher speaks up. 

“ Are you guys seriously going to let him kidnap me like this in broad daylight?” 

“I really wish I knew sign language right now,” Geto admits, a wide grin spread across his face. 

“They’re saying how much they love this, it’s their favourite pastime, they aren't being kidnapped and this is all of their own volition. Also, they think you’re my most annoying students,” Yaga says, before slowly dragging you away as he walks backwards. 

“ I’ll remember this. I’ll remember this betrayal for the rest of my life,” you flip the group of students off, who watch and continue to laugh at you, except for Haibara who dramatically reaches out, fake tears streaming down his face.

“Don’t worry!” He exclaims your name. “I’ll find you when you’re back!” 

You continue to glare at them until you and Yaga turn a corner, finally disappearing from view. The teacher continues to drag you until you arrive at the front door of the dormitories, finally letting you go. You quickly scramble to your feet, dusting yourself off and watching as the teacher lets your duvet drop to the ground pathetically. 

“ Was that really necessary?” You sign to him, not bothering to pick it up – you’ll wash it when you come back from wherever Yaga is taking you to. 

“ Absolutely . ” He nods in reply. “You would’ve taken an entire hour to get ready, and I want you to meet him as soon as possible.” 

You relent, sighing dramatically as you follow behind Yaga as you both walk through campus until you go down the large flight of stairs, the teacher’s car waiting for you at the bottom. 

“ Oh my god, you really are kidnapping me, aren’t you?” You tease him, comically widening your eyes. 

“Put those hands down and get in the car, will you?” He replies, arching an eyebrow. 

Raising your hands up in surrender, you get in the passenger seat while Yaga gets in the driver's seat. The car starts up not long after, and you set off, weaving through the streets of the city. Eventually, the car pulls up to a familiar building. 

“ Why are we at your house?” 

Yaga doesn’t reply, simply turning the engine off before stepping out to unlock the front door. You follow obediently, going on your tiptoes to peer over the taller man’s shoulder curiously, trying to take a peek at whoever he wants you to meet. Yaga ushers you inside quickly, locking the door behind you. You take your shoes off, leaving them on the rack near the doorway. 

Once upon a time, with a fresh slash across your face and matted hair, this was where you stayed until he moved you to campus.

He doesn’t bother turning the lights on, instead leading you to another room. The door is shut, and there are colourful stickers randomly littered near the bottom of it, making you wonder why they were stuck on there, of all places. Your questions are soon answered as Yaga swings the door open, revealing a brightly-lit room with its blinds drawn back. 

A… baby panda? 

Said animal turns to look at you both, tilting its head in curiosity. It wears a baby diaper, with a toy train held in its paws. Upon further inspection, there are multiple toys scattered around the room with a comfortable-looking twin bed pressed in the corner. 

The cub speaks. You can clearly see it move its lips, but its fur is so thick it’s hard to read its lips. Your eyes widen, but you can feel a smile spreading across your face before you can stop it. It’s so cute! 

“Panda, this is…” Yaga slowly introduces your name to the panda. Then, he addresses you. “This is Panda, he’s…” he hesitates, but looks between the both of you and at the starry expression on your face. “Well, to put it simply, an Abrupt-Mutation Cursed Corpse.” 

Your eyebrows raise up in surprise, pointing to Panda. “ You created a mutated corpse? ” 

Yaga’s hands immediately go to grasp your shoulders, looking you dead in the eye. 

“I’m begging you, please don’t tell anyone. If word gets out, I could be killed for this.” 

You give him an unimpressed look. “Who would I even tell? The higher-ups? I’m sure they would definitely trust me.” 

“Good point. Sorry– I’m just so worried about this. I only want to give him the best, he’s my first successful mutation.” 

You nod your head in understanding. “I promise, your secret is safe with me.” 

Yaga’s attention is back on the baby animal, and they talk amongst themselves. You look over the teacher’s shoulder, waving at Panda with a smile. The latter raises his paw and mimics you in reply. Oh god, cuteness aggression is real, you think to yourself, having to turn away before you let the urge to squeeze the cub in your arms take over. 

A hand to your shoulder makes you turn back, and Yaga makes you crouch next to him to face the panda properly. 

“Would you mind introducing yourself to him in sign language?” He asks, telling Panda to pay close attention. 

“ It’s nice to meet you, Panda, ” you sign slowly, followed by spelling your name, fingers carefully shaping the words, repeating both Panda’s name and your own. 

“That is sign language,” Yaga explains to the young one. “You’ll be learning it.” 

Panda’s mouth moves again as he nods his head before giving you a full grin, shiny white fangs on display and all. 

“Eventually, I want to train him properly, but for now he has to remain here. If the higher-ups discover him, my career is over – and my life too, most likely,” the teacher turns to face you as he speaks. “But I’m worried he’s lonely when I’m not here, even with the babysitter. I’ve already attached a new set of keys to your keychain, so if you have the chance… would you mind dropping by sometime?”

You nod your head enthusiastically, which makes Yaga quickly pat your shoulder appreciatively. 

You both look back at Panda, who continues playing with his toys. You feel a sense of calm wash over you, and you situate yourself on the floor more comfortably, raising one of the toys to make playful chomping gestures at Panda’s cheeks, who’s shoulders shake as he laughs in glee. 

Unbeknownst to you, Yaga takes a quick picture of the two of you in your own world, a real smile playing upon his lips. 

You walk all the way back to the school, still dressed in your pyjamas. People send you odd looks as you stuff your hands into your sweatpants, a frown and pout on your face. Yaga sent you back on your own, claiming that you needed more fresh air and to enjoy the sunny day outside. All you really wanted to do was lay in bed all day and let your sore body recuperate for the upcoming week. 

As you trudge your body up the unending flight of stairs that lead back to the school, you are greeted with the sight of Nanami and Haibara talking amongst themselves, sitting across from each other at a picnic table with a bunch of snacks set up on the surface. The trees above them provide a nice canopy of shade, protecting them from the harsh glare of the sun.

Haibara’s brown eyes suddenly lock onto your own, and they light up upon seeing you. He enthusiastically waves you over, apparently yelling your name so loudly that Nanami grabs his arm, making a shushing motion at him. 

“Hi!” He greets you with a wide smile upon his lips. “You made it back alive!” 

“ No thanks to you, ” you sign in return, though it’s all meant lightheartedly. 

The brunette immediately pouts. “Sorry, I don’t really know what you said besides ‘ no’ and ‘ you ’.” 

You give him a light smile. “ It’s okay.”

Haibara proceeds to pat the empty seat on the bench next to him, motioning at you to sit down. “You should join us! We’re having lunch now.” Nanami looks like he’s about to contradict him, a small blush forming on the tips of his ears, but he concedes, nodding along. 

Apprehensive, you take a seat next to the brunette, signing a quick thank you in reply. Your bed is calling you right now, but there’s no harm in hanging out with the two men, either. 

“What did sensei want with you, anyway?” Haibara asks before taking a bite out of one of the small triangle sandwiches. 

Keep Panda a secret, Yaga’s words pop up in your head. Keep Panda safe. 

“ Nothing important,” you reply. 

“I think that’s… ‘ nothing’, right?” Nanami asks, immediately turning to rummage through his bag, pulling out a sign language dictionary. Your eyes widen slightly in delight, a small quiet laugh bursting past your lips. The blonde replicates the motion you made previously, palms facing you and Haibara before turning them to himself. You nod in reply, smiling. 

“He’s learning pretty quickly,” the brunette says, offering a sandwich to you, who takes it from his hand, proceeding to munch away on it gratefully. “I have to admit it’s a lot for me to learn. I’m still stuck on finger-spelling.”

“To be honest, me too,” Nanami admits, flitting through the pages of the dictionary. “Would you mind telling me if I’m signing my name right?” 

You shake your head back and forth, eyes locked onto his hands as he moves them to sign his name as accurately as possible. He stumbles over the motions slightly, but it is still understandable for you, albeit a bit awkward to follow along. You give the blonde an ‘ok’ sign before you wipe your hands on your pants, proceeding to lean over the table to gently grasp Nanami’s hands into your own and moving his fingers into the correct position. 

“ There, ” You mouth to him as you move them back and forth to help him memorize. “ Na-na-mi.” 

“I… see,” he replies, whole face flushing light pink. You quickly sit back down properly, grabbing a cookie, completely oblivious to the other man’s embarrassment. 

You see Gojo and Geto approaching the table before they can greet your group properly. You wave at them with a smile on your face, and the raven-haired man returns it with a tired one of his own. 

“What’s going on over here?” Gojo asks as he reaches you all, leaning over Nanami’s shoulder. The latter is already frowning in disdain, looking as if he’d rather be anywhere else but there. “ Ooh, sign language, huh?” 

“They’re just showing us how to sign Nanamin’s name,” Haibara says, eyes starry as his eyes are locked on Geto. 

“Cool. Anyways, we were wonderi–”

“Ohh, wait, show me how to sign my name!” Haibara interrupts him, shaking your shoulder back and forth to grab your attention. He completely ignores Gojo’s glare sent his way, attentively watching as you happily demonstrate it to him. The two of you go back and forth for a few minutes until he finally grasps it well enough. 

After your small lesson, the brunette turns back to his peers. “Sorry, you were saying?” 

“Uh,” Gojo looks awkward as he looks at the ground for a split-second before he gazes at you through his sunglasses, pushing them up the bridge of his nose absentmindedly. “We were wondering if you were going to�� train with us today.” 

You look at them quizzically, eyebrows furrowed. Since when did you train together on weekends? 

Not that you’re against it, but– 

You look at the snacks on the table, then to Haibara and Nanami, who look at you almost expectantly. Well, you were already here, and they seemed to want to learn more sign language, so… 

You shrug your shoulders in reply, shaking your head back and forth. 

“Are you sure?” Geto asks – he seems disappointed. 

You sign an apology, sending him a nervous smile. “They offered me food. Plus, I would feel bad if I left them now because they want to learn sign language.” 

“Alright. See you on Monday, then,” Gojo says rather abruptly, lips pressed tightly together. “C’mon, Suguru.” 

You wave goodbye to them, which only Geto returns. It takes a moment for Gojo’s words to finally register in your mind. Wait, did he–? 

“That was weird,” Haibara says after an awkward pause. “Gojo was acting strange.” 

“When is he not?” Nanami asks rhetorically, still looking bothered. “He has a talent at butting his head into our business.” 

“Yeah, but not like that. Eh, whatever, it’s not that important,” the brunette eventually goes back to his food. After finishing off his own plate, he seems to pause halfway while brushing the crumbs away from his mouth with his thumb. He turns to you, who still continues to stare at where the men were once standing. He gently taps your shoulder which makes you snap your head to look at him. 

You tilt your head to the side in question, shaking your index finger back and forth. “ What is it? ” 

“Say, I forgot to ask. When’s your birthday?” Haibara asks. “I hope we haven’t missed it…”

You look at him blankly for a moment before giving him a shrug. Honestly, you don't remember the moment you appeared into existence. You were just… created, simply put. One second, you weren't, then you were. There were no big explosions or festivities, unless you counted the people who used to worship you, although that was centuries ago. 

Haibara looks utterly offended on your behalf. “Are you telling me you don’t know or you don’t have one?” 

“The second one. ” 

“Nanami, we can’t have this!” He turns to the blonde, who doesn’t seem too surprised himself. “We’ll give you a birthday then.” 

“Are you sure that’s appropriate?” Nanami asks, looking over at you, unsure. 

“ I’m sure it’s fine.” 

Haibara catches his chin between his forefinger and thumb, looking dead ahead of him, eyes becoming unfocused. Wow, he’s seriously thinking hard about this. You and Nanami share a look, the latter shaking his head back and forth, exasperated. It takes a few moments until Haibara snaps out of it suddenly, looking as if he’s been illuminated. 

“I got it!” He says, eyes sparkling from how excited he is. “October thirty-first!” 

“Okay, that definitely can’t be appropriate.” 

You just stare at them, absolutely confused. “Why not?” 

“Because you’re a curse, right? Those cursed energy levels coming from you are off the charts, more than any normal human being. Either that, or you’re cursed,” oh, so close, you wince. “But a curse is technically a spirit, right? And spirits are technically ghosts! It’s fitting, isn’t it?” 

In any other world, you would love to jump in joy – Haibara was so close to actually understanding what you are. You wish they could understand sign language or that you had your notebook to write in so you could actually explain the situation. However, decades of being dismissed and treated as less than others render you exhausted. There’s no point trying to justify yourself if Haibara is dead set on believing that you are a curse. If that’s how he sees you, then so be it. 

Instead, you steels your nerves, simply giving him a curt nod of your head. That’s perfect. 

Haibara and Nanami smile warmly at you. 

“October thirty-first it is,” the blonde says, going back to flipping through his book, the smile still plastered on his lips.

As you all finish your food in silence, you let your gaze wander up, peering at the sun through the leaves of the trees that create a canopy above your group. You grin to yourself, feeling a sense of satisfaction bloom within you. 

The kindest gift that you have received. A day of celebration for you. 

A celebration of life for a dead man walking. 

Lately, Satoru dreams of you. 

When he off-handedly told Suguru about it the first time it happened, the latter barked out a sharp laugh and asked him, “What, like a wet dream?” 

He finds himself wishing it were. 

At this point, Satoru would take that over whatever has actually been happening when he falls asleep. 

It starts off inconspicuously enough – when he drifts off, the next thing he knows, he’s standing in the middle of a road out in the countryside. He can’t actually pinpoint whether it’s a real location that he’s seen before or not, but the endless amount of wheat fields that lay to his right seem properly tended to. To his left, there’s a forest that goes on endlessly, thick fog permeating from it. It’s always pitch-black outside, and he’d like to assume it’s the witching hour, but something at the back of his mind tells him that’s not right. The shadows unnaturally stretch for miles across the road. 

There’s always a certain itch crawling along his skin, as if he’s being observed. But every time he looks over his shoulder, he is utterly alone. There are no other signs of life – no birds chirping, no cars driving down the gravel road, no farmers tending to the fields or horses gallivanting around behind the wooden fence. He can’t even hear the gravel crunching underneath his shoes. He doesn’t feel safe here. 

Satoru desperately wants to wake up, but something isn’t letting him. 

Eventually, his alarm clock will shock him awake, pulling him from the impossibly deep sleep he was in. And every time, the day starts then comes to an end, and after a long day of hard work and training, he has to let his mind and body rest, so he goes to sleep. And every time, he is always greeted with that same dream. 

As the weeks pass by, the recurring dream becomes more and more specific. 

This time, after standing in the same place for what feels like an eternity, his feet absentmindedly carry him forwards down the road, eyes snapping to every dark corner as the sense of unease grows and grows and grows. He feels a shiver run down his spine when he hears deep, breathless breathing right in his ear, as if someone is overexerting themselves next to him, body desperately pressed up against his own. His head snaps to the side, but there’s nobody there. 

Every muscle of his body tenses up, the hair on his arms raising. He feels his eyes sinking into their eye sockets, wide with fear. The Gojo clan does not fear anything , he hears the voice of his father tell his younger self after a thunderstorm that left him shaking like a leaf. 

The breathing is not his own, Satoru knows this for a fact. His hands are pressed up against his mouth and nose as he tries to take deep, quiet breaths, his heart clenching and making nausea tumble around in his stomach. 

The scenery stays exactly the same as usual – not a single thing changes, except for the varying height of the wheat fields. After another indiscernible amount of time, there’s a break in between the fields; a small church, made of old wood with its white paint chipping off, slightly elevated from the road. It almost resembles a backyard shack. The windows and front door are boarded up with thick panels, with weeds and vines growing along some cracks. It’s obviously been unoccupied for years, if not decades. 

Satoru’s blood runs cold as his eyes adjust to the dark even further, noticing a body laying on the cement steps leading up to the front door of the small building. The person is surrounded by small asphodels growing from the cracks in the cement, the small white petals a stark contrast to the darkness that envelops this dream. He keeps his eyes down– down, so he can at least pretend that the person is sleeping. 

The dark liquid surrounding them seems to scream otherwise. 

The stranger’s body resting on the stairs is positioned on their knees, stomach down, their head resting against the hard concrete and facing his way.

He stays a fair distance away, but Satoru feels even more sick once he realizes that the body isn't just a stranger, after all.

It's you . 

The unmistakable colour of your hair is splayed along the steps, mismatched eyes looking more faded and dead than ever before. Suddenly, the smell hits Satoru’s nostrils, making him gag. The stench of rot fills the air around him, unescapable. Not even the sweet, honeysuckle scent of the asphodels can cover it up. The fragrances mix together, producing something that just smells wrong. 

Against his better judgement, his feet stay firmly planted in place; something tells him that he can’t leave your body here. 

The sound of flies buzzing around your dead body becomes more obvious once he takes a few steps forward, but he halts immediately once he sees a shadow spreading, moving from the darkness that it casts along the cracks in the road, moving unnaturally; detached from reality. It stretches up, up, up , becoming more human-like until Satoru’s eyes can see the individual pair of arms and legs standing over your body. The rest of its features are muted – it’s just a shadow, after all.

It’s just a shadow, right? 

Right? 

Its hands reach out to brush the hair away from your face, and Satoru feels his body fill with disgust, but he doesn’t know why. His six eyes seem to tune into something that his mind refuses to process. His mouth opens to tell it off, to get it away from you, but nothing comes out; the words get stuck in his throat, as if it is impossible for him to make any noise. 

The shadow fades in and out as it hunches over you, getting closer and closer to your ear, and the heavy breathing in Satoru’s ear only grows in volume. This feels wrong on so many levels. It feels like an imaginary hand is wrapping around his throat, cutting off his ability to breathe in properly as his eyes are completely fixated on the scene before him. His heart pounds against his ribcage, and it feels like it’s about to leap out of his body. 

The shadow’s fading hand gently strokes your cheek in a comforting manner, its head brushing right against your ear. At that exact moment, uncontrollable warped words play backwards in Satoru’s head, putting the devil’s tongue to shame. He can’t tell anything apart, as if his brain is melting. None of the sentences make sense, the voice sounding anything but human, layered over itself, and the words meld together in a messy tangle. 

“ You… poor thing…” The single sentence that is finally managed to be unravelled, making his body run ice cold. 

The buzzing of the flies is suddenly so overwhelming, becoming the only noise that Satoru can hear – he finds himself thankful for a moment, finally being spared of the voice that sounds like iron dragging against concrete, but he realizes that it’s him waking up. His body becomes weightless, but his arms immediately reach out, hands grasping at nothing as he tries to claw through the air to your body. 

“ WAIT! ” He finally manages to shout, followed by desperately screaming your name, feeling his throat go raw. The flies are starting to surround his body, trying to take him away from his dead body lying along the stairs – but then his dream finally allows his eyes to focus on them, and they’re not flies. 

It’s hundreds of paper birds, ones that he used to see when he read children’s fairytale books. They’re semi-humanoid paper creatures, off-white in colour with a round circle as their head, with rectangular wings sticking out, and the rest of their figure angling inwards, turning into a sharp, acute point, forming a pointed tail. A representation of the body and mind of something that shouldn’t exist. 

“Wait, WAIT! Please!” He shouts your name again in distress. 

He’s not sure what he’s begging for, but he manages to push through the paper birds just enough to put his entire strength to take a few steps forward. I’m the strongest, he repeats to himself over and over again. I should be able to rip these things apart. Just when his hands brush against your shoulder, the birds seem to multiply in numbers, the buzzing turning into intense static ringing through his head. I’m the strongest , he thinks again. I’m the strongest. 

“ Let me go !” He screams over the sound of the buzzing, swatting a paper bird away from his face, but it doesn’t stop others from flying into his ears, up his nostrils and into his mouth, making him gag and choke. He feels them move violently under his skin, making his cheeks burn as he feels them slash and break it, blood drip- dripping down his chin slowly and smearing across his face from the chaos. 

Satoru’s hand manages to clasp around your bicep, but it’s too late. The swarm manages to break his hold on you as they take the white-haired man’s breath away, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as he feels his grip on the nightmare slipping. The imagery fades, the looming shadow being the last thing he can clearly make out as the overwhelming sound of paper birds turns into the familiar one of his alarm clock going off. 

Satoru’s body jolts away, cold sweating spread all across his body, his clothes sticking to him uncomfortably. His hand immediately slams down on the alarm so violently that it smashes into pieces, but the urge to purge the contents of his stomach overshadows the dull pain throbbing in his hand. 

He runs to the washroom, nearly tripping over his legs before spewing everything up into the toilet. The nausea hits him more intensely as he feels the chunks of food creep up his throat, the acidic taste of bile overwhelming his taste buds and the intense smell invading his nostrils. His back heaves from the force of it, muscles tensing up tightly. His sweaty forehead presses against the porcelain seat as he tries to catch his breath, thick spit pooling from his lips and onto the cold bathroom floor. Once he feels stable enough, he raises himself on shaky legs, going to the small sink to rinse his mouth. As he bends down to drink the water pooling in his hands and swish it around in his mouth, his mind can’t help but remind him of the intense buzzing of the swarm of paper birds, almost as if they’re really there with him in the waking world. 

He reassures himself that it was just an incredibly vivid dream, that absolutely nothing can go wrong in the waking world. He is safe, and you are alive and well, probably already waiting with Shoko for him and Suguru to show up to class. It was simply a nightmare , nothing more, and nothing less.

After rinsing his mouth properly, he raises his head, his muscles becoming impossibly stiff. 

The buzzing returns tenfold. 

The hand around his neck is back.

The voice speaking in tongues is distant, but definitely there. 

And a familiar shadow looms behind him. 

[misty-doodles]

AIB Executive Board found family HC's 2

He ho here are the last 4 of my exec fam. I decided not to do Arisu, but he is in my heart. as a reminder, this is a dysfunctional family unit, so there is some angst ahead.

This time on the board; Hatter, Ann, Niragi, and Lass boss.

-hatter is the fun dad. Hides the best alcohol in his room,

-also didn't intend to adopt a haggle of emotionally stunted 20 somethings', but here we go

-oh, is absolutely still gay for Aguni, but respects their friendship enough not to push it. Would 100% play matchmaker with the other execs and be fantastic at it (read this for whatever ship you desire)

-special spot for Arisu, as a fellow heart player. It is in the 'I can make him worse' kind of way, though, so this causes some grief with Aguni

-the person you go to for hair care tips, and nothing else. Can't cook for shit and would probably give you food poisoning. 

-Makes sex jokes, and every time someone covers Arisu's ears

-his slow descent into madness makes everyone sad, bc they know he's a good guy at heart. Everyone can see how the beach is slowly poisoning the humanity of those who run it, but they wouldn't have met without it. It's a sad reality the executive board face.

-Does like Niragi (again not in a good way) but they have an animosity between them. They both care for Aguni, and neither can express that properly. 

-Ann is the only one with her own brain cell, and she waves that above everyone's head.

-The older sister of the group and laughs wherever people find out she's like almost 30. Gives 'when I was your age' ironically but in a deadpan tone. Vibes with Chishiya the most bc he can be quiet.

-Wears shades all the time because she's shit at maintaining eye contact. 

-She and Mira are girl-buddies, and will sit and whisper during meetings whenever the disaster duo start arguing. 

-She likes to paint her nails different colors every day of the week, and has successfully gotten hatter, Mira, Lass Boss, and Kuzuryu to wear it as well.

-she wears heals to spite Chishiya, who is 5'5 in (1.65 m) elevated sneakers. They have peak sibling rivalry, thank you.

-the exec board likes to play 'is this woman Lesbian, Straight, or Aromantic?' bc with Ann it is honestly a toss up. (again, read this as you desire)

-Hates Niragi with her whole body, since she's quite close with Usagi. They don't get a long at all.

-Niragi is the most detached from the family unit. They all (reasonably) give him grief for the bad things he does around the beach, and he's too proud to apologize or, ya know, stop so here we are

-Being given a gun was the worst possible choice, and Hatter and Aguni both know it made him a worse person. He was a normal asshole with anger issue before, and since joining the militants he's become…. Well…

-He is a game engineer nerd at heart, tho, and will occasionally go off on a 20-minute tangent on something game related. The exec's find this side of him very cute.

-Although he doesn't care for other's lives, he's usually the one who can find loopholes in games that would allow for the least amount of deaths. He doesn't say this, ofc, but he does know it.

-Best friends with Lass Boss, and is the only one who gets first name privileges. They sometimes vibe in comfortable silence when no one else is around. Lass boss knows the most personal facts about him, and his silent acceptance is why Niragi likes him. They're platonic soulmates, no romance, thank you.

-Actually really likes Arisu and wants him around, but doesn't know how to do that in a healthy way besides making him as fucked up  (i.e removing Usagi from the picture). On a good day, they can have a semi-civil convo about games and be nerds together. 

-Has the most respect for Aguni and views him as a sort of father, but won't acknowledge that for shit. He knows hatter is what makes Aguni sad, unintentionally or not, and that's why he hates the man so much. Aside from the fact he's a bad leader.

-Lass boss is certainly neurodivergent, you can decide in what way

-A dyslexia journalist, (he just like me fr)

-Doesn't talk much, but agreed to be a chill militant with a stabby stabby obsession. Aside from that, probably the least problematic militant. Still not great, but really they're all different flavors of 'please seek help'

-Would have an in depth discussion on certain books with Kuzuyu, and they'd be very analytical. 

-Respects Kuina for her fighting skills and the fact she can do it in a bikini

-Gender? Fuck if Lass boss knows or cares. He/They/it pronouns, but you'd only know from context clues. Literally never came out, people just figured it out. 

-Would rather die than obey the swimsuit rule, and hatter has come to accept this.

-Is one of the few exec members who can cook, and since Niragi can bake, they're a functioning unit in the kitchen.

-(ha i did this all without using third-person singular pronouns without even trying)

[just-some-guy-joust]

ah, right, forgot the subs were anon!

i had two essays, one about rain world artificer and one about looks to the moon. with looks to the moon, i delved a bit into the backstory of the iterators to explain their function and emphasized how she can't actually die and described how she spent several cycles drowning yet undying

for artificer, i described her in terms of how she's shackled to the cycle of violence and discussed how both endings keep her tied to that cycle. idk if there were any other arti subs tho so mine might be the only one firjfjej

Thank you I know which ones are yours now! Here they are for those who'd like to see :D

Artificer:

Artificer was once a mother to two children that she loved very dearly. One made the mistake of accidentally stealing a pearl from a tribe of fickle, pearl-loving creatures called scavengers, and the scavengers gave chase, killing one child and causing the other to be drowned while Artificer watched. Neither returned to the cycle, likely being too young to be beholden to it yet.

Now, she seeks vengance on her lost children's lives, enough to become combustive and corrosive in her own right, slaying scavengers ruthlessly and mercilessly. She traps herself in a cycle of violence and is shackled to the karmic sin of it, even in the gameplay. Echoes of those who were too attached to the world to ascend beg her to let her vengance go, but when given the keys and access to the king of the scavengers she has to make a choice.

Should she brave the Metropolis ravaged by scavengers, she will burn the mark of violence on her soul and trap her eternally into an endless cycle of bloodshed and killing and outright genocide.

Should she make the pilgrimage to all the echoes and try to atone for her path of vengance, that lingering thread of hate binds her to the world, leaving her to become an echo herself.

No matter which she chooses, she's trapped in a cycle of violence and hate and is unable to break free of it whatsoever. All she can do is spill more blood.

Looks To The Moon:

Moon is an iterator, a sentient supercomputer in a world of perpetual death and rebirth, one of many built to find a permanent, risk-free death for her creators at the cost of massive amounts of water to cool their internals and dispose of slag buildup. This causes the eponymous rains. Her neighbor, Five Pebbles, was built with the same water source as her due to him being newer and restrictions being loosened on building, since her structure wasn't outfitted to house an entire city's worth of people.

She and Pebbles, alongside all iterators, were left with no purpose in their lives.

Another iterator, Sliver of Straw, is the only one confirmed to have died and released a triple affirmative (the solution has been found, the solution is portable, the solution is universally applicable), which sent many iterators into a frenzy to learn what she had found out, including Five Pebbles.

He'd gotten an idea and started triplicating his water intake, depriving Moon of water. After multiple failed attempts at communication, and even a forced communication that disrupted Pebbles' work enough to doom him too, she and her superstructure collapsed not long after.

I think she's doomed by the narrative because there is nothing we, as any player character, can do at any point in time to stop her collapse. We can certainly help by offering her some resources, a power cell, and Hunter's payload, but she'll never return to full power. She'll be stuck in an exposed chamber, drowning in the rain cycle after cycle. And in the end, when even Pebbles collapses, the only peace that can be fully offered to her is ascension that had been denied her by her very creators. She is a character not obsessed with dying or death the way others are, but her outlook can be a bit bleak and grim on her future. When we talk to her, her memory is patchy and fuzzy, and even when we restore some of her power, her abilities are severely limited in what she can do to help herself.

[recitary]

Best Ultimate Graphics Card in 2023

Before Continue Reading Please Do Visit Our Website Recitary.com

Thank You

The Ultimate graphics card is, without a doubt, Nvidia’s RTX 4090. Subjectively, you should assess the benefits and drawbacks of investing $1,500 or more on a GPU. It is not suitable for everyone. That’s why we’ve been evaluating every new GPU from Nvidia, AMD, and now Intel to identify the best card at every price range. The outcomes may surprise you.

There are lots of new cards to chose from for the high-end player. Nvidia’s RTX 40-series is headlined by the RTX 4090, which is a beast of gigantic proportions. No, truly, it’s enormous. Then there’s the RTX 4080, which we think is a little costly, and the RTX 4070 Ti. The RTX 4070 Ti isn’t as inexpensive as we’d like, but it’s more affordable than Nvidia’s best for a 4K capable card.

On the other end of the spectrum, there isn’t much new to report. Neither Nvidia nor AMD have announced their next generation of low-cost desktop GPUs. Intel has entered the fray with two more inexpensive graphics cards, the Arc A770 and Arc A750. These two Alchemist generation GPUs are now even cheaper, as are AMD’s more outstanding budget graphics cards, such as the RX 6600 and RX 6650 XT.

We recommend avoiding the high-end RX 6950 XT and RTX 3090 Ti cards these days, since they are being pushed out by similarly priced newer choices. We also don’t suggest Nvidia’s budget GPUs, such as the RTX 3060, right now because AMD and even Intel have them beat on pricing. However, many RTX 3060 gaming PCs are available for a low price among the best prebuilt gaming PCs(opens in new tab), and they are typically excellent value for money, so all is not lost.

1. Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090

SPECIFICATIONS  

Shaders: 16,432

Base clock: 2,235MHz

Boost clock: 2,520MHz

TFLOPs: 82.58

Memory: 24GB GDDR6X

Memory clock: 21GT/s

Memory bandwidth: 1,008GB/s

REASONS TO PURCHASE

Excellent generation-on-generation performance

DLSS Frame Generation is a miracle.

Extremely fast clock speeds

AVOIDANCE REASONS

Massive

Pricing for the most ardent fans

Non-4K performance is limited.

High power requirements

Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090 Ultimate graphics card is everything but modest. It’s a huge giant lump of a pixel pusher, and while some more curves have been added to what may otherwise appear like a respin of the RTX 3090 shroud, it retains the novelty Ultimate graphics card style.

It appears to be a semi-satirical plastic replica created to mock GPU manufacturers for the ever-increasing size of their cards. But this is no model or moon; it is the forerunner for the whole RTX 40-series GPU generation, as well as our first taste of the revolutionary Ada Lovelace architecture.

On the one hand, it’s a great introduction to the kind of extreme performance Ada can deliver when given a long leash, and on the other, it’s a slightly tone-deaf release in the midst of a global economic crisis that makes launching a Ultimate graphics card for a small, well-heeled minority of gamers feel a little strange.

But we couldn’t disregard it in this list to the top GPUs since, as of now, there’s no alternative to the RTX 4090 that can compete with its performance. It’s unstoppable, and it’ll stay ahead of the competition now that we know AMD’s highest performance graphics card, the RX 7900 XTX, is an RTX 4080 contender.

This is a massive GPU with 170% more transistors than the incredibly little GA102 processor that powered the RTX 3090 Ti. And, for the most part, it renders the previous Ampere generation’s flagship card obsolete. That’s before you consider the equal parts magnificence and black magic that underpins the new DLSS 3.0 iteration, which was created just for Ada.

Read More

Okay, see, it’s quick. The RTX 4090 is significantly quicker than the RTX 3090 when everything is switched on, with DLSS 3 and Frame Generation performing their magic. The direct 3DMark Time Spy Extreme score is double that of the large Ampere core, and even without ray tracing or DLSS, the raw silicon provides twice the 4K frame rate in Cyberpunk 2077.

There’s no doubting it’s an ultra-niche ultra-enthusiast card, which reduces the RTX 4090 to little more than a reference point for the vast majority of PC gamers. We’re then left counting out the days when Ada drops into our price range, which has yet to materialize despite the release of the RTX  4070 Ti.

The RTX 4090, on the other hand, is a Ultimate graphics card that will fulfill the performance needs of anyone willing to spend $1,600 on a new GPU. That is, unless they are inconceivably wealthy gamers or video providers unwilling to go all-in on a Quadro card. And it will sell well since no other GPU can compete with it right now.

2.Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070

SPECIFICATIONS

Stream Processors: 5,888

Core Clock: 1,920MHz (2,475MHz Boost)

Memory: 12GB GDDR6X

Memory Clock: 21 Gbps effective

Outputs: 1 x HDMI 2.1, 2 x DisplayPort 2.1, 1 x USB Type-C

Power Connectors: 1x 16-pin

REASONS TO PURCHASE

Supports 4K gaming with DLSS

Awesome 1440p gaming

Narrow form factor

AVOIDANCE REASONS

Price increase of -20% over RTX 3070

At best, native 4k performance is adequate.

Useless 16-pin connector

The Nvidia RTX 4070 follows up on one of the finest graphics cards of all time, the RTX 3070, and improves on it in almost every aspect. From gaming performance to synthetic benchmarks, I exhaustively tested these two cards and discovered that the RTX 4070 was sometimes 40% faster than its predecessor in some titles, yet the RTX 4070‘s magic eventually averaged out to an average performance boost of approximately 21%.

And, despite a 20% price increase over the RTX 3070 MSRP from the previous generation, the RTX 4070 performs so wonderfully that you can only shrug. With gaming performance at every resolution capable of competing with the Nvidia RTX 3080 and RTX 30870 ti — the latter card boasting an MSRP double that of the RTX 4070 — there’s no doubt that this is the finest graphics card on the market right now. 

3. Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti

SPECIFICATIONS

Stream Processors: 7,680

Core Clock: 2,310MHz (2,730MHz Boost)

Memory: 12GB GDDR6X

Memory Clock: 21 Gbps effective

Outputs: 1 x HDMI 2.1, 2 x DisplayPort 2.1, 1 x USB Type-C

Power Connectors: 1x 16-pin

REASONS TO PURCHASE

Outstanding gameplay performance

A fantastic “budget” creative workstation GPU

The most affordable next-generation graphics card on the market

AVOIDANCE REASONS

There will be no Founders Edition.

DisplayPort 1.4a is the only standard supported.

12GB VRAM is insufficient for 8K gaming.

If you’re looking for pure value for performance, the Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti is easily the greatest GPU you can purchase right now. You get most of the greatest features of Nvidia’s flagship GPUs of this generation without the excessive price tag thanks to third-generation ray tracing cores, fourth-generation tensor cores, and superior Nvidia Lovelace architecture.

Nvidia is quick to stress out how much quicker the RTX 40-series is with DLSS 3. As previously stated, produced frames are not the same as “real” frames, and therefore increase input latency. It’s not that DLSS 3 is poor; rather, we prefer to compare non-enhanced performance, and in terms of feel, we’d say DLSS 3 enhances the experience over the baseline by 10-20%, rather than the 60-100% seen in Nvidia’s performance charts.

That’s not to suggest the Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti is cheap, since it isn’t, especially considering there is no Founder’s Edition card available at Nvidia’s MSRP. For this SKU, you’ll need to acquire a third-party card, which can cost far more than the MSRP. Still, if you can locate it at a fair price, this is without a doubt one of the greatest graphics cards you’ll ever come across, and it will serve you well for many, many years to come.

4. Radeon RX 6600

SPECIFICATIONS

GPU: Navi 23

GPU Cores: 1792

Boost Clock: 2,491 MHz

Video RAM: 8GB GDDR6 14 Gbps

TBP: 132 watts

REASONS TO PURCHASE

Efficient use of energy

Runs at 1080p max settings and 60 frames per second.

Typically, it costs around $200.

AVOIDANCE REASONS

Unsuitable for ray tracing

Only 8GB VRAM available

The Radeon RX 6600(opens in new tab) takes everything nice about the preceding 6650 XT and reduces it significantly. It’s around 15% slower overall, and somewhat slower than the RTX 3060 (in non-RT games), but it’s still 30% quicker than the RTX 3050 in our tests. Prices have creeped back up to $225 right now, however we’ve seen it go for just over $200 in the last several months, so perhaps price will go again.

It’s still a lot less than AMD’s stated $329 MSRP, which felt a little excessive at launch — not that those prices were actually seen in substantial numbers until after Ethereum mining finished. However, with cards already coming much below MSRP, this is the second greatest overall value for the buck, trailing only the RX 6650 XT. If you’re not interested in AMD’s or Nvidia’s new extreme(ly expensive) GPUs and just want a good mainstream solution, this is a wonderful alternative.

Read More

The RX 6600 competes in the midrange Ultimate Graphics Card market against both the RTX 3050 and earlier generation RTX 20-series and GTX 16-series GPUs. In our tests, it delivered near-RTX 2070 performance, at least in non-ray tracing settings. When ray tracing is enabled, it suffers horribly, barely achieving 30 frames per second in our DXR test suite at 1080p medium and lagging Nvidia’s RTX 2060 by 20%.

If you’re not concerned with ray tracing, the RX 6600 is well worth considering. AMD’s Infinity Cache saves what appears to be a fairly anemic GPU, and the card only requires roughly 130W, significantly less than comparable GPUs. RDNA 3 GPUs are unlikely to hit the sub-$250 pricing threshold until mid-2023 or later; Intel’s yet-to-be-released Arc A580 is the only significant potential rival on the horizon.

5. Radeon RX 7900 XT

SPECIFICATIONS

GPU: RDNA 3 Navi 31

GPU Cores: 5376 (10,752)

Boost Clock: 2,400 MHz

Video RAM: 20GB GDDR6 20 Gbps

TBP: 315 watts

REASONS TO PURCHASE

Ample quick VRAM

Now available for $100 less than the MSRP.

Excellent for up to 4K rasterization

AVOIDANCE REASONS

Slower in DXR games.

At debut, the MSRP was excessively costly.

As the cost of cards from earlier generations continues to grow, we are left searching for the best alternatives. AMD’s new RX 7900 XT(opens in new tab) performs better in rasterization than the RTX 4070 Ti(opens in new tab) (above), but falls short in ray tracing games; fortunately, the extra $100 in MSRP has now almost disappeared. In addition to receiving all of the most recent AMD RDNA 3 architectural changes, AMD also offers cost parity.

AMD also doesn’t scrimp on VRAM, offering 20GB. This is 67% more than the rival 4070 Ti. Another possible benefit is that, unlike its larger sister, the reference 7900 XT cards did not have any vapor chamber cooling issues, so you may pick one of them up without fear of an RMA wait.

You won’t receive DLSS support, and while AI tasks may be handled on AMD GPUs, performance can be noticeably worse at times. Because RDNA 3’s “AI Accelerators” employ the same execution pipelines as the GPU shaders, FP16 or INT8 performance is only twice that of FP32. That’s more than adequate for AI inference, but in terms of pure AI number crunching, it only equals a modest GPU like the RTX 3060.

Read More

AMD made a lot of fuss about their new breakthrough GPU chiplet design, which might be a game changer… in future generations. For the time being, GPU chiplets (opens in new tab) appear to be more concerned with cost savings than with enhancing performance. When you consider that the die sizes of the AD104 and Navi 31 GPCs are identical, but AMD additionally had to add five MCDs, you can see why the Navi 31 was meant to be the more costly card. Nonetheless, performance still advantages Nvidia’s 4070 Ti overall — and that’s before DLSS and DLSS 3.

But what else are you planning to purchase? Prices for the RX 6950 XT, 6900 XT, and 6800 XT are wildly changing, and supplies may run out shortly. If you’re going to spend $500 or more, we’d rather pay a little more for the newest generation hardware than get anything that’s more than two years old.

How Do We Evaluate the Best Ultimate Graphics Card?

To determine pure graphics card performance, remove all additional bottlenecks as much as feasible. The 2023 graphics card testbed includes a Core i9-12900K CPU, MSI Z690 DDR4 motherboard, 32GB Corsair DDR4-3600 CL16 memory, and a Crucial P5 Plus 2TB SSD, as well as a Cooler Master PSU, chassis, and CPU cooler. (We’re in the process of upgrading results with our new 13900K system, but we still need to retest approximately 20 graphics cards.)

We ran tests at the three most common gaming resolutions, 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, with’medium’ and ‘ultra’ settings at 1080p and ‘ultra’ settings at 4K. We use’reference’ cards for all of these tests wherever feasible, such as Nvidia’s Founders Edition versions and AMD’s reference designs. However, most midrange and lower GPUs lack reference versions, and in such circumstances, we can only evaluate factory overclocked cards. In such circumstances, we try our best to identify cards that are close to the reference specs.

Read More

We use the same testing technique for each graphics card. After running the game, we perform one pass of each benchmark to “warm up” the GPU, then at least two passes at each setting/resolution combination. If the two runs are almost identical (within 0.5% of one another), we use the quicker of the two. If there is a significant disparity, we repeat the test at least twice more to assess what “normal” performance should be.

We also examine all of the data and search for abnormalities, so the RTX 3070 Ti, 3070, and 3060 Ti will all perform within a limited range – 3070 Ti is roughly 5% faster than 3070, which is about 5% faster than 3060 Ti. If we observe games with apparent outliers (i.e. performance is more than 10% higher for the cards just indicated), we’ll retest whichever cards are exhibiting the anomaly to determine what the “correct” outcome would be.

Due to the amount of time necessary to evaluate each GPU, updated drivers and game updates that might impair performance are unavoidable. We retest a few sample cards on a regular basis to ensure that our findings are still valid, and if they are not, we go through and retest the impacted game(s) and GPU(s). We may also add games to our test suite in the future year if they are popular and amenable to testing – for our selection criteria, check our what constitutes a good game benchmark (opens in new tab).

Additional Shopping Suggestions

Consider the following before purchasing a Ultimate Graphics Card.

• Resolution: The more pixels you push, the more performance you will require. To game in 1080p (opens in new tab), you don’t need a high-end GPU.

• Power supply: Check to see if your power supply(opens in new tab) has enough electricity and the correct 6-, 8-, and/or 16-pin connector(s). For example, Nvidia recommends a 550-watt power supply for the RTX 3060(opens in new tab), as well as an 8-pin connection and maybe a 6-pin PEG connector. The newer RTX 40-series GPUs use 16-pin connections, although they all come with the appropriate 8-pin to 16-pin adapters.

• Video Memory: A 4GB card is now the bare minimum; 6GB cards are preferred; and 8GB or larger cards are strongly advised.. A few games can now take use of 12GB of VRAM, but they are still the exception rather than the rule.

• G-Sync or FreeSync? Either variable refresh rate technique will synchronize your GPU’s frame rate with the refresh rate of your screen. While AMD’s FreeSync technology works with Radeon cards, Nvidia supports G-Sync and G-Sync Compatible displays (for recommendations, see our list of the Best Gaming Monitors.

• Ray Tracing, DLSS, and FSR: Ray tracing is supported by the newest Ultimate Graphics Card and may be utilized to improve visuals. DLSS offers intelligent upscaling and anti-aliasing to improve speed while maintaining picture quality, however it is only available on Nvidia RTX GPUs. AMD’s FSR works on almost any GPU and also supports upscaling and improvement, but only on a handful of games. DLSS 3 with Frame Generation and Intel XeSS have joined the party, each with a distinct subset of supported games (DLSS 3 also supports DLSS 2 compatibility for non-40-series RTX GPUs).

For more Articles Visit Recitary.

[alsjeblieft-zeg]

286 of 2023

Created by troy5

Where do you hang your towel to dry after showering?

On the heater in the kitchen.

What kind of mouse pad do you have?

I don’t use a mouse pad these days, but I do have one, from ACV. It’s green, just likre the colour of the union.

Do you brush your hair with a comb or a brush?

My hair is too short, I don’t need it.

In your opinion, who do you think is the hottest celebrity?

I don’t care about celebrities.

You have a project due tomorrow, do you use tape or glue?

What project? Sounds childish to me.

Chicken or pork?

Pork is disgusting, chicken by default.

By the time you get to school, is it still dark?

I’m not even in school anymore.

If you had a choice to be a unicorn or mermaid which would it be?

No.

What color is your underwear?

Grey.

What time does the sun usually set?

It depends on the season eh? I live in the part of the world where the length of the days varies according to the season, plus in the same time zone as the countries 1000 kilometres east to me, so we have the same hour, but here the sun sets one hour later.

What/who do you think of last before you go to sleep?

Whatever is on my mind at the moment.

AC or fan?

Old European houses don’t even have AC, it’s not something normal here.

Do you wear braces?

No, I don’t.

Can you do a hand stand?

No, I’m disabled.

If you were the opposite sex, how would you style your hair?

Probably the same way as I do now.

What level English are you in?

I’ve scored C1. I’m fine with that, given that English is not my native language.

Jessica Simpson or Alba?

No.

Which subject is worse, English or Math?

English is a foreign language to me. Neither is better or worse.

What's one thing you really want to do this very moment?

To visit my parents.

What movie are you embarrassed to admit you've watched?

I don’t watch movies. Boring as hell.

CD player or iPOD?

Neither.

Would you rather spin upside down going 30 miles or drop 400 ft. into water?

I’m not familiar with imperial units.

Whats your favorite shape?

Tesseract.

What do you have planned for the weekend?

Nothing, unless my husband has something on his mind.

Have you ever gone ice skating?

I was going from school, I hated it.

If you were put in a room with nothing except for a pencil and paper, what

...what?

Is it always easy finding your remote every time you want to watch TV?

Not always, especially when my husband uses the TV.

How was your day?

Fine, thanks. I had a free day, so I went to Roeselare, and then to the sea.

Do you grow your nails, bite or cut them?

I bite them because I’m nervous, but I don’t like long nails, too.

Describe your handwriting:

It highly depends on what kind of pen I use. I write “b” and “u” in a different way than most people.

Do you consider yourself a stalker?

No, but I like to observe people.

Do you bruise easily?

Very easily. My veins are visible, but frail.

There`s nothing on TV except Barney and Japanese news what do you do?

Listen to the music.

Do you know more then 3 myspace codes?

I don’t even use myspace.

You got a essay due, you either can type or write in pen, which will it be?

Type, it’s faster.

Do you wear jeans to relax at home?

No, I don’t.

Describe yourself using three words.

Non-judgemental, anxious, loving.

Do you use deodorant?

Always. I even think I use it too much sometimes.

Do you like ice in your drink?

In summer, maybe. But generally no.

[daviddshiki]

The Adventures of David Dashiki-Story of an African American Hero-Let the Past Be the Past

LET THE PAST BE THE PAST...If only it was that simple. There is the SIMPLE past. From there it gets a little complicated. Americans will confess that English is one of the most difficult languages to speak. There is ample evidence from the sports world. However, there are scholars who speak English as it was part of a communication’s crapshoot. The mixture would be delightful in a salad., but horrendous in conversation. The most corrupted area of English expression is the use of the past participle. What’s that? Precisely! There are significant numbers of the American population who have never heard of it. You can call Continental Press and purchase copies of its middle school grammar series or just lend an ear to the brilliance which follows. First and foremost, I must give a resounding shoutout to Mrs. Sophie Pasternak, my high school Latin teacher. It was she who stated that God sent us to the class of Latin to learn English. So True! 

It was in those intellectual and arduous classes of Latin translations that I perfected the art and science of flawless English expression I was not aware of it then, but in the past years, I realized that what Sophie said was true. I was the only person on the planet earth who spoke in past participles. Well, that might be an exaggeration. However, I have noted that many people  have come to regret the fact that they were not taught by Sophie. The celestial voices ringing in my ears - A choir conducted by Mrs. Pasternak, have encouraged me to lead on the path of eloquence. Some past participles are sung, begun, worn, written, given, forgotten and seen. These verbs are sweeter when accompanied by an auxiliary verb. They are frightened by loneliness. They are introverts and are powerless without association.  What am I Daddy Dashiki saying ? Begone today are those phrases of maleloquence and inarticulation such as...He had wrote...He had sung that song previously...How many dishes has he broke with that last fall? 

More past participles...Take your medicine willingly. It is the castor oil of grandiloquence...drawn, drunk, driven, fallen, eaten, done, blown, become, run, been, rung. Imagine, you are at a wedding. You are summoned to speak words of glory and glamour regarding the newly-weds. Your tongue is tied. You are sweating profusely. At least you know that you won’t fuck up the verbs, the past participles. This grants you enormous power and you deliver the best wedding speech known to mankind.

It is a matter of choice. I have had encounters with individuals who refused to correct themselves after improvement was offered. I got that glance of , “ Who the fuck are you to correct me? Who are you, asshole, the verb police? “  It was at that moment I retreated.  He was right. Who gave me the right of correction? No One !. I believed I was being helpful. However , most of the grammatically challenged persons were offended by my crushing corrections.  Were they offended while using the incorrect verb. Not at all

Finally, It is would  be most inconsiderate of me not to be your benefactor for more grammatical preoccupation for 2023. There are many indefinite pronouns which are always singular and require agreement with a singular verb...Here presented is a list: each, each one, someone, everyone, everybody, either, neither, anybody, somebody, nobody, anything, nothing. More? You query. Yes!!! Everything, none, one. Here comes the verification. Someone has to prepare his own lunch...Everyone wants mayonnaise , yes? Nobody is better than everybody, Damn it !!!

In addition, let the excruciating pain continue with collective nouns: band, stack, cast, galaxy, choir, colony, team, litter, group, batch, 

The team with the most skilled players wins consistently.

Wow! The choir is sincerely melodious this Sunday. 

Well! You are on your own now. I wish you a grammatically glorious NEW Year. You need not thank me immediately. Tell me next year how you fared with these grammatical insights...Amen !!!

[sage-nebula]

The thing is, despite having similar colors to Chara (similar but not the same), Kris is actually very different from Chara, and the Snowgrave Route really puts that under a spotlight.

In Undertale, Chara very much wanted you to do the murders of the Genocide Route. While the player is still responsible for their own actions in that route, Chara urges the player on at the save points (reminding you how many murders there are left to go in each area), ditches if you miss any murders (the save points return to normal), is the one to land the killing blows on Sans and Asgore (you don’t choose to attack, the game does it on its own) and the one to slaughter Flowey (again, you have no control over that), congratulates you on a job well done and calls you a good partner if you agree to give up your SOUL and destroy the world. While Chara does call you out on your “perverted sentimentality” if you choose to recreate the world and go through with another genocide run, what they’re actually referring to is the fact that you’d want to bring the world back at all (and then keep it if you refuse to erase it the second time). Chara emotionally abused Asriel while alive, attempted to carry out premeditated murders while alive, encourages and helps you complete a genocide run postmortem, and then destroys the world whether you want them to or not after said genocide run is completed. Chara was 100% down for getting stabby in Undertale, even if they needed you (as the one controlling Frisk) to be a willing partner in order to see that come to fruition (until the very end, when they’re able to attack Sans, Asgore, and Flowey on their own).

In contrast, we don’t see any of this behavior from Kris. While we are told by multiple people that Kris is “weird,” Kris’ weird habits are akin to things like disappearing for lengths of time, piling garbage on their head, eating moss, and waking up in the middle of the night to eat whole pies by themselves. In chapter one, the first time Kris moves on their own is to defend Susie from an attack. While they rip out their SOUL and pull out a knife at the end of that chapter, it’s revealed that the only “damage” they did was eat an entire pie on their own and create the library fountain. Further, while it’s clear that they’re not exactly the happiest teen around (they’re enthusiastic when they tell Queen they choose to perish, they’re deadpan when they say they love games, much of their search history relates to how much they miss Asriel and can’t wait for him to come home), we also see that they do have a softer side; they get their feelings hurt when Noelle pranks them back with the lightning field if the player chooses to prank her first (because they didn’t choose to prank her, yet are the ones that took the punishment for it), they’re decidedly Not Okay with what went down with Spamton, and they miss their brother fiercely as mentioned before. Kris is sad, but not violent, and this is further evidenced by the Snowgrave Route itself if you choose to go down it.

While Kris is never given the opportunity to speak, after Noelle leaves the party (post Berdly’s murder) and Kris reunites with Susie and Ralsei, Susie notes that Kris looks strange, and Ralsei wonders if they’ve been hurt. There’s some banter about how Susie can heal now, but that’s not the important bit. The important bit is that Kris’ facial expression is one of pain. They’re not happy about what just went down with Noelle and Berdly. Further, when Noelle talks about the experience later, she says that the voice she heard was not like Kris’. This falls in line with how panicked and scared she was earlier in the route, when Kris was forcing her to freeze puzzles and murder people. The fact that Kris was being so violent was unlike them. Kris was always weird, sure, but they were never violent. They didn’t want this. They didn’t like this.

So while Chara is 100% on board with stab happy murder times in Undertale’s Genocide Route, Kris is 0% on board with the freeze happy murder times in Deltarune’s Snowgrave Route. If anything, Spamton is the Chara of the Snowgrave Route; he’s the one who reminds you of how many enemies you have left, he’s the one who encourages and gives you what you need to continue forward. You’re still the one who initiates the routes in both cases, you’re the one who carries them out, and you’re in charge of your own actions, but Chara and Spamton are there to cheer you on and give you what you need to complete them. Frisk, Kris, and Noelle are just the unwilling victims.

[spamtonology]

Hi, my mind has been wondering about how deltarune fandom mischaracterise spamton and make him completly another character for some reason

like i seen some people make his og form very tall, or completly get rid of his voice glitch (Which could be caused by not knowing how to write his glitch which is totally understandble tho), which are very small things to change but personally i think that still changing so obvious things about him is quite... Not in place, because there are just some aspects of characters that MAKE them their own characters, and taking it out of them is either "yeah i dont like that im going to change him So hes exacly to my likings now" or just making completly diffrent character

This also implies about how fanbase either treats him as

1. only joke character, that never intended to be anything else by that, which is very weird cause spamton plays quite important role in dr's lore

2. Too sad/scary character, spamton is totally intended to be goofy weirdo making every Player laugh, skipping it just to him being sad and obsessed about neo is Just not it!

3. Child some sort, where he cannot do a single thing himself and needs help, which is incredibly ableist, but i think this topic has been totally talked about already

Sorry for ramble/rant, but its quite common thing i noticed about deltarune fanbase and spamton, and wanted to know others opinion about it

Thank you for this ask! It’s a great one, and gives me a lot of room to talk, so it goes under a readmore. You do not need to apologize for your ask, feel free to ramble away anytime! I greatly appreciate it!

As usual I want to put in a disclaimer that ultimately, the only person that 100% knows Spamton is his creator, Toby Fox himself. All we as fans can do is interpret and speculate based on what evidence is given in the game, and as is fandom tradition, we can put in headcanons, alternate universes, and more to flesh out his character. All of this is perfectly fine and normal for fandom, however there comes a drawback in fandom, especially when we are met with a “tragic villain” type: woobification. The TVTropes link provided explains it well.

Let’s address your ask itself:

Making Spamton in his original form tall (in this case over 6′0″/182.88 cm, the average height for an adult cisgender man) appears to be a purely aesthetic, stylistic choice and is harmless. I do prefer him short (specifically 4′8″/142.24 cm), but there’s nothing problematic or offensive about changing his height. If you don’t like that, it can be safely ignored.

The voice glitch is another one...I think there’s nothing wrong with substituting the in-game text style for an easier-to-read format to make it accessible for screen readers and visually impaired people. As long as you can tell it’s Spamton, it’s fine. Here’s an example from my fic:

Original: “WH4T?” He set the spoon down, “S0METHING 0N MY [Hair Dryer]?” 

You can see how that would be difficult for some people to read. If I so desired, I would probably change it this way:

Revised: “What?” He set the spoon down, voice warbling in-between glitches. “Something on my--” He stammered, ad-speech taking over his voice yet again, “H-hair dryer?”

It makes the sentence a little longer since I have to translate this text in a descriptive way so the reader understands which part is the bracketed one. Again, nothing wrong with substituting the text in a way that stays faithful to Spamton’s character.

It would only be an issue if the author actively chose not to use the bracketed text because they dislike it greatly, or they want to “cure” his speech impediment. The latter stems from a rather ableist trope of curing a disabled character’s disability and therefore erasing that representation.

As for being unsure how to write his voice, there are some posts on Tumblr, and there is his Wiki page that you can look through for reference. While you might never get it 100% perfect and neither will I, looking through these references can help a lot.

As you said, these are minor examples compared to some others, but they are just as valid as the more major issues with the fandomization of his character!

Now, on to your list:

Points 1 and 2 work well together, and could easily be combined. People need to understand while he is not purely a joke character (example, The Original Starwalker is a pure joke character. Sorry, fans, but he is), he is also not purely a tragic and scary character that the player must fear. He is meant to be funny, but he is also involved in a big part of the plot even as a “secret boss”. Some of the greatest villains in fiction are, indeed, those who manage to be both hilarious and terrifying.

(Yes, he is, per traditional definition, a villain. noun: villain; plural noun: villains 1. (in a film, novel, or play) a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot.)

People should not forget that a large chunk of his character is based around internet meme culture; KEYGEN is the most obvious (for those who do not know, it is a reference to a YouTube Poop, and it involves rapidly flashing lights which were much toned down on Spamton’s sprite), and Weirdmageddon has made the connection to internet personality Dril, whose tweets seem eerily similar to how Spamton speaks. Pipis is essentially kid-friendly Viagra.

However, in point 2 there’s a slight mistake, his obsession with NEO is crucial to his character arc and the overall story. While flanderization can happen, you can’t “skip” to him being simply obsessed with NEO, it’s a core of his character and cannot be avoided. It would actually be problematic if you ignored this point of his character (Exceptions being alternate universes and post-recovery situations).

As is true for many of Toby Fox’s other characters, he is multifaceted. He has nuance, and reducing him to one or two traits does Toby’s work a disservice. It is definitely difficult to balance out his character the way Toby manages to do, but it’s not impossible.

 The best way to figure it out is to do research using canon material (fanon is extremely unreliable, even the best fanfiction, and my own humble one, gets a few things wrong), and practice some writing using his character, put him in specific situations and see how he would react according to canon characterization.

The infantilization point has been the most oft-discussed issue with how the fandom treats him, correct, and I’m always happy to discuss it. Not only is it ableist in treating him like a child who is unable to take care of himself (when he displays many symptoms of severe mental illness), it also ignores many other facets about his character, which is so explicitly adult (In the sense that this is a man who was at his peak in 1997 and speaks/behaves distinctly like an older man with severe mental illness, not at all like a child, or even young.)

 However, there is a distinction to be made between this ableist infantilization of his character being helpless, and the very real possibility of being unable to take care of yourself due to mental illness. The latter is something that happens in real life, and people whose Activities of Daily Living are impaired deserve just as much respect and understanding as any other person.

Going by my experience in the fandom. I come to the understanding that some people do not address this disability/impaired ADL aspect and rather focus on making him act like a child and force him in situations that would only be appropriate for small children (See, the personally infamous rubber ducky scene from a fanfiction I will not name).

People who are mentally ill may act irrational in the perspective of non-mentally ill people, and from there comes the harmful stigma that they are equivalent to, or must be treated like, children or wild animals. Great care must be taken to avoid these stereotypes which I already see used so often on Spamton.

This does not include symbolic animal traits such as birds; the bird motif is symbolic of his want of freedom, for example. But while I can make an example for the animal side, I cannot make any example for the child side. There is absolutely nothing to his character that implies a childlike persona, not even his short height.

Spamton can be alluded to being like a bird without being treated like an animal, but in my opinion there is no excuse for infantilizing him.

While you apologized for your “ramble”, I started my own! This may be the longest I have written an answer, and I’m willing to discuss with other people over this, whether agreements, disagreements or additions. Let me know if there is anything you’re still confused on.

[brightoakgame]

how would the Forster sibs react when they catch another one developing feelings for the player character?

Hi, and thanks for the ask! 💞 Do you mean how would they react if they themselves also harbor feelings for the player character?

I'll preface by saying the default player character name is Kit (it is changeable!), and that in the game itself, following a specific story path does not require triggering a romantic relationship with that character. More emotionally intimate scenes offer the option of either engaging with the character as a close friend or as a romantic interest, with a roughly equal amount of content between each variation! I did this in part because I wanted there to be an option for ace and aro players that didn't just mean cut content, and also to offer a choice for those who might want to be buddies with a character and follow their take on the story, but not necessarily smooch them.

For your question, then--

Both Forsters would back off immediately if they got the sense that the other one was interested in Kit. Neither have been very successful with romantic relationships in the past, as John has some pretty deep insecurities that hold him back, and it simply hasn't been a priority for Marybeth. As fractious as the relationship between the two can be, though, they've each got the other's back, and will move heaven and earth to make their sibling happy, if it's within their power to take action. Aaaaand then they'll end up having a spectacular fight when it's clear they're both making way for the other, while Kit has no idea why the Forsters are even more than usually combative.

As for the rest of the characters-- while I don't think they would back off quite as immediately or completely, if either of them got the sense that Patti or Sparrow was serious about Kit, they very well might in the end. It's a tightly-knit group, and I don't think any of them would want to allow budding affection for the newcomer to create a rift with a lifelong friend, particularly given the rather dire circumstances the town is already facing.

The closest to resulting in outward drama is if the other party involved is Jasper-- though in that instance John and Marybeth would be trying to get Kit clear of Jasper regardless of their own feelings, because Jasper is so very good at making friends wherever he goes~~ 🙃

As for how they react if they’re friends with Kit, and notice their sibling is interested? ...well, I don’t wanna spoil it, so I’m afraid you’ll have to wait and see. ✨

[nightlight-firelight]

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long wait! Art block (Or writing block?) is the worst and I’ve been busy. I’m also trying to make this a gender neutral story and I’m not too experienced on this so hopefully I’m doing ok so far! Now with that out of the way, on to chapter 2!

“Falling (in love) So Fast That I Can’t Even Think!”

Chapter 2

You take a second to realize that he was holding you a bit tight around the waist, and the silence of the tension began to build every second that neither of you moved.

“Hi?” You ask him. You mentally smacked yourself in the head for that comment. At this point of view, you can see that the, now real and very handsome doctor, eyes were a shade of blue that could take your breath away and-

“Oh, um,” Eggman studdered out a bit softer and less confident the what you have seen him in the show. “Hi.” He finally decided to look around at his predicament and examined your room.

“Where am I?” Eggman finally pulled you back onto the bed, creaking slightly from the unexpected new weight. Your mind finally snaps back into reality as the warmth from his hands fades from your hips, already missing the connection he had. You need to relax, and not freak out the poor man sitting on your bed.

“You’re in my room.” You finally managed to push the words out of your lips. His face turns to confusion and worries at all of the merchandise of not just his universe, but the main Sonic series as well. His mind mostly likely wandered into a ‘crazy fan’ mode and tried to back up. You perk up and lean back slightly, making sure to not fall off the bed this time, but also give him some space to relax. Ivo’s movements began to quicken as he still backs up, almost falling off the other side of the bed. He catches himself and looks at you with a face of slight panic and worry.

“What’s all this? Who are you and what-” You cut him off with a hand slightly raised, signaling to calm down and to relax. “Breath, please. I won’t hurt you.” You promised him as you instruct him through a breathing exercise. After a small bit of confusion between the two of you, you lead the poor man into your living room, hesitantly on his part, and led him down on your couch. Just walking into your kitchen to grab two white ceramic mugs, you hear him clear his throat.

“So, what’s going on?” You can feel his gaze on you as the first mug is filled with hot liquid, the steam coming from the filling mug as your brain thinks of what you should do. You switch mugs, taking out his mug for yours. You take a breath.

You’re in my house, and not in your multiverse.” Finally giving him some type of answer as his, at this point, huge bear paw-like hands, envelope the mug and took a small sip. You went to grab your mug as he commented on the choice of beverage you had given him.

“Hot Cocoa?” The question you as you at on the opposite side of the couch, holding what you liked to think, that at this moment was your liquid courage. You take a small sip and taste the liquid pooling into your body. You almost blush as you remembered the ‘CowBot’ episode where Eggman offered Sonic and Tails hot coco and messed with them, waiting for his machine to arrive.

“I thought you might like it.” You confess as he stairs back into his cup, pondering on his whole situation. He takes a breath and looks at you.

“Can you explain to me how I may have gotten here?” All you could do is nod as you start the long trek into the explanation of who is and on all of your knowledge on how he may have gotten here.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

The next few hours were, as you expected, emotional. You had to start with who you were, where he was, and leading him into the conversation that may or may not have caused way too much emotion for the both of you.

“So the main series follows Sonic and his friends, but mostly Sonic, throughout his adventures fighting his version of the doctor. There in the form of games.” He takes a sec and has a look that tells you to keep going. You explain all the story of how the franchise came to be from the nineties till the game you were kinda worried about. Sonic Adventure 2. You tell him the basic plot points and slowly explain how the Main Univers Doc’s Grandfather died along with his grandchild, Maira. He winces when you explain this and see that he’s shaking whenever the two popped up. When you explained that Shadow was made by his Grandfather, his mood perked up and he getting giddy and you have to admit, his cute squeal of figuring out that somewhere he could be related to one of the most powerful people on his island. You smile and after his cute reaction, keeps the conversation going with more information about the franchise. By the time you had reached the current point of the history of the franchise, the man had a lot of questions.

“So let me get this straight,” Eggman’s posture was lax as he was leaned back into the couch, making himself more at home for the time being. “You’re telling me that the main version of me has released a water monster god, a prototype of Shadow, that is a giant lizard, a god within the earth that’s made of darkness, and tried to play with time and space like it was a toy?” He questioned as he took another sip of his now lukewarm cup of cocoa, stroking his mustache pensively, looking at you for a reasonable answer on why he would do so. “Well the BioLizard thing wasn’t truly his fault, but the rest were planed. And I’m saying ‘planned’ with quotes because I don’t think for a second that he thought a few of those through.” You chuckle at the main Doc’s decisions. While you did think his plans were really good, sometimes you think he may have never really thought things through before going to start his plans. Doc downs the rest of his drink as you realized that your cup is still half full. He sets it on the counter in front of the two of you and leans back into your couch. You smile at the thought that he’s finally warming up to you. In all reality, he could take you down with a swing of his fist and run anytime, but having him trust you this much to serve him a drink and have a nice conversation did bring up some fuzzy feelings you have been trying to push down withing the last few hours.

“So I’m still confused, how did I get here?” Doc asks as he cracks his spin a bit to relax better. You take another sip of your dink and set your cup down. You look him in the eye with a bit of confusion. “I’m not sure. I just watch the DVD and you were the one to start seeing me, after the ending of your battle with Sonic and Tails, that white light appeared and you grabbed me before I fell off my bed.” You look towards him and blush a bit, your face now warm from the memory of the save. “Thank you for catching me, I don’t think a concussion would have helped the situation now, would it?” You try and make the small joke appealing to make it less awkward. He blushes and nods, a small ‘no problem’ slips from his lips as you can see he’s trying to not make eye contact and his cheeks, just slightly visible under his mustache, a small bit of warmth wraps around his cheeks. Your brain gets hit with a moment of clarity and you jump up from the couch and take a second to grab your DVD player from your room, bringing it back to him to study. “I’m not sure if this would help you get back home,” You start, “ But it’s a start.” You also hand him the note that came with the box along with the Sonic figure. He takes the figure first and rolls it over a bit, looking at the detail.

“So this figure and the note came along in the box with the DVDs?” He asked as he set the figure down as he grabbed the note. You blush and remember that wasn’t the only thing in the box. You almost had forgotten the figure of the living breathing man in front of you. You ask him to give you a second and hurry back to your room. Searching the room, you almost give up on finding the figure, until you spot it halfway under the bed. You bend over and grab the figure and examine it. It’s still the same figure, but less detailed now. It actually looks like how one of the box set figures is. Cheaply made and having a missing paint splotch here and there. It still was a good-looking figure though, just not as best made. You start your very slow pace back to the living room, taking a small bit of time to think about something. The Sonic figure was still the same as it was before the doctor arrived, why did the doctor change-. You stop mid-way in your hallway to finally piece a big puzzle together. The figure of the doctor was some type of catalyst for his arrival. Like a gateway to get here. ‘And now that the figure is back to normal, does that mean that the Sonic one-’ You didn’t finish that thought as you hurry back to the living room, the doctor just putting the not back onto the counter. He looks up as grabs the DVD player and sets it onto his lap. He smiles as you enter the room.

“ Hey, you ok?” He asks you as you sit back down next to him, gently grab the Sonic figure, cradling it with some care.

“I’m ok,” You answer with some melancholy in your voice. “It’s just that I’ve been thinking of something that just came to me.” You look over to him, Doc staring back, patiently waiting for you to continue. You take a breath and look him in the eyes. “The box set also came with a figure of you as well.” You explain as you gave him the small toy, his face going into a slight pout over the quality as he looks it over.

“I’m much more handsome than this.” He sulks over the craftsmanship of his figure compared to the one in your hand. You pat him on the back with your free hand, feeling him tense for a sec and then relax. You giggle at the line, remembering it from the 30th-anniversary comic. Your mood lightening up a bit at his reaction. “It was actually just as well made before you appeared in my room.” You explained as you rub your thumber gingerly over Sonic’s quills. Your mood dampens a bit. “I’m really thinking that the figure was the way-”

And a giant flash of white engulfed both of your eyesight. You scream as you feel a sense of weightlessness as you clutch the figure closer to you. Opening your eyes after that flashbang of light, as see that you’re in. You blink and take a look around. You try and gain a scene of where you were as you feel like you were falling down. You see Eggman trying his best not to scream as he is also in the same predicament as you. You look at this ‘tube’ as you decided to call it and take a look a the warping walls. They move with colors that remind you of the goop In Super Mario Sunshine. The colors of yellow, magenta, and white mixing together and making the whole experience feel like a trippy dip around a pipe. The tube had some slight aura to it as it was some type of fuzzy feeling in the back of your spine, not good but not unpleasant either. You look down past your now slightly screaming partner in crime to see a large warp ring that looked something right of the Sonic movie, looking to land right over some type of woods. You realized from the rate your accelerating from and the height from the ring to the ground would lead to more than a few broken bones.

Holding your breath and snaping your eyes closed as you wait for the pain to hit, the now cool air of the new land you arrived on pools into your skin as you want to feel at least a bit of joy knowing that right at the end, you feel cool. You never did feel the ground but instead a pair of arms holding you and the sensation of rocketing back up. Opening your eyes, you see Doc holding you again, having been lifted from the ground by two sleek black jetpack type of wings protruding from the back of his jacket. He looks down at you with a smirk and chuckles a bit.

“We have got to stop doing this.” He’s sarcastic, and the potential way of flirting, way of teasing sends you a bit more than tomato red in the face as you wonder if it’s the altitude of the comment that making it hard to think right at the moment. You almost didn’t hear him as he starts to talk.

“It looks like we’re flying over Seaside Island Jungle.” He starts to explain. “I’m going to fly us back to my lair and we can figure out from there what’s going on.” You look over his shoulder for a brief second to see the portal closing and finally dusting away with a puff of gold sparks. Looking back and see a breathtaking view, seeing the full grand scale of the island from up in the clouds. You can even start making out at sever locations from both seasons. You only think of what’s going to happen next when you see golden sparks emulate from your closed hands and feel a heavyweight in your arms and Doc quickly getting down to the ground, getting to be just at the end of ‘Nameless village’ as your reflexes grab on tightly to what you were holding onto. You both look down and see a very unconscious Sonic the Hedgehog in our arms. You look him over and inspect the teenager and see that he’s breathing, and in an ok shape. You look back at Doc and even he’s surprised by this addition to the group.

“Is he ok?”You question him as he gives Sonic a once over. You getting used to finally landing on the ground, stretching your legs after that small adventure.

‘He’ll be fine after some rest, but he looks exhausted.” Eggman questions as you scoop Sonic back up into your arms, being careful of his quills, making sure you don’t end up looking like a human banana peel. You look over at Doc and he looks like he’s, and you have to look a bit more closely at his expression because he looks, jealous? You ponder on that thought that the man might be jealous of the unconscious blue blur as the both of you set off into town, wondering where to go from here.

“Hey!” You hear a cry from in front of the, three? of you. You look up and see four multi-colored anthropomorphic animals. “What did the two of you do to Sonic?” Cried the two-tailed Kitsune. You see all three, with the exception of Amy, who at this point is trying to stop the trio, of Sonic’s friends close in around you. You give a panicked look to Doc as it dawned on you that Doc and yourself were about to be attacked by Tails, Knuckles, and Sticks.

Shit.

[mountain-man-cumeth]

What Went Wrong: An In-Depth Analysis of Muriel's Route

*Youtuber voice*

Below are the opinions of an uneducated individual on what could’ve left the majority of The Arcana audience dissatisfied. I will explore the plot, tropes, themes and morals of the Muriel route and try to explain what may have gone wrong. I will be treating the game as a novel since it's advertised as one.

1. Consistency. If you are unfamiliar with the chekhov's gun; it's a story writing principle that dictates each element you introduce should come into play (foreshadowing). Now let's start with a few story beats that were later abandoned or concluded in an underwhelming manner:

Muriel's blanket

Muriel's magic mark (on his back)

Forest spirit (spirits in general)

Lucio's upbringing

Circumstances of MC's death

Figurines/whittling/charms

Muriel's blanket is teased to be a tapestry, which would tie in with his later fascination with them later on, as it had been the only thing he had left from his past. MC neither sees nor comments on the blanket, we only know it exists thanks to other playthroughs and short stories.

Magic marks are an important point in the game. Every main route emphasises on how it affects the chosen LI. It's reveal is important in a way that it serves as a passage to a new act where the reader explores magic and Arcana pantheon as they are a monumental part of the overall worldbuilding. This exact point applies to the Heart of the Forest and how spirits interact with the world around them as well.

Whittling and Charm making are the only hobbies we get from Muriel's isolated life, their introduction helps the reader humanise the character by giving us a crumb of his everyday life. It's never mentioned again after the scene where MC asks him what he does. He doesn't idly whittle during their journey and charms only come to play in an offhanded reference during reversed ending.

The other two are also ignored but I will touch on Lucio later on.

Why do these matter? A few abandoned plot points don't make or break the story but on a grander level it hinders the audience investment. When we read, we like to think the details we notice will come to play eventually, we like recognizing references that were introduced earlier. I'm sure I don't need to give examples on this one, I don't think anyone will disagree.

2. Themes. Thematic influences this story utilized are all over the place, and it seems to me like it stems from the improper application of certain tropes;

The Hero's Journey

Home Sweet Home

Shell-Shocked Vet

Last of His Kind

etc.

Some of these tropes tackle themes such as;

Slavery

PTSD

Survivor's Guilt

Genocide

I'm not going to try to explain How to Write any of these topics. I'm not remotely qualified. I think it's better if I just give examples from popular media because whether you know how to write it or not, you can still understand when it's written well;

AtLA deals with genocide and survivor's guilt. It's in the name; The Last Airbender. Aang is the sole survivor of a culture he'd only had an opportunity to engage in for a handful of years. He left them with a childish tantrum and now they're gone forever. I can't think of another mainstream series that shows the gruesome reality of war and genocide better than this one.

When Muriel realizes his true heritage and loses Khamgalai is the point of the story where Luke sees his family's farm burned down, Aang goes back to the air temple, Treebeard walks in on the demolished part of the forest. (The inciting incident)

(Could also have been forest spirit’s death but it was too early in the story so I don’t consider it a missed opportunity.)

Up until this point the hero has their doubts, they're going through the motions but they are either underestimating the enemy or they're a passive protagonist. Either way, this is the point where the hero has to take the reins of the story. What purpose does this serve in Muriel's route instead? It simply validates Muriel's beliefs. He's useless, he isn't strong enough. We as the reader need a point to see where the hero takes a step to drive the story forward or whoever takes that step will steal the spotlight, it will be their story. As it is, this is the point where it ceases to be Muriel’s story.

PTSD got the worst end of the deal. Since Dragon Age fandom has a huge overlap with the Arcana I will use Fenris as an example; for those who are unfamiliar with the character, Fenris is an escaped slave. After the sex scene he vividly describes an experience that most people can easily identify as a flashback. The game never tells us that he was abused, it doesn’t show us him having a panic attack but it shows us that whatever transpired between him and the player character clearly triggered an unpleasant memory.

Arcana tries and initially succeeds to do something similar. We see that the character is untrustworthy, sensitive to touch, easily agitated, can’t sleep outside of his perceived safe environment… It introduces us the cause later on and the story has two options, each will drastically change the moral of the story:

Remember these as they will be important later on

Portray Muriel fighting as a bad thing; You can’t fight violence with violence angle or the fact that the villain’s forcing him into a situation where he’ll have to fight again makes the villain all the more intimidating.

Portray Muriel fighting as a good thing; He has the means to defeat the villain and he just needs encouragement. With great power comes great responsibility. By not fighting he willingly condemns everyone to an awful fate and that he is selfish.

I’d like to take a second to explore the 1. Option, I feel like the game may have intended to implement that idea but failed because of the implementation of Morga and choices presented for the player character: Morga is an Old-Soldier, these characters are often push the hero out of their comfort zone in an aggressive way towards complacency, they are a narrative foil to the mentor. For the first option to work the story had to show Khamgalai acting as a mentor and having the protagonists challenge Morga’s teachings(see Ozai-Iroh). As it is, Morga’s actions are never put under scrutiny (narratively) and her death feels hollow as a result. She didn’t sacrifice herself for the heroes due to her guilt, she died because she felt a moment of sympathy for her son which wasn’t explored before, she showed no intention to change nor any doubt.

It is clear the game choose 2. Option, it is a controversial choice given Muriel’s mental condition and the game is acutely aware of this, which is likely why Muriel’s PTSD will get carefully scraped from the story from here on out. (I won’t address other instances where his trauma wasn’t taken into account, I feel like this explanation should cover them as well.)

3. Morals. Every story, whether the author intends it or not, has a moral. The Villain most often acts against that moral and in turn can change the hero's perspective. Morals are not ideals; the morality of Killmonger isn’t that marginalised people should fight for their rights, it is that vengeance is just. Whether it’s right or wrong can be debated but what makes an ideal the moral of the story is in the portrayal. How the narrator depicts the events, how people around the heroes react... all are a part of portrayal.

The story choosing “Muriel fighting is a good thing” earlier puts in the foundation of a moral. The story tells us Muriel has to fight, it’s the right thing to do. He has to be brave for the people he loves.

This choice affects how his past actions will be perceived; now, him escaping the arena to save himself is cowardly, abandoning Morga is cowardly.

The story tells us it wasn’t, but shows us that it was. This is the end of the midpoint of the story, at this point we need to have a good grasp on what we should perceive as wrong or right for us to feel invested. If we zig-zag between the morals we won’t know which actions we should root for. But more than that, the conclusion will not feel cathartic as it will inevitably demonstrate the opposing ideals clashing at its climax.

Villain doesn't necessarily have to be sympathetic and Muriel's route makes no effort to make him as such, but they need to be understandable. What danger does Lucio pose to the status quo, what makes him a compelling villain? Whether he conquers Vesuvia or not doesn’t drastically affect Muriel’s way of life, he’s been in hiding for years. He doesn’t threaten to steal MC’s body, Muriel is not compelled to pick up arms to save his beloved. He wants to protect the people from going through what he’s been through, right? That is what the story wants us to think. But what has he been through? Fighting was his choice, Lucio tricked him into it. Lucio later tricked Morga, his own mother, to save his own hide. This tells us that Lucio is a manipulator, but he doesn’t manipulate his way into Vesuvia, he barges in with deus ex machina monsters. He doesn’t demonstrate his skills as a tactician by making deals with neighbouring kingdoms to get their armies. We don’t know his strengths therefore we don’t know his weaknesses. If he seems to be losing he can just conjure a giant dragon to burn everything down, we just can’t know. That is why the application of deus ex machina is highly taboo, the victories don’t feel earned and defeats feel unfair.

4. Tone. Playing with the genre is not uncommon and a game such as Arcana has many opportunities to do so. It is a romance story, everything else is the back-drop. The tone works best when its overall consistent but tonal changes act as shock for the audience to keep them engaged and keeping one tone indefinitely gets us desensitized. We can’t feel constant misery if we are not made to feel tinges of hope in between. Good examples of dramatic tonal change (that I can think of): Mulan - arriving at the decimated village, La Vita e Bella - the father’s death, M*A*S*H - death of Hawkeye’s friend. Two of these examples are mostly comedy which is why this tonal shift affects us so, it was all fun and games until we are slapped in the face with the war going on. There are no one liners in those scenes, the story takes a moment to show appropriate respect to the dead, it gives its characters time to digest and come to terms with loss. Bad examples are the majority of Marvel movies.

In Muriel’s route there’s never such a thing, Muriel has a panic attack and MC kisses him. This unintentionally tells us, the genre being romance, that the panic attack only served to further MC’s advances. It tells us that he’s never had the control of his life and it’s yet again stripped from him by the decisions of player character. This is not the only instance this happens. The story shoe-horns in multiple cuddle sessions between important plot beats. And it does the exact opposite during a moment where he is having a heart-to-heart with the person he loves by having the ghost of Morga appear to give an ominous warning/advice.

When he runs off during masquerade it’s built up to be an important plot point. Muriel will finally face his past, he’s been running away from it all along, and he will have an opportunity to be accepted back in. MC is supportive but ultimately, it’s meant to be Muriel's moment. But as I mentioned above this is not his story anymore so he’s not given any time to address his problems, instead a ghost appears to tell him what he needs to do, again. Because we need to wrap the story up, we don’t have time.

Remember how I said the 2 Options will be important later on, well here we are at the very end. Upright and reversed.

“Portray Muriel fighting as a bad thing”

This suggests that the triumph of Muriel won’t be through violence. Maybe he will outsmart Lucio in a different way, he won’t play his games anymore. This option suggests that Lucio will not be beaten by his own terms.

“Portray Muriel fighting as a good thing”

This option concludes with Muriel finally overcoming his reservations on violence and doing what's right to save the people he loves. And bringing justice to people who Lucio hurt.

If you are wondering why the upright ending feels random, this is likely why. The ending plays out as if the story was building on the 1st option while we spent chapters upon chapters playing out the 2nd one. It is unearned.

(The reversed ending, being reversed, also uses Option 1 path but in which Muriel can’t achieve his narrative conclusion)

The Coliseum is filled with people who are on their side against Lucio’s shadow goons. Because we can’t have people being on Lucio’s side without addressing the duality of human nature, even though it’s an important part of Muriel’s story. The people who watched and enjoyed Lucio’s bloodsport are no more, they are all new and enlightened offscreen. We completely skipped the part where Vesuvia comes to terms with its own complacency and Muriel simply feels at ease because the crowd is cheering on him now. This is what happens when you give the character a chance to challenge those who have been complicit in his abuse (masquerade scene) and completely skip it to move the story along.

Muriel doesn't get justice, ever. The people only love him now because he's fighting for them instead of his own survival. Morga or her clan doesn't answer for the massacre of Kokhuri, Vesuvia doesn't answer for the sick entertainment they indulged in and Lucio doesn't answer for Muriel's enslavement. It is not even acknowledged, nowhere in the story (except the very end of reversed ending, and even then it almost gets him killed so its clearly the wrong thing to do on his part) is a choice presented where Muriel has an opportunity to get any sort of compensation where he instead chooses to move on.

I don’t intend to straw man anyone but this is a sentiment I’ve seen a lot; “It’s a short story, a dating-sim, what do you expect?”

I expect nothing, I’m simply explaining why some people feel how they feel. It is a short dating-sim but it seems to me like it was aiming to be something more by borrowing elements that were clearly far above their weight range to tease something more and under deliver. It is okay to feel content with the story, and it’s okay to feel let down. If we had a unanimous decision on literature we would never be inclined to write our own stories.