#not sure how comprehensive this actually was

[my-castles-crumbling]

letter - Jegulus Microfic - background wolfstar - @into-the-jeggyverse - word count: 363

“So, boys,” Euphemia Potter said one night at the dinner table during the start of the holidays, “how was the first part of term? Anything eventful happen?”

Sirius and James exchanged glances. “Erm, no…” James answered, trying to keep his expression neutral. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his parents–not at all! He just knew they might not approve of all of his adventures. 

Sirius piped up. “You know us, just…really focused on classes.”

“Sure, sure,” Fleamont nodded from next to his wife. “Of course. It’s only…” He tilted his head to the side, like he was confused.

“Yes, it’s the strangest thing. I got a letter from Minerva McGonagall. You know how she’s a dear friend,” Euphemia said lightly.

James froze, keeping his eyes on his food. There were a million things McGonagall could have written to his mother about. How much trouble was he in?

“Yes, well. She wrote about how she keeps finding the two of you in broom closets together all around the school,” she continued, tone still light. “Do you know anything about that?”

But now James was actually confused. He looked at Sirius again, and back to his mother. “Erm..honestly, I don’t,” he answered awkwardly.

“Oh, boys, you know we accept you for who you are, don’t you?” Euphemia asked, eyes wide. “It’s really alright.”

“No, you don’t get it,” Sirius said, face red. “I’m dating Remus. We got together in September! So yeah, I’m bent, but not for James! That’s gross! Er, sorry, Prongs…”

“Nah, same here,” James mumbled, also turning red.

Fleamont, however, wrinkled his face in confusion. “Then why did McGonagall say that James was all over the castle with ‘Mister Bl-’ ow!”

Even though Euphemia elbowed him in the side to shut him up, it was too late. Slowly, dawning comprehension spread across Sirius’s face as James melted lower and lower into his chair, trying to avoid the mess in front of him. 

It was only then that Regulus, who had been sitting silently by Sirius’s side and enjoying the meal, finally spoke up. “Fuck,” he murmured, biting his lip and smirking a bit at James. “Guess that’s one way to tell them.

[esamastation]

Hello, here follows a bit of original LITRPG writing in the form of a forum post. I have no idea how to explain or what to title it. It is a thing.

In which the origin of System is pondered upon.

-

Theories of Apocalypse forum

The System - is it human made? by the Witchess of Londonium, 1st of June, 20xx

Guys, I figured it out, I connected the dots. 

The System wasn't created by the IFAR. 

I know, I know, there's like a billion theories about this, and of course everyone knows what the Elves say. The System is a Gift to all of humanity. Sure. And then there's that crackpot Mayfeather's theory about it being inheritance from ancient aliens that bred with humans thousands of years ago. Personally I think that's just because he wants a harem of furries, but each to their own. And then there's the stuff about american military experiments that went rogue, but that seems a bit too much of a coinkydink for me, what with the apocalypse happening at the same time.

Though, now that I think about it, a weird human program would go rogue during the apocalypse, wouldn't it. And I actually kinda do think that's close to what happened - though not that it was secret military drugs or nano machines or whatever.

I think it's something bigger - something we all knew and loved, in the old world. Something… ever present, that was part of all our lives. Something utterly beyond IFAR's comprehension.

I mean, think about it. This thing is huge, in like, cosmic, evolutionary, technological revolution sense, huge! This thing is like the dawn of information technology but times a hundred, with, I don't know, genetic engineering and all of weight loss and bodybuilding industry thrown in the mix. This is the "next step in human development" level of stuff!

And weight loss and bodybuilding industries of old wish they had what we have now. We can literally level up now, and with each level we get stronger. And that's just on the base level. We can change our species now! I've seen people transform themselves completely with the System. One chick, she's a dragon now, just through the System. This guy I know, super into calisthenics, yeah, he can bench press cars now, through the System. I've seen people with wings, tails, horns, with multiple arms - and there's rumours about this one old lady, she can just transform herself into other things. And all we need to do to make all that possible… is level up and get some exp.

… which, okay, it isn't that easy to get exp, you really gotta work for it, and sometimes it's so damn hard to get ahead you just wanna cry, but still. 

Why would they ever give this thing to us? 

Here's the thing. I don't think they did.

Just think about it - why would they give this thing to us? It makes us stronger, it powers us up - it gives us magic. And okay, yes, it also, consequently, spreads magic around, which helps them, making things more magical and more chaotic and dangerous - but seriously! Why would they want to empower us? They're here to subjugate us! How does giving us all this power and opportunity benefit them in any way? 

It doesn't, it just doesn't - just look at the Dragon Battle of Paris. You can bet your probably by now feathery butt that those guys who ate it in the Boulogne-Billancourt wish we didn't have the System.

So here's what I think happened. I think it was a complete freak accident. 

When the Veil was breached and the Aurora Magicalis happened, those particles changed everything they came in contact with, right? We got magical people and creatures and trees and houses and lakes and, I don't know, magical damn water towers now. And those were like intrinsically linked changes too - the thing with the metro proves it! One thing changes by magic and everything that's a copy or similar enough of the original changes too.

And that's why we have giant centipede trains all over the world now.

Which is still terrifying.

So, what happened to the internet when magic particles hit it? What happened to all that knowledge just interlinked all throughout the world? People think it vanished with everything else electronic - but we know you can't vanish things by magic. You can only move things… or change them.

I think the internet got whammied, guys, the same as the rest of us - and like everything else that got whammied, it gained a life of its own. But the internet isn't like a train or, I don't know, a taxi cab that's suddenly alive, it doesn't really have a specific territory where it exists. It's everywhere in the world and it's got no one specific spot where it starts from and we just accessed it with our phones and computers and whatever. 

(Yes I know the internet has physical forms on servers and data centers or whatever, shut up, I'm thinking magically here.)

So, the internet gets magically whammied. Where does it go? It goes where it's always gone - to us. It was made by humans, for humans, for sharing of human discovered and developed and intended information. So it just… attached itself to us. And it's still doing the same thing it's always done - sharing information.

And why is it running out of lives like a videogame now? Well, have you ever wondered how much of the internet bandwidth in total was taken by online videogames? Okay, it probably wasn't that much - but it was still kinda significant amount! Or who knows, maybe the first bit of the internet that got whammied was someone's Steam account, who knows.

Either way, I blame the evils of online videogames, as many concerned aunties have before me. Heh.

Or maybe I'm talking out of my ass and it's all a plot by the Elves to Stockholm Syndrome all of humanity - but isn't it a bit weird, how none of them have this thing? Isn't it a bit of a hell of an inconvenience to them, that we do? Did no one else notice in the early days how shocked they all were to see some of us flinging magic right back at them?

And isn't it a little bit more comforting to think that this Awesome thing that now unites us all wasn't made by our enemies - but that we ourselves made it?

Because, guys, I definitely don't think they were expecting it. When I ran into goblins the first time, they totally thought they could just roll right over us. Orcs too. And the Elves, man… I'm definitely not the only one with a bad first impression. I don't know what they were expecting me to go, bend over, lick their boots, beg for my life, maybe. They were definitely not expecting a fireball to the face, lemme tell you.

Between you and me, I don't think they would've given me, or anyone, that skill if they had a choice in the matter. 

Also it just makes sense though, right? I mean, it's not like Elves even know what videogames are. They don't have computers, they never developed, like… Dungeons and Dragons or anything like that. I bet some human had to explain to them what levels and upgrades even are - because that's, that's really weird and really niche human knowledge, in the grand scheme of things, right? It hasn't been a thing for more than maybe a hundred years.

I don't actually know how long the concept of a "Character levelling up and getting more powerful" has been a thing - feel free to let me know because I am kind of obsessed with this and I suddenly need to know.

Anyway, The System. It's definitely been to the benefit of all of us using it in this bullshit apocalypse, right? And the IFAR… Yeah, I don't think it's been to their advantage at all.

Also, like, come the feck on. When you really think about it, the info the System gives us… isn't it kind of familiar? Boil it all down and what we have are chats and forums and wikis at our fingertips! What kind of invading force gives the people they're invading a communication tool like this? Like, sure, it took a while to get here and it takes effort to use it, it has a cost - but so did the internet.

This is nothing new to us, human peoples of the Earth. Such as it is, right now… invaded and transformed and on the brink of being conquered by damn fantasy Elves… 

So, that's my pitch. The System is the sentiment and magical new form of the World Wide Web, with an online RPG twist.

What have you been doing with it?

336 credits, 759 replies, 163 awards.

-

Tadaah, the thing. Relating vaguely to this Isekai based DND campaign idea I had, which was originally an original story which I wanted to write, which I think is this?

Also IFAR is short for "Invaders from another reality", lol.

Anyway. The thought won't leave me alone but I have no idea what to do with this. Maybe I could do prompts based on this? Idk. Some sort of RP thing??

[polydamnory]

So I’ve seen quite a few posts since the most recent Caller (I’m not calling him John lol) video came out essentially talking about how it was pretty dumb of Sweetie to bring a date back to their place - and I totally get that perspective, but I’d also like to provide a different one. (NOTE: this is not meant to come off as combative or telling people they’re wrong/dumb to think this way, I am not calling anyone out, please don’t take it that way. I just wanted to respectfully put my perspective out there as well.)

Like I’ve seen a few other people point out, we don’t know how long it’s been in universe between this and the past two Caller videos. We don’t exactly know how things have “progressed” so to speak with Caller and Sweetie. But we DO know a couple of things: Sweetie hasn’t really proven to not be taking this situation seriously. Sure they may have occasionally acted a bit recklessly, but never careless. They know the situation they’re in is fucked, that’s why they tried to run off to a hotel, that’s why they listen to him for the most part when he tells them to do something. They don’t know what he’s willing to do yet. We also know that they are scared and frustrated (justifiably so) - frustrated enough that they even yell at him.

It seems we’re all aware of their reasons for not having told anyone (as I haven’t really seen anyone say something like that here) - who would believe them? Who would believe that they have a stalker that calls them constantly that somehow seems to be able to see every single thing they do, no matter where they go or how they hide? I think it’s safe to assume Caller isn’t human and it really seems that Sweetie is not only human but an uninformed unempowered human. They don’t seem to suspect that he’s a demon who can just teleport or a Stealth that can just phase in/turn invisible and sneak in, so they don’t have something like the Department to report this to who might be more inclined to believe them.

I personally don’t think it would make sense for Erik to have had these two have any sort of further progression in meeting or anything like that between now and “Pick Up The Phone,” and we know from how Caller talked in the most recent video that Sweetie has gotten to the point where they know for the most part how to talk him down. Clearly, nothing other than the calls has actually happened. I think that’s at least part of why Sweetie invited their date over. He hadn’t yet proven that he would resort to violence. Evidently, this wasn’t the smartest notion but I can see how they probably just wanted some sense of normalcy, of security. Maybe they even thought that as long as another person was there, they would be safe. That he wouldn’t try anything. We’ve only ever seen them be alone when he called before. And to the point where Caller says “you knew how this was going to end up” - we KNOW he’s galighting and victim blaming them with this, it’s even tagged in the content warnings. Which I think just further proves he hadn’t yet (at least to their knowledge) hurt anyone for “interfering.” Maybe it’s been so long of Caller just being creepy on the phone that they didn’t think it would ever go any further, and they just wanted to experience some semblance of joy with a person they liked that they got a bit complacent.

Again, I’m not saying this wasn’t reckless of them, or that this is even the case for why they behaved this way, but in the end, I still don’t think it was their fault for what happened and was in a way a fairly understandable course of action. These characters are meant to be written like they’re four dimensional people, and I think this video just helps exemplify how well Erik does that.

[old-skyguy]

Look.

Ace Attorney fandom.

I know why people don't like Turnabout Bigtop. I am among the people who dislike Turnabout Bigtop.

But I GET why people like the case. I'm not going to be one of those annoying people who just blindly dump on it because I hate those mfs too.

Thing about Bigtop isn't that it sucks. Thing isn't the weird grooming stuff (though that is a huge part of it). It's not that it could've been good.

It's that - in my personal OPINION - it could have been *great*.

I think it had the potential to be one of the best third cases in the trilogy. It had everything; a fun and goofy setting fit for a pretty dang goofy lawyer game - where the environment itself had jokes and quips and one-liners and mishaps and tomfoolery written all over it, it had the previous case introducing a very interesting and important plotline that gave background for one of the more well-loved characters while also introducing an equally fucked up and lovable new one who was a child forced into a shit childhood of naivete in a CIRCUS with another character who was very naive and childish - whose interactions could have been funny and cute and reflective of said shit from the previous case (seriously she becomes such an important character in the 4th case, WHY would they not include her in this one for some character development? How did they fuck up letting a CHILD explore a CIRCUS?? That would have made the interactions flow MUCH better).

They had a pretty good, sympathetic killer imo, a morally dubious victim, an asshole of a client (who was pretty flat admittedly in-game, but I like his weird, topsy-turvy reasoning for it in the anime. Also, I think Max being kinda a dick would have bode well for the themes of Farewell since most of his clients up to this point have been like...nice? Not nice, but sympathetic, but him having to defend someone who's innocent but a prick would have shown him that just because someone is an asshole, doesn't mean they deserve to suffer for it and that they have the potential to grow as people, which is almost a complete foil to what Matt was. Ultimately, I would have loved the contrast of them as clients and I think it would have also served as character development for Phoenix, especially with his low-empathy tendencies).

They just didn't think that far ahead. They just didn't execute it well enough. They just decided to make three of the adult characters fight for the hand in marriage of a teenage girl. (Bat's part of the story was actually kinda good if he was just YOUNGER, I think him doing that for Regina would have been a stupid thing someone in the circus would do to impress their crush. Damn you Ace Attorney and your weird treatment of underage girls!!)

It just flopped and that's ok.

Even though it kinda sucked, it can still mean something to me.

Also I'm a Moe Curls apologist. I liked him, shut up.

[saturngalore]

the way people talk about those who are against ai just really leaves a bad taste in my mouth like i rather someone be mistakenly upset over something that may or may not be destructive towards people and/or environment than someone who is apathetic and gets bothered by the same emotional response…how does making fun of outrage help what’s going on?

[thesearchforbluejello]

Okay first of all it apparently rolled out months ago and even though my app is set for automatic downloads, I just got it, but THE DUOLINGO OWL MAKES A SOUND NOW?!?!?!

The sound immediately made me think of the Moopsy, which is SO on brand.

But this better not be a Geico gecko situation because as a millennial I am old enough to remember the gecko commercials from before he talked in all of them, and how much LESS ANNOYING they were. I am begging for Duo to never actually talk.

[sualne]

started reading trigun

[dravidious]

You're more amazing than functionally no rares

Made some Duskmourn cards and also thought about the upcoming set currently known as "Death Race" and got in a vehicle mood

[risingsunresistance]

damn they werent kidding that reading comprehension CAN piss on the poor

[red-dyed-sarumane]

kamitsubaki trying to frame rime as the "responsible one" is so funny to me. thats a kid playing house. she couldnt keep the others in line for one moment and ran to haru about it. ill admit shes a little above what they portray coko as but like shes kind of on par with all the others. which is to say they all collectively have one responsibility brain cell and pass it back & forth

[kavehayati]

Am I allowed to just not talk to someone ever again for no reason apart from the fact I simply don’t want to (unbothered core) --- get on disability, thats basically the only way to fully avoid that. If you cant and youre too much of a pussy to cut your leg off, I recommend becoming a freelance programmer

Uh hello ? How are you ? How have you been ???? I’m quite confused (actually very VERY confused) as to what any of this means . . . I was talking about not wanting to talk to my friend . . . That was explained in the tags very well and you didn’t even need to read the whole essay of tags only the first line of tags would be sufficient enough to have some decent context . . .

[turtlemagnum]

one of my favorite parts of strategy games like chess and advance wars is that feeling when you haven't quite won yet but the enemy has no real options so it feels like you're just sloowly wrapping around them like a snake. when all your enemy has is their king and you've managed to turn 3 of your pawns into queens, and all you've gotta do is get in juust the right position, and in the meantime all they can do is squirm. god, that's such a wonderful feeling. nothing quite like it

[zukkaoru]

i'm going to be so insufferable once i finish beast. i still have one volume left but i've already decided that no one else in this fandom has any correct opinions about it

[soysaucevictim]

Oi. Tomorrow, gonna need to go do groceries again.

I think it's time to be more involved in my own meal planning.

[fi3stazo]

I just saw some guy threaten some other guy in a spot-on Mickey Mouse impression???????

[oblako]

caught up on the ily fp and god this episode filled me with so much dread......