#no but all jokes aside this game has consumed my life

[fireflower117]

breaking my silence to say that this is how i feel about hit rpg in stars and time rn. i am so incredibly normal about this game idk what you’re talking about

[forgienersgod113]

I wanna talk about the basic overview of some things that have sprouted in my brain about these characters. I know you won’t agree with me, I don’t care if it’s canon, argue with the wall. I’m having fun.

Head canons:

- Jeff is a 19 year old asshole. Embarrassed often by his situation which translates into him acting defiant and hostile. When he first ended up at the house he was 13 and terrified, they had to drag him kicking and screaming. Efficient at his work, not a precision killer, more like he’s so good because he’s a tireless motherfucker. Aggressive and sloppy kills. No specific rituals, bro is not telling you to go to sleep. Major insomnia, sane on a whole but has extreme periods of mania, still able to work under these conditions but the kills get more hysterical. Has a cheepy Brooklyn accent and gets genuinely angry if you make fun of it. Chews beef jerky like it’s gum and hates company most of the time. Has a short fuse but usually knows when to walk away before he gets himself in trouble with the boss for fighting in the side yard. That shit can cost you your life in this industry.

-Toby is 17 and he wakes up every day in a new hell. The other two proxies call him “the kid”. He hates it. “I have a name you know”. Very bipolar, spends a month not talking, smiling, eating, or sleeping, and then spends the next 30 days cracking jokes in the kitchen. An immaculate aim with his hatchets. He knows them like they’re an extension of him. An undeniably horrendous crime scene every time. He was raised in a house full of women so he naturally has a much easier time being cordial with women. He can be extremely hostile and brash. Nobody is exempt from the moods that take him under. During dry spells of his depression he hardly moves his face when he talks. All around not a particularly malicious character, he definitely has a dark underbelly but his intentions aren’t usually bad, aside from victims and assignments. He doesn’t feel pain, his nerves are busted, so he has trouble regulating his temperature and other cues as well. Can run until he passes out, and fast. He bolts through the woods tirelessly and evrey single time he will gain on you. He has episodes of extreme grief for his life, his family, his dignity. During which times he’s so consumed with pain that he forgets to find himself hungry, or numb from the cold.

-Ben’s age is lost to time, and he is a rarity. This line of work is dirty and weathers the soul over time, but Ben seriously acts like he hasn’t seen a day of it. He cackles down the hallways at his own jokes and while his personality is refreshing, he can be childish as well. He’s nosy, passionate, and well versed on any subject you could ever be curious about. He can get hostile if he feels like he’s been wronged. Which he often does. All over the black market, all day. He serves mostly security because while he does kill, it’s over a game, and his specialty is driving his victim absolutely, whole heartedly insane. He’s a keeper of information on everyone in the house, he watches the woods like a hawk. And his ghostlike nature is honestly quite terrifying. Takes his job very seriously. Like too seriously.

[androids-insides]

Another thing I’d like to explain! What can I say, I like explaining things ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Todays explanation is on my theories (I guess?) on, you guessed it:

The Stanley Parable!

(I like other things, I swear! I’m just very irrationally afraid that everyone who follows me won’t like the other things, so I usually don’t post about it :,] )

A summary, so I don’t lose your attention, is that I like to think that most theories are correct! Now, allow me to explain! (Yes there will be pictures)

Put in different terms, all endings are “cannon,” in what they imply. For example,

This is a helpful and much needed picture of Stanley and The Narrator.

From here, the story could go anywhere! From following directions, to jumping out a window, anything and everything is on the metaphorical table.

This is the Confusion Ending. Here, The Narrator had a story and a point to it all, but has lost his control to a yellow line^tm and self-contradicting revelations.

One of the few examples where The Narrator has no control. The story, the parable and the outcomes are all at someone, or something, else’s command. This is currently cannon.

This, however, is the Countdown Ending. Here, everything had gone exactly to plan, aside from Stanley’s last decision. The Narrator, seemingly on a whim, rewrites the ending in a moment, and has the omnipotence to detonate the entire facility.

At this point, The Narrator is in control of everything. Nothing stands in his way from destroying both Stanley and the story’s outcome. There is no question of who or what has altered the story, as it is most certainly The Narrator himself. This is currently cannon.

If that understands it, then let it be. In some endings, The Narrator is the only one who controls the story, in others, control is left to someone/thing else. In some Stanley has a wife and a kid, and in others he’s just a boring no-body (or, no legs at least). In some The Narrator works the boring office job and created Stanley to entertain himself, in others Stanley miraculously became part of a dark and twisted game that both gave his life meaning and took it away.

On a cosmic scale of “what is the parable and where did it come from,” I honestly think there is no real answer. It’s lazy, I know, but hear me out:

Think of it as Past, Present, Future. We, as spectators or consumers, know very clearly where the story currently is. As well as that, we know several of the ways that it ends. We know it started at some point, is currently existing, and will stop existing after that loading screen, right?

Each ending answers the burning question of “what about before this?” However because of the inconsistent variation, there can’t really be a solid answer. We arrived at the middle of the story, where Stanley works in a big office building and decides to try and figure out where his coworkers went. We don’t know how long Stanley and The Narrator have been in this loop, as it is, you can play The Stanley Parable as many times over as you want. Therefore, the beginning can really only be where we know the story picks up, which is at a time where there is no definitive answer of What came first, The Narrator or The Stanley. A question that no one can truly answer.

It’s sort of like the concept of Gender Fluidity, in a way. Where however the person feels that day is their decided gender, is as to however The Parable ends is how it begins. In conclusion, The Stanley Parable plot is a close second Gender Fluid icon, right behind Nimona.

Joking put briefly aside, I think The Parable is just a huge concept. Did/can/could Stanley talk at some point? Maybe. Isn’t The Narrator supposed to be the ���physical” representation of divorce? Probably. Is The Narrator a figment of Stanley’s imagination, or the other way around? Who knows. All I can guarantee, is that the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never

[theoneofwhomisblue]

Maybe following 3,000 people isn't great

Because I fucking hate scrolling through this fucking site now

I'm not even joking, I fucking hate this shit

This site sucks ass

Also if this post has less than 10 notes in 3 hours I'm deleting it

I know this is completely my fault. I also don't give a fuck

I'm too tired to curate my page to be decent for me

I'm so fucking tired

This site sucks ass

Reddit sucks ass

Tumblr sucks ass

The Internet fucking sucks

Google is constantly bitching at me to pay for more space in my account cause I habitually download every Tumblr and reddit image resulting in 13 gigabytes of bullshit

I fucking hate this

Anyway

I'll find better stuff to post tomorrow

Or not

I don't know

I'm so fucking tired

Kill myself

What the fuck do I do with my time now? Is there another site or app worth my time?

Tumblr's ass, I'll still use it but it's dogshit

I'm too tired to even do reddit anymore

Twitter is fucking disgusting and gets worse by the day because of dipshit mcmusk

And that's all that comes to mind

YouTube is constant background noise, but the algorithm there is fucked up too

I hate every video thats recommended to me

I'm not doing fucking tiktok

I don't care about my standards anywhere else, but no fucking tiktok

What else is there now?

Oh yeah, I can't comment on webtoon because I accidentally said fuck in a comment, so all the fun community stuff there is gone now too

All the webtoons suck ass anyway

The only fucking app that hasn't disappointed me is cookie clicker

Been playing it for like 400 days

I make continual progress

I just check in every two days to pop the wrinklers

Then after a month or two on a run I check in after a week

Until my legacy points start to plateau, then I reset

And get all the upgrades I can afford

Buy 5 grandmas, then 90 more, then as many more as I can afford that'd a multiple of 100

I do the same on everything else

Except the fractile engines, which I buy as many as possible, no matter the multiple

And buy all the items

Then at that point I start the research facilities, then start one, and check back in 30 minutes until I've researched them all

Then I top off the fractile engines and leave for a day

Then check every day, popping the wrinklers until a week in, then every 2 days. Then after a few months once every week

Then I do it all again

And spend all the legacy points on the upgrades I can afford

It's rewarding you know

Consistent anyway

Unlike reddit and Tumblr and Twitter and YouTube and everything else, it doesn't fuck me over on the algorithm whatever the fuck

Reddits decent for the porn, that's all

You know, I used to use a lot of sites for porn

Dozens and dozens of sites bookmarked

Then at some point I started to only use r34 reddit nhentai, and occasionally the good ol hub

I didn't use to have accounts, I'd depend on my memory for different images and accounts and artists and comics and shit

Then I made accounts on r34 phub reddit e6 gelb nhentai and half a dozen others

And started saving things

It used to be a fun game to try to remember

Now it's gone

But I'm too tired to continue that anyway

Anyway, same shit everything else as with the porn at this point

No variety

Nothing fun

It's all annoying bullshit

With the Advent of machine learning chat bot whatever the fucks, there's a little bit new

But aside from that, it's just the same thing every day

I'm so fucking tired of living like this duxe

The fucking internet used to mean something

Now it's just the boring status quo bullshit

And I know that it's because of me

But still

It fucking sucks

I don't want to do this shit

And I spend like 10 hours a day on the Internet too

More than ever

But I'm not happy

Barely entertained

But it kills time

If I need information, porn, music, videos, whatever elze

Entertainment

I get it

But I'm not happy about it

It's shitty

I feel like shit

Like, my life outside the internet is decent. But the Internet consumes so much of it, and I don't even like it anymore

I don't know if there's a fix

Or if I should just stop being so online and shit

I'm too tired to do anything anyway

I don't know

I take pride in what I achieve for some reason

But as soon as I get the imaginary goal point, I don't give a shit

Over a year I got a shit ton of reddit karma on a new accoutn

A specific number, that I won't say to keep myself from seeming like I'm trying to brag

But once I got it, I no longer cared to comment or post

Over 2 or 3 months, I don't remember, whenever 196 shut down, I got a relative shit ton of followers

Again, a specific number, but I won't say

I'll keep that number secret, cause I can

But once I got this imaginary amount that I thought I'd never reach, I didn't care anymore

I still posted as much as I did before

But I got no joy out of it

I just post, wait a few hours, then check to see how many notes

If it's an amount equal to what I think is average for the amount of followers I have, I feel kinda good, then post again

But that's it

I don't scroll anymore, except occasionally on my followers profiles when I accidentally click on them while looking through my new notes

And I enjoy that

But other than those fleeting moments, and the small satisfaction I get from high note counts I don't care

I don't care for Tumblr or anything else on this shit

I don't know man, is this how other people do stuff on the Internet?

I don't think so, people always have strong emotions on the Internet

I emulate my internet behavior to match, which makes me think that maybe more people do the same as me

But I have no evidence

I don't know, I'm too fucking tired of this shit

I just got an apathy about the Internet at this point

Apps, sites, everything

I just don't care

But I'm always on it

It makes no sense

I should probably proofread this post as I go

This is just a stream of consciousness at this point

I won't check it as I go

Maybe I'll make this a thing

Just typing my unfiltered thoughts for like 30 minutes then posting

Depends on the notes I get

If the notes are bad I'll just delete it and forget about it

Who knows

I guess I keep trying to do that

I'll do something new on Tumblr like this

And think "oh, maybe this'll be a new thing I do" then it dies

At first it was my consistent posting of reddit shit for like a year ago

Then I stopped posting that consistently

Then it was random screenshots of mine

I even made a tag for that one

Then it died

I keep thinking of myself as someone important because of my follower count

Which doesn't make sense as it's not even a lot

But still

I don't know

My delusions of microcelebrity status are the only thing keeping me on this site/app at this point

If I didn't have that, and the fuel for the delusion that is notes I'd be gone

I did already fuck my recommended tab

And following tab

And tag tab

It's already all bullshit

I guess I can keep my narcissism about my status in this site because of the top post by notes tab on a blog

I just click into someones

And 9 times out of ten, they don't have top note counts even comparable to time

Which fuels the delusion

It's the same thing I'd do on reddit

"oh this person only has [x] karma, when they've been on reddit for 3 years. And I have triple that, and I've had this account for 6 months. I'm better"

Shit like this is what makes the internet garbage

I don't let it bleed into the theme of my posts and comments tho

I let it make me feel superior than everyone else

But if I made that obvious in any post it'd be for naught

For that reason I'm considering not posting this anymore

Whatever, this post is already super long rambling bullshit

If it gets good notes a single anecdote in it won't matter

And if it doesn't get good notes I'll delete it

Then there's no harm

I just thought of that reasoning now to keep doing this post

Cause I got sunk cost fallacy on this at this point

It was a vent thing at the start

Now it's just me trying to think mildly interesting shit to add

I guess I can use that other reasoning to post anything

If it goes bad, delete it, and no one would have saw it, and no one will, so I matters naught

And if it goes good, who gives a shit

Nothing I post would be bad, maybe cringe, maybe rambling bullshit, as this js

But not bad, so it'd be fine

I lost my train of thought

I think I was gonna say something else about what I'm posting, and how it would be fine

That's gone now

Poof, into the abyss that is lost thoughts

This does kill time tho

It's been like 40 minutes since I started this

This is basically what I do in my mind if I just let my mind run, uninterrupted

But here it's written down, with line breaks, and exact words rather than a mix of words and images and concepts

So it's more digestible

I suppose it's not completely true to say this is my pure train of thought, not just because of the exclusion of images and concepts

But also because I'm listening to music

Just enough to mild my mind so to speak

My mind is always going man, and if I don't have something to dampen it

Like music, or weird fidgety things I do with my hands (I don't know the word), or exact things to focus on, I think way too much

And spiral and shit in stress

But then my thoughts are too frantic and fast to write down before they disappear, so in a way this is as pure a log of thoughts as anything could be

You can tell the theme of how I sound now, vs at the beginning

If you don't want to scroll up you can just look at the tags

I typed them near the beginning

And haven't added to them

Nor deleted them

So you can just look slightly down to see the notes

It's not even the right topic anymore. It's still on reddit

And Tumblr and internet shit

Oh yeah, speaking of

I've just said my Tumblr scrolling is bad without specifying

But to specify now, it's like scrolling through Twitter

Weird serious discourses

Arguments

Peculiar topics

Shit like that

You know, not the Tumblr I had before

And if I don't like scrolling through Twitter, why would I be here? And that's the bind I'm in now

I only stick around anymore because of the notes, as I said

I'm back to using punctuation occasionally

Not too much, but at least some commas

No periods though, they seem too intense for a stream of consciousness thinf

Question marks too, but that's about all

Oh yeah, stuff I was talking about before

Webtoon

I shit talked webtoon

It's not too bad

I just fucking hate slice of life shit, dumb "funny" shit, and worst of all romance

I fucking hate romance webtoons

I can't stomach them

And webtoon is constantly shoving exactly those down your throat

And when my tolerance is low to begin with, and I enter webtoon, and it throws a fucking popup in my face for a dogshit new romance thing, I damn near snap my phone in half

But it's not too bad

I just read the fantasy/action/thriller/horror/drama (ones without romance shit) ones

But I can't navigate the canvas section decent at all

By design obviously, canvas doesn't make webtoon money, the originals do

But I'm too tired to work against them

So I only read originals

But at least they post regularly

I read around 70 webtoons now

Which is to say, I read the new episodes of them when they come out

With such a large selection, I have like 4 webtoons minimum updating every day at 7:00 pm

8:00 when there's time change

But 7:00 most of the timr

It notifies you at 7:30 but they update at 7:00

Except for the goblin one, which updates at like 7:20 for some reason

And the daily pass ones, those update at 8:00 for some reason

But they notify you directly at 8:00 for those if I remember correctly

Even still

I remember roughly which days are best

Tuesdays have the most, like 15 updated at once

And ones I really like too

Fridays have a handful, and the one daily pass that I read as they come out week by week

Saturdays have like 4 I really care about, then like 5 I think are mediocre, but they kill time so Saturdays are good

Mondays are ok, but that's about it

Wednesdays are kinda ass, but they're decent

Thursdays used to be amazing, but after like 3 I really care about went on hiatus, Thursdays don't matter anymore

But having like 60 (because 5-10 are on hiatus at a time) new episodes a week, divied up across the week pretty well

Is nice

Now, I did accidentally say fuck in a comment, because there was a guy shipping children and saying sexual stuff about it, then there was a reply on it from another guy defending it. So I got mad, and typed a paragraph saying why that was fucked up

But I said fuck

So I can't comment anymore

I don't know, webtoons ok tho

I was just pissed off earlier

What else was there

Oh yeah reddit

I've actually been temp banned from Reddit (like my entire account) twice for using up too much server space on bullshit

There's this thing where you type u/profanitycounter [self] and it tells you how many times youve said certain swears in like the past 500 comments

So, for a joke, twice I've copy pasted "cum cum cum cum cum cum cum cum...", The max amount of times you can in one comment (a few thousand, I can't remember), then do that in a comment chain with myself for like 150 comments in a row

And it takes me several hours, but it's funnt

But it resulted in a temp ban for 2 days

Then like 4 months later, a temp ban for a week

Cause I used too much space, or bandwidth or whatever the fuck doing that

Also I got banned from r/Barry for saying the last season was ass

And I got banned from r/notinteresting for a reason I don't fucking know

But aside from that, my accounts clean

With a shit ton of karma too

Oh yeah, I use the same username (or a derivative of it) for every porn site account I make.

If you can find it out somehow I'll give you the passwords to the accounts

I doubt anyone could, it's a different username than I use for anything else

But there's hints

If anyone cares I'll even give you a few more hints directly in a DM if you ask

Though I will be vague as fuck

Been doing this for over an hour now

I wasn't paying enough attention to when I started

I'm pretty sure I heard someone say that Tumblr has no character cap

Let's hope so

I'm too tired to continue this shit

I guess this ends it

Let me know if y'all want more bullshit like this

I, personally, always like an unfiltered look at someone mind

But that's me personally

Maybe my mind is bland and uninteresting

Who knows

I'll stick with what I said at the beginning tho

Less than 10 notes in 3 hours and this post going bye bye

I got a headache from this shit

I thought way more than I usually do

Now that I'm more chill, I don't hate tumblr

I fucked it up for me

But y'all are good

Tumblr's good

[astralartefact]

FFXIV Dawntrail Review Part 1 - Where I tell you if I liked it and also Bingo(?)

This post contains spoilers for all of Dawntrail's Main Story up until the Ending!

Hmm.

I'm a little bit embarrassed to write this. I genuinely didn't expect this. Should I have? No. I was perfectly right to not see this coming.

I really loved Dawntrail. Like. You don't understand.

I don't really rank the FFXIV Expansions (except that Heavensward is last) but Dawntrail might be up there. It's 2:00 am and I will probably delete this when I reread it when I have slept over it, but I might genuinely call this my favorite X.0 so far. (read over it and at least for now i will stand by it) (keep in mind most enjoyed =/= best and "best art" doesn't exist)

I know it won't be popular in the community, I've already known that 30% through and by the many, many posts proudly announcing that they do not like Wuk Lamat it seems like that Dawntrail truly will be Stormblood 2.0 in the eyes of the public - but what can I say, I loved it. I had a fantastic time.

There is a bunch of criticisms I've read that I disagree with. I thought the WoLs place in the story was great. What do you people mean by 'We're not the main character anymore' it has literally always been like this except that usually we don't only have one dedicated Expansion Character that gets this much of a monopoly on screentime (see Ryne) - by which I mean, are you jealous? - but also that isn't 'bad', they're allowed to do that and I liked it. also how do you go through this expansion and arrive at "we weren't the main character" - bro, everybody told us at every corner how happy they are we're here bc without us none of this would remotely work. also they literally teased the key is an azem thing clearly this is build up for something

I liked the pacing, I enjoyed the slowburn build-up of Wuk going through the nuances of her people's individual problems before turning to the actual crisis. I know people are big mad that the MSQ gameplay is mainly just Fetch Quests and Cutscenes - which is something we'll get back to - but tbh I didn't even think it was that bad? I feel like we had expansions that were far worse about it....

I also loved Wuk Lamat! I liked that she grew relatively quickly and continouosly, aside from the Seasickness Joke they repeated too often, and I was surprised how much genuinely smart and thought through things she added to the conversation. One example I remember is her bringing up that she would rather learn and fix why people are committing crimes in the first place instead of just 'adding police' - without anybody prompting her to learn that. I don't know, I just really appreciated that.

I even liked Bakool Ja Ja, there I said it. I knew people would be really mad about Wuk just forgiving him and his dad especially after the kind of stuff they did - the internet has become really weird about forgiveness the past few years especially if it's "unearned" whatever that means - but like, you guys know this is a story, right, he didn't threaten to murder someone in real life. Immersion is good and all, but you know you're playing FF14, right, a game that's 50% a Saturday Morning Cartoon, 50% Game of Thrones for a Young Adult Audience. also it's kind of necessary for the theme of the whole narrative for him to do something we 'hate' him for more than the others - and i guess i would agree that they could have written the details around it better - but what's there is there for a reason. if you want to know more that's what Part 2 is going to be for.

Which brings me back to the Fetch Quests. Listen, I'm not really defending anything here, I do agree that the MSQ gameplay could probably be a little more engaging - There's just a thing I thought that keeps coming up in other contexts too:

At which point does this become a "Consumer Problem" instead of a "Developer Problem"?

We're five expansions in. If all expansions before have been structurally exactly like this, at which point is it your problem for expecting it to be different. What I mean is, if you played four parts of a Visual Novel and then you play part 5 and complain that the gameplay is getting stale, I hope we can agree that, like, that's a you problem. If you don't want to read then why are you playing a Visual Novel.

Again, I'm not really trying to 'defend' the core issue - even Serialized Mediums, for all the security their regularity brings them, should mix it up a little sometimes and expressing that want as an audience member is completely fine with me - but I feel like this is also at least a little bit a perspective issue. Like. I'm so sorry to tell you that this is just the game you're playing. This probably won't change and it's probably better to not expect it to for your own sake - and yes, I'm so sorry but to some degree navigating your experience of this game is your own responsibility. What I'm saying is Skip Dialogue if you're bored. Farm a Dungeon. Are you guys not doing Fates on your way to a quest marker? I keep seeing people say 'I didn't fight against a single monster as part of the msq' - Well, That wasn't a problem I had, I fought constantly! There are monsters right there for you to fight! Like. Make your own fun!

Anyways, time to look at my bingo card!

(My WoL = Happened, Krile = Depending on who you ask, Sphene = Jury is still out) Certainly better than my Endwalker one!!

One thing I noticed while playing Dawntrail is how bitter exactly Myths of the Realm has made me about this game and i'm so sad!! Like, how did I forget how completely this game is made specifically for me. I will just fail to not like it, because I get it and it gets me. at least until 8.0 when whoever wrote Myths of the Realm gets to write the expansion

Let's go through the noteable ones.

ill-advised azem lore drop - is in hot water, because they did seem to imply that the novelty wine glass of shard travel has to do with azem.

someone sundered knows more than us - krile's parents count and also Gagool Ja Ja's party too to some extent

the forgotten people went to tural - for two seconds!!! technically correct!!!

questionable armor design choices - some of the second dye slots. choices were made.

somebody "important" (but not too important) dies - i didn't expect them to write meaningful side character deaths, but they did so... i guess on a technicality i win?

the twelfth shard is involved // they talk about sundering meta physics

this room. they're so mean. they talk about the silly masks but not about the fact that apparently whatever shard this is either has three moons or two other planets in its solar system. you knew what you were doing q_q

y:da did it better - hahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I AM A FOOL! MEGUMI ONOZUKA! I KNOW THIS WAS YOUR DOING AND YOU CANNOT HIDE ANY LONGER! YOU ARE NOW ON MY LIST OF NAMES TO SHOUT!!!! If my theory in Part 2 turns out incorrect then I'm so sorry about this, buT IF I'M NOT THEN---!!!!

Shaaloani did not win me over - it being the padding zone really didn't help.

Erenville did not Outfit Change - but given the ending he's probably going to at some point. And I hope he stays around :)

who needs eternal life anyways - They tried to be a little bit more understanding about it and make it a "it's just not worth what it costs" sort of thing, but they did still say at least once - verbatim! - that "Eternal Life is Bad, Full Stop, you people suck and are failing the human game by not dying"

Something Actually Unexpected Happens - I was surprised by the Final Zone. Maybe it's not Actually Unexpected because in a way it's just "Amaurot meets What Myths of the Realm should have been" - but if that doesn't count I still didn't expect the devs to fully ugly down that zone when you're done with it lol. Shutting down the first one and realizing they didn't just mean it would be left empty, it's dead and fully without music physically hurt and it made going through the other three hurt so much more. I loved it. Like. Wow.

I guess to that, I was indeed reminded of Myths of the Realm - but not in the way I intended this square to be so I didn't mark it. Like. I wrote this in another post but how were these two in development at the same time???? What??? They come to radically different conclusions on the exact same premise and the only difference is that one is about Religion and the other about Eternal Life????

Was the last zone the original draft for Myths of the Realm and then they were like 'no that's too good, let's do that in the MSQ instead' and then they panicked and produced godly waste?? God, I kind of hope, that would mean that whoever wrote it didn't wholeheartedly mean what they wrote.

I'm not willing to let Wuk Lamat Distaste be Asinine Community Reaction - sadly that was to be expected given how people still fervently hate Lyse. Similarly I haven't looked into what funny theme changing English Localization Moment they decided to add to the plot today. Btw German Localization, you are as always my heroes. Don't let the Haters tell you different, I will always love you!!! I wanted to screenshot your names in the credits for this but i HIT THE WRONG BUTTON SOMEHOW

Anyways, look forward to Part 2 where I will talk some more about why exactly I really like Dawntrail - which is mainly the Themes - about why I think Megumi Onozuka is to blame and about YORHA DARK APOCALYPSE, THAT'S RIGHT, I WILL NEVER BE FREE

[kaeyacollection]

Hi, I don't play genshin but sometimes I like to lurk through other people's fandom to spice things a bit on my brain. Anyways, recently I saw some posts talking about some red moon eye-like god (? Something like that, having strong Naruto flashbacks here btw) and I was wondering:

(What with all the eyes?

I mean, visions look like eyes (and the name lol), the fallen nation's king had a single eye, Kaeya covers an eye, Furina has something weird in her pupil, that god is an eye.

That was really not the point tho.)

Is that eye god stuff the reason visions exist or celestia really said "oh, yes, lets give these tenacious mortals who have reasons to hate me a way to become stronger, there's no way this fires back at me"? Or is the eye god stuff Celestia? Or are all higher up gods just eyeballs? (Half joking with this one but that would be kinda fun) Though according to religious stuff, biblically accurate angels would look like eyeballs or something.

Anyways, I know you probably don't know the answer (since the game seems to be like an unfinished book with the real plot still unfolded), but I wanted to share the senseless questions in my head with someone and the chosen one (by my brain) is you (based on vibes).

Lmaoo hell yeah I passed the vibe check 💖💖💖

But you're right in that currently we're only working off of speculation for Visions

And oh boy did this become a long one lmao (tldr at the end ✨️)

The most popular theory back in the day was that Visions were the eyes of Celestia

Because as you said, they've also been given to people with reason to hate them, so this was a way to keep an EYE on them lmao

As we continued our journey we learned the archons would set aside a fraction of their power for those who hit certain marks in their life in order to be granted a vision - but they had no control over who got them or why

What finally challenged this theory is that Neuvillette, a dragon (that the ever composed Zhongli, ex archon, hid from), also set aside some of his power to be handed out as visions. Something that wouldn't seem to line up if they were actually harmful to the humans he's come to care for

And then we got his Friendship 6 Vision story:

"To continue to subdue and control the resentments and loathing of the world, the usurper and one who came after created the Gnoses together. So it came to be that an order was made to be upheld, and thus did humans come to only possess these seven remembrances ... From that day on, whenever a person's wishes reached the heavens, the seven overseers of the material realm were duty-bound to grant them a gift.

... And when one so gifted completed their duty... the gift the gods would receive in return would be more abundant still."

Neuvillette was also opposed to the fates/constellations before later caring for humans and allowing his own mark to be etched into the sky

"He did not initially care much about such, for the puppet strings glossed as "divine rules" would one day be burned away by the fires of judgment."

"And could it not be, he would explain, that King Nibelung had been wrong, and that the black void could only be opposed if all life were to band together as one? Thus did he, in the end, come into his own "fate." The skies had left a special, ennobled place for him, one reserved for the overseers and those who could defy the world itself — that of his own reflection."

Obtaining a Vision, and therefore a constellation, seems to represent a unity of goals instead. Not of a hatred for the Usurper but of an unbreakable will to keep pushing forward. A Will that when unified together, like in the fight against Ei, can become something more. It's easily why many Vision holders get theirs in dire situations, when faced with death they stand defiant against despair.

Perhaps when facing off against an all consuming void that threatens the world created by the Usurper, a darkness that would also threaten their very lives, these Wills will be at their strongest to push back the calamity, at least for a while longer.

To counter the despair of the world is to rise to your own judgment and demand to have a place in the world anyways... or at least that can be one interpretation 🤷

'Cause you see, the Narzissenkreuz Institute also brought up the belief that "one's own will is an obstacle, and that obtaining a Vision is a "guaranteed path to destruction." "

Whether a dramatic/poetic interpretation of giving up your Will to act as a battery for some anti-void machine, or much like Fontaine's prophecy, a twisted truth, it's not a line that should be disregarded so easily.

(Could also mean that having a will to stand in defiance would really fuck up their plan of everyone giving up their identities to seek shelter in the one water droplet during the end of the world. So "guaranteed destruction" in the belief that their plan was the only way to survive, and not that the visions themselves were the cause for the end)

So all in all, what we know about visions is that it's soft locked behind poetry and lines we don't have the full context for, and I suck at reading poetry (looking at you Fischl istg) ✨️

--

As for why eyes in general? Genshin takes inspiration from a LOT of mythos/stories/religions that ALSO have a thing for eyes

Like at this point I think they went through their own red string conspiracy of eyes throughout history and decided to compress it into a single story lmao

But man you just reminded me of the "Natsuhiboshi red eye" Naruto song I used to listen to a bunch lmao

[atypicalacademic]

SOLAS I want to cause Drama

why would you do this to me

First impression: Okay so my first time meeting Solas "in-person" (ie not watching my dear friends stream the game), there was something very appealing about the combination of music and his cadence. Like I had that "I did nothing, the credit is yours," stuck in my head for a solid while lol. Pleasing to the ear, would be my first impression. Until it got super, super old. The rest I'll put under a readmore so I wouldn't spoil those who haven't finished DA:I, perchance.

Impression now: I would, unironically, hunt him for sport. For someone so consumed by regret he is pathologically opposed to changing, and for someone who's so terrified of dying alone he's so determined to not see people as people. Sure it's a defence mechanism which makes for great narrative, but by god my Inquisitors shouldn't have to save him. But Narein Cadash is nicer than me so he tries. Ugh. All that aside, I think Solas is bound by what Fen'harel represents. I'm not sure whether it is godhood or self fulfilling prophecy or sheer fucking delusion, but he is bound to deceit itself. It is both his power and his downfall. He deceives his friends and deceives his people and he deceives this world that could have needed him, and a lot of the time he deceives himself. Everything he touches and everything he does turns eventually to a kind of betrayal in a cycle he cannot break on his own and wouldnt let anyone else. I'd almost pity him if I didn't want to hunt him for sport.

Favorite moment: I actually really like the banter of him playing mind-chess with Iron Bull. An inkling of who he might have been in a previous world and a previous life seemed to shine through in those little hints of playfulness. I also absolutely adore the fresco he makes in his room in Skyhold. Genuinely beautiful.

Idea for a Story: I like stories where Solas has to stop himself before he sees to much of personhood in his companions whom he is inevitably going to betray. And not in a romance way, even. Just him laughing at a joke Varric made and suddenly this world is too real and these people have lives and these people are beside him.

Unpopular opinion: I don't think he's so fascinating that he merits being centered in the overarching narrative the way he is. I'd have preferred if his arc was wrapped up in Inquisition. I also don't see him as a revolutionary figure who has the charisma to pull all these elves to his side. The elves of Thedas, I'm sure have or should have their own political formations and their social reformers (hello, Briala?).

Favorite relationship: I would like to study whatever fuckshit he had going on with the Evanuris like a bug.

Favorite headcanon: I hc that he had a wife back in Arlathan, who died in the Fall like so many others. I imagine they did love each other very much, and she was this dreamy, witty, creative woman who shared his love for art and frilly cakes. There must be a portrait of her, somewhere in one of the older ruins, and I like to think whenever he dreams he looks for a lingering trace of her.

[whoaffle]

I got asked about Defeated By A Mere Child...

I didn't want to go and answer the asks with a huge dump of text, so I decided to post this separately to whoever is interested in reading a bit more about my reasons for being in a hiatus.

There was more than only one factor that led me to the hiatus.

First of all: time. I graduated in 2019 from Language Arts course, but back in 2021 I started another course (Game Design), and I also got a job in 2022… So for the past 1 year and a half or so, I've been not only studying again, but working too, meaning that time has become scarce… And here I need to mention that DBAMC is not my only creative project, even though it is one of the only projects I ever managed to actually "put out there in the world", I guess… But with all the games I'd like to make, all the unfinished fanfictions in my AO3 (Including the DBAMC one!), all the other comics I still want to create (fancomics and original projects), drawings I still want to make, RPG campaings I'm playing (with sessions that I owe my friends), yada yada, DBAMC has become only one of thousands of things "in line", and yet another project that I keep thinking of and wishing to some day finish. Specially because the little free time I've got, at the end of the day, always ends up being consumed by playing Baldur's Gate or watching Youtube, simply because I'm too tired to produce actual content after a whole week of work (that's modern capitalism for you)…

All that aside, there are emotional factors related to it as well. (Sad Backstory Unlocked).

Jokes apart, I lost a dear relative around the time Legends Arceus was first around, and it was a difficult period for me, meaning I found it hard to keep up with the Pokémon franchise (and any other franchises to be fair). Pokémon released Legends, the Sinnoh remake, DLCs, and in the middle of all that I was still trying to successfully incorporate the characters from SwSh into my comics... I had no time and energy to look up the new content, couldn't play the games since I don't have a Switch, and just ended up stressed abouot not knowing the new content, thinking I should be working on it to keep up with the fandom for the sake of the comics - Now, I want to clarify, I created this problem myself, in my head, on my own (as one with anxiety does). No one from my followers ever pressured me to keep up with releases or anything, but I ended up turning it into a problem in my head and couldn't tackle it in a productive manner.

The fact that now ScaVio has also launched and I still haven't even touched anything from Legends or even the SwSh DLCs should explain how much I distanced myself from the new Pokémon content ever since, in part due to bad emotional associations with the loss I experienced, but also due to not liking how GameFreak / Nintendo have been managing the development of their games recently, AND also due to simple lack of time to go after anything other than "let me take a look at the new pokémon" (Tinkaton is my favorite Fairy Type ever, just in case anyone is interested).

Thing is, I couldn't keep up with the new content, as much as I love Pokémon and as much as I love all the content up to SwSh. The fact I couldn't keep up led to my anxiety acting up (plus emotional difficulties due to personal life stuff), leading to me deciding to take a break. Lack of time in general ended up becoming the main reason why the break hasn't ended yet, unfortunately.

So, all the context aside, am I gonna get back working on DBAMC content?

The short answer is: I don't know. I want to, but I don't know if I'll manage. I do want to do it, eventually.

I still have no idea when I'll be able to work on comics again, being 100% honest. But there are two things I can tell:

First, it's not gonna happen before July 2024, because that's when I'm expecting to finish my graduation project. I'll still have to finish one or maybe more disciplines after that, but the most difficult part should be over by the middle of next year... Still, this is not a promise DBAMC will be back after I finish college. I'm just saying that it will certainly not happen before that.

Second is that, whenever I manage to get back, I have decided that I will not incorporate newer content in the comics, at least not so soon. This has to do with the reasons cited above, of course, but also has to do with all the complicated "logistics" that adding new characters to comics turned out to be (incorporating Rose and Piers was a lot harder than I expected, since I had to re-write and change already written scripts and change the order of comics and etc... I won't be able to do that again with even newer characters).

All that said, I have at least ONE good thing to say: I've been revisiting my written content in AO3, wanting to get back writing some projects, and that includes the prequel I wrote to my DBAMC comics! I've been wanting to at least publish the last two chapters so that the story can be complete! So this is something I am planning to do in January, if everything works out. :)

I understand that it's definitely not the news any old follower of the blog expected... But it's what I can do for now...

If you read everything... Wow. Thank you!

Happy new year, everyone!

[scribe-of-stories]

15 Questions 15 Mutuals

Rules: Answer the questions as yourself or as an OC of your choice

The always friend shaped @vicstmichael tagged me, and you can read her lovely post here.

I'm going to be answering for both myself and Lexical's oldest OC, Samuel. (I'll be responding like this) meanwhile Sam like this.

The lightest of tags towards: @sunset-a-story @squarebracket-trick @valanke @pure-solomon @captain-kraken annnnd I know it says to tag 15 people but I've got other tag games so I'm going to save some mutual. Alternatively if 10 more individuals could do this so I don't become cursed that'd be grand.

1. Are you named after anyone?

I think I was named after one of my grandfathers, who was named after some biblical character. Someone who broke pillars? Or was that another guy? (To shorten a long story: Sam predates Lexical and is technically two older characters mixed together. One was an unplayed FATE character named Smith of Masks, who was a spooky manakin looking monster that was also a journalist. It wrote under the pen name "Sam Smith" as a loose reference to it's acronym [SoM] and the generic last name Smith [which was also already part of its name]. The other was a short story I wrote over on Reddit, but that has little to do with the name.)

(Meanwhile I was named after a Frenchman in space. Or two books of the bible. I claim the former, but my religious [secretly trekkie] parents claim the later.)

2. When was the last time you cried?

I don't know, not like I keep track of these things. Probably the last time I had a bone broken. (It was when Ashley gave him his birthday gift).

(Last night I was meditating and talking to myself and we felt emotional. It was a good cry.)

3. Do you have kids?

Biologically no, but there is a worryingly growing group of young and wyrd individuals that I keep either saving or having over for dinner. I, uh, well they know what they mean to me. I think.

(Nope, not yet at least. That said I had been working in some form of child care most of my career life.)

4. Do you use sarcasm?

I would Never do such a thing. Words have power after all, imagine if I didn't mean what I say. (See: Umbra wyrdling)

(All the time, though usually for me it walks the fine line between sarcasms and lying/gaslighting as a bit. I never let it go too far though, and only do it over un-important topics.)

5. What's the first thing you notice about people?

How many limbs they have. Jokes aside, how they are presenting themselves: they way they walk, talk, stand, etc. Got worse/more noticeable recently.

(Usually their hair. I'm slightly face blind and find myself relying on the hair/dress of people I only slightly know to recognize them.)

6. What's your eye color?

It changes, but I think I was born with blue eyes? Can't exactly remember.

(Very Brown.)

7. Scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings any day of the week. Love me some sappy romance where everyone's just content at the end. Besides I see enough horror in my work life, don't want to bring that shit home. Hell it usually doesn't have trouble finding my house anyways.

(Both? Both is good. If I had to choose horror since I see that as being capable of exploring things a lot of fiction can't, but I wouldn't want everything I consume to end with "then everyone was bound to super hell for eternity".)

8. Any special talents?

Surviving things that should have killed me. My more magically inclined friends have taken to referring to me as a "Community College Wizard" so I guess I've got that going for me too.

(I've been told I'm a divergent thinker, so I think that's special. Also I'm fairly good at most video/board games. Might be linked, idk?)

9. Where were you born?

Dalas, Texas. Don't intend on going back any time soon though.

(South Carolina, though I moved to Kentucky before I started being old enough to remember things.)

10. What are your hobbies?

Reading. I've got this lovely pile of shitty novels I collect that I'm slowly working through. No rhyme or reason to what's in them, just slowly bought them on discount from local book stores. Romance is my favorite genre.

(Games, I love games. TTRPGs, video games, tabletop/board games. Anything with a rule system that I can learn and play with in unique ways. I'm usually drawn to things that are turn based, but the video game I have easily put the most time into would be Warframe. Also, uh, writing.)

11. Have you any pets?

I've got a half dozen Wyrdlings I have to babysit and at least 2 minor thought entities living in my house. Yes I consider all of them effectively Pets.

(Not currently, but I used to have a turtle named Ruto.)

12. What sports do you play/have played?

Used to place baseball back when I was a kid, but that fell off when I graduated.

(Back when I was a child my parents had me try nearly every form of sports there was. None of them stuck, and I never joined a school related team.)

13. How tall are you?

It changes, or at least I suspect it does. Around 5'8 last I checked but I swear I'm getting shorter.

(5'10)

14. Favorite subject in school?

Took a semester of forensics back in high school. It was taught by a couch who was just reading a chapter ahead of the class, but the topic was fascinating.

(Psychology/Philosophy in that order. I didn't properly start learning either till I was in college. Got some regrets that I didn't take more than 1 philosophy course; even more upset that I only ever took 1 writing course.)

15. Dream job?

What I'm doing now: private investigating. Though in a perfect world I'd deal with a few less monsters on a daily basis. I guess it's more interesting then just spying on people from inside a car. Some days I miss not knowing about the Wyrd; but other days balance it out.

(Still trying to figure that out. Ended my career as a behavioral therapist a while ago [moral/stress issues] and kinda now figuring out what I actually want to do. Would have said being a Therapist a while ago but I'm not sure.)

[jjraderftw]

Genshiken (ep.1,2,3,9)

Genshiken was definitely a show. It indeed had characters who talked and interacted somewhat…yup that's for sure. Jokes aside, this style of anime was not my forte. I’m all for comedy and slice of life anime but this one just felt too bland for my personal enjoyment. Most of the humor came from silent/awkward scenarios which just didn't land with me. Nevertheless, the anime presented some interesting insight into the minds of older, college age otakus. As someone who helps run the UF equivalent of the club the anime presents, it's interesting to find parallels with the real world in terms of the behaviors and ideologies modern diehard anime fans have. Similar relations are a sense of awkwardness, interests in online games, and large collections of things like cards, figures, and manga. In term of a modern critique, the show presents ideas that this week’s readings (Otaku: A Japanese Database Animal & Cultural Economy) convey such as otaku’s seeing their interest as a lifestyle, the parallel development of fan culture that influences the source media, and the obsessive (and potentially harmful) lifestyle that too much devotion could have on a person.

All members of the Genshiken club have a passion for anime and manga. They’re lives are filled with these interests and they enjoy their time with friends and at school by partaking in this interest. Whether it’s playing games, reading manga, watching anime, or talking about the former, they’re main social interactions are filled with otaku culture. To them, a defining characteristic of their person is their love of the media they consume. It's a cultural identity. For characters like Madarame, he no longer feels ashamed nor self aware of his interests. He lets people think whatever they want of him because part of his identity is the media he consumes. All the friends in the club come together because of common grounds. This shows that otaku culture is a form of binding. It may be a slight obsession, but that is okay in life. In order to pass the time we have enjoyably, we find things that bring us interests and otaku culture is very much that. An interest can be incorporated into our personalities and bring people closer together. This has its extremities however. Extremists may draw fine lines between who is considered a fan and who is not, making inclusion a bit hard at times. Fans can also help develop the source material. The amount of doujinshi created that either add to or complement existing works are numerous. Fan theories and original creations based on existing media is a huge market this show helps demonstrate by showing the convention scene.

Sometimes, however, this interest can turn into unhealthy obsession. Kousaka is the embodiment of this. His interest in otaku culture has made him neglect his girlfriend and non anime related life. He makes Saki suffer neglect when all she wants is to spend time with him. Instead, he cuts her off at every point in time and goes out to wait overnight in lines or compulsively shop for large quantities of merchandise. This can be seen in the real world and it's an unhealthy problem. Any obsession can be taken too far. You may neglect your studies, job, friends, and family and fall into a rabbit hole that is hard to return from. At this point, your person is no longer complimented by the media you consume, but it is the media you consume. Without your obsession, you are nothing and become neglectful person for the other facets of your life.

[moxiemaemaple]

My paranoia.

Sometimes I embrace my madness. My own paranoia makes wonderful stories down on paper. Former written works aside I gotta grab a tight grip on reality here. I run from many things and I often feel haunted.

How far does this haunting go? Is it contained in a house? Oh no…my whole life feels haunted, house and whole world. Ghost town here and its crowded with spirits around every corner. Maybe its all its in my head but I swear I'm seeing it again, feeling it…

I hate looking over my shoulder. Tired of worrying what could be there. Constantly surveying my surroundings it use to consume me…this fear. I don't even know who is there if I'm being honest. Who do I fear? Who do I even think could be there? Is it the fear of the unknown? A mental sickness…?

I see a person in the background, faded in with the backdrop of my surroundings. Again I see them outside while I take a call. Shifting forms that just feel slightly out of place, lingering around. I see people in odd places, pacing odd spots. I try not to let it get to me. Sometimes I use to linger in the background, pace outside but never approach…this is all different though. Something off… I trust my feelings.

A car that turns down the same street as me more than once is all it takes for my paranoia kick in. I'm studying the brand, color, custom body work, rims and tires like this is a game of guess who. I try not to stare over my shoulder anymore like a loon leaving my attention to only catch glimpses of the car turn off just out of my sight, tail lights, flash of the color the only detail I get to build with. Maybe its coincidence, with me I see patterns everywhere I realize. Is this one of those times? How many own identical cars?

Or is something there…someone.

I'm a paranoid one however people make it seem like its all in my head. I have proof it hasn't always. In my past I suffered some extreme levels of stalking. Never once have I been able to catch them. That shadow that lurked around my former workplaces, the car that was just far enough back I almost miss it mirroring my turns on the way home. That person in the woods while I take a hike, the figure who sits across the park just out of sight… The figure just in the treeline as I off road, with binoculars in hand. The figure up on a roof top where a ladder stands between me, and uncovering identity… That stranger who has spent a bit too much time on their phone pacing the same corner down the street.

I've tried to catch them. These people, shadows…stalkers. Elaborately staged old friends around to try and catch them on film, try to snap photos of their plates, face, anything. Chasing cars to extremes where I risked reckless driving charges, risking my own life. One of my former associates even chased one down the road on foot and they thought I was mad till that interaction.

It isn't all just in my head.

Once someone even dressed up a sandking in colors mirroring one of my own vehicles and left it in my parking spot where I use to live. Left bags with interesting gifts; rat tails, lint, food, rocks, weed, collectibles no one just 'left' laying around. Is it all the same person? Multiples? I've lost track of the patterns…if any of them share anything in common beyond their mastery of blending in unnoticed.

The most frustrating thing is I have no idea if I'm in danger. I don't really care if someone wants to admire me from afar just what are the intentions? I've had my life threatened many times by stalking. People waiting till I'm alone and making their move to gut me. Kidnap me…plot my death. Death fantasies of those who can no longer access my time.

I often joke about ex's stalking me making light of my trauma. Some people aren't joking around though…

Should I buy a weapon again? I feel like history repeats with me. Last gun I owned was stolen by a woman who hated my guts due to sharing a past lover, targeted me at my workplace and the pew pew did jack shit in keeping her crazy ass from pulling me into the trunk of her vehicle.

Perhaps a knife collection again. I was always one to keep things personal normally.

[starmahgalaxies]

Get to Know You

Thanks for @sinvulkt for tagging me. I'm not really sure about what facts to give about myself so I'll just use what you did, with a couple others that are relevant for my answers. And this makes me look like a massive weeb (or am I?!), but that's mainly because my most recent/current fandoms and my very first fandoms were animanga. (yes, yes I am)

Last song: King of Anything - Sara Bareilles

Currently watching: I'm not currently watching anything, but next up on my list I have finishing up Digimon Adventure (2020) and going back to Magi The Adventures of Sinbad.

The main thing I want to do soon is go back to my incredible backlog of video games. There are so many just sitting in my library.

Playing Next: I've wanted to get to Chrono Trigger on my PC since Akira Toriyama died. His designs in video games are iconic. But I also have a lot of indie games that I want to go through too. I should make a wheel to decide, but I haven't yet.

Three ships: I have several ships, but none rank high enough really to be above everything else. If I name any amount I'll name all of them and be here all day. Like many 90s queer kids, Haruka and Michiru (Sailor Moon) was my first lesbian couple. At least in my circles growing up.

Favorite Relationship Dynamic: Familial! They can be whatever! Oh, you mean romantic ship dynamics? Meh. Romantic ships are fun -- I'm Aegoro -- but I have no real preference there. I like family relationships more and even a good enemy ships. Not even enemies to lovers (not always) just enemies. Give me a bonfire mess of a dynamic and I'll watch it.

Favorite color: I like shades of red and magenta.

Currently consuming: Nothing. Eating by my computer, over my tablet/keyboard will leave a mess and get all over both things when I rather they not. I need that stuff to work! The last thing I had though was a big fat chocolate muffin for breakfast.

(Since I am writing this in two sittings, the thing that I had last now was an Italian soda from a local café chain and chocolate eggs that were on clearance at the supermarket.)

First ship: I'm sure I had non-gay ships first. I didn't clue into people of same gender liking each other for a while. Or anyone liking anyone for a while. For the life of me I can not remember them. So the same answer as above. HaruMichi.

Birthplace: I was born through a C-section! So not quite through my mother's womb. (yay Macbeth reference. And anyone reading this name in a theater, I'm sorry XD)

Jokes aside, I am, for better and worse, an American.

Current location: I haven't moved far from where I was born.

Relationship status: Hahahahaha. That's cute. No. 🧡💛🤍🩵💙

Last movie: This makes me sad. I can't remember. Life (being broke), moving (having physical copies packed away), and stuff in general has made it so I can't remember the last time I saw a movie movie.

Other recreational watches typically rank higher on to-do list anyway, so don't feel too bad for me XD.

Currently working on: Uh, I have about five drafts (essays and shitposts) on my Magi fandom blog (@pan-magi), one fic I'm working on, and at least five art pieces. I've lost count.

I have the opposite problem with tagging people. I never really feel comfortable tagging anybody. So anyone can do what they want. Heh.

[toddlazarski]

“Sherman’s Showcase”

The A.V. Club

There is no laughter more hollow, no handclap or whoop more soulless, than that ignited by a traffic signal. To understand the applause sign is to consider a dated, insulting notion that we, the audience, maybe don’t really know how to watch, consume, appreciate. And yet it remains an integral part of the late-night talk show rigmarole wherein a man in a suit reads topical jokes from out-of-sight cue cards as America puts on its jammies. Even new takes on the formula abide the old slight to the idea of a present, subjective assembly. Maybe by now, in the late-night game, we’ve all just grown tired. In the wake of the end of the shows of Trevor Noah, James Corden, and Samantha Bee, The New York Times recently asked “Is There a Future for Late-Night Talk Shows?” It seems, with declining interest and the ascendance of streaming, with a growing reluctance to hear tired jokes about gas prices and the vice president from a soundstage in Rockefeller Center, it may be time to lay the old dog to pasture. How? Sherman’s Showcase seems to ask. Well, skewer it to smithereens, apparently.

At the opening of each episode, yes, a suited man stands, ridiculous phallic Bob Barker microphone in hand, dark shades and immaculate beard immovable, a lounge singer’s smug suavity, preacher’s aloof charm, deep throaty voice assured and practiced, the air of a confident and consummate emcee to lead one toward nighttime delights. But then, for instance, he might go into a quick and breathless tangent: “I can’t wait to start the show, but before we get there allow me to summarize the plot of Mulholland Drive. You see, she shoots herself. Great movie.”  

Such is the course and absurd tenor for most of the show, as it evolves or devolves or dissolves or aimlessly winds its way toward some unholy amalgamation of asides, backstage glimpses, interviews, live music performances, music videos, previews, movie trailers, animation, award shows, game shows, commercials, even a video game - "there was 16 minutes of text back and forth before the game even started." It is all vaguely, conceptually sketch comedy, sure, in spirit, but strung together with an uncannily and uniquely propulsive bump. 

The man at the center of it all, Sherman McDaniels himself, is Bashir Salahuddin. His sidekick, Dutch Shepherd, is played by Diallo Riddle. The real life duo met at Harvard before embarking on a union of writing and video projects, landing as writers for Jimmy Fallon, creating the cult Comedy Central show South Side, and eventually birthing Sherman, which premiered in 2019. This latest iteration of their creative offspring is pitched as a kind of offbeat parody on Soul Train, American Bandstand, Solid Gold, some other 70’s show you’ve likely heard Questlove reminisce about. But it actually feels more in common with the work of Christopher Guest, I Think You Should Leave, and some freaky fever dream of a sativa-baked In Living Color writer’s room where the editor has gone on vacation.  

Season two is a continuation of the team’s well-honed brand of quick-hitting, time-hopping narration, giving a 360-degree view of a beloved musical variety show. For this go they’ve brought back John Legend as producer, occasional guest, and, from the sound of it, probable co-songwriter. Guests also include Issa Rae and Chance the Rapper, and everything remains very much in the IFC brand of “Slightly Off,” in the faux-serious vain of Portlandia, and not unlike a completely problematic step-sibling of Documentary Now. We have straight-faced commitment to musical numbers like “Epulets Fall in Love” and “I Love You, Sike;”  an overlong and artful treatment of a Wes Anderson twee fest, in the trailer for Forty Acres and a Blimp (“coming soon to theaters in Cannes, Silver Lake, and most of Brooklyn”); simple silliness (“Cognac, you my only friend,” takes a sip, “that is not cognac”); and coy zingery: a voiceover announcing a past show’s guests welcomes “the face of hope and change in the Democratic Party, John Edwards!”   

Like with any assorted sketch show, like a book of poems or a big league slugger where half-the-time success equals greatness, not every effort works. One of the earliest bits here, a trailer for a flick wherein Mary J. Blige attempts a heist to take down P. Diddy, won’t let go of its search for a tag or a throughline, and comes off like clumsy and warmed-over SNL. But even in flatness is shown real willingness to gamble, to try, there is a stretching and a belief, bordering dangerously, deliciously on recklessness. At times the writers treat the audience with so much trust it almost feels like indifference. Especially in trailers for the likes of Not Passing. The kernel of the idea can almost be seen, framed in late-night smoke and soundtracked by thigh slaps  — what if we take Passing, and, do the opposite!? Similarly, consider, That’s The Spirit. An African soccer phenom’s father is a ghost, who is a soccer ball. As his mother prepares him to have a new sibling, the poor boy can’t stop asking her how his ghost soccer ball father conceived a new child. A tag line promises “A story of forgiveness.” 

On paper this shouldn’t jive with a strangely poetic black-and-white segment on the perspective of the show’s security guard: “in reality nothing is secured, security is a fiction, a pantomime.” Nor should that gel with an old animated Sherman-penned series, Dumpster Buddies, featuring his friend “Obese Maurice,” which we see as he discusses on an expose-style Frost/Nixon-esque interview. But everything moves and flows with such assurance, style, a slinky and soulful rat-a-tat tempo that inevitably leads back to a song and dance routine far better than it has any right or need to be.  

Salahuddin, the center of nearly every bit, the eye of the hurricane, is a forceful revelation. Part caricature and part chum, delusional but familiar, it’s hard not to think of Danny McBride in The Righteous Gemstones or anything else, with that always-semi-disbelieving head cocked slightly back, an overcooked swagger turned so high, so ridiculous, it becomes something benignly, lovably goofy. In the digressions, the deviations, wondrous casual remarks, there is such a sense of timing, such laughable machismo, it is easy to almost feel the need to lean forward, to catch the next line, to not be able to look away from the somehow hip awkwardness. In a George Clinton parody, Sherman states, “God wanted a style of music that involved way too many people, so he invented funk.” And so Sherman, the show, moves, with a party atmosphere and large contingent of creators moving and shaking and offering something at once neurotic, silly, feel good, and singularly smart. It is also a line indicative of the writerly attention given to almost everything Sherman says. There is not a moment of dead air, not a second without something like realizing that, to Sherman, five plus six is 12, because he “always rounds up.” Of its time, the end product feels almost like scrollable sketch comedy—if something doesn’t work for you there’s surely something, something else, coming right behind. Something else in a steady, heady funk, set entirely to its own beat. Something delicious because you don’t know quite how to process it and nobody is giving a clue.  

[f1rewalk3r]

Initially I was going to dismiss Jean. It’s really easy to do so. He’s a homophobic, ableist asshole. At least, that’s how we see him in game. That’s pretty much all we see him as, taking into account only the direct interactions he has with HDB through the course of the game.

Of course, we can’t only acknowledge the events of the game. It’s easy to see Vic as human too, having lost a partner he spent years with building little inside jokes and shared memories. This also goes the other way. How long has it been toxic? How long has Jean resented Harry for being an alcoholic? How many times has he rescued him from the gutter, to the point where he now believes Harry is destined for it?

To be honest with you, I kinda don’t care. This is going to get into tangent territory, but I think how you play HDB can drastically affect your view of Vic. If you’re an asshole fascist, Jean is easily justifiable.

I don’t play HDB as a fascist. I tend to play a route that takes him closest to innocence-hood as possible. I think there’s something to be said for HDB being the revacholian Innocence post-DE. The revacholian innocence we do see in PJÕL is Ambrosius, who ends up causing a nuclear holocaust with the pale consuming the world. Which. That’s our innocence? Come on. Play a high shivers apocalypse cop, tell everyone the 2mm hole caused the memory loss, and tell me that you aren’t playing a burgeoning innocence. Come the fuck on.

This is, of course, only possible if we take everything that’s mystical about Elysium at face value, instead of the schizophrenic ramblings of a polyaddict. But given everything about Elysium, it’s pretty hard to deny. If not innocencehood, then there’s something going on with revolutionary plasm and Nilsen/Masov reincarnating into Steban/Ulixex and Harry/Kim. Whatever. That’s like super deep lore only vaguely confirmed by the ghost of Nilsen in PJÕL. Again, everything mystical about Elysium that Kim dismisses is either outright confirmed canon or otherwise correct.

Stickbug, “Love killed him but communism did him in,” the pale, the 2mm hole, infra-materialism is real, plasm is real, the nuclear bomb/shivers church check is real/canon, whatever, whatever, what the fuck is going on in this game, Kurvitz please lean into the mysticism if a sequel ever happens, you get it.

I think that innocencehood is only possible post-cleaning out the rooms, and by throwing away all of Dora and never getting the Final Dream. Because it has to be someone new, someone kinder to be a leader like that.

Which leads me to- were Harry and Jean like Harry and Kim at the beginning of their partnership? they’re called “Hetero Sexual Life Partners” by Torson and McLaine. There had to be something beyond the fighting. Did they start out happy, complimenting each other’s workflow? Vic the composed stoic to Harry’s erraticism, just like Kim? Did Harry idolize him to the point of destroying the relationship? Just like he does to Kim?

Ultimately Vic is a pretty nuanced character. As of my last playthrough I really don’t like him. I even waited to talk to him at the whirling until I had solid leads, to see if it would give unique dialogue. It doesn’t. Maybe ignoring him till after the island would. I don’t know. He’s very human. I don’t like him. He’s human but he’s also a bigot. Do we toss him aside like the other bigots in life and DE, or does he get a pass because it’s Harry? Does he NOT get a pass because it’s Harry? Up to you imo. We don’t see enough of them pre-martinaise to really come to any definitive conclusion.

Jean Vicquemare

glad i had my morning shower to think about this post because. hooo boy. buckle up for this one

[informaticn]

hear me out,   but while i will aggressively reject the concept of the red ledger in all forms,   no mater what the universe,   at the end of nat’s iconic mission her saying she needed money   &   tony telling her that if she’d told him he would’ve sold his ancestral land   ( which is literally all he had left to his name after a day )   &   given her a loan is Peak nat   &   tony

[bukojuiice]

— genshin boys as your college roommates who are head over heels in love with you

ೃ ft. childe, diluc, kaeya, zhongli, and xiao x gn! reader

ೃ 400-600 words per character!  ♡

ೃ warnings: mention of alcohol drinking ( but aside from that, just lots and lots of fluff!)

ೃ this is my very first writing contribution to the genshin fandom, so i hope everyone likes it!  after 5 months of playing genshin, i think it’s safe to say my brainrot for it has finally consumed me and i’m confident enough to brew something up! <3

ೃ genshin impact masterlist 

ೃ if you want to be a part of my taglist, answer this form! ♡

CHILDE:

– You and Childe are the perfect embodiment of the best friends to roommates trope. Whenever you wanna sleep in for 5 minutes more and you’re about to run late for your first class, Childe never fails to slowly drag you out of your bed, laughing as he does so. “Wake up sunshine!” is the first thing you always hear in the morning and you don’t complain if you get to hear his smexy voice anyway. He is a confident flirt and is not afraid to show you how much he cares or how much he pines over you. 

–  He’s always always there to save the day. There was a time when your classmates stood you up on the group project you were making, and guess who comes up to you with glitter, glue, and colored paper? Childe, of course! He stayed up until the wee hours of the night with you just so he can help you finish it. He even promises to set things in a “very civil way” with your absolute jerk groupmates the very next day. You practically hang out with him 24/7 as most of the time he just barges in your shared apartment with some amusement park tickets on hand or to some expensive yoga or judo class. There’s never a dull moment with him and with each passing day, the more you fall harder for him.

–  After a morning jog with him and seeing cute little dogs frolicking around with their married owners, Childe suddenly had the urge to adopt a dog with you.  But, due to a no pets rules established by the landlord, the two of you opt to owning hamsters instead! Childe named his hamster, narwhal (after his favorite animal of course!) whereas you named yours bunny, to match his irrelevant pet name picking. your hamsters both share the same house/cage and even they are pining over each other.

  –  His siblings visit a lot, especially Teucer. At this point, there was never a day the little boy didn’t ask when are you and Childe going to finally become “playground playmates” (a term for lovers that they use in second grade apparently) since the two of you are living with each other and seem so close. Childe is always able to successfully change the topic and shift away from talking about the shared feelings that the both of you have for each other. But, alas, the day had finally came to be and during your monthly trip to the amusement park, Childe confidently confesses to you on top of the ferris wheel.

“So... everyone in my life knows that you’re my best friend. Yea, that’s pretty cool and all but... Can we be more than just that (Y/N)? Is there hope if I think there could be something between us?”

DILUC:

– Diluc is your posh and rich roommate who sounds and looks too good to be true. The fact that you’re roomies with the literal heir to the country’s biggest wine and beverage company sounds like something straight out of a fanfic. But, it was of his volition to decide to live in a penthouse near Teyvat University. It was the doings of his step-brother Kaeya who tricked him into getting a roommate so that he won’t be alone for the rest of his college years... aaand that’s where you come in. practically barged into his life, but, you were a blessing. an angel sent from the skies.

–  He’s quite cold and unapproachable at first, only greeting you whenever he sees you but never bothered to engage in small talk with you. Even if the both of you go to the same university. It wasn’t until your second month as roommates, when you accidentally had too much to drink after a friends’ night out. You come home to see him in the living room, drinking grape juice from a wine glass, and watching a rerun of Hannah Montana. You practically collapse at the front door, he rushes to you and helps you up as you drunkenly confess to him in tears how you wanted to become much closer to him especially since the  two of you are going to spend the rest of your college years together. That was when Diluc realized how distant and aloof he’s been and vows to make it up to you.

– Diluc is very talented. Albeit in very discreet way, he makes sure to make use of his talents especially if it’s an opportunity to make memories with you. He is an amazing cook as much as he tries to deny it, He’s a secret virtuoso caught in 4k when you impulsively bought a guitar one time and you asked if he knows how to play, and he does so well. He practically serenades you in the most non-obvious way possible. Lastly, He’s very athletic. You invited him to play tennis one time, betting that if he won, you would do his bidding for the rest of the week. Before you could even blink, he wins. His “punishment” for you was that you accompany him in binge-watching TV Dramas. Grey’s Anatomy and Downtown Abby are just some of the shows the two of you would watch. It is absolutely adorable seeing him so invested in these dramas. and since the next on Diluc’s list were sit-coms, you were preparing yourself to answer his questions on the context of jokes that he didn’t get. In a poor attempt to flirt with you, he calls out your name and recites in the most Joey Tribbiani voice he could muster, “How you doin?” You were laughing so so hard that night because his pick up line actually worked on you and suddenly your realizations came full circle: you were very much in love with him too.

–  His naturally cool yet shy nature had always gotten the best of him.  He’s always wanted to ask if you wanted to carpool with him to school. Riding with him in his Tesla sportscar that goes 150 Mph? Heck yeah. However, it took quite a while before he could muster up the courage to ask you (4 months of being roommates until he finally popped the question) Since then, the two of you go home to and from University whenever you had similar schedules. Ever since then, Diluc had began to soften. His cold and hard facade slowly melted. Asking if you could help tie his floofy red hair then he’d let you play with it and let you style it in different ways. He takes you out on café dates during lunch breaks and take you out to watch a movie after both of your late night lectures. Everyone in campus thinks the two of you are practically together at this point. All that was left was to bare your feelings with one another through a fumbling and awkward confession.

“Words cannot not suffice these feelings I’ve been harboring for you since the very beginning. I L-like you a lot. Do you feel the same way too?”

KAEYA:

- Everyone loves Kaeya. Your friends and family, The School Faculty, The owner of the Convenience Store from down the street, The old lady who lives next door, The little kids from down the hall, and even the angry brown poodles from the farthest apartment to your right absolutely loved him. it was hard to keep up with having a roommate that not only were you crushing so hard on, but also had such a vibrant social life. Kaeya interacts and socializes with a lot of people and he admits that it does tend to get tiring at times. But, if these sacrifices lead to coming home to his cute roommate who has captivated his heart since Day 1, then it’s all worth it.

— Despite how warm and friendly he may seem, Kaeya is a very private person. He’s brought two or three friends like Jean, Lisa, Albedo, or Rosaria. But, only to discuss school affairs. He wasn’t the kind of person who trusts others easily, even if he was giving off the impression that he was a trustworthy and reliable person himself. He’d much rather spend time with you on days off from school. He may be a party guy on the outside (he insists he does it for future connections when he graduates) but he’s quite a homebody. Kaeya is the type to watch korean dramas and anime with you, go on late night convenience store cravings, and these always resulted in a perfect evening spent with him. When the both of you are fully immersed into the anime and things get a bit cozy, you rest your head on his shoulder, huddling for warmth.

— Kaeya would always come home with a little something for you. May it be take-out food, A trinket, a board game, an accessory, and even skincare products. The indigo-haired man is very particular about self-care and you bet that he’s bought different kinds of face masks, ointments, and even matching cute headbands just for the two of you! He’s very flamboyant and flirts with you a lot. Trying to impress you with pick up lines and suggestive jokes, but you always thought that he was just joking around because that was always a part of his personality. It was always a part of him. For Kaeya on the other hand, it seems to him that you don’t take him seriously and it's possible that you don’t return his feelings at all. He had to set things straight and it didn’t take long until Kaeya found the perfect opportunity to do so.

— With the help of practically everyone in the apartment, Kaeya is about to surprise you with a candle-lit dinner up on the apartment rooftop. His sly smooth-talking quickly convinced you that the both of you were just going to go out on your nightly convenience store trips. Your curiosity grows when he takes you by the hand, covering you with a blindfold, and whispering to your ear, “Do you trust me?” Gripping onto his hand tightly, the both of you go up some stairs and you reply, “Yes Kaeya, I do.” He slowly uncovers the shield from your eyes and your eyes sparkle at the sight of the candle-lit dinner, complete with jazz music, and a romantic view of the city.

“(Y/N)... You are the most precious person to me. I hope you can take me seriously, especially my feelings. I am saying this with my heart in my hand and with nothing but genuine love in my soul.”

ZHONGLI:

— Zhongli is truly husband material. You’re saying this as his friend, as his roommate, and as someone who’s absolutely smitten over him. He’s a third year environmental archaeology student at Teyvat University. Gentle, kind, and has nothing but wise and intelligent things to say. your lovestruck self can’t help but just admire him from afar, not knowing that he too has been entranced by you ever since you moved in.

—He's always the first to wake up in the morning. The first thing he does is make you a cup of coffee. He's got your favorite memorized, (Coffee with cream. Not to sweet and not too bitter.) The both of you own matching mugs, (written in colored scribbled letters, “The Wise Roommate” for Zhongli and “The Cute Roommate” for you.) He always wants to spend his free mornings with you. Both of you have different schedules so you never see each other at Campus and this was the only blissful time of the day you can spend with one another. Once you get home for dinner, (Zhongli is always the first to get home if he doesn’t stay too long at the library or strolling around the city) If it’s your turn to cook or if it’s his, he never forgets to brew you oolong tea after dinner. A perfect chance for the two of you to just talk the night away and engage in deep and meaningful conversations.

—Zhongli fell in love with you because you just quietly listen to him. Sometimes, you would share your thoughts and insights, even sharing your own personal knowledge that Zhongli had not known prior. You were one of the very few people in his life whom he could talk about absolutely anything with. Well, who wouldn’t listen to a handsome man who has a voice as smooth as butter? He is very passionate about his studies. Taking a lot of extra courses and spending a lot of money on his research. and so, most of the time, he spends all of his Mora on his extra studies (excluding the money he needs to pay for rent) and other interesting antiques. You understood why though. So, instead, you ask him to accompany you to do mundane chores. Going grocery shopping, doing the laundry and cleaning the apartment. He always helps in any way he can. The prying eyes of people around you and the old lady fr next door boldly coming up to you to ask if you and Zhongli were a married couple. You blush profusely whereas Zhongli coolly denies the woman's claims. It hurt quite a little but who were you to complain?

— It was during one of your night strolls with Zhongli. He had invited you out after dinner under the guise of wanting to have some fresh air and find a clear spot for the fireworks from a nearby festival. Your heart was thumping loudly to a non-existent rhythm, blissfully unaware that Zhongli was feeling a burst in his chest too. He clears his throat and his shoulders straighten. Zhongli puts his hand on your shoulder and breathes deeply. His cool and gentlemanly aura still radiating off of him as always. A wonderful array of colors fill the sky as his lips began to form the words he's always wanted to say:

"Tonight is beautiful isn't it? I thought that this would be the perfect time to open my heart up to you... You are a diamond in the rough that few see the beauty of. My beloved– Will you accept my feelings?

XIAO:

—  Having a popular twitch streamer as your roommate was a one in a million chance. Especially if you’re not even an influencer or internet figure yourself. But, how did this come to be? Why have you developed a crush on Xiao aka VigilantYaksha without knowing who he was? A gamer with over 6 million followers on different social media platforms? Simple, a high-end apartment near Teyvat University had a special discount if you were willing to be roommates with someone. It’s an amazing deal, near your school, cost-efficient, and you believed the 10% chance of scoring a hot roommate as seen on reality TV and romantic comedies. It was like rolling through a Gacha Game and getting a 5 star character. As that “character” is soon to be revealed as Xiao.

— Things started off rocky at first. On your first day, he flatly welcomed you by the door, introduced himself, then quickly retreated back to his room. As soon as you locked eyes with him, he gave off a certain cold and unfriendly aura. You wanted to get to know him better. Maybe with a little love and care, he could open up to you and you could become friends! That same day, you had mistakenly thought of your room as his and you walked in on him streaming a horror game. He wasn’t spooked by the jumpscares. But instead, he was looking at you in horror because you’ve just exposed yourself to thousands of people. You wave at the camera, apologize, and left. Since then, his fans, (called the Anemo Tofus) have been shipping the two of you together. Creating fanfiction and fanart of Xiao and the mysterious roommate that accidentally walked in on him. They practically begged Xiao to at least talk a little bit about you, to which, he declined. When you surprised him with dinner (as a little treat since this was your first week with him) He sits across the table from you, his eyes gazing deep into yours, as he pops the question, in a very tsundere tone: “Would you like to appear in my streams? T-the Anemo Tofus wanna learn more about you. B-but, if you don’t want to, it’s alright! You don’t have to-” You cut him off before he could continue his doubts, “Xiao! What are you saying? I’d love to!”

  —  There was something blossoming between the two of you after that particular dinner with him. Starting with your first “roommate video” that you had thought of when you were brainstorming for video ideas. It was an Almond and Mapo Tofu mukbang whilst the two of you answered questions from fans! The viewers noticed how visibly comfortable he was around you despite his usual reserved attitude. He was cracking up a lot more sarcastic and self-deprecating jokes whilst Tofu filled both of your mouths. Outside of the confines of social media and inside the comfortable space that was your apartment, you and Xiao grew closer. Wearing matching hoodies, going on midnight snack runs, playing in arcades, and stargazing with him up on the rooftop as you contemplate about life and talk about the mysteries of the universe. There were times when you would stay up late doing school works and would accidentally fall asleep on the sofa. Xiao would come out of room because he periodically had cases of insomnia. When he sees you on the sofa, he can’t help but smile at your sleeping figure and admire your beauty. First. he brings all your clutter back to your room then slowly picks you up from the couch, into his arms, and brings you back to your room. He places a blanket on top of you and your stuffed plushies next to you so you can hug them any time. 

— On a particular night, you fell asleep on the sofa once again and begun to  have recurring nightmares. Xiao was there to witness you whimpering, muttering to yourself, and shivering to a mental image that he could not see. (He wishes he could erase all the pain that these nightmares were giving you) You subconsciously grab onto his hand, murmuring to yourself: “Xiao, please don’t go.” He whispers back, “I won’t.” Your nerves slowly relax when you feel the Yaksha squeezing himself to lie next to you on the couch. Holding onto your arm, he continues to reassure you that it was going to be okay. You grab onto him, hugging him from behind. He feels your heartbeat revert back to it’s normal pace and you return back to your peaceful slumber. “I’ll always be here for you, (Y/N). I’ll be here to protect you. Forever and always.”  Turning to you to plant a kiss on your forehead, you nestle your head on Xiao’s chest. He watches as you cling to him for love and warmth until he is slowly whisked away by his weariness, rewarded with a peaceful sleep he hasn’t felt in a while.

“And they were roommates.”